“It was not much effort,” Sheela said with a shrug.
“It was though,” I replied. “We couldn’t have beaten The Burners without your arrows and strength lifting the heavy rocks. We couldn’t have moved the boulder without Trel’s brain and Liahpa’s amazing ability to control weight. We wouldn’t have known what was going on if Emerald hadn’t of been able to scout for us, and Kacerie’s Lance ability took out their leader before he could give them all the power to counter attack. We are a great team, and the other tribe doesn’t just owe me their lives, they owe all of you their lives.”
My friends were silent for a few moments, but I saw them all smile at my praise. They deserved it. I was grateful that they were all with me, and I knew that we could overcome any obstacle when we all worked together.
“What did you speak about with that tribe?” Sheela asked. “Was it just trading? Or did you learn of their abilities?”
“I learned about their abilities,” I said. “The woman with the red skin, black hair, and horns is Quwaru. She is their leader and she can read emotions and thoughts when she touches someone.”
“Wow,” Kacerie gasped. “That seems crazy powerful.”
“It is no wonder she is the leader,” Liahpa said. “If she knows their thoughts she can understand how to manage them better.”
“The woman with the tan skin, long hair that kind of moves, and tusks on her lower jaw is Emta.”
“She was the most idiotic,” Trel huffed. “You should have heard what she said about Victor!”
“What did she say?” Liahpa asked, and the silver skinned woman with the red eyes actually seemed upset.
“She said they don’t owe him anything! And the way she said it! So rude!”
“It’s fine,” I laughed. “She’ll like me when she gets to know me better.”
“Pfft,” Trel raspberried. “She should just understand how wonderful you are right from the start. Of course, not everyone is as intelligent and perceptive as I am.”
“Yeahhhhhh,” I said as I fought against a smile. “Apparently she can heal from her injuries quickly.”
“That is useful,” Sheela said, and I noticed that the stoic cat-woman was also trying to fight against a grin as she blinked at Trel.
“The one with the purple fur is named Zoru. He’s both male and female, apparently his species breeds by ambushing one another and then inseminating the one who loses the fight.”
“So… like rape?” Kacerie asked as she raised a pink eyebrow.
“Uhhh, well, when you put it that way. I guess so. The one who loses the fight becomes the female and bears the child. He said he can kind of do a time shift where he teleports back to the spot where he stood a few moments before.”
“Hmm, that also seems powerful,” Sheela said. “How often can he or she do it?”
“He said he can do it once per day and that he can go up to ten seconds in the past.”
“And he rapes women?” Kacerie asked again after she cleared her throat.
“Uhhh, I think that is how they breed. He said he didn’t think of himself as male or female. Apparently they just assume those roles when they meet another of their species.”
“I would guess that there is no ill intent,” Liahpa said. “I am wary of males, of course, but if this Zoru is in a tribe with other women, and their leader can read minds, he would have gotten kicked out by now if he intended them harm.”
“Ahh, good point,” Kacerie said, and she seemed to relax a little.
“He seemed nice,” I said with a shrug, “but I’m not sure I trust any of them yet. That’s why I want to trade more with them and build a relationship.”
“What about the others?” Sheela asked.
“The women with the white robe and long white hair is named Youleena. She can shape rock with her hands. She’ll be the one making the arrowheads, spear points, and tools.”
“Ahh, that is an excellent ability,” Sheela said.
“Can she build us stone walls?” Trel asked. “She was the one who did the stones on the face of their cave, correct?”
“She said she can’t alter the mass of them, just the shape,” I explained. “We’d need to take her to our camp and then move the rocks into the fort for her to work on.”
“So when is she coming?” Trel asked.
“I don’t know if it is going to work that way,” I said. “They were split on joining us, and I actually didn’t offer. It might work out in a few weeks, but they seemed like they wanted to stay in their location. It won’t matter once we get a lot of salt and the stone tools from them.”
“I would like some extra peasants to order around,” Trel sighed.
“They wouldn’t be peasants,” I laughed. “They would be equal members of our tribe.”
“More numbers are good,” Kacerie said. “As long as we can trust them. We’ll need more houses for them, and more water, and--”
“We are working on all those things,” Trel waved her hands. “Victor is playing coy with them. It is smart since they will be more impressed with us if they see our fort after we spend another week improving it.”
“Youleena actually seemed like she would be okay coming over,” I said, “but then she worried about her friends. We’ll have to absorb all of them, and Kacerie is right, we aren’t ready for them right now.” The other women nodded their heads at my words, and I continued. “Urka was the small woman with the blue hair and four eyes. She can shoot small bolts of lightning out of her hand, but she said they didn’t do much damage. Adella had the red hair, big green eyes, and the rainbow scaled legs. She seems to be able to control water.”
“How so?” Trel asked with sudden interest. “Was that the pillar of water that came out of the lake at the bottom of the canyon?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Fascinating,” Trel replied as she tapped her lips with her long fingers. “I wonder if I can use her ability for a pump.”
“The woman with the golden hair and horn on her forehead is named Keefaye,” I said. “She can turn water into alcohol.”
“Wait,” Kacerie said. “Say that again.”
“Water into alcohol?” I asked.
“That’s an amazing ability!” the pink-haired woman gasped. “I can use alcohol for soap, hair products, and other cleaning tasks. We can sanitize our cooking area and use it to start fires easily.”
“We might even be able to get the fires burning hotter,” Trel said as she tapped her lips again. “That could help us make clayware faster.”
“You both are in luck then,” I said. “Keefaye seemed the most interested in joining our tribe, so did Adella. I don’t want to just take them from Quwaru, but I know they are arguing for their group to come join us at our camp.”
“They sound like women of sense,” Trel said. “What of the last one with the ugly face?”
“Ugly face?” Kacerie asked with a bit of surprise.
“I’m joking,” Trel laughed. “I couldn’t see her face because of her hair, so I think she is probably ugly. She said she wasn’t though.”
“A woman’s beauty should not determine her worth,” Liahpa said as she frowned at Trel.
“That sounds like something an ugly woman would say,” Trel said as she looked at Liahpa, “but yet, you aren’t ugly. So I’m confused.”
“You are confused?” Liahpa laughed. “I’m surprised you would even admit--”
“I’m being sarcastic,” the spider-woman hissed. “Women are supposed to be beautiful. That is our purpose, along with making beautiful babies.”
“No,” Liahpa sighed. “We are supposed to contribute to a healthy and beneficial society by--”
“That is what we do by being beautiful and making babies,” Trel groaned. “That is how we control idiot men. They pick the most beautiful women to be obedient to, and then that woman makes the babies.”
“Sheela, help me out here?” Liahpa asked the blonde woman.
“On my world, men control mos
t of the resources.” Sheela shrugged. “Women’s roles were to serve men, and the most beautiful women ended up bearing their husbands the most children since they were selected for breeding the most often.”
“Okay, so that sounds crazy,” Liahpa sighed. “Kacerie?”
“I’m really glad I’m gorgeous,” the pink-haired woman laughed. “I had half a dozen rich and powerful men I was dating. Yes, I had my own hair studio, but I loved walking into a room and having all the men turn to me with their jaws open. I agree, it shouldn’t be how a woman is judged, but I liked the power I wielded.
“See?” Trel cackled at Liahpa. “Women need to be beautiful. Once again, you are wrong and I am right. This isn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last. You should just believe me from the start. It will save so much trouble.”
“No,” Liahpa groaned, and then she turned to Emerald. “Do you subscribe to the notion that women are supposed to be beautiful?”
The green scaled woman bit her lips as if she was considering the other woman’s words, but then she gestured to herself and to the rest of the women. Then she motioned to the jungle around her and shook her head.
“See?” Trel said. “She agrees.”
“No,” I said, “She shook her head.” Emerald nodded at me and then motioned for us all to stop by waving her hands.
“What is she…” Kacerie started to ask, but the green-haired woman walked over to her, touched her hands and then made a motion that matched what Kacerie did when she used her Lance. Then Emerald rubbed her hands together as if she was washing them.
“Hmmm,” the pink-haired woman said as her lips twisted.
Emerald walked over to Sheela, touched the blonde woman’s hands, and then made some punching movements. Sheela nodded, and then Emerald walked over to Liahpa and touched the woman’s bicep.
Then Emerald walked over to Trel, stood face to face with the spider-woman, and then tapped her on the temple.
“I think you have your answer,” I said.
“What kind of answer is that?” Trel asked, and the other women turned to me.
“Emerald says that on Dinosaurland, you have each proven your worth with qualities other than beauty. Kacerie has her Lance and her ability to craft stuff we need for sanitation. Sheela has her fighting and hunting ability, Liahpa has her strength and ability to control weight, and Trel has her brains.”
Emerald nodded at me, smiled, and then clapped.
“Fine,” Trel scoffed. “Maybe beauty doesn’t matter that much on Dinosaurland. I’m still glad I am beautiful though, and you all should be glad too.”
“Fine,” Lihapa sighed, and I got the feeling that the floating woman was just tired of arguing with Trel. “Victor, what of the last woman?”
“She wore her long hair over her face but she said it was because she is really sensitive to the daylight. She said to me that her name was Nomi, and she had the power to take away someone’s ability.”
“What?” Kacerie gasped. “She could take away my Lance?”
“Yeah,” I said. “She just needs to be within ten feet of someone, and she can make it so they can’t use their Eye-Q ability.”
“Wow,” Kacerie said. “That could be dangerous. If I couldn’t use my Lan--”
“Who cares about your light beam ability?” Trel hissed. “What if she took away Victor’s ability to tame the dinosaurs? We’d all be dead in a few moments.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right.” Kacerie’s blue eyes got larger, and she turned to face me. “That would be really bad.”
“She was actually about to do it,” I said, “but then I told her that might cause the dinos surrounding us at that time to just decide to kill us all, and she reconsidered.”
“She cannot be trusted,” Trel said. “Much too powerful. We shouldn’t let her into our camp.”
“They aren’t exactly knocking on our gate and begging to come in,” I said with a shrug.
“But they will,” Trel scoffed. “How could they not? You are too powerful, smart, and handsome. They will want your protection and your sperm.”
“Can we go a day or two without talking about Victor’s sperm?” Kacerie asked as she scrunched up her pretty face.
“Stop pretending like you don’t want it,” Trel chided. “I see the way you look at him now.”
“It’s not like--” Kacerie started to say, but then we reached the edge of the jungle, and I held up my hand to quiet everyone.
“Sheela and I are going to look at the beach, you all stay here,” I said, and my friends nodded. Then I gestured to the blonde woman, and we walked through the last part of the jungle with the troodons as a close escort.
The beach looked just as I remembered a few hours ago, but I saw where the footprints of the T-rexes dented the sand and moved into the jungle. It looked as if they had come from the north, in the direction of the Burner’s camp, but that could have just been a coincidence.
“Do you see anything?” I whispered to Sheela.
“No,” she replied.
I was about to move back, but then I saw a shadow over the beach, and I glanced up on the sky.
It was a giant flying pterosaurs.
“Ohhhh, shit,” I whispered as I unconsciously ducked down lower in the jungle ferns and grabbed Sheela’s arm.
“It is large,” the blonde woman said with her usual stoicism.
“It’s freaking huge!” I hissed as I looked up at the flying dino. It was a bit hard to gauge its actual size from the ground, but its wingspan shadow made the entire beach darken.
It must have had a wingspan of sixty feet. Maybe more.
“Can you tame one?” Sheela asked as the creature made a single flap of its wings and slowly glided upward higher away from us.
“I’d have to find one on the ground,” I said. “It’s too far away now. I can’t even use my Eye-Q to figure out what species it is.”
“It would be exhilarating to ride one,” Sheela said.
“I thought you were afraid of riding the dinos,” I chuckled as I squeezed her arm. “It took you forever to be up on Hope alone.”
“I am getting used to it,” she said as she gave me a wide smile. “I like it now. Of course, it is not my favorite creature to ride.”
“Sheela,” I laughed. “Did you just make a double entendre?”
“Maybe,” she said, and her cheeks turned bright red. Then she bit her lip, and we both started laughing.
“Looks like it is far enough away now,” I said a few moments later as I saw the creature bank back away from the ocean and fly more inland. “Let’s get out of the jungle and back to our base.”
“Agreed,” Sheela said, and we signaled for our friends to join us on the beach.
A few moments later and we were all mounted up on our various dinos. Kacerie sat behind me on Bob and wrapped her arms around my stomach, and Trel crouched in the trunk area of the saddle where we normally tied our water jugs. Sheela, Emerald, and Liahpa sat on Tom’s much larger saddle and they set off after us as we headed south down the side of the jungle on the beach.
For a few moments, I enjoyed the feeling of victorious pride swelling in my chest. Here I was, riding on the back of a massive parasaur with two beautiful women while three other beautiful women rode on a big triceratops next to me. We had just defeated a bunch of asshole’s that had tried to mess with a group of our new friends, and then I’d tangled with two T-rexes and came out on top. I’d negotiated a great trade deal with the new tribe, and I couldn’t help but smile as the salty wind rushed through my hair.
I wasn’t quite the King of Dinosaurland yet, but I certainly felt a step closer.
We soon reached the lava trail coming down the mountain, and I commanded the dinosaurs in my posse to stop around the shiny black river. Trel had gotten the black sand from this spot just a few days ago, but now I was looking at the glass-like rock with new eyes, and I waved for everyone to dismount.
“What’s wrong?” Kacerie asked as Bob knel
t so we could get down easier.
“I know I just asked them to make me some arrowheads, but I believe this stuff is obsidian. I think it has the potential to be sharper than the flint we use back at our camp.”
“Hmmm,” Trel said as her spiderlegs supported her human body in a twisting movement that brought her face down a few inches above the black glass. “This might be true, we should bring some back to our camp, and knap it there. Tom has a basket on the back part of his saddle.
“Let’s get to it,” I said as I grabbed a fist size rock from the beach. Then I raised the rock over my head, covered my eyes with the soft inside part of my forearm, and slammed it down. A few shards of the black lava rock shot into the air, but it all missed me, and my rock had shattered half a dozen larger pieces of rock away from the edge of the river.
My friends all repeated my actions, and we soon had the leaf basket filled with various sized chunks of shiny rock that was the same color as Trel’s hair.
Then we re-mounted and headed up and around the dune section of the beach. I kept the speed lower when going up and down the dunes, just so that I could survey the beach at the top of each one. Even though I had just taken out the Burners, and I knew that this part of Dinosaurland was probably safe from aggressive survivors, paranoia was chewing on the back of my mind. I still had to worry about dinosaurs or other predators. Sure, I’d beaten the two T-rexes, but I couldn’t help but think that I got lucky. The position in the “C” shaped ravine meant that they couldn’t flank me, and Quwaru’s tribe had escaped on the cliff trail. I hadn’t really needed to defend anyone from getting eaten besides myself, and the terrain had helped me muscle around the giant carnivores. I wouldn’t be able to do that same kind of strategy on the open beach, and the crests of the dunes meant that we could get ambushed.
I knew I could never let my guard down.
Fortunately, we didn’t see anything besides a trio of brontos far to the south. They looked like they were swimming in the ocean, and their necks reached up to the sky like cranes from my world. I didn’t blame the dinos for cooling off in the water since it was late afternoon and the sun was beating down on us like a hammer.
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