“Yeah,” I sighed, and I glanced at Emerald. “I don’t feel great about it though. I kind of just wanted to kill the fucker.”
Emerald shook her head and then gestured for all of us to look at her. Then she drew a line across her neck, smiled, and then made circles around her eyes with her fingers as if she was wearing goggles.
As soon as she finished making her hand motions, the other women turned to me so that I could translate.
“She said that we don’t need to worry about her doppelgänger. She’ll die as soon as she sees the location of their camp and gets a rough look, and then we’ll know exactly where they are at.”
“It is a good plan,” Trel said again. “Let’s get back to our projects.”
“Uhh, we just got attacked,” Kacerie said. “You want to go back to work?”
“Or course,” Trel scoffed. “What else are we supposed to do? As soon as Emerald knows the location of these idiots, we will take Victor’s dinosaurs over there and butcher them. In the meantime, working will bring us focus.”
“Alright,” Kacerie sighed, and then she gave me a quick glance before she gestured for Emerald to come back to the saddles with her.
“I’ll tell Sheela and Liahpa that they can come out,” I said.
“Good,” Trel replied. “Can you make the raptors work again? They were making good progress.”
“Yeah,” I said as I ordered them to come out of the other hut and continue digging the hole.
“Victor, should I still look for a second spot for the well?” Galmine asked.
“Yeah,” I replied, I’m going to stand next to you the whole time. “Trel, I want you to be either inside one of the huts, or standing next to someone at all times.”
“Pfft,” she raspberried. “I will be fine. No one will dare attempt to abduct me.”
“Just do what I say, or I’m going to worry about you,” I said.
“I have to work!” Trel groaned. “The filters need to be made, and then these wells need to be dug. I must be able to--” She stopped speaking and then crossed her arms as she looked at me.
“Yeah, okay, Victor,” she whispered. “I will be careful. I can see you are worried about me. It makes me happy, even as I am annoyed with you. Go find the next digging spot with Galmine, I’ll go with Sheela to get these leaves.”
“Bring Liahpa with you,” I said, “and come back as quickly as you can.”
“I will,” Trel said, and then she stepped out of the hut, elevated herself off the ground on her spider legs, and then quickly dashed across the open space and over the wall.
“Let’s go find this other spot for a well,” I said to Galmine, and we walked together back out to the tree.
“You are worried,” she said after we had walked for a few minutes.
“Yeah,” I said. “This changes our defensive strategy, and I feel like a bit of a fool for not thinking about it sooner.”
“How does it change things?” she asked as she fluttered her long eyelashes at me.
“That guy could come back at any moment and snag one of you. If it happened at night on watch, we wouldn’t even know.”
“Did he snatch Emerald’s clone that easily?” Galmine asked as her mouth opened to form an “O” shape.
“No. She fought with him. It didn’t look like it helped much, but he didn’t just grab her and fly off.”
“I think we will be okay,” Galmine said as she smiled at me. “Emerald will know where they are soon, and if he, or any of his friends come back here before you can speak with them, then we will stop him. You always protect us, Victor. I believe in you.”
“Thanks,” I chuckled, “I guess you are right, as long as we stay close together we’ll be pretty safe.”
Even though I was laughing, I still worried that my “buddy system” plan might not be that bullet proof. The winged monster-man had sharp looking teeth on his wings, and his arms were the size of my legs. Emerald’s clone may have bought herself some time by fighting, but it was apparent he wasn’t actually trying to hurt her. He was trying to kidnap her.
Who knows how dangerous he was if he actually tried to fight.
Then I remembered the troodons, and I called them all over to me so that I could pet them. They’d been just about ready to murder that flying asshole, and I realized that I had an easy answer to my fear. Between the troodons and the balaur bondocs, I had a really good guard dog force. They could easily keep a close guard on everyone, and if that guy tried to take anyone again, they would rip him a new asshole.
The solution brought me a lot of relief, and I had Daphne and Velma stay with Galmine and I while the boys moved over to where Kacerie and Emerald were working on Katie’s saddle. When Trel, Sheela, and Liahpa got back, I’d assign a guard to them. Maybe it wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was still a good one.
At least until I knew where that asshole had taken Emerald’s doppelgänger.
Then I’d pay him a visit.
Chapter 10
By the time that Trel, Sheela, and Liahpa returned on Bob with the leaves, the six raptors had dug down at least four feet deep into the well next to our huts, and I had started digging the second well some thirty feet to the north of where the kilns were set up. It had been the best spot that Galmine could find, and both Sonny and Cher took to the job with toots of pleasure. I guessed that they were kind of bored sitting around, and I wondered if I needed to focus more on giving them daily exercise.
The leaves which the three women brought were perfect for hauling dirt. They were about three feet wide by four feet long, with a waxy finish that would let them slide across the grass easily. After I assigned either troodons or balaur bondocs to everyone as personal guard dinos, I went with Trel, Liahpa, and Sheela to the well by the huts so that we could plan our next steps.
“I was thinking we’d do a ledge about here,” I said as I gestured to the side of the floor some four feet below. “So come out maybe a foot and a half or two feet and then dig down until we get to the water.
“Why the ledge?” Liahpa asked.
“That will give us somewhere to step up and out,” I said. “Will also help when we have to pass the dirt up. Someone can kind of straddle the hole using the ledge and then the person digging at the bottom can pass up a basket full of dirt.”
“Makes sense,” The floating woman said, and then she jumped into the hole and kind of drifted down almost like she was a falling feather.
“Of course it makes sense,” Trel scoffed. “Victor thought of it.”
“Are you in a bad mood today?” Liahpa asked as she held up her hand for the makeshift shovel.
“No,” Trel grunted as she passed down the stick.
“Okay,” Liahpa replied, and she gave Trel a friendly smile.
They actually stared at each other for a few moments, and Trel sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Huh?” Liahpa, Sheela, and I all turned to the spider-woman.
“I am grouchy,” Trel sighed. “It isn’t your fault.”
“Is it about the--”
“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Trel turned away from us, and then walked over to Hope, scratched her on the chin, and then continued out the door with Scoob in tow.
“I’ll go talk to her,” I said as I turned back to Sheela.
“We will work here.” The blonde woman replied with a short nod, and then she squeezed my shoulder before climbing down into the hole.
I walked by Hope, scratched her on the chin, took a look at her egg, and then continued out into the main courtyard. Kacerie and Emerald were almost done with Katie’s saddle, but I couldn’t really see Trel anywhere. Then I heard a hoot off to my left, and I turned to see the spider-woman climbing up the trunk of the massive redwood.
I walked over to stand next to Scoob, and we both looked up into the high branches. I couldn’t see Trel up in there, but that might have been what she wanted.
“Trel?” I called out.
“Yeah, Victor?
” she shouted down.
“You okay?”
“I am looking for a place to build a lookout station.”
“Okay,” I said. “Do you want to talk about anything?”
“No,” she said. “Just let me work. Please. We’ll talk tonight at dinner.”
“Got it,” I said, and then I patted Scoob on the head. “Keep an eye out, buddy.”
Scoob’s hoot sounded surprisingly understanding, and he turned his face back up to stare intently into the trees.
I walked back over to the well that the parasaurs were digging in the courtyard. They were almost done with the four-ish foot deep hole, but they were too big to get into the hole and finish the other parts. Sheela, Liahpa, and I would have to dig that out ourselves, but first I needed to finish the planting with Galmine.
I walked back over to the garden to find the gray-skinned woman sitting in the middle of her plants petting two of the balaurs with Jinx curled up asleep in her lap. The pepper tree was still laying on its side from a few hours ago and I carefully lifted it up and put it into the hole we had previously dug.
“Thank you, Victor,” Galmine smiled at me.
“No problem,” I said as I returned her smile. “We got a little distracted by the well. I can dig out the rest of the spots for the garden if you just want to relax.”
“I’m fine to continue working,” she said as she poked Jinx in the side. The little chocobo bird gave out a sleepy chip, but then he reluctantly got off her lap when she nudged him again.
It only took us another hour or so to plant the rest of the plants in the garden. Galmine and I talked a bit more about the differences and similarities of our home worlds, but I found it hard to focus on the conversation because I kept looking over to Emerald to see if she had any news.
Finally, the last bit of horseradish was planted, and we only had to do the mint.
“We should do this one over by the tree,” Galmine said. “It will spread all over the garden if we plant it here, but the roots over there will keep it mostly contained. There is also less sun there, and the mint likes that.”
“Great,” I said as I helped her stand. Then we walked toward Emerald and Kacerie, who were both in the middle of putting a saddle on Sonny.
“Darn,” Kacerie said as she glanced up at the dark clouds that were starting to chase the lighter gray clouds away. “We are pretty much out of cordage, and I think the rain is going to hit us in the next hour.”
“Yeah,” I said. “We should probably grab lunch soon. We have those fish to cook up.”
“We’ll be done with this soon,” Kacerie said.
“How are things, Emerald?” I asked her.
The green-haired woman shook her head and shrugged.
“She still hasn’t died?” I asked, even though I knew the answer.
Emerald shook her head and shrugged again.
“But she can… uhhh… kill herself if she wants to?” I asked.
Emerald nodded and then pointed to her eyes and ears.
“You think that your doppelgänger is seeing and hearing interesting stuff, so she is staying around to get more information?”
Emerald smiled and then reached up to touch my temple.
“Alright,” I said. “Let’s hope that we get some good information.”
I continued to the base of the tree with Galmine and saw that Scoob was still standing there looking up at the branches. He turned when I approached, let out a happy hoot, and then rubbed his head against my hip while I petted him.
“Is Scoob alright?” Galmine asked.
“Trel is up there working on a lookout station.” I didn’t want to tell Galmine the rest of the story since I figured that Trel would explain it tonight.
We found a spot on the north side of the tree that Galmine said would be perfect for the mint, and we had it all planted a few minutes later. Galmine asked if she could prepare lunch for everyone, and we parted company for a bit so that I could check on the progress of the wells.
Sheela was at the bottom of the hole digging with the makeshift shovel-stick, and Liahpa was actually standing instead of floating on the middle step that they had cut out. Sheela had dug about eight feet down, and the ground at the bottom was looking like loose mud. Both women were splattered with mud and dirt, and they looked up as I walked to the side of the hole.
“Looks like we are almost to water,” I said as I tried not to stare at both of their breasts. It was a bit hard since I had a high angle, but I was also really interested in the progress of the well.
“I think we will hit it in the next few minutes,” Sheela said as she speared her shovel into the mud, grabbed a bunch of the wet dirt, and dumped it in a leaf basket. Then she repeated the same act three more times and lifted the basket up to Liahpa.
“Is Trel okay?” the silver-skinned woman asked as she took the basket from Sheela, lifted it over her head, and then handed it to me.
“She’s in the tree,” I said as I took the basket from her and dumped it out on the pile of dirt next to Hope. “She said she’ll talk to everyone at dinner. We’ll be ready for lunch in probably half an hour. Do you both want to take a break?”
“I would prefer to keep working,” Sheela said as she went back to work on the mud. Her movements were quick and strong, like she wasn’t even tired.
“Same,” Liahpa said as she took the basket from me. “How deep should we go?”
“We’ll need to be able to get a bucket down there,” I said as I thought through the process. “Or maybe a pump or something. I don’t quite know what Trel has planned. How about you dig waist deep?”
“I will do it,” Sheela said as she looked up and smiled at me.
“How about I bring you both some food when it is ready, and you both take a few minutes break to eat it?”
“Very well,” the cat woman said, and Liahpa nodded.
I took another bucket of dirt from the Lift Ball player, threw it on the pile, and then tried to think about what I could do for the next half an hour while Galmine was making lunch. I could just stand here and watch the two beautiful women get sweatier and covered with mud, and that had its appeal for sure, but it wasn’t really a very good use of my time, so I turned my attention back to the pile of dirt and mud and looked for the stack of leaves. I found them near one of the huts and soon had a bunch of them set on the grass between the pile and Hope’s door. Then I pushed some dirt onto a leaf, grabbed it carefully, and dragged it out of the inner fort.
It was about eighty feet to the spot where the parasaurs had dug up the second well, and I knew I was going to have to find a more efficient way to move the big pile over here. Not only was this going to take forever with just me doing it, I was kind of bent over double shuffling backward the whole time. I turned my attention back over to the sled we had at the far side of the fort by the gate and the pile of wood. It was too wide to fit through Hope’s door, and I chewed on the benefit of having it only for the remaining sixty or so feet of distance. It seemed like it was still worth it, so I called Bob to me, jumped on his saddle, and then rode him over to the harness.
Ten minutes later I had the platform covered with wide leaves and pushed as close as I could get it to Hope’s door. I would have loved to have possessed a proper shovel, but I didn’t, so I just went about scooping the dirt with my hands and flinging it on the platform.
After I made a half dozen tosses, Shag let out a hoot, and I turned to look at him. “Are you laughing at me?”
Shag hooted again, and I pointed at the spot on the dirt next to me. “Laugh it up, buddy, I’ve got a spot right here for you.”
Shag let out another hoot and leapt by the pile next to me. Then he pushed his head against my shoulder so I could scratch him a bit, and we both started throwing some dirt like angry dogs.
“We are trying to get the dirt on the platform, Shag,” I said after the troodon kept throwing the stuff against the inner wall of the fort.
Shag hooted in agreement and a
djusted his aim so that more of it got on the platform. The troodons were decent diggers, but they really didn’t have the right kind of hands for scooping up dirt. Shag was super energetic, but each of my scoops threw a good four times as much dirt in the same time period. It probably would have gone faster with all the troodons and raptors helping, or hell, all of my friends, but everyone had their own tasks to do, and I was just trying to get extra work done before lunch time.
“Lunch!” Galmine called out, and I stopped working so that I could go bring plates to Liahpa and Sheela.
The fish was slow baked over a rock and sprinkled with salt and garlic. The smell was amazing after not eating anything with spices for two months, but Sheela and Liahpa didn’t seem to notice the smell. They just wiped their hands off with water from a nearby jug and then crammed the food in their mouths after they had climbed out of the hole.
“This is quite a change,” Liahpa said as she chewed.
“Hmmm?” Sheela asked.
“Victor serving us,” the silver-skinned woman chuckled as she pointed at me.
“You both are working hard,” I said as I peered into the hole. The bottom was brown water now, but I couldn’t tell how deep it was.
“Almost done with this one,” Sheela said. “Should we help you with the dirt, or start on the next one?”
“Let’s get this dirt out of here,” I said as I nodded over to the big pile.
“Then let’s get to it,” Liahpa said as she scarfed the rest of her fish, took the plate from Sheela, and then handed them to me with a grateful smile. “Thanks, Victor.”
“No problem,” I said as jogged back out to the campfires so that I could eat my own lunch.
Everyone else had the same sense of urgency as I did, and I saw that they were finishing the last bites.
“Emerald thinks it is going to rain soon,” Kacerie said as she nodded up at the clouds.
“How long?” I asked the green-haired woman, and she flashed her five fingers three times.
“Fifteen minutes?”
Emerald nodded.
“How about your doppelgänger?”
Emerald shrugged, but she didn’t seem worried.
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