She would have been beautiful by any standard of measure back home. Long, wild, black hair flowed crazily over her shoulders and down her back; blue eyes as bright and clear as the sea behind me pierced hotly into mine from beneath those raven bangs; other than a few decorative necklaces, a pair of hide sandals, and a tiny loincloth, dirt-streaks and sand were all she wore to cover skin bronzed by an apparently never moving noonday sun.
Her scowl was the deepest and most confused I’ve ever seen on a human face, and she stood silently for what seemed like hours on the low branch of a nearby tree, staring at me as if I was the stupidest creature she’d ever seen in her life.
“Shah toonga wa noot!” she said.
“I’m sorry, I… what?” I asked.
“Shah toonga…!”
When I continued to look confused, she rolled her eyes in what must be a universal gesture for ‘why do I bother?’ and waved her hand dismissively, apparently too frustrated with my stupidity to make any further attempt at communication.
She leapt from her perch, walking quickly and forcefully to where I stood. The motion made her breasts jiggle in ways that made my knees weak, and when she stuck a foot on the neck of the dinosaur to retrieve her spear, I was astonished—and I have to admit rather thrilled—to see pubic hair peeking out from under the tiny flap of leather dangling before her privates.
Holding her foot and the spear in place, the dinosaur twitched and attempted to raise its head, but before it could pose any threat girl pulled a stone knife from her waist strap, leaned down and expertly sliced open its throat. It spasmed once, then lie completely still, even its eyes.
Wrestling the spear from the dinosaur’s neck she again began speaking to me in whatever language was her native tongue, none of it making a damn bit of sense to me. Once her javelin was free she bent to wipe the blood in the sand, so I—and I admit to feeling guilty about it—took the opportunity to drink in that magnificent, nude body of hers, and the delightful way that both inertia, and gravity made the best parts of it dance.
She gestured in Milton’s direction, and I looked over to see the bear-thing struggling to its feet, most of its neck ripped away, blood flowing in rivers across its sand dusted pelt. For a moment it didn’t seem sure what it wanted to do, snorting and howling fiercely in our direction.
The naked savage girl lifted her spear defensively, and held out a protective arm for me to stay back. I nearly laughed at the caring gesture, but did as I was ordered and remained behind her, mostly appreciating her incredible bare behind. No loincloth back here, just a completely visible magnificent ass on either side of a tiny leather thong.
After a moment, the bear-thing snorted a few times, then lumbered off to—I have to believe—die alone somewhere in the forest. I didn’t see how it could possibly survive the wounds it had received.
The pretty savage girl turned and smiled at me, saying something charming, I’m sure, with her native tongue. Her words were still a mystery, but her smile, and gestures seemed to mean, “Damn, that was a close one, wasn’t it?”
I laughed and nodded, hoping she hadn’t actually said something like “you’ll be tasty with the right seasoning.”
We both continued grinning as she looked me up and down, taking in my naked manhood with amused curiosity. For a moment she looked startled, then shook her head.
“Nashka duron doe,” she said.
“If you say so,” I responded.
That’s when I noticed Milton was missing.
“Oh, shit,” I said, running in the direction of the tree where I’d left him.
BEHIND ME THE GIRL was racing to keep up, saying something I still couldn’t understand. I reached the base of the tree Milton and I had climbed, and looked up, then into the neighboring conifers, then all around on the ground. Nothing. Not even a hint of where he might have gone.
I turned to the girl who was scanning the area, as confused as I had been, her eyes and gestures making clear that she had seen Milton and also had no idea where he’d gone. Then she suddenly looked terrified and pointed behind me.
“Nyame!” she screamed.
And I turned to see the bear-like creature galloping back toward me, a pack of long-toothed dog-things biting it on all sides. In its mad fury, the ‘Nyame’ was crashing our way, blind and maddened by the vicious, almost orchestrated attacks of this new predator.
I felt my arm being yanked, and before registering everything fully, was running alongside the savage girl, trying to escape the snarling carnage behind us. But instead of running down into the soft, loose sand, the girl had taken us into the dense thicket of jungle, and—attempting to leap over a fallen branch—she hooked her foot in a vine and went sprawling over the dirt and grasses along the jungle’s edge.
I bent to pick her up, but she was too twisted and tangled, so I took her spear and turned to defend us both as best I could. She shoved me away from her, gesturing for me to run, but I shook my head and scowled. She’d protected me, this was the least I could do in return. The look of surprise, and gratitude on her face was priceless.
I pointed the spear with one hand, wedged its end into the ground, and wrapped my other arm around her, pulling her to me, protectively. As the sounds of animal furor and breaking underbrush raced nearer I felt her head tuck in against my chest, and her arms wrap tightly around me. Something about her touch made me feel invincible.
The black, snarling, bleeding, frothing bear charged closer, the brushwood near me jerking and twisting fiercely from its raging battle with the dog things. I aimed my spear as best I could, and waited for the inevitable.
The ‘Nyame’ was nearly overwhelmed by the snarling pack of about ten leopard spotted, wolf-cat creatures—wild, earless beasts—that rushed growling and snapping at it from all sides, sinking their vicious white fangs into the slow brute, then leaping away again before it could reach them with its massive claws and sweeping tail. I followed the action with the tip of the spear, hoping to at least deflect whatever came our way. Then suddenly the bear struggled no more, and stumbled right at us, dragging two of the attached wolf creatures down on top of us.
I set the spear and pointed it at the center of the monster’s mass, instantly feeling the wood flex with the sudden impact if its massive weight. Its body slid the length of the spear nearly to my clenched hand, and I shoved hard to one side, angling the momentum away from the girl and I, so that it fell on the dirt and not on us, snapping the spear as it collided with the ground.
The two leopard creatures thrashed to pull loose from the dying beast, the one closest to me already biting at me, ferociously. I shoved the broken piece of spear through the neck of my newest attacker, and as it struggled against me, the second, and then a third rose up over the heaving body of the bear monster and stalked—growling—directly toward the us.
She was working with her knife to hack away the tangle of vines pinning her ankle, and I continued to struggle with my broken piece of spear. It didn’t look like either of us would get free in time.
I turned and looked at the cave girl, feeling responsible for having gotten her into this. If she hadn’t become involved in my mess…
We stared at one another for what could have only been a moment, but felt like a week of frozen time.
“I’m sorry,” I said, knowing she wouldn’t understand me.
In the background I noticed a sudden chattering and gibbering through the lower branches of the nearby trees, and we all—the girl, the leopard creatures, and I—all turned to see a cluster of humanlike monkeys covered in light, sandy fur that seemed to be urging the wolf pack to stop. They were thin, wiry creatures with teeth sharpened to points, and prehensile tails gripping nearby tree trunks and overhanging branches.
The ‘Nyame’ gave one last shudder beside me; its massive body spasming in agony, and the wolf-creatures turned from us, to it, and began to feast. As they did I felt myself lifted, sandy hands gripping tightly under my armpits, a pair of tails wrapping securely ar
ound my waist. I saw the savage girl look up at me in surprise, and before being enveloped by branches and leaves, I watched as she, too, startled and struggling, was gathered up by still more monkey people.
With surprising skill and ease our captives set me on a large, high branch, and began to study me, carefully. Their eyes wandered curiously over my naked body just as the girl’s had, lingering on my shoes, and my private parts. One reached out and touched the skin where my manhood joined to my body, and that sent a signal to the others, who began reaching in for a similar feel, and nearly knocked me from my perch. In an effort to avoid being tossed from the tree to what I guessed was a good fifty-yard drop, I slapped them all away, and even kicked one for good measure. A female went nuts trying to fend off my slaps, and reached out viciously to grab hold of my dangling member, nearly crushing my balls in her grip.
“Hey, hey, hey!” I yelled, smacking her away.
Suddenly—in her apparent defense—a monkey man punched me—surprisingly hard—and once I was addled, he yanked off my shoes, tossed them to her, then gripped my pits and lassoed me with a tail, lifting me once more into the open air. Joined by two others on either side, we took off at a horrifying speed through the treetops.
Holy shit! A rollercoaster can make your balls ride up practically inside your chest, but this brought mine nearly to my throat.
From tree to tree the agile creatures bounced like flying squirrels, first this way, then that, then another, as a cold sweat slowly spread over every inch of me. Any misstep by one of my carriers and I was certain to plunge to my doom on the distant jungle floor below. As they slung me along, I tried to distract myself with a thousand other thoughts, the best of them having to do with the naked cave girl.
What did these monkey-men want? Where were they taking me? Where was Milton? Would I ever see him again? And what about the girl? Was she all right? Was she flying along through the forest with two other monkey-people scaring the shit out of her? Would I ever seeher again? And where in the crazy fucking hell was I?
For some reason, as important as the question of where I was might seem to have been, the question about the girl had become surprisingly much more vital to me.
I wanted to see her again. I considered how lucky I would be if I could see her again. How lucky I’d be if I survived long enough to, in a world as insane as this.
* * *
MONKEYS AND BUGS
* * *
WE MUST HAVE TRAVELED for miles through the dark and overhung woods when we suddenly emerged into a clearing, and a dense village built high among the branches. As we approached the little town center my escorts erupted into wild shrieking and shouts, which drew immediate responses from the many huts and buildings. A moment later a swarm of monkey-people poured out to meet us. Some were tall, some small, there were obvious males, and equally obvious females—clothing apparently determined by need, rather than modesty.
We dropped to a large, central platform where I once more became the center of attention for the wildly chattering horde. I was pulled this way and that. Pinched, pounded, prodded and thumped until I was practically black and blue. I don’t think they were being either vicious or cruel—I was simply a curiosity, a freak, some new plaything that everyone wanted to investigate for themselves. It only became a problem when one of them once again grabbed hold of my junk.
What was the fascination?
I slapped the grabby hand away; the monkey-man recoiled and hissed angrily, offended and visibly upset. I smiled and wagged a finger at him, smiling, and faking a grab at his crotch.
“Unh, unh, unh…” I said, jokingly.
A few of the others laughed, and shoved him, one even grabbing his member as he had done mine. The little ape-man slapped his teasing friend’s hand away exactly as I had done his, and then laughed a little as he realized that maybe he had gone a step too far.
With gentle force they dragged me into the heart of the village, an open area made up of several hundred fairly sophisticated huts all clustered around a massive, communal fire pit that even now burned with a large, open blaze. Overhead we were sheltered by branches and leaves that covered the community and kept us protected from the continuous heat of the perpetual summer sun.
Running between the huts were a series of crooked bridges made of planks, and logs, and dead branches, all of which connected the huts of one tree to those of adjacent trees; a complex network of rooms and pathways that formed an almost solid flooring more than fifty feet above the ground.
I wondered briefly why creatures so agile and clearly able to bridge the distances between trees even needed paths, but then a monkey man pushed a little wheel barrow into view, and another rounded a bend rolling a cart, followed by pack-animals, a couple children, and some four-legged pets; among them smaller versions of the snarling, earless cat-wolf things that had attacked the Nyame. There were also little dogs, small monkeys, and fat-uddered goat-things alongside something utterly bizarre that looked like a kangaroo crossed with a fat fish.
The monkey-man who had carried me here guided me to one of the larger huts, and indicated for me to stop and wait. I did as ordered until—responding to a chattering summons—another, larger monkey-man stepped out along with his female companion to study me carefully from top to bottom. He—like the rest of us—was entirely naked except for some decorative arm and leg bands. He was similar to the other monkey-men in every way, except that his eyes gave the sense of a sharper mind than any of the rest. He finished his inspection of me with a focused glare at my crotch, and then shook his head in seeming disbelief.
Suddenly the chattering and shrieking rose up again, and all eyes turned as one toward something behind me. I spun on my heel, just in time to see the pretty cave girl who’d saved me arriving in much the same way I had—two monkey-men supporting each armpit. They tossed her rudely to the deck of the central platform, apparently less enthusiastic about her than they had been about me. I moved to help her up, but before I could even offer her an arm she was already on her feet and shouting, eyes scowling furiously as she barked something in her local language that I wished I understood.
“Shoo sopa manteka wont!” she shouted. “Foo doh! Foo doh, sint!”
Then she made a rude gesture that only made her captives laugh.
Ignoring their obvious disrespect of her, she turned to me and smiled, patting my chest as if she were glad to see that I, too, was still alive. I could only smile in return, and nod, hoping I had understood her meaning. As she grinned and checked me over to see that I was all right, I saw her brows fold together in a scowl, and she bent forward to look at something below my waist.
“Shalla seppa fweet?” she asked. “Na tekka seppa fweet?”
Then—like the monkey-man earlier—she reached out and grabbed my penis, moving it around as if checking for bruises, or venereal warts.
“Na tekka seppa fweet?” she repeated, rubbing her hand up the length of it to my lower stomach where it attached to the rest of me, making a swiping sound with her other hand. “Shoop! Shoop!”
At this point, things went suddenly kind of wrong.
She was rubbing me in a way that would make any man react, but add in the fact that she was now entirely naked, likely having lost her tiny loincloth somewhere along her journey, and that her gentle rubbing movement was making her bare breasts sway in delicious ways; throw in her lustrous hair, her beautiful eyes locked on mine with the most sympathetic, caring expression any woman has ever shown me, and you can’t really blame me for what happened next.
I got hard.
She noticed, and was surprised, though clearly not offended. Instead she actually seemed rather delighted by it. She glanced at the others, trying to gauge their reaction. As she did, I backed away in an effort to force my ‘pointer of interest’… em… to angle itself the other way. But there was no stopping it. I can’t begin to explain how incredibly overwhelmed I was by this stunning, naked cave girl and her sensual touch, other than to say that w
ithin seconds I was as hard as a tree trunk, and equally upright.
My fellow captive smiled at it, now more obviously pleased, and I had never felt more aroused. Then she made things worse by gripping it and giving it a couple quick jerks to test its firmness. I nearly spurt on her fingertips.
“Wee nagga jo-hatta,” she laughed. “Yunda, yunda.”
Whatever she’d said made our captives laugh, as well. With no other options, I stood there and tried not to look as humiliated as I felt with all eyes on my reddening member, and everyone laughing.
The monkey-man with the intelligent eyes smiled broadly, and motioned to the cave girl, saying something in his native language, then gestured vaguely to me, which made her laugh even harder in response. She waved her hands and shook her head as if to say “no, no, no”, then pinched her tangled bush of pubic hair apparently explaining why she couldn’t do whatever he’d asked. She pointed to my crotch, and I finally realized it was my lack of fuzz, and possibly a foreskin that had brought on all this unwanted attention.
Then she stepped closer to me, seemed to measure my erection with her open hands, one near my testicles, the other near its throbbing tip, moved her hands over to her genital area and shook her head, making fearful faces, as if explaining that the thing between my legs would never fit through her small opening. Having definitively made her point, she laughed again, and was once more joined by all the others.
“Oh, God,” I said, humiliated.
As the laughter continued, the tent flaps on the hut behind the lead monkey-man parted, and Milton’s face poked through with a look of total surprise, and absolute joy spreading out across his entire body.
“Brandon!” he said, stepping toward me, as naked as the rest of us.
“Milton!” I called. “Oh, thank God, Milton!” I yelled. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”
His face fell.
The Hollow World: (Pangea, Book 1) Page 6