by Brian King
“Victor, would you like that massage now?” the green-eyed woman queried in a teasing way.
Sheela coughed to get my attention.
“I brought the materials to build the bows and arrows, as you wanted. Would you like to do those now or later?” The cat-eyed woman appeared anxious to begin.
I looked back and forth at Sheela and Galmine, knowing what was better for our long-term survival.
“Galmine, I have to take a rain check-- I mean delay, on that massage. We really need to craft some bows.” As I said the words, I couldn’t believe I was turning her down again.
“That’s okay,” the gray-skinned woman replied, “I’ll add this to your growing list of sweet things you owe me.”
Before I let myself get distracted by what she was going to do to me, I shuffled myself around the campfire so I could sit next to Sheela. I briefly noticed the emerging fireflies and other bugs down in the grove, but that show could no longer hold my attention while work had to be done.
“I’ve got all this set up,” Sheela motioned to some sticks and untwisted cord she’d placed off to the side of the walkway. “I can trim the bows and string them if you will cut and sharpen these smaller shoots of wood into arrows.” She handed me a bunch of straight branches as well as a pile of orange and black feathers from the numerous birds we’d killed.
“Well, that’s not a bad plan,” I replied as I settled in next to her, “but I want to learn how to make bows, too.”
“I assumed you would,” she said as she pulled a five-foot-long branch from her pile. “This sapling was about as thick around as my grip, but I split it down the middle, so it is round on one side and flat on the other.”
She showed both sides to me, and then gestured to the other half of the split tree lying in her pile. I assumed this was for the second bow and moved to pick it up.
“We need to taper the ends with our blades and add notches so we can attach the bowstring,” Sheela said. “If you agree, I will carve one half to show you how it should look, and then you can do the other end.”
“Works for me,” I replied with enthusiasm. “How about I bang out some arrows while you are doing that first part?” I needed to stay busy and always have two or three tasks going at the same time, so I’d watch her demo, work on the arrows, and keep an eye on Hope.
“Of course,” she answered.
“Galmine, could I get you to twist the bowstrings?” I asked our partner at the fire.
“Yes! I would love to,” the bubbly woman replied with more of her endless enthusiasm.
The arrows were time-consuming but not that complicated. Sheela showed me how to measure and cut so the shafts would be about as long as my arm. Then I got busy scraping the bark down the length with our stone knives, tying feathers on the back for stability, and hardening the sharp point in the fire. I thought I moved pretty fast, but a half-hour later I’d only just started my second one when she was finished with her end of the bow.
“Here you go, Victor.” My bushcraft tutor handed over the weapon as well as the sharp cutting stone.
After watching me scrape and cut the other end of the bow for a few moments, she turned to her own chores and left me to it. I wasn’t close to done after the first half hour, but she already had four arrows completed, so I wiped my brow and dove right back into my job.
When I stopped about fifteen minutes later, she was working with a long piece of cloth-like bark about four feet long and ten inches wide. She noticed me put down the bow, so she began showing me what she was doing.
“You fold this thin bark in half,” Sheela said as she joined the top and bottom together like she was closing a book, “and then you tie around the two ends, so the arrows do not slide out the sides. We will add another rope, so we can sling it over our shoulders.” She held it up to show me what it was going to look like when it was done, and it was obviously an arrow quiver like I’d seen in the movies.
“Damn, how are you moving so fast?” I laughed. It wasn’t a competition, and Sheela had a lifetime of forest experience over me, but there was no excuse for not striving to be the best at these life-saving crafts.
“You are good with your hands, and your technique is competent,” Sheela said dryly, “so it is only a matter of practice and repetition before you will be besting me.” Her voice changed a little in her final words like she was excited, but it could just as easily have been tiredness.
“Here you go,” Galmine said with cheery pride. “It’s one of my best.” The silver-haired woman had been working the whole time quietly, but she wore a radiant smile as she handed over a coil of cord.
“Thank you,” Sheela said to her, “this looks perfect for our bowstring.”
“You are most welcome,” Galmine replied. She popped one of the blue berries in her mouth like it was a reward for finishing the project, but then she gave another to Jinx.
“May I?” Sheela asked when she saw I was done with my work.
“I think I got it.” I handed her the bow, and we both got to our feet.
“It looks good,” she said with a nod. “The wood must have a curve in it when the bowstring is attached. That is the last step. If you hold the shaft, I will tie it off.”
It seemed a lot easier with two people because she could use both hands with the rope. When it was hooked on the bottom and tied around the topmost notch, she smiled and pushed the bow in my direction.
“For you,” Sheela grinned. “I’ll get started on a second one.”
“For us,” I replied as we both held it. “Before you do anything, show me how to make arrows as fast as you do. How many will we need?” I let go of the bow and grabbed the lone arrow I’d made. I figured we’d need a lot, but all my knowledge of these weapons came from video games, and resupplying was often as simple as walking over them with my avatar. Between the two of us, we’d made about five in the last hour.
“We eventually need to have hundreds,” she said as if she were a teacher handing out a boring assignment.
I did mental calculations about how long that would take and knew I had to get a shitload faster at the task.
One more for the endless list of shit I had to do in Dinosaurland.
“You expecting trouble?” I joked.
“Oh, yes. And this time I do not plan on losing my bow,” Sheela whispered to me.
“I know,” I said, hoping to cheer her up. “I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen.” She did smile a bit, but we both got to work rather than talk further about the looming threat to our lives.
My night had lots of cutting and scraping, and zero massages. I slept for a little while when Sheela took her shift watching Hope. Rest was hard to grab though, so I ended up doing more arrow sharpening because my mind would not shut off.
The next day, I fought off my exhaustion as I rode Hope to the watering hole with Sheela. While on her back, the threats of the forest seemed more distant. I had the strangest sensation that my animal-loving parents were somewhere up above cheering me on. I was pretty sure I could ignore sleeplessness forever as long as Hope was there each morning to remind me how fucking awesome each day was going to be.
I was still riding that high at midday when Sheela and I were ready to set the first of the big logs into the trench we made the day before. We slid the ten-footer around, so it was lined up with the back edge of the hole, and then looked for the best way to get it in.
“I say we just grab it,” I began. “It doesn’t seem that heavy when we’re pushing it around.”
“Perhaps we can use a rope to lift it up?” Sheela suggested.
“Do we need a rope? Let’s just try using our hands.” I’d been thinking about hooking Hope to complex ropes and levers and fulcrums all night, but that all seemed overly complicated for the problem, so I figured we should try the simple solution first.
“I am willing to do as you say,” the blonde woman remarked.
We both grabbed a side of the log near the far end and lifted it up
. I was surprised how light the long hunk of tree was, but I wondered if Sheela’s strength was a big part of that. We pushed together over our heads and it sort of balanced on the edge of the hole as we walked it higher and higher into the air. Just before it stood straight up and down, the pole slid into the hole.
“That was a snap!” I shouted as we engaged in another high five. Yesterday I had Hope dig about ten feet of trench as the start to our first wall, and I could imagine how we would drop one log after the other in there.
“It is still unstable,” Sheela replied as she wiggled the log a bit.
“That’s fine,” I replied. “I’ll have Hope fill in the dirt around the base. Then it won’t move.”
“That will create a gap as each log needs to have its own hole,” Sheela pointed out.
“We can use cord to tie each log to its neighbors and we can fill in the front and back parts of the hole, so it can only wiggle side to side. The newer logs will be tied in and soon there will be no movement in any direction.” My mind raced as I realized this was going to be a bit easier than I thought it would be.
“I think it will work,” Sheela said in sudden agreement.
We both shared a moment of accomplishment until we faced an interruption.
“You know you’re doing it wrong,” Trel said, as she walked up like she owned the place, then she leaned on a spear as Sheela often did.
I couldn’t help glancing her way with a look of skepticism.
“That’s correct,” Trel pointed to the log we’d just dropped into the ground, “but pretty much everything else you’re planning to do will be wrong.”
“Okay, what would you do differently?” I asked. I knew the key to Trel was asking her ways to do things better than a dumb male such as myself would do, but her lack of any personal insults suggested that she might be serious about helping this time.
“You are planning on using these giant logs all the way around?” Trel asked as she pushed against the heavy lumber already set in the ground.
“We used six-inch wide logs for the old fort, and the dinos trampled it like it was nothing, so I figured using something twice as large would be enough. You think we should go bigger?” I cringed at the thought of downing bigger trees, but was ready to do what was necessary to make it safe.
“Not if you want to finish before the birds arrive,” Trel said with a smile to show she didn’t mean it as her usual insult. “No, male, I would use these bigger logs only at the corners for added strength, and use smaller logs in between. Or eliminate the corners completely and build in a circle.”
She snapped her black bone-looking fingers as if she’d just thought of something.
“Forget the square,” Trel said with excitement. “You need to make a circle. The fort should be anchored every ten feet by heavy logs, but you can use eight-inch wide logs in between. Because you are building in a circle, it will be much stronger than a flat wall if struck by dinosaurs.”
“Why will a circle be stronger?” I asked. “Aren’t triangles the strongest shapes?”
“Maybe for bridges, or for structures where a single flat side is going to be pushed all together. Look at this.” Trel’s spider legs pushed down into the dirt and her human-shaped body tilted horizontally so she could pick up a bunch of twigs on the ground without getting her dress dirty.
“If you have them in a straight line, what happens when something pushes on one of the logs?” she asked after she pushed some twigs into the dirt so that they looked like a wall.
“Uhhh, I’m not sure?” I didn’t know what she was getting at, and she sighed with a bit of annoyance.
“The log will fall. See?” She pushed one of her claw-like fingers against the stick, and it toppled over.
“But we are digging deep into the dirt. It will take a lot of force to knock it down.” I gestured back to the single log we had already put up.
“Yes, but it can still be pushed over. We will need to put a support beam on the inside at an angle.”
“Okay, so we can--”
“But that will take extra logs, and extra cutting time, or you do a circle. Look and learn, male.” Trel arranged the sticks in the ground again in a tight semi- circle and then she pressed against one of the sticks.
“Huh,” I said after the log didn’t fall down. “Are you pressing as hard?”
“Look closely. Why isn’t it falling?” Trel’s mouth turned into a half smile, and I could see her vampire-looking fangs.
“Oh, shit,” I gasped after I crouched and really studied what was going on. “The sticks are behind the other ones! That’s why they aren’t falling!”
“Of course. I’m a genius. It’s because the circle shape has natural strength. If something pushes on one of the logs, the two placed slightly behind it will provide additional support. Then the ones behind those will take the energy and so on. The whole wall will work together to take weight when something presses against the side. It won’t be perfect, but we only have limited time and logs. So this is the best building method.”
“Damn,” I said. “Thanks.” It was amazing how easily she could see the problems in our design and suggest modifications.
“I’m hot and bored now,” Trel said as she started to walk away. “I will go back inside the cave.”
I turned to Sheela and gave her a “wait-a-sec” gesture, but then I ran to catch up with Trel.
“Please, stop,” I said as nicely as I could.
“What is it?” the regal woman replied as if I’d really bothered her.
“Trel, I thought we made a lot of progress as of late. After our hug and after you, uh, invited me to die for your spawn--” I said before she interrupted me.
“It’s not about the death part,” she snapped before I could continue.
“Uh, before you invited me to a pleasurable night with you,” I corrected myself before going on. “Look, I’m sorry I don’t want to have your kids, but I can’t lie down and die or that will leave Sheela and Galmine without my protection.” I didn’t think I needed to spell it out for her again, but I wasn’t going to take that chance.
“Ugh. You are so selfish.” She crossed her arms and groaned.
“Uhh. I’m selfish?” I asked as I tried to figure out what she was talking about.
“Yes, all you think about is yourself. You don’t think about me, or our beautiful babies.”
“Are you fu-- ugh. Are you serious right now?” I mirrored her movement by crossing my own arms.
“Uhh. Yeah. Cool dude.” When Trel spoke, she gave her words a Southern Californian accent and raised one of her eyebrows.
“We don’t even have babies,” I sighed.
“Because you won’t be a good male and inseminate me! Like I said, so selfish. Am I not beautiful? Do you not wish to climax inside of me? Did you forget about how many males on my planet wanted that privilege? Ugh. You are so dumb. And selfish. And an idiot.”
“I kind of just don’t want to get eaten. Can your like… uhhh brood eat something else when they are born?” I asked, but even as the words left my mouth, I knew I was sliding down a really slippery slope.
“Don’t you want the best for our children?” Trel’s voice was rising now, and I turned my head to see Sheela shrug.
“Look, Trel, can we talk about something else more important for a bit?” I asked.
“There is nothing more important than my offspring, male.”
“Well, I think it’s kind of critical that we live through the next few weeks. Or you won’t have any brood, or babies, or whatever. With me or anyone else. So can we talk about that?” I didn’t even want to get into the discussion of us being able to have children. We were totally different species, so I doubted that she would get pregnant if we had sex.
“Go on,” she said cautiously, and I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. All this talk about fucking her and having babies and then getting eaten by said babies was doing bizarre stuff to my libido.
“Trel, you are
an amazing person, and it’s hard for me to say anything about you now that won’t sound like I’m kissing your ass. The truth is I’m flattered by your offer, and though I’m not ready to die to have sex with you, I do find you beautiful.”
“Of course you do,” she snickered. “I am the most beautiful woman you have ever seen.”
“Uhh, my point is: You were in your element back there, and we could all really use your help.”
“Ugh, with the camp?” she asked dryly.
“Yeah. It is very likely that we’ll fail if we don’t get your help. If we fail, we are all going to die.” I hated to put it in such stark terms, but who knew what delays we’d experience while building the next structure.
“Eww, but building is such peasant work. Can I give advice from afar?”
“You can do as much or as little as you want, but just know you are saving our butts on the countdown clock,” I said with relief.
“And you will inseminate me?” she asked with a beautifully raised eyebrow. “I will promise you a night of pleasure that you could never imagine.”
I held her gaze for several seconds, and for a short time, I was balanced between two possible answers to that question. Her amazing breasts were visible under her sheer dress, but I was getting good at ignoring them, at least for short bursts when I needed a clear mind.
“Sorry Trel. I find you beautiful and smart, but I don’t want to die. I want us all to live. That’s why I’m working so hard on these walls. Will you help us?”
Her black orbs searched my eyes for several moments but then she glanced behind me. The black-haired woman didn’t reply, but seemed to look around at our job site, the old fort, and the woods in general. I noted that her eyes fluttered in a way that suggested she was using her Eye-Q.
“We need a door for your dinosaur,” Trel began as she walked back toward the construction site. “We need to pace out the perimeter of our wall. We can drag the branchy tops of all those discarded trees and form reefs around our fort. They will slow down or deflect running dinosaurs, so they never get close to the enclosure. Of course, I have many other ideas.”
I wasn’t sure what just happened, but I figured I’d said the right thing.