“Timber!” I shouted as it fell over. The women all let out gasps of delight, and I felt my chest swell with pride.
“Sheela, how long would it have taken for us to cut that down?” I asked her as a smug smile crept across my face.
“Two or three hours,” she said. Her golden eyes were opened wide and her voice sounded excited.
“Yep! Hot damn! This is great!”
“Wow! Victor! This is amazing.” Galmine threw her arms around me, and our lips met for a brief kiss. “You are such a good provider and protector. We will be able to build the fort so quickly.”
“We are going to need a lot more cord a lot quicker,” I said as I turned to Kacerie.
“I will make it,” she said. “I like making cordage. Thanks for giving me the job.”
“I will make some also.” Trel looked at Kacerie with a bit of confusion and then turned to me. “I’ll have you know that I am impressed with you, Victor. I did not think of this idea, and it will really push up our timetables.”
“It should take us only a day or two to topple all the trees we need,” I said. “But then we need to worry about cutting them the right height and getting rid of the roots. I was hoping you had an idea for that.”
“Hmm,” Trel said as she tapped on her lips with her long finger. “We used the fire to do it last time, but--”
“Kacerie, can you go gather some of those ferns over there?” I asked the pink-haired woman as I pointed to the cluster by a tree that was some sixty feet away.
“Uhh, yeah,” she said. Then she jogged over on her bare feet and began working on the branches.
“I’ll tell her about the other tribes,” I whispered to the other three women after I beckoned them to stand closer to me. “But now is not the time. We had a good talk at the lake, and she’s going to cooperate more with us, but I still need you all to keep an eye on her. Got it?” My friends nodded, and then I turned back to Trel.
“The issue with the fire is that it will create smoke that others will see,” the spider-woman continued.
“Yeah,” I said. “We don’t want that.”
“But if you and Sheela have to cut through each of these trees, you’ll become the bottleneck,” Trel continued. “So the fire would be the most efficient way, especially if you really want to get this done quickly. We will all have to focus on building cordage for the walls since the fire could do an entire batch during the day.”
“Hmmm,” I said. “Sheela, if we had the hundred and fifty-ish logs down, how long do you think it would take for us to cut through them all?”
“Victor, the issue is that you are not really saving time,” she explained. “We will still need to cut off the roots. So, it will be as if the tree is still vertical on the ground.”
“Right,” I sighed. “I get it. So, using the fire to cut through is really the only way. I just don’t want any smoke in the sky.”
I looked up at the circling vulture-like birds. Like California Condors, these beasts had dark brown or black feathers. Unlike the condors, the beasts were each about the size of a Mini-Cooper.
“Hmmm,” I said as I stared up at the birds. “What if we did it at night? They might see the glow from the fire, but we are right in the middle of the forest. They wouldn’t see the smoke if the sky was dark.”
“That is a great idea,” Trel said as she nodded at me. “I should have thought of it.” The spider woman turned to the basket on the back of Bob. “We’ll need to use the clay to ensure the fire stays on track, but if I put the edges high enough, it will eliminate some of the glow. Yes. This will work. It’s a good idea.”
“Hooray for Victor!” Galmine said as she hugged me again.
“I think we have six more hours till sunset,” I said as I checked the sun. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. I’ll control the parasaurs and have them topple over as many trees as we can while you all work on getting ferns for cordage. As soon as it gets close to twilight, Sheela and I will indent the first parts of the trunks with our axes so we can make a fire in them. Then Trel will lay out the clay before we set the fire. Tonight we’ll all work on more cordage.”
“After you inseminate me again,” Trel reminded me with a chuckle.
“Yeah,” I said as I smiled at her. “That was inferred.”
“Victor,” Galmine said. “I am happy to gather ferns, and I do enjoy being outside, but--”
“That’s too dangerous,” I interrupted her, “you need to go back inside the fort. Sheela, get the ferns that Kacerie has gathered so far and take Galmine back so she can work on cooking, pots, and cordage. Bring back all of our baskets when you return, and then you, Trel, and Kacerie can devise a process for gathering a bunch of ferns.”
“Yes, Victor,” Sheela replied, and I ordered Hope to move closer to the two women so that they could mount.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur of activity. The parasaur digging team and I got a bit better at figuring out how to dig out the roots and topple the trees easier, but there was a bit of a downtime when the group walked the distance between a toppled tree and the next target. I didn’t want to push them too hard, so I gave them breaks when I saw their chests heaving with the work. The process was still a million times easier than Sheela and I chopping through everything, and after a few hours, I was actually able to gather ferns with the three women while the parasaurs happily pushed over the next five trees.
When I guessed dusk was about an hour away, I stopped the team and did a quick count of the logs. They had downed thirty-four in the time it would have taken Sheela and me to cut down three with sharp axes. This was a massive improvement in our process, and I guessed that we would be done with all the trees we needed the day after tomorrow.
Trel, Sheela, and Kacerie gathered ferns as quickly as they could. Each of them carried a basket, and Sheela would jump on Hope to shuttle the full ones back and forth between our fort. I lost track of how many trips she made, but I guessed that it had to be over forty.
When the last tree of the day was down, Trel went along each trunk and eyeballed where we needed to start chopping indents for the fire. Sheela and I went to work as soon as Trel laid out a branch to mark each bottom and top spot while Kacerie came behind us and laid out clay dams on each side of the cuts. The clay would keep the fire from burning the wrong way on the logs in addition to reducing some of the light from the flames.
By the time Sheela and I made it halfway through the logs, Trel had finished marking all of them and returned to the first one we chopped indents into. Galmine, Sheela, Trel, and I were pros at starting fires with just a simple wood drill and some tinder, and she quickly got small fires going inside of the clay dams.
By the time Sheela and I finished cutting the notches in the last log, Trel was halfway done with setting the fires, so we swung back and helped her while Kacerie continued with the clay placement. We didn’t quite have enough clay for all of the logs, but it would be easy enough to get more tomorrow.
To say I was excited with our progress would have been an understatement. My mind was reeling with the possibilities of what the future would bring us. We still needed to cut off all the branches, and we would probably need at least three more baskets of clay tomorrow, but what if I tamed four more parasaurs? We might be able to have all the logs felled in two days. Then I’d probably need eight baskets of clay total, but we’d need way more cordage to tie up all the posts. The cordage was definitely the bottleneck now, but it was going to take a lot of time to gather the ferns or dry out the sinew.
“Should we just let it burn all night?” I asked Trel as we set the fire in the last log. “I’m worried the grass could catch on fire. Then we would have a huge problem.”
“It will work just like the smaller logs,” she said with a shrug. “There is a chance that it could spread, but the clay keeps it in place, and it should burn straight down. We didn’t have to pay much attention to it when we did it a few days ago.”
“Yeah,” I said
as I recalled how Trel had first shown us how to do this.
“But let’s make a trip out before we go to bed and in the middle of the night,” she said. “We can bring water just in case it looks like something is getting out of control. This stuff is pretty green, so I don’t believe the fire will spread.”
“Ahh, that reminds me. I need to get more water. Sheela, you up for a trip to the stream?”
“Yes, Victor,” she said. “The new jugs should be cooked by now, so we can take those.”
“Great,” I commanded Bob to crouch down so that Trel and I could mount him, and Sheela jumped on Hope with Kacerie. A few moments later we were back at the edge of our camp wall, and Trel was helping me tie the new clay jugs to the saddle. Six of them fit just fine, and I gestured for Sheela to get on Hope while I rode on Bob.
“I’m going to check on Galmine’s cordage progress,” Trel said. “Don’t forget about my--”
“I know,” I interrupted her. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Trel gave me a wide smile that showed off her fangs, and then she ducked under the door.
“I can ride behind you on Bob if you wish,” Sheela said. She hadn’t jumped on Hope yet, so she had to crank her head back to stare up at me. “We do not need to bring her since she has no jugs on her saddle.”
“Do we have more?” I asked. “I thought that we had two more for water and then Galmine was cooking another six.”
“I can get them,” she said as she took a step away from me.
“Sheela, wait,” I said, and she stopped in mid-stride. “I’m going to take all the parasaurs to the stream either way so they can all have a nice long drink. So the question is: do you want to ride on Bob with me?”
“Certainly,” she said quickly. “He is higher up, and his stride is gentler.”
“Ahh, okay,” I said as I gestured for her to climb up behind me. Her arms found their usual spot around my stomach, and her long blonde hair fell across my shoulders when she pressed her breasts against my back.
We had not talked this morning about our relationship, but I could feel the tension starting to grow between us, and I knew I was eventually going to have to tell her how I felt about her. I guessed she might have an attraction toward me, but I also knew that Sheela took her loveless marriage seriously.
She was an honorable woman, and I was just a guy who she happened to have gotten stuck with.
I tapped Bob’s flanks and instructed Hope, Sonny, and Cher to follow us. Sheela squeezed my stomach more when we started moving, and I wondered if I was looking too hard at our relationship. I felt as if she had an attraction to me, but did she really? We hung out all the time together, but the long looks Sheela gave me were probably just caused by a friendly comradery. She had admitted she didn’t really like riding on these dinos, so Sheela probably preferred to ride behind me so that she wouldn’t have to deal with steering Hope.
The more I thought about it, the more I started to think she didn’t really feel anything for me. This belief began to erode my resolve to talk with her, and I felt my heart hammer in my chest. I was going to tell her that I was attracted to her, and then she’d shoot me down. Did I really even need to bother? I loved Trel and Galmine. I loved Sheela as well, but if I told her I felt that way, and she didn’t feel the same emotions, it would really mess up our working relationship. There were no sexual harassment lawsuits out in Dinosaurland, but the last thing I wanted was to creep out my best friend.
We made it to the ancient fallen tree while I pondered my options, and a brief moment later we were at the side of the small river. From our perch on Bob’s back, it was easy enough to see the terrain and scout for hostile dinos. Sheela and I both glanced around for half a minute, but neither one of us saw anything, and the parasaurs didn’t seem nervous.
“Alright, let’s do this,” I said as I instructed Bob and the gang to go into the water and drink.
Sheela and I each grabbed a newly minted water jug and climbed down from Bob. Neither of us spoke while we filled them, but after we had each taken long drinks we both looked at each other. I opened my mouth to start the conversation, but she spoke first.
“What passed between you and Kacerie?” she asked.
“I explained already,” I said with a shrug. “I told her that she needed to get her shit together and work with us.”
“Her shit together?” Sheela asked with a shocked expression on her normally stoic face.
“Uhh, sorry. Slang. It means I told her to stop complaining and cooperate.”
“She seemed to be crying,” Sheela commented.
“She’ll get over it,” I said as I took another sip from the jug. The new containers were designed a bit better. They had wide bottoms, with narrow tops that flare out at the mouth. Small loop handles made them appear a bit like beer growlers crossed between those old Greek vases.
“You mean, she will overcome her challenges?” Sheela asked with a slight smile.
“Yep, you are getting my slang better.”
“I try to learn,” she said as she bent down to fill up her water jug again.
It was at the point of the day where twilight gives way to night, and I knew we only had another ten minutes before we needed to get back. Part of me wanted to use the time as an excuse not to talk to her, but I realized this would probably lead to another day of me putting off the conversation, so I took a deep breath and tried to calm my heart. My blood pumping muscle felt like it was using my ribs as a punching bag.
“Sheela,” I said, and the woman’s eyes seemed to glow in the near darkness.
“Yes?” Her voice was a whisper, and I wondered if she knew what I was about to say.
“I have feelings for you,” the words came out of my mouth quickly, and I almost wished I hadn’t said them as soon as I did.
“I know,” she replied, and I felt my breath catch in my throat.
“Uhh. You know?” I asked.
“Yes, Victor. We spoke of this many weeks ago at the lake. I see the way you look at me, and Galmine, and Trel.”
“Okay,” I said, and I immediately felt like an idiot. Why did I just say “okay?” What was wrong with me?
“We should fill up the rest of the jugs,” she said, but she didn’t take a step toward Bob. She was still staring at me, and my heart started to punch in double time. I suddenly had a hypothesis about Sheela, but I realized that if I was wrong, there would be no way I could repair our relationship.
“Are you waiting for my order?” I whispered.
“N-n-no,” she stuttered with a surprised facial expression that I couldn’t remember seeing.
“Go fill up the other jugs,” I said, and she moved past me. I didn’t know why I was that surprised by her compliance as our entire relationship up until this point had pretty much been me telling her what to do. The answers to my problems seemed so obvious, but fear of rejection was still tying my stomach up in knots.
Sheela went about the work of filling up the other jugs with her usual intense focus. I walked through the shin-deep water so that I could attach the jug to the saddle, and then I took each one she filled out of her hands so I could attach them. After a few minutes, they were all filled, but our parasaurs were still drinking.
“Let’s climb back up,” I said as I jumped back into the saddle. Sheela was in her seat instantly, but I turned around to face her before she could wrap her arms around my stomach.
“Tell me how you feel about me,” I said.
“What do you mean?” she asked, and I saw her bite her lip slightly.
“You know I find you incredibly attractive. You are smart, brave, honorable, and generous. You never quit, and I cherish every second we spend together. I have a feeling you already knew this, but I wanted to say it out loud so that you knew it for sure.”
“Victor,” she whispered sadly. “I am married.”
“I didn’t ask about it,” I said. “I feel like you are using that as a shield to keep me away, but you also foll
ow my orders, so now I am ordering you to tell me what you feel for me.”
“Oh?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “You believe you can order me to tell you what is inside my heart?”
I felt my stomach somersault a few dozen times, and I tried to think of a way I could backpedal. I’d messed up, and Sheela had called my bluff. Of course, I couldn’t just demand that she tell me how she feels about me, could I?
“I just did,” I said with way more confidence than I actually felt. I almost wanted to tell her that the answer didn’t matter, or that she didn’t really have to do it, or that I’d be happy with her decision.
But the reality was that none of those were true. I wanted Sheela. I’d wanted her the second I saw her attack the giant croc that tried to eat me. Her slight Australian accent drove me crazy, her stoic mindset made me respect her, and her unbreakable will made me a stronger person. When we first met, she seemed the Yin to my Yang, but now I realized we weren’t opposites, we really just completed each other.
“I feel for you the same way you feel for me,” she whispered as she cast her eyes downward. “My admission does not help our relationship, though. My society takes marriage very seriously, and I cannot abandon my--”
“I’ll fight him,” I said. “You said you can remarry if your next husband battles your former?”
“Victor,” she said my name with a sigh. “He cannot battle you since we are on different worlds. Even if you could, he would kill you in a few seconds. Your battle prowess has amazed me, but he is nearly three feet taller than you and outweighs you by perhaps two hundred pounds.”
“I don’t care,” I said. “I’d fight him to have you. I don’t want you to feel this sadness anymore. I want to love you, and I want you to be able to return my love.”
“Victor…” her voice trailed off as she finally looked up at me. Our eyes met, and we held each other’s gaze for what felt like forever.
I wanted to keep talking, I wanted to try to convince her that she needed to be with me, but I’d already made my sales pitch, and I didn’t know what else I could say to convince her that I wanted to be with her.
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