“Yeah, I know you want to come, but you can’t move as fast as Nicole, and--”
He let out an angry huff and actually stomped one of his feet like Tom would have.
“Yeah, Bruce is coming too. I know he is your buddy, but--”
Grumpy rumbled again, and then he inched forward so that his nose pressed into my bare chest.
“You’ll miss me? Awww. See? I knew you were a softie. I’d just feel better if you were here protecting the girls--”
He pressed his nose into me a bit more and then rumbled again.
“Well, Bruce and Scoob and the Gang, and Emerald. They’ll be able to protect--”
He snorted, and my chest heated up with his breath.
“Oh, come on. Look, I love you too, but--”
He snorted angrily again and then pushed his nose into me so hard that I actually had to take a step back.
“Shit, okay. You win. I didn’t realize you felt so strongly about it. Sure, you can come. I would feel a lot safer with you.”
Grumpy let out a pleased rumble and then he moved his nose back and forth across my chest as I petted him.
“It’s going to be a lot of walking though,” I cautioned him. “I don’t want to hear any whining or complaining. Got it?”
The massive caiman let out an annoyed rumble, and I laughed.
“See? You are complaining already. That’s okay. Get it all out now so that I don’t have to hear it on the trip.”
Grumpy rolled his eyes, and then he pulled his nose away from my chest, snorted, and then rested his head on the grass.
“Changed your mind already? We are going to go in a few minutes. If you want to come, meet us by the gate.”
He groaned with annoyance, but then the big beast slowly turned away from me and began to lumber toward the distant gate to the fort.
“Hey!” I shouted as his back end almost smacked me when he walked away. “Watch the tail!”
Grumpy let out a low rumble that sounded like a laugh, and then he continued his way toward the gate.
I walked back to where my friends were setting up Nicole’s supplies and arrived just as Sheela and Kacerie finished climbing down.
“We are done,” the pink-haired beauty informed me. “You’ve got spears, axes, food, water, cordage, and--”
“Don’t forget this,” Quwaru said from behind me, and I turned to see the red-skinned woman walk up with the Cricket Bat of Doom.
“Ahh, good call,” I said as I took the weapon from her.
“Be careful,” Sheela said.
“Yes,” Trel said. “If you were hurt, all these women would lose their minds, and I would have to spend too much time consoling them.”
“Sure thing, Trel,” Kacerie said as she rolled her blue eyes.
“Was there something you wished to speak to us about before you left?” Quwaru asked as she fixed her silver eyes on me.
“Yeah,” I said, “two things. First, how are the balaurs with food? Are you guys hunting for them?”
“Yes, Victor,” Sheela said. “I’ve been bringing back corpses of the orange birds. Five dozen or so still nest there, and the balaur bondocs eat about two a day. We should be good for a while, but I can always expand my hunting area. It will be easy enough on the back of one of the larger dinos.”
“Okay good,” I said, “and as for the second thing…” I glanced back at the cooking fires and kiln. It was easy to spot Gee moving around the stacked mud, and I determined she was out of earshot.
“What?” Trel asked as she turned to where I was looking.
“Our new flameborn friend is a bit of a concern,” I started. “On the trip back when I first found her, she made several comments about taking over leadership of the camp from me.”
“Uhhh, that’s not going to happen,” Kacerie said.
“I don’t think she’s a bad person,” I explained. “I just think she’s used to doing things her own way. You all have spent time with her. Do you think she is going to be a problem?”
“She seems fine so far,” Trel said with her usual shrug. “Although, I don’t know how she is going to bear your offspring. Her body is too hot, and you might burn your penis off when you--”
“I’m not worried about that right now,” I interrupted her. “More worried about betrayal.” I looked at Sheela, Kacerie, Quwaru, and Emerald. “What do you all think?”
Emerald shrugged and then shook her head.
“She has been agreeable,” Sheela said.
“If she tries anything, I’ll Lance her,” Kacerie hissed.
“It will be hard for me to use my ability on her,” Quwaru said, “but that will be a good way for us to find out if she intends to betray us.”
“She likes the water,” I said. “Maybe you all could take her to the river, or make her a bath or something. Then, when she is soaked and isn’t on fire, you could touch her. I don’t think she knows what powers everyone has, so let’s try to keep it that way.”
“You are worried, huh?” Quwaru sighed as she frowned at me.
“I just want to make sure you are all safe,” I said. “If I knew everyone’s abilities, and I wanted to take over, I’d kill Kacerie first, then Sheela, since they could fight back easiest.”
“Then no one would be able to stop her,” Kacerie sighed. “I see your point.”
“Nomi will be able to stop her,” I said, “but I’m not sure if she needs to touch--”
“She can do it from a distance,” Quwaru interrupted.
“I might be totally overreacting,” I said. “Gee might be on board as a tribe member, so I don’t want to throw accusations around. Best case is Quwaru is able to touch her and can tell if she’s good. Worst case is that she tries something.”
“She probably would have tried something while you were gone with Liahpa, though,” Kacerie said.
“Maybe,” I shrugged. “Everyone has a special ability. Gee might be waiting to figure out what everyone can do before she acts. Don’t forget that she’s one of her world’s most powerful military leaders, and she admitted to me that she is used to taking whatever she wants.”
“I’ll make sure I touch her,” Quwaru hissed.
“And we’ll take care of her, if we need to,” Kacerie finished as her pretty eyes narrowed.
“Okay, good,” I said, and then I smiled at everyone. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“You better,” Kacerie said, and then she reached out so that I could hug and kiss her.
“I will miss you,” Sheela whispered in my ear after it was her turn to give me a parting hug and kiss.
“Miss you too,” I whispered before I kissed and lightly bit her ear lobe. My action caused the cat-woman to sigh, and she pressed her firm body into mine for a few seconds before she pulled away.
“Don’t forget to impregnate Emerald during this journey,” Trel ordered when it was her turn to hug me. “Otherwise it will be like you wasted all this time.”
“Trel…” I groaned, but then the beautiful spider-woman cut me off with a passionate kiss.
“And be safe, please,” she muttered as her black eyes stared into mine. “I love you more than I can ever properly communicate, Victor. I would be lost without you. We all would.”
“I’ll come back,” I promised, “and I’ll have a new home that we will all love.”
“I would like a parting hug,” Quwaru said once Trel broke away from me.
“Sure,” I chuckled, and then I opened my arms so the sexy red-skinned woman could step into my embrace.
Quwaru’s body was soft and firm in all the right places, and she pushed her breasts, hips, and legs into me so that I could feel the satin smoothness of her bare skin against my chest.
“You are a good man, Victor,” she whispered in my ear as her hands came up to touch the back of my neck. “I can tell.”
“Thanks,” I said as I felt warmth spread down my body from where she touched me on my neck. I could tell she had just used her powers on me, bu
t I didn’t care. She was a member of my tribe now, and I trusted her.
“I look forward to spending more time with you when you return,” she said as she stepped away. “We both have been busy since our families joined.”
“Yeah,” I said as my eyes roamed over her perfectly shaped body that almost wasn’t even covered by her tattered bikini. “I’d like that.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Trel groaned. “Victor will have to inseminate Quwaru when he returns, but he needs to leave so that he can quickly return. Get going.”
“Okay, boss,” I laughed, and then I held my hand out to Emerald so that I could help her mount onto Nicole’s saddle. “Can you guys get the gate?”
“Of course,” Sheela said, and then she and Trel sprinted to the gate while Emerald and I rode there on Nicole. The troodons jogged next to us, and we all met Grumpy at the gate.
“Be safe,” Sheela said once more after she had opened the gate with Trel, and I gave them both a nod before my battle force of dinos and I rode out and across the dirt bridge.
Then we were on our next mission in Dinosaurland.
Chapter 6
One advantage of taking a trike instead of a parasaur was that the trikes’ backs had enough room to fit four people up top along with storage. Kacerie had packed eight jugs of water, a bunch of berries, and small clay containers filled with salted meat. I didn’t know exactly how long the meat would last, but I guessed that we’d be able to get through tomorrow afternoon with it.
Sheela had also packed two flint tipped spears on each side of the saddle, along with twin bows and small hip quivers filled with a few dozen arrows. We also had four stone axes tied to the saddle and my Cricket Bat of Doom. In reality, I didn’t really want to fight anything, but we were probably going to have to hunt, so I was happy enough to carry the extra gear. At any rate, I didn’t think that Nicole even noticed the weight of the stuff. She was a stout girl, and I bet she could have carried everyone in the camp on her back without noticing.
Riding on Nicole was a bit different from Tom. The male trike and I were used to each other, and he’d learned how to roll his gait so that it wasn’t super bumpy. The red-crested trike seemed to pound each of her foot falls into the ground, but by the time we reached the river to the south of the camp, I’d managed to send her the correct messaging so that she had a bit of a gentler stride.
Before we broke through the tree line and charged the river, I sent Scoob and the Gang out first, and then held back in the treeline for a few moments. The troodons hooted when they said the coast was clear, and then we slowly moved out into the water with Grumpy on our heels.
Nicole was tall enough for us to ford the river without getting wet, but halfway through the travel across, Emerald grabbed one of the spears next to her, leaned over the side, and shoved the weapon into the water. A moment later she lifted the weapon up, and a massive fish squirmed on the end of the lance.
“Nice!” I laughed, and then Emerald nodded at me as she leveraged the spear back on the saddle so she could grab the fish.
A few moments later she had the catch stored in one of the clay jars, and Nicole had finished crossing the river.
“I’ve never really gone this way,” I said as I searched the jungle tree line for an easy path. “Farthest south I’ve been is the bamboo grove, but that’s a mile or so to our west, and I only went in about fifty yards or so.”
Emerald pointed to the sky and then nodded.
“Yeah, I’ll call him,” I replied, and then I reached out mentally and asked Bruce to fly back to us. I sensed that the big Pteranodon was maybe half a mile to our south, and he returned in just a few moments.
“Everything look good?” I asked him once he landed on the shore next to me.
Bruce let out a honk and then hopped a bit toward me so I could reach over and pet him.
“Is there a better path through these trees?” I asked, but then I sensed that my question had confused him, so I pointed down at Nicole. “She’s going to have a hard time pushing through these trees. Do you see a spot where she can continue south? Maybe like a dried river bed or trail that other dinos take?”
The new explanation seemed to resonate with Bruce, and he turned to face east, let out a honk, and then hopped up into the air.
“Alright, I knew having him around would be useful,” I said to Emerald, but then Grumpy let out a frustrated groan.
“You too, big guy, sheesh, you are plenty useful.”
Emerald covered her mouth as if she was laughing and then waved back to the massive purussaurus as we moved after Bruce down the shore of the river.
We rode for about ten minutes eastward, but just before the river turned into the first inkling of canyon walls, Bruce landed again, and I saw a small path that cut near the side of the stone walls that began to cradle the river. It was definitely a path southward, but the last time I had passed it was when I was riding on a swimming dinosaur, and I hadn’t been paying much attention to the shore.
The sides of the trees were tight against the canyon wall, and Emerald and I had to duck under a few low hanging jungle branches, but the close confinement caused by the trees only lasted for about a hundred yards of slow progress, and then the trail opened up wide enough for her to trot comfortably, and we set out across the packed dirt at an easy pace.
“I figure we’ll get to the south side of our valley in about an hour or two,” I said as I glanced up through the breaks between the tree branches at the mountain peaks to our south. “I think we should be able to cross today, maybe even get a decent amount of distance into the next valley by nightfall. What do you think?”
Emerald nodded at me, smiled, and then sniffed the air. Her white eyes opened wide, and then she jerked her head away from me so she could look into the tree line.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I sent out an alert to the troodons and Grumpy.
Emerald shook her head, then gestured up to our left. I followed her finger and saw a patch of giant purple flowers clinging to the side of the rocky slope.
“Oh, flowers,” I laughed, and then I instructed the group to trot over to the patch of purple. It was a good fifteen yards or so up the slope, and the angle was too steep for Nicole to plow up it, so I had her stop as close as we could get and both Emerald and I slid off the trike’s back.
Emerald actually scampered up the rocky slope like a spider monkey, and by the time I reached her side, she had already cut three of the large flowers free with her flint blade.
“Wow, those do smell good,” I said as I got closer. The purple flowers almost looked like sunflowers, and they smelled like night jasmine mixed with gardenias and mint.
Emerald nodded and smiled at me, but when I crouched down to push my nose closer to one of the flowers, she grabbed me by the shoulder and gently pushed me away as she shook her head.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, and she nodded down to the flowers in her hand, and then closed her eyes and rested her head on one of her shoulders
“Oh, they make you sleepy?” I asked, and she nodded, but then she waved a hand around her temple, bit her lip, and then pointed at my groin.
“Oh, shit,” I laughed. “So you get high and horny?”
Emerald smiled and then nodded again at me. Then she turned back to the flowers and continued harvesting them. As soon as she finished, she pointed back to the direction of the camp, then southward, and then up at the sun that was high in the sky.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Might be fun to celebrate with it once we get to our new home. Will the petals last that long?”
She pointed to one of the flowers that had dried and wilted a bit in her bunch and then licked her lips as her eyes bored into mine.
“Ahh, they get more potent when dried?”
Emerald nodded and then carefully walked down the slope toward Nicole. I followed close behind her and found myself staring at the tight fabric around her ass. The sight reminded me of when we had kissed while we had prepared to burn Will
-Lack’s body, and I recalled how firm her ass had felt beneath my fingers. I actually kind of did feel a bit light headed, and I realized that I would have really enjoyed a make-out session with Emerald right now.
And I had only caught a few whiffs of the flower. I couldn’t imagine how potent it would be if I had actually smelled it up close.
Nicole crouched so that Emerald could mount, and then I got back up after the green-haired beauty had stored the flowers in one of the many clay containers. Then we were on our way again, but I found my mind wandering to Emerald.
It really did seem like the alien beauty was into me, so she could have just used the flowers to seduce me. Hell, maybe she actually would once we got to whatever campsite we set up for the night, but a few moments ago she had pushed me away from the flowers, so I guessed it was because she wanted to focus on the mission.
I was starting to feel a lot better about taking her in, but I still didn’t trust her.
“You have a really good sense of smell,” I said after a few minutes of riding.
Emerald seemed thoughtful for a few moments, but then she shook her head, pointed at a set of flowering jungle vines hanging from a tree, and then pointed at me.
“Hmmm,” I said as I tried to figure out what she meant.
She bit her upper lip and then flashed me a quick smile before she wrapped her arms around herself and then pointed at me.
“Oh, you can smell things you like?”
Emerald nodded, and her white predator eyes stared into mine.
“We talked a bit about the armies you used to lead. You said it had something to do with the gems on your head and the black one behind your ear, but do you also use some sort of scent command to control your troops?”
The green-skinned woman shook her head and waved her hands as if to indicate that she wasn’t offended, but then she pointed to the gem on her forehead and then pointed at her nose before she pointed at the sun.
“Hmmm, you use the gems plus scent?” I asked.
She nodded happily and then patted me on the shoulder. I expected her hand to go back in her lap after she touched me, but then her fingers gently squeezed my shoulder and slowly traced a line down the curve of my tricep. Her white eyes stared unblinking at the skin where she had traced her finger, and she bit her lower lip when her fingers finally left my arm.
Tamer- King of Dinosaurs Book 6 Page 9