Chapter 1

The golden light poured through the window and warmed the arm I had wrapped around Adella. I tried to open my eyes, but they felt as heavy as the world. We had a lot to do today, but the padded mattress and blanket of my bed felt a bit too awesome to leave just yet.

“Viiiictoooor…” Adella whispered in her sing-song way. “It’s moooorning.”

“Yeaaahhh…” I sighed, and then I moved my left arm around the space where I thought Emta was laying.

“She already went down the stairs to help them prepare,” Adella giggled in my ear, and I felt goosebumps run down my chest and legs.

“I guess it’s time to get up,” I sighed.

“Seems a part of you is already up.” The redhead’s hand traced down my bare chest ‘til her fingers wrapped around my morning wood. “Your vigor is enough to fill all of our cups…”

“Yeah,” I chuckled at her phrasing. This was the fifth day we’d spent at the white fortress, and I’d made love to Adella, Emta, Nomi, and Gee every night since we’d gotten here. Gee and Nomi normally woke up before dawn so that they could go swim down in the river, but today we had planned on leaving our new friends and returning to our own fort, so I half expected the duo to sleep in.

Adella began to nibble on my ear, and I sighed when her lips moved down to the side of my neck, then my chest, and then her mane of bright red hair slid under our sheets as her tongue traced lower.

“You really don’t have to--- ohhh!” I gasped when I felt her mouth capture my cock, and then more of my breath left my lungs as her tongue began to caress around my shaft.

I pulled the covers away so that I could see Adella’s face, and she stared up at me with absolute adoration in her green eyes. Her mouth moved slowly over me as she let out cute little whines of pleasure, and my eyes actually rolled back in my head when she pushed the tip of her tongue into the hole at the tip of my cock.

“Holy shit,” I groaned. “That feels amazing.”

“I love the taste, so salty and sweet,” she sang softly after she popped her mouth off my cock. “It always makes me feel in heat. I don’t get to lick you that much when there are four of us sharing you.”

“I get to taste you,” I chuckled, and that was pretty much the truth. To be efficient, I was normally eating one of my lovers while thrusting inside of another.

“Yes.” She blushed a bit as she stroked my cock, but then she smiled wide and crawled up my legs so that her hips were right above mine. Her lower body was covered with greenish-blue rainbow scales that offset her red hair, but the inside of her pussy was a delightful pink, and she spread her lips open with her left hand while she aimed the tip of my cock into her tunnel.

Both of us gasped as soon as my tip pressed against her, and then our gasps turned into groans as she set herself down fully on my hips so that my cock pushed up into her slick entrance.

“Damn,” I gasped. “You feel so good.”

“So… do… you… Victor…” she rolled her hips with each word, and the slick nubs inside of her tight pussy pushed against my shaft at every angle. “You… are… so… handsome… I… love… you…”

Adella’s green eyes stared into mine as she slowly rode me, so I traced my fingers across the slick scales of her legs, up to her hips, and then finally to her full breasts where I teased her pink nipples.

She bit her lip as her tempo began to increase, and I brought my hands down to the small of her back so that I could push her down a bit when she rolled forward on my cock. This way I went as deep as I could into her without interrupting the pace she wanted.

We made love like that ‘til the sun’s rays turned from gold to yellow, and her soft whines of pleasure punctuated the slick sounds of her tunnel devouring my cock. We didn’t speak besides our moans, but when her green eyes suddenly opened wide, and her legs began to tremble, I knew she was close to climaxing.

“I’m… going…” she panted.

“Good,” I growled. “Cum for me.”

“Fill me up,” she begged frantically. “Please… Victor. Pour into me like a river into the ocean. Fill me to the brim. My body is fertile and needs your… seeeeeeed!”

Her last word came out as a high-pitched whine that broke any willpower I had. My fingers dug into her tight ass cheeks as I felt my balls tighten, and we both cried out as our climaxes hit us. Her womanhood clenched onto me like a fist, and my release was both fire and electricity at the same time. We continued to look into each other’s eyes while I sprayed into her tunnel, and her mouth opened wider each time my balls tensed and unleashed another cupful of my sperm into her.

After a minute, we both began to relax, and she fell forward onto my chest as we both gasped for air. Her fingers stroked my chest, and mine weaved through her thick red hair and traced down her silky back.

“My heart flutters like butterflies when you look into my eyes,” she cooed. “Watching your face when you climax… it… knowing it is me you are filling with your love… your baby… hmmm… I lose my words. My brain spins and dims. I become like an animal you cannot trust. I just feel my lust. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “You are kind and wonderful. Passionate and devoted. I love your voice and the way you sing. I love how humble you are. You are going to be a wonderful mother to our children.”

Adella squeezed her arms around my chest and then let out a long sigh. We stayed there a few more moments in silence, but then she lifted her head up, brushed back her long mane of hair, and scrunched up her nose as she looked at me.

“Four days back we ride, but will your seed survive?”

“It should.” I nodded. “But if Galmine misses the window, I can always make love to you again.”

“Yes, many times,” Adella nodded. “I don’t need it like Emta, but I’m still your woman, and I will need your love like the flowers need the rain and sun.”

“I’ll give it to you,” I said as I leaned forward to kiss her cute nose.

“So happy,” she sighed as she laid back on my chest. “I love this place so much more than my old life.”

“We haven’t talked about that much. What was life like for you on your old--”

My words were cut off by a knock at the door.

“King?” Haryoud called out. “Uhhh… Don’t want to bother you, but they are almost ready down in the courtyard. All the tin has been loaded, and--”

“We’ll be right down!” I shouted loud enough for him to hear on the other side of the door a room away, and then I looked at Adella. “We should probably get going.”

“Yes.” She smiled at me. “I do not mourn this morning for I got you alone and watched your eyes feel pleasure while you filled me with love.”

“We’ll have more mornings like this,” I chuckled at her wordplay.

We crawled out of bed and moved to put our clothes on. My Dickies brand pants were finally starting to lose material at the knees, my socks were pretty much threads, my underwear wasn’t much better, and the soles of my boots were at about half of their life. Other than the hat I had donated to Soju, the only two parts of my clothing that looked fine were my thick leather belt and my badge, but I figured that I’d be getting a new outfit once Oppena had a chance to make them for me.

Adella had fastened her bra on her chest by the time I turned around, and I saw her tie a small cream-colored skirt around her hips with a bit of cordage. She’d been wearing it for the past few days, but normally she walked around without anything covering her there.

“The skirt?” She smiled when she saw me looking. “When females are breeding, we wear cloth around our hips and cover our genitalia to show other males that we already have a life mate.”

“Life mate?” I asked.

“Yes.” Her smile grew wider. “My kind mate for life. You’ve seeded my womb, so I am yours until one of us dies. Ooooh, maybe I should have told that to you before?”

“No, it’s fine,” I assured her with a wide smile and a gentle wave of my hand. “I figured you were mine.”

“You did?” She tilted her head.

“Uhh, yeah.” I didn’t want to tell her that my Eye-Q was keeping track of the women who had become my lovers, since that was still kind of weird to me, so I decided to change the subject. “Do males on your world have multiple mates?”

“No,” Adella said, and for once, she wasn’t singing. “Life mates means one mate ‘til death, but I understand multiple women love you and will have your children. I wanted to be yours, so I came with Emta when she invited us into your room, and when you began to make love to me, I felt wonderful. I know this is where my heart belongs, and I’m glad you have accepted me. I love you, Victor.”

“I love you, too, Adella,” I said as I pulled her into my arms, and then I gave her a deep kiss before I checked my suite over to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind.

“I’m going to miss this bathtub,” I sighed as I gave one last look to the large tub where I’d spent many awesome hours with my lovers.

“Trel and Youleena will make us ones just as grand,” Adella sang, and then we held hands as we walked out of my room and into the halls of the White Fortress.

“It will be nice to go home,” I said as we walked through the walls of sunbleached, petrified wood, “but I’m not looking forward to sleeping on the ground for the next three nights.”

“The bed is a gentle place to lay our head,” Adella cooed. “But I can lay my head on your chest and get the perfect rest.”

“Fair enough,” I said as I put my arm around her slender shoulders.

We walked down the stairs to the ground level and then exited the gate into the courtyard. I heard Emta and Gerfred shouting at each other before I saw them, and I couldn’t help but laugh at their dialogue.

“Ya pulling those ropes too tight!” the blond man said in his western-style accent.

“If we don’t pull them tight enough, all the shit is gonna fall off!” Emta shouted back.

They were standing on opposite sides of Tom’s ass while they tried to strap down a massive supply of tin bricks, but the big trike didn’t seem to mind. He was just munching on some hay that Temla was shoveling into his mouth. The rest of my friends were busy loading up Nicole and Katie with the tin bricks, and they seemed to have accomplished the job without arguing.

“Victor!” Beela shouted, and everyone stopped their activities while the tattoo-covered beauty sprinted across the courtyard and leapt into my arms.

“Hey!” I gasped in surprise right before the black-haired woman gave me a lingering kiss on the lips, and then I kinda sorta tried to hug her back while also politely peeling her away.

“I wished this day would never come,” she sighed as she blinked her eyes at me. “Can’t you stay just a bit longer? Pleeeease?”

“We talked about this,” Dahnani sighed as she walked over to us. The silver-haired winged woman ran her hand over the fin on her head as she gave me a nervous smile. “Victor has to return to his people.”

“But aren’t we his people now, darling?” Temla asked as she brushed the hay off her hands and then smoothed her black gown around her slender cat-like figure. “On account of him saving our lives and being so… king-like?”

“I vote Victor stays here,” Moura said as she walked over, leaned against my shoulder, and traced the nails of her longer fingers across my chin. “We have so much room here, and we need someone… manly… You know, to do… manly things around here.”

“Hey, what are we?” Gerfred groaned. “Heetal, Seerez, and I are males, don’t ya know.”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Moura adjusted the jacket of her velvet tuxedo with one hand, and then she turned and gave me a wink. “Males aren’t exactly ‘men’ are they?”

“I’m not getting involved in this,” I chuckled as I tried to avoid looking at the diamond in the center of the slender, short-haired woman’s forehead. It glittered when any light hit it, and I often found myself staring at the thing.

I didn’t want to lead any of these women on. Over the last few days, Moura, Beela, and Temla had all made it known to me and everyone else that they would love to become my mates, and while the three of them were beautiful, I felt a bit overwhelmed at the newness of the bond I’d just formed with Emta, Gee, Nomi, and Adella. 

Allina, Ahrous, and Dahnani hadn’t quite thrown themselves at me like the other three women, but I’d caught each of them making heated glances at me during our meals, and Dahnani had asked me at least twenty times to consider moving my entire tribe here to their fortress so we could all live together.

The offer was a bit tempting, but I liked the idea of building our own fort in the spot I had picked, I liked being near the ocean, and I liked how hidden the spot was from prying eyes. The White Fortress was a great place to live, but it was easy to spot, and there wasn’t enough room to keep all my dinosaurs protected.

“That’s the last of the tin loaded,” Ahrous said as she tied the thick cordage to Nicole’s saddle. Then she and Eiter walked over to stand beside the courtyard fountain.

“I… I guess this is it,” Seerez sighed as he blinked his lizard eyes and licked his forked tongue across his nose. “I’m gonna miss you. We all are.”

“Yes.” Heetal nodded as he lifted up each of his kangaroo legs. “It’s been a great few days having you all with us.”

“I can’t speak for everyone,” Gerfred cleared his throat, “but--”

“Just don’t speak for everyone since you can’t speak for everyone,” Moura cut him off.

“Confound it, woman, I’m trying to say something nice!”

“Ugh,” the purple-haired woman sighed. “Fine. Say your niceties. Then we shall each have a turn.” 

“As I was sayin’.” Gerfred turned back to look at us. “Victor, I was a bit rude to ya when we first met, but you’re a true man. Hard as iron and fair like the sun. I hope we meet again.”

“We will,” I promised as I shook his hand.

“I figure each of those loads of tin is about six hundred pounds,” he said as he pointed to the trikes. “You want about twelve percent tin mixed in with that copper to make your bronze for heavy items. You should go down to five percent for blades and fine tools. Tell your woman Trel that, and tell her how I told you to mix them. Should give you ten thousand pounds of bronze give or take. That should be enough to make all them pipes you wanted for your water and sewage and stuff. When you run out, we’ll be here and load ya back up again. Just come visit us.”

“Just bring more soap,” Temla sighed.

“Oh, by the sun, more soap please,” Dahnani laughed.

“We gave you all of it,” Emta snorted. “We are going to stink by the time we get back home, but that’s okay.”

“I’ll tell Trel what you told me,” I said to Gerfred, and then I turned to Seerez and held out my hand.

“I’ll see you soon.” The lizard-man grasped my hand, and I once again thought about how he sounded like a Malibu surfer guy.

“Thank you for everything, Victor.” Heetal shook my hand next while Grefred and Seerez moved down the line to say their goodbyes to the rest of my friends.

“I will wake each morning and think of your safe return to your family, and the chance that you will return to us one day soon,” Ahrous said as she hugged me with her strong arms.

“Uhhh… That’s nice of you to say,” I said as I hugged her back. I was a bit surprised at her words, but the blue-haired muscular woman was probably the most stoic of the group. She’d told me her people were warriors, and they were probably used to saying goodbye to people who they didn’t think they would ever see again.

“Keep practicing with this.” She tapped Izek’s black telekinetic power granting gemstone amulet that I now wore around my neck. “You have made good progress in the last few days. I expect you to rival my Ghost Lift abilities when I see you next.”

“I will,” I promised, and then we gave each other one last nod.

“We didn’t get to speak much, but I can’t thank you enough for saving our lives twice.” Allina’s long red hair wrapped around my shoulders as she gave me a hug, and she gave me a quick kiss on the lips and a shy smile of her sabertooth-like teeth as she parted.

“Me next,” Beela gently nudged Allina out of my arms before she pressed her tattoo-covered body against mine. Then she kissed me deeper than I thought she would, and I could taste the slight honey flavor of her tongue.

“Hmmm,” I kind of gasped as I tried to not kiss her back, but then again, she was gorgeous and practically naked, so it was hard not to move my lips against hers.

“Is there anything I can do to get you to stay?” she whispered in my ear after she finished kissing me, and her breath felt hot and passionate against my skin. “Or any of us combined?”

“I have to go home,” I sighed as I gently pushed her away. “I will be back for sure.”

“Well, I guess that’s better than nothing,” she sighed, and then Temla pulled the tattooed woman away so she could hug me.

“Darling,” she sighed into my ear. “My king… I’m not going to be throwing my lips against yours like some desperate people whose name I shall not mention--”

“It’s me,” Beela whisper-hissed. “I’m ‘some desperate people.’”

“But I will dare say that I just don’t know how I’m going to live without seeing that handsome face of yours every day,” Temla continued with her Southern drawl.

“You all are so melodramatic,” Emta scoffed. “Just come live with us, eh?”

The White Fortress tribe grew quiet, and then they looked at each other as they frowned.

“We’ve actually spoken about this,” Dahnani said. “We… is this invitation sincere?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I like your set up here, but there is no room for my dinos, and being by the ocean means we can get fish easily. We are also pretty hidden from the ground. I think that’s a lot better than a big door that can get broken down.

“Yes, I can see that.” Dahnani looked once more at her friends. “We have considered it, and we are still considering it.”

“We’ve got the tin here,” Moura said as she pointed to the cave. “Victor needs that, doesn’t he?”

“I do, and look, don’t worry. I’m going to come back. Even if I didn’t need tin. I like you all, and I want us to be able to help each other. The ride is a bit long, but it’s pretty safe for me. Especially now that I have Rufio. Isn’t that right, buddy?”

The big mohawked rex gave a snort and then nodded his head.

“It is my turn to say goodbye.” Moura hugged me close and then whispered in my ear. “I will think of you often. I know you have many women in your harem, but perhaps we can talk more… romantically when you visit next?”

“I’d like that,” I said as I hugged her back, and while my words were true, I knew that I was already super busy sharing my love with twelve other women. I still had to go through the wedding with Sheela and Kacerie. Quwaru and Galmine were probably pregnant, Liahpa and the Emeralds wanted babies, and Emta, Adella, and Nomi were probably going to seek Galmine out the second they got back to the fort so that they could bear my children.

I knew Ghengis Khan had somewhere around forty or fifty official ‘wives’ along with many other hundreds of women in his harem, but I guessed there was going to be a point when I couldn’t possibly have enough time to spend with each woman either talking to her or making love to her.

“Looks like we are all packed up, King,” Haryoud said as he walked over. “I put your new axe, uhhh, the large one Izek used, up on Tom’s saddle.”

“Thanks for helping us pack,” I said to everyone. “Looks like it’s time.”

“That just leaves my farewell.” Dahnani said as she gave me a faint smile. “Can we speak privately for a bit?”

“Yeah,” I said, and then I turned to Eiter, Haryoud, Adella, and Emta. “Can you get saddled up and ride out to the river? I’ll meet up with you all, Nomi, and Gee in a few.”

“Yes, Victor,” Eiter said, and then everyone said their last goodbyes as I walked away from the group with Dahnani.

“I’ve said this a few times already,” she began, “but we’d all be dead right now if not for you and your friends.”

“And I’ve replied a few times that you are welcome and it’s fine. You don’t owe us anything. I’m really happy for all the tin and hospitality, but I think I owe you guys way more soap if we are going to be even on trades.”

“We’d appreciate any soap,” she chuckled. “Perhaps next time you can bring your woman Trel? Then she can look at solving some of our plumbing problems?”

“She’d love the opportunity to show you all how smart she is,” I chuckled.

“I’m going to ask you again to stay,” Dahnani sighed. “Even though I know your answer.”

“I do appreciate the diligence.”

“And… as far as your offer… I know leaders might say things when their people are around…”

“If you all want to move in with us, we’ve got space,” I said. “We are building our homes right now and setting up plumbing and such. I would predict that we’ll get more survivors every month, so we’ll make sure we’ve got spots to build extra homes.”

“We feel a certain amount of attachment to this place,” Dahnani wiggled her wings a bit as she gestured to the walls of the fortress. “It feels like an old friend, or like an elder who has long since lost their children and just wants to take care of young ones again.”

“I get that,” I said as I glanced at the walls. “This place does feel kind of soothing.”

“Yes, but if I am honest, we can not take very good care of it. We can try to defend ourselves and these walls, but we do not have your strength or strategic mind. I am fine at keeping the peace, but… well… Emta told me of her original tribe and how she followed the woman Quwaru. I wonder if I feel like she did when she met you.”

“We are stronger together,” I said.

“And then this woman Heeyuna joined her tribe with yours, or so says Eiter.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That made a lot more sense since there were only four of them, and Heeyuna needs a lot of food to stay alive. My dinosaurs can hunt enough for everyone.”

“That does make sense.” Dahnani nodded. “It is really our love of this place and the tin which would keep us here, and the tin is because you need it.”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” I said. “We can find tin in other places.”

“Or maybe we can travel here, mine it while we stay in the fortress, and then return to your home?” She raised an eyebrow.

“That works,” I said. “Our copper mine is about half a day’s ride away, so we’ll often stay the night while we work there.”

“Yes, soooo… every word we say seems to bring me closer to arguing that we join you,” she said with a small smile. “If… that… is okay still?”

“Do you want to come with us now?” I asked as my heart began to beat a bit faster. It would be great to have Dahnani’s tribe join up with us, and while we didn’t have enough dinos to carry everyone back home, I could try to tame more on the trip.

“Well… no,” she sighed. “We will talk more, and then we will decide next time you visit us. We would also have another load of tin ready for you. Is that okay?”

“Of course,” I said. “Also, if you guys change your mind, and you want to come over sooner, you just need to travel south to the ocean, and then follow the coast west for like four, maybe six days.”

“What do I look for?” she asked. “Since you said your fort was well hidden.”

“We’ll see you,” I chuckled. “Just keep heading west on the beach and you’ll eventually get to us.

“Understood.” she nodded. “I think it would be best for us to wait for you to return, but if something happens and we need to get to you sooner, we will make the trip as best we can.”

“Alright,” I said, and then neither of us said anything for a few moments while we looked at each other.

Then she wrapped her arms around my waist and leaned her head into my chest.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “It is dangerous out there. I hope… I hope that we can be together again.”

“Me, too,” I said as I gently brushed my hand across her silvery hair while avoiding her fin.

Our hug ended, and then Dahnani walked over to her people. They all waved to me with slight frowns on their faces, and I gave them a nod before walking out of the massive fortress doors.

The front of the fortress still smelled slightly of T-rex poop, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been when Bruce had first shit-bombed them with a basket full of Rufio’s scat, and the sourness soon disappeared.

My crew was about fifty yards down the slope by the river, and I saw them all gathered around Gee’s swimming form. The Flame Dancer and Nomi waved at me as I approached, and I gave Nomi a long kiss as soon as I got to the edge of the river.

“Did you both say goodbye?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Gee sighed as she splashed some water onto her steaming shoulders. “Gonna miss swimming in this river every day.”

“You can swim in the ocean once we get to the beach,” Emta pointed out.

“I’m gonna miss getting fucked by Victor every night in our bathtub,” Gee continued. “How we gonna do that when we are traveling?”

“Hey, uhhh,” I glanced over to Eiter and saw her cheeks had turned red, and Haryoud was trying to do his best to look away from us all. “Let’s keep this conversation private among--”

“Ahhh, yeah, Victor. Sorry.” Gee flopped back in the water with a splash. “Can I swim as far as where we cross? Been a nice few days not having to hold Nomi’s hand, not that I don’t like holding her hand, just nice to be in the water.”

“Yeah,” I said, and then I helped Nomi climb up onto Nicole’s back.

Once everyone was situated on a dino, I had Emta ride point on Tom while I brought up the rear on Butt-Head. I rode on the shore next to Gee while she lazily swam, and we exchanged smiles with each other as the group paced away a bit in front of us.

“You got something you wanna say to me, handsome?” she asked after we were a bit out of earshot.

“Not really,” I said with a shrug of my shoulders. “We don’t spend a lot of time alone together. I thought it would be nice to do so for the next half a mile or so.”

“That’s fine with me,” she laughed. “I always want more Victor time. I like talking to ya, and these blue eyes could stare at ya all day.”

“Blue eyes?” I asked. “Mmmm… Don’t you have green eyes?”

“Green?” Gee froze in the water. “Naw. My eyes are blue. Aren’t they?”

“Uhhh…” I rode Butt-Head a bit closer to the water and then looked down at her. “No. Green for sure. Like glowing emeralds.”

Gee looked down at the water and then tilted her head a bit so she could see herself, but she’d just been splashing, and the water was flowing quick enough to make too many ripples.

“You… sure they be green?” She frowned at me.

“Yeah,” I said. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“It’s… well…” She let out a long breath. “It means that--”

“Hold up!” I hissed as I raised my hand as I looked in the air over to our east. 

“What’s wrong?” Gee asked.

“Uhhh… Bruce. There is a problem. A big problem.”

“Where? Over there? Looks like a storm cloud is coming.”

“That’s not a storm cloud,” I said. “It’s a whole lot of trouble.”

 

---

 

You've backed right?  RIGHT!!!???

 

---

 

Chapter 2

“Hey!” I shouted to everyone. “Quetzals! Lots of them are coming toward us! Get in the forest!”

Everyone looked over to where I was pointing, and then I saw their shoulders tense up when they realized what was flying our way.

There was a group of trees south across the river, and Rufio led the way as we all plowed into the water. I couldn’t quite tell how far away they were from us, but I felt Bruce’s terror and knew they had for sure seen him.

And even though my pal was the size of a horse, quetzalcoatlus were the size of a Cessna.

Nomi reached down from Nicole’s back to grab Gee’s hand, and the Flame Dancer didn’t waste a moment climbing up on the trike’s back. The troodons had to kind of flap-swim across the river as they let out pissed-off hoots, but they weren’t carrying any riders. Beavis and Butt-Head had a bit of a struggle making it through the river since the water flowed up to their necks, but then we were through the current, and we dashed up the slope and reached the small grove of jungle trees.

“Come on, Bruce,” I hissed under my breath as my pal dove through the air toward us.

“There!” Haryoud hissed as he pointed, and we all looked up through the canopy of leaves to see four large Quetzals diving right behind Bruce. 

My heart leaped up into my throat as it looked like they were about to get him, but then he broke through the leaves above us like a bowling ball and barely got his wings open in time to keep himself from smashing into the ground. Bruce hovered for half a moment before he landed, and then he hopped over to me with his sideways frog movement as the massive flying dinos began to circle the top of the trees.

“Shit,” Emta whispered. “How fucking many of them are there?”

“Hundreds,” Adella gasped as they all started to honk like a thousand buses hitting their horns.

“Do they know we are in here?” Haryoud shouted as he covered his ears.

“They will if you keep yelling!” Emta shouted just as loud as he did, but I didn’t think she realized she was shouting because of the tidal wave of noise that was assaulting our ears.

It was hard to tell exactly what was going on above us because of the trees and the hundreds of massive dinosaurs flying over our heads, but it did seem like most of them were passing.

“They must be migrating!” I said as loud as I could so that everyone could hear, but then I realized that I could barely hear the words coming out of my own mouth, and even Tom looked pretty annoyed by how loud it was.

Then I saw some of the Quetzals land in the grass between the grove of trees and the river. I couldn’t quite tell how many of them there were, but I guessed more than five.

I gave the command to my dinos to step deeper into the trees, and we all slowly backed up so that we had a good thirty yards of jungle as a buffer, and everyone readied their spears.

The wind and screeching made me feel like I was inside of a tornado made of trains, but just a few moments before I felt like my mind was going to break, the wind and noise cut off like someone flipped a switch, and I glanced up to see that most of the storm of dinos had flown away.

But the ones who landed in the clearing were slowly moving toward us.

Bruce, Talia, and Selina all hopped sideways when they moved on the ground, but the huge Quetzals crawled forward almost like they were gorillas. The movement didn’t make sense to me at first, but then I realized that their arm-wings were much longer than their legs, and the big apes also kind of had that body design.

“Are they going to try to fight us in here?” Haryoud gasped as the massive dinos moved closer to the treeline.

“They’d be fucking stupid if they did,” Emta hissed. “Look at how dense the trees are. They can’t move around in here.”

Scoob let out a hoot of agreement with Emta, but my troodons were kitten-sized compared to the big flying dinos, and I knew they weren’t going to be able to help if we did have to fight.

“What is wrong with their eyes?” Nomi whispered, and then everyone leaned forward a bit.

“What the fuck?” I asked. 

Nomi was right. These creatures all had strange clay-orange-colored eyes that didn’t look like circles. They almost looked like they were octagon shaped and jutted out from their eye sockets.

“Don’t matter what their eyes look like,” Gee chuckled. “They are gonna burn when I get my hands on them.”

“We don’t want to burn the forest down with us in it,” I said as I gave the command for all of my dinos to back up. They did so, and we now had about forty yards of space between us and the end of the trees.

Then the Quetzals got to the edge of our little forest and crawled under the tree canopy.

“Looks like they want a fight,” I growled as I pulled the Cricket Bat of Doom up from Butt-Head’s saddle.

“That spot over there has some rocks,” Gee said as she pointed to our right. “I think I can stand there without burning everything.”

I looked over and saw a small hill of rocks. There were a few shrubs and ferns on it, but it was clear of trees and tall enough to give Gee some high ground against these massive fliers.

“Yeah.” I nodded at her, and she shimmied off Nicole’s back, let go of Nomi’s hand, and then jumped up onto the hill of rocks.

Then we all turned back to our attackers.

There were eight of them, and while each had different colored scales and curves to their beaks, their eyes looked exactly the same dead shade of orange, and they didn’t seem to turn their heads from side to side when they looked at us.

There was something unnatural in their movements for sure.

“Emta, Tom, and Rufio, take the front,” I said, and the big trike and T-rex moved in front of the group while I moved to the left so that we kind of had a wall of me, Tom, Rufio, and Gee protecting everyone else.

“What do you want me to do?” Haryoud asked.

“Protect Adella, Nomi, and Eiter.”

“Yes, King,” he replied. Normally his voice kind of cracked and fluctuated like a terrified Bobcat Goldthwait, but the orange-furred man now sounded like he’d gladly give up his life to protect my women.

Scoob, Shaggy, Fred, Velma, and Daphne also moved back to protect Adella, Nomi, and Eiter, but the tiger-striped raptors weren’t going to be able to do much besides chew on the ankles of the massive Quetzals.

“I guess I can’t really use my new sword on them,” Emta hissed as the Quetzals slowly crawled closer. “These guys are a bit bigger than Rufio.”

“They aren’t as muscular as Rufio or Tom.” I said, but I also realized that their massive beaks might be able to pluck Emta off her saddle without even getting close enough for Tom to get his horns in them.

“I’m gonna watch out for their beaks,” Emta said as she stood in her saddle, and I wondered if our bond was already letting her read my mind.

There was a big tree that got in the middle of the line of Quetzals, so they broke their group up a bit to get around it, and I made sure to get to the side of a tall banyan tree so that I could quickly take cover if I needed to.

“Hold…” I said as the group approached. They were getting close, but in just a few more steps there was another group of trees that the large fliers would have problems ducking under.

Then they got to the spot I was thinking of, and I gave Rufio and Tom the order to attack.

My big trike came in low and aimed his horns at the feet of the first Quetzal, but the bird-dino seemed to realize where the attack was coming from, so it shuffled back with surprising quickness and then lashed out with its long neck and beak to bite down on Tom’s nape. Rufio was ready for that counter, and my T-rex’s teeth clamped down on the Quetzal’s face right before he could injure Tom.

Then Rufio jerked his neck to the side, and the Quetzal’s head ripped right off its neck with a shower of blood.

At this point, I would have expected the other seven massive bird-dinos to nope out of the fight, but they didn’t even squawk or flinch at their buddy’s death. They just continued to move forward with their slow gorilla walk.

Fucking weird.

Tom shuffled forward a few steps as if he was going to charge, and the two nearest Quetzals snaked their necks down and snapped at his crest. Rufio moved to bite them, but now they expected the attack, and they managed to get their faces back before my mohawked pal could sink his teeth into them.

Two of them moved toward my location, and two others moved over to Gee. The Flame Dancer began to laugh as soon as they approached, but I could only feel like an ant trying to fight a three-inch-tall praying mantis. These things were as tall as a two-story house, and their necks were almost the length of a school bus.

And two of them would make it really hard for me to dodge around the tree.

“I got your side,” Emta said as she made Katie sidestep closer to me.

“Yeah, but don’t let them peck at you,” I replied.

Then the Quetzals froze in place as if someone had given them all an order to stop at the same time. They stayed that way for half a second, and I glanced back to see Adella, Nomi, and Eiter all on Nicole’s back, while Haryoud stood in front of the trike with an arrow nocked in the only bow we had brought with us.

“What… what the fuck are they doing?” Emta hissed under her breath.

“They are being controlled,” I said, “and I’m guessing that whoever is--”

Before I could finish speaking, the line of Quetzals surged forward, and I let out a shout as I raised my Cricket Bat of Doom.

An arrow hit the face of the one trying to attack me, and I heard Haryoud let out a howl of glee when the beast flinched away from the pain.

Emta raised her spear in time to poke into the nose of the one attacking her, and her strike forced the beast to jerk its head back for half a moment, but then it darted its long neck down and around Katie’s face so it could peck at me.

“Shit!” I gasped as I twisted to the side, and I brought down my weapon against the beast’s cheek and sawed off a dinner plate-sized hunk of flesh from its face.

The Quetzal reared away from the damage, but then the first one tried to bite me. Fortunately, Katie anticipated the strike, and she caught the attacker’s neck with her horns. Then the female trike sprinted forward, and the Quetzal was forced to step back in an attempt to try to defend itself.

It was too little, too late.

“Woooo!” Emta screamed as Katie slammed into the much larger dino, and my olive-skinned lover thrust her spear half a dozen times into the neck and chest of the Quetzal once Katie had pinned the bastard against a jungle tree.

The second one attacking us moved to bite Emta, but Haryoud’s arrow hit it right in the side of the neck, and this gave Emta a chance to spin around and shove her spear up into the creature’s eye.

I glanced over at Rufio and Tom to see that they had killed another Quetzal, and they were pushing back the remaining two against a cluster of large banyan trees.

My eyes moved over to Gee, and I saw her using her flame whip to keep her two from moving around to go after Adella, Nomi, and Eiter. She wasn’t really hitting the Quetzals, she was just using the gunshot-loud cracks of the flame to keep them herded in front of her, but the creatures kept looking back at the group with a strange interest.

I double-checked to make sure Emta was finishing off the Quetzal Katie had crushed, and then my olive-skinned lover turned to stab toward the one that Haryoud had already shot with an arrow. Her attack seemed to be occupying the massive dinosaur, so I leapt off Butt-Head and sprinted forward under its neck. I swung my Cricket Bat of Doom behind my back, and hit up as high as I could like I was trying to trim the tallest branch of a tree with a chainsaw.

My strike landed true, and the very tip of my weapon sliced open the belly of the beast and unleashed its guts like a bloody ricotta cheese. I managed to dodge out of the way of the splashing innards, and then I pivoted back around Katie, sprinted behind Tom and Rufio, and dashed up the hill to stand beside Gee.

“I think if I attack one of these boys, the other will go after our friends,” the Flame Dancer hissed as she cracked her whip at the two massive fliers again, and I actually winced as hard as they did because the sound of the weapon cutting through the sound barrier made my ears ring.

I doubted it would work, but I tried to reach out to the Quetzal to the left of us with Tame to see if he would obey me. As soon as I did so, I felt a strange sensation. Well, it was more like a lack of sensation. Almost like I was trying to Tame the air instead of a creature that I wasn’t prepared to claim yet. The beast didn’t even look at me, it just continued to try and move back toward Nicole while Gee tried to keep them at bay.

“Fuck right off with ya!” the Flame Dancer shouted as she almost hit the one on the right, but as soon as Gee had extended her whip, the Quetzal on the other side I had just tried to Tame darted forward and snaked his long neck out to bite at her, but I brought the flat side of my weapon up just in time to smack the tip of his beak away, and then Gee socked him in the chin with her fist a fraction of a second after.

“We just need to buy enough time for Tom and Rufio to finish--” I started to say, but then Haryoud shot one of the attackers in the face with an arrow, and I saw Tom and Rufio finish off the last of their opponents.

The two remaining Quetzals glanced over to the side as soon as their other companion died, but instead of fleeing like any other sensible creature would have, they both turned back toward where Nomi, Adella, and Eiter sat on Nicole and rushed forward.

“Idiots!” Gee snarled as she lashed out with her whip and cut the head off the one Haryoud hadn’t hit with his arrow.

The beast tumbled to the jungle floor with a thunderous rumble, and then I sank my Cricket Bat of Doom into the leg of the last one as he tried to dash past Gee. My weapon didn’t do as much damage as the Flame Dancer’s whip, but I still cut a ten-pound chunk of flesh off the beast’s leg and caused him to stumble forward.

Then Gee’s whip wound back around in a tight coil and lashed out one last time to rip the life out of the last Quetzal.

Silence descended on us as soon as the beast was dead, and Gee dismissed her whip as we all looked above us to see if any more of the massive fliers were coming to fuck with us.

“I… I think they are gone?” I said after a solid minute had passed.

“Should Bruce go up there and take a look?” Emta asked, and we all looked at my pal, who had been crouched back next to Nicole as a last bit of defense for Nomi, Eiter, and Adella.

Bruce let out a small honk, and then he hopped to the side before he began to flap his wings. I held my breath as I watched him fly up through the canopy of jungle trees, and then I let out a long sigh of relief as soon as I looked through his eyes.

“They are all gone,” I said.

“What the fuck is going on?” Emta asked as she squatted down next to the head of the second to last Quetzal Gee had killed. “These eyes look like carved flint stones, or gems, or something.”

“Don’t touch it,” I said, and her hand froze for a moment before she pulled her arm back.

“They are being controlled,” Nomi whispered.

“Why do you think so?” Haryoud asked.

“They moved strange,” the black-haired beauty said. “With a calm intent.”

“You think it’s the eyes that grants the enslavement?” Adella sing-songed.

“Could be,” I said as I crouched next to Emta and studied the pumpkin-orange-colored stones. Each eye stone was about as big as a tennis ball, and the eight sides of the gem were perfectly cut.

 “They wanted to get to our girls,” Gee said as she nodded back to the three riding Nicole.

“Or they wanted Haryoud,” Emta chuckled.

“I can assure you that no one wants me,” the orange-furred man with the spider face chuckled. “They seemed intent on reaching the three behind me.

“Or maybe Bruce.” I shrugged. “I’m sure Quetzals eat other fliers all the time.”

“That’s fucking crazy,” Emta sighed as she rested her hand on the hilt of her sword. “Bruce is fucking huge, and these bastards are even bigger. Could you imagine taming one of them?”

“I tried to,” I admitted. “It was weird though, normally I feel the animal resisting, or they just kind of submit, or I dunno… I feel something. It was like these things weren’t even in existence. My ability didn’t even seem to touch them.”

“Hmmm…” Emta nodded her head and frowned, and then she looked at Eiter. “Can you use your Path ability to find out who was controlling these things?”

“Yes.” Eiter closed her orange eyes and took a few long breaths. We all waited in silence for what felt like a minute, but then she sighed and shook her head.”I can’t find anyone.”

“What about the person who owns these gems?” I asked as I pointed at the strange flat orange stones.

“Yes. I will try that.” She closed her eyes again, and we all waited. Then she shook her head and sighed again.

“What if you look for the person who’s power created these?” Nomi asked.

“Okay. Yes. I like that.” Eiter smiled as she closed her eyes, but she was soon shaking her head. “No. I can’t find a path to them.”

“So wait,” I said as I held up my hand. “This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a guy out here who is using these gems or controlling these dinos, it just means we can’t actually get to him?”

“Yes. That is accurate.” Eiter nodded.

“Where the fuck is he then?” Emta snorted. “Is he floating in the air or something? Out on the ocean? Underground?”

“Could be any of those.” Eiter shrugged. “Or maybe we cannot get to him because he is behind a door that we will not be able to open.”

“Well, then ask your power to find where this bad boy lives, eh?” Gee chuckled. “Then we go to his house, and I burn him.”

“I can try that,” Eiter said, and then we spent the next ten or so minutes prompting her with different questions asking for directions to where the guy lived.

Nothing worked.

“Alright,” I sighed as I made a horizontal circular motion with my hands. “We’ve tried our best. Looks like it’s going to remain a mystery for now. We are losing daylight, and I’m going to feel a lot better once we get back to our own home.”

“Should we take one of these?” Haryoud asked as he pointed at a gem.

“Ehhhhh… I don’t think we should.” I frowned. “Fuck. This guy could actually hear what we are saying right now. I don’t want to bring anything with us where he can locate us.”

“If Nomi touches it, and it turns to dust, perhaps then we’ll know that it’s power we can not trust?” Adella sang.

“Yeah. I guess we could try that.” I looked over at Nomi.

The beautiful woman had her long bangs brushed back from her face, and she gave me a small smile before she slid down Nicole’s back. Then she moved over to the orange gem, gave us one last look to see if anyone had any objection, and then poked it with a finger.

The gem instantly crumbled into sand.

“Whoa,” I gasped, and then I turned to Adella. “How did you know it would do that?”

“I did not know, but I guessed it might show,” Adella sang.

“I don’t want to fuck around with them anymore,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”

Everyone nodded, and then we got back on our dinosaurs, rode to the edge of our little jungle hideout, and then moved back on the trail that would take us south to the beach.

Emta had switched to riding on Beavis, and she began to move up next to me after we’d been on the trail for a few minutes.

“What do you think is really going on?” she asked.

 “It’s someone’s ability,” I said as I shrugged. “No idea why they were going after Nicole.”

“Yeah…” Emta said as she glanced back over her shoulder. “I’m thinking it’s Nomi.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I’m not sure, of course, but if you were going to beat our tribe, who is the first person you’d kill?”

“Nomi. Yeah. You are right.”

“So this fucker might know a lot about us, but how?” Emta leaned in close. “Has he been spying on us the whole fucking time?”

“Hmmm…” I let out a breath and thought about it for a few seconds. “No. I actually don’t think so. If this guy was watching us the whole time, why did he attack just then? It’s daylight out. We are all together. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

“Was it just a random attack?” Emta asked.

“I don’t think we are that lucky,” I chuckled. “Maybe this one was, but now this guy knows who we are. I dunno… There was a huge swarm of those Quetzals. They all could have attacked us, and we would have lost. The rest of the tribe would probably survive now because we’ve got a good fort set up and powerful members, but--”

“But if you, Nomi, and Gee died, we’d be proper fucked,” Emta interupted. “Soooo… yeah. This controller fuck could have finished the job now, but he didn’t. His swarm kept flying. Why? Why just leave eight? Why go after Nomi, or Adella, or Eiter? Those things were intent on getting to Nicole.”

“Maybe they wanted Haryoud or Bruce?” I smirked at her.

“Just don’t make sense. Even if that’s the case. He wasted eight of those big flying guys for no reason.”

“I couldn’t imagine doing that,” I said. “All of my pets are my pals, and I couldn’t let them die for anything.”

Butt-Head gave me a snort of approval, and I reached down to scratch his neck. Beavis immediately got jealous, and he pushed his flank into my hand so I was forced to pet him, too. This brought Emta and I sitting only a few inches from each other, and I leaned over and kissed her full lips while I had the chance.

Emta moaned into my mouth, and then our tongues touched for a brief moment. When we pulled apart she gave me a dreamy smile, but then she glanced behind us to where everyone else was riding and cleared her throat.

“Uhhh… Thanks for that.” She smiled.

“No thanks necessary, ma’am,” I chuckled. “I quite like kissing you.”

“Uhh. Yeah. I like it, too, and… you know… other stuff… you do to me.”

“Good.” I grinned. “How long do you think you’ll be able to go without… uhhh… you know? We are going to be traveling for a few days, and I’m not sure how easy it’s going to be for us to sneak away.”

 “It shouldn’t be a problem,” she laughed and tried to hide her smile behind her hands. “You… uhhh… I’m really filled up with you.”

“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Yes!” She slapped my shoulder. “I was all worried about… you know… getting enough, but damn, Victor. You’ve been taking care of all four of us every night and morning since we got to Dahnani’s place. I’m surprised you aren’t a withered husk right now.”

“You know what they say about clean living, diet, and exercise,” I laughed.

“I don’t know what ‘they’ say, but yeah… I was worried over nothing. If you are cumming eight times a day, I’ll be fine. I don’t even need it in… my… you know… womb. I can take it in my mouth, too. That works just fine. So if you want, we can get some time away getting firewood or something, and I can drink everything you have to offer me. I’d actually really like that. Your… stuff… tastes really great to me.”

“Uhhh… yeah. Okay. That’s fine with me-- if it’s fine with you, of course.” I cleared my throat and adjusted the bulge in my pants a little. Apparently having a lover who was eager to drink my sperm was a bit of a turn-on that I’d never considered.

“To change the subject a bit,” she said as she glanced down at my chest. “That black gem around your neck makes me think of those orange ones in the creatures’ eyes.”

“I was kind of thinking of that, too,” I admitted.

“Maybe this guy doesn’t make the gems. Maybe he turns the eyes into the gems? That would explain why Eiter had a hard time finding him.”

“We did try that question,” I said with a shrug. “She still didn’t find him.”

“True,” Emta sighed. “Oi! Maybe he has a gem like that black one that turns the eyes into gems?”

“Huh. That could be it. We didn’t really ask the question that way.”

“I’ll ask her now,” Emta said as she turned Beavis around. “I’ll let you know what she says. I really want to catch this fucking guy.”

“Okay.” I nodded at Emta, and then she rode back to Nicole so she could talk to Eiter.

I turned back to the trail and reached down to the black amulet around my neck. I hadn’t practiced with it today, so I figured that now was as good a time as any.

The narrow trail was barely wide enough for the trikes to fit on, and their flanks brushed down the tall blades of grass on each side. It would be easier for them when the path went through the dense parts of the jungles, but then it got harder for Rufio to move since he had to bend down quite a bit to avoid smacking his face into branches. There were tons of hand-sized rocks that I could see on the dirt, so I focused on one up ahead and tried to lift it off the ground.

At first the stone didn’t move, but that could have been because it was about twenty yards away, since it began to tremble and then lift as soon as I got closer. Once the rock was hovering in the air, I had it move over to me, and I plucked it out of the air as easily as I would have picked it up from a table.

“I’m certainly no Luke Skywalker, but I’m getting better,” I chuckled.

“Luke who?” Emta asked as she rode back up to my side.

“Luke Skywalker. He’s a character in a movie.”

“That’s those flickering pictures you’ve told us about, eh?”

“Yeah,” I said. “What did Eiter say?”

“Still can’t find him.” She shrugged. “What does this Lukie Walk-guy do with those rocks?”

“Ahh, hell yeah,” I said as I cracked my knuckles. “Time to flex my nerd muscles.”

“I like your flexing muscles,” she chuckled. “Tell me more of this nerd movie thing.”

“Luke Skywalker is from this movie series called Star Wars.”

“Ahh, yes! You have spoken about this before. I think you said something about Kacerie’s hand lances looking like weapons from that movie.”

“Sounds like something I would have said,” I said. “The first three movies are about this guy who learns how to use that light sword-- they call it a lightsaber-- and move things through the air with his ‘Force’ telekinesis power. Just like with this gem.”

 “Ahhh.” She nodded. “He is a hero, and he wins?”

“Yep.” I smiled. “They are great movies.”

“You said ‘first three movies?’ Are there more movies not about him?”

“There were eight movies,” I said with a long sigh. “The first three are about Luke, his sister, and his sister’s lover, who is this loveable rogue. The next three movies were done like twenty or so years after, but they are about his parents. Then there is an offshoot movie called Rogue One that takes place in between some of the movies. They were doing a whole new set of movies about the original characters, and the first one had come out, but it wasn’t that great.”

“Maybe one day we can all return to your world and watch them,” Emta said as she gave me a smile. “I would like to see these moving pictures and this Lukie character with Kacerie’s swords.”

“I doubt that will be possible,” I said, “but it would be fun to visit each of our worlds and see how everyone lived.”

“Except Quwaru’s world,” Emta sighed. “I don’t want to go there, or Gee’s world. That place sounds miserable. Lava seas? Fuck that.”

“Yeah, I agree,” I chuckled.

“Everything okay with her?” Emta asked as she glanced behind us.

“What do you mean?” I asked as I felt my stomach knot.

“Normally after we have a fight, she’s all talking about ‘all dem boys she done messed up,’ but she didn’t say shit and didn’t even smile. It’s just unlike her, is all.”

“Maybe you should ask her.”

“Naw. If you don’t know, then it’s probably nothing. She would have told you if she was upset about something.”

“Yeah…” I cleared my throat.

“So about that necklace…” Her eyes drifted down to my chest.

“Here.” I took it off and passed it to her. “You did pretty good with it a few days ago.”

“Not as good as you and Adella,” Emta grunted as she took the gold chain from my hand and set it around her neck.

“She’s better than me at it,” I chuckled.

“It’s cause she’s used to controlling all that water and stuff.” Emta frowned as she stared at the trail ahead of us, and I could see another hand-sized stone begin to lift off the dirt. It only got a few inches up by the time our dinos got there, and my lover let out a sigh of frustration as she let the rock fall.

“Try again,” I encouraged. “That one was really good.”

“Thanks.” She gave me a smile, but then she frowned once more as she looked down the path. Another rock lifted off the ground, but it was probably only by an inch or so.

“Ahhhh,” Emta sighed as she took the necklace off. “Even doing it twice makes me tired. How about you?”

“Yeah, I do get tired,” I said as I took the gem back from her. “Takes a few dozen tries, though.”

“See? You are just better at it.”

“Everyone is good at different things, but it’s nothing a bit of hard work won’t make better,” I said.

“You are always saying good stuff like that,” Emta chuckled as she grinned at me. “That’s why I love you so much.”

“I love you, too,” I said as I returned her smile, and our eyes met for a few moments, but the time seemed to stretch on, and Emta’s cheeks soon turned a bit red as she bit her lip.

“Damn,” she sighed as she glanced behind us. “Think we can take a quick trip into the grass? I want you to fuck me until I can’t think straight.”

“Pretty sure they’d see us,” I chuckled.

“Yeaaaaah,” Emta groaned.

“I appreciate the thought, though.”

“I’m gonna go… uhhh… ride back there,” Emta nodded behind us. “If I stay around you any longer I’m going to go crazy.”

“Fine,” I laughed, and then she blew me a kiss before she circled back to the main group on Bevis.

Bruce continued to patrol above us, but he didn’t see any more Quetzals for the next few hours. We reached the place where we had fought the carnos in the forest about a week ago, and it told me that we were pretty much on schedule to hit the beach before nightfall. We decided to eat lunch while we rode, since the trikes weren’t feeling that fatigued from their load yet, and we managed to finally make it to the ocean just as the sun was starting to lower into the sky. I guessed we still had a few hours left of sunlight, so we went west on the sand for another hour before deciding to set up camp in the trees.

“I want to sleep in the water,” Gee stated after I told everyone we were going to set up for the night.

“It’s far away from where we will camp,” Nomi whispered as she pointed to the trees.

“That it is,” Gee sighed, and then she shimmied down off Katie’s back, let go of Nomi’s hand, and began to walk toward the water. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

“You want to sleep there the whole night?” I asked.

“I said not to worry about me,” Gee called back, but she didn’t turn around to look at me. “You know how much I love that water. Gonna make for a nice night of sleep for me. I’ll be fine.”

“Is Gee feeling okay?” Eiter asked as soon as the Flame Dancer was out of hearing range.

“I think so,” I said. “Let’s set up camp.”

Everyone nodded, and we pulled our dinos into a small cove inside the jungle where we had some cover from anyone out in the open. Bruce did his usual fishing routine, Adella found a small spring to get us water, and I passed around the black amulet to everyone so we could practice using the telekinesis powers. Adella was quite a natural with it, but I was a close second place. Eiter also did fine with it, but Haryoud and Emta could only move rocks a few inches. Nomi didn’t want to risk touching the gem for fear she’d break it, but she encouraged each of us when we practiced.

The sun had set by the time we finished eating and practicing, and the two moons cast their eerie glow across the sand, so we set up a watch order and turned in for the night. 

Haryoud was taking the first watch, but I sat with him at the fire until everyone else had gone to bed.

“Something bothering you, King?” he whispered, and I guessed he must have noticed me staring into the fire.

“I’m going to go talk to Gee. I’ll be back in a bit.” I gave him a nod, and then I walked out onto the dark sand toward the ocean.

It was somewhat easy to spot the Flame Dancer, since she was half laying in the ocean waves, and the upper part of her body gave up a muted light from her flames. She was staring up at the stars, and her hand reached up to trace shapes as I approached.

“I guessed you’d be coming out here.” She rolled onto her belly so that she could watch me approach.

“What’s going on with you?” I asked as I sat down near her.

“Right to the point, eh?”

“You were mentioning something about your eyes, and then we were attacked by the Quetzals.”

“I was…” Gee rolled onto her back again, but then she didn’t speak.

“You… uhhh… gonna tell me?”

“I’m dying,” she stated. “My eyes are green.”

“How does your eyes being green have anything to do with--”

“They used to be blue. Back when I wasn’t the Flame Born. Then when I was the Flame Born, they stayed blue. That’s the way it is, until they turn green, then orange, then red, then… The Flame Born dies.”

“How long does that normally take?”

“Years, and years,” she said. “Flame Borns live a while. Not forever, but a while. Flame Dancers might live longer. Tough to say but--”

“Like hundreds of years?” I interrupted. 

“Maybe,” she stretched out on the sand and then closed her eyes. The tide was pulling back a bit, so her feet were no longer in the water, but the heat of her body wasn’t burning too intensely.

“Okay, so what am I missing?”

“My eyes shouldn’t be green yet. I should have at least five more years. They were blue when I was on my world, I know this for certain. Then I get here, and they are green.”

“Maybe the overlords changed it to green when they put in the Eye-Q?”

“Maybe,” she said, “but I remember when I first got here. Right before I met you, I was looking in the water, since I had never seen so much of it flowing like that, and my eyes were blue then. So blue… Like this ocean. I guess I never really looked at my face much after that. Was too busy looking at you.”

She turned her face over and smiled at me.

“So how much time are we talking about here?” I asked. 

“Been a few months since I got here…”

“But what if your eyes don’t change to orange?” I asked. “Or what if they do it in like thirty more years. This might not be an issue.”

“I think it is,” she sighed. “I feel it. I’m just… hot here. The fire inside of me burns like crazy. I think this is what the earlier Flame Borns felt when they started to die. I think my eyes will turn orange soon. Then red in a few months.”

“There has to be something we can do,” I hissed as coldness grabbed my heart. “You can’t just accept this.”

“I knew this would happen someday,” she sighed. “I don’t want to talk about this any more tonight. Is that okay? I don’t want to talk about it with Nomi, either. Just… not yet.”

“She should know,” I said. “She loves you, and--”

“Just… Please, Victor.” Gee looked at me, and her eyes began to blink. “I need some time to--”

“We can figure it out,” I interrupted. “There has to be a way to reverse this, or--”

“Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll… I’ll tell everyone soon. Just let me be for a bit. Okay?”

“Yeah, fine.” I let out a long breath.

“Any other time, I’d want you by me, but can I be alone now? I want to think about things.”

“Alright.” I stood and brushed some of the cold sand off my pants. “We aren’t done talking about this, but I’ll leave you alone for now.”

“Thank you,” she said, and then she held up a flaming arm to the sky and began to trace the endless stars with her fingers.

I walked back to the campfire with a million thoughts swirling in my mind, and I gave Haryoud a quick nod before I ducked into our hut. Then I ripped off my boots, socks, and pants before I tossed myself onto the mat.

“Fucking shit,” I hissed as I flipped the conversation with Gee around in my mind like a pancake I didn’t want to burn.

“Victor?”

“Nomi?” I whispered.

“Yes.” I saw her shadow move into the hut, and then I felt her supple body lay down against me.

“You okay?” I asked after my lips found her mouth, and we kissed passionately for a few moments.

“I am worried about Gee,” she said. “She is sad.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Do you know why?”

“You’ll have to ask her,” I replied.

“She is my best friend,” Nomi whispered. “She is so much different than me. She is strong, and funny, and… fierce. I am just a shy and small thing, but… I… I hold her hand, and she tells me that I am important to her.”

“You are important to all of us,” I said as I pulled her against my chest. “Especially me.”

“Thank you,” she whispered as she laid her head on me.

We didn’t speak for a few minutes, but then I felt her raise her head and look at me. “What if Galmine’s ability doesn’t work on me?”

“You’ve been thinking about that?”

“Yes.” She rested her head on my chest again. “I… I had parents and a sister, but I always felt like an outsider. I had these dreams all the time. Dreams of strange places and people and creatures. I would write them down. I would draw them. My parents were practical people. They wanted me to marry and have children, but they didn’t think any man would want me because of how strange I was.”

“I want you,” I said as I hugged her a bit.

“That makes me so happy,” she whispered. “I see the love in your eyes. I… I don’t feel alone on this world. I didn’t care if I never got married on my world, but now I think about having your baby. I think about everyone having your babies. It makes me so happy. Then I think that I might not be able to, and…”

“You worry you will feel alone again?” I asked after she didn’t finish her sentence.

“Yes.”

“You obviously feel the way you feel,” I said as I kissed the top of her forehead, “but we are all here. I’m here. We are strong together. No one will cast you aside if you can’t have children, especially me. Especially not Gee.”

“I know,” she sighed. “I am just speaking my worries. It’s ironic because I never spoke them to my family. Maybe I tried, but they didn’t want to listen.”

“What did your parents do for work?” I asked.

“They were gear smiths,” she said.

“Uhhh… what is that?”

“They fixed mills and clocks,” she chuckled.

“Really? Those seem like two very different things, but I guess they both have gears.”

“Yes. My world was so dark. We needed the clocks to tell the time and the mills to process the mushroom powder we ate. It was an important job, and they were very good at it. I couldn’t care less. I just wanted to read stories and dream them up.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” I said. “Every world needs storytellers.”

“Maybe,” she sighed. “I have spoken too much of myself. That wasn’t my intent coming to you.”

“You wanted to talk about Gee?”

“Yes, but I suppose what I wanted more was the comfort of your embrace.”

“Then you’ve got it,” I said as I tightened my hug around her slender shoulders a bit more.

Nomi didn’t say anything else, and a few minutes later I felt her body twitch as she fell asleep. I stayed awake a bit longer and wondered if Galmine’s ability would work on her, but then I remembered that Kacerie got pregnant without it, and Galmine said she was pregnant and hadn’t used it on herself. Nomi looked pretty much human except her eyes were maybe a bit too big and blue, and her skin was a bit too pale, but those features just made her more striking, and she easily could have been a supermodel on the cover of any fashion magazine.

Maybe she didn’t need Galmine’s ability to have my baby?

I awoke with a gasp and then blinked away the sleep. I heard movement outside of my hut, but the dawn light wasn’t casting any shadows, and whoever was out there wasn’t talking.

Then I heard feet running toward us.

“Victor!” I heard Adella gasp, and I reached for my Cricket Bat of Doom.

“What’s wrong?” Haryoud and I asked at the same time, and I could tell by his voice he was the one standing outside our huts.

“It’s Gee,” Nomi whispered. “We can’t find her anywhere on the beach.”

 

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