My boots hammered into the sand like an angry metronome; perfectly in step with the five other survivors who ran beside me as the sun continued its descent toward the sea. The light was now a darker orange with hues of purple leaking around the edges, and the jungle trees seemed to soak up this color to infuse their leaves with a violet glow, while the sand reflected the orange rays like glass.

Just a few minutes ago I’d been enjoying that view with Gee.

I wanted to turn around and see if she was still lying on the beach behind us, but we were moving pretty fast, and I was sure we were a good mile away by now. I also didn’t want to risk Milena noticing me glance back, since she had made it clear she didn’t want any of my pets or anyone from my tribe following us.

And my troodons were in fact, following us.There was no way Scoob and the gang were going to leave me. They were in the jungle trees a good hundred yards behind, but they knew this area well enough to dodge and crawl through the trees as quickly as the six of us ran across the open sand.

So I kept from looking back. I just stared straight ahead as I ran.

And I tried to figure out what the fuck I was going to do next.

Gee was one of the most powerful members of my tribe. I would have bet that she could single handedly take on any dino or survivor on this world, but Milena had handled the Flame Dancer as if my lover was a toddler. And she had left her wheezing on the sand without her powers.

“Up the hill,” Milena ordered when we came to the familiar place that sloped up the long ramp of grass toward the savannah.

The six of us turned in sync and continued to run up the grass just as easily as we had run across the packed sand of the beach. I was actually a bit surprised we had made it that far this quickly, but then again, I wasn’t really paying attention to how much time had passed.

I was busy thinking about Gee.

I hoped the Flame Dancer was okay. I didn’t know what it meant for her that Milena seemed to have drained her powers. Did this mean she wasn’t about to die? Would she get them back eventually? Did this mean that Milena would suffer the same fate as Gee because she took the cursed Flame Born ability?

I doubted the last, since that would be way too fortuitous of an outcome and solve all my problems, but I didn’t mind letting myself feel a fraction of hope that there was a way for me to escape my current captivity.

The last rays of the sun were at our back now as we climbed up the hill, and I found myself at the rear of the pack as they descended. This gave me an opportunity to study each of the five members of Milena’s tribe.

The blonde goddess was running in the front, and the massive sword was strapped to her back with a simple metal hook that cradled the skull-embellished weapon across the guard. The blade was comically large, like something out of a anime or videogame, but I had no doubt Milena could wield it. Her long braided hair twisted around the weapon as she ran, and I half expected the edge to cut it off, but it never seemed to bob close enough to the cutting edge. Her dark metal shoulder pads looked like actual armor that would stop an attack, as did her metal skirt and the various metallic parts of her boots, but her biceps, forearms, midriff, and legs were bare of armor.

Rin the Slayer ran on Milena’s left. Her red hair fell to her shoulders, and her skin was the dark color of black coffee. Her boots looked like something a metal welder would wear, but the heavy nature of them didn’t seem to affect how fast she could run. She held an obsidian-tipped spear in her hand as she ran, and there was a short sword, or a long dagger, tied to her olive-colored pants on her left hip.

Zinlaura the Priestess ran to the left of Rin. The large woman had pastel green skin, four arms, and long hair as white as clouds. Her leather pants, vest, and moccasins were decorated with Native American-style beads. She held a crude bow in one hand, an equally crude looking quiver in the opposite hand, and then a spear in each of her lower hands. It was kind of a spectacle to watch her swing her arms when she ran, but she somehow managed not to tangle all her weapons up with each other while she moved. The four-armed woman seemed rather rude from the few interactions we had, but that was the only thing I knew about her.

To Milena’s right, Iantal the Chosen ran. He looked like a lizardman-human cross, since he was mostly human, but with dark scales on his skin. It was actually a bit like Emerald’s skin, but you had to closely examine my lover to see how her skin was reptile-like. Iantal’s lizard-skin texture was pretty obvious, and it seemed like he was in the process of molting. He had feather tattoos on his shaved scalp. He didn’t wear shoes, and his feet were webbed like a frog. He carried an obsidian tipped spear and didn’t seem to mind its weight as he ran.

The most interesting of the group ran next to me. Garlani the Pure looked like what I could only describe as a white furred yeti wearing a tuxedo, complete with patent leather shoes that were getting worn because of all the running he was doing. His coat tails flared behind him as he moved, and I kept looking at his thick cumberbun because I could see absolutely any reason why he wouldn’t have ditched it as soon as he got here.

The skinny yeti-man carried a spear like most of the others, but he moved it in his hand with a strange clumsiness, and his face wore an uncomfortable expression. Or at least, I guessed he looked uncomfortable.

The expression he wore made me realize that I wasn’t uncomfortable at all, even though we were running uphill at a pretty good pace and the flat part of my Cricket Bat of Doom was smacking me on my back with every other step. In fact, I wasn’t even sweating, or breathing heavily. It felt like my body was walking at a slow pace, and I took a few deep breaths to test my lungs.

What the fuck?

We were just about to crest the hill and hit the savannah that would eventually lead to the switch backs where we had our copper mines. The last rays of the sun were caressing the edges of the grass, and a few groups of trikes and stegos trotted away from us as we ran closer. My new Eye-Q eyes were much better than the ones I was born with, but I still expected to have a bit of trouble seeing into the distance with the fading light.

I didn’t.

Something was for sure going on with my body.

“Who is helping us run at this pace?” I asked as we finally crested the hill.

“Me,” Garlani grunted. “Bit of work, it is.”

“I am thankful for your work.” Milena turned over her shoulder to look at him.

“I’m not complaining!” He blurted. “Just stating that it’s work. Good work. I’m happy to do it, Milena.”

“Let’s rest for a moment.” Milena raised her hand, and we all came to stand in a circle in the grass. Then the beautiful blonde pointed behind us.

“Quite a view, isn’t it?”

We all turned as the last edges of the sun descended past the line of the ocean. The sky began to turn pink and more purple, and I glanced sideways at Garlani as he sucked in air.

“Does your homeworld have oceans as fine as this, Victor?” Milena asked, and the rest of her crew looked at me.

“Yep,” I said as I adjusted the cords on my Cricket Bat of Doom so it was a bit tighter on my back.

“How could you possibly be able to compare?” Zinlaura grunted. “Have you been all over this world and compared its seas to yours?”

“You looking to pick a fight?” I raised my eyebrow at the woman. She was probably half a foot taller than me and could have weighed another sixty pounds more, but I wasn’t about to take shit from anyone at the moment.

“Of course she isn’t,” Milena chuckled. “My question was just to start a bit of conversation. Zinlaura’s people are always fighting. Either with words or physical violence. She meant no insult. Did you?”

“I suppose I should have realized you were asking the man for more for his opinion than the truth of the matter.” Zinlaura nodded at Milena and then looked at me. “Still… Not sure we need this one.”

“Hey, we agree. I’m fine to head back home and you all can continue on your way doing whatever it is you planned on doing.” I shrugged at the four-armed woman.

“Nope.” Milena smiled at me. “I have plans for you, Victor.”

“And what are those?” I crossed my arms.

“First, we need to get a bit far away from here.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“Because I have suspicions…” Milena took a step toward me, and I felt my stomach drop as she reached out to tap my nose. “That your friends aren’t going to let you go easily.”

“Then we can just kill them.” Zinlaura grunted.

“Not my purpose here,” Milena said as she turned away from me and pointed north. “Onward. Now.”

We started running again. The path was flat and the grass wasn’t as slippery as on the hill, so the foot falls were a bit easier. It was still hard to estimate our speed. I knew how fast I could jog at a pace that I could maintain for a few hours, but we were going faster than that. It wasn’t as fast as I could travel on the back of one of my dinos, and I wasn’t quite sprinting. I figured we were going a bit faster than a seven minute mile, and the fact that we’ve kept up the speed for so long was a testament to how powerful the yeti-looking guy was.

I considered using my Tame to reach out to my lovers, but I’d never done that while running, and I worried that I might stumble and alert Milena that I was up to something.

Best to wait until I had a moment to myself. 

“What is your ability called?” I asked Garlani.

“Prowess Improvement,” he answered. “I’m level three.”

“Can all your people do something like that?” I asked.

“Most only with themselves,” he grunted. “I was always a bit… different. Not as strong as my peers, but the sports teams I was on always won.”

“Is it just endurance with running?” I asked, partially because I was interested, but mostly because I had to figure out how to defeat Milena, and it sure as fuck wasn’t going to happen if she had a guy in her tribe who could give her unlimited athletic stamina.

“All sorts of physical attributes,” he said. “You don’t notice your vision?”

“Hmmm… My vision?” I pretended as if I didn’t notice that I was able to see farther in the darkness now.

“You can see fine, right?” Iantal moved next to us. “Is quite useful.”

“Indeed,” Garlani sighed. “We can travel all night. If Milena wishes.”

“But it makes you tired?” I asked the tuxedo wearing Yeti.

“It’s as if I have a weight on my chest. I am used to it, but it would be easier if I just used my power on myself. Still, I am useful to our queen, so I am fine with being uncomfortable.”

I nodded at him. The three women in our group weren’t turning around to look at us, but I assumed they could hear us talking.

“What about you?” I asked the man with the shaved head and molting lizard skin.

“I can--”

“That’s enough,” Milena cut Iantal off. “Victor will have plenty of time to talk about our powers when we take our next break. I need to think on some matters, so keep your mouths closed until I say.”

Everyone except for me nodded as they ran, and I had to unclench my hands to keep my frustration from knotting up my arms.

There was always a solution out of a problem, and I’d been in worse situations than this. Yeah, I wasn’t near my friends, and yeah, Milena was taking me farther away from them, but she didn’t seem interested in killing me, and every minute of time would give me an opportunity to figure out how to get rid of her.

The color faded from the sky behind us as the red and white moons rose, and the stars swirled above us like a syrup of glitter. It actually felt like it was in the mid seventies Fahrenheit, maybe even low seventies, and a cool breeze blew against our backs to push us onward.

I realized our footsteps were all locked in step, and we sounded like one hunter traveling across the savannah instead of six survivors traversing a deadly world.

We hit the foot of the switchbacks many hours later, and we barely changed our running speed with the increased slope. I half expected Milena to call a halt when we reached the copper cave, but we ran past without anyone in my group looking at the opening into the side of the hill.

As we continued up the dark switch backs, my mind drifted back to my tribe. I hoped Gee was okay, and I hoped that the rest of my lovers and friends weren’t freaking the fuck out like I probably would have been if one of them had been kidnapped.

I let out a controlled breath as I tried to fight against the cold pit in my stomach. If Milena had taken any of my women, I would have gone crazy, jumped on Dwayne, and chased the blonde woman to the end of this world. I didn’t sense that any of my other dinos were close though, so I suspected that Gee had convinced them that Milena was too powerful for them to fight on their own.

“Stop here.” Milena’s words caught my attention, and I realized we had made it to the top of the crest overlooking the land. This area was very familiar to me, but my improved vision wasn’t quite good enough for me to see down into the darkness of the next valley to our north.

The group slowed to a comfortable walk, and Garlani let out a long sigh as he plopped his ass on a rock.

“How are you?” the blonde woman asked the yeti.

“Good.” He seemed to smile, but I couldn’t tell if it was really a grimace.

“Hmmm?” She raised both her eyebrows.

“Happy for the break, my queen,” he admitted. “I can keep this up for longer if you wish.”

“I think we are far enough away now,” Milena said as she turned to look at me. “What do you think, Victor?”

“If you are worried about my friends following me, don’t be.” I crossed my arms. “You are my problem, not theirs. They won’t chase after me.”

“Our queen is not your problem,” Zinlaura growled.

“What do you want with me?” I ignored the four-armed woman and turned back to Milena.

“Strange how you say they won’t chase after you,” Milena said as her blue eyes bored into mine. “See, I followed Nimm because she was my friend and a member of my tribe, but she had already reached the end of her usefulness to me. If you are their leader, they’ll want you back.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” I said.

“What are those?” Milena pointed down to the dark valley north of us without actually looking. 

“What are…” I began as I looked to where she pointed. The switchbacks continued for a bit, but there were fewer trees and the moons gave just enough light to see a bit of movement about a quarter of a mile away.

There were four raptors with dark feathers that helped them blend in even more in the darkness. They were large and seemed to have killed another bronto-type dino and were feasting on its corpse.

“More beasts,” Rin whispered.

“They are Dakotaraptors,” I said as their name came up in my Eye-Q.

“Dangerous?” Intal asked as he crouched down a bit.

“Nothing is dangerous to us,” Milena chuckled, but her voice wasn’t loud, so I guessed she didn’t want to get the attention of the three large raptors. 

Now that I had studied them for a few seconds, I realized they weren’t nearly as big as Dwayne, but they were about twice the size of Deinonychus that had attacked Trel, Sheela, Galmine, and I during our first month on this world. They were still smaller than my pachys: Bevis, and Butthead, so a full grown adult wouldn’t be able to ride them, but Urka or Tannin probably could.

“There are just three of them,” Zinlaura said as she spun one of her spears. “Easy enough. Rin and I can kill them now.”

 “Let us see what Victor can do.” Milena’s eyes hadn’t left me the entire time.

“You want me to kill them?”

“Deal with them.” She shrugged. “Kill them, drive them off, befriend them with your ability. Whatever you wish, just get them out of our way. I wish us to go into the trees at the bottom of the valley there and camp for the rest of the night. Let’s see what you can do.” 

“Look,” I let out a long sigh. “What the fuck do you want from me? You took me from--”

“Just handle those beasts,” the goddess cut me off. “I want to make sure you will be useful to me. If you aren’t then… Well… I’m assuming you’ll be useful to me. Don’t you want to be useful to me, Victor?”

“Fine.” I gritted my teeth and pulled my Cricket Bat of Doom off my back. What I wanted to tell her was that she could fuck right off, but I knew that would be an unwise decision until I had an escape plan, and getting an escape plan would probably be easier once the powerful woman had told me what she needed me for.

“Don’t be too excited about it,” Zinlaura snorted.

“Shut up, bitch,” I said as I walked past her.

“What did you call me?” she hissed.

“You heard me.” I didn’t bother looking back as I made my way down the trail.

It took me a minute to wind around a few tree bends, but while I walked I considered what my next move would be. I could kill these raptors, but a fight wouldn’t exactly be easy since there were four of them and they probably weighed as much as a black bear each. I could probably scare them off with Tame, or I could use my ability as I normally did and then have them join me.

If I wasn’t with Milena and her tribe, the third option would for sure be the best, since these raptors would be great additions to my family. However, the blonde goddess had warned me not to have any of my pets follow us, and I doubted the rest of her tribe would feel comfortable with four massive raptors under my control eye-fucking them all day long.

I was pretty sure Milena would just kill these guys if I tamed them.

So that left options one and two.

Wasn’t option one, where I killed them myself, the same as option three?

I didn’t want innocent animals to die, but I also had never been one to put the lives of animals above those of humans. If I killed the raptors, would that help leverage my strength in this new group? I had no idea, but it probably wouldn’t hurt for them to think I was a badass.

Would scaring them away have the same effect on Milena and her minions?

I was out of the trees now, and there was just an open slope of grass between the feasting raptors and me. I continued to walk toward them with my weapon in my hand, but they didn’t notice me until I got about fifty yards away and could smell the copper scent of blood and death in the air.

The large male of the group raised his red smeared face out of the corpse of his dinner and let out a low rumble that sounded like a diesel tractor starting up. The other tree raptors all raised their heads a split second later, and they imitated the sound their leader did.

“I’m going to let you four decide,” I said as I rotated the wrist that held my weapon. “Fuck off or die. Sorry I can’t give you a third option.”

The four of them actually took a step away from the corpse of the juvenile bronto they had killed, but while the alpha lowered his head and growled louder, the other three females seemed to shy away.

“Nope,” I scoffed at the big male. “Kill and eat me isn’t an option. You are a fine looking fella though. I’ve never seen that color of dark blue feathers before. It would be a shame to kill you.”

The big male stepped around the bronto corpse, and I pulled back my arm to ready my weapon. We stared at each other for what felt like a minute, but it was probably only a few seconds, and then he took another step toward me.

“Wrong answer.” I stepped forward just as he made his third step, and my cricket bat swung out exactly where his maw snapped at me. The impact resonated through my torso, but he got the “bad for shareholders” end of the deal and crumpled down on the grass with his skull split open.

The large raptor’s body spasmed as his brain reminded his body he was dead, so I took another step and brought my Cricket Bat of Doom down on his feathery neck to cleave his head from his body. The cut wasn’t as clean as I would have wanted, but I got the point across, and the other three raptors flinched away from me.

“As I was saying,” I said as I turned back to them. “Fuck off, but not too far away. I might need you later. Stay out of sight until I call you.”

The smallest of the females let out a little whine that sounded like a dog pleading.

“No,” I said. “This is my meat now. I know you three girls are smart enough to catch another one.”

She bobbed her head, and then the three of them turned around and sprinted eastward across the slope.