Caveman Alien’s Claim Page 5

  She frowns at me. “My tribesmen good.”

  “They didn’t protect you,” I persist. “Even if they seem so strong and their swords are pristine.”

  “Pristine?”

  “Unused. New. Shiny.”

  “Tribesmen swords is shiny, yes. Tribesmen good.”

  Of course, they are. Anyone can see that.

  “Don’t they spend all their time hunting irox which have no meat on them?”

  She looks up to the heavy sky. “Irox?”

  I fasten the bandage around her head. Even with it, her beauty is obvious. If only she had some fangs and the proportions were slightly different…

  “There are no irox here just now. They sometimes don’t like the rain.”

  Tamara touches her new bandage. “Thank you.”

  I just nod. “Your tribesmen should protect you better. Not just practice hunting irox. A woman is the most valuable thing in the world.”

  7

  - Tamara -

  I understand most of what he says. I don’t think he likes my tribe and its cavemen.

  I don’t know. Maybe he has a point. But in our tribe, it’s not like the men can control us girls and keep us inside the village like livestock. They tried, sure. For our own safety. But we Earth chicks are just too independent and freedom-loving, I guess.

  “You think women valuable?”

  He puts his fine fabric back in his sack. “Of course. The other tribes don’t have women. We all long for women of our own. We would do anything to get our women back.”

  I take a closer look at him. He’s no less big and strong than the guys back at the cave. His moves are controlled and disciplined. He handles that huge sword as easily as he would a butter knife. The half of his face that wasn’t burned is beautiful and perfect, with strong bones and muscles that play under the skin when he talks and chews. He could be freaking gorgeous, with the kind of looks that create a hollow, longing sensation in the pit of your stomach.

  He has a guarded look in his eyes. This is not a man who is used to trusting people. Maybe that’s why he tied me to the tree.

  His touch when he tended to me was so careful and gentle I can hardly believe it. Those huge, callused hands with all the scars felt like a soft caress, respectful and skilled. And he seems to value women, too.

  I can’t help starting to like this guy. Even if he seems to dislike my tribesmen.

  The food he gave me slowly makes me feel better and gives me energy. I think I’m still not quite up to the task of finding my way home to the cave and the village, but when I have recovered a little more, I will be. I wonder what I was doing in the jungle by myself.

  If I was. Certainly, I would not have been accompanied by any caveman from our tribe. But we girls sometimes leave the village in pairs.

  “Go back,” I state. “See and find if other girl, also hurt.”

  “That is not possible,” Car’rakz says flatly.

  I pull at the rope around my ankle. “Take off.”

  He ignores me and stands up. “It’s not raining anymore. It will soon start again, though. We should start walking.”

  I remain seated. “Walking where?”

  “To the tribe.”

  “To my tribe?”

  He sends me a short glance. “No.”

  “I not going you tribe.”

  “I can protect you. Better than your tribe of irox-hunters.”

  I pull at the loop where the rope was in the fire for a couple of minutes. It’s slightly blackened, but still resists my attempts at breaking it. “I protect from my tribesmen.”

  “I didn’t see any other woman. If there was one with you, she was taken by the rekh.”

  I give up the rope. Dammit. If only I could remember! It is possible that I went into the jungle on my own. But why would I go so far from the cave?

  If I did go with another one of the girls, the only way to find out is to go home and see who is missing. And then start some kind of search party.

  “You help Tamara to tribe,” I state with a certainty I’m not feeling.

  “That’s the idea,” he says.

  “To Tamara tribe.”

  “That is not possible.”

  “Why?”

  “The riverbed where I found you is now a river. It flows very fast and can’t be crossed until it dries up again.”

  “Oh.” I have no way of knowing if that’s true, of course. “Then why this?” I yank at the rope again.

  He frowns as if he’s not sure, either.

  Then, before he can say anything, the air is pierced by a shrill scream, and we both duck instinctively.

  I know that sound. Not-dactyls, the pterodactyl-like dino the cavemen have their own name for.

  “Irox,” Car’rakz says and draws his sword, looking up and coming close to me. “Very dangerous.”

  There’s another shriek, and it chills me to the bone. I’ve been carried in the talons of one of those flying horrors. And they scare me almost as badly as dragons do. “I know,” I manage.

  Car’rakz scans the sky, but there’s not much to see. The clouds are very low, and it could start raining again at any moment.

  “We must go,” Car’rakz urges and grabs my hand to pull me up.

  I let him, and when I’m standing up I notice the dizziness is pretty much gone. The headache, too.

  Another scream resonates from the trees close to us. I think it’s more than one not-dactyl in the clouds right above.

  “Can they smell us?” I whisper.

  Car’rakz doesn’t reply, just drags me with him. He picks up the rope, easily tears it off with his hands, and keeps one end in his fist.

  Okay, I can deal with that rope business later.

  He drags me fast out of the clearing and in among the trees. “Perhaps they smelled the meat,” he says softly. “Or they smelled you. The scent of a woman is unusual here on Xren.”

  “Or maybe smell you,” I suggest. I won’t be singled out for being stinky.

  Car’rakz looks at me with worry. “Do I smell?”

  “No,” I concede, disarmed by his human reaction. “Not bad. Do I smell?”

  “Yes,” he says and stares to the sky. “Very wonderful scent of alien woman. You’ll attract much attention.”

  Oookay. Fine. Hey, there are no spray cans on this planet. And I haven’t had a bath since yesterday.

  We walk fast and silently through the jungle while the calls of the not-dactyls grow weaker and more distant behind us.

  I’ve never been this close to a caveman for this long. Now that I’m recovering fast from the bump on my head, I’m starting to understand why the married girls fall so hard and so fast for these guys.

  There’s the physical part, sure. A mountain of sheer muscle that’s never seen the inside of a gym has an attraction all of its own. The fact that these guys can carry and handle us like we’re rag dolls is a nice bonus. But there’s much more. The confidence with which they move, whatever they’re doing. The physical skill in using their giant, super heavy swords as if they were toothpicks. The deep voices, the direct way they’ll look at you, the intelligence coupled with genuine care and a strong sense of responsibility. They’re just so damn manly.

  This one is no exception. He may be leading me on a rope, but he’s careful to keep it slack, and every three paces he’ll turn his head and check on me, scanning me from top to bottom, pausing briefly at my chest and hips. It’s a pretty invasive look, but it feels like anything else would be wrong from such a masculine creature as this. His sheer presence is breathtaking.

  The fear from the dactyls is abating, as I can’t hear them anymore. And it gives way to something else.

  I haven’t known cavemen to lie. If what this one says is true, then he saved my life under really difficult circumstances. Then he carried me to safety, built a hut to shield me from the rain, put a bandage on my head, probably cleaned my other little wounds, and then gave me food.

  And tied a rope around my a
nkle.

  Well, maybe he had a good reason for it. Keeping it on there still is a little weird, sure.

  Still, he makes me feel safe. The married girls talk about that a lot. How they have never felt safer than when with their caveman. Even in a deadly jungle. Safer than in bed in their dorm rooms or alone in their cars.

  I feel that now. This huge caveman with the silver stripes will keep me safe out here in the wilderness. He’s done it so far. If there’s danger here, it has to come from him. And I don’t feel it.

  His butt in the tight pants flexes with every step, his sparkly white fangs glint dangerously when he talks, his back muscles play under the stripes, and his hair creates a light all of its own. He’s alien, definitely. And somehow that makes him very human.

  What would it be like? Just once? With a caveman? One who’s saved me from a sure death?

  I swallow with a mouth that’s suddenly dry. That is a very big bulge he has in his pants. He’s tried to hide it, but I can’t help but notice the shape of what lies underneath. It makes heat flow to my crotch.

  I would be his first. And maybe his only, his one time.

  He would be my first, too.

  I know some of the girls in the cave would be surprised I’m a virgin. I’m pretty outgoing and not the shrinking violet kind of girl. But while I’ve had boyfriends, the closest I’ve gotten to sex has been giving blowjobs. And there weren’t that many of those, either. When I was younger, I was always determined that my first time should be special, not drunkenly hooking up with random dudes like some of my friends did. And I have a stubborn streak.

  So I didn’t give it up to anyone. Lots of guys tried to bed me, so I got really good at gently letting them down without bruising their egos too much. Hey, it’s flattering, really.

  It would be pretty cool if my first time was with a freaking alien caveman. A man who saved my life.

  Car’rakz keeps turning around to check on me, and he also keeps lookout in every direction. He’s alert in a relaxed way, a total master of his lethal surroundings. He will keep me safe. I’m sure of it.

  Should I be worried? What if I fall for him, with his yellow eyes and his caring touch? All the girls who met one like this ended up pregnant and married. Because these guys are just addictive. Even the tough-as-nails Aurora and the skeptical Heidi fell headlong for one of these dudes. Delyah, too, the coolest head of us all. Do I think I’m immune to the casual, natural, and completely uncontrived charm of these guys?

  The married girls say they can never go home to Earth, even if we found a way. The authorities would just not leave them alone after they come back from space with cavemen and half-alien children in tow. They would be tested and kept captive and have experiments performed on them, they say. And it makes sense to me. At the very least, they would be kept quarantined. Anything else would be pretty irresponsible by the government—

  Car’rakz stops and stands still as if listening to something, staring up at the sky.

  Then he suddenly turns me around and pushes me hard the way I came, so I fall headlong to the ground just as a large dactyl comes crashing through the canopy of leaves from behind me, screeching like a banshee so, I think it will tear my ears. I can feel the air pressure from the giant flying dinosaur whooshing past right over me.

  I lift my head just in time to see the monster fly straight at Car’rakz.

  Any caveman would have his sword in his hand now, ready to cut the flying dino into pieces. But this Car’rakz seems to have frozen.

  “Get down!” I yell.

  But he doesn’t move.

  I crawl over and throw my arms around his ankles, making him lose his balance and fall backwards.

  The dactyl sweeps right overhead and hits the trunks of many trees. It’s hampered by the dense jungle so it can’t maneuver too well. It beats its wings heavily and soars back into the sky, this time crashing through the treetops from below, sending branches and leaves flying and falling.

  I look around to see if any more of them are coming, then crawl over to Car’rakz. “You injure?”

  He gets to his feet. “I’m fine.”

  He’s very pale, and I can see that his hands are shaking.

  “Why you not use sword?”

  He brushes himself down, not looking at me. “This also worked.”

  “Yes,” I admit. “But now irox can once more… fight. No… attack! Now it can once more attack. Tribesmen always kill irox when attack. Keep from attack once more.”

  He turns his back and keeps walking, holding the rope in his hand so I have to follow.

  The irox doesn’t attack again, but I can hear it screeching in the sky above. It’s keeping up with us, and I think it knows where we are at all times. It would plainly have been better to kill that thing.

  I think Car’rakz froze up. I’ve never seen a caveman afraid before. But I think that’s what he was. Scared stiff of the dactyl. If I hadn’t tripped him up, he would have been killed.

  Hey, I don’t blame him at all. I’m not a fan of dactyls, myself. Although, I don’t fear them as much as I fear the dragons.

  We keep walking, faster now. Car’rakz still looks over his shoulder at me as if to check on me, but now he doesn’t look me in the eye and it’s longer between each time.

  We walk for a good while without any talking. I think I must have woken up around ten in the morning, and now it’s approaching lunchtime. I haven’t heard the dactyl screech for a while now.

  I speed up to catch up with the caveman. “We have food?”

  He stops and looks around. “Yes.”

  “You give? Also water?”

  He gazes up at the treetops, then opens his bag and takes out the slices of meat along with some hard cake-like things I recognize as a kind of pemmican. It’s a mix of animal fats, fruits, and veggies.

  I take a good swig of water before I dig into the meat and the pemmican, which is surprisingly tasty.

  “You afraid irox,” I state while chewing. “Also I afraid irox. Tribesmen afraid irox. All men afraid, also women. Irox highly danger! Must not try to meet in jungle. Must try to… not meet irox. In jungle. If meet irox, must kill or hide. Hide from highly danger teeth! And claws.”

  “Irox are dangerous,” Car’rakz says. “But you’re right. I should have killed it.”

  I spit out a piece of cartilage. “You many kill irox before?”

  He looks away with what I think is self-disgust on his alien face. Well, on half of it. The burned part doesn’t move at all. “No.”

  “Kill this many?” I hold up ten greasy fingers.

  “Ten? No.”

  “This many?”

  “Five. No.”

  “This?” I hold up a single finger.

  He doesn’t reply, but the look on half his face is that of pain.

  So, he has never killed any dactyls. That’s fine with me. I just know the caveman back home consider killing dactyls as something important and even crucial.

  I take a bone out of my mouth and toss it into a bush, causing a small rodent to scurry out and disappear into the undergrowth. “Maybe better not kill irox. Not make angry, it highly attack more.”

  “Every man should be able to kill an irox,” he seethes. “A warrior should be able to. And not be too afraid to move.”

  “You kill many Big,” I observe. “Rekh and sprak and also many other of highly danger. Not make you afraid to move.”

  “But not irox,” he says darkly and reaches out for the water pouch.

  As he bends down, I place the fingertips of one hand on his burned cheek. “Is this why?”

  It’s just a hunch, and his burn probably has nothing to do with the dactyls. But I just had to touch it. The ruined skin is dry, but warm.

  He looks at me with yellow eyes that widen with surprise.

  Then he turns his head away, straightens, and puts the water pouch back in his bag. “Let’s keep going.”

  I wipe my hands on a clump of leaves and follow his wide back.


  Yeah, he’s got some issues.

  But that’s fine. I’ve got some, too.

  8

  - Car’rakz -

  Her cool hand felt like a gentle breeze on my burned skin, and I almost lost my balance.

  I’ve never been so surprised. She touched the ruined part of my face. And not with disgust! Just curiosity? Or even something like... acceptance.

  Nobody has ever touched it before. Even I try to not come near that ruined part of me, reminding me of the events back then. Of course, everything else is reminding me of that lately.

  It was just one beat of the heart. Her slender fingers on my burned and dead skin, still capable of feeling her touch. But it was enough to do something to me. It helped me make a decision I don’t think I would have made otherwise.

  Things won’t change for me as much as I was stupidly hoping for a while after seeing that magnificent tribe.

  But maybe this was change enough.

  And it was more than I deserve after failing so badly with the irox.

  9

  - Tamara -

  We walk for probably several hours. I have no idea what was in that pemmican, but it can’t have been made in quite the same way the Cree in Manitoba makes it. I’m feeling so energetic, I easily keep up with Car’rakz, and I’m even feeling good about the jungle and the future and everything. If I were a botanist, I would definitely try to track down whichever herb in the stew makes me feel this way.

  I think we’re walking in a different direction now, as if we turned to the right. Feels like we’re circling around.

  Finally, I can hear a distant thunder, as from a waterfall. It comes from straight ahead.

  I walk up beside Car’rakz. “There is stream?”

  “A river. Yes. The rain made it.”

  “It is flash flood?”

  He raises his alien eyebrow. He has none on the burned side. “Yes. How do you know?”

  “You say earlier. ‘Flash flood’, you say.”

  He nods wisely. “You have a good memory. I’ve only been in this part of the jungle once before. But I remember something about that river. I think it’s close.”