Chapter 7 #2
I ram the spear’s blunt end into the sand, discard my jumpsuit, hang it on the spear, and wade out until the gentle waves hit me at about waist level.
I squat down and clean myself quickly. The water is warm, but cool enough to feel clean.
Cora left me half a pot of a leaf paste that they use in the tribe, and which has some soap-like effects, but I lent it to Kenz’ox, and I think he and Aker’iz need it more than me.
“I can just use sand to scrub,” I mutter as I grab a handful from the bottom and get to work on that. “Lucky it’s the finest sand in the universe. Real alien sand. Can’t even get it on Earth. All the billionaires in Monaco are lining up their yachts for just a couple of grains—”
A piercing shriek shatters my fantasy.
My head snaps up. An alien pterodactyl is circling above me. Just as I look up, it folds its wings and dives right at me.
I scream and dive into the shallow water. Ice fills my veins as I immediately hit the bottom, kicking my legs furiously to get as deep as possible. But I’ve seen seagulls dive for fish on Earth, and they can get pretty deep with those beaks. The beak on this thing is probably as long as I am tall.
I roll around to try to see what’s happening above me. I see a dark shape, big and nightmarish, but it’s so distorted by the water above me I can’t tell what it’s doing. But I’m going to need some air pretty soon.
I hold out as long as I can, using my hands and legs to stay under. My lungs are burning with the need for air, and my throat starts involuntarily contracting. I have to breathe!
My head breaches the surface just as the dactyl screeches again, this time so close it must be right on top of me.
I get one panicked gulp of air before I scramble to get back down, limbs splashing.
Something hard strokes one of my feet, and I pull it to me.
I swear the next screech has some kind of perverted joy in it.
That monster is toying with me, knowing that I can’t get away. It should make me mad, but it just adds to the panic. And I have to breathe again.
As I desperately snatch another shallow gasp of air, my mouth fills with water instead, and I feel like I’m drowning.
Fighting for a foothold, I kneel on the bottom with my mouth barely above water.
There’s another ear-rending screech, and the dactyl blocks out the sun. I know it’s my last moment alive.
“Dorie!” comes a mighty yell behind me. There’s the splashing of someone running through the surf. Gasping and coughing, I don’t dare to move. But the dactyl is the size of an airplane, and even Kenz’ox can’t have any hope of defeating it.
Then he’s there, grabbing me and pushing me behind him while he lifts his huge sword just in time to meet the dactyl’s butcher-knife talons.
The monster screeches again, this time in fury and frustration. The wind from its huge wings nearly blows me off my feet as it passes right overhead.
Kenz’ox thrusts something hard into my hand. “Your weapon!”
I clench the spear, but I have no idea what to do with it. The dactyl circles higher, looking like it’s given up.
Just as I’m about to breathe again, it suddenly dives straight for us, blocking out the sun again and making an ugly whoosh. It’s diving, razor-sharp beak first, and I find myself idly wondering, are beaks supposed to have that many teeth?
Kenz’ox pulls his sword back. “Strike its underside as it passes!”
He swings at the monster and hits the immense beak. I don’t know what to do except jab the spear into the air, hoping it hits something that’s not Kenz’ox.
A terrible judder goes through me, and the spear is knocked out of my hands. The blunt end hits the sand, and the dactyl is all over us in a chaos of talons, wings, thick skin, and a furious crash of water.
Kenz’ox throws himself at me and pushes me under, then, to my horror, stays on top of me.
I panic again, kicking and punching to get up—I have to breathe!
The caveman’s weight comes off me, and he drags me fast towards the shore while the dactyl screeches and kicks and beats its wings furiously, sending immense amounts of seawater cascading all over us, edged with pink foam.
On the sand, we stop and turn. The dactyl is definitely in serious trouble. It can’t get airborne, and the water has taken on a reddish tinge.
I gasp and grab Kenz’ox’s forearm. A dark blob is making its way in from the ocean, half of it above the water. It’s a splotchy brown and gray, and I’m sure I can see big eyes on stalks.
The dactyl screeches again, and this time I definitely detect fear in it.
The tip of a tentacle snakes out of the water next to the dactyl, then another. They seem to attach themselves to the dactyl, and the blob starts moving back to the ocean again, dragging the dactyl along behind it.
The dactyl goes wild, screeching wildly and churning the sea up, so we lose sight of it behind the masses of water and foam.
The blob dives beneath the surface, pulling the dactyl under. There’s a final furious screech before the long, terrible beak is gone, and the beach is all peaceful again.
I’m still breathing hard. “I lost my spear,” is all I can manage.
“We must get you another one,” Kenz’ox rumbles. “You are a master of that weapon.”
“No, I just…” I don’t know what to say.
“I missed,” the caveman says calmly. “I only hit the hard beak, making no impression on the irox. But you struck your spear right at the root of its wing. It went deep, nearly killing it right there. I’ve never seen such perfect use of a spear!
And using the irox’s own weight to push the spear deeper.
Truly, alien women are fearsome in combat. ”
I glance up at him to see if he’s being sarcastic. “What happen was—oh! You’re injured!”
He looks down on his chest, where there are three long cuts from one shoulder and almost all the way across to the other side.
Dark red blood is dripping down to his sensational abs.
“I thought something stung. It got me with one full talon. Three claws.” He looks down on me.
“And you? Ah, no wounds. It would be impossible to hide.”
Only then do I remember that I’m naked. “Oh. Wait.”
I locate my jumpsuit on the sand and walk over to get it, some primal instinct forcing me to swing my hips more than I normally would.
But it’s fine—if he likes what he sees, then he absolutely deserves that as a reward for risking his life to save me from a dino that absolutely was trying to kill us both.
The adrenaline is still coursing through my veins, but the elation of having survived is making me susceptible for some serious heat down below.
I put my jumpsuit back on, noting that the front of Kenz’ox’s leather loincloth has developed a bulge that’s casting a long shadow in the setting sun.
“We go home,” I tell him. “Need to look at your wound.”
He replaces his sword in his belt. “It’s not deep. But all the blood is annoying.”
Back at the saucer, he checks on Aker’iz first. “Still asleep. She will wake up before nightfall and demand food.” He brings her out of the saucer and leans her backpack against a rock.
I get busy with his wound. There’s not much to do about it—the seawater would have cleaned it better than I could. But I apply some of the healing paste that Cora gave me, mostly just to do something. It’s nice to be this close to him after that experience.
“The irox scare me,” I tell him. “Scream loud in my ear.”
“It’s part of their terror,” he says. “But their talons and beak are worse. When I heard it, I knew you were being attacked. I put Aker’iz in the ship and ran. If you’d had your spear, you would not have needed my help.”
“I would,” I assure him. “The spear was…” Well, maybe this is not the time to insist that I’m not a great warrior.
Maybe I’d want him to think that I am. I don’t know why he hasn’t chased me away from this place yet, but maybe he thinks he’d have a fight on his hands if he tried.
And maybe he should be allowed to think that that would be a fight he had some chance of losing.
“The spear was too far away,” I finish. “I should keep close.”
I finish up and then can’t help running my fingers along the wounds. His stripes have a suede-like texture and have not been cut by the talons. It’s like a kind of natural armor of really tough skin. It’s just a bonus that it also looks great.
“In the jungle, one must always have a weapon in one’s hand,” he rumbles gently. “On the beach, it seems it is also a good rule to live by. Or perhaps you wanted to be attacked? Because surely you practice every day with it?”
“Did not wanted to be attacked,” I admit, flattered by his admiration of my sheer luck that he thinks is a finely honed skill.
“I not practice much.” His skin is smooth, and the muscles underneath are impossibly firm.
His bulge is still very much in evidence.
And I’m no better—simply touching him like this and enjoying his scent is sending many tingles straight south.
His skin smells like salt, smoke, and something that shouldn’t make me this dizzy. He risked a lot for me today.
“At first I wondered how a small woman can live alone on the beach,” he says calmly. “Now I wonder no more. It is clear why the Bigs mostly stay away. They know a fierce spearswoman lives here.”
So, I’m only human. He’s just saved my life, and he’s making it sound as if I saved both of us. It sends a warm feeling all through me, and I want to be much closer to him.
I clear my mind of judgment, put my finger on his cheek, lean in, and give him a light kiss on the lips.
He doesn’t move. Neither do I.
Then the weight of what I just did hits me all at once.