Chapter 28 #2
The loud banging continues as I make my way back to where Kenz’ox and Aker’iz are sitting on the floor. She’s weeping with a mix of soreness and relief, and he’s rocking her in his immense arms. “Thank you for coming here,” he says. “I was sick with worry about her.”
“I was, too,” I admit. “But Otis cared for her, making sure she had food.” The griket is lying coiled by the wall, tail making a lazy spiral in the air. “He’s not only fierce, but caring, too.”
“I misjudged him a great deal,” the caveman admits. “Thank you, Otis.”
The banging from outside suddenly stops, as if cut with a knife.
“It appears that we do have weapons,” Dex informs us from the control room. “I just hope I didn’t kill anyone out there.”
I finally sag to the floor beside Kenz’ox. “I don’t have any of the paste for your wounds.”
“These are small wounds,” he says and shifts the baby in his arms. “And they were well earned. I shall be proud to display the scars.”
“You went to get Dex,” I marvel, grabbing one big arm and leaning into it. “So that he could fly it. Never, ever do something that dangerous again.”
“I didn’t know what he could do,” Kenz’ox admits. “But I knew that you would make the ship work. And you want to go back to your home planet. I know you need him for that.”
I cling to his arm, completely exhausted but happy. “I don’t want that as much as I used to. Thank you.”
“And thank you for getting Chief Smirt’ax off my back,” Kenz’ox says. “Now I wonder how many of my former tribesmen are left outside. This little warrior needs a bath.”
“Just let me rest a while,” I plead. “My legs are so tired.”
We sit in silence for a while, just enjoying not having to run. Then I slowly get to my feet, using Kenz’ox’s massive shape as support.
I clumsily make my way to the control room, unused to the floor being level and not slanted. “So there are weapons. Did you chase them all away?”
“Yes,” Dex says. “As far as I can tell, all the men of the Tratena tribe ran into the jungle. The weapons of this saucer are scary.”
“So are you,” I tell him. “That noise you made… and that laser show.”
“I have some weapons, too,” he admits. “I’d been saving some energy in case I had to use them. Now I’m drawing energy from this saucer, and I will soon be back to full strength. More or less.”
I touch his broken propellers. “Can this be fixed?”
“Not by me,” he says. “But I can instruct, if someone with actual hands and fingers would give it a try.”
“I will,” I promise. “When I get some rest. Is it safe to open the hatch?”
“Yes.”
I go back and hit the hatch release. It opens with a tight hiss, and then morning daylight streams in. Otis jumps out immediately, tail making circles in the air.
The cavemen are gone, leaving nothing but bloodstains here and there. They even took the dead man with them. But not his sword, which is still on the ground where he fell.
Kenz’ox comes up behind me and puts a strong arm around my shoulders.
“The clearing is ours again.” He looks at the dark pool of blood where the dead man fell.
“Frant’ex was always a good runner. I had to throw my sword at him.
He was getting too close to you. Now I will use his sword, since he took mine. ”
“It’s a deadly jungle,” I state. “And they would have done worse to us, had they won.”
“Much worse,” Kenz’ox agrees and jumps down to the ground with the sleeping Aker’iz in his arms. “And they got far too close to that.” He walks over to his store of leather sheets. “Time for our chief to change her wrapping.”
I glance at the saucer. It’s standing straight on the ground now, or even hovering a bit above it. I swear it has a ghostly green glow. It looks eerie. But for now, it’s home. A safer home than ever before.
I grab the last spear leaned up against it. “Dex, we’re going to the beach,” I yell into the opening. “Don’t go anywhere!”
“I wouldn’t know where to go,” Dex replies from inside. “And I don’t know if this craft can even fly properly. We can test later, if you want.”
Kenz’ox and Aker’iz are waiting at the edge of the clearing. “You need a bath, too?”
I run a finger along one of his blue stripes and show him the dirt. “We all need one.”
We walk to the beach, checking carefully for dinosaurs. But I’m sure there aren’t any. It’s not that kind of day. We won.
“We won,” I say as the ocean breeze pushes damp hair out of my face. “But we almost lost everything.”
Kenz’ox stops and embraces me again, pulling me tight while holding the baby. “We got very close to that. Much too close. Several times. My love, I never want to be away from you again.”
“Me, too.” I lean into his massive body, enjoying the safety.
I take a quick bath while Kenz’ox is busy with Aker’iz. Then I take her and watch for tentacle blobs while her father cleans himself in knee-deep water.
“Your dad is quite something,” I tell her. “You won’t believe all the things he’s done for you. And for me. But I’ll tell you all of it when you’re old enough. It’s kind of PG.”
“Bababa,” she says sincerely, reaching one little hand out toward the ocean.
“Exactly.” I hoist her higher. “Oh, you’re getting heavy. Did you seriously grow in the time I was gone? You know that was only a couple of days at most, right?”
“Glufffabaaaba,” she explains.
I nod. “Oh. I see. It’s not that I mind it. Chiefs should be big. And better than that Smirt’ax guy. Maybe one day you’ll be a real chief? Feels like it’s about time a girl got to rule a tribe.”
Kenz’ox rinses off and comes up to us. “That was nice. Dorie, I wonder about something.”
“Oh?”
“The old shaman talked about something many years ago. About what to do when we meet The Woman. And when our women are returned to us from the Ancestors. He said it was possible for one man to claim one woman for himself, and that woman then also could claim the man. He called it ‘marriage.’”
“Did he?” It’s one of the words Cora taught us in the caveman language, and it’s one I’ve been thinking about, too, very recently.
He squeezes water out of his thick beard. “Do you have something like it on Earth?”
“We have something like it, yes. Why?” I act all innocent, although I’m getting excited despite the exhaustion.
“Because I would love to do that with you. To claim you as mine. And then you claim me as yours, if you want. It should be done in front of a tribe and a shaman, to show everyone, but we don’t have those things.”
“Do we need them? We have Dex and Otis. Maybe they are enough. And we have a little chief right here.”
His face brightens. “Yes! Perhaps no shaman is needed. Do you want to?”
I raise my eyebrows. “Do I want to what?”
He frowns. “Do you want to marry me?”