- Aurora -

“Yes! Fly over jungle, sitting on back of irox.”

“Aurora must have hit her head. Nobody can ride on Bigs. They'll kill anyone who tries.”

I just shrug. “Dar'ax and Heidi can.”

We eat in silence. I'll give him some time to get used to the idea of coming to the cave with me. If he still won't, I may have to plan an escape after all. I agree with old shaman Ren'tax. This guy may just be a little too proud for his own good.

After a while Trak'zor goes to sleep, but I work on my new project by firelight, long into the night.

I haven't really thought much about the other girls until now. Sophia must be getting pretty anxious. If I've counted the days right, her estimated due date is three days from now. 

I don't relish the idea of walking all the way there by myself. With Trak'zor there, it would be different. And if he would join our tribe, it would make a difference. Maybe we could even move everyone to this island. There's plenty of fish, and we're safe from everything but dactyls. If my new project works, we may be safe against them, too. More or less.

I put the pieces of wood aside and go into the house. Trak'zor is asleep on his old rug.

I lie down close to him instead of using the bed of not-sheep furs he made for me. I need to feel his warmth and hear his slow, deep breathing.

I can't expect him to be overjoyed about me going back to the old tribe. He may be afraid of losing me. Of course he can't know exactly how I feel about him, that I've never loved anyone like this. I'm the first woman he's met, and the learning curve must be pretty steep. I'll give him time.

Still, if I had to choose between the girls and him, what would I choose?

I lie awake until there's a bright gleam on the horizon. A new day is coming. I hope it'll be better than the last one.

- - -

“No time for sleeping. Today we'll explore. The sun is high in the sky.”

Trak'zor gently rocks me awake.

I rub the sleep out of my eyes. “Fine, I'm awake.”

He smiles. “We'll eat the morning meal, and then we'll go to New Island. Very exciting.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I slowly sit up. I'm hard to excite when I've just woken up, but I think that's the kind of thing he'll find out for himself in time.

He kisses my forehead and walks back to the fire.

The smell of not-bacon is pretty enticing. All it would need to be perfect is the scent of a dark espresso and fresh baked ciabatta. And maybe some caciotta cheese. But I guess one half out of four is pretty good going on an alien planet.

I sit down by the fire and lean my head on Trak'zor's shoulder. “No explorer gets up this early in morning. Is against exploring rules.”

“I was never too fond of rules,” he replies and gives me a fresh leaf full of the foods he knows I like. “And it's not early. I've been up for many hours.”

I yawn and pick at a piece of green vegetable. For some reason I'm not hungry. “Fine. I will teach more about exploration rules later. Just have to make them up first.”

“Very well.”

“Many good explorers on my world. Is name Earth. Trak'zor say name.”

“Urt.”

“Very good. Uuuuu-rrr-ttthhhhhh.”

“Ur-ttthhh.”

“See? Trak'zor is linguist already. Much – ulp - expert. Excuse me.”

I get up quickly and run three steps away from the house before bend double and I throw up on the grass.

Okay. So I could be pregnant. It's not a shock.

But morning sickness already? The girls said it was pretty quick. And it has been a few days since the first time.

I'm not sure how to feel about this. But my first reaction is not panic, so that has to be a good sign.

I feel a big, warm hand on my shoulder. “Aurora is sick?”

“No, it's fine,” I manage, not overly happy that he's seeing me like this. “Will be okay very soon.”

It's been a while since I ate something, so not much is coming up. But the dry heaves aren't that nice, either.

Still Trak'zor stays with me until the cramps subside, and then he goes and gets a leather rag for me to wipe my mouth on.

“Thanks.”

“Perhaps the food last night wasn't good. I'll throw the rest of it away.”

“Perhaps.” I'm not really ready to tell him what this probably is. I have to wrap my own mind around it first.

I manage to drink some of the asphalt brew, and when it stays down for ten minutes, I take a chance on some food. Soon I'm eating just like before. Or even a little more. I guess I might be eating for two.

For some reason, it doesn't make me freak out. If Trak'zor has indeed fucked a baby into me, then at least I'm not the first. Three other girls will give birth before me. We'll be experienced midwives nine months from now.

The kid could hardly wish for a better father. The mother is more of a question mark.

Well, anything can happen before then. If it's something you learn on this planet, it's not to count your eggs before they hatch. But shit, these caveguys make our eggs fertile.

I wipe my mouth after breakfast. “Now is exploration time. We board mighty ship Gabrielle.”

We walk down to the water and shove the raft into the lake. It floats very high in the water, just like I wanted. I'm not sure how much Trak'zor weighs, but if he's less than four hundred pounds of muscle, I'll eat my skirt. And I was never much of a lightweight, either.

“Okay. Crewman Trak'zor get on board while Captain Aurora wait on shore, ready to laugh if he fall in water.”

He stays on the beach and puts one foot on the Gabrielle. One side of it sinks further down into the water, but it looks like it'll hold him.

He crouches down and jumps onboard like a huge cat, making sure to land on all fours in the middle.

The raft is clearly unsteady, and he holds on to the logs with both hands. The deck is several inches above the water, even with a caveman onboard. This is looking very promising.

“Good crewman,” I praise him. “Now take oars.”

Trak'zor gingerly sits down on the deck while the raft creaks and trembles under him.

I hand him the two oars we've made, one for each of us, and he lays them down on the deck.

“Now take Aurora.”

I take his hand and pull him and the Gabrielle closer to the shore. Then I'm faced with a problem. There's no room for me beside Trak'zor, and if I get on the raft on that side, then it might dip into the water.

I hold onto his hand while I very clumsily jump onto the raft, but I slip on the logs and lose my balance, so I continue across the whole raft and plunge into the water on the other side, face first.

Trak'zor is still holding me and easily drags me aboard, completely soaked.

“Captain Aurora has unconventional way of coming onto raft,” he observes.

“Is not,” I splutter and cough as I wipe my wet hair out of my face. “Is tradition that captain take bath before long voyage.”

“I see,” he says, I little too sarcastically for my tastes. But he did pull me aboard, so I'm not going to court martial him just yet.

I gingerly sit down behind Trak'zor, feeling how flimsy this raft really is and how unsteadily it dips and jerks with every little movement I make.

But I'm the captain, so I better start giving orders for our exploration trip. In a way, I'm just like Christopher Columbus setting sail for unknown shores.

“Okay. Now take oar. Dip into water. Yes, good. Put oar against beach, push hard. Like that- no, no! Too hard!”

Trak'zor follows my commands dutifully, but he uses much more force than I'd expected, so he pushes the Gabrielle fast away from the island and towards the spot where the waterfall plummets into the lake.

“Stop! Brake! Put oar into water!”

He does, and I scramble to grab my own oar and dip it into the lake. But it's heavier than I thought, and my hands are still wet, so I lose my grip on it and see it float away.

I see no reason to tell the crew what's just happened, and he has been easily able to stop the raft from drifting into the waterfall.

“Very well. Now put oar deep into water, push back so ship go forwards. Um. Yeah ...”

With an oar on only one side of the raft, all he accomplishes is to spin the Gabrielle around. We'd really need another oar right now. I can see it floating slowly towards the mainland.

“You use oar on one side first,” I direct as if I've never done anything other than captain rafts on alien lakes. “Then the other, soon after. Keep raft going straight.”

Trak'zor does as I tell him, but the raft is a little too wide and it's awkward for him to dip the oar deep enough into the water.

“Get up on knees, maybe?” I command. I think I've seen something like that on television. “Then use oar on one side first, then other side. No, don't turn around!”

The crew blatantly disobeys its captain and looks me up and down. “Where is your oar?”

“Not is important. Captain not paddle, crew only. You turn back now and paddle around island.”

He points to the oar. “Is that it over there?”

“Perhaps,” I sniff.

“You lost the oar?”

I roll my eyes. “Captain not need oar! She command only. Is tradition captain drop oar into water on purpose. Columbus did, I'm sure. You paddle now.”

“We spent hours making these oars.”

“And still have one! But I notice none of them being used right now.”

The crew grins, then outrageously leans back and kisses its captain right on the lips. “Soon both of them will be used.”

I can't help melting into the kiss. It's not captain-like behavior, I know. But my crewman has the power to drive me crazy with horniness. I don't think Columbus had to deal with that.

“Okay,” I gasp when he finally disengages. “We go get oar.”

Trak'zor slowly paddles us back to the shore, narrowly escaping the cascades from the waterfall. He picks up the floating oar and gives it to me. This time I hold on tighter to it.

“We turn raft around. You paddle on that side. I'll use other side. No, not the same way!”

We paddle in opposite directions, and the raft spins around once until we're facing the shore again.

I pull my oar out of the water. “Now try turn raft around. Very good. I promote you to steersman.”

When we're finally facing the right direction, I add my oar and we make a little faster progress along the edge of the island.

I peer into the water. “Trak'zor sure Water Big not will come eat us?”

“I'm sure. The air is poison to the vrok. Even when I fought one, it stayed completely under.”

“If you're wrong and it snatches us from raft, captain will be much mad and Trak'zor will be demoted, no longer steersman. You don't think vrok can hear us paddle?”

“Not yet. The noise from the waterfall will mask it. Later perhaps we should try to be quiet.”

I stare suspiciously down into the depths. The water is clear, but deep down it gets too dark for me to see much. I regret this whole expedition now. A terrible monster can easily hide down there, and it might not care that the air is poison to it if it thinks it can get an exotic dinner out of a little exposure. Say, curvy Italian chick with a flimsy dino skin wrapper.

After half an hour of paddling the raft around our island, we can see the other island in the distance. I estimate that it will only take us an hour to make our way over there.

We're still just a few feet from our island, and I'm feeling a certain need. This will be the last chance before the expedition starts for real.

What would Columbus do?

Well, I don't know. He didn't have to watch a huge, muscular back flex and tighten with each slow stroke of the paddle into the water, stripes and scars and all. So he would probably not do this.

I slide my skirt up to my hips.

“Trak'zor turn around,” I order, and my voice is just a little hoarse.

He glances over his shoulder. Then his eyes widen at the sight of my naked pussy, and his intake of breath sends heat and tingles right where it matters. He's had me many times now, but still my body can do that to him.

In fairness, his body does pretty much the same to me.

He calmly puts his oar down on the raft and comes closer.

“Turn around,” he tells me.

I raise my eyebrows. “Oh, really? Who's in charge of this ship, you or me?”

He pulls his own loincloth up and reveals his magnificent cock. “Me.”

“Mutiny, huh? I like it!”

I obey, get on my knees and stick my naked ass up for him, feeling deliciously slutty and feminine. Fuck, I love it when he's dominant with me.

He kneads my fleshy hips. “This is also tradition?”

“No. This is because the captain wants steersman dick.”

“Ah. Very naughty captain.” He slaps my presented ass, and it sends hot little arrows to my pussy, making me moan.

“Sooo naughty,” I agree, and he slaps me again.

“Harder,” I groan, and he gives me a series of pretty hard spanks. Shit, I have to make him put me over his lap for real one of these days. No other man has ever made me want him to spank me. But this one ... fuck, yes.

“Naughty captain who loses oar,” Trak'zor scolds and gives me a good couple of slaps to finish.

“Fuck me,” I groan and arch my back for his cock.

I'm so wet he slides right into me at the first thrust, setting off those mysterious fireworks that takes over my whole sex and most of its surroundings.

I'm being fucked mercilessly on a raft on an alien planet. By a caveman with stripes and fangs. Yeah, this is still not normal for me.

This time I try to keep it down when I come. Sound carries extremely well over the surface of the lake. But I can't hold back some helpless whimpering and encouraging squeals when he shoots his juices into my womb right when I'm at the peak of my own climax.

I mean, it's not like he can make me pregnant now.

“This was probably much irresponsible,” I groan when we're done and I can pull my skirt down again. 

“But wonderful,” Trak'zor points out and kisses me.

“Yes, that's true.”

“And no harm done.”