- Aurora -

“Yes. The fabric itself comes from ... elsewhere. But I sewed them.”

My eyes are getting used to the dim light inside his home after the bright morning sun. It's a surprisingly spacious place, and it's brighter and more airy than our cave, which can sometimes seem dark and stuffy. This is not really a cave, of course – the outer walls consist of rocks that have been carefully stacked, without any cement or mortar that I can see. Someone went to a lot of effort to make this dwelling.

I touch the cold stones. “Trak'zor make this?”

He touches the giant slab that makes out the roof. “This was here. I only needed some walls.”

“Must have take much time.”

“It did. But for the Woman, everything should be good.”

He looks me up and down, pausing briefly at my hips and chest. It should be an invasive look, and it is, but I don't feel violated at all. Instead I half-turn and straighten a little to make my butt and boobs look their best. He's a strong and very attractive man, and I want him to find me worth having around.

And I can't help but feel a little tingle down below when I feel his gaze on me. I'm not going to count the months since the last time I had any action, but we're talking a year or more. Easily. And that was with a college boy who most certainly didn't make me sound the way Sophia, Emilia and Heidi usually sound late at night. And I know what the cavemen mean when they talk about 'Worship'.

But I'm not going to give up the goods that easy. He has abducted me.

I look around the house once more. It's tidy and airy, but still clean and inviting like no other place I've seen on this planet. And if dinos are afraid of water, then there might not be any on this island.

I guess I should find out.

I walk to the opening and take off my quiver, leaning it against a wall on the outside, like a guest might do. Trak'zor's home is nice, but I don't want him to think that I live here now.

Then I look out onto the pleasant meadow, shading my eyes with one hand. “Trak'zor show me island?”

He walks past me without saying a word, and I follow. Now that the arrow is out, his butt is even cuter than before, leading up to the massive V-shape of his back. The white stripes shine in the sun like he's daring any predator or enemy to attack him.

He leads me up to the highest point of the island. Behind us is the house, and in front of us is a little grove of trees that's not quite large enough to be a forest.

If there were dinos around, then I would be able to spot them from here. But there aren't any.

“No Bigs on island,” I state. “Very safe. Except for irox.” I use the cavemanese word for dactyl.

“Except for irox,” Trak'zor agrees and looks up. “They rarely come here. Not much prey.”

The lake is huge. The morning mist has cleared, but still I can't see the other shore, just the horizon.

The air is clear and fresh like I haven't ever felt it before on this planet. There's a little bit of a draft in the air.

I point. “What that?”

“That's another island,” Trak'zor explains patiently.

“Ah. Is nice island also?”

“I don't know.”

The island is only a half-mile distant. I'm pretty sure I could swim there. And back again. “You never been on it?”

“Never.”

The island is different from this one. For one thing, it's jagged and black and even a little shiny. Slim, serrated shards of dark rock reach skywards like the spires of a witch's castle in some dark fairy tale.

It reminds me of something. “You want go there?”

“I can't get there.”

“You not know how swim? Is fine, Aurora teach.”

The cavemen back at the cave can all swim, and I've seen them do it in the occasional small natural pools in the jungle. Some might say that their technique is too forceful to quite cut it at the Olympics, but they're certainly not afraid of water.

Trak'zor raises his eyebrows, and there's a funny glint in his eyes. “Aurora teach.”

“Now? I mean, fine. Teach now.”

We walk down from the hill and through the forest. There are fruit trees and bushes, even one or two of the salen trees that produce the most delicious fruit anyone's ever tasted. I can see a large cluster of them at the top. Of course I can't get to them - the tree will defend itself if you try to pick them. But it's nice to see, anyway.

I also spot a couple of trees that I know make good material for bows. And one that makes good arrows. I won't have iron tips for them, except the one I already have in my quiver, but I did okay before Ar'ox made those for me.

The discovery perks me up even more. Later, I'll take a couple of hours to make a bow and a handful of arrows. Then, when I want to escape, I can swim across the little sound to the mainland, hope the raptor is gone and then make my way to Bune, then back home.

The thought perks me up even more, probably helped by the interesting juice Trak'zor gave me.

I notice that he walks differently here than in the jungle on the mainland, almost carelessly, like in a familiar street where you know you're safe. He just looks up once in a while, scouting for dactyls.

There are rocks on the other side of the island, too, leading out into the water in gentle curves.

“Hm,” I ponder. I don't really have any underwear on, and I'm not sure about stripping naked in front of my kidnapper. On the other hand, I know from experience that dinosaur skin clothes take a long time to dry out, and they're unpleasant to wear when wet.

I'm tempted to ask Trak'zor to go back and get me the clothes he's made, but somehow I doubt he'd do it.

Fine. A compromise. I turn my back to him, wrangle off my top and jump in from the lowest rock here.

The water is cool and clear, and I feel the grime from the past couple of days dissolve.

It's deep, too. There's no beach, and for a moment I worry about how I'll get Trak'zor safely into the water. If he jumps in and starts to sink, then he'll grab onto me and there's no chance I can tread water well enough to keep us both afloat. We'll drown.

He needs some kind of floatation device. “Wait,” I urge him as I think. “We need thing that not sink. Maybe wooden thing-”

Then Trak'zor casually sheds his sword and his loincloth and dives into the water with an elegance that tells me he's done it many times.

The sight makes me freeze up. Now I know why his loincloth had that bulge in the front. The short glimpse of his naked body sends a hard tingle to my crotch. Fuck, what would that feel like? And he wasn't even hard.

He swims underwater for several yards, then surfaces with a smirk on his face. “Aurora now teach me to swim.”

I splash him with water. “Trak'zor much evil! Trick Aurora into thinking not can swim.”

He lays back and floats comfortably. “Aurora much evil also. Turn back, not let Trak'zor see large enticing chest.”

He's mocking my cavemanese, but there's that glint in his eyes again. He's a tease, this one. Dammit. I have a weak spot for guys like that.

I splash him again. “Aurora think Trak'zor only like her for large enticing chest. Also, not want Trak'zor get ideas. Trak'zor take Aurora, tie with string. Aurora furious.”

He smirks and flicks the wet hair out of his face. Then he jackknifes, showing me a split second of muscular, pale butt, and dives down in the water. It's so clear that I can see him go far down to the gray rocks at the bottom.

When he comes up from the depths, he'll probably be able to see right up my skirt. Somehow I don't mind that idea as much as I maybe should. He's never seen that before, and it feels kind of cool to just be innocently showing him something like that. It makes my girly bits tingle. Maybe he wants to Worship me right after?

I frown. That's my kidnapper I'm having sexual fantasies about. Am I going crazy here?

I try to get some kind of order in my own crow's nest of hair, which is even more of a challenge when it's wet than otherwise. Some of the girls have talked about cutting their hair for practicality, but none of us have actually done it yet. Seems we all want to cling to the things about ourselves that remind us of home, not let this dinosaur planet change us completely. It's a human thing, I suppose-

“Hey!”

Something brushes up against my leg, but the waves make it hard to see what exactly. It has to be Trak'zor. I kick out, not too hard. I don't want him to study my crotch from up close-

My foot hits something hard. Hard and ... scaly?

Suddenly the world explodes in a ferocious storm of water and splashes and grunts and hisses and screaming.

Okay, the screams come from me. The grunts I think are Trak'zor's. But the hisses?

I panic and scramble through the water to try to get ashore. Before I can get there, something pushes hard against my butt and propels me clear out of the water.

“Omph.” It's a very short flight before I hit a dry rock on my hands and feet. I desperately climb higher, away from that water which has gone from calm and safe to something like a violent battlefield.

When I turn around, I want to scream again. Trak'zor is still in the lake, fighting something. Something big. Something that looks a lot like a giant snake. Or many giant snakes.

It's a total chaos of limbs and scales and white foam and violent splashes, so it's hard to tell exactly what it is. But Trak'zor seems to be losing.

Shit.

I slide down the rock to the edge of the water and grab his discarded sword. It's much heavier than I thought it would be, but I manage to draw it out of its sheath. I hold it by the blade with both hands and reach it out towards the desperately fighting caveman.

“Trak'zor!” I scream. “Take sword!”

He spots me and throws himself out of the water, grabs the weapon by the hilt as I let go to not be sliced on that blade and falls back into the lake, diving down.

Then there's silence for two seconds before a dark shadow shoots away from the shore, deep underwater. I spot a dark cloud far down there and Trak'zor surfaces again. He tosses his sword onto the rocks with a clang, crawls up on dry land and lies there panting and coughing.

I slide down to him. “Not harmed?”

He breathes hard for a few more seconds. Then his face breaks up into a wide grin of white teeth, and his face has a manly beauty to it. “Only my pride was harmed. I almost lost there. And then I had my sword and could win.”

“What was that? Big?”

“Water Big,” he pants. “It's the reason I can't swim to that island.”

Ah. Yes, of course it had to be something horrible like that. Even taking an innocent bath in the lake can turn to disaster in a heartbeat.

“Too good to be true,” I sigh.

Trak'zor gets up and makes no effort to hide his impressive manhood, and I make no effort to look away from it. I see now why the girls who married cavemen are so ... enthusiastic. Because damn.

He gets his sword and examines it thoughtfully. “Large blades are needed to kill Water Bigs. Hands and feet can't kill. Even harpoon is not enough. Aurora thinks quickly.”

I can't help but feel pride spread in my from hearing him use the word I taught him. And from his praise. Dammit, why must my kidnapper be so nice?

We sit there in the sun for a little while, drying out. I should probably put my top on, but the sun feels good. And so do Trak'zor's unashamed glances.

My heart is still beating hard and fast. But now it's not because of the dinosaur in the water. It's happened to me before – after a dangerous situation has been resolved and nobody has been hurt, the fear turns into something else. Euphoric happiness, of course. I'm feeling that now. But this is still different. Trak'zor fought that dino to save me. He could have just swum away while the monster feasted on curvy Italian food. Instead he came to my rescue, tossed me easily out of the water and then kept fighting. And he won.

He's made no move on me yet. Which is good. He's been an exemplary abductor so far. Except that leash thing, I guess.

Sure, I'm pretty much stuck on this island now. There's no way I'm going to swim to the shore if there's a chance I'll be snatched by a lake dino. But this guy is three times my weight and twenty times stronger. I'm still entirely at his mercy. And he has not abused that power at all.

Maybe it's the months of no male attention, or maybe it's the fact that I feel safe on this island. Maybe it's that I feel more on equal terms with him now that I've helped him beat that water dino. Or maybe it's just that Trak'zor is the best man I've ever met, even with all his mystery and his kidnapping. But you could argue that tying me up and carrying me away was self-defense. I mean, I had shot him. Twice.

Okay, so now I'm trying to rationalize my arousal.

My pretty extreme arousal. I'm short of breath and my mouth is dry, but now it's not because I was almost eaten by a dino. Now it's because I'm hot and ready. And the most attractive man I've met is sitting naked right beside me. He just saved my life. And he's at least half hard.

I arch my back to make my boobs stand out.

Then I give him a little smile. “That very large.”