- Heidi -

I can see he's pondering my question, but I don't expect a reply and I don't get one. It was mostly a philosophical question anyway, just me thinking out loud.

I turn back and stretch my legs out in front of me on the back of the T. Rex, leaning back onto Dar'ax's strong legs. I'm getting used to the movements now, and I'm no longer worried about losing my balance and tumbling down. I don't have to hold on to Gerk's rough skin anymore, just move with his movements and imagine that all my weight is concentrated in my butt, which is a trick I learned many years ago that helps you keep your balance. And I guess that in my case, it isn't too far from the truth anyway.

It's a good day. I have my glasses, I had a really good climax this morning, I bonded more with Dar'ax and I made a decision about my future. He'll complete his mysterious mission, and then I'll bring him to Bune and the girls. Riding a freaking T. Rex.

I smile into the sky. The girls are going to freak out when they see me up here. And I'll play it cool, just acting as if it's nothing special when I climb down and maybe hand them some nice fruits and they'll stare at Dar'ax and ask me where I found that extraordinary specime-

“Nusin,” Dar'ax suddenly hisses behind me. Gerk stops at his command.

I adjust my glasses, but still I can't see anything out of the ordinary. Dar'ax is staring ahead and down. We're on a ridge, and down to the right there's a little valley. We sit still for a little while before I finally see movements down there. They're cavemen with bare torsos. The men are almost invisible among the trees, and they must be a mile away. Only their slow movements give them away. If we hadn't been so high above them, we would never have spotted them.

I frown. They're spread out and moving in parallel. And those are some very slow movements, too. Not at all the way you'd move if you were actually trying to get somewhere. No, these guys look more like they're sneaking up on someone.

Dar'ax is staring intently at them with jaws clenched so tightly the muscles on his face are bulging. I think he's a little paler around the cheeks than before, and the fire in his eyes is more white than yellow now. If I hadn't known it already, it's obvious that this is very important to him. Seeing him like this sends a chill through me. Whatever he wants with these guys, it's not something they will like.

They keep moving slowly up the hill on the other side of the valley, a semicircle of cavemen slowly making their way among the trees. At least they're not riding dinosaurs.

And now I can see what they're planning. “They going to the caves,” I whisper, although the men are much too far away to hear what I'm saying.

Dar'ax frowns. “Caves?”

I point. “There, behind row of bush. Cave in hillside.” It's not an obvious cave at all, but it looks a lot like the same type of cave that the girls and I were living in before Dar'ax came along and scared us away. The opening is well hidden.

“Village,” Dar'ax says darkly. “Many caves there.”

I wipe my glasses on my dress, which just makes them dirtier. But yeah, now I can see more caves down there. And there's movement around them, too – other cavemen doing the normal things outside their caves. There's even smoke from several fires, now that I know where to look.

“Nusin attack village!” I gasp, because now I understand those sneaky movements. They intend to assault that peaceful tribe of cavemen.

“Yes,” Dar'ax confirms tightly. “The Nusin will attack.”

We watch the Nusin sneak into position. Of course I have no idea who the good guys are here. Maybe this other tribe has done something terrible. But I'm not sure sneaking up to surprise attack a seemingly peaceful tribe is something the good guys would be doing. “Should we warn tribe?”

Dar'ax is almost trembling with some suppressed emotion. He's breathing faster, and his voice is very tight. “Too late to warn them.”

And he's right. In the same moment, the Nusin launch their attack, running up to the caves, waving spears and swords. There's a flurry of activity, but the tribesmen being attacked are clearly not ready to repel the assault, and the Nusin are making fast progress.

I can hear faint sounds of yelling and clashing of metal from across the wide valley, even anguished screams that freeze my blood. It's a vicious surprise attack on a peaceful village, and I feel a cold anger spread in me. Whether or not they're enemies from before, that doesn't seem like an honorable thing to do.

Then it looks like the Nusin are finished or they're being beaten off after all, because suddenly they're all running back to the jungle the same way they came. And now they're carrying many things. But nobody's following them, so I realize that they've done exactly what they planned and the village hasn't been able to mount a counterattack yet. It looks like it's been a fast, brutal raid.

I hear an angry growl getting louder nearby. I've never heard Gerk do that, but ... no, that's coming from Dar'ax's throat. He can't take it anymore and punches Gerk's thick skin. “Gaaaah!”

Then he climbs down from Gerk very fast and draws his sword, before he runs into the jungle, heading down the hill towards the village. To me it looks like he's heading straight for the Nusin that have completed their raid. Shit, that doesn't look like a smart thing to do! He's only one man, and the Nusin are at least twenty.

I stand up on Gerk's back to get a better view. He's so big that now he's not moving, it's like I'm standing on a sturdy observation platform.

I can't see the Nusin anymore, but they were definitely coming towards this side of the valley. But I can see the aftermath of their raid. In the cave village on the other side, many caveman are lying on the ground, and others seem to be tending to them. The whole place is in uproar, and only now small bands of them are starting to run after the escaping Nusin.

I realize that it's a pretty big village, with hundreds of cavemen living there. The small gang of Nusin couldn't have had any hope of anything other than running in, killing the few villagers who'd resist and then stealing whatever they could get their hands on and then running away again.

But whatever – right now I'm mostly worried about my own caveman. I stand up on tiptoe on Gerk's back to get a better view, but his huge head and neck are in the way and I can't see the spot where I think Dar'ax must be.

I guess I trust Gerk more now, and he's standing pretty still. So I carefully take a couple of steps onto his neck, which feels as sturdy as a concrete bridge. He doesn't seem to mind, so I crawl and half climb all the way up his neck until I'm crouched on top of his giant head. There's a row of spikes going down the middle of it, and although they're sharp against my fingers, they also give me something to hold on to, as long as I don't clasp them too hard.

Gerk's head is higher than his back, although I realize that from the village, most of him is hidden under the treeline. From up here, I can just about see everything that's going on in the valley below.

I see the escaping Nusin and the villagers that are pursuing them, and I can see Dar'ax. To my relief, he hasn't run too far away, only about a hundred yards. He appears to be hiding behind a large boulder right where the Nusin are going to run. He's looking around him, and I can't resist waving to him.

He clearly sees me, and he signals to me to get down. I see his point – I'm pretty visible up here, and if anyone else sees that there's a woman nearby, a mythical being, who knows what might happen.

I crouch further down so that most of me is hidden behind Gerk's head. His dark color scheme is really good camouflage – he almost disappears against the dark green jungle, which is a pretty good trick for a freaking T. Rex to pull off.

The Nusin are splitting up into groups of three, and it happens so smoothly that I'm pretty sure they've done this many times before. They might be specialized in cowardly raids on peaceful caveman villages. It also makes me a little less nervous. Now, only three Nusin are coming towards Dar'ax, and they've been fighting and running hard, while he's pretty rested. So there's a good chance he can take them on and win.

“Shit, be careful,” I whisper in a dry mouth. My heart rate increases as three of the Nusin are running straight for his position, closing fast. If Dar'ax misjudges this and somehow gets killed or badly injured, then I'm in very big trouble.

Then the Nusin are upon him, running right past the boulder that hides him. Then he yells something from behind them, and two of them stop and turn while the third just stumbles and then continues running.

Okay, cool. So now he only has to fight two of them.

And he does. Even though he didn't attack them from behind before they knew he was there, he still has the upper hand. The two Nusin toss their sacks of ill-gotten loot away and draw their swords. Dar'ax stands there and seems to be giving them some kind of formal challenge, but I can't help but think that it's a gesture they don't appreciate.

They attack him at the same time. There's a flurry of activity, and I can hear the clanging of steel against steel with only a short delay. Then one of the Nusin is on the ground, and the other one is backing away and at the same time making sudden lunges towards Dar'ax. But he parries every slash easily with his long sword. It's such an uneven match that even I can see that Dar'ax is totally superior to the other one, even if he fights honorably and the other one seems more sneaky and cowardly in his sudden moves.

Then the Nusin tries a desperate move and throws himself at Dar'ax, slashing his sword towards his legs. Dar'ax takes a light, but fast step to the side and runs his sword through the Nusin, who collapses to the ground without a sound.

I've lost sight of the third one. He can't be far away from me right now. I crouch further down behind Gerk's head until I barely see over it. That Nusin dude is somewhere between Dar'ax and me, and although I should feel safe here on this freaking T. Rex, it's not a comfortable thought.

Whoosh! Something dark flies past my head and sticks in Gerk's neck. It's a short, ugly spear with a long, serrated blade, black and dirty-looking. Gerk lazily turns his head as if he's only been stung by a mosquito, and the spear falls to the ground.

I immediately see where it came from. That third Nusin is standing right at the edge of the jungle, and he's clearly spotted me. He throws another spear, and this time I have to duck to avoid it. But my movement is awkward, and I slide down Gerk's neck and have to hold on with my fingers to not slide all the way down.

The Nusin inserts another short, thin spear into a throwing device he has. It's a Y-shaped stick that I've seen Jax'zan and Ar'ox use for hunting, because it helps them throw spears much harder and further.

“Are you not seeing this?!” I hiss to Gerk as I clamor to hold on to his neck. “He's throwing things at us!”

But the dino doesn't at all seem like the fierce predatory monster I know he can be. Well, I suppose with a brain the size of a walnut he can't be expected to actually realize when someone is attacking him. It can't be something that's happened a lot in his life. Who'd attack a freaking T. Rex?

And in fairness, the Nusin isn't attacking him, but me.

The caveman is slowly walking towards us, keeping a respectful distance to Gerk, but getting closer to have a better shot at me. Soon he will not be able to miss.

“Hey,” I yell to Gerk, hammering on his thick skin with my fist. “You want to move? Or maybe eat that guy? Come on!” I don't know what the hell his problem is. Does he think that every caveman is as nice and cool as Dar'ax?

As a response, the dinosaur turns his head again, so that the side I'm on swings towards the approaching Nusin. I'm now perfectly presented as a target for him. Still a part of me has the presence of mind to notice that his stripes are yellow, too, but a much more dirty yellow than Dar'ax's blindingly bright color.

This is getting serious. “You're supposed to keep me safe!” I scream at Gerk. “Stars, I'll tell Dar'ax all about this if you don't take care of that guy right now!”

But he just turns his head more and I slide further down. Now my legs are dangling in thin air as I scramble to crawl up on the rough dino skin. But even though the skin is the texture of emery board, I can't get purchase on it.

The Nusin sees it. Now he's standing still, and I can see he's grinning with a mouth where most of the brown teeth are missing. He draws his arm back, and the blade at the end of the spear looks very dangerous.

And I'm hanging here like a target in a shooting gallery. “Shhhiiiiit! Dar'aaaax!” I scream.

The Nusin draws back the final inch, and then he throws the spear.

But not at me. Dar'ax comes out of the jungle, running fast and with a determination like someone about to win an Olympic medal. He easily ducks to avoid the spear, and then he cuts the Nusin's head off in one huge slash with his sword. The Nusin collapses headless, but Dar'ax then proceeds to hack at the clearly dead caveman, furiously chopping and slashing, yelling and grunting.

Gerk picks that moment to turn his head back again, and finally I can climb back onto his back.

“Dar'ax!” I yell. “Dead now! No more!”

But he seems lost in some kind of frenzy, and seeing him this out of control scares me more than the Nusin did. Blood and slivers of bone and flesh fly through the air, and now it's becoming truly horrific.

“Dar'ax! Stop it!” But he doesn't hear me.

Just as I consider climbing down from here to physically put myself between Dar'ax and the now badly mangled body of the Nusin, it's as if Dar'ax wakes up.

He stiffens with his sword lifted for another slash. For a moment he stands there and just stares at the mess of flesh and blood and gore in front of him, and then he slowly lowers his sword, turns around and comes walking, his steps unusually heavy and his back not as straight as it usually is.

He climbs up Gerk's side and for a moment we're standing on the dino's back, facing each other. If he hadn't gone crazy at the end there, this would have been a moment for hugs and tender words. As it is, I don't know what to say, and I sure don't want to hug him. His front is splattered with blood and slivers of human flesh like a butcher, and he's not looking me in the eye.

But I think he can see the disbelief and horror on my face.

He speaks a harsh word and kicks the control pole that goes down Gerk's side, and the huge dino jerks so hard I have to sit down. Then we're moving again, back the way we came.

Yeah. This guy definitely has an anger problem.