- Heidi -

He thinks for a little while, and right when I'm starting to think that he's brushing me off without an answer again, he takes a deep breath.

“Toh. I don't know why.”

That's what I thought. He doesn't have a tribe, he's not trying to mate with me and he's not even tried to do what the caveman call 'worship'. So it's getting obvious that he has no plan for this. He just saw a woman, the first he's ever seen, and when he got the chance, he took me. Totally on impulse.

And don't you know it, that makes me feel a lot better. It's gradually become clear that he's not planning to hurt me or sacrifice me or give me to his tribe to use as a sex slave or feed me to his T. Rex. The last thing I was worried about was that he'd force himself on me, but he's lying so far away from me that I'm almost disappointed that he's not trying anything at all.

Of course this tent we're in isn't the only one around. I've seen the one he's been pitching in his kilt all day long, and it's not much smaller than this one, so I know he likes what he sees. But he's a stubborn dude, and I can tell he's far too proud to force himself on anyone.

Something gives way inside me. He doesn't want to hurt me at all. He's confused about why he took me, and he obviously has some difficult things going on in his heart. Still he's passionate enough to abduct me, even if he doesn't know why. And now he's keeping his distance, like any good man would.

I can learn to like a guy like that. Heck, I like him right now. And it's totally weird: the relief that he's not going to force himself on me makes me kind of want to force myself on him. Or at least get closer to him. He's three feet away, and right now, that seems unnecessarily far to me. I think the alcoholic drink he gave me helps make me braver, too.

I take off my glasses, fold them and place them at the tent's inner wall. Then I innocently turn over under the clean-smelling animal skin, so that I get closer to him. I could easily reach out and touch him now, and I can feel his dry, manly scent.

He stirs, but doesn't move much. And his breath is calm and deep.

Shit, he's asleep. Maybe that's just as well. Because I have fantasies now about seducing a big, strong and confident caveman in a tent on a jurassic planet, and it's such a primal and hot vision that it's suddenly tingle city downstairs. It'd be such a pleasure showing him how it's done, this super-attractive caveman who's never seen a woman before.

Okay, maybe later. I'm sure there will be time. He has no tribe. But I'm absolutely going to recruit him to ours. We can move back to the cave, even, because now we know that there's no roving band out to get us. It's just one lonesome caveman. And we'd never have to worry about other tribes again. Because this guy controls what has to be the mightiest weapon on the planet: a freaking T. Rex.

As I give in to the drowsiness, I briefly entertain one thought: Back on Earth, I'd never be this forward. But this is Xren, the most lethal place I've ever been. And somehow the constant threat of death brings out the life in me. As it does in all of us girls. We've talked about it, too. We're much more spontaneous now, more appreciative of every good moment we're allowed to experience. Yes, we miss Earth and our families. But when danger lurks behind every tree and every cloud, we embrace life like never before.

And that feels pretty good.

Sometimes.

- - -

I wake up and Dar'ax is nowhere to be seen, but I can hear the crackle from a fire outside. I carefully stick my head out of the tent. The caveman might be less dangerous than I thought in the beginning, but I don't trust this planet further than I can throw it.

He's there, sitting calmly on the ground and watching the pot of tea on the fire.

Seeing Dar'ax calms my recently awakened nerves and makes me feel safe again. It's a luxury I haven't been too conscious of before. On Earth I almost always felt safe. On Xren I haven't felt safe until I met Dar'ax. Emilia talked about only feeling safe with Ar'ox, and now I feel it, too.

“Good morning,” I say and sit down beside him. “Dar'ax up early.” There's light on the horizon, but the sun hasn't risen yet.

“Heidi is also up early,” he observes and pours me a cup of the tea.

I wipe the sleep out of my eyes and sip the piping hot brew. It's not coffee, but it works for me.

Dar'ax gives me another leaf of food, and I can tell he's paid attention to what I've eaten before, because there's more of the breadfruit and the jam and less of the cold cuts. That little gesture warms my heart, and this time I allow my smile to widen. “Thank you.”

We eat quietly, Dar'ax standing up, always looking around. I'm determined to get him to talk more today. About where he's taking me, for one thing. But first I want to freshen up.

The riverbank is very close, and the water looks clear and calm enough for me to want a little dip. Running water seems to be the one part of this jungle that doesn't contain all kinds of terrible monsters, and I think it will rain today, so if I'm going to take a bath, I'd like to get it done before then.

I finish eating and stand up. “Heidi want ... hm. Water. Walk in water.” I don't know his word for 'bath' or 'swim', so I make diving and swimming motions with my hands, pointing to the river. “Is danger?”

He gazes over to the bank. “A bath? The water is usually safe, but it could be deep. There'll be a current deeper down.”

A flash of inspiration hits me. “Then Dar'ax keep Heidi safe.”

We lock eyes again, and I find that I have no great problems withstanding the intensity in his gaze.

Finally he juts his chin out. “Toh. But quick. The woods are quiet today.”

That sounds good to me, but he seems to think it's bad. “That is bad? Danger?”

He looks around more, frowning. “Could be bad.”

Then he relaxes and walks over to the river, peering into the water as if expecting there to be all kinds of sharks and girl-eating jellyfish. “I will stay close.”

“Okay.” Well, I don't know how to do this in a modest way, so I pull my dress over my head and place it on a rock. And I suppose I could swim in my underwear, but it's been raining a lot lately and I know the stiff fabric gets itchy and gives me rashes when it's wet. So I quickly take all of that off, too.

I notice Dar'ax's double take when he sees me totally naked, and his gaze lingers on my chest and crotch. It's an invasive look, but in a weird and hot way I welcome that invasion right now.

I see no reason to try to hide myself, either, and that's actually pretty refreshing. I've always been conscious about my weight. I have an ample rear, and my stomach is perhaps not quite as toned as I'd like. But to Dar'ax, I'm the only woman he's seen, so he really can't be that picky. Also, the vulnerability of being naked in front of this huge and spectacular caveman while he stares sends a hot tingle to my pussy. To him, I don't think I seem that big.

I take off my precious glasses and gingerly place them on top of my dress, and then I take Dar'ax's big hand. It feels like steel in a dry sandpaper glove.

Then I gingerly step into the stream. The water is cool, but not too bad. My nipples stiffen, but I don't mind that too much, either.

The bottom is sandy and I walk further out to where the water reaches to mid-thigh. I have to stretch my arm pretty far to be able to hold on to Dar'ax. And he doesn't seem like he wants to let go.

“Come in water,” I suggest. “Not cold.”

He looks over his shoulder, as if worried that someone might see him, and then he takes a step into the stream, still wearing his fur kilt and sword. He's so serious that I'm tempted to splash him, but I think that would violate the kidnapper/abductee code that I decided on yesterday. So instead I squat down into the water to get good and clean. Of course there's no soap, but I scrub myself as well as I can, and the feeling of the cool, clean water all over me is as good as any coffee would be. It's the first real good bath I've taken since I came to this weird planet.

My mood improves a lot, and I take the wet, lower edge of Dar'ax's kilt between two fingers and tug at it. “Dar'ax take off. Clean like Heidi.”

He draws breath to say something, but before he can speak he whirls around and draws his sword so fast I squeal and fall right on my butt with a splash. I don't even have time to find my footing on the slippery rocks before I feel an iron grip around my wrist and I'm yanked completely out of the water.

“Hey, what the hell-”

I'm still rubbing the water out of my eyes when I hear meaty thuds close by, and I realize that Dar'ax is fighting someone. But I can't see who they are before he unceremoniously throws me over his shoulder and runs so fast I realize that I had better just hang on. But I'm also conscious that I'm still naked.

“Deadbites,” Dar'ax growls through clenched teeth.

I twist around to try to look behind us. And a cold panic settles in the pit of my stomach. We're being followed by someone. Or rather, something. Because that's a mass of living movement. A big, dirty brown mass that's coming after us fast, and the only sound I can hear is an insane cacophony of clicking noises, like a million crabs snapping their claws right behind us.

My skin is creeping and I cling to Dar'ax's immensely strong back. Right now, he feels as strong as an ox and as fast as a cheetah.

But that's still not fast enough, I think. Because the brown mass of pursuers is catching up with us.

“They close!” I yell, to let him know the situation.

He runs in among the trees and zigzags around thick trunks, and then he sprints right at a tree and heaves me four feet into the air.

“Oof!” The impact with a thick branch nearly knocks the breath out of me. And before I know it I'm hanging double over it, with my legs on one side and my torso on the other, and my bare ass straight up.

I wiggle to a more secure position closer to the tree's trunk, so I can see what's going on below me.

Dar'ax is fighting the brown mass, and now I can see what they are. They're not ordinary dinosaurs, but some kind of overgrown turtles with eight legs and a huge shell each. Oh, and three big, snapping beaks that protrude out from under the shell on snake-like heads without eyes. Each creature is the size of a dining table, so kind of small by Xren standards. But there are so many of them that they more than make up for it in sheer numbers. The whole meadow along the riverside is now just a living mass of these things, and my skin crawls even further.

Dar'ax is holding his own with his long sword, and already several of the creatures are lying dead on the ground around him or limping away with cleft shells and seeping wounds where their terrible beaks used to be.

The ones closest to him are starting to pull away, probably realizing that this one caveman is defeating them all pretty badly. Their parrot-like beaks are still snapping at him as they retreat, and the noise they make is so terrible I seriously consider letting go of the branch with one hand just so I can put it over one ear, at least.

Then I yelp as I hear the hard click of a snapping beak right beside me. One of the things has jumped onto a lower branch, and now it's recoiling all three heads, aiming for my face with its terrible beaks. I'm stuck on this branch and can't get away.

“Dar'ax!”

He spins around and immediately sees the danger. His eyes flash in vivid yellow, he roars so furiously the whole tree shakes, and then he's right beneath me, there's a glimmer of swift steel and my attacker lies on the ground, its three now beak-less snakeheads dripping green fluid and writhing uselessly.

But Dar'ax isn't done. Again and again he roars in fury, lifts the long sword and chops at my attacker, slicing through its hard, thick shell with powerful whacks and turning the whole deadbite to a shapeless, sickening mass of green and red and gray and brown. It has long since stopped being a threat or even alive, but still he's showing no sign of stopping. He seems blinded by fury.

“I think he's dead now,” I try with a thin voice, but still he goes on slashing, completely mincing the dead thing as if it was a very personal vengeance, roaring furiously. I've never seen such rage, and I hope never to see it again.

“Dar'ax!” I yell, because now he's starting to scare me. “No more!”

He glances up at me, and then it's as if he wakes up. He freezes for a moment and stares at the wet blob of slime and goo that used to be his adversary. Then he spins around again and his sword glints as he slices the beaks off another two predators.

But when he went off on the one that attacked me, he gave the others time to catch up and to get more organized. And now they're crawling up on each other's backs and coming at him as a wall five creatures high, closing in from three sides. And whenever Dar'ax slices through one, two others appear in its place. He can't win this.

“We go!” I scream, because the panic isn't far away. He gives me a quick glance from the corner of his eye, and somehow I understand perfectly what he's thinking. I jump down from the branch, and then he whirls around, takes my hand and we run together through the forest.