“He is larger than the others,” Sheela agreed.
“Do you have any arrows left?” I asked as I glanced at the bow lying on the branch.
“I have one,” she said as she held it up. “It is a far shot, though. I do not think I will make it.”
“You hit one of the fuckers jumping over the door in mid-leap.”
“Yes, but that was only from twenty feet. He is at least fifty.”
“Is your Critical Strike skill ready?” I asked.
“Do you think I should use it?” She raised a blonde eyebrow slightly.
“I’m just wondering what will happen if we take the head guy out. Will the rest still stay to bother us? Or will they leave us alone?”
“I can try,” she said as bent over to grab her bow. She turned her ass to me when she leaned over, and even though my groin was feeling all sorts of agony, I couldn’t help but stare at the place where her bikini bottom barely hid her vagina.
Sheela stood up with her bow nocked, blinked her eyes twice, and then adjusted her aim a bit lower. She held there for half a moment frozen like some sort of Greek Goddess statue, and then the arrow left her weapon with an angry twang.
I watched the shaft arch through the air before it plummeted below the line of our branch. It seemed to gain speed as it dropped, and then it sank into the head of the massive alpha raptor with a wet thud that echoed through the redwood grove.
The alpha raptor dropped to the ground instantly, and its body didn’t even spasm.
“Yes!” I shouted as the other raptors turned toward their boss. One of them took a few steps closer and bent its neck down to touch the corpse. It seemed to realize that its leader was dead after a few seconds of investigation, and it let out a guttural growl.
The remaining raptors seemed confused by the alpha’s death, and they spent the next few minutes milling around the base of our tree. Before they were either trying to climb it, or were glancing up in our direction, but now they wandered like dogs trying to pick up a scent, and they weren’t even bothering to look up at Sheela and me.
A few minutes later, they all dispersed in different directions.
“Wow, that was weird,” I said. “It’s like they suddenly all got stupid after you killed him.”
“Interesting,” Sheela said. “It is understandable though. The leader is the most important part of a group. Without them, order and tactics are often forgotten.”
“Maybe with animals,” I said with a shrug. “But it just seems odd that they were so much smarter with the big guy around.”
“Try to recall how Trel, Galmine, and I were surviving without you,” Sheela said. “We were not faring so well. It would be difficult if we lost you. The three of us are friends, but you give us a purpose and keep us united.”
“Awww, thanks, Sheela,” I said as I turned to her. “You are pretty damn awesome yourself. You were shooting arrows at those raptors while holding onto me with your legs, and you scaled this tree, tied the rope, and hauled my ass up in less than half a minute. I’d be all sorts of dead without you.”
“I am happy to help,” she said with a wide grin that showed her sharp cat-like teeth. “I…” she started to say, but then her voice trailed off and her eyes stared into mine.
“Hmmm?” I asked as I shook my leg to get more feeling back into my crotch.
“It is nothing,” she said quickly as she looked down at her feet. “I do not know if the danger has passed. How long do you think we should wait?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “I don’t even know if Hope made it back to camp. I’m actually kind of worried about her returning without us. Trel and Galmine will be concerned.”
“Trel will come looking for us,” Sheela said.
“You think?” I asked with a snicker. “The farthest she ever came out of the cave was to the fort. She doesn’t seem interested in exploring the wilderness.”
“She will for you,” Sheela said. “She has developed deep feelings for you.”
“Well, it’s dangerous for her or Galmine to leave the camp. Hell, it is dangerous for you and me to leave the camp.”
“I agree,” Sheela said as she gestured down to the corpse of the raptor. “After seeing how the group responded to his death, I believe that you are too valuable to risk on these missions. If you can tame a dinosaur to carry me, I believe a natural evolution of our progress will involve you staying in the camp where it is safer.”
“Nope,” I replied. “I’m not sending you out alone if I don’t have to.”
“It makes sense,” Sheela said. “I am the most suited to this dangerous role, and my loss will not impact the efficiency of the camp. Especially when you have fish traps, water capturing, and farming figured out.”
“No, Sheela,” I said. “You are more than just someone who gets our food and water. You are my friend, and I need you. Also not to mention, that I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing half the time, I’m still learning from you every day.” Her eyes opened a bit at my words, and she crossed her arms.
“I understand, but your needs are just emotional. It is not--”
“Don’t give me that bullshit,” I interrupted her. “You were depressed on your home world because you needed to feel like you had a place. Now you do. Your place is by my side. I need you, so don’t talk anymore about how expendable you are. That’s an order.”
“Yes, Victor,” she said as she closed her eyes and bowed her head.
“I’m going to see if I can get Hope to come back to us,” I said. “She might already be back at the fort, but maybe she is still roaming, and she’ll return.”
“What if the raptors are still around?” Sheela asked.
“Then I’ll tell her to run,” I said. “Hope is faster than them with me on her back, so she’s gotta be way faster without me. The only reason they caught up to us is because she carried both you and me, and they laid an ambush for us. Hold on, let me try to focus on this for a few minutes.”
I thought about Hope, and then kind of imagined her running down around the bottom of our tree. It was similar to the instructions I’d mentally give her when I was close, but I always did those when I had a line of sight on her. I had no idea how it would work when I didn’t know how far away she was from me.
I thought about Hope, and our tree and Hope coming to the foot of our tree for what felt like fifteen minutes. My head actually started to hurt from my extended bout of concentration, and I finally let out a sigh and decided to take a bit of a break.
“Looks like she’s not com--”
“Hey! Victor! Sheela!” I heard a voice cry out from behind us, and we both spun to see Trel riding on Hope’s back. The obsidian-haired woman had her spider-legs curled up behind her like wings, and she was scanning the forest with her clawed hand over her brow.
“Trel!” Sheela and I shouted, and our friend immediately looked up to see us.
“There you are!” Trel said with an exasperated sigh. “What are you doing? You were supposed to be getting water, not sitting up in a tree.”
“Uhhh, we were attacked by raptors,” I said.
“So?” Hope continued her trek toward the tree and then stopped right where I had imagined she would and began to munch on some ferns.
“There were many of them,” Sheela said.
“So?” Trel repeated. “You should have just killed them instead of climbing a tree.”
“Ugh,” I groaned as I tried to control my anger. “We tried. There were just too many of them and we had to--”
“I’m playing with you!” Trel laughed. “Can’t you take a joke?”
“Oh,” both Sheela and I said.
“Yeah, we all got scared when Hope came back alone. Galmine, Kacerie, and I were arguing about what to do, but then Hope started scratching at the gate and honking. I wondered if she knew where you were, so I got on her back.