“That’s okay, Trel,” I said. “We aren’t used to doing this. We are all learning as we live. We know now. If the raptor bodies are still there tomorrow, we’ll get what sinew we can, if not, there will be other fuckers that attack us. We’ll use every piece of them to survive.”
“Good,” she said. “Now, before I get to the saddle, let me show you this platform. This will be the side support structure. I will join them together with slots and cordage. The shape of the trapezoid creates a slope on this one end. I will just need to make a rectangle at the back, steps on the front, and a floor to it. Then we will be able to step up and stand at an elevated position.”
“It is a good design,” Sheela said.
“Of course it is!” Trel beamed. “Now go get more material for cordage, and I will begin building a new saddle. Bring as much as you can before the sun sets.”
“Got it,” I said.
“I’ll put the water in the hut and then join you,” Sheela said as she carried the two jugs away.
I gave Trel a smile, and then turned to walk back to Hope, but the obsidian-haired woman grabbed my arm.
“We have a problem that you will need to deal with,” she whispered.
“Oh?” I asked.
“Kacerie is not willing to leave the hut tonight. I will not make love to you outside like some sort of animal. You need to deal with her so that she gives us our privacy.”
“Deal with her?” I asked with a bit of surprise since Trel had emphasized those words.
“Yes, kill her or something. She is annoying and getting in the way of my pregnancy.”
“I’m sure she can be reasoned with,” I said. “No one needs to kill anyone.”
“I said ‘or something.’” Trel huffed. “If it were up to me, I’d just kill her.”
“Trel,” I started to say, but she continued.
“I knew that would anger you! That is why I haven’t done it. You think she is useful, for whatever reason. Anyways, you are our leader and my selected mate. Just tell her where her place is in our tribe so that I can give you a night of pleasure. My womb is ripe and craves your seed.” Trel’s dark eyes pierced mine, and I felt a shiver of excitement descend my spine.
“I’ll fix it,” I said as I saw Sheela exit the hut. Neither of the two women seemed to like Kacerie, but I wasn’t going to judge her until I spent more time with the woman.
Sheela and I jumped back on Hope and trotted out of the doorway. The trip to the closest group of ferns was really quick, but we were going to be able to carry more on the back of Hope than if Sheela and I had just run there.
“Now it appears something is bothering you,” Sheela said as I cut the dozenth fern away from the ground and stacked it in her arms.
“Neither you nor Trel seem to like Kacerie,” I said. “I need to spend some time with her.”
“Agreed,” Sheela said. “Galmine, Trel, and I have developed a strong bond with you. I believe Kacerie will as well.”
“Yeah,” I said as I put another bundle of ferns into Sheela’s arms. “That seems like enough. Let’s--”
A loud roar cut through the forest. It was almost deafening, and I saw the fallen leaves and needles on the ground actually vibrate.
“Get the fuck home!” I hissed as I turned to Hope. The parasaur’s head was held up high, and I saw her twist her neck toward where the noise had come from.
Sheela and I ran to the side of our steed, and I helped my friend mount so that she didn’t drop all the ferns. Then I leapt up in front of her, and Hope sprinted back to the gate. Another roar sounded as soon as we made it through, and I quickly tied our locking ropes around the door handles so that it couldn’t be moved.
Kacerie and Trel were running toward me on bare feet, and I saw Galmine poke her head out of the hut’s door.
“What was that? How close is it? Do we need to hide?” Kacerie asked.
“Something big, I don’t know, and we have nowhere to hide,” I answered as I grabbed some of the ferns from Sheela.
“What do you mean, you don’t know? Aren’t you our leader? You are supposed to--”
“Let’s go in the hut, eat dinner, and work on these ferns,” I said to the women. Kacerie’s face turned red when I didn’t answer her, but Sheela and Trel moved to follow my instructions, and the pink-haired woman was forced to follow.
The inside of the hut was a bit cramped with five of us, but I opted to sit with my back at the doorway, and we soon had the ferns distributed among us.
“We don’t have clay, so we are going to work on cordage and baskets,” I began as soon as we all sat down. “Trel and I are going to figure out better ways to make baskets, while Sheela and Galmine teach Kacerie how to make cordage. We’ll use the center parts of the fern for the baskets and the outer parts for the cordage so we don’t waste any of the parts. Stack the basket parts over by Trel and me. Any questions?”
“What are we going to do if the monster that roared comes?” Kacerie asked.
“We’ll probably die,” I said with a shrug.
“What kind of answer is that?” she hissed. “You won’t save us?”
“Do you want me to save you?” I asked her with a half-smile.
“Uhh, yeah.”
“Cool, don’t worry then. I’ll save you.”
Kacerie’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t believe you.”
“Oh, you should,” Galmine said. “Victor is incredibly brave. He’s fought many dinosaurs and never been beaten. He will protect us. You don’t need to worry.”
Kacerie rolled her eyes, but I noticed Sheela’s mouth open wide. She turned to look at me, and her eyes seemed to glow with the firelight.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her, but the cat-woman shut her mouth and then shook her head.
“Get to work,” I said. “We can’t do anything about that big motherfucker finding us, but we can focus on the baskets and cordage. Make it happen.”
My friends all nodded, and we split into the two task groups.
During the last week of fort-building with Trel, we’d developed a much closer relationship. She used to belittle me at every chance, insult me when I made a mistake, or harass me when I tried to work with her. Our friendship had reached a turning point when she told me that she loved me and didn’t want to lose me. It had triggered an alert in my Eye-Q and added her to my list of “Women” assets. I still didn’t know exactly how the system knew for sure that she should be on the list, but as we sat and puzzled through the best way to weave baskets, I knew the spider-woman had come to value me as a friend and leader.
Soon, I hoped she would value me as a lover.
After a few different attempts, we came up with two basket designs we knew would work for our purposes. The first we created by taking the smaller offshoot leaves from the ferns, stacking them together in bunches of ten that were about a finger in length, and the bending them in half around another bunch. We then tied them together with one of the longer arms of the leaf Sheela, Kacerie, and Galmine were using to make cordage. The design took on a bit of a circular-spiral shape after we did this a few dozen times, and the tightness of the leaves meant that mud, clay, or any other semi-liquid type fill would have trouble escaping. We made the bottom circular-spiral about a foot in diameter and then used the same “stacked and bent leaf” method to create rolled sides that we tied to the base. The end result was a cylinder basket with three-foot tall sides and a circumference that was easy to wrap our arms around. There were small holes in a few spots where we didn’t quite get the leaves tight enough, but it was going to be the perfect basket to carry clay or mud in. The best part of the design was that it was made entirely with the smaller parts of the fern, and it incorporated using the leaves we really didn’t have much use for with our cordage making process. It left the larger center stalks available to peel and use for cordage, but Trel and I came up with our second design that used those thicker parts to make baskets that would be great for trapping fish or carrying ferns.