“Good,” she said as she grabbed my bicep. “Let’s go.”
“We need the water jugs and a leaf basket,” I said as I stepped toward the hut.
“I’ll get them!” Kacerie said quickly, and then she ran back toward the hut.
“Check it out,” I said to Sheela. I was suddenly suspicious of the pink-haired woman, even though I probably didn’t need to be.
Sheela nodded at me and then sprinted toward the door of the hut while I reached for one of the many spears we kept leaning against the walls. My friend reached the hut right after Kacerie did, and Sheela poked her head in for half a moment. Then she turned back to me, smiled, and raised her thumb up like I’d showed her to show that everything was okay.
“Here,” Kacerie said as she carried the basket and two jugs out of the hut. “The other four we’ve got drying aren’t ready yet.”
“That’s fine,” I said as I walked with her out of the gate. We attached everything to Bob’s back, and then we grabbed a second spear before we mounted him. A few moments later we were dashing through the clearing, and Kacerie was squeezing the air out of my stomach.
I gave her a brief tour of our little valley before I headed toward the lake. First, I showed her the fallen tree beside the river where we got our water. Then I ran up the river and showed her where we normally crossed to go to the lake area. Before I went that direction, though, I ran Bob over next to our old cave so I could climb the hill and give her a view. It was my second time up here today, but I was kind of enjoying the moments where I could oversee my little empire.
“This is our valley,” I explained when we got up to the hill. “There is jungle to the north over this hill. There is jungle and the lake to the east, that small mountain range is to our west, but the ocean is on the other side and the ocean kind of wraps around us on the south past those hills you can see there.”
“So, we are at the bottom left corner of this land mass?” Kacerie asked as she pulled her thick mane of pink hair over her shoulder. I’d never studied her hair closely, but the roots were a darker shade of pink that looked almost red, so I wondered if it was her natural color.
“Yeah bottom left is a good way to think of it,” I said. “We have the ocean to our west and south. You wanna tell me what’s bothering you now?”
“Let’s talk about it when we get to the lake,” she said as she turned to face me. “I want to see it.”
“Cool,” I said as I turned around.
“It’s actually warm out,” she commented. “I don’t know why you always think it is so cold.”
“Ahh,” I sighed. “Slang language from my world. I’m sorry. It means I either agree or think something is good.”
“I get it,” she replied, “but it doesn’t make sense as to why you would say it that way.”
I didn’t answer her. Instead, I just pushed Bob into his easy jog, and Kacerie got too busy holding on to me to bother talking anymore.
We forded the river, cut through the jungle, and then climbed the next hill that would bring us out of our valley and into the lake. I still saw the pillar of smoke in the distance, but Kacerie’s face was pressed into my back, and I descended toward the lake before she could see it. I didn’t really want to keep the information from her, but I didn’t know if I could trust her to keep her cool yet.
“We get the clay from over here,” I said as I steered Bob over toward the finger of the hand-lake. The trikes had left, but the small gang of parasaurs were still there.
“Okay,” she said as I slowed down his sprint.
“After we get it and some water, we’ll go to the other side and try to tame one of those parasaurs.” I held onto Bob’s reins with one hand and then pointed off into the distance with my other.
“Is it dangerous?” she asked.
“It should be okay, I’ve gotten two so far. I’d like to get one for everyone so we can all ride around if we need to.”
“That makes sense,” Kacerie said, “but I don’t know if I really want to control one of them.”
“You can just ride behind someone else then,” I said as we finished getting down the hill. The spot on the beach where we came out was devoid of dinos, and I made a little loop around the finger part of the lake where the clay was while I kept my eyes on the jungle.
“What’s wrong?” the pink-haired woman asked after I’d circled back around.
“Just making sure there are no predators,” I said.
“Like those green ones? How could they attack this creature we ride on? He is at least ten times their size.”
“There are bigger monsters,” I said. “They are called carnotaurus. They have horns on their head and are about the same size as Bob. He can outrun them, but if they sneak up on us, they’ll chomp him with their massive jaws. They are like bigger versions of the green raptors, only they don’t have feathers.”
“Ugh,” Kacerie said. “That is terrible. I hate this place. I wish I were home.”
“I’d send you back if I could,” I said. “We all want to go back.” I knew Sheela didn’t really want to return home, but I didn’t bother explaining that to Kacerie.
“We should focus on doing that instead of all this other stuff,” she said.
“When you say ‘all this other stuff,’ do you mean surviving? Cause that shit is pretty damn important.”
“It just seems like you aren’t even thinking about it. I need to get back. My business will die without me, and all my boyfriends will just move on to others.”
“I think we are safe to get down.” I ignored her last comment and then commanded Bob to lower himself next to the spot where the clay was. “The clay is over there. Take the basket and fill it up about halfway.”
“Ugh, I don’t want to do that,” she said as her hands came around my stomach and then ran up my back to touch my shoulders. “Look, Victor, is there anything I can do to change the situation at our camp?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The other girls are just really mean to me. They don’t treat me nice.”
“Uhh, what are you talking about?” I twisted around in the saddle so I could face her. The pink-haired woman was absolutely beautiful, but so were Galmine and Trel. A few weeks ago I probably wouldn’t have been able to talk to Kacerie without stuttering non-stop, but now her looks didn’t impress me.
“They just don’t treat me nice. Why is it so hard to understand?”
“Alright, we need to get the clay. Get off.” I pointed down the side of Bob and she slid off after I grabbed the leaf basket and set foot on the beach.
“You don’t see it since you aren’t around all the time,” she said as I set the basket down near the clay and started scooping some in.
“What do they say?” I asked as I tried to keep my face impassive.
“Well, it’s mostly Trel, a bit Sheela and Galmine, but Trel is mean. She thinks she is in charge and wants me to do all the work she doesn’t want to do.”
“Like what?” I asked. “Can you give me specific examples?”
“We are making pots, and she tells me that I have to make them faster and better. Then she reminds me how amazing you are every two minutes.”
“Trel is a bit critical, but she means well.” I shrugged and scooped more clay.
“You just need to see it. You aren’t there. When I just left, she told me that I’d messed up one of the pots, and I didn’t.”
“What does Galmine say?” I asked, and I started to feel a bit like I was one of those guys on that Bachelor TV show where the house full of women were talking shit about each other so they could get a rose.
“About what?” Kacerie asked.
“Galmine said something to you when you made a jug?” I specified.
“She didn’t say anything. I was talking about Trel.”