“I’ve got a good camp the next valley over,” I said as Bob crept closer. “You’ll like it. You can bring your two friends with you. I promise to give you plenty of food, water, and some fun stuff to do. Right now we are building a wall. We could really use your help. What do you say?”
The trike snorted and stomped his foot. I felt my chest constrict when he turned to glance at me, but then he shifted his beaked mouth back to the algae he was eating and seemed to pretend like I wasn’t there.
“Yeah, I know,” I whispered as I tapped my heels against Bob’s flank. “Being bored sucks. What do you do all day? Just eat algae? I’ve got something way more fun for you to do. You should come back with me. We’ll have a great time.”
The trike snorted, stomped, and then shook his crested head like he was a dog that was adjusting his collar. Bob wanted to stop moving forward, but I knew the trike’s movements weren’t aggressive. He was just getting used to me being there.
“That’s a good boy,” I said as I rested my hand against his scaled flank. His back seemed fifty percent wider than Bob’s, and it was going to take Trel a shitload of cordage to make a saddle.
“Let’s go, buddy. I want you on my team.”
Triceratops horridus tamed.
I almost shouted with joy, but I didn’t want to scare the two females, so I commanded the male to keep eating while I circled around on Bob. The closest trike female was a bit skittish around me and edged closer to her male, but I was confident in my ability now, and it took me only a few complimenting words to get her tamed.
“Damn, I’m on a roll,” I whispered as soon as the update message came across my Eye-Q. I wondered if there was a limit to how many dinos I could keep tamed, but I didn’t know a way to test it other than just taming every single dino I came across. But if there was a limit, could I untame dinos to get access to others? I didn’t want to waste all my slots taming the orange birds if I could only do a maximum number that never increased.
I slowly rode Bob through the water toward the last trike. This female surprised me by turning toward me. She lowered her horns a bit and let out an aggressive sound that reminded me of a truck engine firing up. It was apparent that she was about to attack, so I did the only thing I could think of doing.
“Stop,” I ordered. “You are coming with me now.”
I was a good twenty feet away from her, but the tame message still scrolled across my eye. The words kind of shocked me because I hadn’t touched her, or said any soothing words. I’d just told her in a commanding voice that she was coming with me, and the female instantly fell under my control.
Was I getting more powerful? Or was that just how my ability worked? Were all the nice words unneeded? Could I just control dinos from afar with a quick order and press of my will? I was excited to test it out, but that would have to be done tomorrow or the day after. I had to get back to camp now since we still had plenty of work to do.
“Alright guys,” I said, “Let’s head back. I gotta think of names for you three on the way. Just follow Bob’s lead and we’ll take you to your new home.”
The three trikes let out snorts of agreement, and we began our trip back toward the fort. It was obvious that the trikes couldn’t run as fast as Bob could, so I slowed his speed down to about half so they could keep up with him. As we made our way up and out of the lake valley, I glanced back over my shoulders to check on their progress. One of the times I looked, I saw the male slam into the side of a tree with his shoulder. The tree was probably four feet in diameter, so a bit smaller than the ones we were currently working on, but the tree snapped off at the base as if it was a toothpick.
Holy shit. These guys were going to make fort building so much easier.
Trel, Sheela, and Kacerie looked up from the logs when I approached our work site, and I stopped my new trikes right at the edge of the clearing.
“Well? What do you think?” I said as I gestured back over my shoulder. “The big male in the middle is named Tom. The one on his left with the red marks on her crest is named Nicole, and the one with the brown streaks on her face is named Katie.” I laughed as I said their names, but there was no way my friends would know the actors I was referencing.
“They are impressive,” Sheela said as her eyes glanced at the new dinos. “They will really help us build.”
“Victor, you know I love you,” Trel started, “but I think you might have an addiction to collecting dinosaurs.”
“Hey babe, if collecting dinosaurs is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.”
“Babe?” Trel asked with confusion.
“Uhh. It’s another word for a significant other.”
“Not a child then?” she asked.
“No, it can be used both ways, but I have all the clay we need. Let’s get to work on burning these logs. The sun is going to set soon, and we’ll have to start working on the ones inside the fort. I’m going to go take the parasaurs to the river for a drink, since they haven’t had any water today. I’ll leave the trikes here to protect you all.”
They helped me unload the baskets from Bob’s back, and I issued the protection order to Tom, Katie, and Nicole. The trikes seemed to follow my commands just like the group of parasaurs did, and I was again struck by the possibilities of what my ability could do. Would I really be able to command them like an army? Part of me was afraid to find out, since I didn’t want us to get attacked anytime soon, but a darker part of me wondered if I could command some sort of massive dinosaur army.
It was a weird thought, especially considering that I was just a dog catcher back home.
Memories of my job, parents, shitty apartment, and the party with Lacey occupied my brain on the way to the river. Since my parents had died, I hadn’t really mattered to anyone, even myself. Now my life was filled with danger, but I had two beautiful women who were my lovers, and another woman who admitted that she had feelings for me. These women needed me to protect them, and I had been given a powerful ability to control the animals on this dangerous planet. I recalled Lacey’s pool party and let out a slight laugh. I’d cared so much about what all those women there thought about me, but now I didn’t care about anything in my old life.
Just yesterday I’d talked to Sheela about coming back with me, but now I realized that I was like the beautiful cat-woman: I didn’t want to return home. I didn’t want to go back to my job, or my shitty apartment. I didn’t want to go back to being the man I was. Here I could control my own destiny. Maybe I had that power back on Earth, but it had seemed impossible to change my fate. Yeah, if I went back now, I’d push to go back to school and become a vet, and I’d ask out every single pretty girl I saw and be fine with rejection, but I didn’t want that anymore. I just wanted Trel, Galmine, and Sheela to be happy.
I wanted to be King of Dinosaurland.
Bob wasn’t that thirsty since he drank at the lake, but the other three parasaurs were parched, and they pushed their faces into the river for what felt like ten minutes. I decided that we needed more water breaks tomorrow, and I wondered again about building some sort of aqueduct to get water from the river to our camp so we didn’t have to make daily trips. We’d just made a bunch of water jugs to avoid this problem, but the dinos were still going to need to rehydrate every day, so I wasn’t really saving that much time.
The water problem spun around inside of my brain while we rode back to the camp. I figured there must have been a way to pump the water out of the river and get it across land. The Romans did it, so there must have been a method. We hadn’t figured out how to smelt metal yet, but I had a bunch of dinosaurs I could use for tasks, so there had to be a way I could either harness their power, or figure out some sort of pump that could push the water to us.