Breakfast, lunch, and dinner was a hunk of carnotaurus. The meat wasn’t as good as the orange bird, but it was a thankful break, and I took all the dinos for a quick drink after we ate our midday meal. The water helped their performance significantly, but I noticed that the parasaurs were starting to lose a bit of weight. On the flip side, they were also looking pretty muscular, and I wondered if there was a better balance between exercise and rest. I was probably pushing them too hard, but there would be plenty of time for them to rest as soon as the wall was built.
We just needed a few more days.
“This is going faster than I expected,” Trel said when we finished putting our fiftieth log up. “We only have ten more with holes that we can put up today.”
“Ugh, so burning the holes for the dowels is our new bottleneck?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she replied as she lowered herself down the wall on her spider legs. “I didn’t plan for the trikes when I first made my estimate. I have an idea though.”
“I like your ideas,” I said as I gestured for her to step into my arms and kiss me.
“Hmmm,” she sighed after we had kissed. “I like your lips. Yes, I have decided that I’m glad I didn’t kill you.”
“You just decided that now?” I chuckled. “Speaking of that, where is the raptor corpse you needed for you--”
“It is behind the hut, wrapped up in my webbing,” she said. “My poison is somewhat like acid. It has destroyed all the bacteria and is liquefying the meat and bones. Also, it isn’t just my brood. It is yours too, sweet Victor.”
“Uhh, yeah,” I said as I smiled at the beautiful woman. I actually wanted to ask her how she produced the silk she used for her clothes, but I figured it could wait until tonight. “Let’s talk about the logs though, since that is a pressing issue, and our brood really isn’t.”
“Ahhh, Victor,” she tisked. “You still do not think I will give birth to our children?”
“I’m willing to try as much as you want to,” I said. “But I know different species can’t breed. Sorry, Trel. I love you, but I just don’t think we can--”
“Shhhh,” she said as she covered my lips with her finger. “Just let me take care of everything. It is my job. Honestly, you aren’t even supposed to be alive right now, so I don’t want you to worry about it.”
“Uhhh. Yeah. Okay. I guess. Sooooooo about those logs? We have a bottleneck.”
“We can be done the day after tomorrow if we take a risk and burn the holes in the group we have waiting to be processed in the forest. Pulling them inside of the fort is limiting us to thirty.”
“What is the worst that can happen?” I asked.
“One of the holes doesn’t burn correctly, but the last two batches have been fine, and we haven’t needed to make any nightly adjustments. Even if one or two burn incorrectly, we’ll still save time. We can just push down more trees.”
“What else bad can happen?” I asked.
“The forest can catch on fire,” Trel said with a shrug. “Again, we’ve been fine for multiple days using the fire to do our top and bottom cuts. I don’t think we’ll have an issue, and we’ll have the wall built the day after tomorrow. We could get it done even faster if you wanted to burn it during the day.”
“No,” I said. “Not during the day. Let’s burn at night. Okay, you’ve convinced me. We’ll burn the top and bottom cuts as well as the holes tonight. It means we’ve got four hours of work to do in an hour before the sun sets, and I need to take the dinos for another drink. I’ll leave the trikes here with you, Kacerie and Sheela, and then make a second trip while a trike and the parasaurs guard you.”
“I’m sure we’ll be fine without your dinosaurs for a few minutes,” Trel said.
“Nope,” I replied. “Remember those raptors? I’m not going to feel safe until our wall is built. Also, we need to talk about the door when I get back.”
“I’ve got some ideas for that,” Trel said. “We’ll talk when you get back.”
Trel and I rode on Nicole’s horns to where Sheela and Kacerie worked. We updated them on our plans to burn the holes in the trees as we also cut the lines, and I gathered up the dinos to head for more water.
“Victor, can I accompany you?” Sheela asked as Nicole lowered her head so that Trel and I could get off her horns.
“Of course,” I said as I commanded Bob to kneel so I could mount him. The cat-woman climbed up to the saddle, wrapped her arms around my waist, and then we set off toward the river.
The trip to the water was quick, but I kept my attention on the ground and thought about digging up a long trench to lay down a clay water pipe. It was going to take a lot of work, and even thinking about the job was making me exhausted.
Fort first, then we could work on everything else. Running water wasn’t going to matter if carnotaurus and raptors attacked us.
“I suppose we should have brought some water jugs to fill up,” I said to Sheela once we made it to the river and my team of dinos started drinking. I’d left Tom and Katie at the work site, and had brought Nicole, Sonny, Cher, and Hope in addition to Bob.
“We have six more jugs full,” Sheela whispered into my ear. She hadn’t let go of my stomach even though we weren’t running.
“I’m just paranoid,” I said.
“But we are alive,” Sheela said. “That may be the reason why.”
“Yeah,” I said as I closed my eyes. Her breath was hot against my ear, and I leaned back into her embrace. I half expected her to let go and put some space between us, but she just seemed to hug me tighter, and I felt her face lay against my shoulder.
“It seems you like hugging me,” I whispered, and I could feel my heart start to race. We’d talked a bunch about our relationship already, but I knew that the loophole for us being together involved me training to fight a battle against a husband that I would never meet.
Sheela didn’t answer. She just let out a long breath and moved her hands up more so she was touching my chest.
“I haven’t been able to train with you,” I whispered. “I will after the wall is built.”
Sheela didn’t speak. Instead, the beautiful blonde woman began to purr as if she actually was a cat. The motion caused my spine and chest to vibrate pleasantly, and I felt my erection straining against my pants.
“I feel like you might have changed your mind,” I whispered, but Sheela didn’t answer.
What had changed since the last time we spoke? Was it me commanding my team of dinos to defend our camp against the seven carnos? Was it one of the decisions I’d made about building the camp? I didn’t know for sure, but it seemed obvious that Sheela’s affection had overwhelmed her desire for me to train and fight her husband.
Or maybe I was reading the situation wrong.
Either way, I decided to find out.
I commanded Bob to leave the water, and he walked to the shore of the river. My other team of dinos followed my commands to set up a guarded perimeter around us. Bob knelt on the ground so that we could get down, but Sheela’s face was still pressed into my shoulder. She hadn’t said anything yet, so I wondered if she guessed what I was going to do next.
“Sheela, get down from Bob,” I whispered after I’d turned my mouth into her blonde hair.
“Yes, Victor,” she replied, and then she sighed as she released her hug and slid down Bob’s side.
She stood on the soft grass a few paces from Bob’s leg, and I jumped down so that we faced each other. Her golden eyes met mine, and I could see her nipples pressing up against the tattered material of her bikini top.
“Sheela, take off your clothes,” I said, and her eyes opened a bit wider.
“Yes, Victor,” she whispered as she reached around her back. Her bra fell clear of her chest, and she moved her hands so she covered her nipples.