“Let’s go a little closer,” I said. “Then we can drop the body off and hope that they dispose of it.
“How much closer?” Sheela asked, and I could hear the concern in her voice.
“Maybe halfway?”
“Victor, they are very territorial. If they attack us, they will chase us back to our fort.”
“Then we’ll kill them there,” I said with a shrug. “The raptor corpses have to be moved, and I don’t want to drag all of them to the edge of the redwood forest. That will take us the rest of the day, and we need to go get water and clay.”
“Understood,” Sheela said. “I will do as you ask.”
We dragged the first corpse to the halfway point between our camp and the cave. Part of me wanted to go a bit closer, but Sheela’s worry was eating at me, so I decided to leave the corpse there and hoped that the orange birds would try to eat it.
“Next one,” I said as we turned back toward the camp. “We’ll clear the inside out first and then get the ones outside.”
“Very well,” Sheela said with her usual stoic nod.
“What do you think of Kacerie?” I asked.
“I do not have an opinion yet,” Sheela answered.
“You spent almost a whole day with her,” I said.
“Trel did most of the talking, I watched the clearing for raptors.”
“Ahh,” I said, and silence fell between us.
We reached the door, ducked back inside, and then grabbed the next corpse. Sheela didn’t speak as we dragged it back out across the clearing, and I started to get worried. The cat-woman was never much for conversation, but we had spent the majority of the last month working side by side, and there was something different about her today.
I didn’t say anything until we had grabbed the last raptor corpse from inside our walls and taken it almost to the dump site.
“Did I do something to piss you off?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” she asked. “How do I piss off?”
“Sorry,” I said. “It’s an expression. Are you angry with me?”
“No, Victor, of course not,” she answered quickly.
“You seem angry about something,” I said.
“It is nothing,” she said.
“Seems like it is something,” I replied. “Come on. We are buddies. Yeah, we got Trel’s help, but you and I pretty much built that whole fort and the one before it. You can tell me stuff if you want to.”
“I was thinking of my husband,” she said with a sigh.
“Oh, yeah.” I felt my stomach drop a bit.
I couldn’t really understand Sheela’s perspective, so I didn’t know if it was worth trying. On one hand, she was married to a man who had like sixteen other wives. She didn’t really know the man, and it sometimes sounded as if she had been unhappy. On the other hand, Sheela seemed like the kind of woman who enjoyed having her place set in life.
“It is not how you might think,” she said. “I do not miss him.”
“Ahh. Okay. I don’t want to pry.”
We set the corpse down beside the other bodies and then walked back toward the wall. There were twelve or so raptor bodies from our fight yesterday, and we each grabbed onto the one closest to the door.
“We have very little chaos in our lives,” she continued without me asking. “There can be violence between families when a male tries to take another’s harem, but major struggles have not happened in my area of the world for quite some time.”
“I’m trying to understand how your culture works. Did you have cars, streets, cities, and jobs?”
“We didn’t have the vehicles you spoke of,” Sheela said. “We did have machines, engines, and electricity, but our people enjoyed running. Yes, we had cities and streets made out of stone or metal. Most men had jobs, but only a few women did. Once they were married, they were responsible for raising the children and taking care of the home.”
“So every one of your race just ran everywhere?” I asked as I glanced at Sheela’s impressive body.
“Yes,” she answered with a half smile. “Oh, the women sometimes hunted game animals to provide food for the family, but we also had stores where food could be purchased.”
“Sounds kind of fun,” I said. “A blend of modern convenience and physical activity.”
“You mentioned that your people ride mostly in those cars and watch their ‘tell visions’? Did you enjoy physical activity before coming to this world?”
“They are called televisions.” I smiled at her as we dumped down the body. “And yeah, I liked going outdoors, but I also liked watching television and playing games that showed on the screen. I would have never thought I would be capable of building something like this.” I gestured back at the fort’s walls as we walked toward another corpse.
“What will you do when we return home?” she asked.
“Uhh, what do you mean?” I was a bit surprised by her question, and I turned to see her amber eyes glowing.
“It is an exercise I have been performing; which may have caused the mood you observed. If we were suddenly returned home, how would your life be different?”
“I dunno,” I said. “I feel like I gave up on rescue a few weeks ago when I had my talk with Trel.”
“When you were both alone in the cave?” Sheela asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I kind of realized that if her sisters with their spaceships and advanced technology weren’t going to come save her, there was no way anyone from my world was going to rescue me. So, I just accepted that I would be here forever.”
“Hmm,” Sheela said as she studied me.
“Yeah, but to answer your question, I think I’d do a lot of things differently. I would probably look for a new job.”
“Your occupation was animal hunter, correct?”
“Well kinda,” I said with a sheepish smile. “I helped find lost animals and moved dangerous ones out of our city. It was a good job but, my parents were animal doctors. When they died, I didn’t want to follow in their footsteps. I think I kind of sabotaged myself and took a job around animals that didn’t pay great. If I went back, I’d try to find something that paid more money and do my best to continue schooling so I could open up my own animal hospital.”
“Like your parents?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I replied. “I lost my way, but now I realize that life is pretty brief. I was always kind of shy and didn’t really jump at opportunities. I was afraid of failure or being mocked, but this last month has taught me a lot.”
“But would you be happy if you returned?” she asked as we grabbed another corpse.
“Huh,” I said as I thought about her question. “I think happiness is kind of what you make of it. I really wasn’t happy in my old life. I was letting my parent’s death kind of define me. Know what I mean?”
“Yes,” she said with her usual nod.
“It’s weird, but I’m really happy here.” My words made me chuckle a bit, and I looked down at the raptor carcass we carried. “I could die at any second, but I’ve kind of learned what I am made of. If I got back home, I think I’d really change my life. I sure as hell would be a lot more grateful that I wasn’t getting attacked by dinosaurs every day.”
“I understand,” Sheela replied, and we didn’t speak for a few more minutes.
The cat-woman and I grabbed another corpse, and then another, and then I kind of realized I hadn’t asked her the question she had asked me, and I wondered if that had been her intent.
“Would you be happy if you returned?”
“No,” she answered simply.
“Uhhh no? Why not?”
“I was alone.”
“But you are married and there were the other wives. Didn’t you have friends?”
“My husband cared little for me,” she said. “We met briefly on our wedding day and exchanged only a few words.”