Page 25 of Caveman Alien's Bride

“Greetings,” I smile. “I think you enjoy the Worship.”

“Yur inkrebli talended,”she coos, and it sounds like a good thing. “Ahl makid up tuyu sun, promis.”

I set her down and steady her while her knees start working again, then get dressed and hand her the strange bush she wears around her waist. “You’ll get some better clothes when we reach the village. Some of the men are working on it now. And your belt, but that will take longer.”

Breti’ax has left two packs on the ground. One contains food, and I make sure Bryar eats as much as she wants. When she’s done, about half of it is left. But she can’t fool me, and I make sure she knows I want her to eat the last half, too. “You need it more. When was the last time you had a good meal?”

She shrugs her narrow shoulders and finishes the food in a few big bites.

I scrunch up the empty leaf. “Nobody should need to be that hungry, my wife. You need a tribe to make sure you can eat. And now you will have two.”

“Sarih,”Bryar says, hiding a burp behind her hand. “Is jus, wee didn have alota food for a whyl.”

Grabbing the small pot of frit, I take a sip myself to check the quality before offering it to Bryar. “You need some of this.”

She sniffs it. “Das booz.”

“Drink it,” I urge her. “It will make everything feel good.”

She shrugs and takes a few sips.

I get the other pack and hand it to her. “I wanted to give you this to get you to marry me, but now it can be a wedding gift. If there is such a thing.”

She carefully unwraps the leaf and holds the disk with both hands, gingerly turning it over. “Is nise. Wut isit?”

I take the disk out of her hands and find a ray of sun from above. Placing the disk in the light with the polished side out, I make a reflection appear on a tree trunk. “I noticed you tried to blind the rekh with a disk like this, but it was too small. This should be big enough.”

She bounces up. “Oh eye gedit! Islyk my meer!” She takes the small disk out of her garment and shows it to me.

“But this is better,” I tell her. “I forged and polished it myself. When we find silver, I will make it shinier.”

7

- Bryar -

I’m so moved I can’t fight back the tears. Korr'ax must have noticed me trying to fight the not-raptor with the powder mirror, and then he made me one that’s twenty times bigger. It’s not mirror polished, but it obviously reflects sunlight really well. And while it is metal, it’s so thin it doesn’t weigh much.

I wipe a tear. “Thank you, Korr'ax. I can carry this with me and help you if we have to fight a predator.”

“Laos goh.”He points into the woods where Piper and the others went, then holds out his hand.

I take it, and then we’re walking again.

Korr'ax unrolls the piece of leather that he drew, draws a tree and points to it with the piece of charcoal he’s drawing with. “Pret.”

Okay, he’s teaching me his language. Which is probably a good idea.

“Pret,” I repeat and try to remember it.

He draws branches and leaves and various dinosaurs and rocks and other things that we see around us, as well as what I think are huts and weapons and many more things.

The language has hard consonants and soft vowels, and it’s easy to form the sounds. The words will take some memorizing, but my brain hasn’t really had much to do these past few years apart from panicking and overthinking about all the things that could kill me, so it should enjoy doing something it’s better suited for.

Sometimes Korr'ax will stop and listen and look up and around us for a while, which strikes me as perfectly reasonable on a dinosaur planet.

I’m slowly getting to terms with being married. Back at the altar, I panicked and ran when it hit me what I was about to do. But just like the first time I met Korr'ax, when he let go of me and showed me that I had a choice, it made it all easier. And Piper and I do need serious protection. Maybe we can start toliveon this planet, not just exist.

When we catch up with the others, it’s sunset. The three of them are sitting on logs and have built a small hut and a fire. Some big skewers are being grilled on it.

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