Page 3 of Caveman Alien's Bride

Staying down, I open the powder case. It’s upside down, and the small puff and some of the powder fall out.

With one hand I hold the lid open and thrust the small mirror into the thin ray of sunlight. It’s easy to find because it makes a bright stripe through the little cloud of powder.

I immediately see the white spot of reflected light on the trunk of a tree, moving fast with each little twitch of my hand. I grab the wrist with my other hand to steady it and direct the spot of sunlight at the not-raptor to blind it.

“Damn.” I immediately know it’s not going to work. The monster is moving too fast, my hands shake too much, and it’s really hard to keep the mirror inside the sunbeam.

The ground shakes like a drum as the not-raptor approaches. It lowers its head to take the first bite.

With a last effort, I try the mirror again. And now the monster is so close that its hand-sized eyes are hard to miss. I reflect light straight into one of them and keep it there.

The dinosaur shakes its head and turns it to the side, its step faltering as it reaches up with its short forelimbs to block the light.

Then it turns right back towards me and all I see is the teeth as it gapes. A sour, rotten stench washes over me.

I reflexively curl up. So that was my life. Killed by a fuckingdinosaur…

No.A shot of hot defiance goes through me. I really have nothing to lose.

I scramble back on my feet, draw breath, and scream as loud as I can. Finding my fury, I let all my primal emotions out and make my own ears ring as I walk straight towards the predator, hands curled into fists.

“I’ll knock you the fuckout!” I wheeze, my voice hoarse from the scream.

The dinosaur stops.

It stands there for a second, three feet away, before it slowly topples onto its side with a loud crash. Huge hind legs kick the air uselessly before the truck-sized predator goes still.

I freeze. What the hell? Did I do that just by screaming and threatening?

“My God,” I wheeze, “maybe it works—shit!”

There’s movement between the trees. There's a shadow, green and yellow stripes, arms, feet, legs… and a face. Eyes staring straight at me, like the not-raptor just did. Except this gaze is harder.

It’s a man. A huge man, at least eight feet tall, and clearly an alien. Nobody on Earth has a face like that. It's both human and not at the same time, and it makes my skin creep worse than the not-raptor did.

My urge to run comes back with a vengeance, and this time I don’t suppress it. Fueled by horror, I bounce to my feet and bolt wildly into the jungle.

I hear the hunter’s footsteps behind me, and I know I’m losing the race. But this time I don’t have a plan.

A stick comes flying through my feet and trips me up. I barely have time to break my fall.

“Eek keh lup,”a deep voice rumbles.

I scramble to my feet, but before I can run, a hand grabs my shoulder.

Being in pure survival mode, I whirl around and go crazy, attacking the alien with kicks and punches, hissing and clawing.

I get in a couple of punches on him before he gets a better grip on my arm and holds me away from him, like a father with a toddler that’s throwing a tantrum.

His feet are bare, and he’s wearing some kind of skirt or a kilt made from thick leather. There’s a wide belt, and higher up he’s wearing nothing. He has muscles like rolling hills, covered in green and orange stripes that look like they’re part of him.

His eyes are green, his hair is thick, dark, and interwoven with golden strands.

The face is humanoid, but the proportions are all wrong. The jaw is too strong, the eyes are too deeply set, and I think I see a glintof fangs.

He looks most of all like a caveman. An alien caveman.

My breath is wheezy and shallow, my heart has been beating in my ears for a good while, and his grip is too firm for me to run.

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