Page 58 of Caveman Alien's Terror

“Praxigor!” I yell, because I don’t know what else to do. “I never wanted to leave you!”

His step falters and he turns his head a fraction as if thinking. Then he walks on into the jungle and is gone.

For a long moment I just stare as the light goes out of the world.

“I never wanted to leave you,” I repeat in a whisper because I know my voice won’t carry. My face scrunches up, and I try to hold back the acid at the corners of my eyes.

The drums have stopped, and now there’s only the murmur of many voices behind me.

Mustering all the energy I have left, I turn around.

There’s several hundred cavemen from many tribes coming towards me, out of the jungle. They’re putting their swords back in their scabbards, disappointed that their quarry escaped.

A warrior with stripes in both yellow and green walks over to me, radiating the air of command. “Shaman Astrid, I am happy to see you this well. Are you injured?”

I pull myself together as much as I can. “No, Chief Korr’ax. He made sure I wasn’t.”

The chief of the Borok and Tretter tribes gives me a searching look. “The dragon who abducted you?”

“He didn’t abduct me. I went with him.”

He looks past me, over to the other side of the canyon. “Ah. The ways of the shamans are mysterious indeed.”

I glare at the army of cavemen, hating them with some intensity. “I see you wasted no time in starting your hunt for him.”

His way of raising his eyebrows is crude and plain compared to the dragon. “Not so much a hunt as a search. We thought he had taken you. We tracked you through the turfs of many tribes, letting any man we met join us. We don’t want the Darkness anywhere near us. Old Shaman Melr’ax has told us all about them. Are you ready to go back to our village?”

I check that the dragon dagger is still in its place. “I’m not. I will be going on to the Ceremat tribe. You may follow if you wish.”

“May I really?” His voice is dangerously mild. Yeah, Korr’ax is the chief and I’m technically his subordinate. I probably shouldn’t forget that he’s an extremely accomplished caveman in his own right, and he’s essentially the master of life and death in his tribes.

“What I mean,” I clarify, “is that I will be going, but I’m not asking anyone to follow me. It is where Praxigor is going.”

“Praxigor is the dragon?”

“I don’t think he’ll be there when we get there, but I have another reason to go to the Ceremat.”

“A shaman reason?”

I wish he would stop raising his eyebrows. He just doesn’t know how to do it right. “No. A friendship reason.”

He nods slowly. “My wife would murder me if I let you go away on your own in the jungle. I shall give you an escort. Don’t keep them too long, please. Every warrior is needed in the tribes.”

I look away. “As I said, I’m not asking for them. If you can’t spare any, that’s fine. I’ll tell Bryar that I told you all to go home. Give me a piece of leather, and I’ll write a message for her.”

Korr’ax smiles tightly. “You shall have two Borok men and two Tretter men. And you shall have another mission: offer the Ceremat tribe the friendship of our tribes. We don’t know them, but we’d like to.”

“Yes, Chief. I will do that.”

“Oh, and my wife sent this.” He waves a Borok man over and takes a dinosaur skin pack from him. “She was sure that we’d find you. And she must have suspected that you wouldn’t be coming back with us.” He hands me the pack. “She had only a few heartbeats to put it together before I left for the hunt. She was somewhat… distraught.”

There’s a new dinosaur skin dress, a pair of gladiator sandals, a set of stiff, new underwear, another knife, jars of useful medicines, and even a small pot offritwine. And a small leather square, where someone has scribbled ‘Sorry I pressured you. Good luck in finding Cora!’with charcoal. Yeah, she understood why I was suddenly missing.

“This is great,” I state. “Thank you. And thank you to Bryar. She was right.” I get the knife and carve a reply on the other side of the square. ‘Thank you. I decided this before our talk. The dragon isn’t as bad as they say. Don’t give birth without me!’

“If she wonders about the last part, tell her it’s a joke,” I instruct Korr’ax as I hand him the square. “But I hope to be home before that. Tell her this had to happen at some point.”

He folds the square and puts it into his waistband. “I shall make sure to relay your message.”

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