Page 65 of Caveman Alien's Terror

Okay, good.It’s the right tribe.

They stand back, and I straighten up and walk in as the leader of the group, trying to be regal but feeling faintly ridiculous because they’re all a couple of feet taller than me.

All eyes are on me, staring with wonder and the occasional dropped jaw. Tribesmen come running to watch, and there are excited exclamations from the boys of the tribe. That worries me — I’m not getting the vibe that this is a tribe that’s used to women, and now I seriously doubt that Cora is really here.

It’s a village of huts arranged in circles around the totem pole and common table. There’s a crackling fire with steaming pots hanging over it, a giant pile of firewood, and pottery kilns with drying pots stacked outside them.

And right next to the totem pole there’s a big cage with a live dragon inside it.

“As you can see, we have made quite a catch,” the Ceremat shaman says to me, his tall headdress an obvious sign of his position. “But perhaps you already know this agent of Darkness?” There’s a slyness in his voice that tells me he already knows the truth.

“I know him,” I admit, my heart suddenly racing. That’s Praxigor in the cage, his blue scales still badly cracked. He’s sitting down with his back to the fire and to us. “He’s not as dark as you think.”

“You spent some time with him,” the shaman goes on. “A long time, apparently. Perhaps you’ve become an agent of Darkness yourself?”

“We must study our enemies,” I tell him coldly, “the better to understand them. I am Shaman Astrid of the Borok tribe. What is your name, Shaman?”

“I am Shaman Dert’az. You admit that this is an enemy, then?”

“Not anymore,” I tell him. “Perhaps he was, once. But as you note, I spent time with him. Do you think that an agent of Darkness remains an enemy after being around a shaman for days? You’re plainly an experienced shaman, Dert’az, and you would certainly need less time than I needed to turn the dragon into a friend. I have only been a shaman for a few moons, after all. Perhaps I needed longer. And yet, the result is the same. I shall say no more about it here, so that the secrets that only you and I know will remain secret.” I gesture with my eyes to the crowd around us. I’m completely improvising this, not even sure what I’m trying to accomplish. I just feel that I should get this shaman on my side.

The other cavemen gather around us, listening. Mostly because I’m a woman, I think. Because now I’m sure that Cora isn’t here and probably never was. From the whispers and mumbled comments around me, I’m sure none of these guys have ever heard a woman’s voice or seen a woman at all. They’re so astonished, they hang on my every word.

“Indeed we shamans have our ways and secrets,” Dert’az agrees. “But we also have our duties. Our first duty is always the destruction of the Darkness and all its agents, be they ever so friendly.”

I nod regally. “Naturally. And we shall determine the best way to?—”

“Don’t believe a word she says,” someone yells from the crowd. “She loves the dragon! Indeed she has Mated with him!”

21

- Praxigor-

A gasp goes through the whole crowd. It’s Tarat’ex, of course, worried that this tribe of slayers won’t kill me after all.

There’s no need for him to worry. They will kill me, either with a blade or just by keeping me starved of gold. Now I think it will be the former. And it wouldn’t surprise me if Astrid held the blade. She must be furious after I left her.

I open my eyes. I see everything through a green haze, which must mean that my goldlessness is in its final phase.

Gold.Oh, but this whole cage is made from it! I grab a bar to feel its warmth. But it’s just dead wood, cold and devoid of life.

But the ground I sit on is gold! I dig into it with my claws. But they only come up with sand and dirt, not even a speck of gold. In a flash I remember the claw marks on the wall of Nunkapax’s maze. He must have seen gold everywhere, too, right before he died.

I laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all. A dragon without gold! Without a hoard! It can’t be real.

“A woman shaman has other ways of turning an agent of Darkness into a friend,” Astrid defends herself. “Mating with him is one of the ways. See how weak he is!”

“He was weak anyway,” Tarat’ex seethes. “He has no gold! That’s why. It had nothing to do with you,female.”

“It did,” I mutter to myself. “I wasn’t this weak before Astrid. It should have taken longer to get me into this state! She weakened me.”

Of course that was her plan the whole time. She tricked me with her light touches and her beautiful face and irresistible body. She trickedme, Praxigor the Devious! This was her plan all along, to put me in a cage. Why else would she be here? Even her wild story about another woman was a part of her plan. She wanted me to think there was gold to be stolen, making sure I stayed with her so she could weaken me further. It worked beautifully. I even got myself injured while protecting her from herself and the dangers on the planet. In flashes I even imagined staying on Xren with her, forgetting my hoard.

“She’s a witch,” I mutter. “Even more devious than me.”

My eyes widen. Through the green haze I suddenly see that the hut straight ahead is made of pure gold! Why didn’t I see that before?

I crawl to the other side of the cage and stretch my arms out between the bars. But when I look again, the hut is an ordinary construction of mud and straw and wood. There’s no gold in it.

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