Page 37 of Caveman Alien's Terror

“All right.” I shrug. “From nosiness. And not because I want to harm you or annoy you. Because I really don't. I just want to ask some things.”

“More questions,” he groans. “Is there really no way around it?”

“I suppose you can try saying 'no'.”

“Would it work?”

I pick a seed out of my mouth and flick it away. “I can’t imagine it would.”

“As I thought,” he sighs. “Go ahead, keeping in mind that I react badly to disrespect, or even the tiniest suspicion of it.”

I guess I better take advantage of him being in a semi-approachable mood. “Thank you. I will try. How did you get to Xren? You flew in your dragon form?”

He turns and stares into the distance. “There's no other way for a dragon.”

“Fine. Why did you come here?”

“Everyone else was going. Well, I’m sure these were important questions. Now?—”

“I have more questions!” I tell him. “Every other dragon was going?”

“Everyone that matters.”

“So there are more dragons on Xren?”

He sighs from pure boredom. “A handful that I know of are still left here. All right, that was as dull as I expected. But hopefully you satisfied your nosiness.”

“Not yet. Bear with me, please, Praxigor. Where are the other dragons?”

He takes a stone out of his pocket and starts picking at it with one claw. “Here and there.”

“Here? So nearby right now?”

“No. Thank you for taking an interest in the doings of your superiors. Now the nosiness has definitely been satisfied, perhaps we can?—”

The light from the closest hole in the ceiling suddenly goes out, as if someone put a lid on it high up there. Then the other holes follow until the whole underground hall is in darkness.

“That wasn’t sunset,” I state, glad I didn’t extinguish the torch. I pull it out of the dirt.

There’s a strange sound, a kind of a buzz getting steadily louder, but lower in tone.

“Someone’s coming,” Praxigor says. “Hopefully they’re less nosy than you.”

I look up. Those noises are coming from the light holes that are now dark. As if someone or something is sliding down the inside of those tubes on the way down here. And this is a place that’s tried to kill us with traps. “I don’t think that’s good news.”

Praxigor takes a step over to me and raises his eyebrow. “Good news on this planet? Of course it’s not!” He grabs my upper arm and leads me to a spot on the floor where we’re furthest away from all the light holes. At the same time we’re partly inside a cluster of slender trees that bear unripe fruit.

Something drops out of the closest light hole, hits the ground, and explodes with a drycrack.

It’s quickly followed by many others from the other holes all over the big hall, which is now really bright again.

It takes me a second to see what they are.

“Let’s go back up!” I gasp as my skin creeps and I try to move away.

“The stairs are over there,” Praxigor says, keeping me in place. “Let’s see what these things want first.”

They’re dinosaurs, fuzzy and gray, only about the size of husky dogs. But where a husky is furry and beautiful, these things have long, thick hairs that stand out from their bodies like a dense wire brush. They have four legs each, which is rare in the jungle. More common are the huge gapes with an absolute mess of small, cone-shaped teeth arranged in layers. Their eyes are crusty and small, four on each side of the head and one in the back. They're predators, working as a pack. I distractedly decide to call them ‘brushfangs’.

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