Page 4 of Caveman Alien’s Horn (Caveman Aliens #26)

4

- Sprisk -

I hear the vine start to break before I see it. My hands shoot out and grab the part that just broke off. I’m able to stop it, but it’s a fragile thing, nowhere close to the fresh green vine it looks like. The inside is all rotten and dry.

“Hang on!” I yell to Cora. “I’ll pull you up!”

I gingerly start hoisting the vine up, foot-length by careful foot-length. I want to keep the vine as straight as possible. The slightest bend could break it again. The work is complicated by the stab wound in my forearm, because blood is running down to my hand and making it slippery.

“Don't move!” I fret.

She might get it into her mind to fight me or to try to set the vine swinging. She's an alien woman. Only the stars know what goes through her mind.

But she stays still, clinging to the vine with arms and legs. I can hear her quick panting.

The vine holds. Slowly I bring Cora back up until she can step off onto a branch.

She clings to the branches, hunched over, breathing hard.

I drop the vine. “It was rotten,” I tell her. “But it was a good try.”

She looks up at me, eyes flashing. “You not take me!”

I immediately prove her wrong by grabbing her and tossing her over my shoulder again. “You will be all right,” I promise as I carry her back down to the ground, carefully avoiding that strange trap full of strings and threads.

She’s not fighting anymore, and her knife is gone. I walk as fast as I can in the dark, itching to run but worried about what I might hit.

“Let down,” Cora says from behind my back. “I not want!”

“You’re not safe here,” I explain again. “There are gray ghosts, irox might come, a rekh almost got you, and I think that dragon knows where you live. I will keep you safe. My name is Sprisk. Now be quiet.”

I’m worried about the gray ghosts. There are many of them in this part of the jungle. They may live nearby.

Cora doesn’t obey. Instead she starts talking loudly in her alien language. I don’t know what she’s saying, but it’s obvious that she’s doing it on purpose.

“Be quiet!” I hiss. But it’s too late. There are movements behind us that could be small creatures jumping this way fast.

I have no choice, so I sprint. The way I came here is difficult, but it’s the only way I know and I must use it.

“Let go! Aaaaahhh! ” Cora screams with anger in her voice.

“No,” I tell her.

“Yes!”

“No. Now be quiet or I shall pinch you.” I reach up with my free hand and lightly pinch her little calf, noticing the impossible smoothness of her skin.

“Stop!” she screams.

Before I know it we’re at the steep cliff with its narrow shelves leading down. If I were anyone else, this would be where I’d have to stop. But because I’m the best climber in the clan, I barely slow down as I run down the narrow, uneven shelves along the rock. In some places the shelf is only half the width of one of my feet, and in others it’s missing completely and I have to jump. It doesn’t help that the rock is slippery from the rain. But I only get one chance at this, and I feel pretty confident.

“Stop!” Cora yells again, her voice so piercing is must be heard all the way over at the Borok village.

I pinch her again, but it has no effect. And I don’t want to pinch her hard.

Cora is making this descent more dangerous. Although she doesn’t weigh much, she is carrying a pack and she keeps writhing and yelling, making it hard for me to concentrate on placing my feet right.

But we reach the bottom of the cliff without me having to slow down much. I stop for a moment and look up. The cliff face is dark and no movement is showing. The gray ghosts must be coming down another way. When they get here, it’ll be too late for them to stop me.

I readjust Cora and quickly climb the tree I saw before. It’s very tall, and the trunk is slender and smooth, without a single branch or twig below the wide, leafy crown high above.

I have no chance to outrun the gray ghosts at night, but I can hide while I check the place she stabbed me. And they won’t expect anyone to be able to climb this tree. For me, it’s not much of a challenge, despite the wet bark and the water dripping from above.

It takes a while to get to the top of the tree. I install myself, wedged in between long, slender branches.

Then I take Cora down from my shoulder and place her on my lap. Her eyes are wide and dark, her breath fast and her heartbeat even faster. She smells absolutely wonderful, both familiar and strange, with a sweetness I can’t place but which must be because she’s a woman.

There’s a beginning hardness in my loins because she’s sitting right on top of my rod and her intense warmth is seeping through my loincloth.

And, I notice, she’s clinging to my arm. Possibly because she knows how high up we are, and that below us there’s only a long fall. And a very sudden landing.

“I already regret taking you,” I lie as I check on my wound. It’s deep, and it still bleeds, but I can move my fingers fine. “You stabbed me and tried to stop me from saving you. Now I don’t care anymore. I’m tired. If you make another sound, I’ll leave you here. See if you can get down on your own!”

I have no intention of doing any such thing. But I do want her to be quiet.

“You not save,” she persists. “You take. I not want!”

I sigh and reach out to put a hand over her adorable, but dangerously noisy little mouth. “Quiet— ow! ”

She somehow manages to bite my palm. I snap my hand back, but she draws breath to scream so I have to silence her again. This time I cup my hand to avoid her sharp little teeth. I hear the sharp clicks as she snaps her jaws, trying to bite again. Her eyes shoot dark fire.

“You’re like a rekh hatchling,” I growl. “Too aggressive for your own good.”

I look down. Still no movement. But the gray ghosts are somewhere near, I’m sure of that.

Damn it. This didn’t turn out the way I wanted. I was hoping Cora would cling to me as her rescuer, thanking me for saving her. But she seems more upset than anything.

At least I rescued her at night, so she couldn’t see how hideous I am. I never thought she would fight me and stab me.

The tree shakes with a loud crack of thunder, and the rain intensifies to a deafening roar.

I give Cora a smile. “Hear that? We’re lucky. Maybe the stars are smiling at us.”

I grab her again and climb back down, sliding the last few foot-lengths of the slippery trunk. In this terrible noise, the gray ghosts can’t hear Cora, even if she screams.

Running through the jungle, I recognize some of the waypoints I’ve noticed and marked earlier.

This might still work.

- - -

I don’t want Cora to lie over my shoulder with her head down for too long — it can’t be good for her. So I yank her forwards, bend her double, and put my face in hers, wanting to scare her. “From the goodness of my heart I’ll carry you like this,” I snarl. “If you make more sounds, or if you fight me again, you’re going straight back over the shoulder.”

I’m not sure how much she understands. She stares at the spikes in my face, suitably horrified.

With her at my chest, I run on. It’s easier now that she’s not bouncing against my back with every step I take.

But it’s more distracting. She smells so good, and she’s so soft. Her long, wet hair hangs down across one of my hands, caressing it with each pace I take. I can’t ignore her warmth and softness in my arms, the alien beauty of her face despite the dark night.

Well, she’s seen me now. She’s not screaming anymore, at least.

After a while I notice that she’s closed her eyes. She just may be asleep.

It makes me soften my moves to not wake her up. Who knows what kind of noises she might make when she sees where she is.

“You got her,” a voice says from a tree I pass.

I stop in my tracks and readjust Cora in my arms. “Did you doubt I would?”

“No,” Bakitan says and comes out from behind the tree. “Your wildest actions usually turn out the way you say they will.”

“Well, here she is. She may be tough, but to me she’s been very sweet. Mostly.”

He points. “Your hand is bleeding.”

I wipe the blood off on a nearby tree. “She misunderstood me in the beginning.”

“And now she understands you?” the boy asks, and I suspect it’s his adolescent sarcasm again. “Is that why you have to carry her and hold her wrists in a secure grip?”

“What are you doing here?” I grunt as I shift my grip on Cora. She’s awake now, her eyes angry. But she’s staying mostly still in my arms.

“You told me what you were going to do,” the adolescent says. “And I thought, ‘that sounds pretty wild. I want to see it.’”

“Wild?” I ask. “Rescuing a small, soft woman from the jungle, from the gray ghosts and the rekh? Is it really wild?”

Bakitan shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s just the way it sounded. You’re the wildest man in our clan, Sprisk. I really like that. Well, you got her. Did she want you to?”

“She lived like an outcast!” I exclaim. “In a tree! With only a small blade as her weapon! Would you like to live alone in the jungle? In a tree, all alone? With only gray ghosts as company?”

“No way,” he chuckles. “I like our clan. Is that where you’re taking her? You think you’ve Found her?”

I look down on Cora. No, she’s not Found. “I don’t think Brak and Noker would like it. Their wives might, though. But maybe not. They didn’t want anyone to know about her. Cora isn’t a Foundling, of course. Look! She has nothing wrong with her! She’s… perfect!”

“You want her to yourself,” Bakitan concludes, cradling his malformed hand with its single finger. “You want what Brak and Noker have. A wife.”

“I want her to be safe,” I correct him. “I know my shortcomings. I’m not like Brak or Noker. No alien woman will want to marry me. This one screamed in horror the first time she saw me. No, I’ll keep her safe without the clan. I’ll get her away from the gray ghosts. They’re following us, by the way. Go home now, and I will continue with Cora.”

“If they’re following you, aren’t you worried they will attack?”

I look behind me, back the way we came. There are no suspicious movements. “Perhaps they just want us off their turf.”

“How long will you be gone from the clan?”

I readjust my grip on the woman. “I don’t know. Could be a long time. I can’t leave Cora. I have to keep her safe. Are you going to tell the clan what I’m doing?”

The boy shrugs. “My guess is that you don’t want me to. So probably not. Not yet, anyway. But if you don’t return, I may have to tell someone why you’re gone.”

I suppose that’s the best I can expect from any clansbrother. “Thank you.”

“Don’t stay too long,” Bakitan says. “The camp is no fun without you.”

“Tell clan,” Cora pipes up with her little voice. “Tell man take woman, not want!”

“I don’t think she wants it,” Bakitan says. “Although her speech is strange.”

“She uses words she doesn’t know,” I assure him. “Everyone wants to be safe. She saw me chase away the rekh that was about to eat her. She knows she’s safe with me.”

“Tell women in clan,” Cora goes on, gritting her teeth and yanking angrily on her arms, “that Cora is take, not want!”

“She’s safe from the jungle,” Bakitan says. “She may not be safe from you .”

“I will do nothing to harm her,” I state with certainty.

“Are you sure? Because I’ve seen you angry. You get intense. ” He casually turns and walks into the woods, towards the clan’s camp.

“Stupid boy,” I mutter. “He doesn’t understand.”

As I heft Cora again in preparation for walking on, loosening my grip on her, she suddenly kicks and writhes so much that I drop her to the ground.

She bolts into the jungle the way Bakitan went. “ Waaaade! Yu goda seivmiiii!”

I sprint after her, branches and bushes whipping me around the ears.

Easily catching her, I grab her around her waist and toss her over my shoulder like before while she shrieks and kicks and punches. “If this is the way you want it, fine.”

Bakitan comes sauntering back. “She’s not being so sweet to you anymore.”

“She’s an— oof! alien,” I grunt as Cora lands a hard punch on my spine. “This is how they show sweetness.”

“Never saw Brak’s and Noker’s wives doing that.”

“But you never saw them in their untamed state. This one is still wild. Just like me. Why are you still here? Get going.”

He nods, gives Cora a pensive look, and slowly walks away.

There’s still no sign of the gray ghosts. I decide to not worry about them and to not think too much. I should just get to where I’m going.

I’ve walked for a good while when I hear pitiful noises from behind my back. Swinging Cora around, I hold her upside down in front of me. “Well?”

She doesn’t say anything, just sniffles. Her face is looking a little redder than it should, the eyes too.

“I will carry you in the other way,” I tell her. “But only if you stop kicking me.”

She shows no sign of understanding, but I can’t bear to see her this sad so I cradle her in my arms and walk on.

She quickly turns her head to look ahead.

“I look scary,” I tell her as I walk. “But you don’t need to look at me.”

She sends me an angry glance as if to say something, but changes her mind.

The jungle gets brighter as morning approaches. Still there’s no sign of the gray ghosts, and my secret place is not far away.

I spot a dara tree with ripe fruits on its lower branches. “I think we’ll stop for a while,” I tell Cora. “I know that alien women need lots of fruit to live.”

I put Cora down on the trunk of a fallen tree. “Sit there while I get some food. You can run, but if you do, you better hope I get you before the Bigs do.”

She gives me a half-hearted kick, but makes no effort to run or get up from the log. She may be hungry, too.

I quickly climb the tree and pick the ripest, most colorful fruits. Glancing down to check if Cora is still there, I’m half surprised to note that she’s still sitting on the log.

But I also see that she’s in great danger.

“Stay away from her!” I yell as I drop the fruits.