Page 14 of Caveman Alien’s Terror (Caveman Aliens #25)

14

- Praxigor -

The pain from the lack of gold has weakened. It worries me. It should be a constant pain everywhere. Why isn’t it getting worse, rather than better? Perhaps because my instincts tell me that the woman that Astrid talked about may indeed by the way I finally acquire gold. Even a small bracelet should be enough, if it’s at least somewhat pure.

I glance at the fruit she shows me. “That’s pure filth you want me to eat. Leave that on the ground for a few days and you’ll see what happens to it. It will show you what it truly is.”

“It will rot,” Astrid chirps. “I already knew that. But right now, it’s delicious.” She bites into it, making juice run down her chin. “Nothing lasts forever. We have to enjoy the good things while they’re here.”

“Gold lasts forever,” I tell her. “It will always shine, never go dull. It keeps its weight and its heat, regardless of how long you lie on it and enjoy it.”

She turns once, showing me her unreasonably attractive behind with its deep, long split. “Once you find gold, I’d love to learn to lie on it. You make it sound so nice. Isn’t it cold?”

My cock twitches, both from the sight of Astrid’s feminine qualities and the thought of gold. “Yes! It’s cold at first. Cold and distant. Standoffish. It must be conquered and made warm. The more gold there is, the longer it takes to warm it up. But then it starts giving off its own warmth, and it heats you up, from the scales to your very heart and mind. It’s the most relaxing feeling, the greatest satisfaction! And yet, it’s never enough. Because the gold whispers to you all the time: ‘If this tiny amount of me feels this good, imagine what it would feel like if you had twice as much!’ And it’s true. More is always better.”

“And so you always need more,” Astrid chirps. “You can never rest completely. Never be fully satisfied.”

I laugh. “Never fully satisfied? Woman, you have never plundered another dragon’s hoard! That is satisfaction, of a kind that you will never experience.”

Her eyes twinkle in the soft green light that surrounds us. “Don’t be so sure, dragon. I know what it means to be satisfied.”

My cock twitches again, hardening fast. “Yes, I suppose you do, in your little way.”

She scratches her chin. “It was only a little, I suppose. Oh, if only someone could help me get really satisfied…”

I recognize the teasing in her voice, but still her words ignite fury in me. I grab both her arms and pull her to me. “Your only someone is Praxigor. No one else!”

She dares meet my gaze with a mischievous smile. “But Praxigor says he only satisfied me a little .”

Her lack of fear both annoys and excites me. “You’re playing a deadly game, woman.” I lift the whole female up and take her slender throat between my teeth, touching her warm skin. The dragon in me is dangerously close to the surface, and for a brief moment I have the feeling that I might Change. But of course there’s no gold, so it’s impossible. Instead I lift Astrid higher, squeeze her against me, and lower her until the tip of my cock is touching her slick sex. “Are you sure you want to continue?”

She puts both arms around my neck. “Make me stop,” she rasps into my ear and pulls her thighs up to open herself fully, squeezing me between them.

I lift her easily, but there’s a compact weight to her that almost reminds me of…

No, it’s silly. She’s not made of gold.

I lower her down and adjust my manhood until it touches her wetness. She’s so slick that I simply lower her further until I feel her warmth embrace the first part of my rod. Sticky drops of her juice run down my shaft, cooled by the air but telling me that she’s more ready than any female I’ve ever known.

Her eyes are glassy when I lower her further, past her tightest spot.

“Ohh,” she whimpers as I fill her up.

She’s remarkably tight around me, warm and inviting. I know I won’t last long like this - she’s driving me crazy with her need and her constant arousal that keeps affecting me. For some reason, her not being a virgin anymore is just making me more excited. I took her first, and I want to be the only one who has her.

I bottom out in her, holding her firmly and enjoying her body all around my rod, her fast heartbeat resonating through my whole pelvis. Her dark tone looks wonderful against my light blue, as if she was specially made for me. Only gold looks better on me. And doesn’t she have a golden hue sometimes, in the right light?

I lift her, pushing her center against me because I know that stimulates her the most. Lowering her again, I’m conscious that I’m using her for my own pleasure, doing what feels best for me.

“It’s the way it should be,” I growl. “You are to please me.”

“Yes,” she gasps. “I want to please you. Harder, Praxigor. Harder!”

I increase the speed and penetrate her to her very depths with each thrust. The climax is already boiling at the bottom of my spine when Astrid’s eyelids flutter, she goes quiet and then screams out in joy.

I speed up more, wanting to enjoy this to the fullest. And while she’s shaking in my arms, I roar as I release inside her, my cock twitching in hard spurts that seem to go on for a long time.

But it’s nothing compared to her. When I’m good and spent, she’s still climaxing, hard and loud. And I want to allow her the pleasure, so I keep fucking her, lowering her and raising her, slowing down to help her land safely.

Astrid clings to me, panting. “Oh. Yeah. That was more than a little.”

“Nothing about me is little,” I say with some satisfaction of my own. “Except my patience for game-playing females.”

Her quick breath is warm on the side of my neck. “I like it when you’re impatient.”

I squeeze her bare butt with one hand, making sure she feels a hint of the claws. “You keep turning my words back at me.”

“We all have our flaws,” she sighs.

I squeeze harder. “Except?”

“Mmm. I like that— ow! Okay, okay. Except you, I guess.”

“You’re learning.” I gently pat her behind, enjoying the scent of her hair.

A part of me is aware that this is unheard of. Praxigor the Devious, mating with a female of a lesser species, not even a virgin anymore, and standing like this, just holding her while she recovers? Why am I not tossing her into the bushes or tearing her in two along her middle? Is it just the gold-less weakness, or is it something more? If so, what?

The light from the holes dims noticeably, and I lift my head. Astrid’s little pet comes bounding towards us, tails looking dangerous. At the same time, there’s movement over by the stairs.

I set Astrid down. “Someone’s coming. Put some clothes?—”

Before I know it, black shapes are dropping from the light holes all around us, one after the other. They bounce from the ground and jump all over us.

Astrid screams as a half dozen of the things grab onto her with many arms.

Fury explodes in me. “Let go of her!” I start ripping the things off her and throwing them away, but more and more come jumping until we’re both covered in furry creatures with a dozen arms each. I try to keep them off Astrid, but the attackers grab onto my arms, hands and even fingers, weighing me down.

“Praxigor!” comes Astrid’s muffled, desperate call as the creatures overwhelm her.

“Aaaargh!” I roar, throwing some of them off me with a furious effort. But these attackers aren’t mindless predators, and they have planned this well.

Despite my efforts, I find myself on the ground under a heavy heap of furry, many-armed creatures. I’m pierced in hundreds of places by small, sharp claws like pins. For the ten thousandth time on this planet I curse my weakness. If only I had gold, I would burn all these enemies to a crisp!

The mountain of enemies on top of me weighs me down to the point where I can’t see what’s going on. But I spot more of the things coming down the light holes, holding burning branches.

The added light helps me identify them. I’ve sometimes spotted these big-eyed, many-armed things in the jungle, usually up in the trees. They’ve always kept their distance and not attacked. I know they can jump high and far, and with all their arms they’re obviously superb climbers.

I keep struggling to get up, but the enemies keep me down with their sheer weight.

“You can’t keep this up for long,” I wheeze. “At some point you’ll make a mistake. When that happens, I will murder you all.”

The creatures mill around me and on me for a while. The pressure on my upper body vanishes as they all jump off me as one.

It’s not much of an improvement. My wrists have been bound behind my back, and to my surprise I can’t snap the rope. My ankles have also been tied with many strands of some primitive rope.

“Praxigor! Are you all right?” Astrid is sitting on the ground a few paces away.

“Not for many years,” I seethe truthfully as I try the ropes again, making them creak but not snap. “But our friends here will be even less all right in a moment.”

“I think they own this place,” Astrid says. “They’re the right size.”

“A dragon owns any place he exists,” I grunt. “These things will learn that any moment now.”

Hundreds of big eyes stare at us from both close and further away. Their torches burn brightly.

“Well?” I sneer. “Are you just going to look at us?”

More of the things come down the light holes and land lightly on the stone ground, forming a circle. The last of them lands in the middle of the circle and comes towards me with a confidence that I don’t like. He may be a leader of some kind.

The torch-bearers rearrange themselves to where they illuminate him as well as they can.

“State your business and prepare to die,” I tell him, wanting to be reasonable.

He doesn’t speak, just moves two of his many hands slowly.

“I think he’s saying something,” Astrid informs me from the corner of her mouth. “Using sign language.”

“As opposed to a language we might actually understand,” I growl at the incomprehensible waving and flopping of alien fingers. “And I suspect he’s not talking about gold.”

“I don’t think they have any,” Astrid says tightly. “If they did, I think they’d wear it.”

I shake my head. “ Wear gold? Openly? This world is insane.”

The leader of the furry things keeps gesturing, but I don’t catch any of it. Still, I have no problem understanding the underlying threat of the situation.

“I think he says,” Astrid says softly, “that they want us to leave. Not sure, just a feeling.”

“Oh, you think so?” I mock her obvious conclusion. “That’s very shrewd of you.” I test the ropes again. Given time, I could probably get loose. “Can you tell him that we can’t? Because they bound us?”

“I don’t know how to say anything with their signs. Even if my hands were free. I’ll just nod and hope it doesn’t mean anything bad.”

I can see her trying, but I doubt the alien creatures will understand. The leader gives up, turns around, and jumps straight back up the tube he came down from. There are sounds of him climbing up its inside.

The other ones grab Astrid by her hands and feet, moving as if carrying her away.

“Set her down!” I demand as I once more try to snap the ropes holding my wrists. I feel the strands cutting into my scales. I know that in a battle between me and the ropes, I will win. But it will be a painful victory. There’s a softness to my scales that shouldn’t be there, and the ropes dig deep into me.

Hordes of the attackers suddenly rush towards me. Hundreds of hands grab me and lift me.

Then I’m carried along with Astrid, through the hall with the plants. Many torches light our way. I’ve never felt more helpless, and it’s the worst feeling I’ve ever had. They can do nearly anything they want to us.

I keep testing the ropes, preferring the acute, physical pain of doing something to the uncertainty of what will happen now. The first strand of the ropes snaps with a sharp bang.

“Don’t kill them,” Astrid says quickly from somewhere in front of me. “I don’t think they’re bad. They’re just protecting their village. Their home.”

“It’s my opinion,” I tell her as the second strand snaps, “that tying me up is bad in itself.”

We’re being quickly carried to the rock wall on the far side of the hall, then down a set of hidden stairs that I hadn’t noticed.

Below is a humid level with bare rock on all sides.

“I think you were right,” Astrid says, sounding calmer than I would expect. “This is an old river valley that was filled in. There’s still water down here.”

“It’s a sewer,” I seethe, adding more force to my wrists and clenching my jaws as the ropes cut into me. “If they think they can dispose of me here, they’re sorely mistaken.”

With all the furry things around me, I have trouble seeing what’s happening. But I hear the thunder of running water somewhere in the distance.

We’re being carried through a tunnel when the third strand snaps. Ichor is running down my hands, but now I know I will be free of the ropes in just a few moments. If I really had to, I could snap the rest of the strands now.

The thunderous sound suddenly gets louder, and cool air washes over me as the many torches flare up and flicker wildly.

“Someone opened a door to the outside,” Astrid says. “I think there’s a waterfall. Can you swim?”

“I won’t need to,” I tell her as the fourth strand snaps. “But our captors better hope they can.”

I allow myself a short break from the pain before I’ll snap the rest of the rope.

Sensing that we’re being carried down a hillside, I start to worry that they’ll toss us off a sheer drop. In this damnably weak form, even I could be badly injured by the landing.

As I tighten up in preparation for getting free, the furry creatures suddenly drop me to the ground.

I snap the ropes and slash my hands through the air around me, wanting to rip the enemy open with my claws. But I find only thin air. The creatures are scrambling to get away, jumping and bouncing so fast some of their torches are being blown out. They’re all going back up the hill. That’s all I see of them.

With the torches gone, there’s darkness all around. But my dragon eyes are made for spotting intruders inside my cavernous lair deep inside a mountain, and I see what I need. The thunderous roar of the underground waterfall is quite close now, and I keep getting sprayed with cold droplets of water.

With my hands free, I bend double to untie the ropes around my ankles.

Astrid is standing downhill from me, looking blindly around. “Praxigor?”

I straighten and spot my pants on the ground. The creatures must have brought them too, along with Astrid’s dress. I quickly put them on and to my surprise find that my pitiful caricature of a hoard is still in the pocket.

“They will pay for this,” I growl as I make my way down the bare, wet rock. “The humiliation alone?—”

I slip on the rock and fall backwards, then slide down the incline, sweep Astrid’s legs away from under her, and end up with her on my lap as we both accelerate fast down the smooth rock.

Astrid clings to me. “Praxigooorrr!”