Page 15 of Caveman Alien’s Terror (Caveman Aliens #25)

15

- Astrid -

“Fool’s gold!” There’s a piercing screech as Praxigor uses his claws to slow us down.

I can’t even imagine the deep gouges he must be carving in the bedrock.

As he finally comes to a stop, my own momentum keeps me going, and I grab frantically at the dragon’s chest to stay in place. But his scales are smooth and don’t give me any handholds. “I can’t hold on!”

At the last moment he casually grabs my wrist and holds me on his lap. “This isn’t the time to play hard to get, Astrid.” His deep voice resonates through me.

I drag myself higher onto his lap until I can lock my arms around his thick neck. “I wasn’t playing!” I yell, panic tugging at the edges of my mind.

Praxigor pulls me closer, setting me firmly on his lap. “You mean you really are hard to get? Because my experience has been different.”

Before the many-armed creatures left with their torches, I saw that we’re underground in some kind of giant cavern. There’s a huge waterfall to our right, and its thunder is amplified so much by that immense cave that I can barely hear what I’m saying. Praxigor’s voice comes through fine, though.

“I’m hard to get for everyone else ,” I clarify as I cling to him. I don’t know where I am, just that I don’t want to keep going downwards here because I strongly suspect there’s no way up.

His yellow eyes scan my bare chest. “Ah. Yes, the evidence supports your claim.”

I notice with a grain of disappointment that he’s put his pants on again. “Can you see anything?”

Despite the darkness, I’m sure I spot a white grin as he slides his hand down my back and ends up at my butt, one claw stroking across the sensitive skin really close to my pussy. “Almost everything.”

And such is his attractiveness that even here, for all I know hanging on some kind of terrible precipice above pointy rocks, a delightful tingle goes straight to my center. “Oh my… I mean, can you see where we are?”

“Always the questions,” he sighs. “Very well. We’re on one side of an underground cavern. There’s a large waterfall and a long drop to some kind of rapids.”

“Do you think we’ll be able to climb back up?”

He cranes his neck to look up the way we came. “I would. We won’t.”

I think I get what he means. On his own, he can get up there. But not if carrying me. “What if you climb up and then lower a rope or something?”

He thinks about it. “How long a rope have you ever seen on this planet? It’s a genuine question. I never had reason to notice those things.”

“The tribes have ropes.”

“Would they give me one?” he asks, pointing out the flaw.

“They might,” I try, knowing it’s not true. I suddenly understand only far too well what the phrase ‘grasping at straws’ means.

“It would have to be a very long rope,” he says mildly. “With a loop at the end, so that you could put it under your arms and I could pull you up.”

“I know.” I clench my eyes shut, barely keeping it together. Even if Praxigor could find the Borok tribe and persuade them to give him a rope, they would have to make it first. From scratch. That alone would take a day or more.

He doesn’t need to say much more. Because that’s not even considering those furry monkey-like things that pushed us out here. They likely won’t want Praxigor to go back up inside their weird structure, and then return with the rope. Which it could take several days to find, in the best case scenario. And before he could go anywhere, I’d have to find a shelf or something to stand on. Because right now, Praxigor is my only connection with the rock. And I think his only connection points are the claws on his feet.

“Maybe you should just save yourself,” I whisper, sure he can’t hear it over the din from the waterfall.

“Oh, that’s what I should do,” he agrees. “No question about that.”

“Your hearing is incredible.”

He shifts his grip on me and I yelp pitifully, thinking he’s about to drop me.

But he simply swings me around until I’m hanging on his back, clinging to his neck with all my strength. I think he’ll try to climb up with me after all.

“Can you hang on there?” he asks.

“Yes!” I yell.

Then he starts climbing, going down.

I don’t question it. I’m just relieved he’s not tossing me into that black void.

Praxigor moves down in increments, ramming his claws into the sheer, slippery rock with each step. I can only hope that they will hold both of us.

A couple of times his foot slips and we slide down the rock face with a terrible shriek, but he manages to dig his claws deeper and stop the fall.

I don’t know how long it takes. I start quietly sobbing from fear and exhaustion, and I can’t seem to stop.

When Praxigor finally loses his grip on the rock and we fall, my scream is mostly sore and sad. I know it’s the end.

The dragon whips around and embraces me, pushing me into his chest.

Then we hit the bottom and I black out.

When I come to, I’m lying on a wet rock. My eyes have finally adjusted to the near pitch blackness of this cavern, but nothing on Xren is ever all dark. Here, there are patches of moss on the walls that give off a weak, greenish glow.

The waterfall must be half a mile away, but I can’t see where it begins because of the haze it creates where the great masses of water plunge into the pool below it. I’m constantly sprayed by fine drops of cool water.

Praxigor is standing on the rock with his back to me, looking around. He’s wearing his pants, while I’m still naked. Just as well, maybe — the dress would be soaked by now.

“No need to get up,” he says without turning to look at me. “Take your time. We had a hard landing.”

“Are you all right?” I croak, checking my limbs for injuries and not finding any.

“I’m a little… bruised, I think the word is. I’ve never used it about myself before. But at least I got my pants back. Someone threw them down from up there.”

I slowly get up, my knees wobbly. “Thank you for… everything.” I don’t know how to sum up the fact that I’m still alive, but I know it’s because of him. “Sorry there wasn’t any gold.”

“It’s astonishing how those things would go to such lengths to guard their silly building, and there was nothing of value in it!” Despite the waterfall, his voice resonates from the walls of the cavern.

“Maybe it had value to them,” I suggest, reaching out to touch his scales on his back because I need the contact. “Most people don’t want strangers in their homes. And we did behave as if we owned the place.”

“I’m a dragon,” he reminds me unnecessarily. “Any place I’m present, I own.”

“Show me your wrists.”

He holds one hand up to show me. “Not the worst injury, but one of the worst that was caused by something other than a dragon.”

The ropes have cut into his scales and left cuts where golden ichor is still seeping out. “It looks painful.”

“It is. And yet, this is worse.” He turns around.

I gasp in horror. There’s a lightning-shaped wound zigzagging from one shoulder to halfway down his stomach. Yellow hairlines shoot off from it, glowing as if he’s been cracked open and the gold inside him is shining through. But that must be what a bad wound looks like on his species. “Praxigor! You’re really injured!”

He looks down on his chest. “It’s puzzling. I would only expect that kind of wound from the punch of another dragon, not from landing a little awkwardly after a fall. The scales have fractured.”

Wincing in empathy with how terrible that must feel, I realize that I don’t know what to do. “Can you… is it… bad?”

“It’s bad,” he rumbles calmly. “Not the injury itself, but the weakness that allows me to be injured like this by a mere pointy rock.”

“Because you don’t have gold.” I look up the steep hill we came down. I don’t know how far he fell, but it must have been more than thirty feet. The landing would have killed me if he hadn’t held me tight. And I wonder if it didn’t come close to killing him.

“It’s a damnable affliction,” he seethes and wipes ichor off on a boulder. “The worst state for a dragon to be in.”

“I’m sorry,” I tell him sincerely. “You were so concerned with keeping me safe that you got badly injured in the fall.”

“That concern is arguably an even worse affliction. Now, let’s leave.”

The water from the waterfall cascades over shelves and boulders, creating wild rapids that churn away into the distance. I’m not sure we’re much better off than before, except now we’re not under constant threat of falling to our deaths. “Is there a way out of here?”

“There are three ways out,” he says. “One where the water goes out, which seems to be an underground river. One where we came in, but that’s high up there and I can’t climb up with you. And finally the opening where the water comes in.” He points up at the top of the waterfall. “Two possible exits.”

The hopelessness catches up with me. And I’m totally exhausted. “And both would kill me.” My voice cracks at the last word. Being naked and dripping with cold water isn’t helping things improve. And Praxigor is really badly injured.

“We don’t know that,” he rumbles. “But it is possible.”

“This is better than before,” I tell him, mustering some courage. “I can stay here while you get the rope.”

He takes my hand and squeezes it. “No.”