Page 16 of Caveman Alien’s Terror (Caveman Aliens #25)

16

- Astrid -

I see what he means. “I guess it would be too dangerous for you to go to any of the tribes to ask for it. And you have to find gold.” I know what his main priority is, and it’s time I faced it.

“That’s not what I mean,” he says, frowning. “It’s simply that—” He spins around and quick as lightning grabs something dark from the ground.

Something that moves.

There’s a short, furious battle that ends with a greenish shape jumping off the dragon and bouncing over to me, hissing and growling as it turns its back to me as if to defend me.

“Luna!” I exclaim. “Where did you come from?” I grab her and lift her into my arms. She’s wet, but her unusual fur looks like it repels water like a raincoat. Still she’s warm in my arms, and seeing her cheers me up. Especially that she lets me lift her up.

“She didn’t come down with us,” Praxigor growls, rubbing his wrists. “I would know.”

“How did you get down here?” I ask the stevik. “Is there another way out?” I set her down so she can show us. Keeping an eye on the dragon, she trots a few feet away on the rock and looks back at me.

I glance up at Praxigor. “I guess we could follow and see where she’s going.”

He picks up a rock from the ground. “I guess we could.”

For a second I’m worried he’s going to throw it at Luna, but when he doesn’t I take a few steps to follow her. She trots on, past gravel and rocks and boulders, going along the bank of the underground rapids towards the waterfall. I have to speed up to not lose sight of her in the darkness.

She leads us on. There’s no path, just a mad scramble past slippery boulders, moss-grown bedrock, and patches of gravel and sand covered in inches of clear water. Each step is a gamble with my life, especially as we get higher up and the drop becomes deadly. I find myself crawling, because I can’t trust my bare feet to gain purchase on some of the slipperiest surfaces.

Then we’re behind the waterfall, seeing its white masses from behind. No talking is possible — even Praxigor’s voice wouldn’t be audible over this constant roar.

“I’ve rarely had a worse time,” he grumbles behind me. “Even fighting Baperion the Mean was more pleasant than this.”

Hmm. His voice carries better than I thought.

“Me too.” I look quickly behind me.

He’s easily keeping up, seemingly not struggling with the slick rock at all. With one claw he’s carving at the rock he picked up. Trying to remake another item from his beloved hoard, no doubt. It must be his way of coping with difficult experiences like this. Because even he can’t be unaffected by this. The crack in his chest glows with a golden light that would be beautiful if it weren’t so scary. Praxigor being injured feels wrong, like some law of nature was broken. I don’t want him injured. I want him strong and magnificent, high above the realities of life.

I’m being constantly splashed and sprayed. We’re both behind the waterfall and inside the giant cloud of tiny water drops. I soon start to shiver with the cold.

Ahead, Luna is a sleek, black silhouette against the spray, jumping and prowling her way along. It looks like I’m the only one who struggles with this climb.

Suddenly, strong arms lift me and I look into bright yellow eyes.

“You’re slowing us down,” Praxigor growls as he adjusts me in his arms and speeds up. “And you feel remarkably cold. Is that normal for your kind?”

“Only when we’re r-r-really f-f-freezing,” I tell him and curl up as much as I can against his warm chest, making sure to not touch the crack in his scales. It must be really sore.

“At least your companion has the sense to have fur all over her, not just in select spots, like you. I hope she’s leading us to somewhere we want to go.”

I don’t reply, just lean my head onto his neck. I’ve never been this tired before.

We make our way through the dark, cold wetness. I don’t know how much time goes by. But we finally put the waterfall behind us, and the roar gradually becomes less oppressive.

“Thank you,” I whimper when I think it’s quiet enough for Praxigor to hear me. “I was about to faint.”

“I’m sure you were,” he says and carries me on. “You looked dizzy.”

The cold, humid air from the cavern is gradually being replaced by the warm, humid, and nauseatingly aromatic air of the Xren jungle. “I never thought I’d be happy to smell that.”

Praxigor ignores me and walks on. I relax against his body, enjoying how the slow beat of his heart echoes through my upper body.

When I wake up, we’re stopped. And immediately I know we’re back in the jungle. I can hear the soft whoosh from the treetops and the rustle of living things trying to get away from the dragon.

“We’re out,” he confirms. “Again I must say you picked a good companion. That path was hard to spot down in the cave.”

“I picked two good companions,” I tell him, still curled up against him and not wanting that to change.

“Oh, you think you picked me?” Praxigor asks, amused. “That idea would make me angry, if it weren’t so ludicrous.”

“Sorry,” I mewl, just wanting to stay like this. “Of course I didn’t pick you. But if I had a choice, I would have.”

“It’s better to not try to flatter me,” the dragon says. “Being flattered by a lesser being is more an annoyance than anything else.”

“Just saying what I feel,” I tell him, worried he’ll set me down. “Can we stay here for a while? I’m so tired.”

“I suppose so,” he sighs. “My lackeys won’t return for days yet.”

He sits down with me still in his arms.

I smile to myself. He can act like a big, scary monster all he likes. He still has a warm side to him that makes him all the more interesting.

I open one eye, just to see where we are. I reason that it must be morning, because it’s not as dark as night usually is. We’re in a narrow valley with an unruly, noisy creek running along its bottom, on the way to the underground waterfall. There’s grass and bushes and trees, and it’s one of the more pleasant places I’ve ever seen in the jungle.

“But of course,” I mutter, “after the cavern, everything looks like a paradise to me.”

Praxigor groans at my statement, which must sound silly to him.

And because I’m totally safe whenever he’s around, I close my eyes and relax, his slow heartbeat shaking me comfortably with each beat.

When I wake up, I’m still on his lap, curled up and naked. The day is as bright as it ever gets in the jungle, which means that it’s still pretty dim. But the valley is still pleasant.

I rub my eyes and straighten up. “Sorry. I fell asleep.”

“One of the endless needs your kind struggles with,” Praxigor rumbles. “It hurts me to say that I’m almost getting used to it. Oh, your pet brought something.”

I look over at Luna, who’s curled up ten feet away. She’s alert, ears turning this way and that for no reason that I can hear. Beside her on the ground is something I recognize.

“My dress!” I get up off Praxigor’s lap and get the primitive garment. “Did you go back for it?” She must have — I didn’t see her carry it before. It’s dripping wet and quite heavy.

“It must have been so hard for you to drag this all the way! Where did you find it?”

Luna licks a spot on her chest and ignores me.

“She must have climbed up the rock we slid down,” Praxigor drawls. “That dress didn’t come down with us.”

I squat down and gently scratch behind one of Luna’s ears. “Thank you,” I sniff. “You’re incredible.”

She generously lets me scratch her, closing two of her eyes in what I think is pleasure.

Praxigor stands up, stretches in a stunning display of male beauty, and looks me up and down, making me acutely aware of my nakedness and sending new tingles down below. Now his injury looks romantic to me, a sign of how he cares despite his gruffness.

I quickly look around. I should be pretty clean after that endless waterfall shower, and that patch of grass looks both soft and inviting…

The dragon saunters away without a word, into the jungle.

I can’t take my eyes off him until he’s hidden by the foliage.

“Did I offend him?” Before, I was both disappointed and relieved when he walked away like that. This time, there’s no relief, just an empty feeling. I wish he would have stayed.

I check the dress, feeling for the little dagger in its special sheath. It’s still there, but now I don’t think I’ll ever need it. I hang the dress on a bush to dry it out, which will take a good few hours. “Until then I guess I’ll just be naked.”

But it’s not exactly unpleasant to be this bare. Praxigor seems to approve.

“Not that I crave his approval,” I lie out loud. “It just feels good, is all. Luna, what do I do about this? I really like him. Especially when he’s being nice. You know he could have left me behind any number of times. At the end he was carrying me, even if he was wounded and I was not. But that’s his thing. He saves my life and makes me feel safe, and all he asks is that I tell him how scary he is. When he’s barely scary at all anymore. Not to me, anyway. It’s actually really charming, isn’t it?”

Luna yawns, stretching her many limbs into the air.

“I know,” I sympathize. “It’s boring to listen to tales of someone else’s love life. Because that’s what this is, right? I love him, and I should stop pretending I don’t.”

I check the water in the creek, squat down, and drink a few mouthfuls. It’s clear and refreshing. This valley is a nice little place, shielded and as idyllic as any place can get while still being in the jungle of Xren.

“ Who are you trying to tempt?” comes a sudden whisper in my ear.

“Oh!” I yelp and lose my balance, dropping to my butt in sheer surprise.

Praxigor grins down at me. “I never knew a woman to be so eager to mate. I’ve barely arrived when you get down and spread.”

I close my legs and get up. “You startled me, that’s all.”

“Most who are surprised by a dragon suffer worse than that,” he drawls as he dips one foot in the creek.

“Yes, yes,” I tell him, annoyed about him scaring me. “You’re very big and scary. And I nearly died from the shock.”

His eyes sparkle. “That would have been unfortunate. Because I have taken such care to keep you alive.” He offers me a shiny piece of fruit.

I slowly reach out and accept it. My mouth waters already. “A salen fruit? What’s the price this time?”

His gaze runs up and down my naked body. “Perhaps you can suggest something.”

“The only thing I can think of is just as good for me as for you,” I tell him as the heat spreads from my center. “It’s what they call a win-win scenario. Specifically, I win.”

He has the most attractive smirk. “I don’t mind if you win, as long as I win, too.”

“You know how they say that a problem that’s shared becomes half a problem? Winning is the opposite. A victory that’s shared becomes two whole victories.” I didn’t notice how hungry I was until now, so I bite right into the salen fruit and close my eyes as the full spectrum of flavors fill my mouth. “So I’ll do my best to help you win.”

“I know you will. Because I will make you, the way you like it.” He comes in close and runs one claw lightly along the undersides of both my bare breasts, forcing both nipples to contract so hard it’s almost painful.

I hurry to finish the fruit, because the only thing better than a salen fruit is sex with Praxigor.

Tossing the pit away, I lick my lips and go in close to the dragon. His scent and his warmth conspire to make me lose all concepts of time and place. “Well? Are you going to claim your payment?”

He strokes a lazy hand across my breasts, causing the nipples to tighten. “The payment may be greater than you thought.”

I shudder from anticipation. Heat is gathering in my center, fast. “I don’t think so.”

He walks a couple of paces away and checks the ground. “You enjoy lying on flowers, yes? These are smaller than the other ones.” He picks one and holds it to its nose. “Not much of a scent. It’s a shy flower, I think.” He tosses it away. “Not my type at all, as it happens. I prefer the blatantly fragrant ones. Remind you of anyone?”

“No,” I sniff, buck naked and so dripping with need I can smell it. “Never met anyone like that.”

“I did,” he rumbles, reaching out and stroking along my hip. “Most remarkable female I ever encountered. Do you know, she didn’t cower before me?”

I roll my eyes. “So not so much a crazy woman as a regular one, then.”

Two dragon fingers take a nipple between them and roll it, just on the right side of painful. “Oh, she’s crazy. For a while I only called her Crazy. Then I realized that wasn’t it. She wasn’t crazy in general. Just with me. And she made me crazy, too:”

I roll my eyes again. “Are you going to do something or just talk about some long-lost lover?”

“Is she lost to me?” He pinches a little harder, sending hard tingles down my front.

So it is me he means. I couldn’t be completely sure. For all I know, he might have met hundreds of women that didn’t cower before him and called them all ‘Crazy’. “I think it depends on how you make her yours.”

He kicks his boots off and discards his pants in a magician’s move that I can’t follow. “How? In what way, you mean? She indicated to me that she likes it hard.” He takes my hand, making it feel small in his giant one.

I shrug, so excited I forget to breathe. “Well, then do her hard.”

Praxigor yanks me to him and pierces me with his flame-like eyes. “I will.” He bends down and kisses me, soft at first, then hard and demanding. His dragon tongue invades my mouth, hard and searching, as a preview of what I can expect in my sex.

“Oh!” I exclaim as he disengages, his warm hands on my cool, naked skin.

“Turn around,” he commands.

I have no choice but to obey. It helps that there’s nothing I want more.

I turn my back to him and arch my back, putting my hand on the upper part of the rear curve in an instinctive pose.

He grabs my hips and pulls me to him, cock hard and thick against my ass. “Good girl.”

“You want me- down?” I ask, the breath catching in my throat from sheer arousal.

“No,” he says, one hand between my shoulder blades and pushing me to a bent-over position.

I obey, wanting nothing more than to present all my womanhood to him and have him take his pleasures.

In a move that would be impossible for anyone but a giant mythical being with infinite strength, he puts one forearm under my knees and lifts me, taking my full weight and bending me double in front of him, butt at his cock. “This is new,” he growls. “Tell me if it hurts.”

I’ve never been more exposed or more helpless. My arms dangle uselessly under me, but it feels good. It feels right . “It doesn’t hurt.”

His other hand supports my chest, enabling me to relax completely. I almost cry from the care he’s taking to not hurt me or even cause me any discomfort.

His cock enters my sopping wet pussy. This time there’s no testing, no making sure I’m wet enough. He knows me now, he knows I get soaked at the sight of a talon. He just slides in, penetrating me all the way through in one hyper–confident move.

“Yesss,” I wail, happy that he gets it. I’m ready for him. Always.

“Mine,” he growls as he pushes in, moving my body like I’m a Fleshlight he using for his pleasure.

“Yours,” I wheeze on reply. The heat is building up so fast it almost scares me. I don’t want to come right away, I want to enjoy it first!

“Mine.” His cock is hard and thick inside me. But it’s not a stranger anymore. I know it well, how it feels and what it can do. His blue dragon cock is all I can think of, all that matters. There’s nothing in the world except his hard alien rod and my pussy.

“Yours,” I agree enthusiastically. My body clenches around him, wanting to delay the climax he’s doing his best to force from it.

“Mine. Mine. Mine.” He fucks me hard and fast. It’s right on the limit for what I can take, Each thrust into me fills me and punches a point in there that feels weird at first, but is reluctantly coming around to something good.

“Yours,” I pant as each stroke resonates through my sex and, faintly, the rest of me. “Yours. Yours.” Heat is building fast now. He’s taking me so decisively, so sincerely. He’s using me for his pleasure, not caring that he’s giving me incredible pleasure at the same time.

Or does he know it? He must know. From the sounds I make, at the very least.

“Mine. Mine. Mine!” The dragon thrusts faster, sliding easily in and out of my pussy. I’ve totally surrendered to his cock, no doubt about it.

“Yours. Yours. Yours!” I echo, meaning it more than I ever meant anything before. Because the way his cock hits me is different from before. Now it’s deeper, and my body reacts slower. But it’s building up to something very special, I can tell.

When it happens, and I climax on his cock, it’s as warm as melted sugar and much sweeter as it spreads through all of me, my pussy a seething cauldron that just boils over and sends its hotness to every part of my body.

My sounds are guttural and throaty. I want everyone to hear it. I want planet Xren to hear me getting fucked, I want to hear every damn dinosaur hear Praxigor fucking me, I want the whole damn universe to hear me coming on his cock. Because I won. And he did, too. Whatever happens now, we won. Against everyone and everything else. Just the two of us. Together.

“I love youuu!” I scream into the darkness as the orgasm wells up again in a long wave.

“Mine!” the dragons roars, his cock swelling and jerking inside me.

“Yours,” I whimper. “Forever!”

- - -

I ’m distantly aware of him laying me down on the grass after a long shared climax.

Then, to my wonder, Praxigor lies down at an angle and lays his head in my lap. It’s heavy, but no more than a human head would be.

Despite the post-orgasmic serenity and oxytocin overload, I stiffen in surprise. I collect myself and sit up properly. My hands go to his thick hair and his chest, cracked and broken because of me. “You all right, Praxigor?” The words have a thick sound to them.

“As right as I can be,” he says, staring up at the dark canopy of leaves.

I carefully put one hand on his perfect cheek and bury the other in his chaotic hair, warm and almost human.

Oh, let time stop right now. This is all I ever want.