Chapter 11

11

- Alba -

“Oh, just fuck me already,” I wheeze in English, getting impatient. I want that alien cock inside me now. “Yes, Anter’az,” I tell him in his own language. “Mate me.” Because a man like this needs to be sure. He’s not going to take anything like this without making sure I’m fine with it. Oh, if only he knew how fine…

I look down my body. There’s his cock, standing skyward. It’s just the right size of scary, at least if you’ve had a drink and are feeling adventurous. It’s so alien I feel my eyes widen. If you took every adult toy on sale on Earth and picked the best feature from each to incorporate into a new toy, you’d get that thing. It’s even got green stripes on it, just to stress how alien it is.

And of course there are two of them. One big and one smaller behind it. I already knew that — the married girls can’t be quiet about something as weird as that. But this is the first time I see one ready for action, and it’s… sobering and intoxicating at the same time. I’m both umm, that’s going into me? And oh yeah, you bet that’s going into me!

Anter’az slides the head up and down my lips, unnecessarily preparing me. I can hear the wet noises, and I know I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. But I’ll let him do this at his own pace.

he places the head at the opening and pushes in a half inch.

I spread my legs further, looking up at his orange eyes. “Yes.”

He pushes in more, and the squelch should make me blush. But I’m pretty sure I’m blushing already, from pure enjoyment.

He’s wide, and there’s the hint of a burn as the tunnel has to stretch to accommodate the rock-hard intruder. He pushes in more, sliding easily and awakening parts of me that have been dormant for far too long.

It feels amazing. He fills me up, and I can’t help loving the way it forces my body to adjust to him, to welcome him in my very center.

He stays in my depths, making sure it’s not too much. It very nearly is. But that just makes it feel even better.

Sliding back out, slowly, he starts fucking me calmly and powerfully. Each thrust is like an awakening and a caress, touching parts of me that have never known love like this.

Damn, imagine that something as wondrous as this can happen on planet Xren! It feels like a big middle finger to a planet that keeps doing its worst to kill me or keep me miserable.

And Anter’az is the antidote to it. This is all because of him.

“Fuck me,” I plead as the climax builds deep below.

It’s like a movie, being mated by a caveman alien in a cave overlooking a hollow in the rock. But it’s too unrealistic to be filmed. He’s too good. Nobody would believe it was true.

My eyes close and my mouth stays open as I prepare for the climax, gasping and whimpering.

Then there’s something new, right on my clit. A soft stroke, barely touching.

Of course. It’s his second cock.

My eyes fly open and I stare right into those piercing orange eyes. That pushes me over the edge.

“Yeah,” I groan as the bliss washes through me and I lose control.

Riding the wave, through the purple haze I notice that Anter’az’s thrusts go irregular and his breath gets ragged before he thrusts hard into me and roars in triumph. I swear I feel his juice spray me down in hard spurts, deep inside me.

He keeps it up after that, too, sliding effortlessly in and out because now there’s both our mixed juices easing the way.

I ride out the aftershocks and cling to him.

“Thank you,” I wheeze. “This is what I need.”

He slows down and lowers himself to me, his warmth covering me from head to toe and making me feel perfectly safe.

He gets my pack, takes out a folded-up sheet of dino skin, and puts it under my head. “The rock is hard.”

“Mmm,” I agree, more relaxed and comfortable than I thought would be possible after a dactyl attack. But that’s one reason I wanted this — for the fear and anxiety to be chased away by better and stronger feelings and experiences. This fit the bill perfectly. Already, the irox thing feels like it happened in another life. “I know something even harder.”

“That’s how it feels,” Anter’az says thoughtfully. “Stay here. If the irox returns, scream. I’m just inside the cave.”

Still naked and glorious with his muscles and stripes, he saunters into the cave.

“I needed this,” I mutter to myself. “A real vacation with a semi-nerdy guy. Away from the tribes.”

I don’t want to do much thinking right now, although I know that will have to happen at some time. Because where exactly am I going with this? He is incredible, but he’s also a member of a tribe that really fears women in general. And me, specifically. Also, I don’t actually want a relationship right now.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been so forward. But I needed him, needed that kind of attention and care. And then… well, it was incredible. I have sometimes had trouble understanding the married girls. How were they all so unable to resist their caveman?

“Now I know how you feel, girls,” I mutter to myself. “When you’re alone with one of these guys, your body just gets its way.”

I sit up and enjoy the beauty of the sun setting.

Anter’az returns with firewood and lights a fire right outside the cave, in a spot where the rock is already burned dark.

“You been sitting here before,” I take a not very wild guess. “Cooking over fire and looking at your own little turf.”

“A few times,” he admits. “Thinking of how this could be turned into a real village. But I could never figure it out. Because there are no Lifegivers, and the tribe would never give me any.”

“Maybe no Lifegivers are needed, if there are women,” I fantasize. “And one man for each woman.”

He thinks about it while poking the fire with a twig. “That sounds like the afterlife, when we become Ancestors. Perhaps then we shall all have women and it will all be perfect.”

“Am I the first woman you’ve heard of on Xren?” I ask.

“Woman Bryar was the first woman we heard of. Karr’ox married her. Then we heard there were more of them in the Borok and Tretter tribes.”

“But you’ve never heard talk of others?”

“Well… there were some rumors a while ago. Before we heard of you or Woman Bryar or Woman Piper. Some said the Ceremat tribe had found The Woman. They live…” he looks up and points, “in that direction.”

I reach over and take hold of his ankle, because it’s the part closest to me. “The Ceremat tribe? The Woman? From the legend?”

“From the prophecy ,” Anter’az gently corrects as he gets several items out of his bag. “Rumors like that go around from time to time. Usually right after the shaman shows the boys of the tribe how to Worship and how to Mate with The Woman. Their fantasies about meeting The Woman sometimes turn into a rumor. There’s no truth to it. Have you seen other women than your friends?”

“Here on Xren? No. We think there could be more, because of the saucers.”

“The soses ,” Anter’az says, very seriously. “Yes, I thought so too.”

I squeeze his ankle. “Do you know about saucers?”

He opens green leaves wrapped around pieces of raw meat. “Of course. They mean there might be more women on Xren.”

“We sometimes see lights in the sky,” I explain, “lights that move. We call them flying saucers . They look like iron sometimes, blinking in the sun. Have you seen those?”

“The Plood,” he says with disdain. “Yes, their ships can sometimes be seen in the sky, men say. I can’t recall having seen that myself. There’s always trees in the way of the sky.”

I point out at the hollow. “Not here.”

“One reason why I like it,” Anter’az says and places a piece of meat at the edge of the fire, making it sizzle. “It’s the only place I know where you can see the sky, except from the top of the Hill in the village.”

I squeeze his ankle again. “This a wonderful place. Look, the stars are coming out.”

We enjoy a nice dinner, neither of us wearing a stitch of clothing. Anter’ax tosses the rinds and things we didn’t eat into the largest stream, the one that nearly took me into the mountain. “Everything you put in there vanishes underground,” he tells me when he returns. “Which is useful for many things.”

“Not many caves have running water,” I agree, happy to have it pointed out because I’m starting to need a bathroom.

That taken care of, I get out the things I gathered on the way. There are leaves, twigs, fruits, nuts, and a bunch of small, yellow flowers that I thought smelled nice.

“Do you know anything about these?” I ask as I lay it all out on the ground.

Anter’az looks my collection over and points at the fruits. “That can be eaten. That one cannot, but we sometimes make frit from it. These smell good when squeezed.” He takes a leaf and breaks it in half. A clear liquid comes out, looking like aloe vera. “Like that.”

I put my finger into the fluid and sniff it. It reminds me of oolong tea. “That is fresh.” Rubbing it between two fingers, I notice that it gradually gets sticky. “Could make a nice gel to put in hair.”

“I’ve never tasted those,” he says and picks up a flower. “Flowers usually don’t make things that can be used for healing.”

“But what if,” I think aloud, “we crush the flowers and mix them with this?” I dip my finger into the gel-like fluid again. “Might smell even better.”

Anter’az scoots closer and puts his nose into my hair. “Why would you want to change your smell, when it’s this sweet already?”

His closeness and overwhelming presence make hard tingles shoot to my crotch again. “Just for a change.”

He moves his face down the back of my neck, sniffing. “I only know of one thing that smells better than this.”

“Oh?” I ask, pretty sure I know what he means. “What is that?”

He moves out to my shoulder, giving it a kiss. “You may have to guess.”

If I want this to stop, this is the time. But I don’t. It’s obvious where it’s going, and I want it. It’s no coincidence that I haven’t put any clothes on yet, although they must be almost dry. It makes me feel incredibly sexy, and I’ve been ready for more of him all night. That’s all I know, and that’s enough.

“I guess that the one thing that smells better is my nose,” I suggest, my throat going dry with arousal.

Anter’az puts a hand behind my head and pulls me to him, sniffing my face. “Mmm. Yes, this smells very nice. But it’s not what I meant.” He kisses the tip of my nose, then both cheeks and then my lips. “Try again.”

“My ears.”

He moves to the side and sniffs me right at the ear. “A perfectly good scent. But again not the right one.”

“I give up,” I tell him, a delightful shiver going down my back at his touch. “You have to tell me.”

“I will show you,” he says and kisses the back of my neck, creating another shiver. “Not here.”

He goes down my spine, placing kisses all along the way. “Not here. Not here. Not here. Hmm. I think it’s on the other side.”

“Oh.” I lie back on straight arms. “This side?”

“Let me see.” He sniffs my chest. “Mmm. This does smell good. But…” he kisses one nipple, “it’s not what I meant. Maybe it’s the other one.” He kisses the other, teasing it with his tongue and making them both harden. “It’s sweet, but it’s not the place I mean. I will search.” He kisses and licks down my front, sending delighted tingles all over the place, all ending up down below.

So will he, and the anticipation of that makes me shiver with each touch of his textured tongue as he slowly moves downward. When he passes my hips, I have to lie down flat because my arms lose their strength.

Again he teases me, kissing in a tightening circle with my sex in the middle. It’s a spiral of small points that first go warm at the kiss, then cold when he moves on and leaves it open to the air.

“Can you guess now?” he asks when his nose nudges the coarse hair.

“No,” I gasp, about ready to come. “You have to… oh… to show me…”

The next kiss goes across both my lower lips. “Here it is.”

“More,” I moan. “Show me more.”

He kisses a line up my sex. “Here. Here. Here.”

“It’s there,” I whimper. “Right there. ”

“That’s right.” He licks up along my clit, making me twitch.

“Mate me,” I plead, totally ready and then some. “Just mate me!”

I hear a deep chuckle before he quickly places himself between my thighs, alien cock straining skywards. “That is your prize for guessing right. Finally.”

He penetrates me, slowly again, making sure he’s not hurting me. Like last time, it’s just on the limit of painful, but the burn goes away and the pleasure replaces it.

He fills me up again and again. My arms go above my head all by myself as I surrender completely to his hard, irresistible intrusion into my womanly center.

This time I enjoy it even more than last time. I know he fits, I know it’s going to be good and I know what to expect. I’m being able to let go totally as he fucks me. There’s only the two of us in the whole world, only his cock taking me, making us one.

The climax comes before I really want it to, but I can’t resist two alien cocks working towards it. So I go with the flow, first moaning and then screaming, because there’s only the two of us and the rocky hollow returns the most amazing echoes of me being expertly fucked.

It only gets better when Anter’az roars out his own climax, our voices blending to a loud, primal yell that echoes through the cave and the hollow, suiting this primitive planet perfectly.

“Let’s never leave,” I plead as the orgasm shakes me through.

- - -

“ H old still.”

I place the glob of flower-infused gel on a hank of his long hair from the back, not wanting to use it all over him in case it turns out disastrous. Massaging it in, I notice how good it smells and how easy it is to apply. It may be hard to get out again, but I’ll cross that jungle canyon when I come to it. If I have to take some length off, that might work fine.

“Will it have to come off?” Anter’az asks.

“The hair? Maybe,” I admit. “It’s getting pretty long.” And it’s not too clean.

“I was joking,” he rumbles. “It’s what my tribesmen say when I try to heal them. They always worry about losing limbs. But you actually want to cut my hair?”

“Sorry. Is very funny joke. No, it’s not that I want to. It’s just that… well, I want to see how you might look with hair that more… styled.”

“You don’t want to, but you want to,” Anter’az sums up. “Will this stail hair make me a better healer?”

“Of course,” I lie as I run my comb through his locks. It’s hard going, because years of little care have made them badly tangled and matted. They’re halfway to dreadlocks, all by themselves. Caveman hair is different from Earthling hair — each strand is a little thicker, and sometimes they seem to shine with some kind of inner light. It’s beautiful, especially when it’s a mix of dark and golden color like this. But still, Anter’az could absolutely do with some care in that area.

The morning sun lights up the hollow. Little puffs of mist make it look dreamy and exotic.

I passed the night very comfortably in Anter’az’s arms, and he didn’t betray my trust by trying to put his always hard cock somewhere it wasn’t invited. But when I woke up and felt his hardness poke me in the back, I pushed my hips into him in renewed and eager invitation. And he accepted it, making me come again.

Breakfast was fruit and juices, and then I started to experiment with my Stone Age hair products with Anter’az as my lab rat.

The comb struggles with his hair, and I’m worried about breaking some of its plastic teeth. He’d need some shampoo, but I doubt there’s a bottle of Pantene within many light years, and I don’t know how to make it.

“ Would you let me cut it?” I ask.

“Depends on how much you want to cut.”

“I want cut most of it and leave this much.” I show him with my fingers. It would leave enough for a messy medium length with his natural waves, and I think it would look sensational on him.

“That’s all of it!” he exclaims. “I haven’t cut my hair since just after the Stripening!”

“So is about time,” I tell him. “Try something new!”

He gathers his long locks in his hands and winds them up in a ball. “I sometimes do this to get it out of the way.”

I put a hand on his. “ Please never do that again. This is a decent cave. There no place for man buns here.”

He drops it to unwind down his back. “I like mabuns .”

I run my fingers through the thickest part of his mane and gather most of it in a ponytail. It’s very thick. “If you think that new style isn’t what you want, then remember that it will grow back. In a few years. Do you allow me?”

He sighs. “Oh, very well. Perhaps my tribesmen won’t recognize me and so they can’t cast me out, thinking I’m a stranger.”

I keep going with the comb, wanting to straighten out this rat’s nest more before I start to cut. “A stranger who can heal them just as well as Anter’az did. But they be crazy to cast you out. You’re the only man in the tribe!”

I sense his frown more than see it. “There are hundreds of men in the Krast tribe.”

“But only one of them is here, only one of them has a woman in his cave, and only one of them has ever Worshipped and Mated with a woman. And only one of them has the courage to get his hair cut right.”

“Perhaps,” he says with obvious satisfaction. “None of those things will stop the casting out, if the new chief decides it must be done. But we shall see who the chief will be.”

The scissors cut through a lock, meeting an unusual amount of resistance. “Any guesses?”

He scratches his chin. “There are many who like Popret’ax. He’s not very old, but he has the experience and the men like him a great deal. He was against the war with the Borok tribe, and I like that. Of course Pury’an is co-chief now, and I think many want him to continue. He certainly wants it. He’s smarter than Cren’iz. But maybe a little too oily. Though many like him, too.”

“And you?”

“Oh, I would probably prefer Popret’ax…”

“No. I mean, what if you was chief?”

“Me?” He scratches his chin. “I don’t think they’ll choose me. Although they say my name has come up, whatever that means.”

“It means they checking if you want,” I explain, not being a politics expert but having some common sense. “Is their way to ask, ‘if we wanted you to be chief, do you think you want?’ But what did you say?”

“Nothing.” Anter’az shrugs. “There are many who want to be chief. I have enough to do just healing my stupidest tribesmen.”

It takes a lot of water to make his hair wet enough to cut. It’s like it runs right off, probably because his locks are quite greasy. “There are many who want, but sometimes, those who wants the most to be chief is not the best to be chief. I think.”

“Ah,” he politely pretends to understand my complicated philosophical statement with endless grammar mistakes. “I see.”

That surprises me. “You do?”

“Of course. Alba, I notice all my hair is still in place.”

“Not all. I only took this much right here. ” I touch his head. “It’s because your hair is hard. Like iron! So hard to cut! The Krast have iron cave, but also keep iron in their hair, I will say to my friends. Very hard hair! Make my scissor blunt and rusty, very terrible Anter’az hair.”

“So you might as well just leave it be,” Anter’az says hopefully.

“Yes. No! I mean, I give up now . But we will go into the jungle and find nuts to squeeze. There come out oil that make easier work for the scissors.”

“I think I know those nuts. But I don’t think it will be well received if you squeeze them.”

“I not know what you mean,” I lie as I fight with the comb, trying to get it to run the full length of his locks. But it gets stuck at about a third because of all the terrible tangles. “I only talking about nuts from tree, not nuts from… other. Fine, you can get up.”

The huge caveman gets to his feet, stretches and touches the rock ceiling above us. “We also should get some more fruits. And I think I will hunt for some more meat. We have supplies to last for today and tomorrow, but fresh food is always better. I think we’ll go now.”

“I’ll put on my hat,” I announce and retrieve the bell-shaped leaf from the ground.

We go back out the cave, crawl to the place where Anter’az pushes up the camouflage net, and then I’m staring right at the vral’s web again. The five-legged monster is in the middle, looking like it hasn’t moved at all.

“Does he only catch irox?” I whisper as Anter’az replaces the net to hide the opening.

“No,” he says softly. “If a Big touches his web, he runs down and stings it. The vral has the most powerful venom we know. Someone once told me they saw a vral sting a kronk. The kronk fell before it could get out of the web.”

I frown. A kronk is what the caveman call a dino that reminds us girls a lot of a T. Rex, as big as a house and as mean as a shark with a bad back. That can’t be what he means. “A rekh?”

“No, a kronk. That’s how powerful the venom is.”

“Are you sure that’s true?”

We stay quiet as we walk under the web, between the trees. I look up the whole time, but the vral stays put.

“Absolutely,” Anter’az says when we’re safely past the web. “It was Fabur’iz, the old healer of the Krast tribe. He taught me everything. If he said it, it was true.”

I shudder at the thought. That must be some venom if it could take down a T. Rex in a matter of seconds. “Isn’t a kronk too big to eat for vral?”

“I think it would have to be. But I don’t know.”

We both go quiet, which is always smart in the jungle. I’m half regretting this — the hollow is so safe, and the jungle feels so dangerous. But at least the canopy of leaves high above will hide us from the dactyls.

The spear is good to have, but I think it only gives the illusion of safety. It’s really a last-ditch thing. If a dinosaur comes close enough to be within poking range of that, it is really close and I’m probably just about dead.

My ‘bucket hat’ has withered and gone soft, and the first time I try to adjust it, it rips in half. I toss it on the ground and look around for another plant like that. There isn’t one right here, but I also don’t think the trees drip quite as much here as in certain other places. Maybe I can do without a hat just now.

For the first time the jungle doesn’t scare me stiff. It’s the wilderness in a way that you just don’t get on Earth, truly wild and deadly. Now that I have someone to take care of the worst dangers, I’m starting to almost enjoy it. It’s sheer untamed nature, exploding with life and activity. And in the strangest way, now I’m feeling like part of it. Anter’az plainly is born for this kind of thing, but maybe I am too, just a few dozen of generations removed from the savannah on Earth?—

“Fuck!” I exclaim as there’s movement between two bushes and a huge butterfly comes fluttering towards me. It’s the size of a broadsheet newspaper, with beautiful wings shimmering in metallic gold, blue, and green. But I don’t trust anything here.

Anter’az turns and comes quickly towards me, but the butterfly will reach me first. Its long antenna bobs and waves in front of it as it flutters closer, as if to take my attention away from the foot-long stinger that protrudes from its curved lower body like that of a bee.

“Don’t use your spear!” Anter’az urges as he rummages through his pack. “I’ll be right there.”

“Are you going to eat now?! ” I demand, outraged he’s not running to help me.

My hands only obey me slowly and stiffly as I try to change my awkward grip on the weapon. I back off from the gigantic insect. It may have an innocent look to it, but it’s definitely coming straight for me.

I trip and fall on my butt, dropping my pack. “Stay away!” I warn the butterfly, waving the spear in the air above me. The monster comes to a stop, hovering in mid-air with lazy and whimsical beats of its wings as it assesses how best to murder me.

That’s all Anter’az needs to catch up with it and grab its lower body. He yanks at the insect’s long, round abdomen and interrupts its flying, so that it soon hangs upside-down from his hand, beating its wings so hard it makes a breeze.

The caveman grabs the black stinger with one hand and inserts its needle-sharp tip into the soft cork of a pot in his other hand. “Oh yes, good Tiny. Keep spraying…”

I get to my feet and point the spear at the monster. Right now it looks harmless, but you never know. “What are you doing?”

Anter’az concentrates on his work. “I can never get the venom from these. They’re impossible to keep in a cage. And they usually avoid me.”

“It nearly stung me!” I exaggerate only a bit, miffed he would prioritize his venom obsession over protecting me.

“Yes, it made its venom ready to spray. Great job, Alba! I could not ask for better help. Oh, it’s all so clear and fresh!”

The butterfly hangs from its stinger, gives up the fluttering, and simply folds its wings on its back as if it’s in a huff about the treatment it’s receiving. I know how it feels.

“That should do it,” Anter’az says. “Can you please hold this?” He hands me the pot of venom.

I gingerly accept it, having no other choice. But I hold it at arm’s length.

Anter’az drags the butterfly a few feet away and casually tosses it into a bush. “Stay home now. We’re just passing by.” He comes back and takes the pot from me, a satisfied smile on his face. “I’ve been wanting this for a long time. Oh, did you lose your pack?”

I pick it back up. “That was attacking me.”

“Exactly.” He gently replaces the first cork with another, more solid one, then puts the little pot back in his own pack. “And we got what we needed. I see a bush full of nuts up ahead. Shall we see if they’re the kind you intend to use to destroy my hair?” He turns and walks on.

“Fine,” I grunt as I follow him, pointing the spear at the bush where the butterfly is trying to regain some dignity. My heart is still beating in my ears, fast and loud. No, I was definitely not born for this kind of thing. “Just give me a nature show on Netflix,” I groan. “Or a documentary about picture frames. I’m not picky.”

We reach the bush, and the nuts do look a lot like the ones I used back at the Borok village. We pick a hundred or so of the cherry-sized nuts and wrap them in a big leaf from another bush. I take another leaf and try to shape it into a hat, but it won’t stay hat-shaped and I nearly toss it away when I notice the fluid that comes out of it where it’s broken. “Anter’az, what is this?”

He takes the leaf and examines it. “I don’t know the name. I sometimes see these bushes in the jungle, but they’re not common.”

I rub my fingers together. The fluid is extremely slippery, and it makes me think of liquid soap. Of course I don’t think that shampoo grows on trees here, but I like the consistency of this stuff. I rip a half dozen leaves off the bush and stuff them into my pack before we move on.

The day passes with picking fruits, eating them, finding new plants, and seeing if they can be used for anything and discarding almost all of them. There must be thousands of plant species in the jungle, and even Anter’az doesn’t know half of them. When we decide to return to the cave, we have probably thirty specimens of the most promising leaves and nuts and berries and flowers we’ve found.

The vral is sitting in its web, motionless. I’m not sure if I want him to move or if it’s a good sign that he doesn’t seem to care about us one bit. I’m sure he could move super fast if he wanted to.

“You look tired,” Anter’az says when I finally sit down at the cold fire. “Relax while I cook. Later I will show you something deeper in the cave.”