Page 7 of Caveman Alien's Bride
Then he puts his hand on his chest. “Korr'ax.”
It’s obvious that he’s telling me his name.
“Bryar,” I tell him, then point at him. “Korak.”
“Korr'ax,” he repeats very clearly. “Rire.”
“Bbbrrrryyyar,” I return the favor.
“Brirrre.” He gives me a final look. “Var foshiktee skogn.”
He walks past the dead not-raptor and picks up a big leather sack I hadn’t noticed. Reaching into it, he hands me two soft, leaf-wrapped packs.
I'm a little flustered. “Thank you. Hey, won't you stay a while—”
He grunts, turns his back, and strides off.
As his striped back vanishes among the trees, I suddenly feel more alone than ever before.
I find the remains of my panties and the sad grass skirt, put both on, and make sure my makeup pouch is all right. There’s the powder case, the lipstick, and the dried-up mascara.
I give the clearing a final look, ignoring the dead not-raptor. Then I allow myself a small smile.
This turned into something nice.
I can’t believe it. Aniceexperience on this planet!
Maybe things are about to change. And the way things were going, just about any change has to be for the better.
I grab my stick and the two leaf wrapped packs and start walking back to the beach.
2
- Korr'ax -
“That was a long time for a short scouting trip,” Breti’ax creaks when I return.
“I thought I saw atrokunder the waves,” I lie. “I waited for it to reach shore, but it turned out not to be one. Let us continue.”
“A trok would be bad tidings indeed,” the old man says as he slowly gets up from the dry log he’s been sitting on. “But I’m not surprised. It has been years since a trok was last seen. Did you spot any irox, perhaps? I thought I heard one.”
The word itself is enough to get me to reflexively glance up, making sure none of those flying horrors are above us, ready to attack. But of course it must have been Bryar’s screams that he heard, not the screeches of an irox. “I heard one too. Far away. After I killed a rekh.”
“A rekh attacked you?” Breti’ax asks as we walk on. “Not a good omen, Chief.”
“It didn’t attack me. I came upon it and killed it before it got a chance to.”
He turns his head and looks me up and down. “And yet you didn’t take its claws or teeth?”
Holy Ancestors, I should never have told him about the rekh. But I’m too distracted to think clearly.
“They weren’t worth taking.”
He gives me a puzzled glance. Then he shrugs, and we walk on in silence.
He’s right, of course. Iwasgone for a long time. First having a marvelous experience with that female, then taking the same amount of time waiting for my swelling crotch to settle down to the point where it’s not obvious. For some reason I don’t want even Breti’ax to know about the female. Not yet.
I have to think about it first, but it feels like the kind of thing I would want everyone to know.