Caveman Alien's Riddle - Calista Skye Page 0,10

starts going downhill, and I keep up my speed as well as I can.

There’s movement off to my left, and I veer to the right without checking what it might be.

Then there’s movement to my right, and I veer left.

And then there’s a dinosaur right in front of me, standing still with its gape open, as if expecting me to run right into it.

I almost do before I deliberately crash into a tree and come to a complete stop five paces away.

There’s a dino in front of me, and there are others on either side. Three of them that I can see.

They’re surrounding me, so close I can pick out each old sliver of rotting meat between their needle teeth.

Well, I can’t get more panicky than I am already.

The dinosaurs are the usual kind of not-velociraptor. They often hunt in packs, they’re pretty smart, and they’re just as deadly as they look.

My foggy brain notices that they’re smaller than the usual ones back in the jungle, where they can grow to the size of pickup trucks. These ones are only the size of motorcycles. But they can kill and eat me with no problem at all.

All three are standing there, looking at me from ten feet away with small, unblinking eyes. They smell of decay and death.

I’m still breathing hard.

Shit. That this should happen to me so close to finally going home to Earth.

My jaw clenches by itself, and acid tears burn in my eyes. So freaking close...

Well, I’m not going to wait for their convenience.

I take off again and run right at the not-raptor in front of me. If I hadn’t been so out of breath, I would have yelled, too.

The raptor lowers its head and opens wider, showing row after row of brown, triangular teeth. It tenses up, and just as it pounces I dive to the right.

The air pressure from the charging dino washes over me with its stench as I land awkwardly on the crunchy ground.

I’m barely able to get up into a crouch when the two others jump right at me.

I throw myself down and close my eyes, waiting for the intense pain of their teeth ripping my body apart.

Time stands still.

There’s a meaty crack, and then silence except for splashing liquid.

I glance up.

Black boots and beige pants. Vivid yellow stripes on blue scales. Golden locks hanging in a dense curtain over an angelic face.

“It feels like I told you about resisting me and its consequences,” Caronerax says calmly. “And yet, here we are.”

He’s holding one not-raptor by the throat in each hand, and the predators hang limply as their watery blood splashes down on the ground from their severed arteries.

The third raptor is wisely bounding quickly away among the trees, not looking back.

Caronerax casually tosses the two dead raptors ten feet away at each side of him. They must weigh five hundred pounds each. “And now I’m all dirty.”

I stay down, trying to catch my breath.

My impulse is to thank him for saving me, but I’m not at all sure that I’m safe.

He keeps saying those nasty things, and I don’t know if he’s planning to kill me himself. If so, the raptors may have been better.

Shit. He took me away from the village and the escape ship. He may have totally ruined everything for me.

“You’re lucky I don’t pierce your heart right now,” the dragon says, leaning against a tree. “But you can still be useful. Keep going towards your village. Get up now.”

I don’t look up. I’ve had it with this bullshit, and I don’t care that much what happens now. “Oh, go fuck yourself, you pompous ass.”

For a long moment there’s only silence. Then he grabs my hair and pulls me up to a standing position.

The pain and fear brings tears to my eyes.

His eyes flash in blue and yellow. “Keep going towards your village. Count yourself lucky that you still have some uses for me.”

He lets go and pushes me away.

But the pain in my scalp, the desperation and the sheer humiliation brings me over the edge. I have really had it, and my mind flashes with uncontrolled rage.

I bounce right back and punch his chest, putting my full weight and all my anger and fear behind it, aiming right at the wound that’s still seeping golden liquid.

Caronerax staggers backwards and hisses viciously, then stands there with both his hands on the wound, staring down at me with an astonished look on his face.

He’s going to kill me now, of