white teeth in a tanned face. “It just yawned. That’s good! Means it doesn’t feel threatened anymore.”
I lower the gun.
The dino isn’t looking at me. It arches its neck far back, then slams its head into the ground, and when it comes up again the entire not-sheep carcass is skewered on two of its spikes. Long, brown mandibles come out from one of the mouths and cut into it, then move the slimy meat to the monster’s toothed gape.
The teeth are too long and pointy to be much good for chewing, so it doesn’t bother. The whole carcass disappears into the mouth, and that was that.
I stand there looking while Heidi does various things with the rod and the butterfly, making the dinosaur walk this way and that. By moving the bait behind the murong’s head, she can make it walk forwards, too.
Finally, she jumps off and casually strolls over to me, fishing rod in hand. “That worked. It’s a breakthrough. I didn’t bring the stuff I’d need to control it properly, but this rod will do in a pinch.”
The murong shakes its head and slowly lumbers back into the jungle. Maybe it isn’t that much of a predator, after all.
I extinguish the wick on the gun. “Useful stuff. The trick is to not make it feel threatened by you, only by the bait?”
We duck under a branch and start walking back to the village.
“Yep,” Heidi says. “A creature our size is not a threat to the dino. Only much smaller and much bigger things are. So you make sure it’s fed — that’s where the carcass comes in —- and then you make sure it has something other than you to worry about.”
“And this works on all dinos?”
“Most of them, probably. I mean, don’t try this on a charging raptor or a diving dactyl. They’re already in attack mode. But one that’s already calm, maybe just curious… sure, why not. Very useful experiment. Thanks for helping.”
A sticky drop of condensation hits me on the shoulder, but I’m so used to it I barely notice. “Dragons probably won’t fall for it, either.”
Heidi pulls a branch aside and holds it back so I can pass. “Definitely not.”
I narrowly avoid stepping on a wide centipede the size of a yoga mat. “Seems like those of the girls that stay may have to deal with the dragons one way or the other. With no hope of escape.”
Heidi shrugs. “Our husbands and their caveman army of dragon slayers will keep us as safe as anyone could hope for. Unless the dragons suddenly change and become more active, I see no reason for much worry. They’ve been pretty quiet lately. They keep getting weaker without any hoards. And you know how terrible they are at cooperating.”
I shudder at the mere thought. The dinosaurs scare me, of course. As well as the huge insects and the myriad of other deadly things here. But the dragons are something else. The two that are married to Mia and Eleanor and live in the village sometimes make me walk big circles around them. There’s something icy about them, something menacing.
“I’ll be happy to put all the dragons behind me forever,” I state with conviction. “And when I get back to Earth, I’ll totally avoid anything that has even a hint of scales. No idea how I’ll weigh myself or play the piano, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay.”
Heidi chuckles. “And eating fish would be out of the question, I guess. Sure, I understand you. I just don’t think the dragons will be much of a problem going forward.”
We’re getting close to home. I can smell the charcoal smoke from the village. The girls are preparing a really nice meal for tonight, which for some of us will be the last dinner in this village we’ve founded and then built to be by far the best settlement on the whole planet.
I sigh, happy to be back and none the worse for wear. “Not for me, they won’t.”
- - -
Some of the girls start to sing Careless Whisper, with most of the lyrics slurred or blatantly made up on the spot.
“Hey Jen, want to dance?”
Beatrice holds out her hand, and I’m drunk enough to see no reason to not take it. The cavemen aren’t big on couple’s dances, so if we want to do that, we have to dance with each other. Which is fine. It’s a lot like some parties back home, except the music here has less