Caveman Alien's Riddle - Calista Skye Page 0,27

later there are twelve trees on the ground, two of them with roots and all, seemingly pulled straight up from the ground.

“Wonderful,” I praise the dragon. “You are incredibly strong! That will make a great raft. I wonder if it might work better without any branches on the trees. And no roots, maybe.”

He gives me a suspicious little glance, then attacks the trees in much the same way a living chainsaw would. Branches and twigs and leaves fly, along with slivers of trees and bark and torn-off roots. The noise is indescribable, more like a wood chipper than a chainsaw and ten times as loud. He seems to let off a good bit of fury this way, and that’s fine with me.

By the end there are twelve logs on the gravel, their ends ripped off and not neatly cut the way I’m used to. But this works, too.

“Now I imagine some rope is needed,” Caronerax comments, looking at his handiwork with clear satisfaction. “To keep the logs attached to each other.”

“Precisely!” I exclaim. “Have you built— oh, sorry. I mean, you have clearly built rafts before.”

He frowns at me. “The only thing I’ve built before is my hoard. As you well know.”

“Oh. I thought… okay. They are some nice logs, anyway. Back in the village, we make rope by braiding strips of bark. Mostly.”

He points at the heap of various branches and roots that his work has created. “Then braid.”

I go through the pieces and find enough tough strips of bark to make probably thirty feet of rope, which might be enough to tie the logs together in one place. In the village, we all have to make lots of rope, because it has a surprising number of uses. The bark we use back there is different from this, and sometimes we find trees with long vines we can use. In this forest, I haven’t seen that.

I braid bark ropes and fry up not-sheep meat until darkness falls.

Caronerax goes into the woods once more and returns with a big sheaf of red plants.

He dumps them in front of me. “More rope.”

I test the thin stalks, finding them surprisingly tough. Even using all my strength, I can’t snap them. “Great! We might have enough for the raft.”

The dragon tosses another bush on the ground, roots and all. The twigs are heavy with dark blue berries. “Hopefully, those won’t kill you.”

I gingerly bite into one berry and taste it with the tip of my tongue. It’s tart, but more than sweet enough to probably not be poisonous. The berries are almond-shaped and have tiny, grain-like pips like strawberries. They’re much nicer than the not-redcurrant ones.

“Thank you!” I sniff. “These are great.”

“So great they have your eyes getting wet?”

I wipe the tears of joy. “Yes. Because it makes me happy to taste them. Sorry. It’s just that this planet rarely gives you something good, and today has been pretty… difficult.”

“I see.” He gets busy tying the logs together.

It’s not like I’m overjoyed by the berries. I’m in a fragile state, and every little nice thing is unexpected. Aaand… maybe it’s because he didn’t have to find berries for me. It’s really a super sweet thing to do. Yeah, he’s an unconventional dragon.

I diplomatically and gently, without asking questions, make him construct the raft with two layers – the seven thickest logs on the bottom and the five thinnest on top. That way, I hope the raft will float higher in the water. But it won’t be a luxury yacht any way you look at it.

At my careful suggestion, he gets another, smaller tree to use as an oar or a pole.

While he works, I get an idea and get busy with a little project of my own, carving a small object from soft wood.

The sun has long set when Caronerax stands back with his hands on his hips. “A magnificent creation. Ludicrous, but magnificent.”

The raft is done, and it is indeed a ludicrous contraption, twelve roughly broken tree trunks held together with a bit of what is essentially twine.

But it gives me hope. If this is in fact a major lake, then we can make better time traveling on that than walking on foot through woods where raptors lurk behind every tree. Of course, the dactyls are more of a danger when we’re on the raft, but I have a feeling the presence of the dragon might weigh up for that particular issue.

It also gives me hope because both Aurora and Phoebe did