I do a quick little twirl, and Beatrice grins with bright, white teeth in her caramel face. “Not bad, Jen. My turn now.”
Yeah, we have to take turns leading, which is fine. It’s fun, anyway.
For a goodbye party, it’s pretty lively. The girls sing old hits, we put flowers in our hair as a way to dress up, we hug a lot, we get drunk on various types of caveman booze, and there’s a lot of grilled meat. Emilia and Caroline have experimented with the herbs we know, and they have come up with a pretty passable barbecue sauce.
There’s not much we have to say to each other. Twelve of the girls are married to cavemen or dragons, and they will probably stay. The six of us that are still single can’t wait to be home on Earth. And this isn’t the final goodbye — that will happen at Bune in a couple of days.
I’m okay with leaving this place. The other girls are much more productive and useful to our tribe than I am.
Heidi tames dinosaurs, Aurora is a tactical genius, Delyah is a genius at everything, Caroline saved us from the dragon Troga, Dolly made gunpowder and soap for us all, Mia and Eleanor tamed dragons. And so on. They’re all heroes.
I’m not a hero at all. I only help the others where I can. I haven’t contributed anything original or groundbreaking. Always a follower, never a leader in any way. And on this planet, there’s not really any place for followers.
It’s not that the other girls are saying it, of course. I doubt they see it. I try to be helpful and nice. But when our little tribe grew from a cave to a real city state with a chief and an army, I did nothing particular to speed things along. I had no ideas, no special knowledge that could be crucual.
I would have loved to, of course. But I simply don’t have the skills or the knowledge. Who needs to know about Aristotle or Nietzsche on a prehistoric planet? I mean, I could strike up a conversation about non-Hegelian determinism, but unless the caveman is particularly philosophical and ideally a little bit nuts, the best I can hope for is a blank stare. Which would be true on Earth as well, of course.
I say ‘good night’ and stagger home to the house that’s now all mine after Eleanor and Ashlynn have set up dwellings with their husbands. I won’t miss the house, even though it’s one of the best on Xren, partly built from bricks and everything. The roof barely leaks at all.
My backpack is ready for tomorrow, and so is the gun. I doubt I’ll need it, because we’ll have an escort of about a hundred cavemen, but Dolly had it made especially for me and I want to show that I appreciate it.
In a special pouch on a leather string around my neck are various little items that can be useful, like old-fashioned matches for lighting fires that Dolly has made. It also contains the uncut diamond Eleanor gave me. It will be worth a lot on Earth, we think. It should be, anyway. It’s the size of a walnut, despite only looking like an ordinary pebble.
I curl up under a not-sheep fur, listening to the subdued murmur of voices from the party area.
Some of the girls are still there. I will miss them.
It’s my last night in the jungle village that’s been my home for almost two years now.
“But I won’t miss the jungle,” I mutter.
- - -
I wake up to hard, metallic bangs of the alarm gong. I’ve only heard it when the cavemen conduct a drill, but I know exactly what it is.
I shake my head, still groggy. Of all the times to have an exercise…
Then I hear the yelling and the hissing and the screeching, and I realize that this is a very real alarm.
I get up, bumping into the wall, then grab the gun and peer out the door. It’s a dark night, but there’s definitely movement out there among the houses and various buildings.
The idea is that the cavemen will keep any enemy from getting inside the village. But a lot of these shapes don’t look like cavemen to me. They look more like…
One big, man-like shape sneaks past the corner of my house, scales shining in the moonlight. A coldness spreads from my stomach.