Tamer_King of Dinosaurs 3 Read online

  I felt a touch on my back, and I gasped with surprise as I turned around. Bob was nuzzling me, and I stared into his big brown eyes for a few seconds before I petted him.

  “I’m okay, buddy.”

  Bob tooted, and I looked back through the archway.

  “I don’t know if they will be back. That female was injured. The other two would still be a problem though, so I’ll need to leave Tom, Katie, and Nicole here. But they also need some water and some time to graze. We need to clear all the carcasses away from outside of the wall, so we don’t get scavengers.” As I spoke, I mentally commanded him to kneel, so I could get on his saddle easier. Then I commanded the three trikes to stand sentry in their “V” formation. I was concerned that the allosauruses would come back, but I didn’t think they would make a visit any time soon. When animals were injured, they tended to go somewhere to lick their wounds before they came back to fight. I was sure I’d see the three of them again, so I had to get ready.

  “Let’s go,” I said as I turned Bob around and commanded Sonny and Cher to follow us back to the inner wall of the fort. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

  Chapter 4

  The group of women was waiting for me at the gate of our smaller inner fort. They must have seen me force back the first and second allosaurus, but they couldn’t have known the outcome of the actual battle.

  “They are gone, for now,” I said as I dismounted. “There are three left alive, and one of them is really injured. I think they will be back someday, so we have to figure out how to better defend the fort.”

  “You commanded the three-horned dinosaurs?” Liahpa asked with wide eyes.

  “Yeah,” I said. “We talked about it, remember?” Jinx was running around our feet excitedly, and I bent down to pet him.

  “I did not realize you had such acute control over them.”

  “I just learned about it a few days ago,” I said.

  “Did you use your ability with the ones that were stuck in the wall?” Sheela asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I didn’t really tame them, I just kind of yelled and they did what I expected.”

  “What about the larger ones with the teeth?” Liahpa asked. “Can you command those?” Her tone was curious, and I guessed that she might have been starting to get over the fact that I was a man.

  “I’ve tried before, but the predators seem a bit harder to work with.” I shrugged and then glanced back at the distant gate where the trikes were. “I’ll get better, but we have to begin our discussion about what tasks we need to do, and then I have to take all the dinos to the river for a drink. Is there anything you all want to talk about before I start on my tasks?”

  Each of the women shook their heads, and it looked as if Liahpa was about to say something, but instead, she looked down at the hand that I had touched when I pulled her over the wall, and she bit her lip.

  “As I see it,” I said as I gestured for us all to move back to where the venison was still roasting. “We have four areas that we need to focus on: Defense, food, water, and sanitation.”

  “What about comfort?” Kacerie asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Like we are all sleeping in that single hut. We need more housing, and more sleeping mats, pillows, and blankets. We are also going to need clothes and baths.”

  “I’ll throw baths in with sanitation,” I replied. “You make a good point about the huts and stuff. Let’s call it ‘living conditions’ and we’ll talk about it with sanitation.”

  “Got it,” the pink-haired beauty said as she smiled at me.

  “Let’s talk about defense first,” I said as I turned to Trel. “I was just thinking about the trench you mentioned a few days ago.

  “Hmmm,” she said as she tapped her black finger against her mouth. “It would have helped us during the stampede.”

  “Won’t the dinosaurs just fall in the trench then?” Kacerie asked.

  “It will take out the momentum from their run,” Sheela said.

  “Yeah,” Trel added. “They will either move to avoid the trench, or they will topple in it.”

  “Won’t they get stuck there? What if they die, we’ll have to carry their bodies out. I’m not trying to nag here, I just don’t understand how it is better than just a wall on flat ground.” Kacerie smiled at us and waved her hands to make it seem as if she wasn’t trying to argue.

  “That’s okay, it is a good question,” I said. “If they fall down the trench, they might run into the slope leading up into the walls. This is better than the walls taking the hit. I’ll make the entrance slope steep, but not steep enough so that they can’t get out. If they get stuck inside or trampled and die, we just get some free meat.”

  “Good point,” Kacerie said as her blue eyes met mine. “Thanks for explaining it to me, Victor.”

  “The design will have to be done well,” Trel said.

  “Can you help me figure out how wide and deep I need the parasaurs to dig?” I asked. “I’m concerned that we’ll weaken the wall.”

  “We won’t,” Trel replied. “I’ll make sure of it.”

  “Okay,” I replied. “We’ll work on that as soon as I get back from getting all our dinos water.”

  “We also need the platforms,” Trel said. “You wanted me to work on those a few days ago, but then we focused on building the outer wall.”

  “Yeah, I remember.” I smiled at her. “Do we have enough spare logs to build them?”

  “We will need about twenty,” Trel said as she glanced into the inside of the wall. “Then they will be evenly spaced. I think we have enough branches from the larger logs we have already knocked down for the wall posts.”

  “We will also need spears, bows, and arrows at each platform,” Sheela said.

  “I’m going to put you in charge of that. There might be enough branches left over after Trel builds the platform, but if there isn’t let me know and we can get more.”

  “I will get it completed,” the blonde woman said with a nod.

  “We also need to repair the gate,” I said as I grabbed another piece of cooked venison.

  “I will work on that, too,” Trel said. “It will take more wood than I would use for platforms.”

  “Okay,” I said as I puzzled through the various tasks. “I’m guessing that we are also going to need more cordage.”

  “We’ll need some,” Trel said, “but our earlier strategy was to bind the outer walls with cordage, and we ended up using the dowel method instead, so we have a lot of unused cordage right now.”

  “Ahh that’s right,” I said as I turned to Galmine and Kacerie. “We are always going to need more though, so I need you both to be making cordage whenever you have downtime.”

  “I can do that,” Kacerie said, and Galmine smiled as she nodded.

  “Something else you also asked me to do a few days ago, is build saddles for Sonny and Cher.”

  “Ahh, right,” I replied. “We’ll also need ones for Tom, Katie, and Nicole.”

  “I’ll need more cordage, wood, and leaves.” Trel shrugged, and it was starting to become apparent that she was the bottleneck of our operation. I needed Trel to do all the things, but she was only one woman.

  “Kacerie,” I said as I turned to the hairdresser. “You are really good with rope and making cordage, do you think you could look at the saddles Trel has already made for Hope and Bob and figure out how to make some for the other dinos?”

  “Sure,” she said with a nod.

  “I can do it,” Trel said with a frown.

  “You are doing everything,” I said. “Let Kacerie handle this. She’s smart enough to figure it out based off what you already did.”

  “Hmmm,” Trel looked at the other woman, and then she nodded. “Okay. You are right. Kacerie has proven herself to us. I am happy to have the help.”

  “Thank you.” Kacerie smiled again, and her light blue eyes seemed to twinkle. I felt a bit of pride that all my friends were starting to g
et along, but then I turned to Liahpa and Emerald and realized it would take a bit for them to feel like they were part of the family.

  “Liahpa and Emerald, is there anything we talked about that you had questions about? Any project you can help us with?”

  “I can help you pull these logs into the fort,” Liahpa said. “Then I can help Sheela with the weapons.”

  “Great,” I said, and then I looked to Emerald.

  The green-haired woman shrugged her shoulders and smiled slightly before she pointed to Kacerie and Bob.

  “You want to help Kacerie make the saddles?” I asked, and she nodded.

  “Perfect,” I said. “First, we all need to pull as many logs as we can inside, but before we get to work on that, let’s talk about the other three categories of work we have to focus on.”

  “Food is next!” Galmine said.

  “Yep,” I agreed. “I’m guessing you have some ideas.”

  “We already talked about making a garden,” the beautiful woman said with her usual cheerleader smile. “I have a perfect spot picked out here,” she gestured for us all to follow her, and we all took our plates of venison and walked around the smaller wall so that we could see the rest of our courtyard.

  “This spot will get the most sun,” Galmine said proudly as she gestured slowly with her hands to a large patch of field. “I can build fences on each side to keep out birds, place berry bushes around them to add security, and then plant tubers, beans, and leafy greens inside.”

  “How much will it produce?” I asked. The question was a bit dumb because I didn’t quite know how large of a spot she needed just from her arm gestures.

  “Even a small ten-foot by ten-foot area will produce all the vegetables we need, but I am envisioning about a quarter of an acre. We’ll be able to live off only vegetables if we want.”

  “You will need to get seeds?” I asked.

  “Yes.” Galmine nodded. “If I can ride on the back of one of your dinosaurs with you around the valley, I’m sure I can find some that we can use for planting.”

  “I’ll make it happen.”

  “After you dig the hole around the wall?” Sheela asked.

  “And after you help us pull the wood back into the fort?” Kacerie asked.

  “We still haven’t talked about water,” Trel groaned. “Victor needs to help me get--”

  “I’ll figure out the order we need to do everything after I make a list,” I said.

  “I have faith in you, Victor,” Galmine said. “You are so smart and wonderful. You have protected us very well so far. We all appreciate you protecting us, and we appreciate the love you give us.”

  “Love?” Liahpa asked with surprise.

  “Oh yes,” Galmine said, but before she could explain it to the silver-woman, I interrupted her.

  “Do you need farming tools?” I asked as Jinx rubbed against my leg. I handed him a piece of my venison, and he gobbled it up with a happy chirp.

  “I will need a hoe and a shovel to work the dirt,” Galmine said as she turned away from Liahpa.

  “Can I use one of the parasaurs?” I asked.

  “Hope might be able to do the initial work,” Galmine said with a happy smile, “but I will still need something for finer work. It is not urgent since my hands are strong and used to working at such tasks.”

  “I can help you make something,” Sheela said, and Emerald waved her hands.

  “Do you wish to help me with the garden?” Galmine asked the scaled woman, and she nodded.

  “Good!” my lover said as she clapped her hands together. “I am looking forward to working with you.”

  “Ugh,” Trel groaned. “Vegetables are what my food eats. I need meat. So does Sheela. How do we grow meat?”

  “I’m thinking we need a chicken coop of some kind,” I said, and the women turned to me.

  “You mean small birds?” Kacerie asked with some confusion, and I guessed that our translator tech was having some problems feeding them the words.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “Ones that are somewhat docile and lay eggs we can eat. We’d just need a bunch of female birds that are prolific egg layers. The orange birds won’t work because they can fly, only seem to lay once every season, and they are aggressive. We should keep our eyes peeled while we travel for a species we can use.”

  The women nodded at my words, and I turned to Kacerie. She guessed what I was going to say before I opened my mouth, and her eyes lit up again. “I can weave the funnel baskets that we can use to catch fish.”

  “Great,” I said as I returned her smile.

  “Victor, we also need a way to preserve the meat better,” Galmine said as she gestured to the roasting venison. “This will last us the day, and maybe into tomorrow morning, but there will be some left over, and it will go bad.”

  “We need salt,” Trel said, and the rest of us nodded.

  “It is another thing we need to keep our eyes out for when we travel,” I said. “As soon as we have the defenses set up, and saddles made, we are each going to take a parasaur or trike and search the valley for either a salt lick or a place where salt can be found.”

  “How will we know where to look?” Liahpa asked. “Also, you expect us to ride one of these?” She gestured to Bob and the floating woman actually looked a bit nervous. I was starting to see some cracks in her mental armor, but then again, she had just been deposited on a primitive world filled with dinosaurs and a single man. She was handling it all pretty well.

  “Riding the dinosaurs is an enjoyable experience,” Sheela said with a nod, and I remembered that the cat-woman had been very hesitant to try at first. “You feel powerful atop of one’s back.”

  “Hmmm,” Liahpa said as she smirked at Sheela.

  “As far as finding salt, the animals will need it to survive also. Especially the ones that are herbivores. We’ll have to follow some trails through the forest or jungle until we find some rock salt. I don’t think it will be that hard to locate, we just have to keep our eyes open when we are out.”

  “Doesn’t the ocean have salt?” Kacerie asked.

  “I don’t know how to get the salt out of it,” I said with a shrug. “We could boil the water until it evaporates, but that seems like a lot of work for just a bit of salt.”

  “We need to make a trip to the ocean anyways,” Trel said after she set her finished plate of food down. “I need fine sand for my water filter.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Now is a good time to talk about water.”

  “It is my favorite topic,” Trel said with a smile. “It is the most urgent need.”

  “Well, I don’t know if it is the most urgent--”

  “Victor,” she interrupted me. “I know you are worried about protecting us, but every time we drink water from the river, we are taking a significant risk of bacterial or parasitic infection. If we all get sick, we won’t be able to hunt or defend ourselves.”

  “What about the dinosaurs?” Galmine asked. “Why haven’t they gotten sick?”

  “Animals in the wild do get sick from drinking bad water,” I said. “But a lot of them visit the same watering hole, and they build an immunity to the bacteria there.”

  “Yeah,” Trel said, “but all it will take is one animal shitting upstream from us before we go to collect our water, and we will get sick. Water is the most important project now that our walls are built. My filtration and container system is almost completed. I just need a few dozen pounds of fine sand and more clay.”

  “Clay is going to be hard to get because of the raptors.” I shrugged.

  “Raptors?” Liahpa asked.

  “We used to get clay from the side of the lake that is two miles to our east,” I said, “but a group of the dinosaurs that almost attacked you are camping out there, and it is too risky to visit.”

  “They might move on in a few days,” Trel said.

  “Or they might stay there for a few weeks,” I replied. “I don’t want to risk it right now. I’d rather find
another place for clay. I haven’t searched the river much to our west. There might be a few spots over there.”

  “Very well,” Trel sighed. “I just want to make it clear that water is important.”

  “I know.” I smiled at her as I reached up to touch her bare shoulder. “Thanks for looking out for us. I’ll find you some more clay. I am just concerned about the raptors at the lake, I don’t want them to follow us here.”

  “They may find us eventually,” Sheela said. “So, it is important that we dig the trench around the wall, repair the gate, build the platforms, and craft the extra weapons.”

  “Ugh,” Kacerie groaned. “So much shit to do. No wonder Victor never sleeps.”

  “We’ll get everything established soon,” I said. “Then we can rest a bit easier.” I turned back to Trel and then gestured to the river. “What we really need to do is get the water from the river to us. You mentioned that you could build a pump. How?”

  “I did say I could build a pump, didn’t I?” she sighed a bit and her fangs came out from below her lip when she frowned.

  “Shit, you can’t?” I asked.

  “Yes and no,” she replied as she wiggled her long finger-claws in the air and let out a long breath that did wonderful things to her perfect breasts. “I can build a pump that will push water just using the power of the river. It works by filling a chamber with water until it is under pressure, then it pushes into another chamber that contains air as an opposing pressure to push the water up through a pipe. Once the pressure equalizes, the water will push back out a valve and then blow off into the river. Slowly, it will push water up through a pipe and into a storage tank.”

  “I’m not sure I understand how it works, but I believe you when you say it does work.” I smiled at her.

  “My design will work. I can push the water into this storage tank and use gravity pressure to send it through clay pipes we bury into the ground. I mentioned that I would need vertical “T” junctions every so often so I could test pressure and administer repairs, but the logic is sound.”

  “I feel like you are about to tell me that you still can’t do it,” I said as I smirked at her.

  “I can’t craft the pump with clay until I figure out a better way to heat it,” Trel said with a shrug of her slender shoulders. “The material can’t handle the pressure with how we treat it now. Wood might work, but it will warp with the water coming in and out. I need a metal or a plastic. I’ll also need some valves to make a solid seal that will hold under pressure, or it won’t work. I can build virtually everything else with clay or stone, but the pump will be a problem.”