Five
Kristine
I wake to a new day, and the realization that I deserve everything that is happening to me. I thought I was an innocent lost in time and space, but it turns out I am a dangerous criminal who deserves to be punished. Rex did mention that this place was one for punishment. Or was it the chest that did that? I can’t remember.
“What did you do? To get here, I mean.”
That’s the way to start the day, with probing questions.
“I failed my people,” he says. It’s not a specific answer, but I get the general idea. It’s no fun telling someone your worst secret. I’m not going to push him on it. Apparently, I repressed my own heinous crime until very recently. He may not even fully remember what he did. We may be two orphans of amnesia, lost from our parent memories. But I still don’t understand one thing. I was in a bank. I was not on an alien planet. You don’t just get transported places, unless…
“How did I get here? I mean, physically? I was robbing a bank and now I’m here. I must be dead.”
“You’re not dead,” he says. “Believe me. You are very much alive.”
“Well, if I’m alive, then I want to find out what that shiny thing in the distance is. We’ve been working. I think I’m ready. I’m ready, right?”
“You are, but it won’t be easy, as soon as we leave the starting zone, we’re opening ourselves to…”
“Wait. What is a starting zone?”
“Uh,” he pauses for a second. “Well, it’s what I call this fortress, and the area around it. The worst of the beasts avoid this area, and it is rich in food and resources. None of that will be true…”
"Yes, and that’s why we’ve been drying and growing and all the fucking rest of it.”
“A lot of fucking,” he smirks. “Let’s do that again before we go.”
I have the feeling he’s trying to stall. He’s been trying to stall this whole time. At first it made sense that we needed to prepare. Can’t just go running into the mouths of massive dinosaurs. But it has been weeks. I have practiced every kind of dino-evasion technique there is. I can ride Tyche as well as he can, near enough. And I’ve started to design a new kind of saddle for potentially riding one of the mid-sized raptors if I can ever work out how to tame one that doesn’t want to eat me.
“It’s time to go, Rex. We can rut in the forest later. We need to get into the forest first.”
“One moment… I need to…”
“Catch me if you can!”
I run into the forest in the direction of the shiny thing. Tyche is halfway saddled with all our provisions and some basic tents. They won’t stop the jaws of a massive dinosaur, but they will keep the rain off and give us somewhere to pretend we’re safe, which is about 70% of feeling safe anyway.
“KRISTINE!”
He calls after me, but I just keep running. He’s going to have to get on Tyche and get her moving, and she takes a while to build up speed. I want a head start, but not too much of a head start. I want him to be able to follow and find me, because otherwise I will actually get lost, and probably eaten.
Five minutes later…
The ground thunders with Tyche’s big feet. A similarly large hand sweeps down from on high and swings me off my feet.
Rex brings his mount to a halt with me dangling from his grasp, then drops me and follows me to the ground, very much unimpressed.
“Bad girl,” he growls. “I told you, never leave the area without me.”
“I had to leave because you never would have otherwise. It’s like you’re scared.”
He smacks me soundly, his palm making solid contact both rounds of my ass, and continues in earnest. Rex does not like to have his courage questioned, which is precisely why I did it. I like it when he gets stern and growly. I like it when he spanks me. I like the heat and the sting and the feeling of his massive, masculine body subduing mine.
“You’re such a brat,” he growls, though there is warmth in his voice. “I cannot believe how much you need to be disciplined. Every day you need to be bared and spanked, don’t you, you naughty girl.”
“Yess…”
If I was a real brat, I’d deny, but he’s right, and I know it. I need this from him as often as he’ll do it.
He stops spanking me for a moment and claps his hand over my mouth. “Quiet,” he hisses.
The ground reverberates with the steps of something very large. He lets me go enough to pull my skirt back down, just in case we have to run. The shaking draws closer and closer, until the ground feels like jelly beneath us.