Tex started, noticing tall shapes looming among the trees. But they were only hoodoos, spires of rock that formed bizarre shapes.

  They crept through the trees towards the river, where the elk herd was roaming in a long train.

  “Holy shit!” Tex said, slapping his knee. “They look like elk, but they’re bigger than moose.”

  “Look over there!” Neesha said, pointing.

  Gazing downriver, Tex saw the pterodactyl continue its path down the ravine, disappearing behind the trees and hoodoos. The shadows of the other two skimmed over the rocky ground, following behind it.

  “I want to check where they went,” Tex said, and pointed to a nearby outcropping of rock. “Hide under there.”

  Making his way towards the river, he peered down the long passage of the canyon and saw the Death Birds still flying away.

  The herd continued for a long way, disappearing around a bend in the canyon. There had to be over 300 of them. The pterodactyls turned around and began circling above the elk.

  Tex ran back to the girls. “Looks like we’ve got some competition.”

  “Well, better they hunt the elk than us,” Neesha said.

  “You think they’ll chase the herd away?” Emi said.

  “I don’t know. Let’s head over there.”

  Tex led the way, holding his rifle. Staying under the cover of trees, they crept to within about 30 yards of the herd.

  Meanwhile, the herd circled their young while bucks charged at the pterodactyls. Though they were much larger than the elk, they flapped away, preferring an easier target.

  The giant birds shrieked like banshees, soaring skyward and diving back to the ground. Hundreds of hoofs drummed the canyon floor as the herd scattered around in confusion. Massive bat-like wings beat up clouds of dust as two of them struggled with a buck.

  Amidst the confusion, the third pterodactyl snatched a calf and flapped into the air, carrying it to the other side of the river.

  Alighting on the bank, it picked up the calf in its beak, threw its head back, and swallowed it whole. Then it flew heavily into the air and departed downriver.

  Meanwhile, the embattled buck was gored by a massive beak, sending it crashing onto the dirt and scattering the others.

  To Tex’s astonishment, the Death Bird flapped on top of the bleeding buck, sunk its talons into the beast’s back, and dragged it into the river.

  The beast thrashed around, but the pterodactyl bided its time, holding it in the water and waiting for it to drown.

  The other one swooped into the water, and the two of them greedily pecked at the buck, tearing off limbs and gulping them down their gullets.

  “Let’s try to get one now, before they all run away,” Tex said, shouldering his rifle and taking his spear from Neesha. “But, Emi — I want you to stay here.”

  Emi nodded readily. “Okay, Tex.”

  He was relieved that she didn’t stubbornly insist on coming with them.

  Tex and Neesha crept towards the retreating herd, staying under cover as much as possible. Tex stopped and grabbed Neesha’s shoulder. “That one, right there!” he said, pointing. “See that big bull limping along? That’s our target.”

  One very large bull had apparently been wounded during the fight. It lumbered along at a much slower pace than the rest of the herd.

  Glancing upriver, Tex saw that the two remaining pterodactyls were still tearing apart the buck in the water. Crouching among bracken and trees, he and Neesha crept as close as they could and waited as the injured buck limped in their direction.

  “Now!”

  Tex charged out of the vegetation, running over the rocky ground. The herd got spooked and started running faster. Even the injured buck rallied and picked up its pace, but Tex sprinted towards it and flung his spear with all his might.

  The spear shot through the spot behind the crease of its front leg, piercing its lungs. Neesha bolted past Tex and threw her spear, which plunged several inches behind Tex’s.

  Instead of surrounding their young as they’d done with the pterodactyls, the herd continued running away, kicking up dust as they rumbled downriver.

  The bull followed slowly.

  Meanwhile, the two remaining Death Birds gulped down the last chunks of their kill.

  I hope I don’t have to fight them for the dying bull, Tex thought.

  However, they took to the air and crossed the river, flapping up to the top of the canyon out of sight.

  After running back for Emi, the three of them followed the bull for about 60 yards, when it finally collapsed.

  The rest of the herd disappeared around an enormous, jagged outcropping. This pleased Tex, since the outcropping provided some shelter. He pointed behind them towards the trees that climbed the foot of the canyon wall.

  “We’ll try to drag it over there. We can make a fire.”

  The rumble of the herd died away as the sun blazed over the canyon, heating it like an oven.

  They sat under a tree and waited for the bull to breathe its last breath.

  And that’s when they heard a woman’s scream.

  Chapter fourteen

  THE SCREAM CAME from the other side of the outcropping. It was followed by the voices of men, yelling and whooping.

  Tex exchanged glances with Emi and Neesha. The elves looked at the edge of the outcropping with wide eyes, but they couldn’t see around it from where they were sitting.

  Tex followed the outcropping to the edge and peeked around the corner. On the other side, he saw a tribal woman. Emi had said the island’s tribal people were as barbaric as the Skrillings. This woman certainly looked savage, but she didn’t have the monstrous aspect of the Skrillings.

  You could even call her beautiful, in a rustic sort of way, Tex thought.

  Two bright feathers adorned her raven-black hair — one was flaming red and the other snow white. A fang necklace sat on the tawny skin of her collarbones, and a skimpy animal hide top barely covered her large bosom. Its material cupped the outer sides of her breasts and was held together by a thread stringed with beast fangs.

  The result was a fantastically distracting display of cleavage; her boobs threatened to break the string and bounce free at any moment.

  The same animal-tooth threads rested on the tops of her bare hips; a strip of animal skin hung down the middle, covering the inner sides of her ample thighs.

  Her eyes flashed with a predatory ferocity. She shouted furiously, clutching a spear and cursing at someone who stood out of view. Then she turned towards the departing herd as if to chase after them.

  But a man sprinted up to her and grabbed her wrist.

  “Utu, wait!”

  He was tall, and dressed in a ragged animal skin wrap.

  The woman smacked the side of his face with her open hand. The impact resounded over the stones.

  “How dare you disrespect me like this?” she bellowed.

  They spoke a bastardized version of the elf language.

  Looking at her face again, Tex figured she was in her late 20s or early 30s, but her beauty had not faded. Her big, dark eyes burned with passion. Her heart-shaped face and pouting lips would win any man’s admiration despite her intimidating demeanor.

  The tall man staggered back, and Tex saw he was very young — around 20. He shook with humiliation. Tex also saw that his legs were very muscular, and his jaw was huge. He was built like a rugby player.

  “I… I’m not disrespecting you, Utu,” he stammered. “I want to… be your alpha! I may not be powerful yet, but —”

  “You! Take me! The lowly Bankim take Utu? You’re just a boy! I’m more of a man than you are! I should run you through with my spear and make a complete woman of you!” She laughed contemptuously.

  The young man’s chest heaved as he trembled with rage and wounded pride.

  “What?” Utu taunted. “Are you upset? What did you think I was going to do, fall into your arms? You interrupted our hunt and disrespected me. I should kill you!”

  She jabbed her spear towards his face, and it would have gored his eye if he hadn’t dodged it. As he did so, he pushed the spear out of the way and snatched her by the waist.

  “What are you... doing?” Utu screamed.

  They struggled silently.

  Bankim pried the spear from her hand and chucked it on the ground. Then he yanked Utu against himself and tried to get ahold of her wrists.

  “No!” she screeched, struggling furiously. “Will you break the law?”

  “I know you want me,” he grunted through his teeth. “You bitches are all in heat! You think we can’t see it? It’s driving us crazy.”

  Grabbing her in a bear hug, he used his body weight to throw both of them to the ground. Utu writhed her body and clenched her powerful legs around the man’s hip. Tex had a feeling Bankim wouldn’t have minded being trapped like that, except that Utu relentlessly scratched and smacked his face.

  In the meantime, more screams and shouts came from around the corner.

  On impulse, Tex moved his rifle into his hands, switched off the safety, and almost stepped around The Rock. But Neesha grabbed his arm.

  “What are you doing?” she whispered.

  “I’m going to help.”

  She clasped his arm. “There’s no need to interfere. This is their way.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I… think this is their custom. It’s normal for them.”

  “This is normal?”

  Extricating his arm from Neesha’s grasp, he stepped around the rock and saw a group of young men standing near the trees—more than twenty of them. Ranging in age from about 15 to 25, their skin was dirty, as if they rarely bathed, and their beards and hair were long and unkempt.

  A wild, hungry look flashed in their eyes.

  They were confronting three other women.

  One of these women was dressed in the same outfit as Utu, but she was very petite. Her eyes flitted nervously between Utu and the group of men.

  Standing beside this petite girl was a large pair of tits. At least they were the first things Tex noticed. Which was unsurprising, because they were the most perfect pair he’d ever seen.

  On further inspection, he saw that they were attached to an almost naked body. The only article of clothing, apart from moccasins, was a fringed leather skirt. It hung around broad hips and barely covered a big, round ass.

  The proportions of this Venus were unreasonably sexy: small waist, big hips, thighs that jiggled with every movement, and a tummy that slightly protruded. And those boobs, bouncing up and down, large nipples begging to be sucked.

  Tex did not immediately notice if she had a head.

  A third woman, struggling to escape the attention of one of the men, was even more remarkable.

  Her caramel-brown skin was much darker than any of the other people’s. She had a round face, full lips, a cute button nose, and big brown eyes. Dark hair framed her face.

  But the feature that made Tex gape at her in disbelief was her cat ears. They were furry and black, currently pointing backwards in disgust. She also had a furry black tail, which bristled with agitation.

  The cat girl’s clothing was distinct, too: it was made from colorful stringed beads. A short skirt of stringed beads hung around her waist, leaving most of her thick, brown thighs and long legs exposed to the leering males.

  A beaded necklace also hung from her neck, resting on her collarbone. Similar rows of string beads hung from it and sort of covered her breasts. As she moved about, the beads sometimes parted like a curtain, and the tip of one of her extremely perky tits provocatively presented itself.

  The cat woman swiped the man across the face, making him stumble backwards, pressing his hand against his cheek. When he removed his hand and looked at it, his face was smeared with blood.

  The cat girl stood her ground, puffing out her chest as if to challenge anyone else to try the same thing.

  Two men took up the challenge, running after her. However, a third man —much larger than the other two —knocked both of them to the ground. Then he turned to the feline and tried to grab her as other men stalked towards the petite girl and the boobs.

  Leaving his spear, Tex marched around the outcropping with his rifle at the ready. He was about to cock-block a band of male savages who were desperate to get laid; there was no sense in taking chances.

  At the same time, he was irritatingly aware of the fact that he had only 18 bullets left. If he needed to rely on his rifle so much, he would not survive long.

  Eighteen bullets. Eighteen fucking bullets.

  The thought nagged him as he strode towards Utu and the young man, Bankim, who were wrestling on the ground.

  The jeering group of men fell silent, staring him up and down with a “Well, well, looky here!” expression.

  The cat girl, who was darting away from the men, stopped and stared at Tex, her ears pointing forward, alert. Wondering what everyone was looking at, the petite woman whipped around. Her mouth fell open as she looked Tex up and down.

  The bare-breasted woman still faced the group of men, and Tex noticed now that she had sandy-colored hair. The petite girl slapped her arm a few times, and she slowly turned around.

  Tex did a double-take when he saw her face.

  It’s not that it was ugly — but it was unusual.

  Her big brown eyes were beautiful. They had an adorable, innocent look to them. But she had a unibrow, and her mouth was a little too big.

  She stared at Tex with her mouth ajar.

  Bankim was too preoccupied to notice Tex’s entrance. He’d managed to turn himself around so that his hips were between Utu’s thighs. His animal skin was lifted up. Pinning Utu’s wrists on the ground, he struggled to line up his erect member with the tribal woman’s hairy vagina.

  “Don’t you dare, Bankim,” Utu yelled, scrambling her legs on the ground. “I’ll kill you! I’ll cut off your dick! I swear!”

  Tex charged behind Bankim and lifted his rifle above his head. The men grunted warnings to Bankim, but the young man was so close to his Promised Land that nothing could have ripped his attention away.

  The rifle butt smashed into the back of his head. Bankim started at the blow and then slumped onto Utu as Tex spun around to face the men.

  One stony-faced man ran forward with his spear and hurled it like a javelin. Tex dodged the missile and aimed his rifle.

  “Leave these women now, and I won’t hurt you!”

  A chorus of guffaws and jeers rose from the group of men.

  The stony-faced man slowly walked towards Tex, squinting at him intensely. His eyes flashed with scorn, but there was also a glimmer of caution.

  “You are alone, stranger?” the man said, looking around. “You try to steal our women — alone? You are brave or stupid.”

  He reached into his animal skin and pulled out a knife made from bone.

  “We are not your women!” Utu grunted, shoving Bankim off of her.

  She wrenched her legs out from under Bankim’s limp body and eyed Tex suspiciously.

  “I’ll deal with you in a minute,” the man snapped at Utu. Then he stepped towards Tex.

  “Don’t move!”

  Tex said this with such authority that the man paused and gave him a strange look. He glanced at the rifle and frowned at it for a moment, a look of wonder coming into his eyes. His lip twitched.

  But the crowd of men suddenly rushed forward. Some of them grabbed the other girls and some of them strode towards Tex, brandishing spears, clubs, and daggers.

  The stern-faced man gripped his knife and ran towards Tex with murder in his eyes.

  Tex shot him through the heart.

  The blast echoed across the canyon walls, and birds fluttered away from nearby trees. All the shouting and struggling ceased instantly. Every eye watched in amazement as the bone dagger clacked against the stones and the stern-faced man toppled onto his back.

  Chapter fifteen

  THE SMUGNESS VANISHED from the men’s faces. They stared in wonder, scanning the trees, squinting at the top of the canyon, and searching the sky.

  “Where? Where did it come from?” they cried.

  The women were equally awestruck—so much so that they didn’t even think to run away from the men, now that they had the chance.

  The petite girl clasped her wrist in front of her waist and looked at Tex with a half-pleading, half-fearful expression. The girl with the perfect tits still wore the same look of open-mouthed confusion.

  The cat girl was frazzled, with her ears pointing back and her tail all prickled out.

  Utu, still sitting on the ground, stared at Tex with her mouth ajar. When his eyes fell on her, she gasped and scrambled away—but then she froze and stared like a deer in the headlights.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” Tex said. “I just want to help.”

  “You... want to... h-help?”

  Something behind Tex caught her eye. She gasped.

  Turning around, Tex saw Neesha was leaning around the corner, watching. The hint of a smile was on the corners of her lips as she looked over the scene.

  Meanwhile, the men overcame their initial shock. A few clearly wanted to run away, but they looked to the bolder members of their gang to see what they would do first.

  Tex already knew at a glance who the tough ones were. He’d long ago developed the habit of instantly sizing a man up.

  It was a habit born of necessity.

  His dad was in the army, so they frequently moved to different cities or towns when Tex was growing up. That meant he was always the new kid at school. To make things worse, he was taller than most kids, he talked little, and girls liked him.

  Those factors alone put him on the wrong side of the “alpha” types. To top it all off, his name was Tex Decker. Even without all the other factors, a name like that inevitably meant the wanna-be tough guys would try to bully him.

  By the time he graduated, fighting had become a familiar part of life. He got quite good at it, too—thanks to his dad, who made him take boxing lessons after he came home with a cauliflower ear in junior high school. After two years of boxing, Tex did a year of kickboxing, plus some wrestling in his senior year.