Monster Girl Base 5 Chapter 5

“It’s happening!” I yelled with a huge smile.

The egg that had started to crack began to wiggle in its blanket nest, and I bounced on the tips of my toes in excitement. I’d wanted a pet dinosaur ever since Jurassic Park first came out, though Sol had always warned me that it would end the same way. He’d made crazy diagrams to explain how they would tear me apart, and I was about to find out if he was right.

“I hope that it’s nicer than its parents,” Fela said and squatted down next to the wiggling orb.

“I’m sure it will be,” I said. “It’ll just be hungry. We should really find out what he wants to eat. They’re omnivores. Did we take any of the ferns that Floppy liked so much?”

Floppy lifted his head up off his fluffy gray blanket and gave a protest toot. His molten brown eyes rolled into the back of his head so far that I thought that they might pop out. He reached his trunk out to sniff the egg as the first piece of shell cracked and fell to the floor.

“I don’t think that he wants to give up his food,” Emma laughed and patted the furry elephantine creature. “But I promise that I saved some of the seeds so that we can grow more.”

“He will like that very much,” the sabertooth woman said and stroked her pet's trunk.

“Alright,” I said and squatted down next to the egg. “We can go outside as soon as it’s hatched, and then feed it some of the ferns while we check out our new world.”

The light from Honest Abe had faded away, but it was dark in whatever dimension that we’d been taken to, and I couldn’t see enough through the DEPO to know if it was hostile or not. There weren’t any scary sounds that made me think that we’d be attacked, and no shadows moved around inside of our base.

“I’ll just get started on cooking the ornithomimus,” the ebony haired woman said with a bright smile. “Oh. That might be a bit morbid with the hatchling right there.”

“I am sure it will be fine,” Fela said and shrugged. “I have seen animals eat their kind when they are dead.”

“That’s terrible!” Emma gasped and put a hand over her mouth.

“Didn’t your world have cannibals?” I reminded her and reached out to peel a piece of the egg shell away.

“Well, yes,” the pale woman said. “But I didn’t participate. And we are not about to feed our baby dinosaur any of its mother.”

“We won’t,” I said and then leaned closer to peek inside the crumbling globe. “There are plenty of bugs and creepy-crawlies around that I’m sure it would be happy to eat.”

The creature’s beak poked out through a hole and clacked a few times. A moment later, it pulled the beak back inside, and then a black eye took the spot. A happy little squeak came out of the baby dinosaur, and then it began to tear at the shell faster to free itself.

“I think it imprinted on you,” the Victorian era woman said.

“Best. Day. Ever,” I chuckled and then held my breath as our new ornithomimus burst out.

It teetered for a few steps on shaky legs and then ran straight into my arms. Its head rested on my shoulder, and it ran its beak up and down like it was petting me. It made happy little squeaks and flapped its tiny wings, although the feathers were little more than fuzz and it had left a trail of embryo fluid behind it.

“We should get it outside and clean it up,” Fela said and squatted down next to me.

She reached out a hand to stroke the creature’s head. It turned to look at her for a moment, and then leaned in and gave her a tentative nibble. The sabertooth woman laughed and pinched the tiny beak playfully.

“I think it likes you, too,” I said.

“He will make a good pack member,” the catwoman said, and her black tufted tail swished behind her. “Floppy, you will need to keep an eye on the little one. Teach it so that it will not harm others, and make sure that it doesn’t eat any plants that are dangerous.”

The miniature woolly mammoth huffed, sauntered over, and then ran his trunk over the little ornithomimus. Some of the slime got on him and he backed up to rub it off on the carpet. He rolled his eyes and then plopped down to watch us.

“Will he be okay alone with it?” I asked and rubbed the arm of my sweater over the creature’s wet feathers. “I don’t want him to step on her.”

“Floppy has helped with many of the cubs in my old pack,” Fela said and smiled at her pet. “He will be a good babysitter.”

“Alright,” I said and pushed myself to my feet. “Let’s get her to her first meal. Will she be able to eat the ferns? I thought birds regurgitate their food until they were old enough to eat on their own.”

“I can do that,” Raz said. “It will not be difficult for me to consume the food and expel it.”

“Nice!” I said and let out a sigh of relief. “Gotta admit that I was not looking forward to that.”

I walked over to the DEPO and put in the code to unlock the door. The smell of pine trees and wet leaves washed over me, and the faint smell of jasmine wafted into the room on a warm breeze. I took a tentative step outside and looked around like someone might be in the shadows or behind one of the crates.

The only thing that I could see were lightning bugs that drifted around in lazy swirls. They blinked in and out of existence, but they didn’t shine on anything that could be a predator. I snuck out a little further and then looked down at my little shadow as the baby ornithomimus ran straight into my leg.

“Be careful,” I chuckled and reached down to pat its head. “We really have to name you…”

“I think it is a female,” Fela said and strolled towards the containers of water.

“Me, too,” I agreed. “What do you think about Cassie? Since she kind of looks like a cassowary.”

“I think it’s a good name,” Emma said as she squatted down next to the adult ornithomimus.

She had to maneuver her skirt so that it wouldn’t be in the way, but soon she was plucking out feathers faster than I would have thought possible. The smell was terrible when she zapped the little pieces that got stuck in its skin, so I moved to the other side of the base and focused on getting the table ready for dinner. When that was done, I watched Emma and Fela work together to cut the big creature up into manageable pieces. The sabertooth woman made sure to set some aside for herself and Acrasis while Emma cooked the rest of it.

“How much do you think Cassie will eat?” Raz asked from her spot next to the huge stash of fern leaves.

“No more than a few leaves,” I said and grabbed a jar of the water. “If she wants more later, then we can feed her again. It’ll be like having a newborn until she can eat on her own.”

“A newborn human eats several times a night?” the alien woman asked and tilted her head to the side.

“Yeah,” I said. “What do your people do?”

“We are amoeba,” the oil slick colored woman said with a shrug. “We just envelope it and then digest it as needed.”

“Huh,” I said. “You know… if our kids do that it’ll be a lot easier. Though we’ll have to make sure they don’t eat just anything.”

“They will likely eat what human children eat,” Raz said and then devoured one of the leaves.

“Can you produce milk?” I asked. “Human babies need milk from their mother. I mean… we can feed them formula. Actually, we may want to get some if we find a world that has it.”

I unscrewed the lid of the water and sat in my usual chair at the dining room table. Cassie sat right next to me, and her beak clacked a few times like she wanted me to feed her. She poked the glass jar a few times, and then looked confused when she couldn’t taste the water. I put it down low enough for her to drink a little and then poured the rest of it over her.

The baby dino squawked and backed away, shook her head, and then puffed up as she glared at me. But at least she was finally clean. The last of the embryo fluid oozed to the ground, and then our new pet shook her feathers until she was completely dry. When that was done, Cassie narrowed her eyes at me and then came back to rub her beak against my leg.

“I do not believe that I can create milk,” the alien woman said and came to stand next to Cassie. “This formula you talk about may be a better alternative just in case it is not possible for me to produce the food our children will need.”

Raz lifted a finger up to Cassie’s beak, and the curious little dino sniffed at it. Our baby dinosaur jumped back when the regurgitated fern leaf started to drip out of my alien girlfriend’s nail, but then the hungry kid eagerly opened her beak for her dinner. The oil slick colored woman ate one more leaf and fed it to the lizard-bird before the creature was finished.

“Thank you,” I said and stood to kiss Acrasis on the cheek. “I’m sure she’ll be able to eat the leaves on her own soon.”

“It is no problem,” the alien woman said with a smile that was all her own.

She’d learned more mannerisms from us, but more importantly, she’d started to show some that were all her own. Her smile was one of them, and the soft facial expression always melted my heart.

The smell of chicken filled the clearing, and I turned towards the shipping container to see that smoke drifted up from the chimney. Emma must’ve started dinner, and my stomach growled in anticipation. I checked to make sure that we had enough plates and silverware, and then grabbed water for each of us.

“Floppy, leave some of the leaves for Cassie,” Fela warned and shook her head. “We do not know if she will be able to eat from the trees.”

The miniature woolly mammoth rolled his eyes, but moved towards the maple trees that lined the base near the dining room table. His trunk sniffed the bark, the branches, and then finally the leaves before he tore off a few. He flapped his ears when a few of the lightning bugs landed on him, and then stuffed more of his new food into his mouth.

“We can try a few of those the next time he’s hungry,” I said and looked over at Raz. “Would that be okay?”

“Yes,” the oil slick colored woman said and shook her head. “I can reach the leaves that are higher so that Floppy can eat the lower ones.”

“I believe that he would appreciate that,” the sabertooth woman said and motioned to the raw meat that she’d set out. “This should be enough for both of us. Emma is almost done with yours, Dave Meyer.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I’m going to go help her bring it out. It smells delicious.

“No need,” The Victorian era woman swept out of our home with her cast iron skillet in her hand.

The ornithomimus meat smelled just like chicken, and Emma had added petite potatoes and onions to the mix. It looked delicious, and my mouth started to water when she set it down on the table. I reached out and took a slice of the deliciously cooked dino.

“Damn,” I whispered. “This may be the best thing that I’ve ever eaten. You really outdid yourself.”

“Thank you,” the pale woman said with a pretty pink blush. “No, Cassie. You can’t have any. You’ve already eaten.”

“Should I feed her more leaves?” Acrasis asked after she finished with the piece of raw meat that she’d just popped in her mouth.

“Not yet,” I sat down and started to fix Emma’s plate and then mine. “She’s probably just curious.”

The little dino plopped down next to me in the grass and started to clean her feathers. Her back was against me, but she was in her own little world as she preaned. She didn’t even look at the table again, and I let out a sigh of relief that she didn’t actually want to eat any of her own kind.

We devoured the dinner until each of us sat back in our chair with our hands over our stomachs. Emma let out a little burp and then turned bright red as she covered her mouth. I couldn’t help but laugh at how shy she was considering all that we’d done and been through together, but then again, she was from a time period when women didn’t have bodily functions in front of men.

“That was sad,” I chuckled and then let out a belch that was loud enough that it echoed. “Now that… that was a burp.”

“Impressive,” Fela said. “It was almost like the roar of my old alpha.”

“I do what I can,” I said and winked.

“I’ll try to do better in the future,” Emma said and smoothed her shirt. “Though I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to compete with you, Dave.”

“We have the rest of our lives to find out,” I said and then pushed myself to my feet. “Do you think there’s enough room in the refrigerator for these leftovers?”

“Yes,” the Victorian era woman stood and looked into one of the nearest crates. “It is fairly large, but it should have enough energy to keep everything cool until morning. Then it’ll need to recharge. Oh, I do hope that there’s sunlight here. I’d hate for everything to go bad. Especially all of the cheese that I bought.”

“I’m sure there will be,” I said and looked at my watch. “It’s almost midnight, now. If the sun does come up, then it’ll probably happen around six or seven.”

“The weather here is warm like when the flowers grow,” Fela said and helped Emma to dig out tupperware containers. “The sun arrived earlier on those days.”

“True,” I said. “Hopefully, we’ll have long days so that the solar still will charge. If we’re really lucky, maybe there will even be some rain. Then we can experiment with the shower.”

“I would like a hot shower,” the pale woman said and handed me a tupperware dish for my food.

“Same here,” I said. “I never realized how much I liked indoor plumbing until it was gone. We’re definitely going to have to figure out a way to make a full bathroom with plumbing. There’s probably something in what Puck gave us.”

Puck was one of the rebel Magpies in the world where corporations had run everything. Her inventions were absolutely brilliant, and I was sure that she’d included something about plumbing since she’d come up with the solar shower. She was generous enough to give us a copy of everything that she ever had, and so far we’d only scratched the surface of what was on the NAMSHUBs.

“I’d love to have indoor plumbing,” the ebony haired woman said with a wistful smile.

“Like what Sol had in the last world?” Fela asked. “That was very nice. And I very much enjoyed the showers in the world where we found Acrasis.”

I grinned at the saucy smirk that the sabertooth woman flashed my way. She’d joined me in the shower when we’d taken shelter in one of the houses, and we’d enjoyed each other’s company while we washed off. I wouldn’t mind the ability to do that on a regular basis, especially if my other ladies would be able to join us.

“That would be nice,” I said. “For now, let’s go ahead and go to bed. There’s no telling what we’ll find in the morning.”

“Okay,” Emma said and scooped up our leftovers. “I’ll join you once I’m done with the dishes.”

“Be careful,” I said and followed her into the shipping container. “We’ll enter from this side so that you won’t have to go back outside, but we don’t know what kind of animals we’ll find in this world.”

“I will stay with her,” Raz said and took some of the dishes to clean. “I enjoy helping with the cleaning.”

“Sure,” I said. “Hey Floppy, do you mind staying with the ladies to make sure that they’re not ambushed?”

The miniature woolly mammoth nodded his massive head in approval and then plopped down on one of the mattresses that had been left in the shipping container. His eyes were trained on the closed door and the windows that we’d installed like something might try to slither through. He only looked away when Cassie decided to snuggle up next to him and peck at his fur like she wanted to clean him.

“Guess you have a new friend,” I said and bent down to pet the dino’s head. “Cassie, you stay hidden if anything happens, okay? You’re not big enough to help in fights.”

“We can leave the door open so that they can come and go,” Fela suggested. “It will make Floppy and Cassie calmer if they are not separated from us.”

“Good idea,” I said and put in the code to open the door from inside the container. “And if anything does try to come in, then no one will waste precious seconds trying to put in the code.”

“The light won’t bother you?” Emma looked up at the strings of lights above us and frowned.

“They haven’t yet,” I said with a shrug. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. See you soon. And tomorrow I’ll cook dinner.”

“Are you sure?” the Victorian woman asked. “I have a recipe that I wanted to try from Doris’ cookbook.”

“How about I help?” I suggested and smiled at my beautiful lover. “I haven’t done that in a little while.”

“I suppose that would be okay,” the novice cook said and then flashed a smile. “But I’m still in charge.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I winked and then followed Fela into our bedroom.

I was asleep the instant that my head hit the pillow. At some point in the night Cassie came up and nestled between Fela and me, but the instant she settled down I was back asleep. The baby dino was gone when my eyes finally fluttered open, but she reappeared before I wandered out to join the ladies.

“Hey, little girl,” I said and patted her head. “Did you already have breakfast?”

“She did,” Emma said as she swept into the shipping container. Her arms were full of dishes from breakfast, and she gave me a sheepish smile when she set them down in her makeshift sink. “I’m so sorry, but we ate already. I did save some for you, though. And the coffee is still hot.”

“That’s totally fine,” I said and leaned in for a kiss. “I’m a big boy. I can make my own breakfast. Though I may want to start setting an alarm so that I’m up with all of you.”

“We don’t mind,” the Victorian woman said with a smile. “You need your sleep. And we all have fun chatting. Fela said that she’ll help me with some of the gardening. She did plenty of foraging in her world and knows a little bit about which plants will work well next to each other.”

“There is something headed this way,” Raz said when we came outside. “It feels like the feet of many people.”

“Great,” I said and glanced longingly at the coffee on the table. “Well, I guess we should prepare ourselves for guests.”

“They do not smell like anything that we have encountered so far,” Fela said and sniffed the air. “It is like they are one with the forest around them. I can smell pine and flesh, but it is from the same being.”

I walked over to one of the crates where some knives were stashed, picked one that had a sheath, and then clipped it on my jeans. There weren’t any animals around the base, but the trees seemed to sway without any wind, and I wondered if they might be sentient. I had a flash to the Ents in Lord of the Rings and wondered if there was about to be an Entmoot.

“Can you tell if they are warriors?” Fela asked and her black tufted tail swished behind her.

“No,” the alien woman said. “But we will find out soon enough.”

“Yep,” I said and looked towards the trees.

A group of what were obviously warriors emerged from the forest in lightweight leather armor, bows and arrows strapped to their backs, and golden suns embroidered on their chests. Each of them was as tall as me or a little taller, with fine features, and their ears were pointed like every depiction of elves that I’d ever seen. They marched forward until they stood right in front of our pack, but they didn’t make any move to pull down their weapons.

“Greetings,” the man in front said with a tight nod of his head.

He had golden hair that was braided away from his face and then pulled into a bun at the back of his head. His bright green eyes reminded me of leaves in sunlight, and he wore a golden circlet that settled on his brow. He was clearly the leader of the little troop, and all I could think about was Legolas when he swept into Riverdale.

“Hello,” I said and offered a small nod.

“We are here to escort you back to the city,” the elvish man said.

“And why would we go with you?” I asked and stuffed my hands in my pockets.

“It is an invitation,” the leader said. “But it can become mandatory if you would like.”

His men slid their feet apart into a fighting stance, and a few of them reached for their bows. Tension cut through the base, and my ladies all readied themselves for another battle. Emma’s lightning surprised the soldiers, but their attention mostly stayed on Fela and her claws.

Raz had taken her human disguise, complete with jeans and an off-the-shoulder shirt with the depiction of a rose. Her auburn hair was a mimic of Fela’s, but she’d grown it longer and had it pulled up into a ponytail. She had finished the look with a pair of black converse that had a rose painted on it to match her shirt.

She looked like just an average woman, and I almost laughed that the soldiers completely disregarded her. I was fairly certain that she could devour all of them before they even realized what she was, and the rest of us could just sit back and relax. She’d taken out hundreds of the cockroaches, and it had been a few days since she’d had such a huge meal.

“We don’t mean any disrespect,” a woman’s voice interrupted the standoff.

A breathtaking elven woman with the same golden hair as the leader walked out of the forest. Her dress was a pale blue with a deep v-cut that showed the sides of her small breasts before it flowed down to the ground. She had a circlet that was almost the same as the man, except for a golden sun that dangled between her eyes, and they looked so similar that they could be twins.

“Miri,” the leader sighed. “We could’ve handled this.”

“Of course you could, brother,” the blonde woman said. “But, I am the ambassador. It is my honor to greet any guests that we may have. I apologize for the strong handed invitation. My name is Miri. This is Menin, my brother. We are from the Clan of the Sun. We welcome you to our world and would like to introduce you to our father, Ilnon. He is the leader of our people.”

“Hi,” I said with a smile. “My name is Dave, this is Emma, Fela, and Raz.”

“What are these creatures with you?” the elven woman asked and pointed to our pets.

“Ah,” I said. “This is Cassie, our newest addition. She’s an ornithomimus. And this is Floppy. He’s a miniature woolly mammoth.”

“They are your pets?” the ambassador asked.

“Yes,” I said and reached down to pat the baby dino’s head.

“They will not be allowed in our city,” Menin huffed. “The big one will break things.”

“We have not said that we are going,” Fela said and patted her indignant woolly mammoth.

“That’s true,” Miri said with a smile. “My father would like to speak with you, though, and it would be easier if it was accomplished in Linal. That’s the name of our city.”

“Well, since you’ve asked so nicely the second time,” I said and looked around at my ladies. “I’ll admit, I’m curious to see this city of yours.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Emma asked as she glanced at Abe. “We don’t know how far this city is, or how long this meeting will take.”

“We are close by,” Miri assured us. “And my father is curious to hear more about the places you have seen. As are we all.”

Menin made a sound that might have been a grunt of disagreement, but when Miri looked his way, his fine features were as bland and noncommittal as he could make them.

“You will be treated well,” Miri added.

“All right then,” I decided. “We’ll go see this city of yours. Floppy, you take care of Cassie. And Cassie, you stay here with Floppy. We’ll be back later tonight to make sure you’re fed.”

“She is able to eat the leaves already,” Raz informed me.

“Really?” I asked. “That was fast. You’re such a good girl.”

“Shall we, then?” the beautiful elven woman asked and swept her arm out towards the forest.

“I will leave part of myself here with Cassie and Floppy,” my alien girlfriend whispered in my ear. “If they try to come into the base, then I will let you know.”

“Perfect,” I said and smiled at her.

A few of the elves reached for their bows when the seemingly normal woman split herself into two. She was a little shorter than she had been before, but she must’ve recalled some of the pieces of her that she had spread out into the ground. They stared in a mixture of horror and shock, but Miri only lifted an eyebrow.

“That is a fantastic ability,” the golden haired woman said. “I believe that I will enjoy learning more about each of you.”

She led us into the forest with the troop behind us. Her hair seemed to glow in the light that filtered through the leaves of the trees, and her pale skin seemed to have golden glitter embedded in it. She moved with such grace that she practically floated along the path to her city.

It was surprisingly close to the base, and within a few minutes the road in front of us opened up to reveal homes high in the sturdy trees. There were rope walkways that connected each of them, and the trunks had been hollowed out with windows that showed white light from lamps inside. The lightning bugs that had spotted the clearing last night had relocated to the city, and sunlight made streaks in the darkened forest.

“Wow,” I breathed. “This place is absolutely beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Miri said with a glance over her shoulder. “We take pride in our home.”

The jasmine that I’d smelled the night before wrapped itself around the trunks as well as some of the hanging bridges. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of the sweet fragrance. My aunt had some in her garden, and it always brought me back to summer nights with her in the kitchen with whatever puzzle we had spread out over the dining room table.

“This way,” Menin said and pointed to a group of trees in the middle of the city.

The trunks had been grown so that they twisted around each other to form what looked like a town hall. The entryway was carved wood with beings that looked remarkably like Cthulhu underneath a huge sun. The soldiers opened up the doors to reveal a long room with a white wood throne on a dais.

“Father,” Miri said and drifted towards the elven man on the throne.

He was the mirror of his children, with golden hair and pointed ears, but the harsh light in his green eyes reminded me more of his son. His attention flitted to his daughter and then back to us as he motioned for us to come closer.

My feet slapped against the polished wooden floor, and my head was on a swivel as I took in the huge room. There were pillars made from smaller trees, and the trunks of the larger ones wound together to form a  domed ceiling. Fireflies danced through ivy vines that looped between the pillars and settled on more tapestries that showed the cthulhu monsters that Sol had warned me about, and I suddenly got a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“Dave,” Emma whispered when we stopped at the front. “Are those the creatures that Sol warned you about?”

“Yeah,” I said and noted that the soldiers had spread out behind us.

My Sol had told me about the interdimensional creatures that had started to track him. His DNA had been picked up during one of his first off-world adventures, and he’d found out that if he stayed anywhere longer than seventy-two hours, then they would find him. I hadn’t run into them, but it was starting to look like my luck was running out.

“Greetings, travellers,” the elven king said and bobbed his head at me. “Thank you for accepting our invitation.”

“Your daughter was persuasive,” I replied graciously.

“Miri is an excellent ambassador,” the golden haired man said. “Especially when it comes to strangers that come from another world.”

“Oh really?” I said and glanced at the tapestries.

“Yes,” the leader said with a grim smile. “I have brought you here so you can explain how you have come to be in our world.”

In a flash, the air was sucked out of the room and the soldiers behind us unsheathed their swords. So much for Miri’s promise to treat us well.