Chapter 2

“Oh, Demon Slayer, that was a wonderful fuck! Thank you so much. Never have I felt a cock fill me so satisfyingly. I am sure that you bring great happiness to every woman that you fuck. When can we do it again?”

“Not until tomorrow evening, Sunshine. I need to sleep right now. I have had a busy day.

“The next time we fuck, I want to show you a different position. It is the one preferred by my people. Not only that, it is easier to do in such a confined space. I expect to be able to go deeper inside you, too, and I think that you will like that.”

“Wonderful, I can hardly wait. Good night, my husband, for now.”

Husband! Where the hell did that come from? Dammit, it looks like I am more committed than I expected. Well, I’ll try to break it to her gently that I cannot stay with her for very long. I need to return to my own dimension and time as soon as I can get rid of that orlan.

The next morning, it was obvious that I was the only one who was not aware that I had married Sunshine. The two men treated me as members of the family and wanted to discuss a division of labor among us. If we had two more women, we would have all of the village that we needed, so the other two men began a discussion of where would be the best place for them to find wives.

The men were so deep into that conversation that I hated to interrupt it, but I had to make them understand that I had an immediate obligation to go after that orlan right away, now that I had found it. I repeated that it was a religious obligation that I dared not shirk, so I was going back to their former village within the hour. There was too good a chance that the orlan would return there to feed on the bodies of the dead people it could not consume yesterday.

There was nothing for breakfast without a hunting trip, but I was able to cut that off by dipping into my replicator again. I came up with a nondescript piece of meat and some more vegetables that Sunshine could use for a breakfast stew. We would be drinking melted snow, so I did not have to worry about that. Dammit, they were going to tumble to my “magic” backpack pretty damned soon, so I wondered if I should mention it first. No, I decided to wait.

Okay, it was settled. Hunter of Bear and Tracker would go in search of wives and do some hunting on the way while I went back to the destroyed village to lay a trap for the orlan. The problem was what to do with Sunshine.

She had an answer to that. “Husband, I am going with you. I cannot stay here alone without a man to protect me. It is just too dangerous. This is a well-known cave, so other people are liable to stop by. Also, a bear or a wolf could easily decide to take up residence here. I only have a skinning-knife, and that is not enough protection for a lone woman.”

Okay, dammit, it looked like I picked up more responsibility than I expected. There was no way around it, Sunshine was going with me. I would have my backpack with me, so I was going to have to tell Sunshine about my “magic box” and my “magic gun,” the blaster. I would have the replicator make a blaster for her, and I would teach her how to use it on the way to the village. I was damned sure that I would not take her close to an orlan without a blaster for protection.

Once we were out of sight of the cave, I stopped. “Sunshine, stop and listen carefully to me. The time has come for me to tell you the truth. I have been sent here by the gods to kill that savage beast that attacked your village. I know that you have wondered how I was able to come up with food when we needed it, so I am about to show the answer to you.”

I opened my backpack and removed the replicator. It was obviously something from the gods because she had never seen plastic before, and the replicator was made of as much plastic as possible to cut down on the weight. “This is a device of the gods called a ‘replicator.’ It has the ability to make anything that is not living.” I punched a few buttons and the replicator glowed blue. A moment later, a panel dropped open, and a piece of jerky fell into a tray. “Here, Sunshine, is a piece of jerky for you to chew on while we are walking.”

I handed the piece of jerky to Sunshine and she looked at it in absolute awe. It took some verbal prodding to get her to chew on it, but she finally did. Her face lit up when she realized that the stuff she was chewing on actually was jerky, and it had a good flavor. As a kind of reassurance, I made a piece for myself and chewed on it.

“This can supply us with all of the food that we need. If we had to, we could feed a large crowd with the products from this replicator. Hunter for Bear and Tracker will no longer need to hunt unless they want to, so life should get very much easier for them. I just hope that they don’t get too fat.” We both laughed at that.

“Okay, now I have another gift from the gods for you.” A few punches on the buttons and a short wait produced a blaster identical to mine. “Sunshine, this is a very powerful weapon. It may not look like much, but it can destroy anything it is used against.” I spent about half an hour going over the safety features and how to set them. Once I was sure that she understood them, I let her fire a shot.

“Sunshine, you see that pile of snow over there? Just as I showed you, point the blaster at it so that the green aiming dot is where you want it and pull the trigger.” I made sure that only one charge could be fired before I handed the blaster back to her.

As expected, she was startled when the snow pile simply disappeared. The beam fired by the blaster was actually an X-ray laser and invisible to ordinary sight. “Okay, Sunshine, I hope you understand what you just did. Now, engage the safety and put the blaster in your pocket. Remember, all you have to do to shoot the blaster is to disengage the safety and pull the trigger.

“Let’s go through the motions again. Remove the blaster from your pocket, set it for repeat shots, disengage the safety, and fire it at another target. What will you shoot at?”

She looked around and an expression of fear appeared on her face. “Behind you!”

I turned around to see a large white bear running toward us. Its intentions were obvious. Sunshine drew her blaster from her pocket and went through the routine I had explained to her. I was amazed at the speed at which she moved. I also pulled my blaster to back her up, but I wanted Sunshine to make the kill if possible.

She fired a hasty shot, and it went slightly awry; at least, I think that it did. She did not hit the bear dead center, but hit it a kind of grazing shot that took off the top of its head. Of course, the bear died, and it came to a sliding halt not 20 feet away from us.

“Oh, Husband, please forgive me. I missed my shot. I was aiming for its chest but I missed and hit it in the head. I hope that you are not angry with me.”

I burst out laughing. I simply could not contain myself. Sunshine looked like she was about to burst into tears, but I was able to shut off my laughter and say, “Dearest Sunshine, how could I be angry with you for making such a perfect shot?” Fortunately, she had engaged the safety on her blaster, because I grabbed her in a hug and kissed her. I scared her at first, but she did calm down and return the kiss.

“Now we have several meals of delicious bear meat, and you have a bear skin of your very own.”

“But, Husband, how will we get the bear back to the cave?”

“Don’t worry about that. The gods have given me another gift.” I grabbed the dead bear by one of its hind legs and began to drag it toward the cave. Actually, it slid rather easily over the ice and snow, and my augmented muscles had no trouble dragging it back to the cave.