Chapter 4: Take a Trip

I headed left to go up river. To date I had been here a couple weeks and I knew my cave and a couple hundred yards of riverbank, that was all. I might be a half mile from a city for all I knew.

I traveled west for a few hours and a couple times I had to go inland a little because the grass was too thick and I didn't like being bogged down in the grass especially if there were unfriendly critters in there. Most of what I saw was forest and river.

I did finally come across what may be a game trail that ended at the river, I did not cross it, and I backed up because I didn't know what used that trail. From a distance I walked parallel to the trail following it for a few minutes when I smelled something very musky. I ducked behind one of the larger tree trunks because I heard a shuffling dragging sound that was probably an animal of some sort.

I saw a large version of the lizard I had killed a few days ago headed down the game trail towards the river. What was astonishing was that it had a different kind of lizard riding on its back. The riding lizard had what appeared to be a large club. When the lizard started to wander off the path, the riding lizard would tap it on the side of the head opposite the direction the rider wanted to go.

I stayed where I was and contemplated what I had seen. The rider was larger than a man it had gray skin and black looking orbs for eyes. It obviously could sit upright so it must be able to walk on its hind feet like a man.

As I calmed down I realized the lizard I had killed was not a full size one. It was either an adolescent or a female. I would not want to tangle with the lizard man's transportation or the lizard man for that matter. Both appeared to be much larger and stronger than me and also I had no idea how intelligent the lizard man was or if it had any other talents or powers. Who knows, maybe it had mind control, sorcery or something, I was on a completely different planet after all. OK, I admit, maybe I had read too much science fiction.

About ten minutes later it came back down the path in the other direction. That meant I had to follow and investigate where it was going, however I waited until it was gone a while and then slowly started following its path at a distance.

I did not have far to go before I started hearing signs of civilization. I slowed as I neared what appeared to be a clearing in the woods. There were huts there and what looked to be a garden area fenced off with several women scratching at the soil with pointed sticks. They were bare above the waist and wearing short skirts that appeared to be made from bark. One of the lizard men was in there with them with a club, I assumed they were forced labor or maybe even slaves, however since I knew so little about the situation here and so little about the lizard things, I decided I needed to watch and learn what was going on.

I watched for two days. The lizards could communicate with each other with grunts, hisses and clicks with exaggerated gestures from their paws and arms. The lizards had four fingered paws with a claw tip at each end. They were suitable for basic grasping and very strong, but the claws appeared unable to do anything delicate.

The women appeared to be of Native American ancestry and slept in a lean-to inside the garden fence. As yet I had not seen any men. There was always at least one of the lizards there watching.

I backed away and carefully went back into the woods it was time to do some thinking.

The women were probably from the Cocopah and had come to this planet some time in the past by way of the same cave that had transported me. There must be males somewhere because without males, they would have died out altogether.

The lizards did not appear to be very intelligent and had a crude language. They had enslaved the Cocopah by way of brute strength. There were 8 women here as best I could determine the women were slaves. There had to be more groups at other lizard compounds because of the missing male or males.

I had no idea what the full number of lizards was or where the nearest ones were. They were obviously much stronger than I was. They may only have clubs, but they were quite formidable with just one of those and my weapons were toys and would only piss the lizard men off. I needed weapons of some sort.

After my fight with the smaller lizard which was still larger than me, I knew I was at a serious disadvantage and as it stood I wasn't able to rescue the women. The only thing I was capable of doing at this point, was to get myself in trouble.

I headed back to the river and once there turned towards my riverside camp. I was not a weapons expert of any kind even though I had made it as far as first class in the boy scouts, which was not much. I was faster and lither than the lizards and much smarter but at a decided disadvantage because I came from a modern mechanized world and was out of my element. I had no guns or even sword and I kept coming back to the problem of not having real weapons.