Trel and Sheela

“Do you have any idea how to combat the flying orange ones?” Sheela asked.

“What do you mean?” I replied, immediately curious.

“I arrived fifty-one nights ago. I study everything here to help me survive. The last cave I was in was much like this one, but little feathered dinosaurs flew in and made nests. Alone they are weak, but they are very powerful when in groups.”

I looked around. I didn’t see any in there with us.

Sheela seemed to know what I was thinking. “They aren’t in this cave. Yet,” she replied with an ominous ending.

“They’re on their way here?” I asked.

Sheela shrugged, and then added, “I believe they move down the coast. It was the behavior I observed with them earlier. First, it started with scouts. One or two showed up and poked around the outside of my cave. Over the next thirty sunrises or so more showed up until there were dozens of them trying to get into my cave. I fought where I could to keep them out, but there were too many.”

“Let me guess. You already saw one here?” I asked as if I already knew the answer.

Sheela nodded. “A few days ago. They are hard to miss. They are bright orange like this fire, and their wings have plumage of black like the night. They have sharp teeth, but they can also pierce with their razor sharp beaks. Very hard to fight more than one or two at a time.”

“Sheela’s crazy,” Trel said with a chitter of her claws. “These birds aren’t going to come to this cave. Why would they if they have their own cave? If they do come, we have all we need right here to fight dumb little birds. She can defend us at the entryway.”

I glanced at Sheela and saw frustration in her eyes. I didn’t know how many days she’d spent with Trel, but the beautiful spider-woman was already starting to annoy me, and it had only been five minutes.

“If that first one brings his friends, it will be just like your last cave,” I said.

Sheela seemed to brighten a little. “With enough warriors, it can be different than my last home. We could defend the entrance and also take care of the hunting, fishing, and gathering.”

“How many more would we need?” I asked as I shifted my focus to each of the women.

“We would need us, plus five. Maybe more,” Sheela said after a few seconds of thought.

“I’m not doing it.” Trel’s words were in sing-song form.

“Some of us want to do nothing,” Sheela suggested in an even voice.

“Some of us are waiting to be rescued,” Trel added with insistence, and the ebony haired spider-woman smiled. Her teeth looked like a vampire’s, with twin fangs where her canines should have been.

“Who is coming for you, Trel?” I asked with genuine interest.