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Jill groaned in pain as she stood from kneeling, closing her log book. Her muscles still ached from the shipwreck and the ordeal she'd gone through her first day on the island. A steady diet of fish and nights spent without a mattress didn't help, either. Fish flesh didn't really agree with her cervine constitution, but not a single plant they'd come across was identifiable, so she couldn't afford the risk.

She wrapped the log book carefully in a reptile hide that they had cured in fat. The contraption stank awfully, but it was fantastically waterproof. Very little wreckage had washed ashore, and they were taking no chances with what supplies they had managed to salvage. Jill's work cataloging the flora and fauna here could be worth a fortune if they could find a way back to civilization, so they protected their meticulously collected notes almost more carefully than they protected their lives.

She made her way up the beach back toward camp. The sun hung low over the flat line of the ocean. The three of them had a strict rule of making it back to camp before the sun was a finger's breadth off the horizon. No one, not even Professor Wytham, wanted to be out on this bizarre island after dark.

Trekking back to camp took only a few minutes.. She didn't have to range too far out into the island to find new material to catalog. Predictably, Carson was already there, sitting by the fire circle. He never wandered far. During their trips to the islands across the South Pacific, he had complained incessantly. Carson was fantastically smart and an excellent cataloger, but he was tidy, scrawny, and altogether unsuited to real field work. Even Melanie had borne the hard work of their expedition with more aplomb.

He had barely said a word since the Professor had rescued Jill and brought her to the camp. He got up in the morning without question or complaint, cataloged for some part of the day, and was always back at camp before Jill returned. She worried for him, but she honestly couldn't find much sympathy for him.

The Professor stood up to his calves in the retreating surf, wearing only a pair of khakis that were bleached to knees from the salt and sun. He was towing in a line, their only real length of reliable cord, that was attached to a makeshift fish trap. He hefted it, coiling the line over his shoulder and heading back to the beach. There were six fish in the trap. Three were of the kind they felt safe eating. Her stomach lurched at the sight. She was so tired of fish.

"Any luck?" she asked the Professor, sitting by Carson at the fire.

"Three," he replied gruffly, setting the trap in the sand.

"I didn't mean fishing," Jill said patiently.

"Then no. They're clever. They've muddled all the tracks leading from their camp and abandoned the game trail."

"It's a small island. They can't hide so many from us forever."

"So many?" the Professor asked. "I've only seen traces of two. The two immature ones we saw that first day."

"But their settlement showed signs of half a dozen, probably more."

The Professor nodded. "I know. I've found no corpses, but no signs of the rest of them either. Just the two."

Jill frowned at this but said nothing else, gutting the fish with the ruthless efficiency she'd learned over the last few days. The Professor was determined to hunt down and capture the smilodons. Oddly, he showed no interest in taking any other live specimens, but his interest in the sabertooth cats was increasing every day, and Jill worried that he was starting to border on obsession. In fact, Professor Wytham had abandoned his cataloging entirely. His days since her rescue had been filled with trapping fish, hunting down the smilodons, and determining a way to get them home. The cataloging--which, in Jill's mind, was the only thing that would salvage this horrendous experience--he left to her and Carson. He never seemed interested in their findings.

The fish sizzled over their fire and Jill wrinkled her nose at the smell of it. "I'm going to my tent," she said wearily.

"You should eat. Keep your strength up," the Professor told her, the same thing he told her every night before she had to stomach the flesh of the prehistoric fish. She couldn't take it another night.

"I'll be fine. You guys eat my portion. Or wrap it up in a leaf if there's some left. Maybe I'll have an appetite tomorrow."

Professor Wytham shrugged and Carson kept staring at the fire, barely registering her early withdrawal. She wondered what was going on in that brain of his. She sighed and retreated from the camp, slipping into the blessed privacy of her tent.

The tents were their greatest stroke of luck. Although salvage from the ship had been peculiarly scarce--something to do with the manner of their time shift, so the Professor claimed--they had found a box of supplies from their boat nearly intact. The supplies had been the islanders', not their own, but it had contained two waterproof tents, a hammer, metal stakes, and a few cast iron pans. The Professor hadn't let them use any of the metal. He'd taken it to experiment on finding a way home. Exactly what he planned to do with it, Jill couldn't fathom. But, held up by plastic collapsible tent-poles and anchored by heavy rocks, the tents were by far the best shelter on the island. Plus, they allowed them to sleep on the beach, near an easy source of food, rather than having to brave the wild inlands.

Jill laid out, on top of the rancid reptile skin rather than under it. She'd only gotten cold enough once to try to stomach the stench of laying underneath it. She'd wretched in her sleep. The island's night didn't get cold enough to make her try it again, no matter how much she shivered.

Though it was still only dusk, the sinking sun casting red light into her thin tent, her body succumbed to sleep readily. Just as they were every night, her dreams were fitful. Her achey body tossed on the rancid skin and the hard ground. Every dream started the same. Melanie's normally cheerful face poking out of the cabin of the yacht, confused and concerned. Then the sea dashed her skull against the wall. Her mind always invented gruesome, fanciful things for that event. Sometimes, her skull exploded and dinosaurs flew out. Other times, she saw Melanie dragging her body out of the ocean, carnivorous fish dangling from flesh that was stripped from her bones. And a few times, her brain summoned long erotic montages of Melanie and the two smilodons who had raped Jill that first, horrible day on the island. Often, the collie had her way with the two children, beckoning at Jill seductively.

Tonight, it seemed, Melanie was absent. Unintelligible words whispered to Jill from the darkness. This was a new scenario. She'd never dreamed of her tent before. She could feel the unforgiving ground under her back. She frowned, trying to interpret the words. They were short, grunted, and crudely formed. Smilodon language.

Her eyes fluttered open and the female sabertooth cat hovered an inch away from her face. She opened her mouth to scream, but the girl clamped her fingers around her muzzle. She was incredibly strong. The girl's expression changed a little. She seemed to pout, but she was breathing shallowly.

Whimpering, Jill tried to remain calm. Even though the cat was younger and much smaller than her, Jill knew the smilodon would have no trouble besting her in a fight. Plus, if she was here, her brother was likely hovering just out of sight, armed. Tears threatened at the corners of Jill's eyes. She inhaled, slowly and shakily through her nose. She blinked. The scent was unmistakable. And not just unmistakable, but strong: Arousal. She blushed. So this was one of those dreams.

The young smilodon girl watched her for several long moments, that pout on her face, worry in her creased brow. Behind the girl, the male said something, sounding curious. So that's where he was hiding. By the tentflap. The girl snapped some angry remark back at him.

The girl leaned back from Jill's face slowly without releasing the iron grip that kept Jill's muzzle shut. Jill's eyes fluttered down over the girl's bod reflexively. She didn't even wear the snug, ineffectual hide that Jill had seen her in that first day. She was nude, and in the dim light, the wetness of her lips glistened. Jill blushed.

The girl jabbed a finger at her own chest, staring Jill in the eyes. "Shi. La," she said deliberately. Her voice held none of the edge or anger it had when she spoke with her brother. She sounded young and sweet. And needy, Jill thought, cheeks burning. The girl leaned back, revealing the silhouette of her brother. He was small enough that he could stand in the low tent without crouching. Though the light was dim, Jill could see the spear in his hand, and that he was dressed, insofar as Jill had ever seen one of them dressed, in his thin loincloth. Jill's mind processed this slowly, wondering what was in store for her.

"Si. Ku," the girl said, jabbing her finger at the boy.

The girl stared at her, hard eyed, for several more long moments. Then she held up her free hand, palm out, up near her shoulder. Looking unthreatening, Jill thought. Her assumption was strengthened when the girl--Shila?--removed her hand from Jill's muzzle and held it up similarly. Jill fought the instinct to scream, to call for the Professor. The female was clearly trying communicate. If this real, it was an incredible opportunity. If it wasn't, calling for help was unlikely to do any good anyway.

Trembling, Jill tentatively pointed at the girl. "Shila?" she asked quietly. The girl smiled and wiggled her head.

"Shi. La," she agreed.

Jane pointed at the boy, who was peering out the tentflap, back turned toward them. "Siku?"

The girl's smile broadened and she wiggled her head again. Jill took that to mean she'd guessed correctly. Then she pointed at herself. "Jill," she said softly.

The girl's lips turned down slightly, brow creasing. "Shijill?" she asked.

Jill shook her head, but this motion only made Shila's frown deepen. "No, just Jill."

"Nojusjill?" the girl asked. Jill had to bite down a laugh. She pointed at herself again.

"Jill," she said slowly.

"Jill," Shila repeated. Jill smiled and mimicked the way Shila had moved her head in assent. Shila's smile returned. Then she raised up suddenly on her knees and swung one leg over Jill, straddling her head. She presented her wet lips right before Jill's nose and said something urgently. The language was incomprehensible, but Shila's last word was 'Jill' and when she said it, she pushed her hips down expectantly.

Jill stared in surprise. From introductions to this? Was she still dreaming? She inhaled again, instinctively, filling her nostrils with the girl's scent. It was much more intense with her in her face like this. Her body shuddered, memories of half-forgotten events flooding her mind. Mitzi, that sweet cat girl without an ounce of talent for math, had sat over her just like this, cooing convincingly, telling her she loved her.

Jill thrust the memory away, eyes stinging. Above, Shila whimpered and said her name again, pushing her hips forward so that her mound nudged Jill's nose, wetness dribbling down over her lips. The girl was so sweet, so earnest in her need. Just like Mitzi had been.

Jill found her hands sliding up the back of the girl's thighs. Shila squealed happily in response. She reached down and grabbed Jill's hands, moving them impatiently to her butt, then grinding her young, dripping cunny against Jill's lips. The taste made Jill's body shudder. Shila's flavor was strong. She was not filthy, but hygiene was clearly not on her list of priorities. And still, the taste of her arousal was even stronger than the taste of her body.

Jill's fingers flexed instinctively, squeezing the firm, little butt that was in her fingers. Shila moaned above her and Siku said something angrily. Shila quieted immediately, but her body trembled atop Jill's muzzle, her breath coming out raggedly through her nose. Jill closed her eyes tightly. It was a dream, she told herself. There was no harm in a taboo dream, every now and then. And if not. . .

Shila's taste was so strong, but it was also addictive. Jill pushed her tongue inside the little girl, finding herself hungry for more, and the single thrust triggered the girl's orgasm. Shila's fingers curled in her hair, gripping tightly while desperately trying to keep quiet her ecstatic squeals. She bucked hard against Jill's muzzle, driving her head back rhythmically onto the firm ground. Thick liquid flooded over Jill's tongue, spilling out of her mouth and down her neck. She'd forgotten how wet the girl's orgasms were, cumming like no female Jill had known before. The taste of her thick girlcum was more subtle and even more addicting than the taste of her arousal. Jill's body tingled with pleasure simply at the act of drinking it.

Her tongue curled inside the girl, jerking it back so that the tip nudged the girl's g-spot. Shila lost control of her vocals, squealing loudly and bucking again and Jill was rewarded with another wash of the sticky liquid. Little girls are so much easier to please, Jill thought wistfully. Why did things have to get so complicated with age?

Suddenly, Jill felt a weight on her chest. Siku was straddling her. She struggled briefly, alarmed, but he didn't seem concerned with her. Jill's eyes fluttered open and she saw Siku's hands settle on the girl's narrow hips. He growled deeply in his chest and thrust forward. Shila cried out and Siku's balls slapped against Jill's chin. The boy had thrust inside his sister's ass in a single, powerful stroke. She could feel his deeply penetrating shaft with her tongue through Shila's thin walls.

Jill was still for a moment, tense, confused. Then, above her, Shila cooed with delight and grinded her hips back needfully against Siku's thighs. Then she looked down and her eyes met Jill's. They were glittering with intense sexual satisfaction, her cheeks flush, a sweet smile on her lips.

"Jiiilll," she cooed down at her, pushing her hips forward so that Jill's tongue slid deeper, grinding on the doe's face. Siku pulled his hips back and snarled softly as he hammered them forward again. Shila mewled her delight, butt thrusting back to meet him, but never far enough to slide off of Jill's tongue.

The sweet sound of her name from the girl's lips melted the inhibitions that Siku's presence had raised. She closed her eyes, blushing. Was that all that it took to manipulate her? A sweet, young girl? Yes, she knew. That's all it had ever taken. She squeezed Shila's backside more firmly, spreading it, knowing her grip would deepen Siku's thrusts. Jill softly dragged her teeth along Shila's lips and the girl rewarded her with a squeal. Her blunt front teeth pushed against the girl's clit, scraping over the little nub while her tongue thrust.

Siku was pounding into his sister's ass rhythmically now, but it was Jill's tongue that controlled the girl's orgasms. She took a little petty pleasure from making Shila squeal out of tempo with Siku's thrusts. She recognized a selfish, possessive part of her that she'd forgotten and she heard Siku snarl in frustration. I already know her body better than you, she thought, trembling as the girl gushed into her mouth again. She drank hungrily.

Slender body trembling, Shila fell forward onto her hands. Siku shifted his grip and increased his pace. Jill drove her tongue deep, pumping it arhythmically, focusing on Shila's pleasure as Siku focused on his. They came within a few seconds of each other. Jill felt Siku's scrotum contract, sliding up the underside of her upturned chin as he slammed into his sister's backside.

The girl mewled, bucking weakly on Jill's tongue as Siku snarled, his load bursting into the willing young girl. Jill could feel the warmth, the force of his spurts through the thin walls inside of Shila. The boy's hips jerked several times, fingers clenched tightly on Shila's hips as he kept spurting his seed into her. Drawing her tongue out of the girl, Jill panted for breath as the two still spasmed and jerked above her for a few moments. Jill would've been impressed by the size of Siku's load if she hadn't already been on the receiving end of it more than once.

Shila mewled again and fell forward, her hip thumping to the cured skin by Jill's head. Siku laid back the opposite way, his body parallel with Jill's, lying beside her with his head by her hip. Jill and Siku lay there, panting for entirely different reasons. Jill tried to deny the arousal that coursed through her body, tried to bury it. Tried, in fact, to wake up. She still wanted to believe this was a dream.

Shila, amazingly, lifted herself up as her two lovers lay unmoving. Jill envied her energy. The girl prowled around the two of them on all fours, and Jill found her eyes following the girl's upturned backside, which was drooling with Siku's spunk. Jill's body shivered. It wasn't just the sight of Shila's young body, though. There was another emotion there. A twinge of jealousy. She envied her the pleasure of an warm, semen-filled orifice.

Shila was in tune to the needs of Jill's body though, for her squatted stalking drew her between Jill's legs. Jill gasped when the smilodon nosed her crotch directly through her worn khakis. The girl pouted at her.

"Jiiillll," she said sweetly, followed by an unintelligble flowing of grunted syllables.

Jill looked down at the girl, confused. She didn't say anything, though. She didn't want to encourage the girl, but she didn't want to dissuade her either. The girl watched her carefully for a moment, then smiled, wiggling her head. Her fingers attacked the fly of Jill's trousers and worked out the contraption within a few moments.

"Sikuuuu," Shila said beckoningly, hands peeling away Jill's pants, taking the panties with them. Jill yelped in surprise. Siku sat up, frowning, and saying something in their language. Shila said his name again, and he turned, eyes immediately drawn to Jill's crotch. He perked up immediately.

Jill squeezed her thighs together, shaking her head. "No," she whispered, panting. "Please. . ." She clearly remembered Siku raping her muzzle, then her pussy, just a week or so before. If his sister liked that sort of attention, that was her business. Jill didn't have any desire to repeat the events.

Did she? She found her eyes drawn unwillingly to Siku's cock, which hadn't slackened a bit from his exertions with Shila. He was big for his age. Hell, he was bigger than the few men she'd been with twice his age. Her mind daydreamed briefly, wondering if it was a byproduct of his island diet. If she could recreate it, she'd really be rich.

She shook out of her reverie, realizing that Shila had coaxed her thighs back apart. The girl's fingers were moving over her lower body incessantly, stroking her inner thighs, behind her knees, over her belly and mons, touching everything but her actual vulva. Jill arched her back, the fine touches incredibly arousing. Shila favored her with a broad smile, wiggling her head. She turned, showing Jill her ass, which still dripped.

"Siku," she told Jill encouragingly, grinning. "Siku."

Siku kneeled over her now, his cock dribbling new precum. His endurance was impressive. Shila sat beside the two of them, her butt wiggling excitedly, eager eyes glancing from their faces to their genitals, occasionally saying both of their names in her sweet, tempting voice.

Jill looked up, meeting Siku's gaze. The boy she saw there was different. His eyes were apologetic, questioning. She saw a boy, eager and willing, but timid, waiting for permission. This boy in this dim tent in the middle of the night was a world different from the hard-eyed killer she had met in the forest while hanging from his expertly crafted snare.

I'm a person to him now, she realized. A woman, and someone his sister, for whatever reasons, cares for. That day, I was meat or pleasure, and these two had argued over which I was. Somehow, Shila has made him see who I am.

And Shila wants us to. . .

She blushed, looking up at him. She glanced over, meeting Shila's eyes, which shone with anticipation and delight. The girl wiggled her head and raised her eyebrows expectantly. Jill looked up at Siku, smiled timidly, and wiggled her head as well.

To her amazement, Siku blushed. He whispered her name and she felt a little thrill to hear it from his lips, his ordinarily harsh voice gentle, curious. His hands glided over her thighs and she shivered, moaning slightly. Instinctively, she rolled her hips forward, arching them up. His hands moved with her motion, sliding under her, grasping her backside with a firm but careful grip.

He rolled his hips forward to meet hers. A single, confident stroke that drove him into her wet womanhood to the hilt. She cried out in surprise and delight, her cunny accepting him easily, despite his size. She lifted her legs, interlocking her ankles behind his back and thrusting her hips upward. His balls slapped against her butt and he growled softly with pleasure.

Shila squeaked with delight. She moved forward in a rush and Jill gasped in surprise. The girl kissed her without warning, driving her tongue inside Jill's muzzle. Siku pulled his hips back as far as Jill's ankles would allow and drove himself into her again. His technique was far from subtle, but his confidence was deeply arousing on its own, and she was amazed at how deeply he filled her. The soft barbs that lined his shaft tugged at her flesh when he pulled out, making her gasp and tremble. Then he slammed inside of her again.

She lifted her arms to embrace Shila, who moved to lay on top of her, cuddling close. They kissed passionately, tongues thrusting, sharp and blunt teeth alternating playful bites, one girl sucking the other's tongue, then switching. Siku's powerful thrusts were steady and predictable, not that she minded, and she rolled her hips to meet him eagerly. She craved the fullness that his thick shaft brought, and each time he pulled out, those grasping fingers that were his feline barbs drove her wild, bringing her close to the brink of orgasm without going over. The two sensations were so different that there wasn't enough of one or the other to drive her to orgasm. Instead, she constantly teetered right at the brink, the sensations heightened, maddening and incredible.

Her hands had a mind of their own. She'd wrapped Shila in her arms with the intent of cuddling during Siku's sweet, forceful rutting, but her fingers explored the girl instead, dipping into her cunny, pushing a thumb into her sloppy tailhole, making her squeak and squeal. Likewise, Shila's hands had pushed her shirt up and tiny fingers groped her breasts, tweaking her nipples.

Jill lost herself in the bliss of it. This is what a dream ought to be. Unmeasured, unmitigated pleasure. Constant pleasure. It clouded her mind. She surged on the peaks and troughs of Siku's rhythm, relishing the way it tortured her orgasm-hungry body.

And then, somewhere in that near-ecstatic dream, the sight of Shila's smooth, immature cunny appeared again. When had the girl turned around? She lifted her hands to cradle the girl's upturned ass lovingly, then lifted her head and thrust her tongue inside her, filling her muzzle with the strong taste of the girl, paired with the salty potency of Siku's seed. She was immediately rewarded by the girl's easy orgasm. Shila jerked her hips back forcefully, nearly impaling herself on Jill's narrow muzzle, the smilodon's girlcum spurting suddenly onto Jill's face.

Her mind didn't comprehend the full extent of Shila's new position until she felt the girl's hot breath on her exquisitely tormented cunny just as Siku was pulling out. The added sensation was nearly enough to drive Jil over the brink, but not quite.

"Siiiku," she heard the girl say enticingly. Siku grunted in response. His pace increased suddenly, rocking her body violently into the firm ground. Jill cried out in pleasure, but still, her body denied itself full release. The boy snarled, slamming his hips forward. Jill felt his cock thicken considerably, felt the brush of his balls against her butt as they contracted.

Siku pounded deep a final time. Just at that moment, Shila added her tongue, the little wet muscle wrapping around Jill's clit. Jill's eyes shot open and she arched hard, slamming her hips into Siku's. Her orgasm crashed over her powerfully. Her pussy clenched like a vise around Siku's thickened cock just as it erupted, shooting its seed inside her. Her muscles rippled around his shaft receptively, milking the hot, spurting seed out of him. Her fingers clenched around Shila's ass, but she was spasming too hard to tongue the girl any more. Her jaw was clenched as her body bucked frantically on the surging cock inside of her. The long torment of near-climax intensified the final event beyond anything she had ever known. Shila's tongue had already left her clit. The girl was sitting up now, kissing at Siku's face, which was clenched as his body jerked, shooting the last few jets of his cum inside the doe.

The heat of his spunk felt like it glowed in her belly. She'd never felt so full. Her pussy still spasmed around the barbed rod, minor orgasms still bursting like firecrackers in her body. "Shilaaa," she whispered lovingly, then blacked out.

She immediately awoke with a start, sitting up straight on her stinking reptile skin. She was panting, aroused. She looked down at her body, patting herself. Her clothes were in place. A dream? There was no sign of the smilodons in her tent. The flap was zipped.

But no. She inhaled, then licked her lips. She could taste Shila. Her body shivered in remembrance. Surely she couldn't mistake such a strong flavor. Could she? Or had it been in her dream simply because she could already taste it?

She unzipped the flap just a bit. Still predawn. She poked her head out fully and craned her neck. The opposite side of the island was beginning to lighten. She ducked back in and rezipped the tent flap, laying back on the skin, trying to sort through the night's events. The dream was still vivid in her memory. Her body, already aroused, stirred hotter as she replayed her dream. She unbuttoned her khakis and slid them down just enough that she could masturbate without soiling them. Panting, she pumped her fingers inside herself, clearly picturing that first moment when Shila had straddled her face. Had that happened? Or had her mind simply conjured memories of Mitzi, and tacked Shila's face to it? With a start, she realized she was still thinking of the two smilodons as Shila and Siku. Where had her mind pulled those names from?

She reimagined the sight, inhaling, imagining the girl's smell and taste to go along with the mental image. Her fingers plunged noisily in and out of her tight snatch. She was wetter than usual. Far wetter, part of her realized as she came. She bit her lip to keep from moaning as she orgasmed, hips bucking into the still morning air, breath escaping her nose in shivery little bursts as her pussy clenched tighter around her two fingers.

She sighed, lowering her hips back to the ground, feeling better. She pulled her khakis back up over her butt and instinctively lifted her fingers to her mouth to lick them clean.

Salty. Very salty. She slipped her fingers out again. A little bit of white fluid still clung to them. So it hadn't been a dream! She blushed with relief. She wasn't crazy. And the feelings she had weren't for some half-dreamed bastardized remnant of Mitzi. She coooed to herself, thinking of Shila. And of Siku, too. She smiled.

She grabbed her catalog and slipped quietly out of her tent. She felt happy, buoyant. Even her body felt less achy, though it usually complained more in the morning, not less. The dawn had just barely begun to crest the treetops. She headed north along the beach, silly smile on her face, trying and failing to keep a little bounce out of her steps.

***

"Jill!" cried out a barely-familiar voice. Jill jerked her head up from where she'd been studying a particularly nasty, fist-sized beetle.

"C-carson?" she asked, alarmed. It was the first word she'd heard him say since the Professor had rescued her. The beetle made a bizarre hissing sound, arched its carapace, then skittered back into the undergrowth. Jill stared. She'd never seen it do that! She hurriedly noted the behavior as Carson came running up to her.

The badger adjusted his glasses as he came to a stop, breathing heavily.

"Rich--I mean, the Professor. He says he's found a way back. And he's tracked down the smilodons. He says time is running out and he wants you back right now to help."

"What?" she asked, dumbfounded.

"He's finished the machine. Said something about going back tonight. But we woke up to find the cats' tracks all through the camp. They were here last night, spying on us I guess."

"What?!" she said, wincing inwardly as she forced the surprised tone in her voice a little too much.

Carson looked at her sideways. "Well, small wonder. I think the lonely sounds coming from your tent made finding the camp pretty easy." He leaned a little closer. "Really, Jill, it was kind of embarrassing."

Jill flushed darkly. Did Carson really think she'd made all that noise by herself? What was he doing up so late anyway? Well, better he think that than the truth!

"I'm sorry," she said demurely, still blushing. "It's been so long since Melanie was around. . ." she lied, hoping to embarrass him into silence.

It worked. The badger flushed even darker than she had and he looked away uncomfortably.

"Come on," he said to the sea, pointedly not making eye contact with her. "It'll take all three of those to catch those cats if Rich--the Professor really does plan on taking them back with us."

She nodded absently. The two of them headed back to the camp at a trot. She wondered at the Professor's sudden hurry. Why tonight? What sort of machine had he built, exactly? More importantly, what did he intend to do with two live smilodons when they returned to the present? That last thought darkened her mood a little. The conviction in her stomach startled her. She'd followed Professor Wytham loyally, even blindly, through all kinds of island jungle peril. Why now was she suddenly certain she'd do absolutely whatever it took to keep him away from Shila and Siku?

Her ears flicked at a distant sound and swiveled. She felt the vibration faintly in her chest. She turned, looking north over her shoulder as she and Carson jogged back to camp. Distantly, the northern horizon darkened and her eyes caught a faint flash of green lightning.