“I think I’ll call you Titan.”
The nine-foot skeleton rose.
Sid and Alan stepped back together.
Its proportions should have looked ridiculous.
A human skull sat atop a frame built largely from dinosaur bone. Massive shoulders widened into a towering ribcage, with arms thick enough to make Sid’s entire skeleton look delicate by comparison.
And yet, somehow, it worked.
Not human.
Not beautiful.
But whole.
The giant looked down.
“Titan?”
A low, guttural voice rolled through the cavern.
Masculine at first.
Then something old and distinctly feminine beneath the depth.
He nodded eagerly.
“Yes.”
Silence.
A massive hand shot forward.
GRAB.
Sid left the ground.
“AHHH!”
His legs kicked uselessly beneath him.
“BAD!”
He pointed down at her.
“PUT—”
Higher.
“ME—”
Higher.
“DOWN!”
A chuckle rumbled through the giant’s skull.
“Heh.”
Green eye lights narrowed with amusement.
“My name is Barbara.”
She rotated Sid in one hand, inspecting him from different angles.
“Not Titan.”
Alan stared up at them.
“I have a question.”
“OH, MY HIP!”
Barbara lifted Sid slightly higher.
“Shut it, you.”
Then she crouched until her skull was closer to Alan’s.
“What?”
Alan hesitated.
“Do you remember death?”
Barbara went still.
“Death?”
“What it was like. Before waking up here.”
Her grip on Sid loosened slightly.
“I remember…”
She looked down at her enormous hand.
“Not having a body.”
A pause.
“Or a shape.”
Her fingers curled.
“Just… existing.”
Alan said nothing.
Neither did Sid.
For perhaps two seconds.
“BARBARA, PLEASE.”
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Her green eye lights narrowed.
“Young… whatever you are.”
She raised him closer.
“I can tell by the shape of you that you’re a walking tripwire.”
Sid pointed at her.
“And you are a walking half-human, half-dinosaur skeleton hybrid!”
Barbara looked down at herself.
Then over Sid’s shoulder.
The half-stripped dinosaur carcass lay behind him.
She stared at it.
Then at her own arm.
Then back at the carcass.
“…How am I here?”
Sid sagged in her grip.
“Oh, Barbara. We have much to discuss.”
Her fingers tightened.
“Talk.”
“RIGHT. SORRY, GRANNY.”
CRACK.
Sid stopped moving.
Alan tilted his head.
“Was that important?”
“I DON’T KNOW YET.”
Barbara squeezed once more.
“Talk.”
“Right!”
Sid pointed toward the cavern.
“We appear to be underground, possibly on another planet, surrounded by magical crystals and prehistoric wildlife.”
Another point.
“I woke up here.”
He pointed at the carcass.
“That tried to eat me.”
Then at himself.
“I survived.”
At Alan.
“I discovered I can revive dead people.”
Back at Barbara.
“I combined human remains with dinosaur bones and made you.”
Finally, he pointed at the enormous skull on the ground.
“Now we need animal fat so we can make fire, so we can fire a kiln, so we can eventually develop better tools and stop living like technologically incompetent corpses.”
Barbara stared at him.
“Is that really it?”
Alan nodded.
“Disturbingly accurate.”
Sid brightened.
“The others are waiting for us.”
He pointed at the dinosaur skull.
“We need to move that.”
Then toward the distant tunnels.
“Several kilometers.”
Then back at Barbara.
“You are extremely large.”
A pause.
“So, statistically speaking, you are the best candidate.”
Silence.
Barbara stared at him.
Alan stared at him.
Sid pointed at himself.
“I would do it.”
Then Alan.
“He would too.”
Then Barbara.
“But you are significantly more dinosaur.”
Barbara lowered him until his feet touched the ground.
“I don’t know whether to be offended or impressed.”
“Would you be so kind?”
Sid gestured toward the skull.
“No.”
He stopped.
“What?”
“I said no.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t owe you anything.”
Sid blinked.
“I made you the strongest.”
He gestured emphatically at her.
“Look at you.”
Barbara did.
Massive hands.
Towering limbs.
A ribcage broad enough to contain Sid’s twice over.
She looked back at him.
“What?”
“Precisely.”
Barbara’s green eye lights flared.
“WHY AM I HERE?”
The words thundered through the cavern.
“I WAS A DEVOUT CATHOLIC!”
Alan flinched.
Sid rubbed his chin.
“Hm.”
Barbara stared at him.
“Did you ever hurt anyone?” he asked.
She paused.
“Yes.”
“Many people?”
“Indirectly.”
Sid’s eye lights narrowed.
“Interesting.”
“I was a military logistics officer.”
Sid stepped closer.
“Elaborate.”
Barbara stared down at him.
“It means when soldiers needed ammunition, food, fuel, medicine, transport, replacement parts or somewhere to sleep…”
She pointed at herself.
“I was one of the people making sure they got it.”
Silence.
Sid processed this.
“Oh.”
Another pause.
“So you’re a bad egg?”
Barbara stared at him.
Then—
“Hah!”
She shook her head.
“You are weird.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“Will you help us?”
Barbara looked down at herself again.
At the enormous arms Sid had built for her.
The dinosaur bones reinforcing her frame.
Then at the skull.
“Where are the others?”
Sid’s eye lights brightened.
“Several kilometres that way.”
“And they’re trying to make fire?”
“Yes.”
“And you need that thing moved?”
“Yes.”
Barbara sighed.
“All right.”
Sid’s jaw dropped.
“Really?”
“Someone around here clearly needs to know how to move supplies.”
Sid immediately stepped aside.
“Ma’am.”
He gestured grandly toward the skull.
“If you would.”
Barbara grunted.
Then grabbed it with one hand.
The enormous skull lifted from the ground.
Effortlessly.
Alan stared.
“I hate her already.”
“No, you don’t,” Barbara said.
“Fair.”
Sid hurried back to the carcass and began cutting loose fatty tissue and scraps of softened flesh, packing them into the makeshift container.
Then he stopped.
His gaze settled on the decomposing body.
“Oh!”
Barbara looked over.
“What now?”
“The crystals.”
Sid was already running back.
“Barbara, I need you for one more thing.”
“No.”
“You’re already helping.”
“That doesn’t mean you get unlimited wishes.”
Sid ignored her.
The green crystals embedded throughout the carcass still glowed beneath the rotting flesh.
Between the three of them, they cut the remaining large shards free.
Seven in total.
Each nearly the length of Sid’s arm.
Sid wedged two through his hide belt and gathered the rest against his chest.
Barbara stared at him.
“You’re going to carry all of those?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“They’re useful.”
“For what?”
Sid paused.
“…Things.”
They started back.
Barbara carried the dinosaur skull behind her, its improvised straps wrapped around one massive arm. Sid walked ahead with an awkward bundle of green crystals clutched against his ribs.
After a while, Alan looked toward him.
“Can you augment bodies that are already alive?”
Sid glanced back.
“Probably.”
Alan waited.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“Can you try it on me?”
Sid scratched the side of his skull.
“Hm.”
Alan’s amber eye lights narrowed.
“That wasn’t a no.”
“It wasn’t a yes either.”
“Come on.”
“Denied.”
“Why?”
“Irrelevant.”
Sid continued walking.
Alan stared after him.
Then his voice deepened theatrically.
“Once upon a time…”
Sid stepped over a crystal formation.
“There was a creepy skeleton.”
“Mm.”
“Obsessed with symmetry.”
“Correct.”
“Obsessed with beauty.”
“Reasonable.”
“But unfortunately…”
Alan paused.
“He had a terrible personality.”
He placed a hand on Sid’s shoulder.
Barbara snorted.
Sid stopped.
“Oh.”
Alan looked at him.
Sid wasn’t listening.
He had crouched beside a blue crystal protruding from the cavern floor.
His eye lights widened.
“This one is unusually symmetrical.”
He traced one edge with a finger.
“Look at that…”
Alan lowered his hand.
“Of course.”
Sid stood.
“All right, then.”
He turned.
“Barby.”
“No.”
Barbara kept walking.
Sid pointed at the crystal.
“Pull this ou—”
“No.”
“But you didn’t even—”
“So it’s down this way?” Barbara called to Alan.
“Yes.”
“Barby!”
Sid hurried after them.
“Obey your creator!”
Barbara didn’t even turn around.
Sid slowed.
He stared after her.
Then at Alan.
Then back at Barbara.
“…She is remarkably difficult to manage.”
Alan glanced at the enormous dinosaur skull swinging effortlessly from her arm.
“Now you know how everyone else feels.”