Chapter 5

I woke the next morning with two warm bodies surrounding me. Neither was awake, but I had to go to the bathroom and could not wait. I worked my way loose without waking them, put on my pants and mail shirt along with my pistol belt, and walked out the hut. I spied two men walking in the same direction so I assumed they were going to the latrines. I was right. Thank god just in time not to have an accident. It was an open latrine, dug just deep enough to be able to pile dirt over it so it did not stink. It worked for me, so I did not say anything.

My next task was to check on the wolf bitch and see if she gave birth last night. As I passed the campfire I saw a couple of women preparing the breakfast meal. This is where I picked up my entourage of youngsters all curious about me and the strange thing behind the tree.

I stopped and looked at them, there were seven or eight, all around six to ten years old. "OK, now listen to me, I will show you what is under the covers, but you must not make any noise or you will frighten her. Do I have your promise." They all answered in the affirmative, and we were off again. As I approached the cage, I could hear what sounded like grunting and whimpering at the same time. I uncovered the cage and there was my pregnant wolf in the middle of giving birth. The children all squealed, so I hushed them. I sent the oldest to get my girls and bring them here quickly. I wanted both of them to see this.

They arrived with bleary eyes and partially dressed. My bitch was into her fourth birth by then. It was fascinating. She would push and a cub would pop out. She then would clean it off, it would immediately attach itself to one of her teats, the placenta followed immediately, and that she would eat. Then we got a repeat performance. I decided to name her Callie, because her snout seemed to have a perpetual smile, even with the obvious pain, and that reminded me of my daughter.

Callie gave birth to eight cubs' total, one of which was still born. I felt bad for her. I left the last liver for her to eat when she woke, and then covered her up.

We walked back to the fire and immediately the women there barraged us with questions about her. "I will wait until the clan is assembled for breakfast before I tell the story, this way it is told only once." With that, I went to get dressed for the hunt.

When I returned everyone was there ready for my explanation. I told them how back on earth we kept animals for pets, protection, and as companions on a hunt. Most of them did not believe me, and some of them thought it was something for the spirits to do and not regular people. I assured them that this was a good thing for the people. Wolves could stay awake at night, and let the people know if there was danger by their growling to wake them up.

I gave up after the third rendition, and decided to let my experiment convince them. We finally all set off for the hunting fields, and I mean everybody, every man, woman and child, whether walking or being carried. They all wanted to see me take down five bison by myself. When we reached the plains we walked towards the bison herd, about two hundred yards away from the herd, we stopped, I told them to wait for me here.

I moved up another hundred yards and set myself up on a kneeling stance. The grass was too high for me to lie down. I took aim and started picking my targets. I took down two males, two cows, and as a bonus, two calves attached to the cows.

I started towards the herd and they moved off quite calmly. I guess they did not associate the noise with their brethren falling dead. The women were the first to arrive and went quickly to work. I reminded them I wanted the liver and kidneys for my wolf. As the men started coming up, all of them were in a daze as to how I downed six bison in succession without moving.

I explained I used a special thunder stick given to me by Father Sky, to be able to provide plenty of food for those who became part of my clan. There were a lot of knowing nods among the men.

Suddenly there was a scream, with women pointing out to the field. There, coming at us steadily, was a pride of cave lions. The men surrounded the women. I called Allison to my side and told her to be ready. She said that she would hand me her rifle when I exhausted my ammunition. I realized she could not shoot with me. All this happened in a matter of seconds. I took her M1 and started firing, I did not count, but when I ran out of ammunition I dropped it and took the one Ali had ready, and started shooting again. The last two took off figuring it to be a bad deal.

The men and women again were amazed. Half the women peeled off along with Teeko and Allison to go retrieve the pelts, claws and teeth of the cats, they stuffed the brains into stomachs that they had brought along for that purpose. They completed everything within the hour and we headed back to camp.

The women were busy with the meat, so the men had to deal with the pelts; I heard one of the women tell them to be careful, as they were for the Mighty One. I wanted to squelch this moniker, but did not know how without taking away the deference that went with it.

I wanted to instill the fact in them that I was more knowledgeable in many ways not of this time or world. If I had to be the called the Mighty One, so be it. I had a feeling after today that I would be gaining a whole bunch of people in the cave. The women right now outnumbered the men just a little under two to one, a very unhealthy number. In a hunter gatherer society there should be at least a two to one ratio of men to women. Being the other way around is a menu for disaster. My only question being I remembered there being at least twelve to thirteen dead villagers. The amount of women still did not make the ratio I assumed there should be.

I wanted to talk to Mearto and see what his take would be on it, but I also wanted to make it his decision, to join his clan with mine. I also wanted to know what was up with the female population.

With nothing to do I went back to visit with Callie. I brought along a nice fresh liver from the cave lions, rich in blood and proteins for her. I found her with an audience of children sitting and watching her without making any noise. She was tired from her ordeal; however, she was suckling all her pups at this moment, except the dead one. Being careful she did not get hold of my fingers, I pushed the fresh liver almost to her mouth, she snatched it quicker than I thought she would, and swallowed the whole liver almost completely without chewing. I told one of the youngsters to go get another one; he was back so fast it was almost as if he never left. I fed Callie the second liver, this one she only ate half and chewed, then lay back and fell asleep. While she slept, I grabbed the dead pup and took it out to the forest.

I called the one that went for the liver, I asked him his name and he told me Marno, I told him he was in charge of getting me so that I could feed the wolf when she woke. He pushed his chest out and said that he would be proud to help the Mighty One. I patted his head and moved off.

I was getting bored not doing anything, so I joined the men that were prepping the hides. I did not realize that I had killed ten lions, this must be a big burden on them to have to prep my kills along with theirs.

"Mearto, you should not have to prepare my lion kills along with your bison pelts, finish the bison first then work on these."

He looked at me "Mighty One, all the pelts from today's kills are all yours." He said.

"No, Mearto, the bison are yours whole with the pelts, you will need them for the winter. I will not take the bison pelts from you. Make sure the women understand this. I will broach no arguments on this."

He did not say anything, but went to a pretty woman in the center of the meat commotion and whispered to her. She looked at me then turned back to all the women and told them what I had said. There was much murmuring among the women after that. The men continued the lion pelts first. Oh well, I tried.

I decided it was time he and I had our little talk. "Mearto, will you come with me for a little while? I feel you and I have much to talk about"

"Of course, Mighty One, whatever you wish."

"Good, let us sit by the fire" I led the way to my boulder, but sat on one of the tree trunks which they had placed there for all to use. I wanted him to feel like we were equals. "Mearto," I started, "First, there is something that has bothered me since we arrived. I know from the Forest Spirit that you lost at least two or three hands of warriors, but the women here, I do not count up the right way. Even if not all the men had mated when killed, there are still very few women in the camp"

He looked at me with sad eyes, "Mighty One, these Roamers were very bad. Some of the worst I have ever heard of. They used our women, then killed them and threw them out in the plains to keep predators away so they could hunt. They laughed, saying the tender meat would keep the big cats happy."

I was seething with anger all over again, and wished I knew this when I was here as the Forest Spirit. Mearto could see my anger, and for a moment I thought maybe he could see me as the Forest Spirit, Thank God that moment passed.

"Mearto, two other things if I may, and then I will allow you to go do what is needed of you. First, how many women here are to become my wives since the Forest Spirit killed their mates? I will not allow them to live as widows and wait for the charity of the clan."

"Second, if you see that you are not able to make it through the winter, please do not be ashamed to come to me for help. My cave is large enough for many more times people than you have here. I can also show you many ways to make your lives easier. In addition, I can teach you how to hunt without having to get close so that you do not get hurt. Consider this an open invitation, but it is not a demand, the decision must be unanimous with the whole clan or I will not allow the move. Do you understand?"

"Thank you, Mighty One, I will think long and hard on this. I have had thoughts of the things we talked about today, but were not sure how you felt. As to how many women to take as wives, you are not obligated to take any, as the Forest Spirit took their mates. If you were willing, though, it would help the clan greatly if you took the three oldest women who have the most children, this would definitely help the clan. I will speak to each of them and have them speak to yours wives first, before you or they make a decision." With that, he got up and walked back to what he was doing.

We ate well that night, there were also many fires going, as all the meat taken needed smoking to last longer. They soaked some meat in a liquid first, and then they placed it on the drying racks. These pieces smelled heavenly. I promised myself to get Teeko to smoke some of our meat the same way.

The next morning was more of the same. Only three men came and half the women, I brought the travois with the wheels to make it easier to move the meat. Again, I killed five bison, this time, though, no predators showed up, the women and men had them skinned, butchered, and back at the camp before breakfast was finished. We originally said our stay with Teeko's people would be for three days. Now, though, that I figured we would be picking up three more wives and an indeterminate amount of children, I expected we would be here for at least two or three more days.

I was sitting on my boulder/chair that the village had designated as mine, when Teeko came to me; I took her into my lap, nuzzled her neck, and put my right hand under her skirt. I found no diaper/panty from bleeding, and decided to play with her tight little pooch. I ran my hand up and down her slit a few times. She got wet very fast, and I went to her little nub and played with that.

"Please, husband, everybody will see you." "I do not care, Teeko, you are my wife, if I want to kiss you and nuzzle you in front of everybody, I will. In fact, if I want to pull your cute skirt up a little and let everyone watch as I play with your little pussy, I will do that also."

Teeko started squirming, I knew she was horny and wanted sex with me, as much as I wanted her. I knew that we could not have penetration yet, but I wanted to eat her pussy so bad I felt like I would take her right here in front of everyone. "Please, husband, don't embarrass me in front of everybody, I want you just as much, but we must wait." I diddled her pussy a little more then reluctantly stopped.

"Teeko, why do you not call me by my first name?" I asked her.

"It is because you have not taken me as yet, so I do not feel it is proper for me to use your name." she replied.

"Well, I want you to start using it as of now, OK? You are my wife in all ways possible as I see it. If we had sex before your miscarriage, you would be calling me by my first name."

"Yes, husband, I mean Jason" she smiled quietly. "Jason, we need to talk between the three of us about the wives you will be taking."

"I see that Mearto has been talking to you. I will leave the decision to you and Ali as to who we will accept as sister/wives for you."