Chapter 4

The first thing I did before going and disposing of the bodies somewhere off in the woods was to go around to each of the dead men and reclaim my weapons. My sling had dug deeply into the swordsman's neck and I had to take my time uncoiling it. As for the bowman, my blade had pierced his left eye and it had buried itself into his brain. I had to place my foot on his forehead to yank that out. As for the arrow I had shot, it had pierced through the spearman's torso leaving half the arrow sticking out on either side of it. I was forced to remove the arrowhead before I could recover the shaft. Fortunately, the arrowhead could be screwed on or off as needed. Once I had recovered them all, I carried them back to our campfire and set them aside to be cleaned later on. While I was at it I also dragged back the kit belonging to our attackers. This included their weapons, packs, and clothing. I'd take care of it all once I was done disposing of the bodies. When I was done gathering everything up, I tied strings to the men's ankles and then dragged them off into the woods. It took me a while to get rid of them.

By the time I got back supper was ready. I thanked Kola and ate heartily. In fact I ate two portions before I was done. As I ate I asked Kola how she was feeling. She told me that she was sore and tired but that she felt okay. I smiled as I watched her eat. While her portion was smaller than mine, it was still enough to reassure me that she wasn't hurt that badly. When we had both eaten enough, I set what was left to one side to cool so that Tok could have something to eat. Then I rose up and took the pot and our dishes down to the stream to be washed. I left Kola to tend the fire.

Cleaning the dishes, our utensils, and the pot took only a little time. When I was done I gathered everything up and went back to the fire and joined Kola by it. The men's weapons and kit interested me and since the day was still reasonably young I decided to go through it. Kola sat and watched with interest as I turned out all three of their packs. While their gear contained nothing high-tech at all, not even a disposable lighter, what they did have turned out to be a bit of a treasure trove. In addition to the spear, short bow, and short sword that had been their primary weapons, I had taken three large hunting knives off of their corpses, three small hatchets, one skinning knife, and a sling with a pouch of stones. Surprisingly, each man had been wearing a leather padded jerkin as armour. Two were ruined by arrow holes left from the arrows that had killed the wearers, but the third one which belonged to the bowman was still quite serviceable. From the look of it, the jerkin might fit Kola, as would most of his clothing with a little alteration. His clothing, like the other two's were just like mine. His outfit consisted of a linen under-tunic, leather britches and boots, and a woollen hooded outer tunic. None of them had a travelling cloak. I set the bowman's clothing aside. The rest was either too small for me or too big for Kola.

In their travelling packs I found pots, pans, a kettle, a knife-fork-spoon set for each of them, a collapsible wrought iron grill, a toilet kit for each of them, a whetstone each, a fire starter kit each, one sewing kit, two fishing kits, some wire for snares, a rain poncho each, a bedroll each consisting of two blankets and a canvas ground sheet, and the best of all, food. They had packaged food, dried food, canned food, and fresh food. Between the three men there was enough food to keep Kola and I going for a couple of weeks or perhaps more if we stretched it with some hunting and foraging. As a treat I opened a small can of mixed fruit and shared it with Kola. It was a brand called 'Del Monte' which I had never heard of before on my Earth, but I can assure you it was pretty good. Kola loved it and asked for another. I gave into her request, even though I knew these goodies wouldn't last and we should try and stretch them. However the grin of pleasure on my new mate's face made me keep my mouth shut. Sometimes you just have to let people have fun.

With all this extra gear we needed to decide what to take and what to leave behind. Naturally the food was the first thing we would keep. I took another look at their travelling packs. While they were more high tech than mine and Kola's, with lots of little pockets and a metal frame, they were also a lot smaller. Seeing this I tossed them aside and started rearranging our packs. I worked on Kola's first. I emptied it of everything that she was currently carrying. I then repacked adding a complete set of the bowman's clothing into the bottom of it, plus a duplicate of the pots and pans and cooking implements that I was carrying in my pack. I also added in the bowman's rain poncho and his toilet kit. I told Kola that I'd show her what that was for later. Along with the extra kit I added a portion of our bounty of food before closing her pack back up. I then tied two of their bedrolls and one of the hatchets to the frame. When I was done I went to work on my pack. It took me a little while but my pack was larger and with effort I was able to fill it with the remainder of their food plus a few other items that I wanted to keep.

While I was at the job of repacking our packs I had Kola work on a project for me. I had her take the swordsman's linen shirt and tear it apart. Then I gave Kola one of the sewing kits and put her to work. I wanted two shoulder bags for us and when I told Kola what I wanted her to do, she just smiled and me and nodded her understanding. It turned out that Kola was good with a needle and thread and in no time she got the job done. Into these two bags I planned to divide up all the miscellaneous items like the whetstones and the toilet kits. I didn't want to leave any of that kind of stuff behind.

Dusk was slowly approaching by the time we got done sorting and repacking and making the carrying bags. I told Kola that I wanted to set some snares along some runs that I had spotted earlier when I was disposing of the bodies of our attackers. The thought to do so had popped in my head while going through the attackers' possessions. Kola just nodded her head in acknowledgement and made me promise to be careful and not to go too far. I did. I also took my sword with me and the bowman's hunting bow and quiver. It would be a more practical weapon if I needed it considering what I was doing and where I was going. Again I left Tok behind. When I headed out the wolf-dog was wolfing down the food that we'd left for her, wagging her tail with contentment.

It didn't take me more than an hour to set six snares out in the woods above our encampment. Hopefully they would provide us with food in the morning. I even placed a fishing snare in the stream. On my way back to our encampment I had decided to come back along the stream and in doing so I had spotted an elbow bend in the stream that had formed a pool. From the sign of ripples on the surface it appeared that there was something swimming around in it. Bending a nearby sapling down and over the pool, I rigged it and then left it to see what the morning would bring. By the time I got back to the lean-to, Kola had finished making the shoulder bags and she had packed them according to my instructions. I found her waiting for me in our bed. Her eyes looked at me with expectation and when she pulled the heavy skin off her, exposing her nakedness to my sight it was clear what she was expecting from me.

"Are you well enough for that?" I asked her, letting my voice show her my concern.

"Yes my mate," Kola replied without hesitation, a smile crossing her lips as she replied.

"Well then," I responded slowly, thinking about what I wanted to do, "you need to get up first and follow me to the stream. I want to bath first before taking my pleasure of you."

"Bath my mate?" Kola queried with a look of bewilderment upon her face. "You want to bath now?"

"Yes Kola," I replied with a chuckle, reaching down to help her out of our warm bed. "Come with me and join me in the water. I promise that you won't regret it."

Kola gave me a dubious look at that but she did as I wanted. I made her throw on the heavy woollen tunic of the bowman. It was like a knee length dress on her. Then I picked up a toilet kit and a cloth towel that I'd claimed from one of our attacker's packs and led her down to the stream. Tok followed us in our wake.

I'll admit that the water was cold, but I wanted to introduce Kola to the joys of shampoo and soap and then later something else that I thought she might like. She squealed when I dumped a cupful of water over her tangle of hair and she made an attempt to flee. She didn't get away though and in the end she let me wash her hair and clean her body. Once I made it into a game of foreplay, Kola let me do anything I wanted. Willingly she submitted to the cold in return for my sensual touch. I made certain that I washed her everywhere. With soapy hands I played with and caressed her tiny apple sized breasts and with equally soapy hands and fingers, I made certain that what lay between her legs was well washed and then rinsed. Kola purred and murmured her appreciation as I tended to her and I knew she liked what I was doing when she took to cleaning my cock and balls with her own soapy hands. She even loved it when I lathered up her long head of hair and gently scrubbed her scalp. It was only when I was forced to rinse it out that she started to protest once more. Thankfully it didn't take me long to finish and once out of the water and dried off, Kola wrapped herself in the heavy tunic once more and ran back to our waiting bed. I laughed as Tok chased after her yipping happily at her heels.

I introduced Kola to oral sex that night. As suspected it was another thing that she'd never experienced before. We started things off with the heavy skin over us to keep us warm and toasty while I reintroduced Kola to the art of kissing. It didn't take long for my young mate to remember what she'd learned the night before. I was gentle with her and kept my hand away from the bruising that had risen on her face. Eventually things warmed up enough for me to push off the skin and move on to other things. After a little teasing of her nipples and fingering of her slit, I kissed my way down between her parted legs. My first lap took Kola by surprise and she asked me what I thought I was doing. I just chuckled in response and told her to relax and she would find out very soon. I could see her looking at me uncertainly for a moment, but she did what I told her and it goes without say that once I started on her sex with my tongue, I had a most willing convert. Kola's juices started to flow only after a few swipes of my tongue and her aroma rose up and filled my nose as her passion grew. When I finally attacked her little nubbin of a clit, the young woman went wild and started bucking her hips in response to my attentions. Kola had three back-to-back orgasms from just my tongue and she was more than ready for me when I rose up and pressed my manhood into her. Kola groaned as my staff filled her and she rose up and met every one of my thrusts. Within seconds she had another orgasm that left her gasping for breath. Softly she mewled out her pleasure as I continued to stroke in and out of her tight sheath and she groaned deeply when I placed my weight upon her loins and rubbed my lower belly against her well rubbed clit. On her last orgasm I picked up the pace and pounded into her, leaving Kola drenched with sweat and my balls totally drained. Once done I rolled off of her and pulled her into my arms again and then pulled up the discarded skin to cover us. In seconds we were both asleep.

Morning came early and when I was done answering the call of nature, I quickly dressed and went off to check my snares. To my satisfaction I had caught two more rabbits in the night. I also caught a nice size fish. It looked to be a brook trout to me. I estimated it to be about ten pounds before I gutted it and filleted it. Once I'd dealt with the fish and rabbits, field dressing and cleaning the two bunnies and packing them up in wetted broad leaves, I returned to our campfire.

By then Kola had torn down our shelter and had rolled up our bedding and she had secured it on the frame of my pack. She also had the collapsible grill positioned over our campfire and the kettle sitting on it to heat up water for our morning tea. I smiled at her as I approached and when she saw me she blushed.

"What are you thinking of my pretty mate," I said as I joined her by the fire.

"I am thinking that I am a lucky woman to have a mate who not only can hunt and trap and fight off attackers," replied Kola with a small smile upon her lips, "but who also knows ways that no other man knows of to keep his mate happy."

I smiled at that and leaned over and tenderly kissed Kola above the bruising and swelling on her face. I then told her that it was I who was the lucky one to have a woman as beautiful as she was that could cook and sew and help me on my trek. Kola just beamed happily at my reply.

We skewered the fillets of fish and cooked them slowly over the coals of the fire. When the kettle had boiled, Kola made us tea to go with it. We also ate a pair of bread buns and some soft cheese that I'd found in our attackers' hoard last night and that I'd set aside for this morning's breakfast. The cheese was herb flavoured and once it was spread on the open buns and layered with cooked trout it made a very good meal. I even opened another tin of that delectable fruit that we'd eaten last night, sharing it between Kola and myself. When we were finished eating, we quickly cleaned up and packed the rest of our kit away. Of course before doing that I introduced Kola to brushing her teeth.

We kept our pace down on our trek that day. The added weight to Kola's pack slowed her down as did her injury. I didn't mind. My own pack was a bit heavier as well and while my body could easily handle the extra load, I decided not to push it. I led the way again, this time using the spear taken from our dead attacker as a walking stick. As for the rest of their weapons, I brought them along with us, tucked into or tied to my travelling pack. The only weapon I didn't bring was the extra sling. I gave that to Kola to carry in her shoulder bag. I intended to show her how to use it later on. A lesson or two in self defence might be a good idea as well. We'd see once Kola's bruising and swelling went down.