Chapter 11

"Something is wrong with you." I sat on the highest branch of a tree, watching the troop on the steppes.

I wanted to get away from the girls and wolves for a while so I went on patrol. The Anue women settled any remaining rank issues among themselves; the wolves were a different story.

The problem with the wolves working out rank was the women's fault. Beo's size and willingness to take out fighting a losing boss battle with me on his sibs made him the natural choice for alpha wolf. He chose keeping the other puppies off my sleeping platform as a constant reminder of his dominance. It ran him smack into Snow being the women's general favorite. The first night back, Snow whined at the bottom of the steps to the platform; Beo pushed her off any time she tried to get by him.

Caryn rescued her four-legged familiar from the big, bad bully of a big brother. Snow slept with us that night. Beo got downright mean with Snow. I tried to explain to the ladies about a wolf to rule the wolves. The Priestess was not happy about having Snow exiled from the sleeping platform. Reia took her daughter's side, giving me the opportunity to satisfy my mother and daughter itch. A couple of spankings and exersizing my rights as Leader made me a happy camper but did not resolve anything.

Naris stepped in and kept things from escalating too much. Neither Snow nor Caryn were happy, so I figured on having to deal with the problem conclusively after the wolves and Reia settled in more.

The twins were not of a mind to challenge Beo; an old deerskin to sleep on was good enough for them. Beo slept offset slightly from the platform steps on a skin of his own. Snow tried every night to get by him.

"What are you looking for, gentlemen?" There! All male troop; a hunting party. A couple of scouts broke away, moving towards the tree line on either side of the steppes. I climbed down to the lowest branch which would keep the hunting party in sight while allowing me to drop on the scout if necessary.

Had I woken on the steppes of the Land of Ugly Ass Hunters, I would not have chosen the bear cave for a home. The cave sat down the path of least resistance. I noticed the easy pass on a vegetable and fruit gathering trips with the women.

I used the trips for training the wolves to hunt with me. They were growing fast, gaining five to seven pounds every week. If Beo kept it up, he'd be the size of a small truck. As part of their maturing process, Max and Dax's eyes turned to a yellowish-gold; Beo's turned orange; Snow kept her baby blues, which Caryn took as another sign that the white puppy was a holy creature.

The wolves learned to watch me for cues, but their eagerness eventually got away from them. One of those times, they took off, scaring a very inattentive doe away from making a fresh meal for the Anue. I shook my head and watched the puppies. They ran in a V-formation with Beo on point. Their formation led my eye to see the way the steppes, hills, stream, and trees almost channeled people towards the Anue cave.

The girls froze when I stopped and knelt to look around. Death taught me not to follow the path of least resistance. I cursed, remembering the surrounding terrain features had also framed the Tribe's cave.

Moving with the wolves so young would be too problematic; the girls would not take to being displaced again so quickly after finding a new home. They were too rich a resource for me to lead as a complete dictator even with Naris playing bad cop.

I spent the next few days tracking the possible routes from the steppes to the Anue Cave. If someone took the path of least resistance with me on the defending side, they would learn why I hated it.

"Red beards." I got used to the lack of growth on the non-mohawk sections of my head. In real life, the little beard I could grow annoyed the fuck out of me so not being able to grow one in my hallucination was a bonus. The Tribe males were also beard challenged; on the other hand, the scout rapidly approaching his death was facially hirsute.

Reia proved to be another invaluable asset. The influence of an older woman, once a Leader's mate, had a calming effect on the girls. They displayed small signs of immaturity and got some reassuring mommy 'behave' glares from Reia. Sometimes, I forgot how young the girls really were.

Having their new Leader kill the three shitheads went a long way toward the girls' mental recovery from the rapes and running away from the Tribe. Reia eased them over the last few steps.

Reia, who had more contact with other tribes, picked up on my questioning and offered the information I wanted in the form of stories about the female trading forays. The Tribe traded for Reia, which explained her willingness to leave them behind. She spent years with the Tribe, but Caryn was her only real family.

According to Reia, there wasn't much difference between one tribe and another.

It made no sense; I knew enough about human evolution and history to know these people should have conquered fire long ago. Their spears did not even have stone heads!

"Now, that's interesting." The scout's skin carried a very unfamiliar orange hue. I waited for him to walk past the tree before taking to ground and following him. The troop stayed in place, waiting for the scouts to report back.

Naris' alpha female status quickly became a boon to me.

Reia and Els flipped about me undertaking Caryn's 'religious' training. The Anue Priestess's zealotry did not allow her to consider any possible ulterior motives to a God teaching her the proper way to worship his relatives. Caryn already thought my morning training was a form of prayer reserved for males (the weapons), which made it easy to sell her on there a female version of physical prayer, dance.

Anyone with experience around a dancer knows about the flexibility training and the hours of practice leading to some absolutely gorgeous bodies. Not to mention some interesting situations; Caryn on her back, with me between her legs, pushing them apart and down to help her widen the split. I needed a pole in the cave! (Not that dancers are strippers or anything like that; I'm just saying, cave strippers might make my hallucination that much better!)

Els figured it out when I asked her, the resident jeweler, to make two small thick 'wands' from the bear bones. She took her suspicions to Reia, a surprise to me at the time.

Caryn's declaration about dancing making her feel closer to Fire and Moon closed the possibility of going to the secondary source of the issue for Els. Caryn would not be giving up dancing willingly. Coming to me was pointless too; after all, divinity is infallible. Els was the best one to pull that on! Naris hated when I played the divine card, but she leaned on me being different too much to push back or protest publicly. Els, on the other hand, came to agree with Reia that I was raised by the Gods and not of divine blood myself. Unfortunately for her, it sometimes placed her in the awkward position of thinking I might be doing something for my own human reasons but having no way to prove it since she did not have Father-Sky or Earth-Mother's cell numbers.

The ladies talked it out and came to the conclusion Els's concerns needed to be brought up with Naris and me. By Naris and me, I mean they talked to Naris; my role seemed to be providing the penis which designated who was allowed to speak. I should have paid more attention, but with three women giving me a slow handjob, it wasn't going to happen.

Reia's experience as a Leader's mate showed. She took the lead from Els, disarming the only female who had a real problem with Caryn's training. It didn't take a genius to figure out Reia and Naris wanted to see the other end of my intentions realized. Els wasn't stupid; Blondie just needed the entire tribe to agree with letting me do an end run around a basic law of their social structure.

Reia calmly explained the problem to Naris, going so far as to vocalize what Els feared my real intention for Caryn's training to be. Naris had a lot to say, but it sounded like blah-blah-blah to me because her technique for microphone control included massaging my ball sack.

When Reia went from calm to offended by Naris's tone, Els lost her turn and got stuck being the reasonable one. Reia beat Els to my dick. Anyone, not on the other end of the dick, would have thought Reia went ballistic. The way her thumb gently rubbed the bottom of my cock crown called bullshit on her anger.

I arrived at the opinion the women were being too polite when Naris waited for Reia to be done before massaging my balls again. What's wrong with two women talking at the same time? Even three! Reia, you take the cock head, Naris the balls, and Els could lick the shaft. True, Els wouldn't be able to speak with that assignment, but it wasn't like the other two were letting her get in a word anyway.

Tempers were fully flared by the time Els got her hands on me. She made a pocket with her hands and fucked it with my dick. She told Reia to remember she was talking to Naris, in other words the alpha female.

Blondie, you do realize you're being played, right?

Els quietly reprimanded Naris for not coming up with good counterarguments to Reia's points. She gave examples of legitimate reasons Caryn's training should continue. Douh! With the discussion on a more even tone, Els and Naris talked through the issue with a couple of protesting interjections from Reia.

I was steel-hard by the time they arrived at a decision that there were too many extenuating circumstances for Els to protest. My age (at least the age I appeared to be) meant they needed to be understanding of my youthful desire to change the way things have always been. Even if I wasn't a God or raised by them, I clearly had not grown up among the tribes; the Anue would be expected to reflect my past (whatever that might be) and not their own. Finally, since they took care of it amongst themselves, there was no reason to embarrass anyone by bringing up the issue with me.

Uh, hello! See the hard-on! I'm right here; nobody has to tell me shit.

With the conversation over, the girls stopped playing with my dick. I opened my eyes to find them staring at me like I hadn't taken out the garbage. Naris and Reia gave me identical eyebrow raises and nods toward Els.

Let's see if I can figure it out on my own. Els disrupted the tribe with her argument over the Leader's decision to do something. The society is hierarchical and male dominated; what could they possibly want? Leader's right exercised on the rebel female! Gotta wonder what happens if a mated woman gets all uppity.

I moved so fast Els' squeak didn't get out until her naked ass was in position. Since, she'd been a bad girl, I spanked her ass with an open hand as I made things right in the Anue again.

"You're not human!" I said it loud enough to test the scout's hearing. The jaw was too big and protruding. The facial features were too thick-boned, matching the rest of his body. The closer I got the more the hair and beard looked like fur. He stood in the middle of the clearing the girls had setup their first camp in. If he moved any closer towards the cave, I'd have to drop him and everyone who came looking for him. I pressed against a tree and prepared to throw the lance.

Caryn's finished two replacement shafts for my lances and made a new spear shaft to mount a sword on; her work proved the girls redefined the word special. The shafts were perfect. I put one of hers next to an original; except for the type of wood, I couldn't tell the difference. Either the originals were hand-carved like Caryn's, or the girl could do work as accurate as a machine blade.

The only fault I could find was Caryn's use of a more flexible wood. The Priestess's eyes burned when I bent the shaft and shook my head. The wobble in the air was imperceptible, but Caryn could tell I had to shorten the throws.

Caryn was overjoyed I broke the shafts the next day... after she recovered from how I broke them. It wasn't my fault! Saber-tooth tiger! The biggest one I had ever seen. Okay, the only one I had ever seen, but it was fucking huge. The saber-teeth were as big as my forearms.

The girls tried their hand at helping to train the wolves. The twins thought it was a game and kept interjecting with the game they really wanted to play. Snow got gold stars for being the best wolf ever. Beo lay in the sun, napping and ignoring any attempt to get his attention. He opened an eye, looking annoyed that I could escape by throwing an excuse, 'Gotta go on patrol', over my shoulder.

Luckily, I grabbed the spear shaft. Even luckier, I saw the tiger first.

I managed to get on top of a rock outcropping before he saw/smelled me. The wind was coming from the tiger's direction. Lying on my stomach, I locked a sword onto the pole and waited. The tiger looked to be out on a Sunday stroll. He was not particularly attentive of his surroundings, probably because nothing in their right mind would fuck with him. Of course, my mind picked that moment to go on vacation.

My eyes moved from the tiger, down the path he would be walking, to the bottom of my rock outcropping. If I pulled back a little more, he would never know I was there.

What a pretty rock! Maybe ten pounds?

Rock meet saber-tooth's head. I leaped down sword-spear first, driving it into the tiger's back. He pressed into the ground, which gave me enough time to step back onto the rocks. I grabbed the two lances and threw them into the saber-tooth's neck one after the other.

When kitty wrapped his paw around the lances and snapped the shafts, my brain's plane taxied in. Since asking myself what the fuck I was thinking would be pointless, I didn't bother. Instead, I panicked, jumped on top of the rock outcropping and held the spear in front of me with the sword pointing at the very angry pussycat.

He really was pissed at me!

The saber-tooth hunched, getting ready to spring and smack me dead for being an idiot. I'm a fucking dead dumbass! I backed up more, trying to gain enough distance so when the cat jumped I'd be able to put the spear between him and me.

He swayed for a second and collapsed. I stared down, waiting for him to get back to his feet yelling, "April's Fool, asshole! I'm still gonna fucking kill your ass!"

After maybe twenty minutes, I decided the cat really was dead. I gave him ten more minutes just in case.

I ran back to the cave to get the Anue women. They were annoyed I wouldn't tell them what I wanted. Standing in front of the cat, I held my hands out to my tribe and directed them to look at proof positive of my awesomeness.

You wouldn't believe it, ladies. There I was walking around, minding my own business, not even a thought that maybe I could find some fresh meat for us tonight. I turned the corner of the outcropping and came face to sabers with the vicious king of the caves/steppes. My life flashed before me: lonely childhood, drunken mother, emotionally void father, the faces of every man I sent to the Beyo... err, Dark Cave. But I remembered, I have a reason to live now--the women of the Anue. I juked right; the tiger went for it. My leap almost put me on top of the rocks. I took the final steps which gave me the high ground and spun. The tiger stared fury at me. He flexed his claws out and in, before approaching the rocks slowly. I could almost see what the tiger was thinking--weak human, no challenge at all. He crouched to spring, but I was waiting for that moment of truth. I threw a lance, catching him in the throat. It arrested his assault long enough for me to throw a second one. I grabbed the spear as he took his anger out on the lances. I jumped from the rock as he turned to me. Driving the spear into him, I felt the tiger's imminent death through the metal and wood. I made it back to rocks as he recovered. We stared at each other. He wanted to take me with him, but death approached too swiftly. He roared defiance, underneath it though, I heard it, pride at having been killed by such a valiant warrior. That's when he fell and hit his head on the rock. He's so big, it dented his skull pretty nicely.

Ladies, the only appropriate response to this situation is to sexually worship Achilles, God of the Hunt!

Having a definitive plan on what to say to them, I turned from the tiger to the women. My jaw snapped shut before I could say a word. Their faces were somber as they stared at the fallen cat.

Uh! Oh! Holy Kitty?

As one, they shifted their eyes from the cat to me. They made a very careful inspection of my body. I thought things were going to get good when Els stepped forward and undid my loincloth. She turned me around so they could look at my back. Els walked back to the women, holding the loincloth in her hand.

The silence was getting a bit freaky.

People project human behavior onto animals, but Beo really was giving me a look which said, "Obviously, humans will only accept the biggest idiot among them as leader. I guess I'll make do with bossing the other wolves around." He lay down with his snout on his paws and kept staring at me.

You know, ladies. A man expects certain things when he kills a saber-tooth tiger bare-handed (for all intents purposes, I mean look at the size of my little lances!). Like maybe one of the women who will wear the cat's claws as decorative declaration of the greatness of their provider to say something like "You're absolutely wonderful! Please pick one of my orifices and stick that gorgeous, and massive, cock in it! Right now! I need it!" If I knew I wasn't going to get any nookie for it, I would have let Mr. Really Big Teethies be on his merry way.

Finally, the girls pulled their knives out and moved to the body. Reia stayed behind to keep the puppies out of the way.

Well!

"Smart, asshole." The scout spent a few minutes looking around the clearing. I was glad after I noticed the way traffic would be channeled towards the Anue Cave, I cleaned up the clearing of any sign someone made camp in it. The scout looked in the direction of my cave and back towards the troop. Finally, he made the decision to live. He turned and ran back to the steppes, passing a few trees from where I hid. Giving him time to create distance, I headed back to the tree to see what the hunting party would do.

Pretty much the only action I got after my run in with the saber-tooth was what I took through Leader's rights. The women barely spoke to me. I pushed the issue a little by telling Els to make Caryn's dancing wands out of the cat's sabers. When she nodded without blinking, I threw in that I wanted the tips filed down to a sharp point.

I couldn't classify their treatment as the cold shoulder. If anything, they were more responsive during the morning ritual and exercise of my rights. The best description was stunned silence. I gave more serious consideration to the concept that I might have committed a religious boo-boo by killing the cat. Maybe it was supposed to be my cousin or something.