Chapter 7

When I finally got out to dry off I noticed that Shaeta and Katia kept taking surreptitious glances at my dick, making sure it came back up to specs I guess. Fair was fair, they'd both let me have a good look at their goodies and there was no sense trying to hold out on them. They seemed satisfied by the time I pulled my pants back on.

My opponent was still out when we got back and it had been longer than an hour at least. I walked over toward him and no one was there except a young boy holding a stick. I guess he was watching to make sure nothing came up for a bite.

I looked the big man over. His color was good so he probably hadn't hurt himself inside anywhere, except in the noggin. When I looked closely at his closed eyes I could see movement under the lids so I figured he'd come around in a while. The three of us left the boy with his charge and headed back toward the center of camp. Things had been going on while we were gone.

Apparently there was some sort of pecking order I wasn't aware of or some plan I didn't know, but spaces were being marked out for the placement of huts and semi-permanent fire circles. Caloe showed Shaeta where we would be as soon as we walked up and she gave Katia some instructions about things to do in preparation for their hut. Most of the men were gone again, cutting poles and such no doubt.

"Did you see the big one when you came back?" Caloe asked.

"We did. He is hurt inside his head, but it will be better soon. I could see his eyes moving behind the lids. He will probably be sick to his stomach for a day or two at least and he won't be able to do anything useful. He will only fall down if he stays on his feet trying to work," I said.

"I was afraid of that. But, how did you know?" she asked me, showing surprise at the end.

"He has been in a fight before is what he told Katia and I," Shaeta said, and then giggled like a schoolgirl when Caloe smiled.

"He must have left some other poor fool sleeping on the ground then too," Caloe said.

"He isn't really sleeping. His head is confused inside and it is trying to sort itself out. Even when he comes back to his senses he will not be completely over it," I said.

Caloe gave me such a look then, as if to remind me not to tell my granny how to suck eggs, but then she let me slide.

"I think I should go cut some poles for our hut then. Does anyone else need help with that while I'm gone? I'm very good at cutting poles," I said.

"I think everyone is able to take care of their own needs so far, except for him of course," Caloe said, pointing to where the guy was still laid out.

"Will his family be able to do it without him?" I asked.

"He doesn't have a mate. He wants one badly and he is a good worker when he isn't being disagreeable, but Breezus has never found him," Caloe said.

"Is that what you call the feeling I had when Shaeta came walking under the tree I was in?" I asked.

"No," Caloe said, and laughed, "Breezus is the spirit that gives you the feeling."

"Oh, I didn't know. I noticed the feeling right away but I didn't see Breezus give it to me," I said, smiling.

"Most men don't even realize that something has actually happened to them, they just see their intended mate and charge ahead. We have told almost none of them the name of Breezus either, so don't share the knowledge with any other men," she said.

"I won't. If he had no mate, do you happen to know if he even has a hut that needs poles?" I asked Caloe.

"Yes, he has a nice hut and it needs sixteen poles, most of them at least fourteen feet long," Caloe told me, but it was plain she was wondering why I wanted to know.

I thought that was a little odd. It seemed obvious to me that if I was going to cut poles and wondering how many someone else needed, I was probably going to cut some for them too.

She didn't say anything else though and I didn't either. Shaeta told me that she thought our new hut, a gift from her family because of our mating, would need twenty poles and that they should be eighteen feet long.

I left a few minutes later with my cart, my axe, hatchet and my big Wyoming saw. I already knew that what they cut for poles was usually a young birch tree, or at least what looked like a birch to me, kinda. I didn't know what they actually called them but I knew where some were because I'd passed right by them when I went for the thaka.

I hadn't looked them over very closely on my previous trip but the pole material was perfect. It seemed that every one of them was about the same three inch diameter and as straight as if they'd been made for this exact use. It took almost no time to cut them, even though I had to use the sashcord to put a strain on them from another tree to keep the kerf from closing on my saw.

I didn't bother trimming them to length, or at least I didn't measure them. I just used my axe to clear away smaller limbs and then I topped them with the saw, just before they started branching near the top.

Hauling them was a trick but not that difficult. I used some of the cutoff pieces to make short siderails for the cart and then pyramided the poles on it longway, with the wheels about in the middle. As they were nearly loaded I slid the top few back and forth until I had the weight pretty much balanced on the wheels and then I started pushing.

It was a hell of a load but probably not much more than the big thaka, and when I got tired, I stopped and rested.

It was a little odd to me that no one asked about my way of carrying the poles when I came back with them. No one but Shaeta at least. I just told her there was no sense bringing them back one or two at a time when the cart was just as happy to only have to do it once. She slapped me on the arm for that smart assed remark, but she laughed too. Then she noticed how many I had.

"But Carl, why did you cut so many?" she asked.

"I went ahead and cut poles for the big guy's hut. He won't be able to even think about doing it for days, maybe weeks. Did he even get up yet?" I asked.

"Yes, about an hour ago, and it was exactly like you said. He was sick to his stomach, worse than even gajee makes you, and he can't stand up by himself. The healing woman went to see about him and told him to just sit around for a day or two. She is going to have someone bring his food to him, but she said for him not to try eating today," Shaeta told me.

"Tell me what we need to do with our poles and then I'll carry the other's over to wherever he is going to put up his hut," I said.

"You can just put ours down here anywhere. I don't plan to use them before tomorrow. We will sleep in the open again tonight," she said.

I unloaded all except the ones we didn't need, the ones I'd cut for him, and then I started pushing the cart that way. I found him on his pallet, sitting there and still looking loopy. I didn't know if he could even make sense talking yet but I thought I'd try.

"Hello, I've cut poles for your hut. Are twenty enough?" I asked.

He looked at me like he didn't understand what I said and I was about to ask him again but he finally spoke.

"Twenty are more than enough, but why did you do it?" he asked.

"You need them, and I was already cutting mine so I asked how many you might need. When I learned it I cut yours too," I said.