Chapter 13

Supper tonight was a fine job by all concerned and the clean up was done shortly after we finished the meal. I almost let them in on the fact that Biltee and I were going to go scout the surround day after tomorrow, but something made me hold back at the last. Ten minutes later, surrounded by naked women, the scouting trip was forgotten.

I'll be damned if this wasn't the life for me. I had more women than I could fuck in one bout and I woke up feeling better each morning. As I passed the big door this morning, on my way to feed mama, I noticed that for once we didn't have any customers. Just as well.

This morning after breakfast I was going to give the girls the news about our scouting trip that I didn't share last night. In the morning light I realized that it had been a lot wiser to put it off until today. There was no point in getting them upset right before bedtime. I'd tell them early today to give them time to get over it before supper.

I was almost sure that they'd insist on coming along and that wasn't going to happen. After they all threw a fit I'd back off and let two come with us, but that was it. We were only going to be gone a day or two this time and we didn't need to take the whole camp. We'd do that when we went to get horses for real.

After feeding mama and talking nonsense to her for a while I headed for the kitchen. Someone had made me a pot of coffee and I took a seat to drink a cup or two while they were assembling breakfast. Taachachi sat with me but she seemed a little light on conversation this morning.

Apparently the cooks liked making pancakes, because we had them again today. We didn't have the bear bacon though, we had something that looked like sausage patties but I didn't understand how they had ground the meat. I had a sausage grinder of course but it was under one of the counters and I hadn't given any instructions in its use yet.

When I took a bite of the meat patty I was surprised again. It tasted exactly like the Jimmy Dean sausage I always liked. I must have had a funny look on my face or something because suddenly all the cooks laughed at me, including Taachachi. Saytha solved my mystery by waving the half empty package of Jimmy Dean sausage around for all to see. Finally I laughed too.

"You pulled a fast one on me with breakfast. At least you're all learning to cook other things that are already here," I said.

"It isn't all we are learning. We also learned that you and Biltee are going on a scouting trip tomorrow, but we are not laughing about that," Taachachi said, and I hope I didn't gulp.

"We need to go take a look at the surround to see if it needs work before we all make a trip there to see if we can catch some horses," I said, though I knew it sounded lame.

"That is only good planning, especially if you intended to take a few of us along to cook and clean any game you need to kill, and to make sure you aren't taking foolish risks," Caysha said.

"From the first I knew that two of you would have to come along on the scouting trip," I said, trying to sound like it had never been in doubt.

"When it is time to catch the horses, all of us must come along. No one and no animals can disturb our home while we are gone but it will take probably two weeks of camping by the surround to finish our work there. I do not want us to be separated for that long," I said.

"But who will feed your mama wolf and the piglets while we are there," Teechi asked.

"We can take mama wolf with us in her small cage. It will not be too hard to carry on a travois, and her pups will stay with her with no trouble. I'll admit that I don't know what we will do with the piglets yet," I said.

"That will be only a little problem. You or Biltee can bring two of us back to feed and water them every other day. You can probably kill something to feed them on the trip back each time," Taachachi said, and it seemed everything was decided.

Damn, I wished I'd brought it up sooner since I had worried about taking care of the pigs. Taachachi was smarter than I'd thought and I was glad to find out about it without trying. I could already see that she was going to be a big help.

Suddenly I realized that I was being a complete dumb ass about the women. I'd been trying to do everything myself and they'd had to fight, figuratively, for the chance to do anything at all. I'd even mentioned to greenie that I might need to have a bow and arrows for a potential mate, but I'd been sitting around on my ass and hadn't even taught any of them to use one.

"Taachachi, I have several weapons that women can use to help defend us. Do you think any of them would like to try?" I asked.

"We all would if we are strong enough to use them. You aren't talking about the magic weapons you've taught Cowta and Biltee to use are you? If you have enough of them we could learn them too, but they look difficult to use," she said.

"They aren't what I had in mind for right now, and while I have several, I also have many more of another type. It is easier to use and understand but it takes more practice. I wasn't sure if women would use weapons," I said.

"Of course we will use them. We use knives everyday. I have never used one against a man, but I would not hesitate to try if I thought it would accomplish my purpose.

"We never tried using our knives against Carga or Carltaga since there were so many other men that would help them and we'd have no chance. You have thinned their ranks to nothing though," she said.

"Good. I think we have time for some archery lessons then."

"What is archery?" she asked.

"Come with me," I said, leading her and several other followers to the big cabinet that held most of the archery equipment.

I looked around when we reached it and noticed that Shanay was the only female that wasn't with us. I wanted to teach her also if it was allowable but was unsure if there was some protocol that I needed to adhere to before teaching another man's mate something.

"Taachachi, I see that Shanay isn't here. Is it allowable for her to learn too," I asked.

"Of course it is. I hadn't noticed that she wasn't with us. It makes sense though since they ate together this morning. Teechi, go and tell her what is happening. You should bring Cowta and Biltee back with you too," Taachachi said.

I started trying to fit bows to children first. The twins were the youngest and smallest and I was surprised to find two of the smaller bows that were exactly alike and just a fit for Cayla and Carla.

As we moved along it seemed strange to me, but there seemed to be a perfect fit for everyone we came to. Of course there were others that didn't exactly fit people here but they could be used in a pinch. I remembered the way they'd all come at once then, and I remembered the talk with greenie.

Did the spacemen survey the closest potential candidates and provide bows for all of them? Were their other women I needed to be looking for to go with the unused bows? I hoped not, or at least I thought I did. After Shanay arrived and got her bow I'd given out sixteen. There were twenty-two left, more than I'd originally thought I had. It didn't really matter now though. It was what it was and I'd just have to wait to see the outcome.