Chapter 19

Weeta shyly shook my shoulder to wake me for supper. I smiled at her when I realized who it was. After shaking my head gently a time or two I thought I was conscious enough to get up without falling and I followed her toward our cooking fire where I found that eating outside where others could see us was drastically different from eating at our dining room table.

Weeta pointed out a large flat rock I was to sit on and then Saytha installed Nagat beside me. I hadn't seen him much during the last two days and I felt a little guilty about it. In the tribe's eyes he was my son now and to be fair I should start taking more time with him. I was hoping he was young enough to have his first father's bad influence deleted.

"I have been amazed at what you are doing father, especially at the way the men seem to be striving to do what you want them to with no arguing," he said.

"I am a little surprised about that myself," I said.

"Is it because you killed some of them?" he asked, and it was a very fair question that was nonetheless awkward.

"I'm sure that is part of it, but I don't think it is the whole answer. My ability to kill people that resist me is powerful, and I can kill many people very fast. That is not a good way to lead a camp.

"The main reason for the cooperation I'm getting now is indirectly related to the killing though," I said, and I could see he didn't understand some of my words.

"The men that I killed brought it on themselves by their behavior, and everyone that saw it could tell. The dead men were not trying to help me decide the best way to get our work done; they were trying to argue so they could undermine my leadership. I'm sure that is always the way when a leader takes over a camp.

"I saw their arguments as their way of building their nerve to fight me, but I didn't see any reason to wait. Sooner or later I was going to have to fight them, and since I was already ready to fight, I did it, and they lost.

"Do you know why we live in camps?" I asked, and he pondered for a few minutes and then admitted he didn't.

"We live together so that we can help each other. Bears do not make camps; they live their lives alone, mostly. Bears are much stronger than men, but if they come to a camp they are usually killed because the men work together to do it. It is a good way to live, but your former camp wasn't very good at doing it that way.

"Why do you say that?" he asked.

"Because the men didn't help much, or at least the leaders I saw didn't. They didn't try to help. They bullied and fought and tried to make everyone else do things for them. I do my best to do things for the camp and the men and women can see it. They try their best to help me because they know what I'm doing will make life easier for all of us. The men I killed didn't want to live that way, and now they don't have to," I said, and then Teecha and Weeta rescued me by bringing us two big platters of food.

"I think I can understand some of what you told me, but I don't understand it all. I will try to watch and learn your ways.

"I can say that the food in your camp is much better than what we had before, and there is a lot more of it," he said.

"You are learning faster than you think. I prefer to have plenty of good food instead of wasting the day bossing people around," I said, and then showed him what I meant by stuffing myself.

The talking for the night wasn't over though, and I noticed right away that Weeta had been assigned to sit right beside me. I knew she'd been assigned because she was much to shy to have done it on her own. She didn't say anything though until I'd finished eating.

"Would you like for me to bring you more?" she asked.

"No, thank you. I have had plenty. Please go ahead and ask what you want to ask, I can tell you are wondering about something and I will tell you if I can," I said, and she looked very relieved.

"Are we really going back to my camp? Will you return me to Kellta?" she asked.

"Yes, we will, if you want to go back," I said.

"Yes, I want to go back. Kellta was kind to me and was a good hunter. Zotab hit him very hard though and I'm not sure if he will be alive," she said.

"If he is not alive I can not help him. In case he died we will take plenty of people with us to bring your belongings back," I said.

"But what of my sister?" she asked, in a shaky voice.

"What of your sister?"

"She was Kellta's mate also. He was a very good hunter," she said.

"We will bring her with us, if she wants to come," I said.

"Won't we be your mates since you killed Zotab?" she asked, and was still trembling.

"You will be my mates if you want to be. I do not try to hold any woman who doesn't want me, but I would be glad to have both you and your sister for more mates. We don't need to worry about that yet though. Perhaps Kellta is alive and well, and being nursed by your sister," I said.

"It would be better if that were the case, but Kellta was asleep and Zotab hit him very hard on the head," she said.

"How is it that he didn't steal you both?" I asked.

"Woota was staying with my mother who was injured a few days before," she said, and thankfully she didn't tell me how and I sure as hell didn't ask.

It made me wonder though. It sounded to me like I was directly on my way into another mell of a hess. Just from the way Weeta said it I was betting that her mother was a widow. If Kellta was dead I had no doubt I'd be bringing not only Weeta, Woota, and their possessions back but I'd probably need to bring her mother too. Shit, I'd worry about it tomorrow.

"Do not worry Weeta. I will take plenty of people with us so that we can deal with any situation that comes up. If Kellta is alive and well, he will take care of you. If he is injured and not able to we can bring he and your sister back with us if he wants. I have some very good medicine at our camp. If he is dead we will bring you, Woota, and your mother back with us.

I might as well have told her I was Santa Clause. The smile she gave me was nearly worth any trouble we might run into. She scampered up and away to find Taachachi I'm sure, but she wasn't the only one that had heard me. Teecha had been sitting not six feet away, acting like she wasn't listening. She happened to try sneaking a peek at me just then and I caught her eyes and gave her a big wink. She smiled wide too and scampered off herself.

I didn't scamper but I did get up, remove my clothes and walk to the center of the pallet of furs my women had spread for us to sleep on. I lay down near the middle and was asleep almost at once. My last thought was I'd probably need the rest tomorrow.

The next morning I woke from stirrings around me. Taachachi was waking my other mates but motioning for them to be quiet. It made me wonder what was going on until she woke the last woman, Weeta. I realized then that she was letting me sleep and intended to get things moving right away. I sat up.

"No need to be so quiet Taachachi. I'm awake already, and no matter how fast you try to go I'll still take a look at the horses I have tied before we leave," I said, getting up and dragging on my clothes.

"It will be soon enough. Can you see to your horses in the first light?" she asked.

"Yes. I guess that means you want me to go do it before breakfast."

"It would make things go faster," she said.

"Well, let me show you something first," I said, heading to one of the travois with my things on it.

I'd noticed that they had a camp coffee pot packed even though I'm sure they didn't have any idea what it was. I also knew that they'd brought the coffee pot from the kitchen and one can of coffee. They'd have had a hard time finding a place to plug that one in out here.

Picking up both the pot and the coffee I went to Taachachi and interrupted her cooking to give her a lesson on camp coffee. She actually seemed to be glad to get it, and she put the pot on the fire right away. I headed toward the surround since the sun was peaking over the horizon by now.

Since I couldn't move as quietly as anyone else I knew the horses were looking around for me when I got there. Every one of them tensed up as I neared the fence but in about five minutes I guess they had decided I wasn't going to come in and fuck with them.

Signs on the ground made it plain that they'd done a hell of a lot of pawing and pulling since they were tied but I figured they were about over it. No matter, I knew damned well they'd be resigned to their fate by the time I got back to them. I doubted we'd return much before dusk.

Breakfast, coffee and all, was ready before I got back and it was tasty. Taachachi showed me that she didn't need any damned old fancy oven to cook biscuits, now that she knew the trick.

While my mates were gathering their things to get going I found Dagart and asked if he could find four good men to go with us to Weeta's camp. He said he would.

Taachachi had her troops ready to move out within fifteen minutes. All my mates were going and they had their bows in hand. I was worried about Taachachi trying to use hers if it came to a tussle, so I asked her to leave it and I found a web belt and a machete with a hard plastic sheath that had hooks to fit the belt. It didn't take five minutes to show her how things worked and I could tell she was proud to have the biggest knife she'd ever seen.

With Weeta leading the way we headed out. She was a Godsend. She was leading us back to her own camp after all, and she knew exactly where they'd put logs across the small streams so we didn't have to worry about getting naked or getting wet. It worked out well, especially since we didn't have to cross the river.

In fact we had a pleasant trip until we reached her camp. At least it didn't look nearly as disheveled as Carltaga's had. That was about when the pleasant morning ended. I knew it was coming when a bona fide dipshit crawled his skinny ass out of the hut Weeta had identified as the one she and her sister had shared with Kellta.