Chapter 8

I felt even better this morning when I woke and I could tell for sure that fucking was good for me. I don't know if it made me sleep more soundly or what, but after a good workout on the sheets, the next morning seemed grand.

For breakfast this morning the girls wanted me to fry some of the bear that they'd cut into strips for drying. What the hell, it looked a lot like bacon so I gave it a try. It turned out to be delicious, with eggs and toast. I liked it so well I went back after my first plate and fried up some more. The women gave me a funny look but all the kids thought it was the grandest thing they'd ever heard of. What the hell, I fried more eggs and made more toast too. I was a hell of a hit with the youngsters.

Teecha tried to ease her way into the lecture she wanted to give me about feeding the kids, and in fact all of us, more than we really needed. I listened politely but after she was done I let her know that everyone that lived with me was going to get all they wanted to eat if I had any say about it.

"We will need more help then, for cleaning and skinning your kills. We all know that you can kill plenty of meat for us, more than we can even clean and cut up. That is a wonderful problem to have but there are other women at our old camp that no man will take and they do not have enough to eat," she said.

"Will they all need to sleep with me too," I asked, and damned if I wasn't actually afraid she'd tell me yes.

"Of course, why would you feed a woman who wouldn't want to take care of your needs?" she asked.

"You know I might not be able to do it too all of you every night," I said.

"That is another reason you should get more women. We don't think we can take complete care of you every night," she said, and I laughed.

They were worried about making sure I got plenty of pussy and I was worried that I didn't have enough dick to go around. What it was, was a failure to communicate, just like the warden had told Paul Newman in "Cool Hand Luke."

Since we were caught up on the meat, pretty much, we left Mayla, Mita, and Meela in charge of Taachachi, and the kids and struck out for their old camp. It was only after we'd gone a few hundred yards that I realized I didn't have a handle on what the arrangements would be like. What the hell, I asked, telling them that the bed would not hold many more women,

"Do we have to sleep on the bed? We have many furs and I know that the women we will be talking too all have many that they don't use and that are ready to be used. That is how they get by now, curing and tanning hides and furs for others. Sometimes they are paid with extra meat and other times they cure one hide out of two and keep the other," Saytha told me.

"I am accustomed to sleeping in the bed but I don't demand it. If we end up with enough furs we can move the bed somewhere and sleep on furs laid out on the floor," I said, since I'd always bought the firmest mattress I could find anyway.

I wasn't paying particular attention to try moving silently in the woods but all the others were. Damned if we didn't come across a bear trying to dig up poor Kalba and it was apparent from his or her demeanor that there was going to be a hell of a fight if we interfered. I was carrying the M1 semi-clone today and it did a better job than the Marlin or else I made a better shot, because the bear dropped with only one round.

"How will we get all this meat back to our camp? We need to talk to the other women," Teechi said.

"Hell, we don't need the meat right now. Why don't you see if someone in the camp wants it?" I asked.

"We may need the fur though. Someone will skin it and give us the fur if we let them have the meat," Caysha said, and so we just left it where it fell.

When we got to the camp Saytha did the talking to a few hunters and three of them decided that they would split the meat between them. Of course they weren't going to skin it and cut it up, their mates would get that job. I didn't give a shit who did it. After the deal was done they gathered their mates and children and headed to the spot Saytha told them about.

Teechi stayed close to me and I figured it was mostly to keep me from screwing some pooch, which I would have probably done if left to my own devices. I was just looking around at the people and mostly they were looking at me. I didn't see any of the men I'd had disagreements with before, but that wasn't too surprising since they had been dropping like flies lately.

We'd probably been standing there for about ten minutes, just watching the world go by, when I saw an older man with an obvious limp coming toward us.

"Who's that coming this way," I asked Teechi.

"It is Cowta," she said.

"Isn't he the one that you said made Clocho's knife, the one that I liked?" I asked.

"Yes, he is the best carver and flint knapper anywhere."

"What happened to his leg?" I asked.

"It was broken by a bison when he was hunting. That is how he became such a good carver and flint knapper. He had to so he could trade his work for food and other things," she told me.

"Is he another of the disagreeable ones?"

"Oh no, he is probably the kindest man in this camp. They do not treat him very well, but they make sure he and his mate and son don't starve because his work is so good," Teechi said.

Cowta had reached us by now and he introduced himself so I returned the favor and added an interest payment.

"I have seen your work and in fact I now have the knife you made for Clocho. He didn't need it after our talk," I said.

"You are doing wonderful things for this camp and you don't even live here," he said.

"If I had seen the knife before the time I did I would have looked for Clocho sooner. It is a wonderful knife," I said.

"It was serviceable and I did my best job with the flint he brought. The flint was good, but not excellent. It is very hard for me to gather flint though, now that I need it for food and furs," he said.

"We have plenty of food in my camp and no one that I invite to live there goes hungry. Would you like to come and live with us? If you would, and would carve and knap flint, I would make sure you had anything you needed. I will even go to find flint for you if you can show me how to tell when I see the best," I said.

He looked at me like he couldn't believe it. In fact I'm pretty sure he thought I was full of shit. No doubt he would have made excuses and moved on if Teechi hadn't spoken up.

"Cowta, I know it is hard to believe, but it is true. The reason we came here today was so we could ask Tarta, Keelah, and Bota to come and join us. He kills so much meat that we hardly have time to tend to it. He killed a bear while we were coming here this morning and Saytha just gave it to Jata, Fongo, and Crallet if they would bring us the skin when they had it off," Teechi said, and I knew that he was having a hard time swallowing that bit of news.

He knew Teechi though and he could plainly see the others talking to the three women she had named.

"I will go and speak with Shanay and Biltee. As you see I can no longer hunt, if we come to live at your camp will you show Biltee how to hunt?" Cowta asked, before he left.

"I will show him what I know, but the women are better at finding game than I am. I have a new type of weapon that will let him make kills from a great distance and if you come to live with us I will give him one and show him how to use it," I said.

"I will be back with our decision soon," he said, and managed to get away this time.

He'd barely made his escape before Saytha came to see Teechi and I.

"Frank, they have even more skins and things to carry than we thought. It is too much to carry in one trip," she said.

"Did you tell them to give their food away?" I asked.

"Yes, and they have given away their meat. We thought they shouldn't give away what they had gathered," she said.

"You were exactly correct. I cannot shoot fruits and vegetables. Will we be able to carry their things if I make more travois?" I asked.

"I do not know, but we will be able to carry much more if you do. Maybe we can pack everything onto them," she said.

I told her I would get busy and so Teechi and I walked off a good distance from the camp and cut ten poles. She had to give me special dispensation again so that I could drag most of them back. I didn't consider it dangerous at all myself. Even though we had walked nearly a quarter mile from camp the chance that predators would come even this close to it were scarce. Idiot asshole men were the biggest worry and if it came up I could drop the poles and palm my Glock pretty damned fast.

We made a stir in camp when we got back, but I didn't pay it any mind and started in tying cross ropes to finish out the travois. I had one of them nearly done when the three women, Tarta, Keelah, and Bota came over with Saytha. I hadn't tried to get a good look at them while everything else was going on but I didn't mind stopping what I was doing and taking a gander now. I liked what I saw.

Saytha introduced us and let me know that all of them were excited to be joining us. Tarta was about five foot five; she had chestnut hair and big brown eyes. At a glance I'd seen that they were all pretty and Tarta was the prettiest. She also seemed shy.

Keelah was the tallest. At five eight, she was even a little taller than Saytha. She had dark auburn hair but remarkably few freckles, at least on the parts that were exposed. Even in the loose fitting tunic I could tell that she had been blessed in the titty department too. She had a beautiful smile and her voice was surprisingly low and oh so sexy.

Bota was only five two but she had light flaxen hair and big blue eyes; her daughter, Tita, seemed to be practically a smaller copy of her. Bota's most notable characteristic was her personality. She seemed plainspoken, outgoing, and a natural tease and flirt.

"Saytha, you have done us all such a favor. You say he is a great hunter but I say he is a handsome man and I'm impatient to see if you were telling me the truth about his stamina in the furs. You've come for us just in time too. The worthless bastards around here are already sniffing around Tita and I'm sure she'll be a woman very soon. If he is half the man you claim he is she will be very happy when her time comes," Bota said, and then gave me a wide lascivious grin.