Chapter 10

All the new people wanted to move in right away. The problem was that they had not brought all of their things with them. We decided that the easiest way around the problem was to haul the stuff back by cart. We had two carts available, and that would be sufficient for the belongings from the nearer cave, so I planned to send both carts the next morning to pick up everything from the first cave. We could start working on the second cave after the first one was emptied.

It took two trips to empty the second cave, but it went off without difficulty. We had added over 30 people to our community, counting children and the elderly. I insisted that the elderly be treated with respect—we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. Things definitely were looking up, and I was in a hurry for Alice to return. Meanwhile, I kept busy training our new people in the proper way to use the crossbows and hand grenades; by now, the atlatl had pretty well fallen by the wayside.

We made up some wooden swords and started to practice with them, too. I figured that we would never by great sword fighters, but I didn't think that we needed to be. No matter how awkwardly we hacked with our swords, we were bound to better fighters than those who attacked us with knives and clubs. I never wanted the swords to be anything but last-ditch weapons, I much preferred to fight at a distance where I thought we had a major advantage.

Lefty was my second in command, and I left him in charge, again, as Sharp Eye and I went exploring the neighborhood in the direction opposite from the one we had previously taken. Alice's map had indicated that I should find 3 occupied caves within a day's drive of our community. No such luck! We found the caves, but they had been empty since before the winter season. I wondered if these people had been killed or captured by the invaders before we fought them. I might never find out. We spent the night at the last cave and came home the next day.

Lefty was glad to see us. He never really liked being in charge of people, he much preferred horses. He had sent out a hunting team with the other cart, and they had come back with a full load. He expected today's team to come back pretty soon, in fact, they were running late. About dark, two of the four hunters came in by themselves. They had a horrendous tale to tell.

They had just filled their cart with kills and were headed back to town when they were attacked by a pride of lions. I was taken aback by this, until I remembered that lions had been common in France until the Celts had killed most of them. There were 6 lions, and they hit the cart with an overwhelming charge. The men fired their crossbows and wounded 2 of the lions, but two of the men were killed by the attacking lions while two more killed the horse. The two men who escaped were barely able to defend themselves with their crossbows, finally killing the two lions attacking them, before they were forced to retreat.

I blew some cigarette smoke at them and told them that the gods were pleased at their bravery. We would go back in the morning to see what we could recover. At least, we should be able to recover the cart.

The next morning, we set out with 10 hunters, all armed with crossbows, and I had 4 hand grenades along as a last resort weapon in case we ran into more lions. There was no question that we could not stand to have lions running free in our territory. I didn't like the idea of killing for the sake of killing, but the lions were too dangerous to tolerate. We had my old cart with us and 4 of the men were riding horses, while the rest rode in the cart.

It took about 90 minutes for us to get to the site of yesterday's attack. There was the cart with no apparent damage, but the horse was gone, as were the bodies of the men and the game they had collected. We hooked up a horse to the cart and 3 of the men got into that cart with the driver. We were now ready for our lion hunt.

We expected the lions to still be sleeping off the effects of gorging themselves yesterday. Their trail was easy to follow in the tramped down grass. The horses were understandably reluctant to follow the lions, but did so with constant urging. We rode with crossbows at the ready, and me holding a hand grenade in each hand. We were able to spot the lions from a distance, so we were ready when we got close.

The lions ignored us when we approached. They had never been attacked by humans, before, so they were not concerned by us in the least. There were 5 females, 1 male, and 4 cubs in the pride. I hated to do it, but we had to kill them all. Each of the 6 men riding in the two carts was assigned an adult lion as a target, and all were instructed to hold their fire until I ordered them to shoot. The men on horses were the backup, and were to chase down and kill the cubs after all the adults were dead.

We got within 50 feet of the lions before they reacted, but it was too late for them by then. All of the men were ready, so I called out, "SHOOT!" Six bolts were on their way. Four of the lions were mortally wounded and dropped where they were, but 2 of the females were not wounded seriously enough to keep them from charging us. The 4 men on the horses did as they should, and we were free of adult lions, at least from this pride. The four cubs didn't know how to react, and they died under a shower of bolts as soon as the men could reload.

The lion meat was of no value to us, but the skins, claws, and teeth were. The men took the time to skin the lions and take the claws and teeth. They loaded the booty onto my cart, and we headed back to Wolfton. The men on the horses took the other cart and went hunting elk.

When we got back, everyone marveled at the way we were able to kill 6 lions and 4 cubs without injury to any of us. They also wanted to have a party right then to celebrate, but I squashed that. I wanted to wait until the hunters returned, because they had an equal part in killing the lions. I wanted one big celebration to include everybody. We did that at supper that night.

I did have one problem to settle. The two recent widows had to be taken care of. One of them had a large extended family she could rejoin, but the other had come from the far cave and was without relatives close enough to take her in. My three wives insisted that I had to take in Butterfly as another wife, since she had no place else to go. There were no children, and Butterfly was only 13 years old, so I really was left with no choice. But what was I going to do with a wife who was only 13 years old, but expected sexual service just like the other wives? It was obvious what I was going to do, but I wasn't happy about fucking a 13 year old girl, even if she was my wife and wanted it. Oh, well, when in Rome...

That night, my other wives insisted that Butterfly spend her first night with me; however, she stank to high heaven. My wives knew how I felt about a reasonably clean body, so they made the effort of give Butterfly a bath. She didn't understand this strange ritual, since she had never had a bath with soap before. She was fascinated by the soap suds, though she really didn't get the point. Oh, well, as long as she was clean, for whatever reason, she was acceptable.

The other wives brought her into my bedroom, wrapped in a fur. With some ceremony, they unveiled her, and I had to admit, she was pretty, in an undeveloped sort of way. Her chest was very nearly flat and her pussy looked like that of a young girl. I wondered if she really had been fucked before. I knew that 13 was considered prime marriageable age in this time and place, but I wondered if it hadn't been pushed a bit for Butterfly.

She looked scared to death, but that might have been the fact that she didn't know me from Adam's off ox and had been pushed into this marriage just as I had been. Unfortunately, though, if I didn't fuck her tonight, her social status would plummet to depths from which it could never be resurrected. She knew it and I knew it, so the social pressures made it impossible for us to avoid the upcoming event.

I removed my clothes, as I had bathed earlier, as soon as I found out about her sleeping with me this night. The two of us faced each other and stared at the other's genitalia. I am sure that I was no more impressive than she was; I was as soft and droopy as I could get. This was definitely not complimentary for her!

I embraced her and kissed her gently on the mouth. This seemed to wake her up—she definitely knew how to kiss! She managed to produce one of the sexiest, open-mouth kisses I had ever had. That woke up my junior partner! I started getting hard, and she could feel my cock pressing against her belly. I was so much taller than her that there was no way my cock was going to push against her pussy with both of us standing. As soon as she felt my cock start to fill, she became even more enthusiastic with her kisses.