Chapter 5

Now that they could see something useful come from the foundry and forge, there was more enthusiasm than ever before in helping me do things. The first thing I did to cash in on the new spirit of wonder was to make up some lance and spear points from bronze. The superiority of these over flint was easy to see, and everybody wanted one.

Boar was becoming an accomplished blacksmith, and was turning out spear points at a goodly rate. In fact, we were about to run out of copper and tin, but our new friends showed up with enough nodules of the two metals to pay my price for the atlatl secret and to buy one horse, with tack. One look at the bronze spear points and they wanted some of them, too. I set a price in raw metal and they left happy with their new horse. They said that they would be back soon with more nodules to trade for horses and points.

As a feeble joke, I had mentioned that we needed a name for our growing "town" and suggested Wolfton. This was met with a few groans, but mostly with a gleeful sigh. Imagine! Our town was important enough to need a name! That was it, everybody started referring to our cave and environs as Wolfton.

There was another very small cave right next to ours which nobody had claimed, so I suggested that Boar move the foundry and forge in there so that he could keep working during the worst weather, even when it was snowing or raining. He was less that completely sold on the idea, but I finally talked him into it. I wanted to get him set up before other people complained about the noise. This "very small cave" was still plenty big enough for Boar to work in and have Stork, his wife, join him for company. The move must have agreed with them, because Stork soon turned up pregnant.

Bear was doing well in his saddle-making efforts. I pointed out to him that he should standardize on a saddle design and keep making them, even if he didn't have immediate customers. After all, we wanted to sell more horses, and tack was needed for them. Bear's wife, Flower, was an astute businesswoman, and encouraged Bear, as well as helping him with the leather work.

My next project was to put somebody in the horse training business. If I was going to push these people into civilization, I needed to concentrate on the overall picture and not try to do everything myself. I talked to Big Foot and several other people about the job, and Lefty thought he would give it a try. His real name was Left Hand, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to call a horse wrangler "Lefty."

Lefty had gone with us on our last roundup, so he was aware of what he would need to do. Lefty's wife, Two Jugs, immediately saw the opportunities for a quick rise in status, so she encouraged Lefty and even agreed to help him with the horses. Alice and I went along on the next roundup to act as advisors and gofers, but I had Lefty run the operation. He didn't to it exactly as I would have, but his results were the same, so I didn't complain. We returned to Wolfton with 12 more horses to trade. Lefty was in business!

Now that we had some businesses going successfully that did not need my constant supervision, I felt that it was time to visit more of the neighborhood. Alice and I could take three horses and make the rounds of the nearby inhabited caves to meet folks and advertise Wolfton's wares. I wanted to boost the whole area, if I could. Also, I was interested in setting up a gunpowder plant, since there was some heavy construction I wanted to start and there would be some earthmoving involved.

Furthermore, we would eventually run into some people that I couldn't charm, so we needed an ultimate weapon. I had hand grenades and bazookas (RPGs) in mind. We could grow to bigger weapons if we needed them.

Alice and I set out one bright and sunshiny morning, each riding a horse and leading a packhorse. We both had lances and atlatls with points of bronze and a couple of axes, one large and one small. I didn't expect any trouble, but we were prepared for it. I was more than adequate with the atlatl, but Alice's robot abilities made her as deadly with the atlatl as any 20th century human would have been with a gun up to a range of about 250 yards.

We didn't fool around, but headed for the nearest inhabited cave which we had not previously visited. It took us about half a day to get there on horse back. This was a small group of 12 people, 7 of them were adult. We made quite an impression as we rode in. The people knew about horses, but only as a potential food source. At first, they thought that human and horse were one magical animal and were very frightened, but they relaxed somewhat when I dismounted. Just in case of trouble, Alice had her atlatl loaded and ready.

I explained that I was a shaman particularly favored by the gods. I demonstrated by lighting up a cigarette. The smoke was a big hit with the kids, but the adults were still a little anxious. We had brought along a freshly killed elk, so we were invited to stay for lunch and supper when I offered to share the elk.

We had pulled the elk on a travois attached to the pack horse. The people were amazed at all of the uses for the horse and wanted their own right away. I refused to trade away the ones we had, but told them about Wolfton and the wonders available for barter there. I suggested that they send a representative to talk to Chief Big Foot to see what could be worked out. Before I left, I had explained to Big Foot the advantages of selling on a time payment plan; he was fascinated by the prospects.

These people had a large supply of leather which Bear could use for tack, so they already had something that would be wanted in Wolfton. One of their women was adept at bead work, so I pointed out that was also something that might be traded. I told them that Wolfton could use all of the copper, tin, sulfur, and bat guano that they could find, so their prospects were good for working out a deal. The chief promised to send a trade negotiator to Wolfton in the next few days.

We spent the next day with these people getting to know them and just being sociable. My ultimate plans required as many friends as I could cultivate. I didn't want to wear out our welcome, so we left for the next inhabited cave on Alice's list. The seventh adult in that group was a young "man" who had just turned 14 years old and was looking for a wife. His name was "Solid as a Rock," and I feared that might refer to his head. To my pleased surprise, he turned out to be quite intelligent. His name referred to his strength and stamina. He joined us on our journey, since he had no marital prospects in his present home, and he hoped to find a suitable wife in one of the other caves.

Solid as a Rock found a precarious seat on the back of the pack horse. He spent several hours teetering on the edge of disaster until he finally mastered the art of riding without a saddle and stirrups. Once we were clear of his home cave, we stopped long enough for me to whittle him an atlatl, and I gave him one of my bronze-tipped spears. We practiced long enough for him to become reasonably proficient with the atlatl and resumed our journey.

Solid as a Rock was known at our next stopping place. In fact, the chief had been expecting him to stop by to consider one of the two young women who were available for marriage. This made our entry into the group easier, but they were still wary of somebody who rode a horse. However, they knew Solid as a Rock, and he had been seen on the back of a horse, so it was easier for them to accept Alice and me. I put on my smoking demonstration and this cemented our acceptance.

Solid as a Rock was attracted to one of the available women, who was approaching "old maid" status by being 15 years old and not yet married. Luckily for her, she was built like the proverbial brick shit house. The only thing that kept her from being selected sooner was that there weren't enough men to go around. In fact, Solid as a Rock was offered both women, the other being 13 years old and in the prime age range. He thought about it for all of 30 seconds and said yes.

He was literally raped on the spot by both women while everybody else laughed so hard they hurt. I thought, "This is my kind of wedding ceremony!" When the three participants finally came up for air, they laughed, too.

Before we left, I showed their flint knapper how to shape a point for the atlatl spear. Once he had it mastered, I retrieved my bronze pointed spear from the new groom and told him that the atlatl was my wedding gift to him and his new family. I suggested that he journey to Wolfton to barter for bronze points if he wanted them.

We moved on to the next inhabited cave and went through the usual getting-to-know-you routine. We had brought an elk with us, and that may have been all that kept them from attacking us. They were so hungry that the women were ready to fight for the meat represented by our horses. Their group was small, so they had only three hunters.

The hunters had run afoul of a cave bear nearly two weeks before we met them. The bear had killed two of the hunters and severely injured the third. Alice and I did what we could for him, but he died the second night we were at the cave.

The 3 women and 4 children were sure to starve if we left them to their fate. I could see only one thing to do. We would have to take the women and children to Wolfton to save their lives, and there were just not enough humans around on the planet to waste even one. Alice and I discussed the situation and reached a solution.

Since Alice was even less vulnerable than I was, she would go to Wolfton to get help and enough horses, which she would bring back to us. Once she returned, we would get organized to move everybody to Wolfton. If Big Foot objected to taking in these refugees, she and I would permanently move to this cave until we could work out another solution.