Chapter 23

Mary had been keeping up with our calendar, such as it was, and she figured April tenth was today. It was warm enough to start riding the horses outside again and maybe to do a little hunting. The ground was still damp and soft, but the grasses were getting started for another year.

There was a lot of whinnying and such as we rode out. Not all of us of course, but only Kalela, Dela, and Bayla stayed to ride herd on the kids. Most of us were only going to ride around in the giant pasture in front of the caves anyway and the three babysitters would be swapping out later with others so they could do some outdoor riding too.

Reela, Keela, and I had Marlins in our saddle scabbards while Mary had a shotgun and Mecha and Chris carried thirty-ought-sixes. We were going to ride a little to get acclimated and then head back to the rear valley to see what we could see.

Our catch fences were still in place on both ends of the path between the valleys and they seemed no worse for the wear except the gates were sagging a little from their rawhide hinges. They were actually in better shape than I'd thought they would be, and I didn't expect any more need for them anyway.

Once we were into the back valley I was completely amazed, or thought I was. It was apparent to me there'd been even less snow back here than we'd had out front. In the front valley it was still surviving against the walls where it had drifted higher, but there was none back here at all, and the ground was considerably drier. It was possible we'd chosen the wrong valley, but we had come through the cold weather well enough and I wouldn't consider moving until we finished our summer activities.

The animals back here had seemed to do better though. They didn't look as stressed by winter as the horses who'd moved to the front valley with us. Those had done fairly well, but the others back here had held more of their weight. One vote against moving back here was the presence of the cave lions. I spotted twelve of them and I'm sure there were at least a few more.

Cave bears were also visible, but only eight from where we were. I knew that couldn't be all of them though since I didn't see any young ones and there must have been some born this winter. That meant they were still in caves somewhere with their mothers. They weren't an enormous problem, but they would be a hell of a job to get rid of and it would be better to do it during the late fall after they'd picked up more weight.

We left it to the present occupants for now. There were entirely too many lions in sight for us to try killing anything to eat and I wasn't ready to start clearing them out now. We went back to our cave so the other women and the children could do some riding.

After lunch I didn't see anything that would stop us from getting started on capturing and training more horses. The pups intended to crap it up since they were big enough to run around now and when Chris and I headed out to rope our first new pupil they wanted to follow. They were very upset with us when we had to pen them up in Missy's old cage. Missy would mind well enough to stay back if I told her to, but the pups hadn't had many lessons yet.

We had a little trouble with the first big mare we roped, but it was more our fault than hers. My fault I should say. I didn't miss, but the loop tightened too far down her neck for good control and it took some fiddling around to get it loose enough so a flick of the wrist would snap it up around her throatlatch. The normal tug of war was on after that and it ended like it always had so far with the mare learning about staying where she was tied.

We settled into a good routine quickly enough though and before sunset we had all eight post giving the lessons they were put in place for and we turned the rest of our riding stock out hobbled for a little grazing on the new grass.

When supper was ready we sat down and I enjoyed it more after the day outside. Winter had been more pleasant than I'd thought it would be and a lot of that was from the disposition of the women with me. They were picking up on Chris and Mary's habit of teasing me if they could think of a way, but they had a deference to me that Chris and Mary didn't have and didn't want for that matter.

Thankfully the original part of the deference, which distressed me, was leaving. I didn't want them doing what I told them to just because it was me, a man, telling them. I knew better than anyone I could make mistakes and I didn't want someone going ahead with something I suggested if they knew it was wrong. Mecha was completely over such as that by now but the others were only working their way toward it.

At least deference had fled the vicinity of the furs. When we were naked and squirming together it was every sex organ for itself, and while dog style was a big favorite, two women facing each other and squatting over me was still number one in their book, in all their books in fact. They did their best to wear me out with it every night. They never got it done though. They could get my hardon to give up the ghost, but my tongue was still champ.

And breakfast was king of the morning. They all knew I could get a cloudy disposition if I ended up on short rations. There wasn't much chance of that with so many cooks though. In the morning I usually took charge of Sika as soon as she finished nursing. I cleaned her up and put her on my lap for a little ride that horsy on my knee until food was available for me.

She retired to a pile of furs then and most mornings there was a puppy scramble with her the center of attention. Missy always watched over those proceedings and she was quick to give a nip to any of her brood that wanted to play too rough. Missy had taken a shine to Sika and made sure her kids played nice.

Playtime was over for me after breakfast this morning though. I had horses to train and hoped to have more, later. We had to get our current eight following the leader first though so we could refill the posts. Thankfully I didn't have to do it all myself any longer.

Getting a new pupil started was my job though. I introduced them to the concept of following the one holding the rope that was attached to their head via the halter. Reela or Keela usually hazed from behind for the first few stops and starts and after that it was just me leading and stopping then geeing and hawing until the horse had a general idea. The real training came after my replacement took over.

By now the women knew the drill and when one of them took hold of a lead rope so I could get to the next student, they were looking at a couple of hours of leading and training to follow. It was a good way to distribute the load and I didn't have a hope in hell of doing it all myself.

We got all eight of our newly acquireds moving that day, but we didn't have time to saddle up and gather more. There'd be another day tomorrow for catching more and then the next day we'd get them moving. I hoped our recruiting would be over then. It would give us thirty horses and that should be enough to take us all out to the crash site and tow the helicopter back here too. I hoped.

We still had the horses to train before we could reasonably expect to do much though. It would be different if we didn't have any, but we did have some now. Once we had some we all needed one. It would be impossible to travel with some of us riding and some walking because we couldn't stay together that way. Separation was something I couldn't bare either.

I never wanted to be far away from any of them because I knew I was the one most qualified to protect them. They could do a hell of a job helping me, but if something was causing trouble I intended to be there to deal with it. I had a big family now, but they were my family as far as I was concerned and I intended to make sure they stayed safe. All it would take was work.