Chapter 9

I was wandering around on Bob's back and working my way home. I knew an easier way to get there, but there was no hurry and looking around was the reason for the trip in the first place. Suddenly I was cursing myself for this foolishness since Bob stumbled and actually went down onto one of his knees.

I bailed off him before he even tried to regain his footing, hoping he'd be able to more easily. Hell, I hoped he'd be able to get up at all. Bob was now a valuable resource for us. Besides, I'd come to like him and he was an excellent horse.

I gave a sigh of relief when he was standing on all four hooves again and felt even better since he didn't seem to be limping badly. He did favor the leg he'd fallen on though and I decided to lead him the rest of the way home.

Looking at the ground to see if I could discover what caused his stumble gave me pause. The rocky ground had a greenish cast, which I'd thought was probably some type of moss from my perch on Bob's back. Now I was closer and knew the rocks didn't have moss making them appear green. They were green, kinda.

At first I couldn't believe my luck. It couldn't be malachite, could it? I didn't have enough knowledge to know, but it was something odd and I collected as much of it as I could easily work loose.

Two hours later Bob and I headed directly home with no more exploring on my mind. If I had discovered even a small source for copper ore my exploring had paid off handsomely. Or at least we had a good start.

I knew generally how to smelt copper from the malachite, but it was the way most of us know how to smelt metal - especially those of us who've heard tell how it's done and never seen nor participated. I also knew how to obtain the charcoal or coke we would need to do it, but alas I had the same understanding.

In other words, I had a wild assed guess and it was going to mean assholes, elbows, and experimentation until I worked out a doable way. I wasn't discouraged though, since getting a ten thousand year head start on the Bronze Age couldn't be all bad.

Making coke seemed out of the question right now since we didn't have a source of coal, or at least I didn't know about it if we did. We had the materials for charcoal if I could remember how it was made.

Getting the rest of my people behind the effort wasn't going to be duck soup either. I knew what metal could do for them. Even copper would be a fantastic improvement over sharp rocks. They couldn't have any idea though and putting together an effort to smelt any useable amounts would be one hell of a lot of work.

Starting slowly would have to be the way to go - very slowly in fact. Another idea came to me then. Ceramics, or pottery, or both. Firing pottery would require some of the same things smelting metal would, and it would be a lot easier to explain the uses for pottery.

By the time we reached our valley Bob's knee was obviously swollen and he was limping with every step. We drew a crowd when we came into sight of others and an even bigger one when they noticed Bob was obviously injured. The only reasonable treatment we had for him was to let him go and hope he got better, so I did.

We'd made our entrance in the middle of the afternoon. Katala and the other women started preparing for a small celebration in honor of my safe return. It felt good in a way, but seemed much to-do about a two-day trip, but what the hell?

Choto and Nagato happened to be near me so I called them and their assistants along with Chatako together for a chat. After a few pleasantries I did my best to get down to business.

"I made a wonderful discovery on the trip, but it will be hard for you to understand why it is so wonderful at first," I said, showing them several samples of the malachite.

"What is it?" Choto asked.

"It is named malachite, and it is mostly useless as it is," I said.

"Then why is it wonderful if it has no use?" Chatako asked.

"Why are the trees wonderful before we cut them down and make something from them?"

"Because we can cut them down and make something from them. Lately you have taught us to make bows and arrows and the wood is even more wonderful now," Choto said.

"The malachite is wonderful because we can make something out of it, but it won't be easy. I'm afraid I can't explain things completely because what we can make are things you don't have now. Do you all want to try it?" I asked.

"I do. You will have to show us what we need to do, but I am ready to try. I love making things," Choto said, and the rest agreed.

"First we will have to do something different with trees. We need a fire hotter than burning wood can give us so we will have to treat some of the wood to make it charcoal. That is the first step.

"After we have some charcoal we must build a fire and put the malachite in it. When we've done it we should have some copper. We can make things with copper. The first thing we should make is a stronger and better axe."

"Why do we need better axes?" Choto asked.

"Why, so we can cut more wood to make more charcoal to smelt more copper so we can make more things."

"You were correct from the beginning, I don't understand," Choto said.

"I was afraid of that, but all I can do is promise we will all be happy after we get the copper. We can also make cups and plates and other things that are better with the hotter fire we get from the charcoal.

"Shall we start tomorrow?" I asked, and they agreed.

We had a wonderful meal and I ate plenty, but made sure not to go too far. I had women to tend to tonight and I wanted to be ready for the job. Since Bollo's former camp moved in with us though I'd had a secret stimulus most nights.

Even with three new women I'd been able to do good work after Colon had moved in close to us. I always got inspiration from Colon's nearness. After all, he had a new mate too - Zeita, his sister. From the first night I'd been able to recognize Zeita's moans and screams while he plowed her furrow to exhaustion.

The pattern was always the same. He'd long dick his more traditional long time mate and then climb aboard his sister next. His initial mate, Chara, was never ashamed to announce she was getting the high hard one, but his sister, Zeita, almost always ended up screaming like a banshee as he pumped between her slippery lips.

I guess listening to the sister fucker and the sister just did something for me, because it always spurred me to greater heights. Maybe it was because I'd had a sister once, in my first life. Carolyn was six years older than me and she'd had an apple ass and big round titties, the first naked set of titties I'd ever seen in fact. She never showed me where the weenie went in real life, but I'd beat it into submission plenty of times wishing she would.

No matter the circumstances, every time I heard bellies slapping and Zeita start moaning, my dick shot up to full pressure and one of my women had to take the heat. They never bitched about it. My cave women were always their own inspiration too. After all, they'd come my way from me killed someone. I hadn't killed Chalala's mate, but she was mine because I'd killed her mate's killer and her Neanderthal differences were aphrodisiacs of their own.