Chapter 103

Ameliea acted as if the answer satisfied her, but I could tell it didn't and I also sensed the others were thinking back too. I hoped my former home didn't become a common point of conjecture, but there wasn't much to be done about it.

I didn't want Argent intervening and making them forget, but I sure as hell wasn't going to try and explain things either. I decided my best move would be to just stonewall, as the politicians say. I would just refuse to answer any questions about my past, which might lead to any real explanation.

I went and sat at the table and Winna brought me a mug of beer while Jaada came with the plate. It was a New York strip and a mountain of beans and I decided I must have made at least some of them happy.

Raalto, Racaato, and the freshened up Danlo, Jonoco, Sahto, and Talvo came in then wanting to know what was next on the agenda.

"Next you sit down and let my beautiful mates feed you. You have all done a good job this morning and I think I might be able to get you a special meal."

"We will be happy to feed your helpers, John, but they must tell us how they got the little pigs into the cage," Gema said.

Sahto was a natural storyteller. He had me laughing so hard several times I couldn't even eat. My mates and even Raalto and Racaato laughed until they had tears. I could tell Sahto enjoyed his performance and the praise he got for it.

"It was fun chasing after them, but I still wonder what we will do with them," he said, as he finished.

"We will eat most of the males, but we will keep the biggest one and all the females. When they are old enough the females will have more little piglets of their own and we will start over again raising the females and eating most of the males," I explained.

"You mean we will have pigs from now on?" Talvo asked.

"I hope so, but we can't call them pigs after a while, we must call them hogs after they are grown. It is much easier to raise them than it is to hunt them."

"It is probably easier than catching them too," Sahto added, shaking his head.

Everyone roared again. You know what they say, it wasn't so much what he said as how he said it. Then they wanted to know what we would feed them.

"We will feed them the scraps left over after we eat. They will eat almost anything. The little ones might be tricky at first and we might have to go gather some food for them.

"You know they will eat acorns and there are more than plenty of them around. They will also eat dead animals. When we kill a predator we don't want for food we will take the skin if we want it and give them the rest."

Thankfully their food came then and it brought an end to the questions. I would get Daaggo to ask all the women to keep a basket for throwing away any left over food or scraps or the like to use for feed for them too.

If it came down to it we could go out and hunt things for them to eat, but it probably wouldn't be necessary. Many times men and sometimes women killed wolves, badgers, or hyenas. When the piglets were big enough they would gladly dispose of them for us. All we had to do was keep them going this year and next year in the spring we could plant some things for them to eat while we were learning about raising crops ourselves.

When the late lunch was over those of us who had been on the little expedition this morning were at loose ends. Racaato could always find someone who wanted a little help with their shooting and he took Daria and Jatalieta to the practice cave to continue their lessons.

Raalto and I went with the wranglers to the horse cave and gave Jack a little more attention. He didn't appreciate the thought behind the actions, but he was coming around slowly.

Jack was easily the best horse of any from this time and after he decided he was going to cooperate, a little at least, he grew on me. He hadn't changed his ways as completely as Bonehead had, but he was doing better than we had any right to expect.

When Daaggo and his helpers came out of the horse cave I took a little stroll into it to check their work. I was pleased since Daaggo had done a careful job. The indoor pigpen was a little bigger than I had envisioned and Daaggo had built them a little shelter to hide in against the cave's wall. Hide in it they did too. When I walked over to the pen to get a closer look they all rushed into their little house squealing.

They had also built the piglets a little trough for feeding and I could see some scraps in it already. No doubt they were pissed at me for disturbing their meal. I left so they could eat in peace and since sunset was getting near I went back to my cave waving to Raalto and the wranglers as I left. I didn't feel a bit ashamed about being the first one to head for a meal even though I probably should have.

When I entered my cave it was apparent my expectation of supper was a little premature. My mates were cooking all right, but it looked like the meal was still at least an hour away. I decided to have a little chat with Argent while I was waiting.

Frank wasn't available because Yotalieta, Baahaya, Shallea, Shaala, Sutahtha, and Julieta were studiously working on their cooking lessons. I headed to the practice cave to use Phil, but found Racaato letting Phil give Daria and Jatalieta some firearms lessons.

I could have contacted Argent with the Blackberry, but even though I'm sure mine was better than any version there was on my old earth I still hated having to use the damned thing. I'd have rather had a cell phone to get in touch with him, but it wouldn't really be much better and I'm sure it would seem strange to the others for me to be talking to my hand.

I gave up and went to the big bed, kicked off my boots, and settled down for a little nap. I dropped off to sleep at once, but Argent didn't initiate a dream. It was probably an hour later when Jaada came over and kissed me awake. After a few minutes of teasing her nipples and making them swell through the holes in her chain mail I let her convince me to come and eat.