Chapter 131

The view of Grotondo's camp showed a few women just outside the cave's mouth, but they seemed to be heading off and from the looks of the group I thought they were probably about to go gathering. No men were in sight.

I went back to the thumbnails and worked my way up the tributary running in the canyon Grotondo's little stream emptied into. I glanced at the thumbs looking for something moving. The first motion I spotted turned out to be six megaceros moving down the canyon grazing as they went and I didn't see anything else of interest for nearly ten minutes.

I clicked on the next thumb which seemed to have movement and found something interesting. I had found Grotondo and his bunch. They were in a different camp and this one used huts for shelter instead of a cave.

The huts were mostly built of trees, large bones, mammoth tusk and a few hides for coverings. They seemed well kept and the camp was rather larger than Grotondo's. It was well back from the small river and in a wide spot of the canyon - similar to the place we gathered hay.

I resisted the temptation to listen with the audio feed and was content to watch. Grotondo and another man who I assumed was Kartoto were sitting on a large fallen tree trunk. Other men were near and they all appeared to be eating. The scene reminded me of the one Grotondo and I had played out when I ate a meal with him in his camp before we began trading.

Soon enough they finished their meal and some women appeared from the huts to fetch the utensils. They brought Grotondo and Kartoto large wooden cups with some type of something to drink. They didn't bring cups to the others and as soon as the women were gone Kartoto spoke to the men and they all left him and Grotondo alone.

I assumed they had been dismissed so the trading could begin in earnest. I saw there were several skin bundles near the place Grotondo was sitting and it didn't take much to figure out they were filled with salt. I was starting to enjoy trying to determine what was going on without listening. Kartoto and Grotondo talked among themselves for a few minutes after the other men left them and then Kartoto turned his head and seemed to be yelling toward one of the huts.

A woman, probably Kartoto's mate, came out and approached them. Kartoto spoke to her for a minute and then she left. She went to a different hut, went inside for a couple of minutes then came out, going to yet another hut. She visited four huts in all and at the last one she waited until a woman came out.

They retraced Kartoto's mate's path to the next to last hut she had entered and at this hut a woman came out with a child in her arms. The child looked like it might be old enough to walk, but it surely wasn't old enough to keep up with the women. The three women now made their way to the second hut where they were joined by another woman and her child - this child was even younger than the other one.

The group went now to the first hut Kartoto's mate had visited and its occupant came out to join them with two children who were even smaller. She carried one on each hip and when she was out of her hut Kartoto's mate took one of the babies to help with the carrying.

The last woman's children were obviously twins. I was sure they probably couldn't walk at all. If this was the woman Argent had mentioned, I knew her children were about two years old and they seemed smaller to me than they should have been.

Reconsidering, I realized they didn't have to be two yet since argent had said the women's fertility had been stopped two years ago. If she was one of the last to get pregnant they could be as young as fifteen or sixteen months. Being twins, their birth weights were probably lower than the normal children and this would make them seem even younger. To me they looked like they were no more than a year old, then again, I was no expert on babies.

All the women went toward Kartoto and Grotondo then and stopped a few feet before they reached them. Kartoto's mate handed the last woman her other baby back and walked off toward the huts. The four women were lined up before Kartoto and Grotondo as if for examination. I assumed it was a repeat of the show of wares Grotondo had given me the first time.

Grotondo seemed to look the women over more carefully than I had, but after a few minutes he spoke with Kartoto and then the women were dismissed and they went back to their respective huts.

Kartoto's mate had resumed her tasks while the inspections had been going on and had gone to two large huts near the back of the camp. Younger girls were now appearing out of these huts and I could tell they seemed a little excited about the whole thing. Kartoto's mate spoke to them and they headed up toward Kartoto and Grotondo, but Kartoto's mate didn't go with them. She began visiting some of the smaller huts which were probably single-family dwellings. I assumed the two large huts were for the unmated women.

I was surprised since there were ten unmated women now headed toward Kartoto and Grotondo. When they arrived they lined up as the other women had, but they were a little more enthusiastic about it. They seemed to be doing as Margeeta had, putting their best foot forward. I wondered then why the older women hadn't and guessed they assumed they would not be traded for and their appearance was just a formality.

Grotondo took much more time this go round - there were more women to examine after all. He took so long before he was done Kartoto's mate had already dispatched the group of girls she had rounded up. There were twelve of them in all and they were waiting in a group away from the line up.

Time passed soon enough and Grotondo said something to Kartoto and he spoke to the unmated women and they went back toward their dwellings. The girls lined up then, trying to look serious, but their youthful exuberance betrayed they thought this was something of a joke. They settled down as they noticed Grotondo was studying them even more carefully than he had the unmated women.

Soon enough they were dismissed too. Kartoto and Grotondo began talking in earnest now and I felt the most interesting show was probably over. Kartoto's mate came to them with two more cups of drink about an hour later, but Kartoto and Grotondo continued their bargaining.

This was why I would never be good at bargaining. I couldn't put up with all the fucking around which went with it. Grotondo was going to spend at least a few more hours trying to get a lower price for the women and all the while Kartoto would be trying to get more for them. The hell of it was Grotondo already knew no matter how much salt he had to use for trading, he still had plenty more and Kartoto knew he would be better off if he just sent the women off with Grotondo no matter if he got something in return or not.