Chapter 133

"We didn't mind and we are very grateful - you may feel free to send us bison at any time day or night. In fact, feel free to send us anything at anytime," he said.

"I would like to ask you something while I have it on my mind. Do you know of anything that might have happened to the huts at the large camp on down the valley of the big river? The river your stream flows into and joins? All the huts are gone from it and I wonder what happened to them. It is fine they are gone since all those from the camp joined my camp and we did not need the huts, but I wonder what happened to them. It would have been a lot of work to take them all down."

"I knew they were gone because three of my men traveled through the area lately and they told me of it. We do not know who took them though and my men could find no sign showing them which way the huts were taken. It was very strange to us since whoever did it would have needed many trips to remove the materials after the huts were taken down. They all said they searched carefully, but could find no sign anywhere," he said.

"It is strange, but I'm sure we will find out what happened someday and it will not help to worry about it now. I was hoping you knew something about the huts though."

"Is Sarboto working out well in your camp, John?" he asked me, changing the subject.

"Yes, he is. He has been very helpful already. He even helped us load the bison we brought you last night."

"It is good, do you think he will want to stay with you?" he asked.

"He has told me he will stay with us and I'm sure he intends to do it."

"That is good also. I guess we should go and tell the women you have come for them. I have already explained to them they will be going to join a large camp where there are many men who need mates," he said.

"Let us go and I will greet them then."

We walked into his cave, just Grotondo and I. It was slightly strange since all the women and girls were standing around in a group in the rear most portion of the cave, but they looked as if they were ready to go now.

I decided they were only waiting to be told where to go. I was about to go to them with Grotondo when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I turned around and it was Raalto and Racaato was with him, they had followed me into the cave.

"We want to make sure it is all right if we accompany you, John," Raalto said.

"Of course it is and I should be ashamed of myself for not calling you to."

"Our mates were very specific in their instructions to us this morning," Racaato said.

"Mine let me know exactly what they had in mind for my conduct this morning also," I told them, and we all laughed.

Grotondo seemed a little surprised and he looked at me with a question on his face.

"Has something gone wrong, John?" he finally asked.

"Everything is fine. I'm sure in a few minutes these two men will be thanking you as much or more than I will be. You have not only traded for some exciting times for us, you have given the three of us a chance for much more peace and harmony in our furs," I told him.

This only confused Grotondo further, but I could tell he chalked it up as another of our strange customs and then ignored it. He led us to the women then. The widows were at the front of the crowd, they were older after all, and the others probably looked to them for guidance.

I was betting they felt the camp they were going to would need to have many men who needed mates if they were going to be assigned to one. They probably doubted they would be.

Grotondo didn't feel the need to introduce us since they were all only women in his view. He merely led us to the group and waved an arm at them as if to say Here they are. I knew what I needed to do and I walked up to the mother who had a babe in each arm.

"I am John and I am the leader of the camp you will be joining."

"I am Xailieta and these are my children Baatiea and Beetiea," she said.

"I want to ask you if you will join me as one of my mates?"

She was clearly shocked by my question and didn't know how to respond.

"If you are the leader and want me as a mate you need not ask me, you only need to tell me," she said, finally.

"It is not our way. No woman among our people is forced to take a mate she doesn't want. If you do not want to be my mate you do not have to be," I explained, and tried to speak loudly enough so all the others in their group could hear me.

I realized now, when I spoke up loudly, Grotondo had taken us to the very back of his cave to meet the women for a good reason of his own.

He had probably expected something like this might happen and I'm sure he wanted to keep the chances other women of his camp would hear it to a minimum. Meanwhile, Xailieta seemed to be mulling my statement over.

"Did you say you wanted me to be one of your mates?" she asked.

"Yes I have some mates already."

"How many mates do you have?" she asked, and it made me a little nervous since I could tell she didn't seem like she would be rushed into a decision if she had a choice.

"I have twenty one mates now and if you join us it will be twenty two," I said, and many of the other women and girls made slight gasps, but Xailieta didn't seem to be shocked.

"So, it is my choice whether or not I want to be mated to the leader of a camp who already has twenty one mates. It is obvious you are not having trouble feeding them, because I can see you have not missed any meals lately.

"You were able to convince Grotondo to go to Kartoto's camp and trade for all of us and though he hasn't said much about you we could hear, the little we did hear was praise for your skills as a hunter and also as a fair man.

"The women here have been more forthcoming and have told us you killed a man for bothering one of Margeeta's daughters after you had traded for her and I now have the choice of whether or not I will accept you as my mate," she said.

"That is about the extent of it," I replied, though the story she had heard wasn't exactly how things had happened.

"You are also a very handsome man, but if you were the ugliest man I had ever seen I would be overjoyed to be your mate. My former mate was a good man and a good hunter and he was kind to me.

"He was also very brave - he was too brave and he let a rhino kill him and left me with two babies to care for by myself. I know you surely must be a very brave man and I just hope you are not too brave. I hope I can make you happy you took me as one of your mates," she said.

"Xailieta, you have already made me very happy by agreeing to be one of my mates. Let us stand aside for a moment because I believe these two of my main helpers also want to talk to someone," I said.