Chapter 146

"How many do you think would like to go?"

"Everyone wants to go, or nearly everyone," Racaato said.

"I was afraid of that, but we know everyone can not go. In fact some of us gathered here would need to stay."

"Then I should take this time to tell you I would be happy to stay here in camp. I have been on a mammoth hunt before," Bigglieo said.

"I would just as soon stay also." Colonto said.

"I will stay here if you need for me to, but I very much want to try out my rifle on a mammoth," Racaato said and then Raalto was quick to agree and Caato was not far behind them.

"Have you finished your count of those that want to go Racaato?"

"I have spoken to every man and woman in the camp. I was surprised when all of the other people said they would go and seemed to think it would be required, though none of them appeared anxious to make the trip.

"There are only ten women and six men from our people who did not want to go, but they all said they would if they were needed," Racaato said.

Kota was still in the kitchen so I asked her to join us. I was slightly puzzled by what Racaato told me.

"Kota, have you ever been on a mammoth hunt?"

"Yes, Grotondo has made two mammoth hunts since I became old enough to help. They require much traveling to the hunting place and then much work after a kill is made. Carrying the meat back is more hard work. The mammoth meat is some of the best though," she said.

"When Grotondo made his mammoth hunts, how was it decided who would go along?"

"All who were able went on those hunts. Only men and women who were too old and children who were too young did not go to help.

"Once there were not enough of us to carry back all the meat and it was very distressing to leave it. Grotondo considered building a rock shelter to store the leftover meat until we could return. It would have frozen overnight and should not have spoiled before we could come back, but he decided there was not enough meat to justify the building and the additional trip to retrieve it.

"We cooked some of it and all made ourselves nearly sick eating it," she said, and laughed at the last.

"So you are saying if a mammoth hunt was planned that everyone who was able to help went along?"

"Yes, we had a small camp and all of us were needed to help carry the meat back. I've heard in larger camps it is not always so. Surely with the size of this camp you will not need everyone to carry back the meat," she said.

"No, we won't need everyone and we will not be carrying the meat back. The horses and wagons will carry it back for us."

"That will make for an easy trip. You might not need to have very many go at all," she said.

"We will need some to go but there are many more wanting to go than we can take with us."

"You can count on me to stay here and wait patiently for you. I will miss you while you are gone, but I will not miss the long walk, especially if I am not needed there," she said, and grinned.

"We won't even be walking Kota, we will ride there and back in the wagons."

"You are making it sound easier and easier every time you say something. Is there some particular reason you are telling me all of this?" she asked.

"There is, we were puzzled that none of the women who came from your people seemed to want to go on the hunt. They all agreed to go if they were needed, but none expressed any interest," I said

"They are probably like me and have no idea there will be almost no work. Most of them have probably never been on a mammoth hunt, but I know they are all aware of how much work it could be.

"Many of them might like to go after all. I'm not saying they are lazy and want to avoid work, but you must realize days and days of carrying meat is not something many people would ask to be included in," she said.

"Thank you Kota, we should have realized the problem ourselves, now, since you have told us about a mammoth hunt for your people I see why none of them were anxious to volunteer."

"I will leave you men to your talking then. You must have much to talk about since you have been here all day doing it. I have never seen so much of the leader and his main ones talking and talking," she said.

"I will tell you a secret, Kota. We are mostly trying to stay out of the way to keep from disturbing those who are busy moving their things."

"But don't you want to tell them where to put the things they are moving?" she asked.

"They are moving their own belongings to there own sleeping places and we do not care where they put them. They may put them where they like."

"It is wonderful to live here where we can do many things just as we like to. It is new for all of us and we all enjoy it. I can hardly believe how lucky we have all been to come here," she said, and then went back to the kitchen.

"I will go back to the widows and unmated women and try to explain to them what the hunt will be like, maybe some of them would like to go if they had a better idea of what will be in store for them," Racaato said.

"Why don't you ask Kota to go with you to do the explaining?"

"It is an even better idea, I will ask her to do it," he said, and left us to talk to her.

They left and headed to the unmated women's quarters. I had enjoyed just about all the talking with my men I could stand for a while and for once I didn't want anymore coffee. I excused myself to go into the office, hoping I could find something to occupy my time.

As usual, when I didn't have much on my mind I went to check out the videos. I took a look at every camp I'd been to and also checked carefully along all the trails to see if I spotted someone else in trouble.

It was a good thing that I didn't find anyone else stranded since they would probably be dead after so much time. I realized I should have checked carefully sooner.

I saved Caato's old camp for last and it seemed I could have just as well ignored it. I didn't find any more sign anyone had been outside at all. I wondered again why they thought they could last through the winter by themselves. I put thoughts of them aside then and began looking for a route to a mammoth hunt.

I called up my map for an overall look and by checking it I was able to discover that we would have an easy travel to the face of the glacier by going up the ramp near us and traveling over the plateau.

It was nearly sixty miles to the closest point but once we were on the plateau we would not find any major rivers to cross. If all the going was like the terrain nearest us we could make it in two days easily.

I switched back to the video feeds and began looking at the actual route I'd chosen. I couldn't see anything but snow, a few scattered trees and groups of animals moving. Closer inspection showed the bison were moving south and the aurochs and horses seemed to be doing the same. I also saw many groups of predators and scavengers moving the same way.

I found several groups of mammoth and many rhinos moving north. I wondered why they would move north during the winter. As I checked closer to the glacier I thought I could tell why.

Nearer to the glacier the snow had been much lighter and within the last five miles I could see no snow at all had fallen or none had stayed if it had. I was sure that it was colder there, but there was no apparent snow. This confused me completely and I didn't know how it could be. I knew snow had to fall on the glacier and couldn't figure out why it didn't seem to fall near it.

I gave up wondering about it and concentrated on picking out a place to make camp when we got there. After a while I found a place which seemed made just for us, but it wasn't so perfect as to suggest Argent had done it in his spare time.

It was two miles back from the glacier and was a small indention in the plateau, five or six hundred feet across. I couldn't figure this out either. What could have caused it? I would probably never know, but it was an excellent place and it was easily big enough for all of us who would be going and for many more in fact.