Chapter 172

"It was very sore this morning when I woke and it bothered me so much I wasn't even hungry, but Eileiea gave me some more of her wonderful tea and in just a few minutes it hardly hurt at all, and I was starving," she said.

"Maybe I should have some of that tea."

"I have some in my mug, Daddy, try it," she said and held the mug up for me to have a taste.

I could tell at once why she called it that wonderful tea. It was flavored with a lot of honey and I'm sure the actual taste of the tea couldn't be found. If a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, there was no doubt making the medicine half honey did an even better job.

"That is delicious tea."

"Yes, I might be sad when I am well and don't get anymore of it," she said, teasing.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure if you want more tea after you are well Eileiea will make it for you often."

"Oh, I know she will, Daddy, I was just teasing you," she said, smiling again.

"Well I'm afraid you'll have to get another kiss for it and then I'm going to sit down for some coffee and a sandwich."

"Have you been out looking for Kartogo and Shabago this morning," she asked.

"Yes and we found Kartogo."

"Where is he? Did you kill him? He deserved it for what he helped them do to your leg," she said.

"No, we didn't kill him, but I don't think he will get to live much longer. We made him give up his weapons and now Maia and King are making sure he comes back here."

"Maybe King will bite him on his big butt on the way back," she said.

I had to laugh about it and so did most of the rest of us. Deimeta laughed too.

"I'm sure he will. After we eat a bite and have some coffee we will go look for Shabago."

"Just don't get too tired today, I might feel good enough tomorrow to go and play with Darta and I'll be wanting you to come with me," she explained.

"If Eileiea says you are well enough to play with Darta tomorrow I promise I will go with you."

"Good, I think I'll go and find Malooto now, I want to show him my bruise and brag about it," she said.

"That's fine, but I want you to ask Failiela to go with you. You do know she is the one who saved us yesterday don't you?"

"Yes I know, Eileiea told me. I'll go and ask her now and then we'll go and show Malooto my bruise." she said, and then scampered off.

When Roweea had learned Maia and King were herding Kartogo back she saddled up and rode down to help, but the rest of us drank our coffee and ate a couple of sandwiches before we headed off.

As we left to see how Shabago had faired during the night Merita made the wolves stay closer to us this time. We didn't want to take any more chances by letting them face an armed man alone.

We mounted and headed up river with Prince and Rover leading the way. Merita didn't let them run this time and even after the first thirty minutes we hadn't really needed them -- Shabago had no way to disguise his tracks and it was evident he didn't even try. It was apparent he had been concentrating on covering ground and not caring if we could track him easily. It seemed like a stupid plan to me, but all we could do was follow.

After an hour of this slower pursuit we got our first clue Shabago wasn't nearly as dumb as Kartogo had been. We arrived at the large clearing where the hay had been cut. Shabago did something here to put a kink in our tracking and it didn't take long to figure out we would have to backtrack.

"He must have done more planning than we thought," Racaato said, as we were looking at the spot where Shabago had started his climb toward the upper plateau.

"He did indeed. I wonder if he talked to the spy who used this very trail while Jakado was sending people to scout us?" Raalto asked.

"The one who used the trail was killed by the big cat with the long teeth. He couldn't have talked to him, but he could have spoken to the one who waited on top. He must have gotten the information somewhere since he came almost directly here and didn't have to look for the spot."

"I can climb it too and follow him on foot -- the rest of you can go back and then find me up there," Racaato said.

"No, we will all go back and come to the place he climbed to. There would be no point in you going alone. I am more interested in making sure none of us are in danger."

We turned back and headed for the ramp and I wondered if it had been wise to leave camp without bringing food, shelter, and supplies to allow us to stay out overnight. Even knowing exactly where we were going, it would take nearly two hours to pick up his trail again at the top. The decision had already been made though and if we couldn't find him before it got too late we would just have to go home and start again in the morning.

We had all the advantages on our side and I didn't doubt we would catch up to Shabago, but this had been a smart move on his part. We were going to loose two hours over this detour. He had known that if we came after him we would use the horses and his trick had paid off, for now at least.

We made the long circle and came to the spot where he had climbed onto the plateau. We found more evidence of his better planning less than a half-mile from there. He had continued around, near the edge of the plateau for the distance and then at a spot we hadn't known about he had climbed back down.

We were fucked for the day now since if we retraced our route again we would run out of daylight before we could hope to find him. I saw at once I had been wrong earlier in not letting Racaato climb up from below to scout ahead. Our whole detour was a complete waste.

We talked it over, but we all realized there was no point in trying to retrace our steps today. We did push on about another two miles to make sure that he hadn't simply gone farther and climbed up again. We didn't find any evidence of it and so we turned around finally and went back to camp.

While we were headed home I was berating myself for letting a cave man outwit me and also for underestimating my enemy. In fact it was my worst sin. After a while I realized underestimation of Shabago's craftiness had come natural to me.

Since being put here I'd had an enormous advantage over those I encountered. In the current situation all or most of the edge was useless. I didn't know of any technological advantages for tracking a man in wild country.

We were already using the main advantage I knew of, the wolves. With no video feeds and no convenient helicopter the canine nose was the most technically advanced equipment I had. Even though Shabago hadn't been a good hunter he still had advantages of his own. He was accustomed to living in this time and it was clear, in this situation at least, I was the amateur and he was a professional.

I should have realized this earlier when we found he had outsmarted me by climbing where horses couldn't follow. Instead I'd assumed I knew better and hadn't even listened to my most experienced tracker and let him scout ahead. I consoled myself by thinking Shabago would be sleeping out in the elements tonight and I would be in my bed with my mates.

We beat the sunset home by about an hour. It hadn't been particularly uncomfortable on any of us since we all had the high tech clothes Argent had provided before the mammoth hunt. Remembering this made me mad again about the loss of the video feeds.

If I'd still been able to sit in my office and explore this world via video I'd have known exactly what Shabago had done and better yet, I'd have known where he was before we left. I didn't have the video though and there was no sense fretting over it.

Most people were surprised when we returned without Shabago, but they had no trouble understanding what had happened after we told them. I regretted they probably also understood I'd been stupid not letting Racaato go up and scout ahead, at least none of them pointed it out to me. We sat at the table and had coffee and talked for a few minutes.