Chapter 43

"The bathrooms are going to be much more useful than I thought at first. I know you can't tell me how you got them and I am not asking. I am just glad you did. I will try to just let myself think the spirits did bring them," Georgo said.

"Spirits did indeed bring them Georgo, it just isn't any spirits that you knew about before."

"I see," Georgo said, and I could tell I had him wondering even more now.

Bigglieo came stumbling out of the big cave then.

"Bigglieo, how are you feeling this morning?" I shouted, and I could tell it was louder than anything Bigglieo wanted to hear yet.

"I am feeling as if I had been in a fight and lost," Bigglieo admitted.

"Well go into the bathroom and get into one of the tubs with the moving water and soak for a while. It will make you feel better. I will need you and at least one other to move the barrels of bruga back into my cave," I said.

"The tub will make me feel better?" he asked.

"Try it, make the water hot. Do not make it as hot as you can stand it though, just hot. I do not want to have boiled Bigglieo for my dinner."

He tried to laugh, but couldn't. He turned around and headed back into the cave. It looked like a trip back for Shelalliea, Shallea, and Shaala's things was not in the cards for Bigglieo today. They would keep. Since Barbo and Jara thought that a hundred bison depended on the things being undisturbed when we came for them I felt they would be fine until we could go after them.

"I assume you will take Roweea for a mate now, I saw her still sleeping in your bed when I passed through toward the coffee and breakfast," Georgo said.

"Yes, she will be one of my mates. I should have asked you if I need some type of ceremony when I take a mate who has already been mated?"

"No, it is not done after the first mating. It is good too. If I had to give a ceremony each time you took a mate I would have time for nothing else," Georgo said, with a serious look.

It struck me as odd and I was about to ask him if I had made some blunder when he broke out laughing. He had been fucking with me and when I realized it I laughed even harder.

"Maybe I should find a mate or two for you Georgo. They might teach you some manners," I said, trying to get a little of his goat.

"By the time a shaman is good enough to provide for a mate he is usually too old to want one. I shouldn't say so, but I am often comforted by women in the camps I visit," he said, and couldn't help grinning.

"I thought as much, but didn't want to seem nosey. Maybe I should ask my spirit to block the entrance from your cave to mine," I said, trying to tease him a little more.

"John! I would never pester any leader's mate," he said, looking shocked because I had even said it.

"You should see the look on your face Georgo," I told him, and then laughed.

Georgo didn't quite catch on I had turned the tables and had been pulling his leg.

"Georgo, I did not think you would pester my mates, but I think I should find you a mate to wait for you here at least. I will provide for her and you. You won't have to worry about whether you can feed her. I can feed her for you. You have been of so much help to me and it is a small thing. You should have a mate if you want one," I said.

"It usually isn't done John. Shaman rarely take mates while they still travel, and if they stop traveling, they no longer know what things are happening. There are usually women in the camps I visit who do not mind comforting me and if they are mated their mates do not mention it," he said.

Now I saw what he was thinking about, or at least I thought I did. He wasn't sure he wanted a mate with him all the time. He was probably afraid it would cause complications which might keep other women from comforting him.

No longer knowing what things were happening wasn't what he was really afraid of. He was afraid he would no longer know what all those comforting women's pussies smelled like.

"You would not have to take your mate traveling with you if you didn't want to, she could live here in your cave while you are gone. You will have the wagon so you can travel faster and come back more often. My mates and I will make sure she has more than enough to eat even if she doesn't hunt or doesn't even know how to gather food," I said.

"You would do that for me John?" he asked, and he was plainly surprised.

"I would be happy to do it for you. You must not realize how much you have helped me. Didn't you notice your new bed had room for more than you? You have room in it for yourself and at least three mates Georgo. I will tell you another secret. If you get more mates than the bed will hold it will grow."

He was completely taken aback by this. I didn't actually know for sure it would happen, but I had a feeling increasing the size of a bed did not trouble Argent very much. He hadn't even mentioned it when he increased the size of mine.

"I cannot understand it John. How can the bed grow if it is not alive?"

"I do not know how it can grow Georgo, just as I do not know how the spirits can make new caves, wagons, or bathrooms. I just know they can do it and sometimes they do.

"I am not surprised they have done these things for you. You are a better shaman than you think. I also think you should use some of the time the wagon saves you meditating in your spirit chamber.

"I believe the spirits made the chamber for you so they would have a place where they could talk to you in comfort. They may want to show you some things," I told him, making it all up out of whole cloth as I went.

As I finished telling him this I felt the now familiar tingle Argent used to let me know something was going as planned. I didn't go on about the spirit chamber anymore with Georgo, but I did think getting him to take a mate was in order.

"Georgo, you must know of some woman somewhere you would like for a mate."

"It is very strange you should bring this up today John. It is also strange you would mention my bed could hold three mates. There are three women I have wanted to mate, but I knew I could never support three mates.

"It is one reason I have never taken one, since I could not bear to choose between two of them. The other is already mated. I am ashamed to say I have wished for her mate to be killed hunting or in an accident. He is one of those I told you about who I would not have in any camp if I were a leader. He is not kind to her and in fact he sometimes beats her."

"I do not like such things Georgo and it makes me want to saddle Ben and go kill him now. In fact I think I will. I will go in the morning and kill him then I will bring the woman here to be your mate," I told him, and I intended to do just that.