Chapter 97

After coffee I took Georgo and Dotallto down to the horse cave to see Dotallto's new buckboard. It was exactly like Georgo's so there were no surprises, but Dotallto was thrilled with it anyway.

We looked it over for a while and then went back toward my cave. Georgo and Dotallto retired to their separate meditation chambers and I went to my cave to have a little talk with Frank. Frank was busy with my mates when I got there and so I went to the study room in the practice cave to see if Phil was free.

Racaato and the wranglers were still burning powder and Phil was free for the moment. I got an acknowledgement from an alien as soon as I sent a message. I requested sewing needles and thread, everything from heavy duty sewing awls with handles down to the tiniest needles and all sizes of thread and cord.

I should have gotten the small needles and thread for my mates a long time ago, but Daaggo's project had made me remember. He would have to be doing a lot of sewing to join the hides together and without modern day needles and thread it would be a bitch to make holes with stone awls, push the cord through them barehanded, and then do it all again for the next stitch. I even remembered to ask for some heavy duty shears and scissors to help with the task.

I went outside and spotted Daaggo and some of the others bringing post. They were carrying them on their shoulders, two men to each post. I knew they could do it faster by having one of the Clydesdales drag several trees in one bunch, but it could wait for now. I asked Daaggo to come with me and took him to the horse cave to show him his new equipment.

After I showed him the sewing tools and materials he was delighted, especially with the shears and the heavy duty awls. He could see these things would make the job much easier. I took him out to the horse pens then and caught one of the giant draft horses for him. We took it back into the horse cave and put enough harness on it so the horse could pull the felled trees and then we headed for the place they were cutting the poles.

When we got there it only took a little time to show the men how to use the horse to bunch the trees and then hook them up by the butts and skid them with the Clydesdale doing most of the work. He had no troubled pulling several of the small trees at once and I told the men they might as well leave the limbs attached until they got the trees into camp. That way, after they limbed them, the parts they'd cut off could be used for fires or if big enough, for other parts of the project.

I left them at it and went back toward the camp. Things seemed to be working out very well all around. Cardiato's shenanigans were an irritation, but nothing we couldn't deal with.

I knew he thought he had a real advantage and since he came up with the idea he was probably proud of it and confident it was insurmountable. It might have been if not for me and, of course, Argent. Even the bows and arrows would be more than the spearcasters could triumph over. There was no way they could give us a hard time with what they had available.

Even if they were more cunning and stealthy than we were, which was debatable, they didn't have a chance of sneaking up on us with the aliens overhead. Hell I was defending against savages carrying spears and I had better reconnaissance assets than spy satellites and teams of analysts.

I started wondering what all this was about again and I didn't have a bit more idea now than when I got here. Argent kept telling me to do things in my own best interest and I intended to, but it seemed little by little I was depending on Argent and his people more every day.

I shouldn't need their help defending my camp against Cardiato's band. There were more than twice as many people in my camp than in his and using Argent as an eye in the sky seemed a little like overkill. I was going to keep it up until after the mating ceremony though. I wasn't going to keep men up all night scattered all over the place watching for spies, at least I wasn't until after my mating nights were over.

There was a good reason people of this time didn't like to be out at night. Dangerous animals were everywhere and most of them could see much better in the dark than a human could. They were also better at moving about quietly in the blackness. They had to be since it was the way they survived.

The predators which were really dangerous could be on you in darkness before you even knew what was going on. You could be hurt or killed quickly if you spent a lot of time outside after sunset. Some of the night work couldn't be helped though and I knew we were going to have more of it tomorrow.

I looked up the valley and could see Raalto's bunch coming back for supper. The wagon was piled high with hay and many of them were walking along beside it. Raalto was one of them and when he came to me he stopped.

"Gathering hay is not that much fun John," he said, preaching to the choir.

"I knew it and I was happy you volunteered to take the job."

"It isn't so bad and it must be done. I'm afraid we will all be sore tomorrow though. It will make it hard to get going in the morning," he said.

"Take a day off to get over it then."

"I think we had just as well keep it up. The soreness will relieve itself as we work and we can always go more slowly until it is better. I am not sure how much hay we will need, but I know it will be a lot and the first snow can not be far off," he said.

"I haven't asked Georgo what he thinks about the winter's approach yet. Maybe I should, as I would hate to be surprised. We will be in trouble with the horses if we do not have enough hay. If it does snow before we have enough we may have to let them go up to the first opening and watch over them while they graze on some days when it isn't too bad."

"I hadn't thought of it, but I guess it would be possible. Gathering enough hay will be easier than that if we have time though. We will need many men to go watch them if we have to let them graze in the open like that," he said.

"We won't do it unless they run out of hay altogether. We have a lot of standing grass back up in the two blind canyons and it will help us feed them."

"Maybe we should ask Georgo if he has had any sign from the spirits about the winter's arrival," Raalto said.

"I will talk with him and see if he can meditate about it," I said, knowing the spirits would be very informative this year.

Raalto left me and went to the horse cave to help with the unloading. Barago and his crew came by also with another load of shit, but Barago only nodded at me as he went by and didn't get off the wagon to talk. I went into my cave and sat at the table where Dieta brought me a mug of coffee.

"Are you dying of hunger already my mate?" she asked, when I smiled a thanks for the coffee.

"Not really, I just came in to boost my appetite by getting a few of the smells of the cooking and to find something to do with my hands," I told her, while I took a sip of coffee with one hand and gave her legs and ass a few feels with the other.