Chapter 174

Finally we all went out to leave. Most of those with horses mounted up while Mundo and his pals climbed into the sleigh. At the last moment I tied Red back to the rear of the sleigh and got in the back to talk with Mundo, Buloto, and Saraato - I wanted to find out if they could tell me anything about him I didn't know already.

They did know something I didn't. Shabago, Shatalto, Kartogo, and Jarto had all been on the mammoth hunt with us. I probably should have known this, but I hadn't been aware of them at the time. The most interesting part of this revelation was Shabago had two sets of the new clothes Argent had given us. This was a definite advantage I didn't realize he had.

Shabago didn't have any more worries about the cold weather than we did. With only a minimum of cobbled together shelter he could spend his nights in relative comfort. I also learned he had been quick to get a good knife, a small hatchet, and a short handled shovel while he had been with us. It wasn't remarkable he had them of course, since anyone in camp was welcome to them. It was a little irksome he had made sure to gather them in advance. In fact Mundo said he would be surprised if it was all Shabago had obtained, courtesy of my generosity.

Those things would be helpful to Shabago, but I was comforted knowing he wouldn't have had a chance to acquire any firearms or learn to use them. This trip would be a lot more daunting if I thought there was a chance he could be lying in ambush with a rifle.

Finally I asked Mundo and the others what they would do if they were Shabago. All of them agreed his first move, climbing to the plateau, had been his best one and they also thought he must have surely done it again or at least he would be sure to take some other detour where the horses couldn't follow later. I hated to hear it, but I wasn't surprised. Racaato had already told me to expect it.

When we got to the point where Shabago had made his first ascent the wolves had whined and acted like they wanted to go up as they had the day before. Of course they couldn't and they had seemed confused when we passed it by. Finally they came along and I saw they picked up Shabago's scent again when we reached the spot he had come down to from above.

We stopped here and I got out of the sleigh to mount Red. Mundo, Buloto, and Saraato wanted to get out too then and walk or trot with the wolves, but I asked them to keep riding.

"He still has more than a day's lead on us from this point and I think you will be better off riding and resting until we get closer," I suggested, and finally they agreed.

Racaato had been leading all of us so far, except for Prince, King, and Rover. After mounting, I moved up to ride with him and we started in the wolve's wake. They followed Shabago's route all the way around the edge of the large open ground and then on up the river's valley. If it hadn't been for having the wolves we would have had to pay much more attention to the trail to make sure Shabago didn't have another trick for us, but Prince, King, and Rover showed no indecision as they kept on, only stopping to sniff at this or that occasionally.

About an hour up river from the giant hay meadow we found the spot where Shabago had spent his first night out. He had been able to kill a small deer and I'm sure he ate well. He'd built a fire to cook part of the deer and he cut off the best parts to take with him. He had skinned it entirely and he must have used the skin to bundle up the meat he'd taken with him.

Racaato told us he thought Shabago had made two fires in the same spot - the first one after he'd killed the deer for cooking and then later he'd built another fire after he slept, probably to cook another meal before leaving. I didn't have the first clue about how he could know it by just looking at the ashes and I didn't even want to know. We poked around there for a while and when we pressed on this time Mundo and his friends stayed on the ground and took off after the wolves with Racaato and I next in line.

Another hour up the trail had Mundo stopping and asking me to call the wolves back. I had Maia whistle for them and then asked Mundo what the problem was.

"We must be very careful from here on. The long toothed cat is on his trail now too," he said.

"Show us," said Racaato, then he and I dismounted.

Mundo led us off about twenty feet to the left of the path Shabago had taken and when he pointed out the cat's prints there was no doubt about them. Chances seemed slim now we would find Shabago alive, but we remounted and started out again with Mundo, Buloto, and Saraato in the lead while Merita and Maia kept Prince, King, and Rover with them, behind Racaato and I.

Thirty minutes later we found the nearly fresh skin from the deer Shabago had killed. Racaato looked around and said Shabago must have dropped it when he discovered the cat on his trail, probably hoping he could get away while smilodon finished off the meat. Racaato didn't seem to think the cat would have wasted much time gulping down the gift and he doubted it would leave Shabago be out of gratitude.

Another hour on the trail proved Racaato correct. We came up to the remains of Shabago, but thankfully the cat was already gone. There wasn't much left of Shabago. His spearcaster, and other tools were scattered around and the chewed over remains of his headless torso, along with a few gnawed up bones were there. His head was lying about thirty feet off from the rest of him. It seemed the biggest portion of him had left inside the cat.

We gathered up the tools and weapons and most of his ripped up and tattered clothes and put them into the sleigh. It was about an hour after noon now and it would probably be dark, or nearly so, before we could get back home. We ate a quick meal and headed that way though. We would have been comfortable sleeping out tonight, but the horses wouldn't have been, so we headed back to save them a night out.

I was hoping the cat had gone a different direction.

We'd put Prince, King, and Rover in the sleigh for the ride home. They hadn't liked it at first, but I guess they noticed their feet weren't nearly as cold as they had been because they settled down after a few minutes. Mundo, Buloto, and Saraato surprised me by settling right down among the wolves without any hesitation.

Danlo set off at a good clip, but it was only a trot and while it was the best speed for the big Clydesdales it didn't make it any easier on those of us who were mounted. Red had a good, fairly smooth trot, but most of the other horses were a little rough at this speed. I had to be careful to keep from laughing as I watched many of my mate's lovely asses being spanked up and down all the way home. I was sure some of them would be in the sleigh or wagon next time we took a little trip.

We got home without much complaining though and Danlo stopped the sleigh near my cave's entrance so most of the things could be unloaded. After finishing he headed toward the horse cave to put it up and take out the other things we'd carried with us.

I got a nice surprise once we were inside. There were women in my kitchen cooking and it looked like they had plenty of food on the way. Erieta, Ladeliea, Reeana, and Jareena were in command of several of the other leader's women and they were making sure there was a hot meal in case we did show up tonight. Their stock went even higher in my book for this.