Chapter 53

The new women took to their cleaning and cutting up duties with a will, and I noticed when my women tried to help they new ones were kind and tried to help them catch on to what they were doing. I could also tell that whenever one of the women who had come with me tried to help they ended up slowing down the process. Except for Nadla, Janat, and Dortalla. They fit right in with the women who were doing most of he work and I assumed it was because they were used to doing things the way the new women did them.

I also noticed they were using flint shards as knives, just exactly like the other women were. My uptime lovelies all had more normal to me knives and apparently they weren't as sharp of as handy as the flint shards. I'd be wanting to examine the flint knives later and I might also want to see about gathering some flint and trying to learn to knap flint myself.

I decided not to try learning about cleaning and cutting up bison for the time being, but when they got the first skin off they used it as a place to stack the meat they were cutting up and then a couple of the women started cutting the meat up into smaller thin strips.

It dawned on me they were cutting it up for drying or jerking and I knew we had an easier way of doing it inside.

I got with Nadla and Jerrilyn and got the notion over to them and soon they were explaining it to the other women. Especially to the two who were cutting the meat into the thin strips. Soon enough they had pointed out the butcher block and then Jerrilyn was running pieces of the meat through the slicer.

The helpful shall not go unpunished. It was a law of nature and I knew it, but I got another reminder right away. Since the meat was being sliced so quickly now the women were behind on making the drying racks for spreading it on. With a mention from Jacky I was pressed into service cutting and trimming small trees, and I do mean small ones.

As soon as I started providing the materials one of the other women came over and began lashing them into the drying racks and soon enough the sliced meat was being spread over them and fires started being built on the floor so smoke would keep insects off the drying meat and also to help with the actual drying.

I mostly watched after I was finished gathering wood for the racks and I thought I detected an improved attitude among the women that had recently joined us. I didn't ask any questions since I knew I wouldn't get any answers if I did, but it just seemed the women were more enthusiastic about their work than they had been at first.

Jerrilyn came over to give me the info about it a little later and I was surprised about the reason.

"They are proud of you," she said.

"Why?"

"They have never had all their men go out and bring back this much meat in a day, or even three days. That isn't it entirely though. They consider all the magic here your magic and they are really proud of the job the slicer is doing. They though they would be working for days to get the six bison you brought in taken care of and now they think they'll get done today. I think they're very happy with the advance payment they gave you last night," she said, and then laughed.

"Oh, was that what it was? An advanced payment for services to be rendered?"

"Of course. You didn't think it was all on your good looks did you?"

"Well. I could dream couldn't I?"

"It's us uptime women who are fucking your brains out over your good looks. These women have to be more practical about things. They need to make sure they're doling out the pussy to someone who can bring home the bacon. You have really made an impression on them though.

"In fact you made one in the furs last night. I heard them talking and for once I could understand them. They could hardly believe you were able to dip your wick in every one of them, and us too besides. I think they consider it more of your magic," she said.

"Well, it's about time someone realized I had a magic dick."

"The rest of us knew it already, but we didn't say anything because we didn't want to get your head swelled. You're like the Energizer Tommy, but you just keep fucking and fucking."

"Well, I strive to please."

"And you do a damned good job of it too. What's more, you're rich," she said, and then giggled at me.

At last I saw something that made me feel better about things. Christine and Selene gave up the pretense of helping with the skinning, cutting up, and cleaning. They headed for the kitchen, built a fire in the big woodstove and started cooking things. It was a sure sign lunch was on the way and I noticed a big buffalo roast going into the oven, along with a few fresh steaks being put into frying pans on the cook top.