Chapter 24

We had a pleasant trip back, but it wasn't fast. The horses Jimmy and JoJo were riding couldn't keep up the pace. No matter, we got there soon enough and I had a lot of introducing to do. I left Chatla inside getting acquainted with Bill's wives and Kala. Ben and I gave Jimmy and JoJo a tour of the place. Ralph happened to be over on this side of the road and I let him give the two visitors a tour on the other side of the road while I talked to Ben about sending some breeding stock back home with Jimmy and JoJo.

"It's come at a good time since we have plenty of stock now. I was afraid I would have to cut some of the better young stallions because we just can't afford to keep them all," he said.

"I'm putting it on you then. Pick them out two mares and two stallions to send back with them."

"How about two each from both of our main lines. Two stallions and two mares of the larger horses and two each of the Quarterhorses. We really are getting loaded down with good horses. I know it's a good problem to have, but still, I'd like to give some of these young horses a chance," he said.

"Do what you think is best. Do you also have one of the young smiths you could send down there to live?" I asked.

"No, but I've got Frank, and I think he is wanting to go to a place with a more traditional type of smithing. He is getting a little older and I think the work here is getting to him too. He can't let the younger boys take on most of the work like he should.

"He is great at training them, but he can't seem to let them take over the work," Ben said.

"Talk to him then and see what comes of it. Be sure to let him take anything we can supply to make his life easier down there," I said.

He took off to talk to Frank and I looked up George for a word. I could tell I needed to do something with him or for him too. Fully a quarter of the space down in George's domain was full of things he'd cast. The first thing I though was that he was making things people didn't want to buy.

"George, is your inventory building up on you," I asked, when he met me near the door.

"It has a little, but I think I've got a better handle on what to cast now. A lot of that stuff sold well at first, but I guess I've got the local market flooded for the time being. I'm thinking about melting some of it back down and casting it as something that sells well now," he said.

"What would you think of a new outlet?"

"What do you mean?"

"I just took over another big farm down south. It's over a hundred miles from here. Now that I know the deal, why don't you send some of the overstock down there and see if they can sell it for you?"

"It sounds like a great idea to me. I'm more of a make it guy and I've already turned the selling part over to Jethro. Let's talk to him about it," he said.

He rounded up Jethro, one of the young boys we'd rescued from Blanksdale, and we had a talk. Jethro was a natural at organizing and he was all for it right away. He even dragged out some papers where he had been keeping up with what was in inventory and he was able to tell us right away what was selling here and what wasn't.

The upshot of it was George went right to work finishing a wagon he'd been building off and on. He and Jethro had been planning to pile the wagon full and send someone off to try selling the merchandise. The only hold up was they couldn't figure out a way to keep the goods and driver safe without sending about six men with him. They figured it was too big a price to pay just to send it off to try selling it out of the wagon.

I had already figured out I'd need to make another trip down south before I took Chatla back to Crossroads. I knew she was about to get antsy over the delay, so that night I gave my all with tongue and fingers, time after time. At least I had her worn down enough she slept late the next morning.

I pressed hard for the next three days to get the trip lined up and when I explained to Chatla what we'd be doing she took it better than I'd thought she would. Of course I'd paid special attention to her needs while we were waiting.

We took off the next morning with Frank and his wife riding in a big wagon, hauling all their things. Jethro and his wife and all their things were crowded into the wagon with all of George's over supply. I rode one of the horses that was going to stay with the new place and Chatla rode another one. We also had six guards with us. They were mostly to make sure there'd be someone to take the wagons back.

It was a long boring trip and there was some negotiating to do when I got there. At least it was the easy part. Jed could see the benefits of the castings right away and he'd been worried who would take care of his smithing work anyway. I concentrated on getting the details ironed out for a couple of days, while the wagons were being unloaded, and while places to put Frank and Jethro and their wives were worked out.

Soon enough it was time for Chatla and I to make our departure. There was a town with a bank twenty-five miles on farther south and so my six guards rode down there with us to bring the horses back.

When we made it into the bank everything seemed normal and we headed to the vault, I stored all my equipment, and then when I closed the last box we were back at Kathy Caretaker's place and Chatla wasn't a bit happier about it than I was.

Kathy got me healed and Chatla bathed right away, and then she reversed the process.

"Jack, I can't believe how well you handled yourself while you were gone, and you've even got another safe hangout started." she said.

"Maybe, but it was only by the hardest. It required another long trip with the Damsel after she was rescued and I hated the delay in getting back to you."

"Well you're here now and maybe it did Chatla some good. She seemed happy enough about spending time with you on Chaos after she was rescued," Kathy said.

"No doubt the delay was not so bad due to my excellent tongue work," I said.

"But, Jack, you aren't supposed to have sex with the Damsel on Chaos," Kathy said.

"I Did Not Have Sex With That Woman, on Chaos," I said, in my best Bill Clinton imitation.

"But you just admitted having sexual contact with her."

"Sexual contact is not sex. Bill Clinton already hashed out that whole thing and he convinced me," I said.

"But who is Bill Clinton?"

"He was once the President of the United States. The most powerful man on earth, for a time. If it was good enough for him, it's good enough for me."

"But your President doesn't have any authority on Chaos or Crossroads," she said.

"Did the portal allow me through as a Hero?"

"Well, yeh."

"Then I, as a Hero from Earth, say sexual contact is not the same or equal to having sex. If another Hero considers it sex, it isn't my fault. Maybe their tongue is longer than mine."

"That's why the last few Damsels you've brought back seem more calm when they get here, isn't it?"

"I'm sure I'm not qualified to know what is calming the Damsels, but it does seem that way to me too. One thing I'm not going to do is treat them with the disrespect of a lab experiment and withhold the tongue simply for empirical data."

"But you're getting awfully close to bending the rules," she said.

"That sentence doesn't make lexical sense. Rules are rules and therefore must be absolute - they are not bent. If they weren't absolute they wouldn't be rules. The portals are the definers of the rules and the enforcers of the rules. We can only go by what they teach us. They have taught me it is perfectly allowable for me to lick the Damsel's pussy before I get back to Crossroads - else they wouldn't have let either of us back in.

"The whole system would fail to function if the rules were applied capriciously. If it were the case they would cease to be rules and would become merely suggestions. The only possibility for rule breaking is capricious application on someone's part. As long as the portals function for me I can't be breaking the rules.

"Now, there may be some members, further on up the line in the organization, who would like to impose other restrictions, but they are only spewing conversation.

"Someone made the portal mechanism and they built the rules into it. Those are the rules, anything others have tried to add is simply and purely bullshit. If they had the power to do anything about it they would install it into the portal. They had better leave well enough alone before they do something to fuck the whole thing up."

I hadn't realized I'd taken the portals so much to heart, but I guess I had. Hell, it was what made sense to me and I didn't mind saying so. After my time in the Navy I was more than well familiar with people on up the chain of command making rules they had no right to and I wasn't going to take it here anymore than I'd had there. I was going to fight it tooth and nail here too.

Kathy was a little subdued for a minute, but I started teasing her titties and she snapped right out of it. She left me to dry off on my own and went to fetch Chatla. I didn't move from the shower and was still naked and under the water when she got back with Chatla.

"Come on in girls, the water's fine."

We had a great time in the shower and after we were dry we retired to the bedroom where I put on a tour de force, showing what a masterful job a long dicked Texan could do when inspired. I even skipped meals until in the morning and Kathy was still so wrung out she could barely order for me. She and Chatla slept until late afternoon.

I dialed it back a little for the rest of the time Chatla was with us and the discussion about the rules never came up again. By and by Chatla caught and came out of the bathroom announcing it one morning. I was already dressed as I had been every morning for the last eight and I had time to give Chatla a nice warm kiss and then Kathy the same, along with a farewell fondle on her ass, then I left as I started to feel the squeezing sensation in my chest.