Chapter 17

Barbara went in to the sleeping family to show them their new clothes and their clean ones as well. I went into the kitchen to make breakfast for everyone. Harlou came in first in his new clothes, jeans and a pullover shirt. He seemed to be walking funny and I asked why. He said that these new things on his feet didn’t feel right. He said they were too heavy, so I told him to wear his old moccasins if they felt better. He run back and then came back in wearing a smile. I asked how his mother and sisters liked their new clothes and he said they had told him to get dressed and leave so they could get dressed. I guess women are the same everywhere. They want their privacy when they dress.

The women came trooping on in about 20 minutes later. All were dressed in their new clothes, but left their soft leather leggings and moccasins on. I didn’t figure them for boots just yet. I would let them see how helpful they were.

We sat an ate powered eggs and lion bacon, along with some of the fried potato things that really did taste a lot like potatoes but had a little wilder taste and were purple. Many glances were going around the table. I did notice that Marlit was braless today, as her tits swayed as she moved. Barb never needed a bra as her breasts did not stick out a lot and seemed to have a lot of support anyway. Mertir just had bumps and Jerrel was still flat.

During the meal, Marlit asked what work had to be done today. I answered, “We still need to find some more vegetables and herbs; I need to go to the swamp and see if I can kill a hog or two; we could ride around looking for horses and it wouldn’t hurt to kill an auroch or two for some more meat and the hides. I might just capture a couple cows to keep for milk.” Except for Barbara, they all just stared at me.

“Hunting hogs or aurochs are a full day’s work, then the work involved in skinning and butchering the animals. What about all the drying racks for drying the meat. You don’t have that many racks do you,” Asked Marlit.

“Marlit, hunting for me takes almost no time. When I killed the cave lion Barbara and I skinned it and cut up the meat and stretched the hide in one day, in fact not even one day. We started just before midday and were finished in time to watch the sunset after having a meal of lion steak.

“Today you shall see how I hunt and why it does not take long to finish. Are we all ready to go kill some aurochs?”

I got nods from all except Harlou, who looked at me as if was crazy. I said, “Come on, let’s go.” Everyone followed me out to the garage and I started up the truck and backed out. I went back in and got my pistols and both my lever action and the 44 magnum with the scope. Barbara got her rifle with the scope and her two pistols and we opened the doors to let everyone in. I had to lift Harlou into the back seat along with Mertir and Jerrel. Marlit and Barb climbed up in the front with me. I backed up as the newbies clung to anything they could hang on to. We started off to the plateau ramp and were soon up and looking for aurochs. I saw a herd but they were very far away; but a herd of the bison was closer. I went back down the ramp and got my Barrett and a couple of clips for it, then headed back up the ramp. I think that Barb explained that for bison I needed another weapon. I got to within about 500 yards for the herd and I stopped and climbed up into the bed. I had a soft cloth that I laid between the solar panels on the roof of the truck. I sighted and adjusted for wind and range. I said softly, “Everyone put your hands over your ears there is going to be a loud bang like thunder.”

I put my ear plugs in and sighted again on a young bull. I squeezed the trigger and boom. I looked thru the scope and the young bull was down. I had aimed for just below the thick neck hoping to hit his spine. Apparently I did as he went down hard. I watched for several minutes to make sure he was down and to watch for predators. I then told Barbara to drive over that way and as we came closer the herd moved away. I unloaded the Barrett and when Barb stopped, I jumped down and swapped guns to have the lever action 1894. I went back to the bed and started fixing the hoist. Barb was out front and winding the front winch out. I had Harlou climb up the brush guard and hand me the front winch hook. I hooked up and set the hoist at 45 degrees and set the pins. Then I had Barb drive around to get near the bull and back up so I could hook on. I run the bed winch out to be able to chain his rear legs. Through all this Marlit, Mertir, Jerrel, and Harlou looked on in amazement. As I started to reel the bison into the bed, I think they finally got the point of all the work.