Chapter 63

Over the next five days classes were the norm, but everybody seemed genuinely interested. We had some that were kind of skating along. I found other work for them until they begged me to let them go back to class. We had some really outstanding students. Some of them surprised me, like Valkerita and Cherrine, Mundoner, Teront, and Svendson, while others didn’t, like, Joulnar, Olnafot, Teague, Tovar, Tocla, and Outher. They did quite well and it was time for a break. Now the crisis was over and we could go on the big hunt. The night before everyone came home I held a meeting after supper but before our nightly visit. “Tomorrow night everyone comes home. Tomorrow morning we go hunting. All the men who are here, who have a rifle will be going, either as hunters or protectors. We will be taking the truck, ATVs, tractor and wagon with us. We will only shoot enough to fill the truck and wagon one time. There are still a lot of animals left on the plateau. If we kill too many, then we will not have any more the next time we need them. Depending on what we can see, will dictate how many animals we shoot. Unless needed, I will be a protector, but I will tell each hunter what to shoot and how many to kill. Is that perfectly clear?

“If we shoot too many animals and we cannot bring them back here, we run the risk of having predators and scavengers in amongst us as we are trying to get the kills in the truck or the wagon. All hunters and protectors please let me decide what to shoot and when, I will know if we can let the predators or scavengers have a kill that is far enough away from us to do us no harm. Remember be very sure of what you are shooting at. It just might be your friend coming back from a pee. Now are you absolutely sure about what I said. If you are not sure, either raise your hand or see me after this meeting. I don’t want anyone killed because of carelessness or by accident.

“We are only going to cut the throats of the animals to let them bleed out. We will be doing the gutting, cleaning, skinning and cutting up back here in the garage. We have a very good floor drain now and we can load the truck up with what’s left, and take it to the river to dump it there; or I will take it to the plateau at night and dump it then. Is there anything else? Oh yes the celebration; this evening we got six nice big cookers; they are called barbeque grills. I will be showing some of our cooks how to use them, tomorrow and the next day. I will also be making a sauce to put on the meat to make it taste even better. So the celebration will be the day after tomorrow. We will start in the morning by firing up the grills and smoking some of the meat, then by afternoon I will have the sauce ready and I will put it on the meat. By supper time the meat will be ready and the Sky Spirits will provide us with the beer or Saraga, as it is known here. This will be a little stronger than what I had in my cans.” This beer is going to be a darker lager than regular beer but not as dark as Guinness or Shiner Bock. The alcohol content is about 7 to 8 percent. It is a higher content than normal beer, about what their home brew is, but a lot smoother.

“Now any questions? No, good, we should be hearing from our loved ones shortly.”

Phil came on and said that tomorrow night right after supper everyone would be coming home. He wanted to wait because the radiation was still a little high, but should be gone by the next afternoon. He didn’t want anyone to come to harm. Everyone agreed. We all talked a while and then we signed off as we had a big day planned for tomorrow. I went into the bathroom, and played hide the weenie with a couple of my wives, Bertet and Nadira and then went in to bed and dumped a couple loads in my other wives, Fretail, Gerona, and Swendtra. Then Fretail settled in my chest and we all fell asleep.

I awoke and looked around me. I was in a jungle with my Mauser K98, with a Zack scope on it, slung over my shoulder and a Colt 1911A1 and a bayonet. I was not in my ghillie suit but it was a part of my pack. I was with my spotter and guide, a Montagnard tribesman, by the name of Bundrati. We were traveling down a game trail and then suddenly I was back, I felt Fretail on my chest and Fred was in my head again, “Bob, are you alright? You were gone for about 35 seconds and then came back, I just had time to set the recorder on the camera, and you were back. Where were you this time?”

‘Fred, I was back in the jungles of Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam, I’m not sure which; it was so fast that I never had the time to know where I was. I was with my spotter and guide Bundrati, but anything further I couldn’t tell you. This is getting to be too weird.’

“But you are very sure it was you and not someone else.”

‘No Fred it was me. I remember that rifle too well. I felt the stock and it was mine, I’m sure of it. If I had more time there I could have told you which mission I was on. But I did my sniping from February 1970 to September 1970, so it had to be during that time period. Why did it take me back to that time? The first time was about 1967, but we were in the bedroom of our house we had from 1989 to 2009. It just doesn’t make any sense. Keep recording for tonight and see if I go again. If not, then nothing gained, but if I go again we can watch the replay and see if I can translate any movement to my dream (?) this is really too much. I need some sleep. G’nite Fred.’

I tried to go to sleep but it evaded me for a while, until I finally drifted off. I woke up surprisingly refreshed and not tired at all. I showered and got dressed and headed out to the main cave. The hunters were there and a few others to help with the loading. We went by the practice cave and gathered up all our gear, I even added the radios for those who had them. We all put our gear in the truck and went back in for some food. I asked Dignar, Thorf, and Mundoner to stay at the cave, but stay in touch by radio. I put Dignar in charge of our home. Joulnar, Tovar, and Olnafot were the hunters. Valkorla, Teague, and I were the protectors. I could use Merthar as a protector, but for right now he was the truck driver. Gerona drove the tractor with Nonatao, Westboh, and Eriken as the loaders. Harlou drove one ATV and Fretail drove the other one. They were mainly runners’ and herders.

We set out to the plateau and were barely on the top when we saw a huge herd of aurochs, they were headed back south already. I had Harlou and Fretail cut a few out and send them back down the ramp to add to our herd at home. I had Joulnar, Tovar, and Olnafot each shoot 3 cows and then we drove over to retrieve them. I helped when and where I could with the loading. I noticed about a thousand yards behind the herd was some grass moving. I checked the binoculars and sure enough it was a pride of lions. There were a couple stragglers in the auroch herd. I asked Merthar for my Barrett and sighted on one of the stragglers. I was only trying to wound it so the lions wouldn’t scare the herd into moving too quickly. The herd was still kind of milling and grazing around us. My first shot wounded the last straggler and my second shot killed the other one, as he turned at the last second and I hit him dead on. The shots scared some of the nearer aurochs but they just went back to grazing. The lioness immediately ran out to the wounded auroch and was on him like a flash. Several others ran to help her and some went to the dead auroch. Valkorla asked why I had killed those two so far away from us. “Val if I kill them that far away, then why would the lions and scavengers come over here to bother us. Those two auroch were much slower that the rest of the herd, so they were either old or sick. The lions would have gotten them eventually, by now they are far away and not bothering us.”

Joulnar said, “That is very smart Bob, you keep trouble from coming to us by keeping it a long way away. We will remember that.”

“Yes I saw the lions when the grass moved behind the herd. Usually when there is a large herd like this one, there are a few stragglers and predators follow them until they can get the stragglers alone. Then they strike quickly and swiftly. As long as the lone ones were far away from us, why not use them to protect us. If the end of the herd had been closer, I would not have killed the stragglers. I would have had to watch the lions instead.”

We were all loaded now and made our way to the garage. I had Gerona go first and we followed. I wanted to make sure nothing followed us. As we were coming down the ramp, Harlou and Fretail were coming to meet us and then turned off for the garage. After we got the tractor and wagon inside, we started on the unloading. I talked to Harlou and he said we had another 48 cows and 2 bulls, one young one and one older one. I told him “Good job!” and that next hunt he was going to be a hunter. Joulnar told Harlou what I had done and why. Harlou said, “Of course Joulnar, you always put danger as far away from you as you can.”

Joulnar just looked at him and smiled and said to me, “Just like his father, he knows everything.”

I smiled, and said, “Not yet, but he is still learning and growing. But he will eventually know as much, if not more that I do.”

It took until almost supper time to process all six of those aurochs. Each of them weighed in around 1500 pounds. The huge horns were used for knife handles or carving, actually lots of things. Just about every part of the animal was used. Even the tail, once skinned and chopped up and put in a stew; it was very tasty.

We finally ate supper and then pandemonium again as all our loved ones came home to us. What a celebration of love and happiness. We all drifted off to our rooms, to sleep, make love and just cuddle.

Me, I had nine women to satisfy, three of which I had not been able to love on for almost 2 weeks. They, Marlit, Pauloa, and Ambat, would get the most of my loving tonight. Of course Barbara would be getting some too, but I had been with her a couple times since she left the first time. I spent probably 5 hours gently loving all my wives, and when the last of us drifted off to sleep it was very early in the morning. I know I slept like a log, no interruptions, no dreams that I could remember; nothing but restful sleep. I was awakened by several of my wives trying to untangle themselves from the human pretzel on the bed. I glanced at the clock and it read 9:30. That worked for me. All I had to do today was fire up some grills, make my sauce, and cook. That was an easy day for me. No chasing down wild animals, no solving celestial problems, no jumping around in space, time, dreams, or whatever. Just simple cooking problems today, then tonight I got to exercise my ‘leaders rights’ if someone got too drunk to walk home.