Chapter 4

Cooking got started soon enough but it was a semi-cluster fuck with all the women and girls trying to get involved. It turned into a pretty good breakfast soon enought even though it was mostly venison from the doe and biscuits with margarin and honey and coffee. I had dug around in the junk Mose had been hauling and found coffee cups for nearly everyone and there had also been some wooden cups brought from the earlier Indian camp. I doled out honey as a sweetner for those who made faces at the coffee's taste and soon enough we were all full and happy.

I knew we wouldn't be happy for long with the number of mouths to feed though and only bear meat to do the feeding. Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed. Before long the women I'd gathered up with the retrieved children wanted to go out and snoop around for anything edible which might be growing nearby. I was all for it, but I made them promise to stay in a bunch so I could watch over them carefully.

We attached a travois to Mose's harness, such as it was, and I saddled Joe Bob and a gathering we went. Our first stop was at the former camp where the women and children looked through the remains for any food or anything else useful.

I had the oldest boys come with me and we kept watch along the trail back toward the other camp we'd virtually wiped out. I had a notion the sixteen I'd killed weren't the only ones in that group. I wasn't expecting visitors from that direction early, but I was expecting some sooner or later.

It turned out to be later, but not so much later. Just after noon one of the boys came to tell me men were commig. I mounted and had him show me where they were and then I told him to go back and help guard the camp when I saw them.

I could tell by looking them over they weren't coming over for a social call. Six men who were armed with both spears and bows and arrows were headed our way with about twelve women behind them. I didn't understand why they were bringing women along but I could tell they were pissed about something and they were obviously headed for us, or at least toward our former camp.

I started dropping the men at once and it didn't take long. When the last man was dead I rode Joe Bob over to round up the women. Apparently the translation trick didn't work for them yet but I was able to more or less heard them toward where the others were. We hadn't made it two hundred yards before all the older boys joined us. I had them go strip the dead bodies of anything useful and then they followed us back toward the old camp and finding it completely deserted now we headed for the cave.

It was a little like old home week when we got there. The new women were glad to see the current women and soon they were all talking and cooking. I got Shira off to the side and let her know I needed to know of any other camps around here. She said she'd find out and then she took me over to show me something. It was worth looking at but it manly raised my curiosity quotient.

There were two twenty-five pound bags of self-rising flour, two of cornmeal, a five gallon bucket of lard, three cast iron skillets, four cornbread molds, and several sturdy cookie sheets. Now I'm not saying I was unhappy about getting any of this stuff, but I sure wondered where it had come from. I kept wondering until I ran across two hundred pound tow sacks of dried pinto beans. That made me forget about wondering and start hoping we'd be getting regular deliveries.

I told Shira how to start soaking the beans to get them ready for cooking and I was happy to see her get right on it. I could tell we had plenty of meat for now but I still felt like I should be doing something. I saddled Joe Bob and dug around in my things I'd been carrying until I found one of my lariats. I tied it onto the saddle and took off to go riding around and looking. I covered a lot of ground but didn't see much of any use to us until I'd been out about two hours. I spied a bonanza then.

It was a damned nanny goat. It looked like it had been rode hard and put away wet, but it was getting around ok and had two kids following it. I eased over closer and dropped a loop over its neck. I barely managed to tighten the loop before the goat got its head out.

I thought about getting off Joe Bob and tying the goat up but then decided to just try leading it back. Leading it was a hell of a lot more trouble, but I figured it was worth it because the kids came along too. Once back in the cave I picked the goat up and carried her inside.

There was an immediate fuckup once we were inside since most of the younger children crowded around me to see what was going on. By the time I got them settled down the kids had run back outside. I put the older boys on catching them but I waned them not to hurt them and they promised they wouldn't.

I picked out a place near the back of the cave to tie the nanny up and then found a pot and brought her some water. The boys had caught the kids by now but I knew I'd have to build a pen to keep any of them so I took my rigging axe and went out to gather fencing material.

It took me the rest of the day to build the pen and a milking stall/stand for the nanny. Next I had to show a couple of the older boys how to put the nanny in her stall and milk her. One of the boys acted like he was too good for such and I sent him away right off the bat. It made the others pay better attention and soon I had them milking up a storm. I wasn't counting on the nanny to provide raations for everyone, but I knew a little milk would go a long way used in cooking and the best way to get a herd of milk goats started was with one, or more, and I didn't have more right now.

My next trick was teaching a few of the boys how to pull up enough grass for the goats to eat. I was a little surprised to see the one I'd sent off earlier joined right in and seemed to have a change in attitude. I didn't mention his earlier behavior and just let him join in. With that taken care of I took a nap and waited for supper.

It was more stew and I wondered that I handn't got tired of stew already then I realized it was stew or nothing so I concentrated on thinking of how good it tasted. I was also delighted to discover some of the women had found a blackberry patch somewhere and we all had a little bunch of them too. It made me want even more goats so I could show them how good the berries would taste with a little milk on 'em.

After the meal things started getting set up for sleeping and I realized I now had thirty-one women with me. Shira, Twila, and Kata plus the sixteen I'd rounded up from the first bunch of children stealers and then twelve more from the bunch today. It was apparent they all intended to sleep as close to me as they could too since all the furs, except for the ones the children were using, were generally in one big pile.

As soon as I was stripped off for the night Shira led me to the big middle of them and then naked women started joining the throng. I watched carefully and there wasn't an ugly one in the crowd.

Apparently Shira, Twila, and Kata were a little sore from our previous acrobatics but no matter. Shira started introducing the women and I noticed three of the newer arrivals were put closest to me. Hell, I pulled one into my arms for a little kissing, nibbling, and fondling and soon enough she was on her hands and knees waggling her ass at me. Hell, it would do for a start so I got behind her and let the games begin.