Chapter 8

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."R. Frost

"WAIT" a woman cried out. "what about us. Who lead us now? You kill Maxtono, that good. But we need you lead us."

"Here is my word to you. You choose one to lead here. I will watch. If he is good, you can go on. If he is bad, I come back and take care of things for myself. Choose a wise man to lead, not a fool. A wise man will lead true. A fool will end up dead."

"Great one!" A young man approached. "You have taken my mother as wife. I unmarried but too old to live in my mother's hut. My name Jaklow. I Chanel's son and good hunter. I not find woman for wife yet, but I big help around camp. My father a fool to try to fight you. It good him dead. Could I be your son now? It be great honor to me."

Yes Jaklow, you can come with us. I will ask you to lead Jake, with the long ears. Be a good lookout for trouble, men or animals. I could use some young men in my camp."

"Me know two more like me. They may want go with you. You want me ask them?" he asked.

"Yes, of course. Go find them and have them report to me. I will talk with them and find out if they would be good for our camp."

Jaklow ran off into the center of the camp. Less than three minutes later, he returned with two likely looking lads who already had small packs with them. They looked youthful but strong. They had a pleading look on their faces. I talked with them for a few minutes asking them questions. I liked the answers I got. The taller one, Abo reminded me of Billy when we were in Jr. High. He was taller and fuller developed than the other boys and looked like he could handle himself well. He stood with confidence as we talked. I immediately took a liking to all three boys. I had a great idea, but had to talk to Dana and Shanana. I told the boys to wait a few minutes while I talked to my wives.

I called the women over and we got into the old football huddle. My baker's dozen wives and I discussed what I had in mind. Shanana thought it was a superb idea and the others agreed. I told them I would follow through with the idea.

I called the troop together to make my announcement.

"I have made a decision that will affect all the people. It is my decree and it is law. From this day forward, Jaklow, Abo and Hamlin are my SONS. They will live with me in my camp for as long as they want. They may take wives, with the girl's permission and bring them into my camp. Those wives will be welcomed as daughters to me. Anyone doing harm to my sons does harm to me. I will seek retribution and it will be swift. Again, choose your leader well. Live in peace. I am leaving with my son's, daughters and mates." Chanil was beaming during the announcement. She had to go over and hug her son Jaklow. He blushed and quickly told her to stop. He was a grown man now. As if that made a difference to his mother.

I had discovered when packing up that both Chanil (29) and Amna (28) had daughters, Shira (5) and Blina (8) respectively. Amna was also the mother of Jurra (15) a blue eyed blonde who is another one of my mates. The little ones were both gems and I quickly adopted them as well. Our troop was ready to start out. So my 13 wives, 3 sons and 2 daughters started out for the cave. It was only about 1 pm and we had about 6 hours of daylight to travel. Each of the boys took up a travois and started forward. This left 6 of the women to handle the youngsters and lead the horse and mule.

We were able to travel without incident for the next 5 hours. The women were amazed and very pleased with the travois. It made their work so much easier. They were happily bantering back and forth. Every once and awhile as I wandered past this group or that, I would catch snippits of conversation. It seems I made the afternoon news. Still, somehow I felt content. I wondered if this would be easy to take, having so many wives. I knew one thing, I felt better than I had in years. I didn't hurt all the time, for one thing. I'd stepped in a hole while running and messed up my right knee and that led to a messed up hip as well. I'd walked with a little bit of a limp and had found that walking fast was not as painful. But on this trek I had to slow down to keep with the women. Strange as it seems, my knee and hip didn't hurt!