Chapter 5

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

"When we talked of them I think of mother. She still at camp where Maxtono have men holding her. She not happy either. She would come live with you like me do."

When she said that, I got to thinking. I asked her about families and the customs of the region. For the next 2 hours she told me of her life, camp life and about everything she could think of dealing with this world and time period. I was amazed at the way she described how the men hunted and the women did everything else. I guess women's lib was a long way off. The most intriguing thing she told me about was the succession of control of the camps. It seems that the toughest was boss. Currently that was the one known as Maxtono. Another custom was if one man was killed by another, all his property, including wives, mistresses and children belonged to the man who killed him. That man was expected to take care of the women and children by providing food and shelter. But if a man was killed by a beast, the widow and children were left to fend for themselves. The next thing she told me startled me.

"You know, you killed Humbret, and Jazkon, and Nezbalm and Valeron. This means you now own most of the biggest huts in the camp, and you now have me as wife. You also have my mother Shanana as wife, my younger sister Dina as wife, plus you have Jazkon's wife Manzoa, Nezbalm's mother Amna and sister Jurra, and Valeron's mother Bandai. You are very rich, with so many wives and huts and things."

"Seven wives, 4 huts and who knows what else. Damn. Is there anything else I should know?"

"Yes, the nankatat, you should get the teeth and claws and skin." She replied.

"You mean the Smilodon? The cat outside?" I asked.

"Yes, what you call it, smile done. Now he dead, you take bite and skin and keep. My people show you great honor. They know you have power and make you chief hunter. But you must take care of Maxtono first. Him leader of camp. You kill. Be leader."

I was not keen on being leader of the camp, so I thought I'd just cool it a bit and hope to collect my prizes without any conflict. It seemed to me that I might be able to pull it off if I was careful. I needed to think some more on that, so put it in the back of my mind for later processing.

With that said I got my ax, skinning knife and put on my gun belt. Dana took the flint knife that Humbret had carried. We exited the cave carefully, looking around as we did for anything nasty. There were some carrion birdlike creatures working on the carcass of the cat. I shoed them away and took my ax to the paws of the cat. Dana took the knife and had the big cat skinned in no time flat. I always keep a multi-tool on my belt, so I used that to remove the cat's big incisor teeth. I wrapped the paws up in the cloth bag I had brought and Dana told me she needed brain of cat to make skin good to use. I guess that's the way they tanned hides in this time period. One swipe from my ax opened up the skull and Dana removed the brain, placing it in the bag with the paws. When we got that done we left the carcass for the beasts to devour.

Dana had me cut some long, skinny trees. She said she needed something to fix the poles together for the hide. I had several long strips of rawhide in Jake's pack, so I got them out. This pleased Dana to no end and she let me know it with a long, smoldering kiss. Just as junior started to rise, she quit the kiss and patted Junior, turned and started with the poles. In no time at all she had the stretching frame. She asked if I had a bucket, which I did. She took it and placed it on the floor. She put the cat brain in the bucket, and then squatted over it. She let loose a torrent of piss into the bucket.

When she finished, she turned to me and said, "Now you do."

I obliged her and soon the bucket was almost full. While she worked on the skin, I gathered wood and started the fire to cook some lunch. I figured some Ranch Style beans would go good with the MRE lunch. Just for flavor, I cut a chunk of the smoked bacon and tossed it in the pot. Because of Dana, I cut another piece and tossed it in for her, too. The beans were cooking nicely, the MRE's heating by the fire and Dana was happily working away at the cat hide, humming a merry tune. I couldn't help but smile at the cozy domestic scene that unfolded in my cave. Yes, I'd taken ownership. By the looks of the beasts nearby and Humbret and his crew and Dana, I was beginning to believe I was no longer in West Texas. I decided I needed to make the best of the situation.