Chapter 7

We traveled for about a week before we came to a section of ground with a little grass. This was a godsend, and we could not have dragged the horses away—we would have had to kill them first! For some unknown reason, the fire must have missed this few hectares. There were even trees there before we arrived, but they all disappeared as raw material for yurts and for arrows. We would get around to bolts later, after the hunters were equipped, and no one argued with this.

We did make enough explosive warheaded arrows to give one to each of the hunters for self protection, but there were just not enough arrows to do more than that. I had lost my hand grenades in the fire, but I was able to make a few more. Now, I felt a bit more comfortable and better able to take care of my family, which now included the surviving Olgars. That may sound odd, but these people needed me, and I found that I loved them pretty much the way an uncle would.

Along that line, after clearing it with Erkla first, I brought Homer in as my direct assistant. As the first step, we made up some practice hand grenades and he learned to throw them. I didn't need both my gun and the grenades, myself, but I did need somebody to back me up. I couldn't look in all directions at once, and I knew that I could depend on Homer, so he became the obvious sidekick. Homer was immediately pleased with the promotion in status as it now gave him something that he could use to counter the teasing from the Olgar boys who could ride and shoot a bow a hell of a lot better than he could ever hope to do. I did caution him not to get overbearing with them because of his closeness to the shaman, since he would need their support when they got older. Homer was very levelheaded, and he had figured that out before I ever mentioned it.

Anyway, once he had mastered throwing the hand grenades, I gave all of them to him to look after. He took the job very seriously, and may well have taken them to bed with him. Shortly thereafter, I let him shoot my assault weapon. You will notice that I have been careful not to call it a rifle, since it was more along the lines of a machine pistol or a submachine gun. It did have a stock and could be fired like a rifle, and that was the form I used when shooting aurochs. The laser aiming dot and low power telescopic sights were quite adequate for up to 300 yards, but the bullets began to wander beyond that range.

Homer was as superstitious as everybody else in this era, so I had to bless his use of the gun before he would touch it. I decided to make a public issue of it, so that the boys would back off a little. I called a meeting of the entire population and told them that I was training Homer to take my place as defender of the camp if anything ever happened to me. The ceremony made quite an impression as I sang "Stout Hearted Men" as a special token to the gods. Luckily, I remembered the whole song, except for little bits here and there, and I faked them. Homer became quite proficient with the gun, and I wished I had a spare to let him use, but that was never possible as long as I needed it.

One day, we had been out letting Homer practice with the gun when we encountered an unpleasant surprise as we walked back into camp. A dozen strange men were sitting on horses and threatening Umgallah with lances. They claimed to be tax collectors for a local warlord, and they had come for their 20% of the camp's resources and a maiden for them to enjoy while the tax was being assembled.

Homer was still carrying the gun, and I nodded to him. Very sensibly, he thumbed onto the solid, not explosive, rounds and full automatic fire mode. He raised the gun to his shoulder and took aim. I could see the red laser dot center on the chest of the apparent leader of the group. Homer squeezed the trigger and swept the bullets over the whole troupe of "tax collectors." Once they were all lying on the ground, obviously dead, I sent Homer over to inspect the bodies while still carrying the gun. Never again did he hear any teasing!

From that point on, Homer was my shadow. I began teaching him what I knew of the shaman trade, including all of the poems and songs that I could remember. I was surprised at how many of both that I could dredge up from the depths of my memory. Homer started memorizing as many as he could, and, man, could he deliver a mean "Casey at the Bat!"

As soon as possible, we equipped him with a set of explosive bolts for his crossbow so that he would have them in case I really got into trouble. With the hand grenades and the crossbow, Homer was a force to be reckoned with. I was impressed with the way he handled his authority, and, believe me, he had authority. Sure, it was all derived from his association with me, but it was still a real thing. He was often able to break up fist fights with just a stern glance, and I think that I could have counted on one hand the number of times he had to raise his voice in authority. I was really proud of Homer and what he had become.

However, that day finally came that Erkla and I had been kind of dreading and also anticipating: Homer was interested in acquiring a wife. As was appropriate, Homer had spoken to his father first, but Erkla came to me for help and advice. I knew better than he did which of the girls of an appropriate age were ready and willing to get married. Well, I pulled the old politician's trick of going to the top.

I discussed the question with Cybele and my wives, especially Ai Chee, and we gathered a short list. After clearing the list with Homer, who said that he would be happy to marry any of the girls on the list, I went to Chief Umgallah to ask for his advice and intercession. He looked at the list, and chose the one which would be the most politically advantageous for Homer. Once that was done, Chief Umgallah paid us the highest honor by personally being the go between to arrange the marriage. One thing that did was to get us a rock bottom price! Li Lo was available for only one horse! That was demeaning to the girl, so I offered two horses, which was accepted on the spot.

A week later, after Homer had been coached in all of the proper protocol and given a thoroughly practical, hands on sex education by one of Li Lo's aunts, I performed the wedding ceremony in front of the whole camp population. The celebration that followed may have well set a record for the amount of fermented mare's milk consumed, but Homer and Li Lo remained sober throughout the whole celebration.

They retired to a bridal yurt, and the obligatory bloody sheet was thrown out the door a few minutes later. The guests returned to the party while Homer and Li Lo got to know each other better. The wedding night had been a success, as proven by Homer's smile and Li Lo's near inability to walk.

Homer was now officially an adult. That put a lot of work on both families, since we were still on the march, heading south. At least, the new couple had a yurt, since the one that they had spent the night in was presented to them as a wedding gift by the entire community. Other things were already owned by them, but custom required that Homer had to work to earn a lot of the stuff that they needed. The couple received a lot of loaners while Homer was earning the rest. There was no time limit on how long they could keep the loaners, since everybody knew that everything would eventually be returned.

The work of moving south was difficult, since we rarely made more than about 15 klicks a day. The problem was that the yurts had to be taken down and packed for moving each morning and set back up each evening. That was a lot of time consuming work, but custom made it unavoidable. Oh, well, winter was late this year.

We began to run low on food, and Umgallah and I were a bit worried, but joyous news came one day when a hunter came roaring into camp with the news that he had spotted the largest herd of aurochs that he had ever seen. This was deus ex machina if I had ever heard of it, but this was certainly no time to be a drama critic.