Chapter 4: The Other People

I got up early the next morning and managed to milk "Bossie". Considering the slight difference in physiology and the fact that I had not milked a cow in more than thirty-five years, I think I did a pretty good job. At this point, I was convinced that my charm ability worked on animals. The bison made no effort to get away from me. She even nuzzled me when I first greeted her. I looked into her lovely brown eyes and thought how hard it would be to kill her male cousins for steak. Still, my family would need to survive in this brave new world and hunting was a way of life here; not a sport as it was in the world I had left.

I figured I needed to look into pasteurizing the milk at some point, but for now, I would refrigerate what I got (I poured the gallon I got into a used plastic milk jug). I figured I had the right supplies and instructions, (courtesy of the Internet) to rig a pasteurizing process that would have made old Louis himself proud.

Before I disconnected with Malok, I asked him about my rainwater collecting idea and he said that he would put his engineers to work on it. I also mentioned the idea of digging an "army style" latrine, but with a way of flushing it. I had requested four toilet seats as part of my original allowance (and had been tired of walking down the hill whenever I needed to do a poop). I told him that I had originally planned to do it today, but couldn't since we had to vacate the premises so they could work on the house.

Malok had laughed. "What are you trying to do to me?"

"Guilt you. Did it work," I had laughed.

"Only because I really want you to succeed and because I wanted to limit the number of trips my "little elves" have to make here." he said, before his tone adopted a bit of an edge to it. "While we're at it, do you want us to build the barn?"

I could sense his sarcasm and did not want to press my luck. Malok was going above and beyond the call for me. Despite his charm power, I knew he might be feeling some pressure from the powers-that-be. I did not want him to get into trouble for being "too helpful". "No, Jontar and I will do that. We have at least eight months before the first frost, right?"

"Probably closer to seven, because we are in kind of a glacial period of the planetary climate cycle here. You may even see some snow this winter."

"Not what you would expect to find so close to the French Riviera," I joked.

That seemed to put Malok in a better mood. "Bring your swim suit in July, your snow suit in January," he laughed.

When I got back to the top of the hill, I saw that both Lyna and Jontar were preparing scrambled eggs and bacon. I got out the griddle to make some toast. I figured I'd introduce Lyna to tea this morning, so I got out the kettle too.

Though cookware was a new concept for her, it was obvious that my mate had a lot of experience working around a fire. She continually admonished Jontar to be careful. For what it was worth, in the short time I had known him, I had noticed that the young boy was a good kid. He would listen to his mother and was beginning to listen to me as well.

"That smells delicious, honey," I smiled.

"Honey?" she asked.

"It is a term of endearment. It shows how much I love you."

Lyna beamed. She out down her spatula and kissed me, before she used a fur mitt to remove the pan from the heat.

When all the food was on the table, I poured Lyna a cup of tea and sweetened it with Stevia. I decided to serve it English style with a little milk to cool it a tad.

"What is this?"

"This is a hot drink called tea. Have a taste."

Lyna put the cup to her lips. When she put it down, she smiled. "This tastes quite good. I like the sweetness."

"I'm glad you like it. It will really warm you up in the winter."

I knew I had to broach the idea of the house with my family, as we were finishing our breakfast. We had discussed it yesterday and they had been fascinated by the idea once I explained and then described what a "house" was. At the time, we had decided to start building it after we had some more mates to help. Now, I had to come up with an explanation for how we would return from our trip to see the "Other People" to find that the house would be complete.

"I had forgotten that some of my people from my old camp were coming today. They owed me some help, as I had helped them. In trade, they agreed to build the house for us."

"How wonderful!" exclaimed Lyna. "I cannot wait to meet them."

"There is a chance that they will finish before we get home," I lied, knowing that there would be no people here when we returned. "There will be many workers and many hands make light work. They will have a long way to walk, so they may leave when they are done."

"That would be a shame. Still, I'm so excited. We may trade for more mates!" she exclaimed, almost giddily.

About an hour later, we started towards the Neanderthal caves. I had brought five canisters of salt, two of pepper, two titanium knives and a rope for trading. I figured that it might be a good idea to provide them with the gift of food, like I had with the nomads. Between my overwhelming charm and generosity, I figured that I would be able to negotiate a good deal.

Along the way, I saw several game birds and I had the humbling experience of missing them. After retrieving the arrow shafts, I took a little time to show both Lyna and Jontar how to use the bow, since I had taken one of my spares. Lyna proved to be an awful shot, but Jontar had shown some promise. By his fourth shot, he had managed to hit a tree about ten yards away. He managed to hit the same tree with his fifth shot too. His sixth shot hit the same tree from about twenty yards away. After missing a couple times from almost thirty yards, he hit twice in a row!

As we were practicing, we saw a deer. The buck was perhaps a little bigger than the one I had brought to Lyna and Jontar's people. No offense to Robin Hood, this time, I had the foresight to bring the materials to make a travois. I also had two people who could help to pull it.

I knew what I was going to do was a bit risky. We had one chance to hit the deer and Jontar was a rookie marksman. Still, he had the arrow notched and I thought how much confidence he would get if he could fell the deer. I got behind him to help him aim. Then I got a bit to the side to provide him some help with the pull to increase his draw. Then we fired when I whispered in his ear, "Now."

For that split second, I held my breath, as I saw the arrow hit its target. It was not a kill shot, but the animal was mortally wounded. "I got it!" screamed Jontar, happily.

The buck tried to sprint off, but sprinting was no longer a gear it had. It limped off and we encountered its remains less than five minutes later. Lyna and I quickly skinned and butchered the animal. Lyna had successfully used a titanium steak knife with supper last night, but the knife she was using was larger. I reminded her to be careful (which she was). Then we setup the travois, loaded up the meat and we were on our way. About twenty minutes later, we had reached our destination.

This time, we were greeted by five men. The largest man appeared to be about five foot-six inches. He was quite thickly built and he was a bit hunched over. "My name is Hogat. I rule here. What do you want?"

"My name is Mike. I live some distance away. This is my mate, Lyna and my son Jontar. We have come to trade.

"Oh? What do you want for the meat?" he asked.

"The meat is not to trade. It is a gift and a sign that I am a good hunter."

"Oh! That is very generous of you. You must stay for a feast. Then we will talk trade."

Hogat smiled as he and the other men led us into camp. I got my first look at Neanderthal women. The one I saw stood about five foot- two inches. She had dark hair and eyes like Hogat. She also had a pronounced forehead, though not quite as much as Hogat and the other men. I could not tell too much about her body, as it was covered in furs. She did have a wide mouth ("the better to eat you with, my dear!" cried the wolf from the fable!) but thick, pouty lips that I somehow found sexy. We were introduced to her as Tola. She was Hogat's mate and she led us on a tour of their caves.

I noticed that the Neanderthals had an interesting gait. They all kind of lumbered. The men more so, but the women did too. I also noticed that they all seemed very strong compared to the Cro-Magnon I had encountered. The average Neanderthal male seemed almost as strong as I was (and I'm sure that there were some as strong or even stronger). I discovered this when I saw the men moving large boulders to clear space and carrying logs for the fire. At this point, I was glad that my charm ability was working.

We had a nice venison and boar pork dinner. The flavor was not too bad, but I did not care for it. It had been seasoned with some roots that seemed to be a bit of an acquired taste. The rest of my family seemed to really enjoy it and I did not fuss in fear of annoying my hosts.

After the meal, Hogat and I got down to business.

"I want to tell you this upfront, Hogat. I am interested in trading for mates."

"Really? you seem to have a fine mate already."

"I know. It was actually her idea."

"Is that not always the way?" he laughed. "Tola wants me to claim one of our unmated women. In return, I would have to kill at least two bison by myself for my people. The women want another mate to help them with their work, which makes more work for the men."

"Well, I have no bison with me. Only the deer and that was a gift."

"You could always promise to kill two on your oath," he said.

"I'm hoping that you may want what I have here," I smiled as I pulled out a canister of salt from the bag. "This is salt."

"We have much salt."

"Perhaps, but not salt like this. It is of the best quality. It is white because it's pure."

I poured a little into his hand and he tasted it.

"This salt is very good! In fact, it is the best salt I have ever seen. There is no grit!" he extolled.

"You will need less of it to season your meat and to preserve it."

"There is much salt here, but much is mixed with dirt and is not very good. Where did you get your salt?"

"It comes from my old home. It is many, many, moons toward the rising sun," I lied out of necessity.

"I wish we had such salt nearby. I have heard that there is a great water some moons from here that tastes of salt."

"Yes, I've heard that too. Probably too far to go to be worth it."

Hogat nodded, before scratching his beard in a pensive way. "You look different than the rest of your kind. You are very tall and big. You have no beard. You hunt with small spears, but kill good. But I like you. You give us good food and want to trade us rare salt that is the best. If it was my choice I would accept just the salt, as I know that this salt is very important and would last for many more moons than the bad salt we already have. We would not have to worry about grit either. Still, my people would not understand this. I have many unmated women here. For a fresh one, you would need to prove to the people you are a great hunter."

"I don't want a fresh mate. I want a widow. Do you have any widows?"

Hogat raised his eyebrows, but then seemed to reapply his poker face. "We had a bad winter. We lost two warriors who were mated. We already had three widows."

"Do any have children?"

"Three of them do."

"What would the cost be for such a woman?"

"If they are widows it would be less. Do you have any more to trade?"

"Yes. I have more salt. I have knives of the best quality too. They are very sharp and will never break. I also have 'rope' it is like vines, but much, much, stronger and thicker. Your own knives are no match for its strength. It can only be easily cut by my knife."

When we were done, we had agreed on a negotiating price of two canisters of salt, one knife and the rope. In return, I would have one previously married mate and their children. When inspecting the potential mates, there was no real Kismet like there was with Lyna. Then I finally saw a very attractive woman who was only a few years physically older than me or so.

"This is Rona," introduced Hogat.

I smiled. This one really interested me. She had two children, who were both girls. I estimated their ages as about eleven and eight, but what interested me was Rona herself. She had an amazing body, as she had eagerly dropped her furs for me to examine her. She was incredibly lean, but I sensed quite strong. Her breasts were not quite as large as Lyna's, but looked big on her thin frame. Her face was very pretty for a Neanderthal. She had the forehead, but she had long, dark hair, lovely big, dark eyes and like Tola, she had an amazingly large mouth, with thick, but pouty lips and wide smile.

"I want her and her children," I smiled, as I saw a look of perceived excitement cross Rona's face.

We finalized the deal and I overheard a little grumbling by Tola about the price being too low, but she still smiled at me as we prepared to leave.

"Are you sure you do not want any more mates?" laughed Hogat.

"No..." I started but was interrupted by Lyna whispering in my ear.

"There is an unmated woman who nobody wants because she is too tall. She is also the oldest of the unmated. I met her and she is really nice. Her name is Geeta," whispered Lyna.

I looked at Hogat and shook my head and he laughed as he knew what was coming. "If Lyna wanted the moon, I'd probably give it to her," I sighed.

"Well, who does SHE want?" laughed Hogat. I really liked Hogat. His laugh was hearty and genuine and he seemed to possess a wit that I did not think was possible for his kind.

"Geeta," I answered.

Hogat smiled. "You are a strange man, Mike, but I really like you a lot. Geeta would be a bargain. I am sure that the womenfolk have already ruined her value because they have gossiped with your cunning mate," he said, as he exchanged a smug look at Tola, as to tell her that if the price were less in this particular trade it would be her fault. Tola gave him a sheepish look which already made this a great trade for Hogat, I perceived.

"Normally, we would expect at least two bison for an unmated woman. Geeta is different because she has been a woman for several summers and has yet to be claimed. She is taller than any man in our tribe. For you, she would be a good mate because you are so tall. Do you have more salt?

"Yes. I will give you two more salts and I will kill one Bison on the day she and I are to be mated."

"That is more than fair, my friend," he smiled. I anticipated he would be receiving a disapproving look from Tola but it never came. Instead, she smiled at him and then at me. God, she was sexy.

I then turned back to my new friend. "I will give you the salt now, as a sign of good faith. I also wish to give you these," I said handing him two canisters of pepper. "This is pepper. It can be used to season your food and tastes very spicy. It also will make the taste of old meat seem better. I think you'll like it."

Hogat put a little in his hand and tasted it. "It tastes good. It burns my mouth a little, but I like it."

"Like with the salt, just use a little. It is very strong and pure."

"Good."

"When can we have the mating ritual?"

Hogat smiled at me. "There will be a shaman due at our camp in several moons. I can send word then."

"Good," I smiled back, as I gave general directions to Hogat to where we lived. There was a clearing less than a quarter mile below my plateau on the way back from the Neanderthal caves. I figured that the trees and the cliff topping the cave would mostly obscure the house. I could set up a decoy camp there. While I still felt I needed to be cautious, I was confident that I had made a friend, not an enemy. I sensed eventually I would take Hogat to visit where we really lived.

As the sun was starting to set, I left with my original family and my new wife and two daughters on our trek home.

Like my trip several days ago, we arrived about a half hour before dark. I was shocked. The house looked amazing! It looked like they had extended the height about an extra ten feet or so. I asked my brood to wait outside until I inspected it. When I got inside, I had a bigger shock. There were stairs going up!

"Do you like?" asked the voice in my head.

"Very much!" I answered back telepathically for a change.