Chapter 2

What can I possibly answer to that when an hour ago all that was on my mind was surviving? Do I want a mate? Hell yea! Do I want more than one mate? Why the fuck not? And as all this is going through my mind Andres starts to talk again taking my silence as a reason to continue.

"As you saw from my people we have nine men which are all mated. We have twelve women and we also have two girls who should be able to mate soon and I suspect they are already able to be mated but there's no one around here they wish to be mated to. The women of the tribe decide what is needed for a mate and it's never the same but it has to be from a hunt or fishing."

-"I saw tree men die yesterday and you told me one of them was the father of Pia. What I want to know is if the other two had wives or children that will suffer from their death?

"Yes, one of them was mated and had a son. The others was young and unmated but one of them was our best tracker. We could always rely on him to find animals. He will be missed."

"I'm sorry for your loss but maybe that is where I can help? I'm sure I can replace your tracker if needed and fishing and hunting are not a problem for me." I had in mind that big fishing net on the boat. One net like that will feed a whole village like his easily.

"The game we were bringing back yesterday was for a wedding to be held in two days. It would be of no problem for you to be wed on that day also" Now he looked down and said " I'm sorry master but I'm afraid we have no more than four mates for you, unless you give me more time to go see the other tribes and trade for their unmated women."

-"Andres cut the master crap ok? And why would I want more than one mate let alone four?

-"Well mast ... uh, Rock we pass on information from generation to generation with stories and one of our favorite ones is about how Nadato will send his son down from the mountain to help us and protect us. It is told that he is to be our path leader and that he will take us to a new place. It is said in one song that the sun of Nadato will have one hundred mates. That's why I hope you won't punish us. There's not even that many unmated women on all this island I'm afraid." After saying that he went to his knees again. Damn this can get annoying quick.

-"Get up please, no more kneeling also ok? I don't like it, don't need it and certainly don't want it also ok? And who or what is a Nadato?" You would have thought I slapped him from his reaction.

"But Rock He's our god!" pointing at the volcanic crater "He lives in that mountain and guards over us. It's been so since my first ancestors landed on this island."

"And how long ago was that Andres?" I asked.

"A very very long time Rock. Too many generations to count but the stories talk about a man coming from the mountain and helping the first ones here. He helped with shelter and food for a short time. It is said in the stories that he had to leave but that he would send his son to help us. There's other stories of my ancestors sending men over the mountain to see if they could find his home, But none came back and it has been forbidden to go back and try again."

From what I can understand or make out, a long time ago some of these people got here, probably caught in a storm and took refuge, not being able to salvage their ship. I'm guessing that the other guy was already here riding out the storm, saw the other ship go down and came by to help. Seeing too many to bring back on his ship, he probably decided to keep his boat secret and help out as much as he could. I'm sure he intended to send his son for help but probably didn't make it back ... who knows. But it would seem natural with time to make him look like a God through stories. Time will do that to stories!

Now to try and put a spin on it for him and his people to accept it. "Andres, I'm not Nadato's son" I think he died in that second. "But you have a powerful God that would not forget you. He probably couldn't send you his son but I can tell you that he picked me to come here and guard over you." At that point he started crying and hugging me at the same time. Hugging him back was like hugging a teenager he was so small. I had to remind myself that he was probably older than me after all.

-"My friend, I don't know how many mates I'm gonna need but what if we go back to the tribe a little and you show me which women are available and we'll go from there ok?"

-"Yes, yes. Is there any way you could stay with us for the meal. It would mean great prestige for us to have the envoy of Nadato with us."

"I think that would be a great idea Andres..." I had completely forgotten about Pia still in my arms and she chose that moment to remind me that she was there. "hungry Daddy" Oh fuck! I think I stumbled hearing that and even had to blink fast to dry out my eyes. I felt ten feet tall and that there was nothing I wouldn't go through to feed this little girl.

I don't know how long we had been talking but I was starting to be hungry also.

I followed Andres back to the group where I was presented to each and every one individually. First contact are always important so I asked them all simple question like if they were ok if this women needed food or if I could help out with anything they had going at the moment. How was the boy or girl doing and all that crap? I knew I needed these peoples if I was to stay on this island for any length of time so spending some time with all of them seemed like the right thing to do.