John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 22

They did. After the first gorging of the feast was over Georgo gave us another speech thanking the spirits for all our new things. He had his buckboard dragged out for all to see and told us that the spirits had made it for him so that he could visit other camps more easily and so that he could return to our camp regularly.

I don't know if he did it intentionally or not, but I noticed in the following few weeks that, since Georgo and I were the only ones with wagons, and since mine was bigger and I'd had it longer I seemed to be elevated to near shaman status alongside Georgo.

Tonight though, everyone looked over Georgo's buckboard and praised the spirits for giving it to him. After Georgo finished his speech he called for the celebration to begin. I hadn't noticed that some of the men and women had brought out musical instruments but I did when they began playing. They were mostly of the percussion persuasion but there were a couple of flutes that joined in.

The music was more like a melodic moaning with a heavy beat than anything else I could compare it to. There was a lot of singing to go along with it but there were no lyrics. They were just carrying the melody with their voices and weren't using words to tell a story or anything of the sort. It sounded ancient to me of course, it was ancient.

The music didn't end and then start again like it would if different songs were being performed. It just continued. Some dropped out for a while and then came back. Some joined and later just quit. The music kept on though.

It very nearly all came to a stop when Georgo had Bigglieo and some of the others bring out the kegs and the tables with all the new beer mugs. There wasn't a big excitement at first because none of them had any idea what it was.

When I gave Bigglieo a mug of brew and he drank it down and told the others what it was the rush was on though. As the music ebbed to its lowest Georgo broke into another round of thanks to the spirits, saying that they had sent this bruga themselves for our celebration.

The spirits were thanked nearly to death for the next couple of hours. I was hoping that Argent was enjoying the praises being shouted to him. As the night wore on and the beer kept flowing I began to think that there was no way he could miss them if he were in this solar system.

As Georgo had predicted, they hammered on the kegs until not a man was left standing and most of the women were shitfaced too. They were certainly the happiest bunch of cave men and cave women I had ever heard of. I'm fairly certain that Georgo and I were the only males in the whole camp that were sober. Even the children had been allowed to march up and get all the beer they wanted. It is funny to see an eight-year-old boy swilling beer from a mug that seems as big as his head.

Somehow all the women had known that they would need to be able to stand at least, even the little girls. When a man went to the ground for the duration, several women would take hold and drag him as close to his sleeping furs as they could get him. My mates had to help too and when Bigglieo hit the dirt even I had to help. That big bastard was a load.

I hadn't had more than two mugs of beer all night so I got to watch without worry of falling down myself. I also helped Jaiya pull Jonoco to the unmated men's place and later helped Melieta with Nadlo's similar trip. They both seemed very grateful for the help and weren't shy about pressing up against me as we put their soon to be mates to bed for the night.

Since this let me end up alone with each of them for a time in the bachelor's quarters, with no one besides their dead drunk intended mates around, I took the time to give each of them a good kissing and fondling while I was at it. Jaiya showed me quickly that she was very grateful for the help.

Her round little rump felt good and her perky tits soon produced plump nipples for thumbing and twisting. I thought seriously about breaking her in for Jonoco but relented at last to give him the first shot at her anyway. I could see how Gigo must have had serious temptations in his day.

When Melieta and I deposited Nadlo I was horny already. She was every bit as thankful as Jaiya had been and since she was a little older than Jaiya, had a rounder ass and somewhat bigger titties. I was willing to go a little farther with her.

I had her tunic off and lay her down beside her unconscious intended, to press my body against and then suck on her tits until my heart was content. When I moved a hand down to cup her warm pussy she spread her legs to accommodate me and soon began pushing it up into my hand. I really hoped I could keep from fucking Melieta but I intended to get my fingers slimy. As I untied the drawstring of her trousers she raised her hips to help me get them down over her ass.

While I let my fingers play in her slippery lips she used her hands and feet to get her pants completely off. She was inviting me to fuck her and I wasn't sure that I could pass it up.

"Melieta I want you but don't you think you should let Nadlo be the first?" I asked her, with dicky cursing me all the while.

"Nadlo wasn't going to let me be his first. He tried to sneak Jaada off into the night or have you forgotten," She asked, as she kept pushing her pussy toward my wet hand.

"Maybe he has learned his lesson," I told her, as I found her hymen guarding her entrance.

"It was you who taught him the lesson. Maybe you should give me a lesson too," Melieta said, through her gasping.

"The first lesson for that is usually painful for young women. I will teach you something else tonight. After Nadlo has shown you the pain I will call you to my bed with my mates often to show you how it can be done with only pleasure," I said, panting myself.

I moved my mouth from her nipples to her pussy then and she moaned as my lips and tongue found her wetness. I felt like moaning myself, as I tasted the sweet virginal secretions.

She tasted exactly like what she was. A sweet new unfucked pussy. I devoured her and she was thrashing her hips and crying out in only a few minutes. I felt like giving her a few little bite marks but didn't. My dick was throbbing and aching as I kissed and cuddled her while she recovered.

"Now I know why all your mates are happy to have you. I hope that Nadlo will be as good to me," she sighed.

I helped her dress again and we left then. The first of my mates I saw as we were returning to the remains of the party was Dieta. Her eyes were shining and she couldn't keep the smile off her face. Even Melieta saw it from a good distance.

"Dieta will not be angry with me will she?" Melieta asked, with some anxiety.

"Dieta will be angry with me, for not doing it with you," I told her.

"It was your choice, I was anxious to," she said.

"I know and I will probably be sorry about it soon but you will see that it is better if you let Nadlo be first."

"If you say so I believe it. Just don't forget that you promised to show me how it really should be done," she said.

"I will not forget and if you are close with Jaiya you can tell her that I will want to give her a few lessons later also," I told her, and since I could see that Dieta had eyes only for us I put my arm around Melieta and got a handful of her ass to fondle for a few steps.

"We are close and I will tell her. She can be anxious with me then," Melieta told me.

She parted from me and headed for the unmated women's place before we reached Dieta. Dieta came to me at once and asked me if I had enjoyed Melieta.

"I enjoyed her Dieta but I didn't fuck her. I only licked her pussy. I will let Nadlo cause the pain for her first time and I have promised her that I would show her how much pleasure it could be later. I might as well tell you that I had a little fun with Jaiya too but I only kissed her and played with her titties."

Dieta was practically salivating now.

"What about Roweea, did you catch her in the bathroom tonight?" she asked, with baited breath.

"No I didn't but there is no rush. If all the others agree, I will ask her to join you all as one of my mates," I told her.

"Come, you must hurry," Dieta told me.

"Why must I hurry, is she about to mate someone else tonight?"

"No, not at all. She is squirming for you already. I have spent half the night telling her what a man you are. She is not why you must hurry. Geera, Dalia, and Shelalliea have been holding Danlo up for the last hour so that you could get back and help Shallea and Shaala take him to the unmated men's quarters. Why didn't you tell me that they watched us last night?" She asked, reproachfully.

"I have been so excited myself almost every time I was around you since then that it slipped my mind. I am going to try not to fuck them either. I want Danlo to do the hard part so I won't have to," I told her.

"All right, all right. You can at least lick their pussies and play with their titties. Since they watched us last night they are burning up for you too. I'm glad that you have seen the wisdom of giving some of the other women some happiness finally," she said.

"I do not know yet that it is wise but I do think that I like it. I guess I will spend some more time rolling around on the floor of the unmated men's quarters," I said.

"You do not need to. When you have put Danlo down just walk Shallea and Shaala back to their quarters, for their safety of course," Dieta told me, and then giggled.

"We will all stay outside and talk to Roweea. Shelalliea will wait for you on our bed and after she has told you what she thinks about you taking Roweea for another mate she will come out and all the others will slip in one at a time to tell you.

"We know that you like to hear it from each of us alone and so we have already made a way to tell you tonight. Roweea will not have to spend another night alone this way," Dieta explained to me, almost as if I were a child.

"I can see that you have everything in order then," I said, trying to hide the humor I felt over the situation.

"Of course we must. You are our mate and it is our duty to do what is in your interest. Most of us have never been the leader's mate before but Geera is teaching us what we need to know," Dieta told me, with a hint of pride in her voice.

"Well I want to tell you that I think all of you are doing a wonderful job."

"Hurry then, before Geera, Dalia, and Shelalliea are too tired to hold Danlo up any longer," she said.

I went to them then and helped Shallea and Shaala take Danlo to lay him down for the night. I could have carried him over my shoulder myself but there would have been no point in that. Shallea and Shaala made sure to brush against me as much as possible during the trip to his quarters and we spent a little time with some preliminary kisses and gropes in the dark cave before we returned to mine. Then I went into theirs with them as Dieta had suggested.

Shallea and Shaala didn't waste any time when we got to their bed. They helped each other get my clothes off and then shed theirs. They had me flat on my back on the bed at once and Shaala mounted for a beard ride as Shallea began sucking and slobbering all over my dick. It was fully hard in seconds. Shallea let it slip from her mouth while I was licking Shaala's sweet lips.

"See how big it is Shaala?" Shallea asked her.

"Yes. Mother was right. It is huge. I think that she and Dalia were right to tell us that Danlo should do it to us first. That big one would hurt much more," Shaala said.

"Yes but we will get to do it with him soon. We can can't we John, after we are mated a while?" Shallea asked.

"It will be my pleasure I'm sure," I told them, around Shaala's pussy.

"Just suck on it for him now Shallea as mother and Dalia told you to. He is making me feel very good and he stops licking when you ask him a question," Shaala told her sister.

The talking seemed to be over with for then and I concentrated on Shaala's sweet pussy. Shallea didn't really know what she was doing with my dick but it felt good anyway. It took a few minutes to get Shaala moaning but after that it wasn't long before she was done. When Shallea took Shaala's spot on my face she was already hot so she didn't last very long either.

I cuddled, kissed, licked, and sucked on them while they were recovering. I also got some good feels of their asses and pussies while I was at it. I let them sleep after a while though, put my clothes back on and left.

I'll admit that I was feeling good about myself when I left them. I felt even better when I saw Shelalliea sitting on the bed with her big smile when I came out.

"Well my mate, have you given my babies a little thrill to help them sleep?" she asked me.

"Yes darling, I have licked them where it feels best. I will let Danlo show them what hurts for a young girl and then I hope that I can give them and even bigger thrill," I said, smiling myself.

"If there is a bigger thrill anywhere I haven't heard of it and neither has any of your other mates. I am here to tell you that I am panting for you to mate Roweea as are all the rest," she said.

I had reached her side by now and she pulled me to sit on the bed and kissed my lips. She backed off just a little and sniffed at my face and then she kissed me with even more passion.

"I can smell my babies' pussies on your face and I must leave while I still can. Just wait here."

I waited as each of them slipped in and then out telling me that of course I should mate Roweea also. Dieta was the last to come in and I already knew what she thought of it. She made sure that she told me anyway and when she went back out I went with her.

Roweea was still with them talking, almost everyone else that could find their way to bed had gone. There was one couple still in sight but they were leaning on each other and trying to stumble into the big cave. I walked right up to Roweea.

"Roweea all my mates have asked me to take you for a mate also. I do not take mates though; I ask them if they will have me. Will you have me Roweea, not because my mates tell me it is right, but because I want you to be with me now and from now on. Will you?" I asked her.

"Yes, I will John. I want to be with you also. I want to be with all of you. I am one of your women now. Can we go to bed soon, I am so hot and I need you?" she said

Remembering a trick or two from my previous life I swept her up into my arms and carried her to the bed as the others all followed. I set her on her feet beside our bed when I reached it and began taking my clothes off. She didn't waste anytime following my lead. She did eye the bed questioningly though.

"What is that John?" she asked.

"That is our bed Roweea. It is where we sleep. I think that you are going to like it," I said.

"If you are going to be sleeping in it I know that I will like it," she told me.

"You will like it even better when he is in it and not sleeping," Dieta told her, and when all the others laughed Roweea finally did too.

Roweea was a redhead with gray eyes. I had never seen that combination. It made her face and smile very attractive. The rest of her was attractive too. I didn't see a freckle on her anywhere but her face. Her skin was milky white but not quite as white as Dalia's. She had big breasts and deeply pink nipples. I wanted my lips on them and her red bush made my mouth water.

She was watching me closely as I shed my pants and she took a surprised look at my boner and a little smile came to her lips.

"Dieta, he is very big. It will be almost like my first mating night again," she said.

"I am betting that it will be much better than your first mating night. In fact I would bet anything or everything that I have that it will," Winna said.

All the others had to agree with her then. I don't know if my hairy head swelled but my dickhead did. I opened my arms and Roweea came into them pressing her fat white titties and her pink nipples into the hair on my chest. I put my arms around her to hug her and then dropped my palms to cup her firm buttocks and kneed them as we kissed hotly.

Roweea began urging me toward the bed then and when she had me on my back she looked into my eyes.

"You are so big John, do you mind if I let myself down on you from the top?" she asked.

"I can't think of anything I'd like better my new mate. Do it to yourself on me this time so you can go as slowly as you want to," I assured her.

She was already dripping and as she straddled my hips she took hold of dicky to show him the way. He couldn't really see out of his one eye anyway. It sent shivers through me and her also as she pulled the head back and forth through her wet lips to make sure it was coated with her juices. When her wet warmth started to descend around my dick it felt like heaven and she kept on lowering herself, slowly but continuously. She slid me all the way up into her with one long slow smooth push. I was in heaven.

Roweea started a slow gentle rocking and then progressed to a smooth rising and falling. She became more forceful in a little while and as her temperature raised her tempo increased. Soon she was doing me with long full strokes and not a little force.

She kept getting faster and harder until near the end she was slamming her self up and down my dick at a furious pace. She threw her head back and she was moaning loudly until she hit her peak and cried out.

"Oh Dieta, you were right. He is the best man ever. He isn't even through and I am spent already," she growled.

"Yes he is grand isn't he? He can do us all with his dick in two nights and I think that he could lick us all in one night until none of us could take anymore," Dieta said, practically gloating.

"I have some news for you Dieta. I can do you all with my dick in one night if I need to. I just don't want to seem to be showing off," I told Dieta, and all of them.

They all looked at me as if they couldn't believe that and then I admitted that it wouldn't be tonight. I was pretty proud of my work though. I managed to keep it up and then get it back up until I'd done all except Dieta, Dalia, Geera and Shelalliea. They didn't miss out either since the others kept them well licked by taking turns on them.

I woke first the next morning and was surprised that I was able to work my way to the edge of the bed and get up without causing any of my mates to get out of bed. It had to be the beer. I knew that they had all had a little last night and even though none of them had gotten drunk I was thinking that they must all have a hangover this morning.

I made a pot of coffee in the new party perc and I found a big pan and brought enough water from the bathroom for all of them to have a big mug of it when they got up. I also dug out some aspirin from my first aid supplies. Dalia was the first to force herself out of bed.

"Good morning beautiful," I told her and she gave me such a look, then thought better of it and tried to smile.

"Good morning my man. How can you move around so early?" she asked.

"I took your advice and didn't drink very much bruga," I answered, grinning.

"I should have listened to what I had to say. My head is pounding. Your bruga is very much stronger than it seemed as I was drinking it," She told me wryly.

"It is that. Come here and have a big glass of water and swallow two of these pills," I told her, showing the aspirin.

She came to me asking what they were.

"They will make the pounding stop. Maybe you should eat something first though. They can make your stomach burn if you take them when it is empty, not often but sometimes."

"I will take the chance. The pounding has my attention now. I will worry about my stomach later if it burns," she said.

She drank the whole mug of water I gave her and then swallowed the aspirin with the first of another mug. I encouraged her to drink all that mug too.

"Why should I drink so much water? I am always thirsty when I wake up the day after I drink bruga and I have always wondered why," she said.

"I can tell you the reason. Haven't you noticed that you must make water more often while you are drinking bruga? That is why you are thirsty the next morning.

"The bruga causes you to make water more often. That is also why the pounding comes to your head. You do not have enough water in you this morning. The aspirin will make the pounding easier until you can get enough water back in you."

"Can't I just drink all the water I need at once then?" she asked.

"You can try but it will still take time for it to get where it needs to be to stop the pounding. The aspirin will make the pounding go easier until you are right inside again."

"Good. I think that I will be more careful if we ever have that bruga again," she said.

Shelalliea was up by then and I had to start the bruga, water and aspirin story all over again. The rest of my lovelies seemed intent on staying in bed all morning.

I was even able to get Dalia and Shelalliea to drink a mug of coffee though and they were both feeling a little better in about a half hour. They felt good enough to cook some bacon and eggs anyway and that made my mood even better.

After I'd eaten I asked them to tell the others about the water and the aspirin when they got out of bed and I went outside to see what our little area looked like now in the daylight.

There was no one outside moving but the grounds didn't look too bad. No such thing as paper or plastic cups to be scattered around and all the food had been put away before the drinking had started, so the only real mess was dozens of plastic mugs scattered everywhere. There were still plenty of clean mugs so I got one and headed to the kegs. Four of them were floating in their now melted ice but there was beer in the others and I pulled a mug. It wasn't as good as coffee in the morning but I drank it anyway.

Georgo came out of my cave's entrance then with one of the new coffee mugs in his hand.

"John you were right about the coffee. I think that I must have some every morning now. It seems that I know I want some as soon as I wake," he told me as he approached.

"That is coffee Georgo. Once you find out about it you wonder how you were able to live before you did."

"You are exactly right. I was thinking that as Dalia got this for me. I think that you are shaman also John even though you say you aren't," Georgo said, laughing.

"I am not shaman but I do know some things. Right now, I am feeling a little sad for the first two men that get up this morning," I told him.

"Why is that?" he asked.

"I am going to have them move all the barrels and kegs back into my cave and I'm going to have them pour the water out of the barrels with the empty kegs. They will be sorry to see the bruga put away, even though their heads will still be pounding from all of it they drank last night," I explained.

"Will you give them all some of the aspirin Dalia gave me?" he asked.

"If they seem very bad I might give it to a few but I don't want them to get the idea that they can drink bruga and then not have a pounding head the next day. It will make them want bruga more often. What do you think?"

"I think that you are right. Let their heads pound. It will keep them all quiet today and they won't be wondering so much about the bathrooms. They will just be happy to have them nearby, and by tomorrow most of the strangeness of them will be gone," Georgo said.

"I might tell them how much the warm baths with the moving water will make them feel better though. It will make them like the bathrooms even more and their heads will still pound though it won't seem so bad while they are in the water."

"I hadn't thought of that even though I tried my tub last night and did see how it made me feel better. You should tell them about it John and they will not only feel better, they will all be clean at the same time. It will smell much better around here for a while," Georgo said, and laughed again.

"Wait and see, after they become accustomed to using the bathrooms it will smell better around here all the time. For one thing there will not be human waste all around outside."

"The bathrooms are going to be much more useful than I thought at first. I know that you can't tell me how you got them and I am not asking. I am just glad you did. I will try to just let myself think that the spirits did bring them," Georgo said.

"Spirits did bring them Georgo, it just isn't any spirit that you knew about before."

"I see," Georgo said, and I could tell that I had him wondering even more now.

Bigglieo came stumbling out of the big cave then.

"Bigglieo, how are you feeling this morning?" I shouted, and I could tell that it was louder than anything Bigglieo wanted to hear yet.

"I am feeling as if I had been in a fight and lost," Bigglieo admitted.

"Well go into the bathroom and get into one of the tubs with the moving water and soak for a while. It will make you feel better. I will need you and at least one other to move the barrels of bruga back into my cave soon," I told him.

"The tub will make me feel better?" He asked.

"Try it, make the water hot. Do not make it as hot as you can stand it though, just hot. I do not want to have boiled Bigglieo for my dinner."

He tried to laugh at that but couldn't. He turned around and headed back into the cave. It looked like a trip back for Shelalliea, Shallea, and Shaala's things was not in the cards for Bigglieo today. They would keep. Since Barbo and Jara thought that a hundred bison depended on the things being undisturbed when we came for them I thought that they would be fine until we could.

"I assume that you will take Roweea for a mate now. I saw her still sleeping in your bed when I passed through toward the coffee and breakfast," Georgo said.

"Yes, she will be one of my mates. I should have asked you if I need some type of ceremony when I take a mate who has already been mated?"

"No, that is not done after the first mating. It is good too. If I had to give a ceremony each time you took a mate I would have time for nothing else," Georgo said, with a serious look.

It struck me as odd and I was about to ask him if I had made some blunder when he broke out laughing. He had been fucking with me and when I realized it I laughed even harder.

"Maybe I should find a mate or two for you Georgo. They might teach you some manners," I said, trying to get a little of his goat.

"By the time a shaman is good enough to provide for a mate he is usually too old to want one. I shouldn't say so but I am often comforted by women in the camps I visit," he said, and couldn't help grinning.

"I thought as much but didn't want to seem nosey. Maybe I should ask my spirit to block the entrance from your cave to mine," I said, trying to tease him a little more.

"John! I would never pester any leader's mate," He told me, looking shocked that I had even said it.

"You should see the look on your face Georgo," I told him, and then laughed.

Georgo didn't quite catch on that I had been pulling his leg.

"Georgo, I did not think that you would pester my mates, but I think that I should find you a mate to wait for you here at least. I will provide for her and you. You won't have to worry about whether you can feed her. I can feed her for you. You have been of much help to me and it is a small thing. You should have a mate if you want one," I told him.

"It usually isn't done John. Shamans rarely take mates while they still travel, and if they stop traveling, they no longer know what things are happening. There are usually women in the camps that I visit that do not mind comforting me and if they are mated their mates do not mention it," He told me.

Now I saw what he was thinking about. He wasn't sure that he wanted a mate with him all the time. He was probably afraid that it would cause complications that might keep the other women from "comforting" him. No longer knowing what things were happening wasn't what he was really afraid of. He was afraid he would no longer know what all those comforting women's pussies smelled like.

"You would not have to take your mate traveling with you if you didn't want to, she could live here in your cave while you are gone. You will have the wagon so you can travel faster and come back more often. My mates and I will make sure that she has more than enough to eat even if she doesn't hunt or doesn't even know how to gather food," I said.

"You would do that for me John?" he asked.

"I would be happy to do it for you. You must not realize how much you have helped me. Didn't you notice that your new bed had room for more than you? You have room in it for yourself and at least three mates Georgo. I will tell you another secret. If you get more mates than the bed will hold it will grow," I told him.

He was completely taken aback by this. I didn't actually know for sure that it would happen but I had a feeling that increasing the size of a bed did not trouble Argent very much. He hadn't even mentioned it when he increased the size of mine.

"I cannot understand that John. How can the bed grow if it is not alive?" he asked me.

"I do not know how it can grow Georgo, just as I do not know how the spirits can make new caves, wagons, or bathrooms. I just know that they can do it and that sometimes they do.

"I am not surprised that they have done these things for you. You are a better shaman than you think. I also think that you should use some of the time that the wagon saves you meditating in your spirit chamber. I believe the spirits made the chamber for you so they would have a place where they could talk to you in comfort. They may want to show you some things," I told him, making it all up out of whole cloth as I went.

As I finished telling him this I felt the now familiar tingle that Argent used to let me know something was going as planned. I didn't go on about the spirit chamber anymore with Georgo but I did think that getting him to take a mate was in order.

"Georgo you must know of some woman somewhere that you would like for a mate."

"It is very strange that you should bring this up today John. It is also strange that you would mention my bed could hold three mates. There are three women that I have wanted to mate but I knew that I could never support three mates. That is one reason that I have never taken one, since I could not bear to choose between two of them. The other is already mated.

"I am ashamed to say that I have wished for her mate to be killed hunting or in an accident. He is one of those I told you about that I would not have in any camp if I were a leader. He is not kind to her and in fact he sometimes beats her<" Georgo told me.

"I do not like that Georgo and it makes me want to saddle Ben and go kill him now. In fact I think that I will do it. I will go in the morning and kill him then I will bring the woman here to be your mate," I told him, and I intended to do just that.

"Please do not do it John. I hurt for her being his mate and I know that she does not want to be. If you kill him she would be your mate and I would not mind that. It would be much better for her and in fact I would be happy for her to be one of your mates.

"It is not right that you go and kill a man on my say so though. It would make me reluctant to tell you anything else for fear that you would kill someone from something I said," he told me, earnestly.

"I will not do it then Georgo, but I think that you should go into your chamber and meditate about it at once. You must give the spirits a chance to talk to you about this. It may be the very reason that they have provided the chamber for you.

"You should also stop worrying about choosing between the women you want. I can feed three mates for you as easily as I can feed one. You will soon see that I can feed many more people than you have imagined," I said.

"I will then. I will go meditate." Georgo told me. and left.

I didn't really know shit about any spirits except Argent. I did know that he had tingled me though and when he did, it usually meant something. I was mad about any man beating a woman though, especially in this time since medical treatment was practically non-existent.

In one way it shouldn't make a shit to me what happened, I didn't belong here after all. In another way it meant a lot to me. I lived here now and what happened here affected me. I had the ability to do something about most things that went on here and I somehow felt responsible when something I knew was wrong was going on.

No one had told me to be the ruler of all these people but then again no one had told me not to. I'm sure none of them wanted me to have the power of death over all of them but I did have it, to a certain extent. I could do pretty much anything I wanted to. I would just have to concentrate on trying to do things that were good overall. I wondered if I would be smart enough to figure out what was good and what wasn't. I went down to the horse cave to find something to do.

I was trying to decide which two horses I would train for using with Georgo's buckboard. He knew nothing at all about the horses but I didn't think it would take nearly as long to train Georgo as it would to train the horses. It came to me that since Sally and Jane were already well accustomed to pulling my wagon I could give them to Georgo and train two more for the wagon more easily. I harnessed Sally and Jane and lead them up to Georgo's cave to get his buckboard. I was going to take it for a little test drive to make sure that Sally and Jane acted right pulling it.

When I got to his cave he was nowhere in sight. I assumed that he was meditating. I hitched Sally and Jane to the buckboard and away we went. I had taken the time to get my M1 before I left and I kept my eyes open for any gimmes as I drove the team. When I came to what I now thought of as the ramp to the upper plateau I turned up it. They had no trouble negotiating the new path with the much lighter buckboard. I drove right out onto the plateau when we reached the top.

With the glasses I could see bison in the thousands, they were probably about three miles away. I had no intention of trying to load a bison into Georgo's buckboard by myself though. I hadn't really come to hunt anyway and if I did kill something it wouldn't be any larger than a deer, which I could easily just put into the buckboard's box and carry back without even bothering to gut it.

I could see more aurochs today. They stayed in smaller groups, but the giant cattle didn't usually travel in groups of less than twenty or thirty. I was surprised when I saw a few wooly rhinos only about a mile from me. I wasn't going to try fucking with them today either. Finally I turned around and headed back down the ramp.

We continued up river when I was back to the canyon floor. I went about three more miles up it. When I spotted the band of horses that I recognized as the larger ones I had seen up on the plateau on my last trip I turned around. Hangovers or not, some of the men would be building fence this afternoon.

With these horses on the canyon floor now, I was going to try and drive them down river and then get them turned up into the blind canyons. Once we had them in it we would fence the mouth. I turned back and headed for the caves.

Even with my mates helping it still took nearly two hours to get everyone up, moving and clued in to the plan. There were no mumbling complaints about it, there were a lot of moans and groans though.

I took all the men out into the canyon with me. I stationed a man in each cave opening to make sure that none of the horses would try to enter a cave. I didn't think that any of them would but if they did they would cause havoc inside.

I spread most of the rest across the canyon about a hundred yards south of the blind canyons' entrance and I had a couple stand back inside the horse cave to make sure that none of the horses I'd be moving tried to enter there especially. It would be a disaster if they happened to break down the fence. These men could also come out into the open to help if we needed them. It only took them a few minutes to understand what I was trying to do. I left Bigglieo in charge here and after saddling Ben I headed back up river.

It was a little tricky getting behind the band of horses. They were suspicious of Ben since he had something strange on his back. I kept him very near the edge away from them though. They were a little nervous but they didn't panic.

When I was about a half mile past them I moved Ben to the center of the canyon and started back down it, talking softly at first and then louder as I approached. They still didn't panic but they did stop grazing and began moving away from me.

It was pretty much a done deal then. I kept approaching them and they kept moving away. As far as I was concerned they were caught after they'd passed the ramp and didn't start up it. It was their last good chance to get away. I will admit that I had completely forgotten about that possibility. It didn't matter now though.

I could tell when they noticed my men spread out blocking their path. They saw the blind canyon's entrance at nearly the same time and I was sure that they already knew about it. They turned up into it almost as if they had wanted to anyway. When they did the men moved to it and provided a temporary deterrent to the horses' leaving. The new horses didn't run or panic, they just moved farther back into the blind canyon.

It was all posthole diggers and fence building after that. I showed Bigglieo what I had in mind and soon he was digging postholes and most of the other men were helping Galto as they got their introductions to saws and Alien axes. The fence was finished including a nice big gate before sunset.

This was a larger group of horses than my first bunch and my closer look at them, as I had been moving them along, had let me know that they were indeed bigger. The stallion for this group was a little over fifteen hands and pretty heavily built also. He and Ben would have to come to an understanding if they were ever allowed to run loose together. I was pretty sure that Ben was going to get the short end of the stick. That was the way of things though.

The biggest Stallion got the most mares. In this unnatural situation where no other stallions could come around to raid for mares, the new stallion was going to have a lot more mares than he normally would have.

He had an impressive group as it was. There were over thirty-five mares in his band. Eighteen of this year's foals were with them and there were still fourteen yearlings hanging around. Our horse herd had grown considerably in one day. I was set for more horse training even though I didn't have all of the first group trained.

I hoped that Nadlo, Jonoco, and Danlo had recovered from last night's activities. They would need to stay at the new barrier a night or two to make sure no predators tried to get in. They took the news with surprising enthusiasm for the idea.

Jonoco said he thought that they should keep a fire going just past each end of the new fence and one in the middle. He thought that they would be able to make sure nothing approached that way and I agreed that he was probably right.

The other men helped them out by bringing in most of the limbs and branches and tops they had removed from the trees they'd cut for post and rails. The fires didn't need to be all that big but they did need to keep at least a little flame going all the time.

Prince, King and Rover seemed anxious for new duty too and took an exploratory trot into the blind canyon before settling down to stay near the three bachelors. Dalia had fixed them all a big supper and their soon to be mates brought it to them. I left them eating and flirting.

My supper was ready when I got back to my cave. Georgo was already working on his as Dalia handed me a plate. We had been just sitting around or squatting anywhere we could to eat so far and as I saw the folding tables I thought to myself that we could use one of those if we had a few stools to sit at. I decided to see about getting some made or making some myself. This time though I sat on one of the new salt containers beside Georgo.

"You were exactly correct about the meditation John," Georgo told me as I sat.

"How is that?" I asked.

"After I had been at it for about an hour a vision came to me. It didn't speak and I didn't see any sights, it really wasn't much as visions go. I did get a tremendous feeling that I should visit the camp we were talking about though. I will start to it tomorrow," he told me.

"How far is it to the camp?"

"I can walk to it in two days easily," he said.

"We can go in your new wagon. It will give me a good chance to teach you how to handle your team," I told him.

"But I didn't think that you would have horses trained for my wagon yet. How did you do it so fast?" he asked.

"I am going to give you Sally and Jane, the two that usually pull my wagon. They are already well trained. It will be easier for me to train a new team for my wagon than it will to train one for yours, and this way you can go ahead and start using your wagon," I told him.

"You are getting very generous to me and I appreciate it," he said.

"I am just using good sense. You are the only shaman we have but we have plenty of horses. The last step in getting you and the wagon together is training you to use it. I will finish that tomorrow," I told him, and grinned.

"It is good that you are going to do it. The feeling I got let me know that I needed to come to the camp soon," Georgo said.

We talked about it a little more and then Georgo went to his cave to make sure he got plenty of rest since we were going to leave shortly after sunrise in the morning.

While we had been eating Shallea, Shaala, Melieta, and Jaiya came in to talk to Dalia and Shelalliea and then the four of them went into Danlo's cave. I wondered about it a little but didn't comment. When Shelalliea and Dalia looked at me with a sneaky little smile I got just a little suspicious. They couldn't wait and came over to where I was finishing my supper; Dalia was bringing me more coffee.

"John I think that you should go check on the four of them in a few minutes," Shelalliea said.

"What do I need to check for?"

"They are all going to get into the tub with the moving water and the bubbles. You should go and make sure they are using it correctly," Dalia told me, and almost kept a straight face.

They didn't have to ask me twice. I told them that I would go check in a few minutes and declining the coffee I went to where Bigglieo and who ever helped him had put the beer. I pulled off a mug of Lone Star for my desert. It wasn't ice cold anymore but it was still cool enough to be good.