John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 37

I woke with an arm over Geera the next morning. When I got a handful of titty she squirmed her ass back against me and then turned over to face me.

"What made you so worried last night?" She asked.

"I was worried about Georgo and Dotallto and how they would get along together here."

"Does Georgo think that Dotallto will end up replacing him?" She asked.

"I'm afraid that the thought crossed his mind. I hope that I made him realize it wasn't the case."

"I'm sure he will be better soon. Maybe the thought of two new mates has him anxious." She said.

"I don't think that is it. He was asking me about Bowto's mate last night and wondering if anyone had asked her to be their mate yet."

"Ha. The old goat is catching on isn't he? No one has asked Julieta to be their mate yet and I'm sure she knows as well as anyone that Georgo will be after her soon." Geera said.

"Maybe that will improve his mood then."

"It will. To help things along I will mention to her that she should give Georgo a chance to express his interest." Geera said.

"I don't see any harm in that but for now I guess we should get up and get started for the day."

"You probably should. I was thinking of trying to delay you but I should get up too. What about you Jaada? Were you thinking of delaying John?" Geera rose a little and spoke over my shoulder to Jaada who was keeping my back warm with her titties.

"I would be happy to but I should get up too. We have already let everyone else get going ahead of us." Jaada said.

"Nothing is more important than making sure that I am warm when I wake up." I told them in a serious tone.

"Well if you are warm enough we are getting up now." Geera said as she and Jaada vacated the bed.

I got out myself then too and after choking the piss out of dicky I dressed and went to the table. Jara brought me a mug of coffee and I gave her ass an inspection while she was close. I saw that Ameliea had rooted herself into a spot where she could actually cook something and I was surprised that Roweea seemed to be showing her how to make toast.

Dalia brought me a plate soon and I dug in. I was happily stuffing my face when Georgo and Ladeliea made it, Ladeliea heading over to join the cooks and Georgo sitting near me. Ameliea surprised us both by bringing Georgo's coffee. I resisted the impulse to examine her ass by hand even though she stood around a few extra beats apparently trying to tempt me. I determined that I was going to wait for a more overt sign that my attentions would be welcomed.

Raalto was in next with his mates. Jareena and Reeana now had the help of Gateata and Kalayeata in caring for their big caveman. Raalto was in a good mood this morning and looked none the worse for wear.

Racaato and his big bunch came in next and while he looked happier than a pig in shit he did seem like he had been up late getting acquainted. Erieta was also smiling as she and Failiela led Carlota, Kapaleia, Jaanieliea and Kimonea in for breakfast.

All the new arrivals were determined to get a look at the kitchen. They had no trouble figuring out the cooking was being done in the strange looking area and I'm sure they wanted to see what it involved. Gema gave them a little talk hitting the high points and promised that they could get acquainted with Frank after the meal and that he would tell them all about it.

They took seats then and soon everyone was eating. When Maia asked me if I wanted anything else I asked for another breakfast since there was no sense in sitting doing nothing while there was food available. She laughed and fixed me another plate.

After breakfast was over I asked the men to join me in the practice cave for a few minutes. When we were all there I got right to it, explaining my fears about the other camp. Everyone agreed that we needed to be more watchful. When I broached the subject of some of them passing up the bruga after the mating ceremony they all said they would. I was pleased and surprised and promised them that I would get bruga for them to enjoy in a celebration of their own after the mating nights had passed. This made them all happier about their sacrifice.

I told them what Ameliea and I had seen in the first large opening upriver and most of them agreed with her opinion that it was probably more big cats. I decided that we should split up this morning and check out both directions. I asked Racaato, Bigglieo and Galto to come with me upriver and asked Raalto to take the others downriver to check that direction.

All the men had done some practicing with their rifles and Glocks by now and all of them had done some riding. We gathered our rifles and set out for the horse pens. When we went back through my cave I saw that Gema was already introducing the new women to Frank and it made me feel good that Ameliea was right on the front row.

At the pens we all grabbed a mount and saddled up. Nadlo, Jonoco, Danlo, Sahto and Talvo were already working with the horses in training and Danlo asked me where the two new horses had come from. I explained that they were a gift from the spirits for Dotallto to pull his new buckboard then I asked him to hitch them to it and give them a test drive.

The wranglers were all amazed when they looked in the horse cave and found that I was correct and that there was another buckboard beside Georgo's. Danlo promised that they would give the new buckboard and team a little warm up while we were gone.

Raalto led his group off to the south and I headed north with my bunch. We kept our eyes open but saw nothing. When we got to the ramp we went up. The bison were even farther off today than they had been yesterday and I didn't see any horses or aurochs at all. I did see two rhinos though, about half a mile off.

We descended the ramp and headed farther north. There were a few deer off in the distance when we came to the first big opening. The place still looked remarkably vacant though. We split up then, Bigglieo coming with me around to the west while Galto went with Racaato off to the east. We intended to circle most of the area. After about thirty minutes I heard a shot; looking toward the others showed me it had come from Racaato's rifle. Bigglieo and I turned around then and headed toward them. I could see that Racaato was off his horse while Galto seemed to be keeping watch from his mount.

When we got there I saw that I had probably been right and Ameliea mistaken. There was a body, or what was left of it on the ground. Racaato was circling the area in ever widening sweeps but he came back to meet us at the body when we got there.

"Does anyone know who it is?" I asked.

"I don't know him but I remember seeing him among Jakado's men. As far as I can tell he was alone here. His spearcaster is over there." Racaato said pointing to where it lay on the ground.

He turned the man's body over with his foot then and it became obvious that Ameliea had been correct also. There was no mistaking the wounds that smilodon's big daggers had made.

"I haven't gone over his trail here yet but I did find it. The little I saw of it and the cat's sign makes me think that the cat stalked him until he was almost here and then attacked. I think that we should follow back along his trail to see if we can tell which route he took to get here." Racaato said.

I agreed and after Racaato collected the dead man's spearcaster, spears and other things we mounted and let him lead. He had little difficulty following the dead man's sign. It led us all the way around the north of the opening, across the river, and then back west in a big circle along the perimeter. We finally came to a place where it was apparent that the recently departed had climbed down from the upper plateau. It wasn't possible for us to get the horses up there from anywhere near here that we knew about.

Racaato wanted to climb up and work his way on foot toward the ramp while we led his mount back down river and came to find him from the top. I didn't like the idea and said so. I did agree that he should climb up and look around though.

It took him about thirty minutes to get up there. Then he spent another twenty minutes looking around. He finally looked over the edge toward us.

"There were two. One stayed up here while the other descended. It's apparent that the one that stayed was here for some time. Maybe he heard the other's scream or figured out somehow that the other one was not coming back. He did leave heading back toward the south though. I can't tell how long ago it was but he slept here last night." Racaato said.

I told the others to wait for Racaato to come down and then come back and up the ramp; I was going to see if I could find the missing spy. Turning Red toward the canyon I left at a gallop. I didn't let him go all out but did let him run. It wasn't likely that I would find the other man but it was possible. I intended to walk Red out onto the plateau and spend a while scanning carefully with the glasses. The other spy probably didn't expect any pursuit and I doubted that he was taking much time trying to stay concealed. If he was keeping himself under cover all the way he would have to move so slowly that he was surely still up there.

Red wasn't even winded when we got to the ramp. Pulling him down to a walk we headed up. When he walked out onto the plateau I stopped him not far from the ramp, pulled out the glasses and began looking. Searching back toward the north first I looked carefully but couldn't see anyone walking. Turning to search the south and studying it also showed nothing.

I had given up on catching him when the others joined me. Racaato wanted to head straight out across the plateau to see if he could pick up any sign. Bigglieo, Galto and I let Racaato take the lead, staying about fifty feet behind him. We spent a couple of hours looking around but Racaato didn't find anything. That wasn't hard to understand since so many bison used this plateau for their grazing.

When we got back to camp Raalto and the others were back. They hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. We went into my cave since it was time for lunch anyway. We spent the next hour eating and talking about the dead man we had found and the other one that we hadn't.

I wasn't that worried about people coming at us from either direction as long as they came up or down the river's valley. It would be easy to keep a watch on those approaches. Coming up on us from the plateau was a different matter. From up there they could come to the edge and find a place to climb down easily. In fact, with their spear casters they could inflict some damage by attacking us from there. They couldn't do any significant damage but it would be possible for them to pick off one or two of us, maybe more, in a sneak attack. They could then haul ass and probably be gone before we could mount up and take chase.

I couldn't think of a good way to cover that possibility without Argent's help and I hated to get him involved. I decided that we could look around close to our caves for a good place to climb up top. Even if we had to do some work on the canyon's wall for hand and foot holds it would be worth it. A good access route up would allow us to post lookouts without necessitating a trip to the ramp and then back along the edge to a spot over our camp.

Raalto, Racaato and I started looking after lunch. We tried our side of the canyon first. It would be the natural way for the others to approach. If they came up the other side they would either have to come up the river valley and cross the small side stream before climbing or they would have to ascend much further south and then climb down, cross the side stream, and then climb back up.

After an hour of looking we decided that there just wasn't a good way up from here. We could hack one out of the limestone eventually but it would be a bitch. There had to be a better way, the trouble was all the better ways I could think of involved help from Argent.

We crossed the river and searched the other side then. We didn't have any better luck over there. We decided to saddle up and see what things looked like from the top.

An hour later we were looking down on our camp from above. We didn't find any obvious solutions to our problem. We did decide that from this far up, even with the spearcasters, attackers would have a problem hitting anyone. It wasn't impossible but it would be difficult. The attackers wouldn't know it but we would have a much easier time picking them off from below. The trajectory of an M1's bullet was much flatter than that of any spear, no matter how you launched it.

We finally decided we could make do by constructing four good protected firing positions, two on each side of the canyon floor. If an attack came riflemen could take up their positions at the base of the opposite wall from the attack and would probably have little trouble convincing the attackers that they weren't welcome. We went back to camp and got started choosing places for firing positions and then went to work building them.

We stopped at sunset but we weren't through yet. I was a little nervous about just letting things take care of themselves. Supper was ready though and we went inside to eat. Ameliea served me again and this time she made a point of rubbing her ass against me while she did it. Still waiting for an overt sign I didn't touch her.

During the meal we talked more about what we should do. I felt that we should schedule enough men to have two guards outside all during the night, probably for four-hour shifts. We would be safe enough in the caves but if a large group crept up on us during the night we might take some losses dealing with them. After discussing it we decided to make it four men, two south of the horse pens and two north of the northern most cave.

After we'd finished eating we went across to the other caves and got some volunteers to help. When we had them out by the entrance to my cave Merita and Maia got them all acquainted with Prince, King and Rover. We picked places for guard post and I promised them coffee deliveries and set them out.

As I was returning to my cave I got a tingle that let me know Argent wanted some attention. When I entered my mates all wanted to know what was going on. I explained about the guards, also saying that we would need to take them some coffee.

"This is quicker than I expected but now that it has started you are right to take precautions. Cardiato will probably keep sending men, two or three at a time, until he has an idea of a weakness he can exploit. Jakado always sent more men and confronted the situation more directly and Cardiato always argued that it would be better to get more information by stealth first. If he has sent men already he wants the information badly." Ameliea said.

"I think that you're right. I am also planning a little surprise if he sends more men over the plateau tonight."

"What surprise?" Geera asked.

"Red and I will be up there and I will have my special glasses that let me see well in the dark. I won't be able to keep watch on the whole plateau but if they come close to me I will make sure that they don't leave."

"But you can't stay up on the plateau all night alone. Other men aren't the only things that are about in the night up there." Winna said.

"Racaato has said he would go with me."

"It will still be dangerous. Maybe some of us should come too." Dieta said.

"Racaato and I will do it tonight but I'm sure that some of you will need to help if we have to keep it up. If we can catch one alive we will be depending on you to make him tell us what they intend. If it is what I suspect we will go to their camp and talk it over. I don't intend to sit here and keep watch every night because of them."

"That sounds like a much better plan to me. Why should we wait here for them to attack? In the daylight and with our weapons we can deal with them easily, especially if they are all in their camp. You have already caused them to change leaders once and if you keep making them change leaders, sooner or later you will find one that doesn't want to provoke you." Roweea said.

"You might not have to kill even one more after Cardiato. He and Jakado were the two that seemed intent in forcing other camps to join. The aggression might end if he died." Ameliea said.

"I hope that I can capture at least one tonight then. I do not like being made to sleep outside and away from my mates."

"I don't either, especially now." Said Racaato, who had come back to my cave from his.

"Are you ready?" I asked him.

"Yes." He said and after getting a mug of coffee each we left to get our horses.

It would have been better if we could take a wagon but we knew that it would be too visible in the night. I expected to be in a bad mood but somehow wasn't. We rode up to the ramp and then up it. At the top we stopped and I used the night vision goggles to examine thing. When I was done I gave them to Racaato and asked him to check my work. He didn't see anything either.

We headed for a place about five hundred yards from the edge of the plateau and due east of our camp. There was a clump of tough bushes there. We unsaddled Red and Bonehead and hobbled them. They wouldn't look out of place grazing near us. Racaato and I sat among the bushes and considered ourselves concealed. Racaato concentrated on keeping a watch for predators while I kept scanning for humans with the goggles. I did decide that I was going to ask Argent for some infrared equipment too. This caused me to remember that I had gotten a tingle from Argent and promptly forgotten to contact him.

"If you are all right Racaato I will try to sleep first."

"Yes, sleep if you can. I could not sleep yet so if you can get to sleep go ahead." Racaato said.

I lay down knowing that I would be able to sleep at once. I was in a dream with Argent in what seemed only seconds.

"I see that you are expecting company tonight John." Argent said.

"I wouldn't say that we are expecting it but we do think there is a good chance that we will get some."

"You are wise to take precautions. Would you like more information?" He asked.

"What I would really like is some FLIR goggles but if you have information you want to share go ahead."

"Cardiato is sending another two man team to explore your area. They are traveling toward you now and should reach you within three hours. They are not happy about their assignment after one of the other men did not return. The one that did return did not know what happened to his partner. He heard the man scream once when the cat attacked him but that is all the information he had." Argent told me.

"How close to the edge of the plateau are they traveling?"

"If they maintain their direction they might walk right over you." He said.

"I think that we will mount up and try to get behind them then. There is no point in waiting all night out here."

"It will probably work. They are not very familiar with the area. If you get behind them they won't know another way to get home. They can find one of course but it will be difficult for them to get away from you on this plateau, especially since you have mounts." Argent stated the obvious.

"That's what we're going to do then."

"Very well, the FLIR goggles will be beside you when you wake." He said and left me.

I woke and found the goggles.

"I can't sleep either Racaato. Why don't we mount up and work our way south. If we see someone we will try to get behind them."

"I would like that better than sitting here. With these glasses we should be able to see them before they can see us. He said.

I didn't mention the FLIR. We saddled up and rode nearly due east for half a mile and then turned south. We kept the horses to a walk and about an hour later I picked up the two spies with the FLIR goggles. When I told Racaato where to look with the night vision glasses he spotted them too.

It only took about thirty minutes to circle even wider and get behind them. We began to come up on them as quietly as we could then but knew that they would hear the horses soon. We were within about two hundred yards when one turned around and saw us. The other turned too when he spoke.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"It is John and Racaato. Why have you come sneaking around toward our camp in the night?"

They clearly hadn't expected us to be out looking for them. They didn't even have a good lie ready. Finally one of them told us that Cardiato had sent them to find our camp and observe it.

"Would you like to put your spearcasters down and live or would you rather die now?" I asked.

The one who hadn't spoken yet did then.

"You will not kill us so easily in the dark. Maybe we will kill you." He said.

"Do you have a mate?" I asked him as I put the M1 to my shoulder.

"No, I have no mate. What does that matter?" He asked indignantly.

I shot him through the chest. When the blast quieted I asked the other one again.

"Will you throw down your spearcaster?"

"Yes. I am taking it off now. Please do not kill me. I didn't want to come here tonight and I do have a mate." He said loudly.

"That protects him from the two of us better than anything else." Racaato said and laughed.

"I thought that you might be enjoying having many mates now Racaato." I teased him.

"I am but I fear that I already have all that I can enjoy." He said.

We rode up to the living spy. Leaving Racaato to watch him I headed for the edge of the plateau hoping to come to a spot near our camp. When there I dismounted to get my bearings by looking down. I was only about a hundred yards south of the southern guards and I shouted to Bigglieo who was one of them.

"It is me John." He answered.

"Wake Danlo and have him come up here with one of the buckboards. Tell him to turn south when he comes off of the ramp. You should probably come with him and bring your rifle. We have killed one spy and the other has surrendered. I will head for the ramp now and meet you and Danlo." I told him and he agreed.

I rode back to Racaato and told him the buckboard was coming then I headed for the ramp. Meeting Danlo and Bigglieo about halfway I turned around to guide them to Racaato and our prisoner.

Racaato had the man's hands bound behind him when we arrived. We helped him onto the wagon seat and then loaded the corpse into the box heading back at once.

The live spy's name was Mundo. He was understandably curious as to his fate.

"I am going to let Dieta question you. She will not cut anything off you if you tell her the truth about what she wants to know."

"Is she the one that questioned Sadogo? The woman that put a knife in his ear?" He asked.

"That was Dieta. She is one of my mates and she was very cross with me for making her treat him so gently. I will not ask her to do it again. I encourage you to tell her what she wants to know quickly."

"I will tell her anything she ask. If it were not for having a mate I would not even want to return to Cardiato's camp. Wanting everyone to join our camp has made him as crazy as Jakado was. It is foolish to send men off in the night to watch what others do." He said.

"Aren't there others who want to do that also?"

"Yes, many. Though not so many as there were before Jakado was killed. Jakado and Cardiato had convinced us that we could not be killed as long as we had our spearcasters. That was not the truth." He said.

"No it was not the truth. Do you think that Cardiato can be convinced to leave us alone?" I asked him.

"I do not think he will ever stop trying to capture your camp. He has said that he will not rest until you are dead." He told us.

"I assume he has a mate?"

"Yes of course. What camp would have an unmated man for a leader? Why do you ask?" He wanted to know.

"If he were unmated I would kill him but I have enough mates now. I must find one of my men who wants another mate and ask him to kill Cardiato."

"Is it so easy for you to kill men then?" He asked.

"How hard did it seem for us to kill your partner? When he told me he had no mate his death was assured."

"And if he'd had a mate what. Would Racaato have killed him?" He asked.

"I don't think so. Racaato says he has enough mates also. We would probably have just wounded both of you in your feet then and waited until we could have called someone who wanted more mates to come and kill you." I told him.

"Is our life so worthless then that you would wound us and call others to kill us at their leisure." He asked.

"It is obvious that you care nothing for your own life. You came sneaking around to spy on us in the night. Should we have a feast for you?"

"Cardiato would have killed me if I hadn't come." He said.

"And what have you gained by coming?"

He has no answer for that. We traveled the rest of the way in silence. As we passed the guards stationed north of the camp we told them that the watch tonight was over. When we got to my cave Racaato, Mundo and I got off the buckboard. I told Danlo to put it and the team up and asked Bigglieo to tell the other guards that we were through for the night.

When we entered my cave we all got a big surprise. As soon as Ameliea saw the prisoner she went to her things and retrieved her spearcaster and spears. She put the spearcaster on, put a spear in it and turned back walking toward us and looking directly at the prisoner. He hit his knees begging for his life almost before I realized what was going on.

"Silence you sneak about fool? What are you doing here? Why do you bother us?" Ameliea asked him with a barely controlled scream.

"I had no choice. Cardiato forced me to come." He moaned.

"He has sent you to your death then." Ameliea said as she raised the spearcaster then held it still.

"Unless you tell us his plans at once you will die on your knees crying." Ameliea told him.

She was magnificent. Anger flashed from her eyes and was painted on her face. She looked fearsome even to me.

"I will tell anything that I know but please don't kill me. I have done you no harm. I put down my spearcaster when they told me to." He begged.

"You have called our mate out into the night and away from us. That alone is enough to make any of us kill you. Maybe it won't be me though. Perhaps Dieta would like to cut pieces off you until you tell us what we want to know. She said that she enjoyed putting the knife in Sadogo's ear." Ameliea said.

"I would like a chance also. I have a new interest in cooking now since Frank has been so patient with me. I would at least like to have the parts that Dieta cuts off so that I can practice cooking with them." Roweea joined in.

I was feeling sorry for him now myself. I knew that my mates were making sure that he talked until he had told us everything but I could also tell that they would probably enjoy making good on their threats. Hell, I was almost scared myself.

"I think that Mundo will tell you Cardiato's plans. Why don't the three of you take him into the practice cave and ask him about things. At least back there we won't have to hear his screams," I said.

This was a hit with Ameliea, Roweea and Dieta and Maia surprised me by asking if she could join them. I agreed and when Ameliea signaled for Mundo to get up and walk toward the back of the cave he did it at once. Merita decided that she wanted to join in then and when she followed them she called all the young wolves to follow also. I didn't even want to know what part they might play.

I was tired and said so. My remaining mates helped me out of my clothes and into bed where they did their best to console me after my long night of hide and seek. I barely noticed when the others came to bed and didn't even wonder what had become of Mundo.