John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 38

The next morning I woke with more than two bed warmers. All those that had been involved in Mundo's inquisition were still in bed with me and still sleeping. I was spooned up against Ameliea's beautiful backside and somehow I managed to get over her and out of bed without waking anyone. I was sure they had been up late with Mundo and I wanted them to get all the rest they could.

After dressing I went to the table and sat down. Shelalliea brought me a mug of coffee and a delightful ass to fondle; she even gave me a big kiss before she left. Raalto and Racaato came in and sat down at the same time and after Gema coffeed them we were about to talk. Then Bigglieo came in with his mates and Barago and Britta seemed to be right behind him. We all waited until everyone was present before starting the talk.

"Have you heard any of Mundo's story yet?" Racaato asked.

"No. His tormentors are still sleeping and I want them to get their rest. It will be soon enough to hear from them when they wake."

"But where did they leave him?" Raalto asked.

"I don't even know that."

"I do, look back near the entrance to the practice cave." Waaya said pointing.

She was right. Mundo was tied sitting in a chair near the practice cave's entrance. All the wolves were lying around him. He shifted in his sleep and then moaned slightly. When he did Prince got up and growled at him, waking him fully. Mundo kept very still for several minutes and satisfied, Prince settled down again.

"I would hate to be in his position." Racaato said.

"I'll bet that he likes his current situation much better than he liked the one last night." Raalto laughed.

"You can bet that he was glad to tell them anything that they wanted to know. Ameliea even scared me." I told them.

"What will we do now John?" Raalto asked.

"I haven't decided yet. The easiest thing would probably be to go and kill Cardiato for this. Then maybe the next leader will think twice before sending spies. Letting them keep on might not be a bad idea either though. If we don't go and tell them they will not know what happened to their men at all."

"That will cause trouble in their camp. It will make it even harder to get men for another try." Racaato said.

"It will cause more trouble than that. The uncertainty will cause talk to start behind Cardiato's back." Raalto added.

"That couldn't be bad for us. Maybe we should just try to capture the next men that he sends."

"It will be a lot of trouble but it will also cause him the most trouble. I wonder if he will send more tonight?" Raalto asked.

"Maybe my mates will know. We can wait until they get up to find out."

Women came with plates of food then and we let the talk go as we ate. What to do kept churning around in my head though. I didn't want to keep up this game forever but I didn't want to go down and kill someone if I didn't have to. Thinking of causing even a minor revolt from within Cardiato's own camp had its appeal to me. Using Argent's help for information only wasn't so bad and if no men were coming we could just go about our business as usual.

I noticed that Danlo, Nadlo and Jonoco weren't at breakfast yet then remembered that I hadn't seen them during meals for the last few days. I wondered if it was just coincidence or if they were staying away for some reason.

"Dalia, do you know why Danlo doesn't seem to eat breakfast with us anymore?"

"Danlo, Jonoco and Nadlo thought that since all your main helpers ate with you each morning they should wait until you were done eating and talking." She said.

"Do you have time to go tell them that we are getting tired of waiting for them to drag their lazy asses in to eat whenever they feel like it?" I asked but made sure to make it seem like a joke.

Dalia and Shelalliea both left to tell them.

"I'm going too, I'll let Shallea and Shaala know that you've noticed that they can't seem to get their mate out of bed and off to breakfast on time." She said laughing a little.

While Dalia and Shelalliea were off to fetch the youngsters I asked the men at the table for volunteers to kill Cardiato if it came to that. Raalto and Racaato were quick to ask for a break here.

"Of course I will do it if there is no other way or even if it seems the safest way but I would rather not have another mate just now." Racaato said and then Raalto voiced the same thought.

Bigglieo was the next to beg off and it was a wonder to me that the look Suleita and Daleana gave him didn't make him change his mind at once. The others all seemed to want to dodge the task then. It was a little odd to me since most of them only had one mate; maybe they knew their limitations. Of course I hadn't seen Cardiato's mate and they might know that she was ugly or disagreeable in some other way. No matter, someone was going to have to take her unless I was misreading the situation since I was pretty sure that we would need to kill him sooner or later, but I promised them all that I would try to make sure that none of them had to.

"Will we need to post guards again tonight John?" Bigglieo asked.

"I'm not sure but I don't think so. I doubt that Cardiato thought his men could travel here, find out anything, and travel back in just one day. He probably won't decide that they aren't coming back until tonight. We may know more when the rest of my mates wake."

"What of the hay John. Shouldn't we start gathering it?" Raalto asked.

"Yes. I'll go with you this morning to get you started. We should also send some men up on the plateau with the other wagon to gather some bison dung. We will probably need a lot of it this winter for heat."

"We will need a good supply but in caves, if the entrance is closed off well enough, it does not get nearly as cold as you would think." Barago said.

"Would you be willing to take some men to start gathering the dung Barago?" I asked him.

"Yes, even if the caves do not get as cold as huts they still get cold and I do not like to be very cold. I will be glad to see that we gather plenty of dung. He said.

"We should also begin hanging the bison skins to cover the entrances soon. I will see to that job if you would like." Daaggo offered.

"That will be excellent Daaggo. Do we have enough bison skins?"

"We have many more than enough. It is surprising to me that even the largest caves seem to have rather small openings. I don't think that there is a one that will need more than three bison skins for covering, four at most." Daaggo said.

"If we have enough skins we should probably make two curtains, one outer and one inner, leaving about three or four feet distance between them. It will keep the caves even warmer that way."

"I had not thought of that but I can see how it would help. With enough distance between them one can block the wind while the other is being passed through. There will never be an opening for the wind to come through unless two people hold both curtains open." Daaggo said.

Danlo, Jonoco and Nadlo came in rather sheepishly then with Dalia and Shelalliea following them and trying not to laugh. Without mentioning their tardiness, I caught them up on who would need what in the way of wagons and teams this morning and then asked Racaato if he could give them more shooting instruction after they finished getting the horses and wagons ready. He agreed.

Georgo, Ladeliea and Dotallto came in then. Georgo had just found a seat when he asked me about sending a rider to invite other camps to the mating ceremony.

"Most of the camps I know about live here now. Are there others close enough that might want to see it?"

"Not really. Do you know of any that might be close enough to come Dotallto?" Georgo asked.

"The only camp that is really close enough is Cardiato's camp and I doubt that they would come if you asked them. I would not ask them if it were left up to me." Dotallto said.

I thought about it and decided I would just be poking a stick into a wound if I sent a messenger to ask them to come for a mating ceremony. It would probably be risking the life of the messenger and horse also. I decided that we would have a private ceremony.

There were stirrings from the big bed about then and after a few minutes in the bathroom all the questioners came to the table. I noticed that Ameliea went directly to the coffee pot to get herself a mug. I thought it was a little funny that she had become a coffee person already.

They all drifted over as if they were going to help with the cooking but I asked them to come and tell us about Mundo and they did.

"Mundo was willing at once to tell all and wasn't very good entertainment for us. We took a long time about it though and asked him questions over and over to make sure he was telling the truth. I doubt that he could have held to his story through all the questioning if he hadn't been truthful. Especially since we managed to keep him very nervous and afraid the whole time." Dieta said.

"I also think that we got the truth out of him because what he told us matched my expectations of Cardiato's actions. Mundo said that Cardiato was able to secure his position rapidly by intimidation. Cardiato is the best with the spearcaster and Mundo said that he made it clear that he was not above killing other contenders to get his way." Ameliea said.

"Did he have any ideas about what Cardiato was planning?"

"Cardiato is planning to sneak up here and kill you. He plans to kill all the leaders here but he isn't interested in killing any of the others in camp unless he must. He wants to take over this camp just as Jakado took over all the other camps he encountered." Roweea said.

"Did he say when he was expected back?"

"He isn't expected to return until late this afternoon. He also told us that our camp is not where they thought it was. They believe it is much farther north. That's why they are not coming up the valley. It is a shorter route to climb to the plateau and travel that way." Maia said.

"Good, I will ride down the valley to see if I can discover where they are ascending after I have Raalto started with the hay. If I can find the spot we can be waiting tomorrow and capture them as they are climbing."

"You should probably try to backtrack them from the top. If you ride down the valley looking for the spot they climb they may see your sign later if they get there before dark." Colonto said.

"You are right. I will search for their access from the top."

With that decided the talking was over. After everyone finished eating, Raalto, Racaato, Barago and I went to the horse cave to get the wagons. Danlo, Jonoco and Nadlo had left before us and were well on their way to having the teams hitched when we arrived.

Raalto, Racaato and Barago helped me load the scythes and pitchforks into the big wagon and some manure forks into the other wagon while the wranglers were finishing hitching the teams. After that was done Barago took my original wagon and Raalto took the big wagon up to the center of camp. From there they were going to gather some men to help. Racaato and the wranglers returned to my cave to prepare for the shooting lessons and I saddled Red and rode him to the wagons.

Bigglieo and Galto were aboard with Barago and his group and they were leaving just as I got there. Bigglieo, Galto and Barago all had their M1s and I'm sure that they intended to alternate to keep one lookout watching the work to make sure that no predators approached. It was doubtful that even a big cat would come upon so many men together but it wasn't unthinkable.

Caato and Colonto were going along with Raalto to provide the same service. Raalto had drafted about thirty men to help with the hay and Barago had taken about twenty men with him. As we were leaving I saw Daaggo and ten other men starting on the coverings for the cave openings.

After we got to the large meadow it didn't take me long to show Raalto and the men how to go about cutting hay and then how to load it into the wagon with the pitchforks. I could tell though that freighting the hay was going to consume most of the time. We were only about four miles from camp here but it would still be a lengthy trip. Only three or four men would need to go for unloading though and the others could just keep cutting hay while they were gone.

I mounted Red then and headed for the ramp. When I was up on the plateau I started toward the spot where we had confronted the two men last night. Even to my eyes, recognizing the location where the dead man had bled out his life was no problem and it was fairly easy to backtrack them to the south. Losing the trail a few times was normal but it was usually no trouble to pick it up again and I finally arrived at the site where they had climbed out onto the top.

The reason they had chosen this place for their climb was apparent at once. There was almost a trail up the canyon's wall at this point and I could tell that it had probably been used on and off for years. It would also be and excellent place to ambush them from and there was even a small scattering of trees a half mile away where we could conceal the wagon. This would mean that we wouldn't have to send for it later and after looking the area over carefully I remounted Red and we returned to camp.

I got back just as the first load of hay had been unloaded and saw that the big wagon was headed back for more. Of course this rapid progress would not have been possible without Argent's help. The hay couldn't have dried enough for storage under normal circumstances and if the Aliens were not going to be watching over it we could expect a fire, from spontaneous combustion, in a few weeks. I'm sure that Argent understood this but I was going to point it out to him just in case.

I unsaddled and groomed Red and then put him back into the pen. Heading back to my cave I was hoping that I could persuade my mates to fix me an early lunch. After entering I saw Waaya first and asked her if she could be convinced to feed a hungry man and she agreed, calling Winna and Jaada to help her while I went back into the practice cave.

My wranglers weren't wrangling this morning; they were all practicing when I got to the firing line. After they finished this round I asked them how they were doing and Racaato told me that they were all progressing nicely. He volunteered that they had all done well with the Glock too.

"That is good news. One of them may need to dispose of Cardiato for us."

This gave them all pause for a few seconds when they realized what I meant.

"I will be happy to help in any way I can but why would one of us need to do it?" Nadlo asked.

"Sometimes you will be called upon to do things that are distasteful. I will not force any of you to kill a man if you are set against it."

"That isn't what I meant. Of course I will kill him if you think I need to, I was only wondering why you made a point of saying that one of us might need to do it." Nadlo said.

"It would normally fall on one of the main leading men but I have already asked them and they would rather not. Remember, whoever kills him will be responsible for taking his mate. It seems that Racaato, Raalto and Bigglieo already have all the mates they want for now. In fact it seems that all the other leaders do."

I guess it was inevitable and Danlo pointed it out at once.

"Daaggo doesn't have a mate yet." He said.

"Daaggo does not want a woman for a mate." I told them and left it at that.

"So one of us will need to kill him and take his mate?" Danlo asked.

"I am asking you to do it, I am not going to force you. You are the next in line in order of responsibility though and the woman will need to be taken by a man with authority. She is a leader's mate after all."

"I will do it then unless Nadlo or Jonoco want to. I am already accustomed to having more than one mate and I would gladly have Daria as a mate also. I have seen her and she is very attractive, even if she is older than I am. It is said that she is a good woman and a hard worker also." Danlo said, surprising me.

"I envy Danlo's confidence, I would rather not be called on for this task if he will take it." Nadlo told us and Jonoco was quick to say the same thing.

"It is settled then, if we have to kill Cardiato we will try to arrange it so Danlo can do it for us. You should probably concentrate on your rifle and pistol abilities heavily Danlo."

"He is easily proficient enough already but I will make sure that he has plenty of practice. I do think that you should go over the drawing of the pistol and firing quickly with us all though. I am not certain that even I am as good at that as I would like to be." Racaato said.

"I am going to go and do some thinking for a while and probably eat something. I will come back here with you after you have eaten your lunch." I told them and then went back to the kitchen.

Waaya, Winna and Jaada were all in the kitchen and Ameliea was with them. I sat at the table and Ameliea came to me with a plate and a mug of beer. She brushed her petite self against me as she put them down and when she'd done it she stayed where she was. Thinking that I knew what she had on her mind I still didn't touch her.

"Am I not desirable to you John?" She asked in a small voice after half a minute.

"You are very desirable Ameliea and I can only keep from touching you with great difficulty."

"Why do you do it then?" She asked.

"Because I remember your temper and I don't want to start it again. I told you that I would not force myself on you and would wait for you to decide that you truly wanted to be one of my mates."

"Well I have decided and you need not keep from touching me any longer." She said with a relieved note in her voice.

"Good." I told her as I put my hand on her leg and slid it up to cup one of her glorious ass cheeks.

She smiled and then leaned down to give me a good kissing while I got my other hand on her other cheek. For a few minutes she kept kissing and I kept feeling, eventually sliding a paw up to claim a handful of big firm titty for some gentle squeezing but she finally broke the kiss.

"It is much better now that I can tell you want me and I can hardly wait until the sun goes down." She told me breathily.

"If I hadn't promised to help Racaato with the firing lessons we wouldn't even wait until after I finished eating." I growled.

"Would you take me in the day then?" She asked.

"I will probably take you in the day often and then on into the night." I promised.

She was smiling when she went back to the others and they all put their heads together to begin talking and giggling. The rest of my mates, who were over listening while Frank went on about something, quit their studies and joined the hen party that had started. I finished my meal to the sound of many giggles and no doubt some teasing.

After I was done I went to the bed, took off my boots and lay down. I was asleep and in Argent's presence almost at once.

"You did well with the two spies John." Argent told me.

"Yes but they won't be the last."

"No they won't but you are right to assume that none will come tonight. They are waiting to see if the others will return." He said.

'I'm sure that they will come tomorrow night then. We will be waiting for them when they climb up to the plateau."

"It is unfortunate that it worked out this way. Your mating ceremony was scheduled for tomorrow night wasn't it?" He asked.

"It was but they have been put off before. I will probably be cross with the spies over it though."

"I can understand that, maybe you should be sure to take Nadlo, Jonoco and Danlo with you." Argent suggested.

"I hadn't even thought of that detail but you are right. I will assign one to Nadlo and one to Jonoco since Danlo has already offered to deal with Cardiato. It will be up to luck to determine if one of them has to shoot a spy and up to more luck to see if a mated man has to be killed."

"How do you plan to approach them?" He asked.

"I'm glad that you asked. I will need two very powerful hand held spotlights. When they are on the plateau and a little way from the edge we will put the light to their eyes similarly to the way I did with the bear. The lights should be much more powerful than the one I had then though. The spies may not wait until dark to ascend but if the lights are powerful enough it will still disorient them."

"That is excellent. They will be blinded and at your mercy in a flash, so to speak." He said.

"I see that you are developing a sense of humor now Argent, it is still in its infancy though."

"I'm sure that it has come from a close association with you. I will make sure that the lights are powerful enough to do the job, even in daylight. On another topic, the designer is in a snit about wedding gowns, will you allow him to make some?" Argent asked.

"By all means have him go ahead. He has done such a good job so far. Please ask him to keep them as nearly consistent with our situation as possible though."

"I will convey that message but it is all I will do for you in that respect. He generates a foul mood quickly if he thinks someone is trying to tell him how things should be done." Argent said.

"I'm sure whatever he does will be much better than anything you or I could do anyway."

"He is talented. Can you think of anything else we need to discuss?" He asked.

"Do you know if the next spies will be mated or not?"

"No one has been selected yet since they are not sure that the others will not be coming back." He said.

"It doesn't matter, mated or not we will have to deal with them and Jonoco and Nadlo will have to take their chances."

"If that is all I will leave you now." Argent said.

"One more thing I should mention. You do know that the hay must be dried don't you, can you take care of that for us?"

"I didn't realize it had to be dried. Is that necessary for the horses?" He asked.

"It must be dried to keep it from molding and then starting to burn. The mold generates heat and with the hay all piled up like it will be, the temperature soon rises until the hay ignites." I explained.

"I should have realized that but didn't think of it. We will make sure that it is dried thoroughly." He said and then I was sleeping again.

I woke a few minutes later and got up. All the usual suspects were here for lunch and I joined them at the table while they ate but we didn't really discuss anything except how their projects were going.

Barago wasn't all that proud to tell us that they had collected three wagon loads of dried bison shit already but Raalto was happy to announce that his bunch had put four of the big wagon loads of hay into the horse cave. Argent and I had already talked about the fodder subterfuge and we had decided not to really begin padding the tab until Raalto had about ten loads stored. After that it should just seem like a hell of a lot of hay and whatever Argent added would just make it a hell of a lot more.

Daaggo told us that he had measured all the cave openings carefully and then measured the bison skins that we had available. He said that we had plenty of new skins ready even considering that he was going to put two curtains at each opening. A little questioning let me know that he intended to attach the skins to the limestone by driving pegs through the skins and into the rock. I knew that I could show him a much better way than that and so I asked him to take his men and cut small trees to make poles that could be put into post holes so we could build a framing at every cave. He liked this idea much better himself and said that he and his men would gather poles if I would come and show them exactly how I wanted them put in place later.

After lunch they all got back to it. I went into the practice cave with Racaato, Danlo, Jonoco and Nadlo intending to help them with getting their Glocks out of their holster and into action quickly, a maneuver reportedly invented by Cullen Baker. With the cross draw holster rigs that I'd had Argent supply it was easy. The tied down holster always used in the movies is not the best arrangement for a fast draw. Reaching straight down your leg to grab the grip and then having to pull it straight back up just isn't that easy or fast.

A cross draw holster allows you to make a swipe across your belly, a very natural motion, and drag the pistol out as you go. If you pay attention you can have the barrel pointing straight out in front of you almost as soon as it clears the holster since there is no need to cock your wrist to do it. You only have to flick it to the side and you're in business. Your forearm is already level and in good shape for a hip shot.

To save wear and tear on bystanders I made them practice with unloaded weapons for about an hour. As soon as I thought that they all had a good feel for the procedure I stopped and gave them another twenty minutes of safety lecture. Finally I put up a man's silhouette target, ran it out to twenty feet and let Danlo do a live ammo try, with only one cartridge. He didn't hit anywhere within the body's outline but he did get it on the paper.

It was all repetition from there. When I was sure that they were using sufficient care I let them put five rounds in the magazine to speed up the sessions a little. After they could all put one somewhere within the outline I left it to them, suggesting to Racaato that they spend another hour with the pistols and then switch to the rifles for and hour and then switch back.

Back in my cave I caught Merita and Maia actually working with the wolves. Mundo had long since been released, fed and allowed to bathe. I assume that since his questioning was now over he had been treated with more kindness also.

The wolf training drill didn't make it look that way at first though. Mundo was dressed in what seemed to be five or six separate sets of clothes. He was standing over out of the way and Merita and Maia were teaching the wolves to attack him, one at a time, on command and then having them stop the attack and just hold on. I watched for a while and then whispered in Maia's ear that they might be treating Mundo just a little harshly.

"He agreed to do it, he didn't exactly volunteer, but when we promised that we wouldn't let them actually hurt him he did agree." She told me.

Merita had stopped the proceedings when she saw me whisper to Maia and she was quick to assure me that they weren't making Mundo be the attack dummy.

"They are correct John. I did agree to help them. The wolves frightened me badly during my questioning but I wanted to help if I could. If it is possible I would like to join your camp, I have no desire to go back to Cardiato. If I can join you I would like to try and get my mate from his camp though." Mundo said.

"If you will abide by my rules you can join us Mundo and it looks like you have made a good start at earning your keep already. You have taken a job I wouldn't want. How long will your mate wait for you to return?" I asked.

Georgo and Dotallto had come to investigate by now and Georgo provided the answer to my question.

"It is customary to wait at least two moons when a man does not come back unless his body is found before that time and that is usually the waiting period before the woman even considers another mate. Most times she waits much longer." Georgo said.

"There should be no problem about your mate then Mundo. Georgo and I are going to have a mating ceremony and will both be taking more mates. We don't intend to deal with Cardiato until after the mating nights but we will probably visit him the next day."

He seemed relieved with this news and Georgo, Dotallto and I left to sit at the table, hoping for coffee. Ameliea brought us each a mug and I didn't hesitate to put my hands on her this time as she set mine down. She smiled at me when she left.