John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 54

After the meal I disappeared into my office with a cup of coffee. Dieta tried to get me to take one of the new unmated Neanderthal women in for an interview and I told her that they would be treated just like any other unmated woman in our camp; explaining that I hadn't traded for them for me but so that they could come here to live and that I hoped some of the other men might want to take them as mates. She was disappointed at first and then she perked up considerably.

"Do you mean that they will be exactly like other unmated women here? A man will have to approach them and ask them to be his mate or one of his mates if he has one or more all ready? The women will get to set a mating price for her and then we will have a regular mating ceremony?" She asked.

"That's what I mean. They should be treated as any other unmated woman in this camp though I think that they will get a little more attention than some of those that are already here."

"They are already getting more attention. Raalto and Racaato are sniffing around them like male wolves already and even Caato and Barago are paying them all the attention they can without being obvious. Colonto isn't even trying to hide his interest." Dieta laughed.

"Can you keep a secret; not from my other mates but from everyone else?"

"You know that I can." She assured me.

"If you tell any of my other mates, be sure that they know to keep it a secret too. Tomorrow, Grotondo is going to another Neanderthal camp to trade for more of their women on my behalf and all the women he trades for will be coming here. He thinks that there will be seven unmated women and three mated women that have lost their mates; two of them have children. He is also going to trade for many young girls that will become women soon. He thinks there may be as many as nine girls that should become women next year and only three boys in that camp will be likely to become men soon."

"Oh John, I can't believe it. Some of the women have children? You must ask one of them to be your mate. We are all dying to have some children here with us, please John." Dieta actually begged.

"But Dieta, Jaada will be having a baby soon and maybe someone else will too."

"Yes but you have so many mates John and Jaada will only have one baby, two at the very most and that is unlikely. The rest of us won't get very much time with the baby and there have not been many babies born here lately. I didn't even realize it until Jaada told us that she thought she would be having one soon. My babies are grown now as you surely know since you fucked both of them last night and it has been so long since I held a little one." She told me, pleading still.

"Well maybe I should give you another baby of your own then." I said, caressing her ass a little.

"I wish you could but I think that I am too old to have a baby now." She said.

"How old are you Dieta?"

"I am almost twenty-nine summers John. I am too old to have another baby now even though I wish that I weren't." She said.

"I'll bet that I can get a baby started in you but even so, if one of the women with children will have me I will try to take one of them as a mate also, just for you. You realize that we don't know how old the children might be. What if they are too old for you to hold a lot?"

"I guess we should wait and see then but if they are still young ones you will remember that you said you would take one." She said, not wanting to let that part slip by.

"I said that I would ask her, I will not take any woman that doesn't want me."

"As if there were any chance of that happening. The others and I will trust to our luck for that. Once she sees your dick and Margeeta and the others tell her what you can do with it she will be begging you to take her as a mate." She said.

"We will see what happens but I don't think that you should tell even my other mates about this; I want to ask Jaada if she has any reservations before I try to take one of the widows with children as another mate."

"Ask Jaada anything you like. She has worried for weeks because there isn't a young one in camp that she can practice holding. Even Jaada will be pestering you if the women's children are still babies, wait and see." Dieta told me and smiled her widest.

Dieta left me then and I went into my office. I didn't want to bother Argent but I had to know more about which women he had switched back to reproductive capability.

He answered as soon as I typed in a message.

"John we are elated over what you have done in the past few days. We couldn't have hoped for such a wonderful outcome." He said at once.

"Yeah, yeah and you can't tell me why it was so great. I don't even care anymore, well maybe a little, but that isn't what I wanted to talk about. Now that I know about Jaada I have to ask if there are others that are pregnant. I don't need to know who or even if the pregnant ones are my mates but I do need to know how many are now fertile if you can tell me."

"Of course I can tell you John, there are currently three women who are fertile but you should know that there will always be three fertile women until you get them all pregnant. You do remember that none of the men were reactivated don't you and that any pregnant women will be carrying your child?" He asked.

"Yes, I am the one that asked for it to be that way."

"You asked us to only activate three women at a time and the first three women we returned to fertility are all pregnant, two of the next three are also pregnant and one of those that we reinstated after that is pregnant now too." He told me.

"What do you mean by that? Are you saying that as soon as one gets pregnant you activate another one right away?"

"Of course, isn't that what you wanted? We can tell within twelve hours when a woman is pregnant and as soon as we know we activate another woman." He said and I'll swear I could tell that he was smiling about it even though our conversation was via text messages.

"I should have known that you would be very prompt, extremely prompt. I hope not all of them are my mates."

"No they aren't but of course your mates make up the majority." He said.

"Thanks for that anyway. The next question is whether any of my mates are too old to have children?"

"Even without any interference from us all of your mates can still conceive and will be able to for years yet. Dalia is your oldest mate at thirty-one and Shelalliea is thirty-one also but a few months younger than Dalia." He said.

"What about Dieta?" I asked since she was on my mind.

"What about Dieta, what do you want to know about her?" He asked and I thought he might be stalling.

"Can she still get pregnant?" I asked.

"Without a doubt and Geera too. As I said all of your current mates are still able to get pregnant and if they weren't able to for some reason we could remedy any problem they had."

"Good. The only thing is that I don't want them all to end up pregnant at the same time; not all of my mates that is. Please try to string them out a little anyway."

"We have already done that John. We have a schedule prepared already and even if they all end up technically pregnant at the same time you won't notice it that much." He told me.

"What in the hell does technically pregnant mean. A woman is either pregnant or not isn't she?"

"Well that is true but usually no one knows for at least six weeks or more. That is what I was referring to. Since we know within twelve hours we have a slightly different way of looking at it." He explained.

"Now I see that you fully intend to let every one of my mates get pregnant as soon as you can satisfy yourself that you have cleared my objections, if only through a technicality. Well good. I don't mind that. I just want to make sure that at least some of them will still be able to give me a little attention over the long haul."

"We will make sure of it for you but you can help us out by taking a few more mates." He said.

"A few more mates? I just got five more yesterday."

"Yes John, but what have you done for us lately?" He said but I knew damned well that he was yanking my chain.

"Ok Argent, are you trying to go into comedy again?"

"I'm sorry but I heard that phrase during our studies of earth prior to contacting you; I couldn't get it out of my mind. The situation just begged me to use it." He said.

"Well Dieta is already nagging me about taking one of the women with children that Grotondo says he can trade for so I guess I might as well. What do you know about these women?"

"We couldn't help overhear your conversation with Grotondo and we have looked into the situation in the other camp since then. Due to an unfortunate accident just nine days ago there are now four widows in that camp and three of them have children. The one that is lately widowed was one of the last ones to have a child before we halted reproductive fertility here. She has twins that are just now approaching two years old. I'm sure that Dieta and all your other mates would love for her to join you as another mate." He said.

"My mates would think it was grand if every woman in this camp became one of my mates. They act as if it would be fine if I killed every man here to take their women. Have my mates contacted you directly and are you all plotting against me?" I asked him point blank.

"Why John, you know that isn't the case but we do hear everything they say to each other and we know what is on their minds. We aren't demanding anything from you and we let you make all decisions on the ground." He said and the tone of his message made it seem that he might be offended.

"I'm sorry Argent, I didn't mean to imply collusion among you and my mates even though I felt that it was at least possible. I don't suppose it matters anyway. As long as you try to keep my mate's pregnancies spaced out I guess things will be fine."

"Good, I was hoping that we hadn't had a misunderstanding." He said.

"We haven't, I'm just a little anxious sometimes."

"Do you need anything else now?" He asked.

"I want to know how the sawmill plans are coming. I might try to get it going this winter after all. As it turns out we were able to get quite a few logs with the horses and equipment that we have."

"We noticed and we also know that there is a much bigger forest upriver that has many deadfalls in it also. It has the advantage that the river runs close to it and the current will do all the transporting for you with only a little guidance from men with pike poles." He told me.

"I can tell that you have been studying logging techniques since we last talked about the sawmill."

"I didn't do the research but the one that did was very thorough and we had several discussions about it. I'm sure that we can put the sawmill into place anytime you get ready for it." He assured me.

"I'll keep that in mind then and I don't guess I need to bother you about anything else."

Argent signed off then and I was alone with my thoughts. I clicked on the video icon and began looking for Danlo. He was already headed back and in fact was more than half way here. The Morgans looked grand with their high stepping trot and I watched them for a while. They were beautiful animals.

Shaking off my daydream I took a gander at Caato's old camp where the mated couples had decided to stay. They were about to eat their evening meal and I saw that there were still just the four men and their mates. Switching to a view of Raalto's former camp, the one that had given us so much trouble since he traded his huts to Jakado, I saw that someone had disassembled every hut and everything else that was there and taken it away. I couldn't tell which way they had taken it and I didn't find any new camps nearby.

I did notice that Barbo's old camp was gone too. There was nothing there either. It made me wonder but not much. We had told Cardiato, after Jakado was killed, that his camp was welcome to the huts. I didn't know whether they had taken them but I could ask one of those that had now joined us from that camp later.

I stayed in my office until I saw that Danlo and Sahto were coming into camp. I left and went out to meet them. They said that their trip had been uneventful and that Grotondo had invited them to stay the night but they had told him they were expected back.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened and I mostly sat with my coffee, watching my mates show the unmated women around our cave. Kota, Eileiea, Margeeta and the twins stayed closest to them; no doubt they were trying to soften the effects of the drastic changes that the new women were in for. Raalto, Racaato, Barago and Caato spent most of the time with me. I was pretty sure that they were watching the new women mostly.

My mates delighted me about an hour after sunset by starting up in the kitchen. The new women were fascinated but they weren't any happier to see a cooking demonstration than I was to see it getting started. I wasn't as concerned with exactly what was happening as they were but I was always happy when something began going on in the kitchen.

Most of my mates were near me when we ate tonight and I felt better about it. They did put the three unmated women closest to me but they managed to keep the others from rooting them out of their spots tonight. I didn't notice any of the process so I'm not sure how it was achieved; I just knew that all my mates were close enough that I could speak to them without having to shout. I didn't mind so much in the mornings at breakfast but at the end of the day I didn't need to talk to any men and didn't particularly want to. At the evening meal at least, I had my women on my mind and the rest of the camp could take care of itself for a while.

After the meal was over and the dishwashers were fed I was basically alone for a few minutes while my mates helped the new women get settled into the unmated women's quarters. I knew that they were reinforcing our customs to them about having the last say on whether they wanted to be a man's mate or not. It was something the new members were going to need to know almost right away since I knew that offers would be coming their way as early as tomorrow.

Raalto came back over about then and though we really didn't need any more coffee, it was a habit and being short of mates for the moment I headed to the pot. Ladeliea made her presence known though and told me that she was taking care of me until my mates came back. She brought Raalto and I a mug of coffee each and I got a little feel of her ass as she set them down. She promptly gave me a good kissing while I was at it and apparently couldn't care less that Raalto was watching.

"What have you done with Georgo?" I asked after we finished swapping spit.

"He is off with your mates and the unmated other women trying to give the new ones a crash course in our customs. They are having a hard time believing that you will not simply assign them a mate." She said and giggled.

"Much as I would like to be the all powerful leader, that is something I am not going to become entangled in. I would probably end up assigning all the women to myself."

"But John, all of us do not need to be one of your mates. It would be a little more convenient if we all lived on the same side of the canyon though. At least the new bridge keeps a poor girl from having to wade to give you a late night visit." Ladeliea said and giggled.

"Your wisdom constantly surprises me John. I knew all along that the bridge would be very useful but I'll admit that I hadn't considered how helpful it would be to the women." Raalto said and laughed himself.

Ladeliea left us then and as soon as Raalto and I could stop laughing among ourselves we enjoyed a little silence while we sipped the hot coffee.

"Would you like a little advice and advanced information Raalto?" I asked him after a few minutes.

"Always." He said.

"You know that because of the bargain I made with Grotondo today, there will soon be many more unmated women and girls of the others in our camp. There will also be four widows among them and three of the widows have children. Discussions with my mates have let me know that my life would be much more peaceful if I were to take one of the widows that has children. If you ask among your mates you might find that the same would be true for you."

"I am very glad that you told me this and I don't have to ask my mates. I am sure that if I were to gain a mate with children I would see the benefits almost at once." He said smiling.

"A word to the wise has done it then?"

"Many times over and I am very much in your debt; Colonto is determined to get one of the three that came today and he will only benefit from it for a day or two. He won't even be mated to the woman before the others arrive." Raalto said and then laughed loudly.

"Cariea can be impatient and at least Colonto will be able to say that she got what she demanded."

My mates and Georgo came back in then so Raalto and I decided that listening instead of talking would be prudent for a while. As my mates began discussing things among themselves he decided that he was probably needed in his quarters. I cautioned him not to share his new information and he assured me that he wouldn't.

As Georgo sat down Ladeliea brought him a mug of coffee too and then she joined the throng since a hen party was being called to order. Georgo and I gossiped a little ourselves and when I told him about the missing huts from both the other two abandoned camp sites he didn't have any clue about who took them either. I would have to try to find out about Barbo's old huts tomorrow at least.

Soon enough we were all headed for bed and though I'd always been afraid that if I got too many mates it would end up seeming a chore; it hadn't come to that yet. We all had a lovely time after we were naked and even Kota, Eileiea, Margeeta, Yareela and Yaroola were more into the swing of things tonight and I was tired but happy when I drifted off to sleep. I had noticed a slight difference in Kota tonight though. Her pussy's milking action wasn't as remarkable tonight as it had been the night before but I passed it off to her not being as excited tonight. I thought I might need to try harder.

I woke before sunrise the next morning and I was the first one conscious. I had plenty of mates keeping me warm this morning; all of them were still in bed with me. Somehow I managed to get out of bed without waking them, except Jaada. I didn't realize that she was awake but as soon as I was standing I saw her on the edge of the bed and she was getting up also.

"I thought I had made good my escape."

"Not from me you haven't; besides, who will make your coffee if all your mates stay in bed?" She asked, grinning and then kissing me.

"I'm the one that taught all of you to make it, remember?"

"I remember but it isn't right for a camp's leader, with so many mates, to have to make his own coffee." She said.

"But no other camp leader even knows about coffee."

"It is still better if one of us serves you and it is your right. I don't mind getting up to make your coffee and neither would any of the others and I will have you all to myself for a few minutes." She said smiling again.

I put on my clothes while Jaada was heading naked toward the kitchen. I was seated at the table in a few minutes and it was only a few more before she brought me a mug of coffee and sat in my lap. We kissed and petted for a little and then I got a sip of coffee.

"Dieta has told that you need a little one to practice with before yours arrives."

"It would be fun but I don't know of any little ones in our camp anywhere." She said.

"Well I know that there will be more women from the other people here in a day or two and I also know that there will be four widows among them and that three of the widows have children."

"Oh, would you please take one of them for a mate. You don't have enough mates yet and it would be so good if there were some children here." She said.

"Your baby will be here sooner than you think Jaada and I'm pretty sure that there are others among my mates who will soon find that they have a baby on the way."

"Who, who else will have a baby soon?" She asked almost frantic with excitement.

"I don't know who but I know there are others."

"But how do you know?" She asked.

"I know because the spirits sent me a dream where I was surrounded by babies and their mothers and the first one I saw was you with a baby in your arms."

"Are you sure the spirits sent you this dream? I didn't know that the spirits sent you dreams." She said.

"The spirits sent me a dream about the bathrooms before they came and they sent me a dream about the practice cave before it came and they have sent me many other dreams."

"Then you must be a shaman John." She said.

"No I am not a shaman, the spirits have also told me that. They tell me that I am to be the leader here and that is why they sent the buckboard for Georgo and for Dotallto; it is because they want them to remain shaman and they want me to remain the leader here. They have let me know this more than once."

"I have never even heard of a shaman saying that the spirits spoke so strongly to him. You must do as they say of course. They have been better to us here than they have ever been to any camp that I have heard of." She said.

"Yes they have and that is how I know that there will soon be more of my mates than you with babies on the way but yours is to be the first."

We heard Dalia coming out of the bedroom and toward the kitchen then. When she spied us she came over. I knew that Jaada was dying to tell her what I had revealed and so I asked her to do it. Poor Jaada was so excited that she could hardly speak slowly enough for Dalia to understand and when she had finally finished I saw that Dalia had a wistful look in her eyes.

"I only wish that I thought I was still young enough to have a baby for you John." Dalia said.

"Well then I will make your wish come true."

"Oh John it would be so good to have another baby but I am too old now." She sighed.

"You are not too old, none of my mates are too old to have babies and I will soon prove it to all of you. You can count on being with child before this time next year. All of my mates can count on it."

They looked at each other then as if they couldn't understand what I was saying. I knew that they wanted to believe it but that they weren't sure that they should.

"Even Failiela? She will probably be your mate also by this time next year. She will be a woman soon and the whole camp knows that she will be mated to you as soon after she becomes a woman as is possible." Dalia said.

"I hope that Failiela doesn't become pregnant so soon after becoming a woman but it might happen. No matter, we have a wonderful new healer here now and I know that she will be able to make sure that everyone that has a baby does fine."

They thought I was speaking about Eileiea and for their benefit I was but the healer I was really counting on was not nearly so close as that. Living in caves or not I meant to see that my women had prenatal care that no woman on the earth that I'd come from could have even dreamed of. We would make it seem like Eileiea was responsible but I wasn't counting on her for everything, after all she would be pregnant soon herself.

"Jaada and Dalia, I want you to both make sure that you tell all my other mates that they are in for a baby soon. If they don't want one they had better make it known to me at once, it might be too late for some of them to back out now anyway."

They looked at me as if I were a little loony and then both of them told me that there wasn't a woman in our whole camp who didn't want a baby, right away if possible.

"Just let them know anyway. I've already told Jaada but I should tell you too Dalia; I am sure that some of my mates besides Jaada are already growing a baby inside themselves. They might not know it yet but they will soon. Wait and see."

Geera and Dieta came out of the bedroom then and headed toward us. They were both smiling, probably at Jaada who was still perched naked on my lap. Suddenly, when Dieta was almost to us she looked a little pale all at once and then she took off for the bathroom.

"What did I tell you, one of you should go and try to comfort her?"

"What do you mean John?" Geera asked as Dalia got up to go to Dieta.

"I was just telling Jaada and Dalia that all of you would be presenting me with a baby before long and that Jaada wasn't the only mate of mine that had one growing when Dieta came out here and was struck by her first time of the morning sickness."

"You don't mean that Dieta is going to have a baby." Geera said.

"Yes I do and it won't be too long before you have one growing inside you. You do know what causes them to start don't you?"

"Yes I know what gets a baby started and now that we know you are so proficient at it we will be looking to you for more attention than ever before." She said grinning wickedly.

Geera couldn't hold the news any longer; she ran directly back to the bedroom. I told Jaada that she should probably go back too and give all my mates the full story. She got up to go but then she took my mug and refilled it before she left. I just sat there sipping my coffee and smirking to myself.

Raalto and Barago came out then and ever mindful of my duties as host I brought them both a mug of coffee. I could tell that they were a little curious that I was up and none of my mates seemed to be.

"My mates are no doubt all in the bathroom congratulating Dieta. When she came out this morning and smelled the coffee she was sick to her stomach almost at once. I told the others that it could only mean that she was going to have a baby."

Raalto grinned at me knowingly but Barago had a strange look on his face.

"Britta was sick when she woke up this morning and went directly into the bathroom and threw up. She was lying down resting when I left to come in here. She told me that she just felt uneasy in her stomach." He said.

Just as he said it a now dressed Jaada came out of the bedroom. I could tell that she intended to tend to the coffee but I cut her off.

"Jaada, you might as well go back into the bedroom and tell the others that Britta was sick this morning and she is resting in her quarters. Some of you probably need to go and see about her."

Jaada's smile went to full power as she turned around and headed back to the bedroom. We could tell from the squealing that she had told all the others and soon Dalia, Shelalliea, Winna and Eileiea went by us headed to see Britta. Jaada came back out too but she went to the coffee pot.

Soon enough the excitement settled down and most of my mates were back in action getting breakfast ready. Now that the bridge was finished and there wasn't much that really needed doing I asked Barago if he thought he could get some more logging done. He surprised me.

"Many of the men would like to go back to it John but it seemed that you thought we were getting too many logs up here." He said.

"I have a new idea about the logs and what to do with them and I think that we may be able to use many during the winter. I do want you to store any more that you bring in the last big cave on the other side of the river though. That won't be a problem will it?"

"I don't see why it should except for the bridge. We won't be able to bring the logs under the bridge." He said.

"We can let the bridge loose on one end and that end will float downstream. When we are through moving the logs past it we can just pull it back into place. You will see that the cables can be detached from the piers to allow for it. I will come out and show you later."

My mates put a lot of their excitement into the preparations for breakfast that morning and everyone was stuffed before we finished. Barago went back to his quarters to check on Britta and then went outside to gather his logging crew. Later I went out and showed them how to loosen one end of the bridge and when I did that end drifted downriver clearing the way for logs to be brought up past it.

"How will we put it back?" Barago asked.

"It will be simple, just tie a chain onto the loose end and let one of the horses pull it back into place."

They decided to try it while I was here to give directions. Danlo and Nadlo went to get one of the Clydesdales. They put on its harness and came back leading it and carrying a long chain. I mentioned that they might as well have hooked the chain and let the horse drag it for them; pointing out that it would be much easier to guide the chain, making sure that it didn't get tangled, than it had been to carry it.

Brundolo wanted to help too so he took one end of the chain out into the river and attached it to the bridge's free end. When Danlo had the horse move off, the bridge floated right back into place. We had to release the chain and hold the bridge steady so that the horse could be hitched to the end with a short section of the chain to pull enough slack to reattach the guide cables. I suggested that they should probably use two horses next time to avoid having to send three or four men into the water to hold the bridge while a single horse could be moved to finish the chore.

The logging crew headed downriver then and I noticed that it had grown in size since the last time we'd gathered logs. I guessed that there were a lot of men who didn't really have much to do. Of course there were a lot more men here now than last time too.

I went back into my cave and noticed that Britta was at the table trying to get a little breakfast down. Even though it had been a trying morning for her she seemed in very good spirits and she had a big smile on her face. I went over and sat down by her while she ate.

"What do you think of yourself now Britta?"

"When I felt sick I hoped it was because I might be pregnant and when Eileiea and the others came to see about me she looked me over and said that she was sure that I was going to have a baby. I am very excited; I have never had a baby before." She said.

"I am glad that you are happy about it."

"I think that you should be, I have the strongest feeling that you are the one that gave it to me." She said grinning.

"I hope that you're right and if we can't tell for sure when it is born I will try my hardest to give you another one." I told her putting my hand on her naked thigh just below the hem of her Wilma dress.

"I hope that you will try to give me another one even if we know for sure that this one is yours." She sighed.

"I promise that I will do my best. We will probably have to practice more while this one is coming though. I don't want to forget how it is done."

Britta giggled at that and pulled my hand higher and up against her pussy saying that she would not let me forget how and that she doubted any of my mates would either. I tickled her love lips a little and then left her to finish her breakfast while I went into my office.

I had Grotondo on my mind right now and I brought up the video streams to look for him as I sat behind my desk.