John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 62

The next morning we were up, dressed and at the table well before sunrise. Even Deimeta was out to have her early morning coffee with me. Jaada brought my mug and Deimeta's half sized one over and got us started but in honor of Deimeta's early rising Jaada had forgone the naked service this morning.

"I'm excited about the mammoth hunt Daddy." Deimeta told me after her first sip of coffee.

"I am too. I hope we get plenty of mammoths and there is going to be a surprise after the hunt."

"What kind of surprise?" She asked.

"You know that I can't tell you since it would spoil it. I will tell you that I think you will be very happy about it though."

"I guess I'll have to wait then and that makes the trip more exciting." She said.

"It will give you something to wonder about during the long ride, which probably won't be very exciting."

"It won't be so bad, I like riding in the wagons and maybe soon you can teach me to ride on one of the horses." She said.

"Maybe you can even try it on this trip. Bonehead and all the other horses that are trained will be going along. Bonehead has turned out to be very gentle and a good horse for new riders; she doesn't do foolish things and tries her best to do what the rider wants her to."

"You mean that I might be able to try riding while we are on the hunt?" She asked, showing me her biggest smile.

"No promises but it will be a long ride and we are not in a big hurry. If you don't get to try riding during the trip we will make time for a lesson while we are there waiting to find the mammoths."

Our breakfast came then and Deimeta stayed in her own seat this morning. I supposed that she wanted to seem more grown up today since our hunt was about to start.

Ameliea sat near us this morning and she was excited about the trip too. She had been spending a lot of time practicing with her rifle and I knew that she wanted to do some hunting herself. Dieta and Delia had been practicing too and I thought that they probably intended a little contest between themselves to see if one of them could bag something to eat along the way. They were discussing it among themselves between bites.

After the meal the final packing was on. Most of our gear had been put in place yesterday but there were still a few final parcels to be loaded. Danlo and the other wranglers had a job too since there were a lot of teams to be hitched and those of us that would be riding had our mounts to saddle. I took Deimeta with me while I saddled Red and when I'd finished with him I tied him to the back of the last wagon and took my lariat to catch Jack, the last wild stallion that we had captured.

Jack had gotten the short end of the stick as far as training had gone. Argent had sent the new horses before we'd had time to give Jack anything but the bare rudiments of work. Today was a good day to remedy that. I put a bridle on over his halter and then saddled him with his McClellan. I was going to start the day on Red since I intended to give Deimeta a short ride with me at first. Jack would get a chance to do his thing after we were up on the plateau.

The rest of the loading and then the boarding took about another half hour. When we were ready to leave I got Red from where he was tied, mounted him and called Deimeta to me. Eileiea came over with her and helped her up to sit in front of me in the saddle. When she had a good grip on the saddle horn I urged Red into a brisk walk and as we passed the head of the line I could hear the drivers slapping reins on big equine asses as they fell in behind my lead.

Galto was driving the lead wagon, my original one, and when we came to the ramp I moved to the side and signaled for the others to head up it. Finally Danlo, driving the drag wagon, and the other mounted ones headed up the ramp and I fell in behind. When we were all up the ramp and out on the plateau I gave Deimeta a thrill by kicking Red into a gentle slow lope so that we could regain our leadership position. She squealed as Red launched us with his powerful hindquarters and she hung onto the horn with renewed intensity, giggling all the way.

I had taken a little time last night with one of Argent's technicians for some modifications to my palm. They had provided software to let the palm function as a type of GPS unit. Of course there were no real GPS satellites up there to use but Argent's ship provided a similar function. As we traveled our position was revealed on the map software that had been loaded into the palm last night. Overlaid was an arrow, compass style, which pointed out the direction to the group of mammoths that I had selected from the videos. Another arrow pointed toward north at all times and I even had a read out for our rate of travel, distance covered and time to destination at our present rate.

I glanced at the palm and used it to set our course by turning Red to the arrows direction and heading that way. Looking back in a couple of minutes I saw that the wagons were lined up behind me and everything was going well. Deimeta just enjoyed our ride for about an hour and then I signaled for a halt and rode back to Galto's position.

Geera met us there on Sally and she dismounted to take Deimeta from me. After the handoff I got down and climbed up into the seat beside Galto. After swearing him to secrecy I showed him the palm and explained about the arrows pointing out our way. When he had a grip on this I left the palm with him and got down to lead Red to Danlo's wagon where I tied him to the back.

I untied Jack then and led him out into a clear spot to mount. I wasn't really expecting any trouble from him since he was at least familiar with the process. I put my toe into the stirrup and stepped up to fork him. When I settled on the saddle and got my other toe in the off stirrup I eased my heels against his sides and he stepped out slowly. I could tell though that his mind wasn't on cooperating. He was tense and was also shaking his head around a little.

Suddenly I felt him bunch his muscles and I knew that he was going to try putting me off. He made a jump then and kicked both back legs out violently. I pointed my toes out and down and brought my heels against the underside of his torso and then held on with all the strength in my legs as I threw my right hand up in a rodeo wave and yelled Ye Haw at the top of my lungs.

Jack was a fairly big and strong horse but I'd danced this step more than a few times. Hell I knew more about bucking than he did. He redoubled his jumping, kicking and bucking after I squeezed my legs to him and yelled but he could have saved the effort. I used the reins to make sure that he couldn't get his head down and really get into it. Finally he played his last card and stood on his hind legs.

As I felt him going over I pulled my leg out of the off stirrup and over his back and just before he hit the ground on his back, knocking his own wind out, I stepped onto the ground and back a couple of paces. Jack was stunned of course and for a minute or two he didn't even try to get back up. Finally he rolled and came back to his feet.

I still had a hold on the reins and as Jack shook himself off I stepped up to straighten the saddle and get ready to remount. He wasn't through with his resistance though and he turned his head toward me to try giving me a bite. I had been expecting this and as he reached toward me I kicked the front side of my shin into his belly, just behind his ribcage. As it does the first few times to any horse, this move surprised him completely and knocked the wind out of him again.

A horse that wants to bite is a pain in the ass and they can be dangerous. They don't have sharp teeth but they do have a strong bite and have even been known to tear loose large sections of flesh or muscle simply from the strength of the grip. Hitting at their face or nose when they try it only makes them try again later. Giving them a good kick to the wind shows them that you can do something that they can't counter and besides I know that it hurts them. I've never had this method fail to stop a horse from trying to bite me.

Now that we both had been reminded of who was in charge I stepped into the stirrup and mounted Jack again. He almost seemed to flinch from pain when I settled my weight on him and I'm sure that the fall he gave himself had made him sore all over. That was his choice, I would ride him now or we would butcher him for a big feed tonight. There were plenty of horses going unused in this time and if Jack wasn't useful for riding he was going to make a good meal.

I knew that he had no concept for what was in store for him if he kept fucking up but something had changed him. When I heeled him he walked off and when I signaled for a stop with the reins he complied. I walked him to the head wagon, retrieved my palm and led us off. I stayed on Jack two and a half more hours, until noon, when we stopped for a quick meal.

I was delighted to find that my mates had prepared plenty of sandwiches for our trip and apparently they had baked plenty of bread to bring along. We weren't stopping long enough to brew any coffee but the thermoses were all full and Kateata brought me a mug almost as soon as I tied Jack off to the wagon.

"Daddy you scared me when you got on that horse. He really acted up at first." Deimeta said as Kateata handed over her small coffee mug.

"Sometimes they do that when you first start riding them. I think he has learned his lesson now."

"I saw you kick him in the stomach, was that to punish him for turning over?" She asked.

"No, he was reaching his head around to bite me, that's why I kicked him like that. Always remember that a horse's bite can hurt or injure you. Their teeth aren't sharp but they are strong and so is their bite."

"But Red never does anything like that." She said.

"Red has been ridden and handled more than Jack has; Jack will settle down or else."

"Or else?" She asked.

"Or else we will see what he taste like for dinner."

"Oh Daddy, if poor Jack knew that he would be on his best behavior. I won't tell him though since I usually like the taste of horse meat." She said and laughed.

After we finished our sandwiches everything was packed back up and we reboarded or remounted and took off again. Even after taking a time out for Jack's rodeo performance we had still made good time and with the relatively good going on the basically level plateau we made excellent progress in the afternoon too. When we stopped, about an hour before sunset, to prepare for the night the palm told me that we had covered nearly forty miles.

It only took me a few minutes to explain to the wagon's drivers the concept of "circling the wagons" and only a little more time to get it done. We didn't try to erect any of the huts for our night's stay here. We made do with simply spreading the coverings for ground cloths and then putting lots of bison skins down to sleep on. Several dung fires were built nearby for cooking and by the time the sun had been gone for an hour we had a nice outdoor meal and then found our sleeping furs. Some of the men traded off during the night so that there were always a few up watching over us while we slept.

We were all up before sunset the next morning and the women fixed a quick breakfast. I was hungry but actually more interested in the coffee they had brewing. I made a short tour as everyone was packing up to resume the trip and I asked around to make sure that everything was going smoothly. I didn't hear any complaints from anyone and the general morale was good.

Jack couldn't tell me how he felt of course but I could easily see that his tantrum from yesterday had him off his feed today. He was moving around slowly and reminded me of an arthritic with his every motion saying he was sore and stiff. He probably wouldn't be fit to ride until several days after we got home. I hadn't brought him along with the idea to use him anyway, his presence was for his own training and I thought that he had probably learned a lot yesterday.

Soon enough we were on our way again and even though Ameliea sighted a distant pride of lions, not long after we began moving again, most of the remainder of our trip to the hunting site was uneventful. We pushed on past noon without stopping to eat and arrived at our intended campsite shortly after it. At this stop we did put up our shelters and unload our supplies. Within a couple of hours we had our home away from home organized.

Ameliea, Delia, Dieta, Geera, Merita, Maia and Jara had skipped out on the nest making and gone on an impromptu hunt. We had been passing within sight of assorted game all during both of our traveling days and when we got to our stopping place they left with Prince, King and Rover in tow. They were back within two hours and had bagged two young aurochs, which they had gutted, skinned and loaded onto a travois behind Geera's horse. Fresh meat for the evening meal was welcomed by all the rest of us.

We were through with our meal before sunset. Raalto, Racaato and my other leaders and I sat around talking after we ate. I had studied the palm again and thanks to communications from the aliens I knew where my target mammoths were located. I set up two scouting forays for tomorrow.

Raalto and Daaggo would head northeast toward the glacier while Racaato and Caato would go northwest. I explained to them that I wanted to find a good group that included at least a few youngsters. Of course Raalto and Racaato knew what I planned for the young ones but we didn't clue Daaggo or Caato in to the details.

The scouts were fed early the next morning and they headed out just after sunrise. Everyone else had a leisurely morning meal and after that occupied their time by getting the camp into a more organized arrangement. After everything was squared away three separate groups left for more hunting. They all knew the directions that the scouts had headed and avoided those.

Luckily for Deimeta and I, Bonehead wasn't being used by anyone this morning. After asking Deimeta if she would like to try riding by herself and getting an affirmative reply we saddled Bonehead. I gave Deimeta a few instructions first and then set her on the mare's back. I walked and led for a short time to get started and then I turned the reins over to Deimeta. She did fine even though there wasn't enough adjustment to bring the stirrups up enough so that she could put her feet in them. Soon enough Deimeta got comfortable with Bonehead and she spent the morning riding here and there around the camp and enjoying her new skill.

We called a halt to the lessons when lunchtime came. Many of my mates were off hunting but there were still plenty of them around camp to fix lunch. When it was ready we all sat around in a rough circle and ate. I made a pig of myself of course so afterwards I settled down for a nap.

I took probably two hours of sleep before the stirrings around me brought it to an end. I sat up and saw that Dieta, Ameliea, Merita, Maia and their group had returned. They had done even better this time and two of the horses were pulling travois. Somehow they had managed to wrestle a mature male bison onto one and the other had two smaller bison on it.

I got up and went over to investigate. Dieta and her companions were justifiably proud of their prowess but when they saw me Ameliea was quick to speak up.

"John, these rifles are wonderful but something is different about them. When you use your rifle the bison are killed with the first shot every time. Even though we get closer before firing, it almost always takes two or more shots to bring them down." She explained.

"It is my fault and I'm sorry. Your rifles are not as powerful as mine and I made the mistake of thinking that you wouldn't want to hunt the larger game. I can see now that I was wrong and when we are back home I will change things for you. I envisioned you hunting deer or megaceros and smaller game but it was a mistake on my part."

"We weren't complaining but we thought we were doing something wrong." Dieta said.

"You have killed smaller game with your rifle before; is there some reason that the smaller rifles we have are better for small game?" Merita asked.

"They are a little lighter to carry and they have less recoil when you fire them. I just assumed that you would like them better but the difference in recoil is not that great and neither is the difference in weight. I will let you keep those rifles and get you others that use the same cartridges that mine does."

"Good, when we get back home we can try the new rifles in the practice cave." Maia said.

This settled the discussion and they unloaded their kills and then began skinning and cleaning them. There would be more fresh meat for supper tonight. My mate's kills weren't going to be all of the additional meat either since I saw another group of hunters returning with loaded travois.

I went over and greeted Mundo and the men that had gone hunting with him. They had found some megaceros and were bringing back two plus a medium sized young mare that had been foolish enough to let them get close. We were not only going to bring back mammoth meat from our hunt but other meat too it seemed. There was no way we could eat all this on our hunt and there was still a group of hunters out. I was especially impressed with Mundo and his bunch since they had hunted with the spearcasters.

I didn't get to talk with the other group since Raalto and Daaggo came back about the same time they did. Raalto told me that they had found a group of twelve mammoths on their scouting trip. One mature bull with four younger bulls hanging on the fringes and five mature females. There were only two youngsters with the group though. I praised him anyway since it would be an excellent find in their eyes and in fact for most purposes it would be a good hunting opportunity. I had the luxury of knowing that Racaato and Caato were going to find something better.

They came in about an hour later with their news. They had found the mammoths that I had known they would and they gave me the details that I was already aware of. We discussed it with Raalto and Daaggo and all agreed that either bunch would be plenty of meat for us and that, since I wanted to capture some of the young ones, Racaato's find was what we should head for.

As we made our decision and broke up I noticed that cooking was well underway. I found Deimeta and we both filled our mugs with coffee and then sat down to tease each other about how much we were going to eat when the meal was ready. Deimeta laughed and said that Mundo's hunting group had probably spared Jack for another time.