John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 63

Soon enough dinner was served. Well not exactly. It was ready and we got our own plates. I got one for Deimeta and I while she got both our coffee mugs refilled. We found a place to sit down and started eating.

There was no Argent supplied food for this meal, it was all the old fashioned things cooked the old fashioned way over a buffalo shit fire. They had cooked some of the aurochs and some of the mare and had done a good job on both. I was surprised that the mare was so tender since horses were much more active than aurochs and I'd expected the mare to be tougher. She was good though and had a unique taste. We also had several different dishes made with what passed for vegetables here and now. As usual I didn't recognize a single one but they were all good. The only hint of something from my old life was the bread, which my mates had brought with us from the caves.

After the meal we retired early in anticipation of rising before the sun.

I woke before sunrise and the first thing I noticed was that it had turned cold during the night. Make no mistake, it wasn't warm out yesterday but today it was considerably colder than it had been before we went to sleep. The temperature was probably around forty degrees Fahrenheit but after putting on my new cold weather gear I was comfortable in only a few minutes. It was a novelty to have warm feet in weather like this.

My mates and Deimeta were all rising and dressing too and most of them commented about the new clothes. They were as surprised as I was that they didn't seem to need a roaring fire to warm up. I wondered if we wouldn't be better off just leaving the inner layer on while sleeping.

At any rate breakfast was cooking soon and the coffee was hot. I got a mug for Deimeta and I and we settled down to sip it.

"Daddy, am I going to get to go on the hunt?" She asked.

"You can ride along on one of the wagons that will be bringing back the meat if you want to. You won't be able to come up to where we will actually be hunting though and it might get boring sitting on the wagon seat."

"I suppose that you're right. I think I'll just stay in camp and wait for all of you to bring back some mammoth meat for supper." She said, laughing.

"That's what Daddies are for Deimeta, bringing back things for supper."

"Yes, and I'm so glad to have a Daddy again." She told me and then kissed me on the cheek.

I hugged her close to me then and had to try hard to keep my tears from leaking out. I was so happy that I had been able to rescue Deimeta and everyday I was happy again, having her with us. All my mates felt the same. Deimeta could do no wrong in my cave or anywhere else.

After breakfast was over I went to unhobble Red and Jack and saddled them both. Jack was still walking gingerly, like and old man whose every movement was painful. He gave no trouble though and I was more gentle saddling him than I would normally be. When he was wearing all his tack I tied him to the back of the drag wagon to turn my attention to Red. When Red was ready I mounted and rode around the circle of wagons as the drivers hitched their teams.

Raalto and Racaato were also mounted by this time and they joined me in my circling. We didn't interrupt the drivers at their work but we did pay careful attention to the details. Everything was being done to suit me so my comments weren't needed. Danlo had been circulating among the men on foot but had, by now, saddled Jezebel and he rode over to join us.

"I'm very excited this morning, I've never been on a mammoth hunt before." He said as he approached us.

"It won't be like any other mammoth hunt before it. It will be more like the bison hunts. We will find a suitable place to fire from, far from the mammoths, and then we will execute the ones that we want. When we are done there will be a surprise for everyone." I told him.

"A surprise?" He asked.

"Yes and I intend to keep it a surprise so there's no need to try and dig for more information." I said and laughed.

"I see. I guess I'll have to wait like everyone else." He said.

"Yes but when the time comes to reveal it you will be needed." I said and I could tell that he was even more puzzled after that.

The teams were all hitched by now and everyone that was going to ride was mounted. I let Racaato lead the way and I fell back to ride and tease among my mates. Of course I ended up getting most of their teasing directed my way. I didn't mind and in fact I enjoyed the attention.

With no scouting to be done this time Racaato took a direct route and we were in sight of the mammoths in about two hours. We halted probably a mile from them and after studying them with the glasses Raalto, Racaato and I retrieved our.50 caliber rifles from the lead wagon and remounted, heading to a cluster of large chunks of ice that had probably been left when the glacier retreated somewhat.

Danlo, Ameliea, Geera and Dieta had accompanied us for the last approach. They held our horses as we took firing positions, hidden by the ice. The mammoths hadn't noticed our approach or if they did they'd not reacted. We were probably a thousand yards from where they were grazing. They were not far from the face of the glacier and easily seen.

Mammoths did not look exactly like elephants that I was more familiar with. No surprise since they weren't elephants. They were large though and they had trunks and tusk. Some of them, the older ones I guessed had very long tusk. The main difference, to me, was the long shaggy hair all over their bodies, that and the pronounced slant of their backbone toward the rear.

They continued grazing. Having nearly no natural predators, experience had taught them that attack was something they need not fear, unless men approached. We weren't approaching, we were hiding and it was doubtful that they had even seen us.

We took a little time to just observe our prey. There was no mistaking the dominant male. His tusks were nearly twelve feet long and he was half again as large as the smallest female. The four younger males that he was allowing to hang around were not even nearly large enough to give him any challenge yet. The lead female was also easy to determine since she was the largest female and since she gave the next largest one some type of scolding just after we'd settled into hiding.

My interest was taken by the smallest female. Though she was obviously mature, since she had a young one, she was remarkably smaller than any of the others. After thinking about it I decided that we would leave her alive and try to round her up also.

Racaato, Raalto and I discussed targets among ourselves. Racaato would take the lead male first and Raalto would take the lead female. I would start with the younger males and we would all work our way down by size. After the first shots, which we intended to take simultaneously, we would fire in turn until we were done. I also let them know that I didn't want to kill the smallest female until we tried herding her and the young ones from horseback.

We took our positions and then on a signal we all fired. All three initial targets dropped, in fact the power from the.50 caliber bullets knocked over all but the lead bull and its impact shook him visibly before he fell a few seconds later.

I'm sure that this type of mammoth hunting was a revelation for these people but for me it was rather anticlimactic. It was much like harvesting. Of course Racaato and Raalto had scouted things yesterday but I had known all along where the mammoth were and even how many there were and with the large rifles that Argent had provided there was never any question in my mind that the prey would be dispatched almost at once.

Still I would much rather sit back in near complete safety and shoot the mammoths instead of chasing after them and trying to kill them with a fucking spear. This was much easier and a lot less dangerous and I was sure that the meat would taste just as good.

We finished, leaving the one mature but small female and all six youngsters unharmed. They were near panic now but couldn't decide which way to run. No doubt that they had heard the reports from the weapons but I was sure they had no idea what the noise was or that it was responsible for their comrades falling and dying. Instead of mounting and riding toward them we rode back to the wagons and sat around for a few minutes to give them a chance to settle down.

When I had everyone's attention I announced my plan to try herding the remaining prey with the horses. It was a surprise to everyone except Raalto and Racaato of course. It only took a few minutes to outline the plan and answer a few questions. We all mounted and I asked the wagon drivers to give us a few minutes head start.

The remaining female and the youngsters were still nervous as we approached and this increased as we came ever closer. When we were within two hundred yards the female had reached the end of her twine and she turned away and headed off at a fast walk. All the youngsters except hers remained near their dead parents for a while longer but followed her when we got closer.

We increased our pace and spread out behind the bunch. The female turned her head to check on us periodically but she kept up her pace. After about a mile and a half I could tell that she was tiring a little. I signaled to Danlo and he and I kicked our mounts into a gallop, eventually riding around the mammoths and then away from them for a few hundred yards. When we stopped and turned back toward them the female saw that she had been out maneuvered and she stopped her group, standing still and only panting.

I've heard that elephants are smart and I guess this goes for mammoths too. It hadn't taken the female long to see that outrunning us was out of the question. I could only hope that she didn't have fighting to the death in mind now.

As the rest of my people approached they began circling around between the mammoths and the glacier, spreading themselves into a line as they did so and by the time everyone was stopped we had a semicircle of horsemen between the mammoths and the glacier with the open mouth of it pointed back toward the dead animals we'd all just left. We stayed still for about twenty minutes and in the distance I could see the wagons approaching the kills and stopping near them.

We just stayed put for ten more minutes then I signaled and we all began moving toward the mammoths. The female had settled down a little and had spent some time looking around and no doubt considering her options. When we moved she did also. She took the route that was open to her and headed out of the semicircle at a slow walk. The young ones all followed her and we carefully moved about to keep them headed away from the gutting and skinning and toward our distant campsite.

After moving them about half a mile I asked Raalto, Racaato, Daaggo and Danlo to quicken their pace and move around to close the front of our formation. The female noticed and I saw her watching as they maneuvered. When they were in place we had a circle closed around the mammoths. I called for my people to stop and when they did the female stopped also but she looked around the entire circle for a place to make an exit. Since there wasn't one she stayed put.

She could have charged any point in the circle and made her escape if she'd been determined, we all knew that. She was unsure though and we weren't hurting her or the youngsters so she held her place. I gave another signal and we started up again. She moved out also and I saw that she now was careful to match our pace. This was going much better than I had any right to expect.

We stopped again after about a quarter mile and she and the youngsters stopped too. We stayed still for about five minutes and then started again and the female cooperated. She seemed to understand what we wanted from her by now and was content to go along so far. After a couple more iterations I asked Ameliea to switch places with Danlo at the next stop and she did.

"Danlo you have more experience with animals than anyone except me. You are also much younger, quicker and more agile than I am. Our next step is for someone to try and approach her on foot. Are you willing?"

"I am anxious to try. Should we do it now?" He asked.

"I think we should. You don't have to get all the way to her the first time, just dismount and approach her slowly in a non-threatening manner. If she becomes very anxious; back up and we'll try again later."

He dismounted and began walking toward her very slowly. Her eyes found him at once and she turned toward him but she didn't seem too excited. The young ones were frightened though and they all moved behind her at once. When Danlo got within twenty feet of her she made a little grunting type of noise. None of us had anything to go on in this regard but Danlo stopped and stood still.

"Maybe you should talk to her softly Danlo." I said and he began speaking very softly and calmly to her.

Of course she had no idea what this was but it did seem to calm her a little as Danlo told her what a good girl she was being and how he wasn't going to hurt her. It let him get about ten feet closer and then she took a step backwards.

Danlo stopped again and stood still. The female didn't seem to calm down any from this and she began moving her trunk around and her head started working up and down. I called Danlo back and he came as slowly as he had approached her, mounting again when he got back to Jezebel.

"Let's try moving them a little more." I said and at my signal we moved off again.

The female seemed to agree to this and she and the youngsters moved out at our pace. We traveled about another half mile and she seemed to be back with the program. I signaled for another halt and she stopped on cue with the rest of us.

"Care to give it another try Danlo?" I asked.

He didn't reply but dismounted and repeated the process, walking slowly toward her and talking calmly to her as he went. She let him get closer this time and he stopped again when she got anxious. After she calmed down a little he took another couple of step toward her before she backed up again. When she did he stood still for a while and then returned to remount. We all started off again at my signal and she seemed content to cooperate again.

We did this four more times before the female let Danlo close enough so that she could sniff him with her trunk. At the first smell she backed up a step and Danlo remained where he was. Her curiosity got the better of her and in a few minutes she came back to sniff him out more thoroughly. When Danlo reached one hand out to touch her trunk she shied back at first and then returned to sniffing in a couple of minutes, allowing Danlo to touch her trunk with his hand and even letting him stroke it a little. Finally she grew bold and used her trunk to push him back.

"No." Danlo said softly but firmly.

She pulled back a step from him then and stood still. Danlo came back and mounted Jezebel and we started again.

After three more repeats Danlo could get off Jezebel and walk right up to her to stroke her snout while she sniffed at him. This was more progress than we could have hoped for but I was glad of it. I decided that we would continue until we were close to our campsite and began to wonder what we could use to tie her to when we got there.

I had brought some chain with us in hopes of restraining the young ones and I'd intended tying them to one of the wagons after it had been loaded. I was afraid that this wouldn't hold the mature female even though she was rather small. Deciding that I would need Argent's help, the next time we stopped I pulled out the palm while everyone else was watching Danlo and the female and I asked the one who replied to place a tie down for the female near the camp. I told him to try and make it look like some type of rock or boulder and to keep the part that would show as small as possible. He told me that he would take care of it.

When the palm told me that we were about half way to camp I asked Geera to ride ahead and tell those there what we were doing and ask them not to approach and not to make any loud noises. She left at a trot until she was well away from us and then urged her mount into a slow lope. I also kept a close eye behind us and about an hour later I saw that the wagons were headed toward us and would overtake us before we reached camp. I sent Dieta back to tell them to stop for a while so that we would remain ahead of them.

We cut down on our stops but continued to make them periodically. We would need to be able to get close enough to the female to attach the chain to her leg later and so we kept it up.

Finally we came within sight of our camp and though the female could see it she didn't seem to be alarmed. Luckily I spotted the "rock" that the alien had installed for us and was able to guide us to stop with the female near it. I asked Danlo to stay with her this time but not get her anxious. I rode into camp and found the chain where it had been unloaded.

I had plenty of chain and plenty of different types of hooks and clasp for it. It was the equivalent of 3/8" hi-test chain but was titanium of course and much lighter. I had meant to secure the young ones with it but thought that it would probably hold the female. If she were tied off and couldn't leave I knew that the youngsters wouldn't wander off.

When I got back to the action I saw that the female was now letting Danlo squat down and inspect her feet. He wasn't able to actually lift them and look at the bottoms of course but she didn't seem to mind if he touched them and pushed at them. She did seem determined not to let him move them this way though. That didn't matter for now.

When I was back with them I asked Danlo to come out to me and he did. The female didn't seem alarmed at this turn of events and she actually pulled up some grass and put it in her mouth when he left.

I explained what I wanted him to do when he came to me and he thought that he would be able to. I pointed out that the chain needed to be tight enough so that it wouldn't slip off over her foot but not tight enough to be uncomfortable for her unless she pulled against it. We secured one end to the rock by wrapping it around and putting a latch on it and Danlo approached her with the other end held behind his back.

She didn't smell a rat when he came back and she let him stroke her trunk and then her shoulders and when he squatted again she wasn't spooked as he wrapped the chain around her foot and latched it. When he was done he came back to me and I told the others to widen the circle now.

The female had gone back to feeding when Danlo left her and hadn't seemed to notice the chain. She did find it when she took her first step after we had spread farther out. She lifted her foot and shook it but of course the chain stayed put. She still had plenty of slack so she didn't panic but went back to eating seeming to ignore her new jewelry.

It was thirty minutes before she discovered that the chain on her foot would limit her motion and she became upset at first. She didn't fight it nearly as hard as a horse would fight being tied for the first time though. As she pulled against it and shook her foot she noticed that the harder she pulled the more it hurt. Danlo walked back out toward her then, talking softly and calmly to her and he was able to settle her nerves after about ten minutes.

He left her again after she quit fighting the chain. She began pulling at it again but not nearly as energetically. Finally she quit and began feeding again. When she did I mounted Red again and all of us except Danlo left to go unsaddle and hobble the horses. I led Jezebel away for Danlo and he stayed to watch the tethered mammoth and the youngsters.