John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 72

When I got back to the celebration there was a little surprise for me. More men were still standing than I had expected but they were still hanging out near the beer. I also saw that most of my leaders were still hanging in there. I had expected Raalto and Racaato to keep their heads tonight but I was a little disappointed to see that Colonto and Caato probably hadn't had any beer to speak of either.

I moved over beside Dieta and Geera who were still ensconced near the food and I stood with them to survey things. In a minute I saw Colonto go over to help Cahttiea take Natalto off toward their quarters. Bummer for me, apparently Colonto intended to honor his best man Natalto by paying a little attention to Cahttiea tonight. I had been looking forward to having my dick down her throat later. She was still the only woman here that I knew of that could give me a real 'deep throat' treatment.

While I was watching that I saw Caato start over to help Heilalieta with her mate Jalaato. Jalaato had been Caato's best man before they brought their camp here. Heilalieta was another choice bit of 'honoring' it seemed that I was going to miss out on tonight. Not only that but I had also envisioned doing my duty with Jaadalla and Jetta, Caato's mates, but they would, no doubt, be helping Caato by holding down Heilalieta while he honored Jalaato.

Out of my peripheral vision, off to my right, I saw Danlo. I hadn't expected him to get drunk for the simple reason that he didn't really like beer. He would usually drink a mug or two for appearances sake but he hadn't developed a liking for the pleasures of a good drunk yet.

That wasn't what had my attention though. Dicky had sounded an alarm when he realized what was going on. Danlo, Shallea, Shaala, Daria, Jatalieta and Tulaara were all gathered around Sahto, Talvo and their mates Weeahta and Geritatea. They were all helping shepherd the two young drunks, Sahto and Talvo, toward their quarters. I wasn't jealous of Danlo's upcoming ceremony with Weeahta and Geritatea, even though they both appeared to be delightful little dishes. My recently discovered voyeuristic streak was making my dick throb in anticipation of what I'd be able to see if I took up my post in the spot that had given me such a thrill when I'd watched Danlo putting the wood to Daria one morning.

It just wasn't fair, there was an abundance of things that I wanted to get into tonight and I wasn't going to get around to all of them, there just wasn't enough time. I would have to do my best to do my duty to John and his boner though.

I was still watching Danlo and his bunch moving off with their prizes when Dalia, his mother, came to stand beside me. She must be a mind reader.

"Are you remembering your time watching Danlo with Daria?" she asked, mentioning the time she'd caught me spying on them and had gotten herself fucked for her troubles.

"You know I am and I'm trying to decide whether to sneak off and do it again or wait and help some poor woman get her mate to his furs."

"A difficult decision I'm sure. Maybe you should wait here a few minutes in case you do see someone that needs your help. It will take them some time to get Sahto and Talvo into their furs," she said.

It still amazed me that my mates seemed more anxious for me to provide willing dick for women with drunken mates than I was. I was happy about it for sure but it still surprised me sometimes. I decided that Dalia was probably right. I could watch fucking later and I should probably hang around and try to do some of it tonight.

About then I spied a pretty woman that I didn't know, struggling with her mate. He wasn't drunk enough to fall down yet but was close. I wondered why I hadn't seen her before but I don't guess I should have. She and her mate had probably joined us when we consumed what was left of Jakado's camp after their infernal spying adventures.

She was a tall one, at least as tall as Dalia and Shelalliea and maybe a little taller. I could see that her face was pretty and I loved the look of her long silky black hair. I was about to go and assist her when Ameliea came up to me.

"I see you eyeing Miekadakta as she struggles with her fool of a mate. I think that you should go and help her at once but I should warn you that Kartogo, her mate, is not one of those that will consider it an honor. Like many idiots, he thinks that the whole of this camp is stupid for not noticing that he should be leader," she said.

"Then why did he come here in the first place?"

"He was not stupid enough to die for the pleasure of staying away. Have you forgotten that you gave them no choice?" she asked.

"I gave them a choice, I told them that they could leave."

"Yes but you also told them that they could not force their mates to leave with them. Even though Kartogo is stupid, Miekadakta is not; once she arrived here and saw what a wonderful life we have she wouldn't even consider leaving with Kartogo. She was dumb enough to agree to mate him and I think that at the time she believed his bragging about becoming leader some day. She has learned much better now. That doesn't mean that she wouldn't still like to be the leader's mate, or at least one of his mates," Ameliea said, looking like she was having an internal battle to keep from laughing at me.

Her information gave me some pause though. I knew that by custom it was my right to have Miekadakta if I wanted her. Kartogo's feelings on the matter didn't count in the long-term scheme of things. Still, all else being equal I wouldn't normally invite trouble by screwing her since I'd been warned that he was violently opposed to it.

There were other things to consider though and I'm sure that Ameliea knew it and had told me all of this for a reason. If Kartogo were going to cause trouble here sooner or later it would be to my benefit to have him do it sooner. I know that it was a cold-hearted view of things but in my opinion it was better to have a funeral for a dead troublemaker than it was to have a live one in my camp spreading his message of dissension.

I had come from a society which at least gave lip service to 'freedom of speech' but did I have the luxury of allowing that here? I wanted to think that I did but was confronted with the realities of my leadership and of making decisions for people who had come to rely on me for their survival. Was there a difference between me and some twentieth century dictator, sheik or king? I didn't know and wasn't sure that I had the wisdom and knowledge to know.

I wanted peace in my camp and I wanted people to get along and work toward our common good but I wasn't sure that I could manage that miracle if I allowed dissent to grow in without confronting it. I also wondered if freedom of speech was such a good thing if it was for people who were trying to agitate and try to change things for their advantage.

I also had to second-guess my right to elect myself the judge over this type of matter. I had no idea if the type of society I had grown up in could be beneficial in these times with the limited resources available. To me freedom of speech was a luxury that was easily afforded when there was plenty for everyone to eat but it might be a different thing when everyone or at least most everyone was needed to help gather food for our basic survival. I just didn't have the answers and I wasn't going to get them tonight.

I was going with the current customs. I would help Miekadakta get Kartogo to his furs and then I would spread her legs and fuck her. If he wanted to exercise his freedom of speech tomorrow I would let him bitch until his heart was content. If he wanted to fight about it, we would fight and if he tried to put a spear in my back I would kill him and have another mate.

Ameliea had been standing beside me while I considered all this. She had been watching me and when she spoke I wondered if she could read my mind too.

"So, I see that you will help poor Miekadakta with her burden. She will struggle later, I'm sure of it, but you must do as you wish whether she seems to want you to or not. You are the leader here and it is your right and you must claim your right," she said and then left me.

I walked to where Miekadakta was barely keeping Kartogo upright, offering to help her.

"I am fine with him, I can get him to our quarters," she said in an almost dismissing tone.

I didn't need that tone of voice and at once I didn't like the attitude I thought I saw on her face. I was about to turn around and leave her to it when Kartogo tried to take a step, swayed wildly and fell against me. His sour breath nearly turned my stomach.

I put an arm around him, holding him up and told her to lead the way. She looked at me again as if sizing me up and then turned, heading toward their quarters. She looked good from the backside but the whole thing with her so far had seemed strange to me. It was almost too pat that he had collapsed when I was walking away to leave him with her. When I got to their quarters I dropped him on his furs and left without saying a word. It might have been my right to take her but as far as I was concerned it was my right to ignore her too and I was exercising that right, right now.

When I walked back into the celebration cave Dalia and Ameliea saw me at once from nearly half way across it. I didn't want to discuss it with them and so I looked around, spied a cute young girl struggling with a not much bigger drunk young man and I went to help her. She was happy to see me when I got there.

When we crossed from the celebration cave into the large residence cave I saw something that surprised me. It gave me more than a little jolt but I pretended to ignore it and followed the pretty young woman to the place that she and her drunken mate called home. I was more gentle with the youngster when I put him down in his furs and though the young woman was pretty and seemed more than willing I didn't even kiss her. I headed right back to my cave, not even going through the celebration cave.

When I had entered the residence cave I'd seen Kartogo walking into the big bathroom. He wasn't staggering, he was walking without apparent difficulty. It let me know that he wasn't in the least bit drunk and I also knew that Miekadakta must have known it too. This wasn't some joke that they'd been playing, there had been a reason they wanted me to think he was drunk and I was positive that it wasn't a reason that I would be happy with.

It made me wary and not of them only. It made me so wary that I passed up a chance with the other girl and was in fact happy now that I had. I wanted to think about this and celebration or not I had to do it now. There was no way I could enjoy myself while wondering what kind of plans the two had for me.

The first thing that came to my mind was that they intended killing me. Kartogo was probably planning to do me in while I was happily pounding away at his mate, assuming that he was dead drunk. I felt a real need to talk to Georgo right now and I hoped he wasn't doing some pounding of his own on someone he had happened up on.

When I walked through my cave I saw Margeeta and asked her to see if she could find Georgo and ask him to come to my office. She could tell that something was up so I told her not to mention it to anyone else unless she needed to have one of my other mates help her find him. I told her that I would explain it all later.

She left and I went into the office. I sat at my desk and went over the little bit that I did know about the situation. The first thing that came to me was Ameliea saying that Kartogo had wanted to be the leader and on the face of it that was as good a motive as any.

Ameliea had said that he was stupid but was he stupid enough to think that just killing me would be enough to make him leader here. Even if by some custom that I hadn't heard, my death at his hand made him leader, it wouldn't last long and surely he wasn't dumb enough to think that. I was practically positive that if he did kill me, Raalto would return the favor right away. Still that wouldn't help me out one bit since I would still be dead.

I also wondered if his plan, or what I assumed was his plan, was a coincidence or if he had hard knowledge telling him that I needed to be naked to be killed with a knife or a spear. This led me to wonder just how much he actually knew about me and about my weapons and that begged the question of how he knew what he knew.

Even if he was as stupid as Ameliea said, I'm sure that after all this time he realized that the rifles were weapons that no spear or spearcaster could stand up against. He probably had even heard enough about the Glocks to know that he wouldn't have a chance if I could get mine into play when he made his move. The mail was different and I was pretty sure that not many people knew about it. Of course several knew that I had been hit with spears and not been hurt and he might have been able to put things together and know that I must be wearing something that was helping me with that.

I had to assume that he knew about it. I had to make plans for the worst case instead of hoping for the best one. If he knew that he needed to try and kill me while I was naked then he probably knew that if I was dressed he should try to strike a blow to my head somehow. Either by trying to hit it with a spear, rock or club. Eileiea's mate had almost stumbled onto this vulnerability by accident and there was nothing to say that this Kartogo couldn't have figured it out for himself.

Next on my list of worries was whether it was just Kartogo and his mate or if he had some secret group of schemers. A secret group made more sense to me since he was bound to know that all my main helpers were not just going to fall into line taking his orders if I did get killed. Maybe there was a schism in my own ranks that I didn't know about. I didn't think there was but that didn't mean there wasn't. I had been just rocking along not worrying about anything like this, since I'd always felt that Argent would warn me of impending troubles along those lines.

Things without Argent seemed to be more complicated than I'd first thought. An attempted coup was something I would have never considered without this type of prompting and rooting it out alone wouldn't be possible. I had to have some help and Georgo would only be the first of many I needed to talk to. Somehow I trusted Georgo more than anyone, except my mates, and I would have to admit that I trusted him as much as any of my mates. Probably Dotallto could be trusted too but I was going to wait for Georgo's confirmation on that.

Among the others I was sure that Raalto and Racaato were solidly with me. Those two more than any of the others were surely with me and in fact they were not far ahead of any of my main helpers. I felt that I could trust all of them and no matter which way I pondered I couldn't recall anything that any of them had ever done that would give me the least worry about them.

Georgo's knock brought a halt to my thinking about it and I went to open the door. I don't know how I knew it was Georgo before I let him in but I did and I was right. He had a smile on his face at first but it vanished when he saw my look.

"What has happened John, has something gone wrong?" he asked.

"I think something has gone wrong Georgo and I need to talk to you about it. I'm sorry if I put and end to your part of the celebration but I am worried about something and I need your advice now."

"Don't worry about the celebration, I have been to many, and even though the ones here are the best I've ever known I will be glad to cut it short if you need me," he said.

"Do you know Kartogo and Miekadakta?"

"I know who they are when I see them; they came to us when we absorbed the camp of spies. She is very tall and good-looking. He is a big man himself and in fact, he is rather handsome. I have heard though that he is stupid and thinks that he will someday be leader. I heard it several times when they first came but haven't heard anything about it lately," he said.

"That is what Ameliea told me about him and since she was Jakado's mate at that camp I assume that she knows more about him than most. I have reason to think though that he is not so very stupid and that he nearly became leader of this camp tonight, even if it might not have lasted long for him."

Georgo just stood staring at me with wide eyes and his mouth hanging open.