John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 93

I went back out into my cave to get another cup of coffee. My mates were finishing up their breakfast and so were most of the others that usually ate with us. Sitting at the table, I gabbed while sipping and when Georgo and Dotallto were done I asked them to come with me while I went with Eileiea to check on Shateala.

When we got to her new quarters she was still asleep but Eileiea said that we might as well wake her if we could. She sat on the side of the bed and lightly shook Shateala with a hand to her shoulder. Shateala's eyes flew open and were filled with fright at first; she settled down almost at once.

"Where am I and how did I get here?" she asked.

"You are in John's camp, he and Raalto rescued you from the cat and brought you here. You were too frightened to talk yesterday and so I gave you a soothing tea to help you sleep," Eileiea said.

"I was searching for this camp but the cat started stalking me. I noticed it not long after I came down from the plateau. How were they able to rescue me from it? It caught up with me and I was sure that it would kill me at any moment," she said.

"We don't know why but the cat did not seem interested in killing you. We hoped that you might be able to tell us why. When we reached you the cat seemed to be protecting you from a bunch of hyenas," I said.

"I remember the hyenas and now I think that I remember your face. I think that I saw the cat attack one of the hyenas but I don't know any reason that it would if it didn't intend to kill me itself and eat me," she said.

"It is certain that the spirits have protected you somehow for some reason of their own. Dotallto and I have meditated for enlightenment but the spirits have not told us their intentions," Georgo said.

"Whatever their intentions I am glad for them if they're what kept me from being eaten by the cat or by the hyenas either for that matter. I am also happy that I was able to make it to this camp; can I still live here? You asked us to join you once and now I know that we should have," she said.

"You are welcome to live here with us. The day that you were captured we had come to your camp to ask you again to join us but the men were already dead and the rest of you had been taken away. We couldn't follow because the snow started."

"We were foolish to think that we could live in peace after leaving Dutono's camp. We had to sneak away in the first place and we should have known he would come back to get us. He didn't mind if the men left but when the unmated women left he was enraged. He and the others surprised us that morning. They didn't even give our men a chance to fight, they killed them while they were without their weapons then he forced us to come back with them," she said.

"How were you able to escape him? Even after you did it must have been a hard trip this far alone during the winter."

"I only needed patience to escape. Getting back to my old camp was trouble, since I only traveled at night until I got there. I didn't stop at it since there was nothing worthwhile there now and I knew it was probably the first place that Dutono and his men would look. After I passed through I didn't really know how to find your camp. I came across the plateau and that is where the cat must have picked up my trail," she said.

"You went the wrong way when you came down from the plateau. You should have turned down-river."

"If I ever leave this cave again I will remember it but for now I don't want to think about anything outside," she said.

"I don't blame you. I am worried about the others that were with you though. Will Dutono make it harder for them since you have escaped?"

"He will probably take more precautions guarding them now," she said.

"How long did you have to travel from Dutono's camp to get back to your old one?"

"Since I was trying to stay out of their sight it took me three days but if you aren't hiding you can cover the distance in a little more than half a day," she told me.

"We were afraid it was much farther."

"We should have made sure it was but we didn't. We thought that Dutono probably wouldn't come looking for us but we should have known better, he is very vengeful. He says that next spring he will come to your camp and take back the unmated ones that escaped him. He thinks that he can steal many other women from you too," she said.

"Does he have any idea how many men are here?"

"I don't think so, we didn't even know how many and I still don't. I've mostly seen women here," she said.

"There are nearly one hundred men here and there are even more women. All of us know how to fight."

"He will be in for a very big surprise then since there are only twenty-six men at Dutono's camp and now there are only thirty-one women since I escaped," she said.

"Do all of the rest want to stay there?"

"No. You know that there are at least three women that do not want to be there. There are more than that though. Even most of the mated women would like to leave, with or without their mates. In fact most of the mated women would like to be done with their mates. Dutono has encouraged his men to keep their mates in line with frequent beatings. Most of the women are not happy about it.

"The camp has enough food but no extra supply. Dutono wasted much of the hunting time looking for us and sneaking around trying to find other women he could capture," she said.

"Georgo, would you and Dotallto meditate and see if you can get a sense of the weather for the next few days?"

"We will be glad to John, are you thinking of going to Dutono's camp soon?" he asked.

"If I thought we would have acceptable weather I would leave today. I do not like for people to be held captive."

"I have been to his camp quite a while ago but it did not seem he was like that then. It also did not seem like I was welcome though, so I haven't been back in a long time," Georgo said.

"I also have been there and received the same treatment. In fact he told me plainly that I wasn't welcome in his camp. He did see that I had something to eat and a place to sleep but he hurried me away the next day and told me not to come back," Dotallto told us.

With normal clothes for this day and time I would not even consider a trip away from home during this winter but with the things that Argent had provided, the task didn't seem so daunting. I did worry about the horses that would be pulling our sleighs but with a little care on our part they should be able to make it without much hardship. This time I would question Ralph more carefully about his weather forecast though.

If Shateala had been able to make it on foot with only what she could carry I didn't see why we couldn't make it in a couple of sleighs with our excellent cold-weather gear. I did wonder whether I was taking too much on myself and my people. Did we have the right to force our will on Dutono and his camp? We were going to, whether we had the right or not; I was going to do it. We already had plenty of women in our camp but that didn't mean I'd just sit on my ass while some little wanna-be bad man held his camp in virtual slavery. I intended to teach Dutono some manners, even if it killed him.

How far did I intend to go toward exerting my superior force? I didn't know but I did know the next step. The next step was in Dutono's camp and, weather permitting we were going to take it in a day or two.

Sateala's friends were gathering around now and wanted to visit with her. I left and headed back to my office to do a little visiting of my own, with Ralph.

"Hello again John," he said as I entered.

"Yes I'm back already. Can you give me a weather prediction for the next few days?"

"Of course. Are you planning a mini-war?" he asked.

"I believe I'll take the politicians way out and call it a police action."

"I see. The weather will not be bad but it will start snowing tomorrow, probably around noon. The wind will be about fifteen miles per hour and might get up to twenty-five miles per hour occasionally. The temperature should stay about the same and the snow will probably amount to between twelve and eighteen inches," he said.

"Not the best weather to be traveling in but maybe it won't be impossible."

"You should be able to make it. We might need to provide something for the horses to keep them warm when they are not working and you should probably take one sleigh full of hay for them. Maybe we should provide some grain for them also," he suggested.

"I suppose you can help me out along those lines."

"Surely; it won't be a problem. May I ask exactly what you intend to do there?" he asked.

"I intend to retrieve the other three women he captured and I'll probably invite any of the other women to join us if they want to. It may not be my place to try righting every wrong I come across but I guess it is if I make it that way."

"I'm sure that in this case might makes right. I can assure you that most of the others here and now would do as they liked if they had the ability to do it," he said.

"I think that I'd like for you to reinstate my videos and give me a look at his camp if you have a view of it."

"We do have good placement in and around his camp," he said.

I sat down and looked at the screen while Ralph chose the views. Dutono's camp was in a cave also but it wasn't in the side of a plateau like ours; it was in the side of a small mountain, the largest of a small group of them. I could see at once that it would be no trouble to climb over it if we needed to. The whole thing was a little odd looking and didn't seem like a natural formation. Once more I wondered just how much rearranging Argent had done on this planet before I got here.

"Do you know anything about the inside of this cave?"

"It is a little more than a hundred and fifty feet to the back wall from the entrance and the whole thing is roughly two hundred feet wide. The cave is especially well suited for human habitation, not the least of which is the hole that lets the smoke from their fires escape. The floor was mostly level to start with and over time they have made it even more level. You can see that there is a large entrance that they have mostly closed with skins, for the winter," he said.

I didn't have any doubts that we could go there and do what we wanted to but I didn't think we could do it without suffering some losses. In that cave they would be hard to deal with. Probably the only thing they needed to go outside for was water and they might have enough inside to last a long time. Hell, there could be a spring or something inside to furnish water.

"Where do they get their water during the winter?"

"Unfortunately for your purposes there is a small spring near the back of the cave. In that particular spot the floor slopes down sharply and the spring forms a small pool," he said.

That was bad for us. I wanted to go right down there and get the other women out but with more snow coming it seemed like a fools errand. They would be in their cave with no real need to come out and we would be outside in the snow.

For a while I just looked at the video of the cave. I had a feeling that I was missing something so I kept having Ralph switch from one angle to another; finally it came to me. The smoke hole, we could stop it up and force them out.

On the other hand it would take quite a while for the smoke to become annoying enough to force them all outside. Maybe a backup plan was in order.

"Ralph can you provide a few cs gas canisters for this mission?"

"I can't see any reason why I couldn't and that is an excellent idea. The gas won't do them any real damage and it's effects wear of quickly. The biggest danger from the canisters would be fire and I estimate that probability as low. It would certainly be safer for all involved, even for them," he said.

"I plan to just try stopping up the smoke hole first to see if it will make them come out but if it doesn't work we'll try the gas."

"It is doubtful that smoke alone will force them out. If it does that will be fine but if it doesn't the gas surely will," he said.

"Thank you for the help," I said as I went back out into my cave."

I could tell as soon as I left my office that plans for the trip were already underway. My mates and many of the other women were gathering food and supplies. The coffee maker was in high gear to fill our thermoses. Racaato, Raalto, Caato and Barago were drafting men to come with us and I was told that Danlo, Jonoco, Nadlo, Sahto and Talvo were down hitching horses to sleighs and packing them with other equipment and food for both humans and horses.

I went to Raalto, Barago, Caato and Racaato to give them the bad news.

"I know that everyone wants to go but two of you will have to stay. There must be someone here to lead this camp incase some of us don't come back." I said.

"I was afraid you would tell us something like that. I don't guess we can persuade you to stay here with the camp?" Raalto asked.

"Guess again. You know that I am going."

"Yes I knew and we have already wagered for the right to go. Caato and Racaato have won and they will be going with you. Daaggo, Bigglieo and Galto are going also, along with five other men. We assumed that you could not get away without most of your mates and they are as good with the rifles as anyone. From what Shateala has told us you and your mates would outnumber all the men of that camp," Raalto said.

"It is a comfort to have plenty of mates."

Since that was decided I put on a heavy coat and headed to the horse cave to see Danlo.

"I see that you seem intent on going today Danlo," I said when I got there.

"We were just guessing that you meant to. We are hitching up in case signs for the weather are good," he said.

"They will be."

"Do you want to bring Big Mother also? She might be very impressive when we get there," he said.

"I'm afraid that she would have more trouble with the snow than the horses. I have also discovered that their camp is in a large cave and she wouldn't be able to impress anyone until they were already defeated and forced outside."

"Very well, we will leave her here then. I do think that we should bring an extra sleigh with hay though," he said.

"I think you are right, in fact I think that we should take six sleighs. There will be many of us and we will probably want to sleep in them instead of on the ground. If we succeed we will have many more coming back with us.

"You should put a layer of hay in the floor of all of them and spread bison skins on the hay in four of them. There should also be some sacks of grain here soon, it is also food for the horses."

"What is grain for horses?" he asked.

"Seeds from certain types of grass; oats."

"I know of oats but I didn't know that the seeds could be used for feeding the horses. I have seen them eating the tops when they find them though," he said.

"Next year we will try to find some and gather the seeds. The spirits will be sending us some for now though."

Danlo made no comment on that and I was glad there was no need for more explanation. He went to Nadlo and told him to catch more horses and I thought that we should also take one buckboard so I joined them and asked them to hitch it also.

"You might as well catch Red and some other mounts too; they may not be needed but it won't hurt to take a few."

I headed back to my cave then but stopped as soon as I left the horse cave. The big cat was sitting just outside the entrance and to tell the truth for once, it scared me badly. When I stopped it stood and began walking toward me. My heart was hammering in my chest and my hand reached for the Glock though I knew it would be only a little help.

As the cat approached me I held the Glock on him but didn't fire. It didn't appear to be attacking, just walking toward me. It was fearsome and became more so as it got closer. Standing, its withers were only a foot or so lower than the top of my head. It made an African lion from my old earth seem small. When it reached me it rubbed its head and then its shoulder against me and seemed for all the world like a house cat stroking itself against its owner's leg. I was too frightened to move.

Finally I realized that Argent or some of them had done something to this cat. Never would it have acted this way on its own. I holstered the Glock and stroked the cat with one hand. It didn't purr but since I knew that it was under alien control I halfway expected it to. If they'd gone to all this trouble I didn't see any reason to complain so I headed for my cave knowing that I would have some surprised mates when I got there.