John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 100

I spent the rest of the time until supper was ready getting acquainted with my new mates and trifling with Jalieta and Failiela. I managed to resist the temptation to give Failiela the whole treatment but I'm afraid that Jalieta was abused as if she were already one of my mates. Of course I reminded all the others that our business was our business and talking about it was reserved for our little family only.

Dieta and Geera had come in soon after we'd started and they couldn't help helping me, whether I needed it or not.

Gema warned us before supper was on the table and we had time for a few minutes of serious washing in the shower and then we headed to the table. There was already a good crowd seated and I took the time to introduce my new mates and give the reason I thought that they were mine. I got no arguments but did hear a few chuckles from some of my leaders.

"I hear you back there Bigglieo and if you're worried about my strength I'll send the next dozen or so women I collect to be mates of yours if you'd like."

There were plenty of comments after that but they were directed at Bigglieo and I was betting he would not say a word the next time I got a new mate. We settled down then to the serious business of eating.

After supper I went into my office. It was a reflex action from my past life on earth. I wanted to make sure that my name had no chance of entering the conversation when it came time to figure out who would help wash the dishes. I knew that I wouldn't be called on but left anyway to make sure.

"John, congratulations on your latest mates," Ralph said as I entered.

"Thanks, I seem to have lost my reluctance to gather more. What the hell, after thirty or forty it's all gravy."

"When you discovered them I assumed that the knife-throwing lessons were off for the day," he said.

"I'm sorry but I forgot about them completely."

"That's fine. Would you like to see the knives we came up with?" he asked.

"Sure."

What appeared on my desk looked more like a super-heavy-duty ice pick than anything else. I picked it up for a close look. The "blade" looked like a half-inch steel rod that was tapered to a point over the last three inches and the hilt-less handle looked to be four inches long, one and a half inches high and an inch thick. The whole thing was a little heavier than it looked but it seemed well balanced but probably a little heavier at the pointed end. It was comfortable in my hand.

"What do you think of it?" he asked.

"It seems more like an industrial strength ice pick than a knife."

"I can see that now that you mention it. We designed it to make teaching you to throw it accurately easier. After you have the skill down we can make the knives in any form that you want. This way you will have a good start with something that is easy to work with," he said.

"I wasn't complaining but I did wonder if we were talking about the same thing. Now that I know the reason for it I can understand better."

"So when shall we start the lessons?" Ralph asked.

"We will start after breakfast in the morning unless Danlo is determined to go down to visit the animals again. If he can be talked out of it I think that you should make a set of knives for him also. He might as well learn right along with me."

"An excellent idea, we will be ready in the morning," Ralph said as I left.

Back in my cave I could see that the cleaning up after supper was done and that the dishwashers had all been fed. Dalia came to me with a minor problem though.

"John, we have buckets of leftovers that we usually send down to the pigs and they are starting to mount up. What can we do with them now?" she asked.

"Don't Sahto and Talvo usually take them away?"

"Yes but they haven't been able to take them to the pigs during this snowstorm," she said.

"I will tell them what to do with them," I said and then went looking for the two.

I found them with Danlo, Nadlo, Jonoco and all their mates, in their quarters. They were sitting around talking and wondering how the animals were getting along. I could see that they were really concerned and decided that a little of Franks help with the matter might set their minds at ease but I wanted to get the slop taken care of first.

"Danlo, the slop for the pigs is being left in the kitchen because of the snow. I know that there hasn't been time to take it down to them with the snow but it still needs to be taken out of the kitchen."

"What should we do with it?" he asked.

"You can set it outside to freeze, at least then it wouldn't smell up the kitchen."

"It is our fault, Sahto's and mine," Talvo said, "we should have known that it had to go somewhere but when we couldn't take it to the pigs we just left it where it was."

"That's understandable but it isn't practical. It will start to smell bad soon and if you just put it outside it won't."

"Let's go do it now Sahto," Talvo said.

They got up to tend to it and I asked Danlo, Nadlo and Jonoco to come with me. I led them out to Frank. When we were in front of him I asked.

"Frank, can you show us what is going on in the horse cave please?"

"Certainly John, I'll be happy to," he answered.

He gave us a view inside then and slowly swept it around until we had seen everything. It was obvious that all the animals were calm and that they all still had something to eat. After we'd seen it Frank cut it off.

"Let's go look to see what the weather is doing now," I told my wranglers.

We went to the entrance to my cave. We didn't have to go outside since we could see out as Sahto and Talvo moved the slop buckets. It was still snowing as hard as ever and the wind was still up, though it might have fallen off a little.

"The animals are fine now and we will ask Frank to give us a look at them again after breakfast. If they are still all right then we will let them get by on their own tomorrow. The next day we will start making a tunnel in the snow to use for the rest of the winter. You and I have something we need to start tomorrow Danlo and we are going to get to it as soon as we check on the animals, so don't count on going down there."

I headed for my bedroom then with things other than horses, pigs and mammoths on my mind. I saw that Danlo, Nadlo and Jonoco went to help Sahto and Talvo finish taking out the slop.

I hadn't wanted to be bossy but a leader is worthless if he doesn't lead sometimes. They were all young and were very conscientious about their responsibilities. Even so, they didn't need to spend all day and night sitting around worrying about them when they couldn't do anything about it anyway.

Having Frank show them what was going on down there was a little out of the ordinary but I didn't think that it would be a problem. Occasionally he did things that weren't normal and I thought that they had all come to understand this. Hell he taught cooking lessons for the women and was even teaching my mates and lots of the other women to read and write; even teaching them a little arithmetic.

It wouldn't hurt for Frank to help out Danlo and his men a little. They already had experience with Phil teaching them about firearms so I hadn't expected Frank to cause a stir with his video and he hadn't. I wasn't going to make a habit of calling on him to show them everything that was going on in the world here but I didn't think this time had hurt. I wondered if they'd take it on themselves to ask him for an update later.

Enough of leading, it was time to show my mates that I still cared for them. I found Jalieta in the bedroom with my mates and since she didn't spend that many nights with us I gave her my attention first and hours later when I went to sleep she was the one I snuggled up behind.

Jalieta was still sleeping soundly the next morning when I woke and since she was handy and since I already had a hard on I gave her some more attention. When I'd caught my breath later I slipped out of bed but I wasn't alone this morning.

I got the full treatment in the shower. I didn't have to wash a thing of my own and I washed everything I could reach on any of them. When I got out to dry and dress I was pampered every step of the way. I could get used to this.

When I sat at the table a naked Bella brought me a mug of coffee and of course I pulled her into my lap. Bella was still shy but as I kissed and teased she forgot about her audience. I managed to keep my pants on this morning but Bella still needed help to get to the bathroom and back to the bedroom. I was getting to be good with my hands.

Breakfast was one of our old standbys, bacon, eggs and toast on Roweea's bread. I wasn't sure that Roweea was the one that made it but that's what I always called it now. It was the first thing that she'd ever learned to cook well and so I made the name stick. It always seemed to give her a little charge when she heard me calling it that and I did know that she made a few loaves every day so maybe it was hers all along.

As usual John made a pig of himself, why the hell not. I never seemed to gain any weight and I liked to eat so I just did it. Maybe Argent was controlling my weight or maybe it was Frank, Phil or Ralph. I didn't care who did it and I didn't mind them tampering, at least on this point. What could be better than eating all you want and more at every meal?

Danlo and his men came in while I was still eating but when I finished I went into my office. I was curious to see if Danlo would try to get Frank to give him a look at the horse cave without me around.

Ralph greeted me when I came in and I asked him to put up video from the kitchen. Sure enough, when Danlo finished his breakfast he went toward Frank.

"I think he is going to ask for a look into the horse cave and if that's all he wants please go ahead and show him. I'd like for you to hold him to that view only though."

"Very well, I don't think it does any harm in this case and I doubt he will think of looking for anything else," Ralph said.

I was right and Ralph was too, Danlo asked to see into the horse cave and Frank showed him but he didn't ask to see anything else. In fact, from the way Danlo asked it was apparent that he didn't even consider that Frank could show him anything else, as if that was the only thing Frank had a view of. It suited me fine.

I went back out into the kitchen to get Danlo after he'd had his look.

"Are you ready for your lessons now Danlo?"

"What are my lessons?" he asked.

"Come with me and I'll show you. The rest of you will have to do without Danlo for a while."

"I guess we can kill time without him," Jonoco said.

I led Danlo into the practice cave and on back into the office area. Phil was ready to show us a video so we sat down and got a thorough primer on throwing weapons followed by more specific instructions for throwing knives. When it was done we went back into the practice caves and to two firing stations that had been set up with hay-backed targets.

There were several of the big ice picks for each of us and in a few minutes we were trying out what we'd just seen.

Frank, Phil and Ralph had been exactly right about the big ice picks. They were great to learn with. They fit our hands well and in no time at all I could at least hit a man's silhouette every time or almost every time. Of course we were only fifteen feet from the targets.

Phil's voice had accompanied us to the stations and he gave us tips and pointers as we needed them. After a while he moved the targets farther away on their trolleys. It seemed strange but I was able to do better at twenty feet than I'd been able to do at fifteen, Danlo was the same. I asked Phil about it and he said that at closer ranges some people seemed to feel cramped somehow, as if they should run to the target and plunge the weapon in. He assured us that it was a common reaction.

I didn't know if it was that exactly but I did do better at twenty feet. Later he moved the targets out to twenty-five feet. This didn't bring another improvement but after a few throws and some adjustment it seemed that we weren't doing any worse.

We kept at it this way for three hours. As we got proficient enough at one distance, Phil would move the target back five more feet and let us work on the next distance. When we called a halt right before lunch, Danlo and I were doing fairly well at forty feet. Frankly I was amazed at our progress.

We put our ice picks back down and headed toward the food.

"Will we come back after lunch to practice more?" Danlo asked as we headed to the kitchen.

"I don't think we should push that hard. Our arms will get too tired if we do. I'm sure that both of us will have sore muscles tomorrow from all the throwing we did today. We'll do it again in the morning if they aren't too sore."

"You're probably right. I'll bet that you will be more sore than I will since you are so much older," Danlo said and laughed a little.

"Maybe, we'll see."

We had sandwiches for lunch and I didn't stuff myself for once but even so I felt a little sluggish after I was through so I walked into my bedroom, shucked off my clothes and got under my covers to take a nap. I hadn't had an afternoon nap in quite a long time and as I plumped up my pillow and then pulled the covers up to my neck I thought maybe I should do this more often.

No one bothered me or woke me but when I did open my eyes Eileiea, Dalia, Geera, Dieta, Merita, Shelalliea, Gema and Maia were standing near me beside the bed and they all seemed to be watching me intently.

"Do you feel bad John?" Eileiea asked and I could tell that all the rest were on pins and needles waiting for my answer.

"I feel fine Eileiea, why are you all watching me sleep?"

"We were worried John, you've never gone to bed in the middle of the day before. We were afraid that you were sick," she said.

"No, I'm fine. It just came to me after lunch that I might like to take a nap and since I didn't have anything else that I needed to do I just took one."

"What is a nap John?" she asked.

"A nap is when you go to sleep for a short while, usually in the afternoon."

"Oh, I've never heard of a nap before. Usually when someone sleeps during the day they are very tired or sick," she said.

"Well a nap every now and then won't hurt you, in fact I recommend them."

"It is almost time for supper, are you finished with your nap?" she asked.

"Of course, you should never let a nap interfere with a good meal," I told them and then laughed a little to let them know I was teasing them.

The laugh seemed to break the tension that they had been under. I was touched. They had been worried about me and it made me feel good; not that I had worried them but that they paid attention to me and noticed when I did something I wouldn't normally do.

"Where are all the rest of my mates, weren't they worried about me?"

"We were all worried but Dieta, Roweea and Ameliea made everyone else leave. Except Jaada, they didn't make her leave but she was a little tired herself and she went into the unmated women's quarters and lay down on a bed in there," Eileiea said.

"Well this is her bed too, why didn't she lay down here?"

"We told her to but she was afraid that she would wake you," Eileiea said.

"She shouldn't do that again. If she is tired or feels bad I want her to be able to sleep in her own bed and not worry about waking me up. That is for all of you too, this is where we sleep. If I'm here taking a nap and one of my mates wants to lie down she should feel free to do it. Believe me, I can go back to sleep if I want to."

"But we didn't know if you were feeling bad or sick John," Geera said.

"I appreciate that you were worried about me but believe me, if I am sick or feel bad Eileiea will know it almost as soon as I do. I'm not mad but I want you all to understand how important you are to me. I don't want to do something to inconvenience any of you and this bed is as much your bed as it is mine. If you feel like lying down please come right in here and do so."

"Yes John, we understand now and we will do as you say," Geera said.

"OK, I didn't mean to seem to be ordering you to do it. I just want you to feel free to get in bed with me or without me, anytime any of you want to."

"We will, we will. The next time you are taking a nap we might all come and join you," she said.

"Wonderful. Now that's settled. Did one of you say supper was ready?"

They laughed at me then and lead me out to the table. All the rest of my mates were out in the kitchen and Geera went ahead of us and began giving them the lowdown. I was touched again when it seemed that a wave of relief spread out from where she was whispering the news.

I tried to put it aside while I was eating but I couldn't really. It reinforced what I had actually felt but it was the kind of reassurance that is always welcome. It is really nice to know that others care for you and are concerned about your welfare. I had almost finished nagging at the thought when Deimeta rushed in to jump in my lap.

"Daddy! I'm so glad that you aren't sick. We were all worried about you," she gushed.

"Well I'm fine Deimeta and the next time you are worried that I might be feeling bad just come and ask me, I'll tell you how I feel."

"But you were asleep Daddy," she said.

"I'm easy enough to wake up."

"Wouldn't you be cross with me if I woke you up?" she asked.

"Try to think back to how many times I've been cross with you."

"But I don't think I ever woke you up before," she said.

"Well feel free to wake me up to ask me anything, except one thing."

"What thing is that Daddy?"

"Please don't wake me up to ask me if I'm sleepy."

"Oh Daddy."

"I hadn't thought of it but if you are worried about me and don't want to wake me up you can just ask smiley, he'll know."

"Smiley can't talk Daddy, even if he knows he can't tell me," she said.

"He can't talk but if you think about it I'll bet you'll realize that if you ask him a question he has a way of letting you know whether he has the answer or not and if he knows he'll be able to make you understand."

"I guess you're right Daddy, sometimes when I want smiley to help me play a trick he won't do it. I can tell that he knows what I want to do but he just won't. It's like he's trying to tell me that we shouldn't do that. The next time you are sleeping in the middle of the day when everyone else is up I'm going to ask smiley and see what he does," she said.

"Good, he can ease your mind. In the first place, if I had been sick I'm sure that smiley would have come to get someone and bring them to me."

"How does he know so much about you Daddy?" she asked.

"I'm sure that the spirits have sent smiley here to help me and if I need some help I'm also sure that he would try to get it for me."

"Oh."

"He would do the same for you I'm sure."

"I see. It's nice to have someone like smiley isn't it Daddy?" she asked.

"Yes, but it's not nearly as nice as having someone like you, little stinker."

"Oh Daddy."

She settled into my lap then and allowed me to feed her. I was happy to and I was happy that she had come to eat with me. In fact I was pretty happy with everything that had happened over my nap. I felt a little bad about upsetting my mates and Deimeta but it was nice to have a demonstration of how much they cared for me. I was going to have to take naps more often.