Snatched by cmsix

Chapter 6

As things settled down a little I asked Caloe where I should take the thaka to gut it. Usually the men gutted their kills where they made them and then brought them back for the women to skin and cut up. I didn't know if this was plain laziness or what. There were a lot of usable parts inside a thaka that went to waste when they were field dressed, unless the men went to the trouble of bringing them back.

Caloe told me if I'd take it back out away from the campsite about a hundred yards or so that she and the others would take it from there, and I was happy to.

My next trick was going to be fetching the small come-along from my trunk and hanging the thaka from a stout tree-limb for them, but they were cutting parts off before I had the dolly out from under it, and I didn't want to seem to be telling them how to do their jobs.

Shaeta and Katia had held the calf's lead while I moved it's former mother and when I got back to them they were mostly just staring at it with amazed looks on their faces.

"Why don't you go over and introduce yourselves?" I asked.

"It won't understand what we say," Katia said.

"No, but if you let it see what you smell like it will know you, and if you pet it gently it will like you. You have to approach it slowly at first though, so it won't be frightened," I said.

"I just don't understand why it lets us do this at all. Why did it follow you back here?" Shaeta asked.

"I spent about an hour getting it settled down after I got the rope over its neck. And I spent another thirty minutes or so teaching it to follow where the halter tugged it. It isn't really old enough to know anything else to do.

"It's been following its mother around since it was born and now she's gone and we're all it has. If I'd left it where it was it would have been dead tomorrow or the next day anyway. Something would have killed and eaten it," I said.

"But it doesn't know that yet, does it?" Shaeta asked.

"Probably not, but it doesn't know anything else either, except that it wants some water, some grass, and some milk. Unfortunately it isn't going to get any more milk. I hope it can get by on just grass," I said.

"I hope so too. I kind of like it," Katia said, and then she walked slowly over toward the calf.

It didn't mind at all and actually seemed glad to have some company. Shaeta was right on Katia's heels. The calf liked their attention and within half an hour it would follow them without the need of tugging the lead. They were thrilled.

It dawned on me then that they had probably never even considered touching a live animal before. I knew that there was a kind of wild dog here, though they weren't numerous, yet none of the kwagi had ever mentioned having pets or anything like a watchdog. That would be a trick for another day though.

About two hours before sunset, groups of men started returning and most had two or three kills. Shaton, Matatu, and Caltort's small group was the only one that returned empty handed and that was expected because they hadn't been hunting. They were just exploring farther in the direction we'd been traveling.

The group that had done best was the largest one. They'd killed a bull thaka that was nearly as big as the cow I'd taken, and they also had two qaka. All the other groups had two or three qaka, but I was a big surprise to them when they found out I'd brought in a thaka on my own and that didn't even mention the calf I'd led in with me. I noticed that they didn't seem nearly as happy about it as the women had.

Hopefully it wasn't jealously rearing its ugly head already, but then again I knew it would sooner or later. There wasn't a chance in hell of any group of humans this large getting along without some friction.

My entrance had been unusual and my ways were somewhat different. I knew that sooner or later someone was going to want to put me in my place. The trouble was that none of them thought they could and I'm sure that didn't make me any more likable.

Not all the men were that petty though, and I got a surprise before the meal that night. Jagbac sought me out and introduced himself, giving me his name from the get go. I gave him mine back and then he asked me about the thaka and how I'd killed it.

As I told him, I left out the fact that I'd used a bow and arrows to do it. He didn't ask if I'd used a spear because I doubt he considered any other possibility. I'm not sure they even knew about other types of weapon.

When he asked how I captured the calf I was glad to show him the sash cord lariat and even demonstrate how it was done. He was amazed with it from the start and clearly wanted one, though he didn't asks.

Mentioning that I didn't have any more of the cord that was long enough for a lariat led to explaining that lariat meant a rope with a sliding loop on one end for capturing things. A few more minutes telling him that this rope wasn't really strong enough for anything but the smallest animals was next. I went on to tell him I intended to try plaiting a proper lariat out of rawhide.

He seemed to follow my explanations well and I hoped he would have an interest in learning to use a rope after I'd had time to make one or two. There was an even better animal than a thaka on Margata for beast of burden duties, but it would take more than sash cord to catch one. Unless I got as lucky as I did with the calf.

Cashda seemed to be nearly clones of horses. They even looked amazingly alike and I had an odd feeling that they hadn't really evolved here but might have arrived in a manner similar to mine. There wasn't much talk of cashda among the kwagi because they had practically no use for them.

They couldn't get close enough to kill them with spears for some reason they didn't understand, and they hadn't thought of trying to herd them over a handy cliff or anything of the sort.

I had my own suspicions as to why they couldn't get close enough. If the Cashda had the type sense of smell I did the kwagi would continue to only acquire them after a lucky accident, where one broke its leg and was found by a kwagi before being found by other carnivores.

Of course if they did have a super sense of smell, I couldn't slip up on them any better than anyone else could, but I knew about running them off a cliff and I also knew about trapping them in a small blind canyon, draw, or the like. Knowing it would work ahead of time was more than half the battle.

Still it would be pointless to spill the beans until I could try my hand at making a few lariats. One thing was certain about training a horse, or Cashda, especially a grown one. If you didn't have a good rope you were shit out of luck.

Available food broke up my powwow with Jagbac and though I'd enjoyed it I was ready to eat. We had stew made from parts of my early arriving kill and everyone seemed happy enough about that. I was surprised that Katia seemed to be preening and making a fuss over me nearly as much as Shaeta did, but it didn't hurt my feelings one damned bit.

In fact, my dick started throbbing when I remembered the peek I'd had of her naked honey-pot this morning. It was funny, but Shaeta looked at me almost as soon as I thought that, and damned if she didn't give me such a smile. As a matter of fact, Caloe gave me a little grin not ten seconds later. Weird if you asked me.

When we headed for our furs I knew something was up. It wasn't overt or anything, but Katia's furs were now on the other side of ours and even closer than they had been the night before. After we were settled down for sleeping, it dawned on me that I was now between Shaeta and Katia and there wasn't very much distance between me and the latter.

I tried not to get Shaeta too revved up tonight when she gave me a kiss but I didn't keep my hands off her either. After she'd turned over and wiggled her ass back against me I made sure to put my hard dick where it belonged, right between her legs. I didn't try to put it up her, yet, but I wanted to make sure it knew the way home, and she gave a contented sounding sigh as I took over a titty.

When I woke the next morning it was almost as if Shaeta was waiting for my eyes to open before she moved. She did an odd twisting around on her butt kinda and the next thing I knew I was staring right at her pretty wine-red beaver. She even opened her legs a little so I could get a good look. Hopefully my x-ray vision didn't scorch anything important.

I was speechless and it was probably a good thing. Shaeta had the creamy skin of a redhead, kinda. It looked smooth and luscious but it wasn't the alabaster that you might expect. She didn't have many freckles either and none you could see when she was dressed. She did have a wonderful spray of them around her bush though and it made me lick my own lips when I saw them.

Shaeta gave a delightful little laugh at that and then she was up and pulling on her clothes. I lay still and watched the whole thing; especially enticed by the way she wiggled her sweet looking ass as she shimmied into her skin dress.

When I was up and in my pants, Shaeta leaned over as I was lacing up my boots and asked me whose was prettier. I knew at once that she was asking about the views I'd had of her spice-box pie and Katia's. Somehow I saved my self with my question in return.

"Which moon is the most beautiful?"

She laughed at me and then she and Katia scampered off. It was a hopeless question since the moons were practically identical. They did some type of complicated dance with each other across the sky every night. They seemed to be constantly revolving around each other somehow and it was impossible to tell one from the other. It was for me anyway.

After breakfast this morning we didn't split up to go hunting again. We had an executive meeting. I guess it was actually more like a stockholders meeting since everyone was there and could speak if they wanted to. Shaton, our Zakat, wanted to know if everyone approved of making a permanent camp here.

It wouldn't really be permanent, but that's how they referred to a camp meant to last until some changing condition made them leave. Usually that change was in the form of diminishing game close to the camp. Everyone agreed that the hunting would be good here and the women said that the gathering prospects were also excellent. Shaton had the last word of course since this was not a democracy, but he did listen to everyone who wanted to say something. None of them wanted to leave right away.

Things were going well until an asshole spoke up after the campsite was approved. I'd seen him before; he was hard to miss. He might have been even slightly larger than Shaton. I sensed that he tried his hardest when fighting for entrance to the Calak, probably wanting to come in right away as Zakat, but it was only a guess on my part.

He wanted to know why there was a live thaka in the camp and specifically wanted to know when it would be killed. I didn't even wait for Shaton to say anything. Hell, it was my thaka.

"The thaka is mine and it isn't going to be killed," I said, after standing.

"Why should you be allowed to have a live thaka in our camp?" he asked, and he didn't even try to make it sound polite.

"Why shouldn't I be? As you said, it is our camp, not yours. I killed its mother and no doubt you ate some of her last night. I brought the calf here for my own reasons and I will keep her for my own reasons," I said, and really that should have been the end of it. He knew damned well it wasn't his place to say anything about it.

"And what if I kill the thaka?" he said, and the rumblings from others reinforced my thoughts that he was over the line.

"What would you do if someone stole something of yours," I asked, and most of the men's mouths dropped open.

Stealing was a bigger crime than killing to the kwagi. It was probably the most dishonorable crime there was, except for rape, and that was practically unthinkable. I had hit him what he must have considered a low blow.

"I would fight them and beat them until they returned what they stole," he said, and he was getting wound up to say more but I cut him off quickly.

"If you kill my thaka, I will fight you and beat you until it is alive again," I said, and it was followed by silence.

Clearly he couldn't make it alive again after he killed it, but the point went home. Before they were through thinking about it I had a suggestion.

"Why don't we just fight now before you kill it? It will save wear and tear on my thaka and it will save me the bother of killing you," I said.

I was adding insult to injury and it was my intention. To me it was obvious that he only wanted an excuse to fight me, and there was no point denying him, but I wanted to make him say it. At least I could see that he realized he had been trapped. I'd implied that his life meant less to me than the life of a thaka calf. He had to fight me now, or suffer the indignity of my public insult.

"Fine," he said, "we shall fight."

I thought it was the best way and that the sooner we got it over with, the better off we'd be. Maybe he'd picked the fight just to gain some place in the pecking order as he saw it, or for some other reason. Perhaps he'd just shot his mouth off and overloaded his own ass. It didn't really matter.

Even though he was a good bit bigger than me I knew he was about to get his ass kicked. We were staying here now and I didn't have to worry about him needing to move out with us tomorrow. I knew it would still be mostly a chest bumping affair but I also knew I could have hurt Shaton badly last time if it had been my intention.

I didn't intend to hurt this one either, or not any more than necessary at least. I did intend to make sure he didn't ever want to fight me again.

One thing I liked a lot about the kwagi was when it came time for a fight it wasn't seen as some despicable resort to needless violence. Hell, they had to fight one way and then another just to stay alive. There weren't a bunch of cops running around in black and whites and eating donuts. You took care of you and yours here or they didn't get taken care of.

Everyone was spread out around a big clear spot in minutes while we went to the middle, stripped to our waist, and got ready to rumble.

I let him make the first charge and I'll be dammed if he didn't do exactly the same thing Shaton had, as if he hadn't even been watching our fight. He wound up getting shoved in the back the same way too and falling down.

Maybe it was a standard way of fighting or something, because his next move was the same as earlier too. He came running toward me with his arms spread wide like Shaton had tried but this time I ran toward him even faster. It was quite a collision and as I expected he wrapped his arms around me, thinking of giving me a good squeezing no doubt.

I'd thrown him a curve right at the last though and he didn't even seem to understand the implications. Just before we slammed together I'd raised both of my arms straight up. When he wrapped me up my arms were left free.

As soon as he started squeezing, I put my hands on top of his shoulders, gave a little hop supporting my weight on my hands and back-heeled him on the backs of both thighs, just above the backs of his knees.

Of course he fell over backward and of course I was right on top of him to make sure there wasn't one bit of air left in his lungs, not to mention the way his head had slammed into the ground.

I popped right up like Jack out of the box, since there was no way he could keep his hold around me after that fall, and then I waited for him to catch his breath. I knew damned well he was already plenty tired of this fight after only two charges. He had to gasp and wheeze for nearly five minutes before he was in any shape to continue. Finally he got back on his feet and then he tried to make a quick dash at me, as if I hadn't been paying any attention to what he was doing.

I just did a good form tackle on him and I didn't hold back from driving into him as he hit the ground like I had with Shaton. He was back to gasping and wheezing after that and I also knew he had lost some hide off his back, because I'd lost a good bit from my elbows.

It took longer this time and when he got up he was wary. I didn't mind and for his sake I hoped he would decide to give it up. He didn't and he finally took another run at me. I waited until he was fully committed and then hit him low, lifting with my back and legs. He went over my head and the throw made him do a full somersault. He landed on his back again.

This time the whack he took to his head put him out. It sounded awful too when his lungs finally decided they should take another breath, because it was strictly on automatic; it made almost a howling sound as he unconsciously sucked in air for all he was worth.

I walked over to take a look at him then. He would probably make it. His neck didn't seem broken and neither did either of his arms or legs. He was lying completely still except for the breathing though and his eyes were closed for the count.

"I'm thirsty," I said, looking at Shaton, "will you call me if he wants to fight more when he wakes up?"

"I've always known he wasn't very smart, but if he is that stupid I think we might as well just kill him," Shaton said, and he sounded serious.

"The fight is over then?" I asked.

"Yes, it is over." Shaton said, and damned if he didn't laugh.

Katia nearly beat Shaeta to me then but not quite. They wanted to tend to my wounded elbows, which were scraped and bleeding. I told them to just come to a stream with me so I could soak them in water.

"Why would you do that?" Shaeta asked.

"It will clean out the dirt and grass from the cuts, but even better, if the water is cool enough the bruises will not be very bad at all," I said.

"How do you know that?" Katia asked.

"I have been in a fight before, many in fact," I said, and it seemed to satisfy them.

They led me to a stream I hadn't found on my own yet and I just stripped off my clothes, briefs and all, and got in. Both of them gave me a good looking over when I did it but only Katia had the decency to blush afterward.

The water was colder than I expected but that was good. I stayed in until my teeth were chattering and you should have seen the looks on their faces when they saw how much my dick had shriveled up from the cold. I laughed at them.

"What is funny?" Shaeta asked, and her tone wasn't so gentle.

"It shrinks in cold water. It will come back soon," I said, and laughed again.

She did blush this time and then she and Katia laughed together, no doubt they'd both wondered what had happened.

They gave me a little grief when I got back in a few minutes later but I told them it was better to suffer through the cold now than be so sore all over tomorrow.