Snatched by cmsix

Chapter 32

Wonder of wonders, nothing untoward disturbed our sleep that night and all our newfound stock was still hanging around when we woke. They didn't get excited when I went out walking among them either. Most of the stallions still steered clear of me, but for some reason the mares didn't seem to. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for a few minutes there.

Then I remembered I'd left the herd's former stallion where I'd found him, without even spending a round to put him out of his misery. Of course that might have been unwise at the time, but I could have at least ridden back to finish him after the herd was at our temporary camp.

I was so ashamed of myself that I saddled Red to ride back that way before breakfast. It was probably a useless gesture, but I felt I needed to do it. Nosey must have agreed since he came with me.

The stallion was dead when we got there, but he hadn't been for long, and it was apparent that he'd been attacked during the time I'd been gone. I didn't see where any big chunks had been bitten out of him, but there was a dead bitch wolf not far from him and the way her head was caved in let me know that he'd done it, but now I had another problem on my hands.

The bitch had obviously been nursing, milk was leaking from her teats. I guess the milk making process kept going even during death, and maybe a little longer. I wasn't worried about that, but I did know there were some wolf cubs that would soon be starving to death, and they probably weren't that far from me.

Of course Jean Auel's Ayla and Wolf came to my mind right away. Hell, if dogs came from wolves to start with, we could sure put some to good use around the camp if we could get hold of the cubs.

I mounted Red again and rode right back to our camp, explaining what I had in mind as soon as I got there. Lanita was nearly beside herself with enthusiasm for this project. Since Nita had treated people that had been attacked by wolves before she wasn't so sure, but she finally came around.

My mates and Lanita came with me while Denac and Jekaycey stayed with our new stock. Half an hour later we were working our way out from the dead wolf, hoping to find her orphaned children.

Of course Nosey was the one who found them and he hee hawed us to the den right away. I could tell from the sound of their growling that they were bigger than I'd expected them to be. No wonder their mother had seemed so skinny. If there were many of them they must have been a load on her system.

At first I'd imagined sticking my hand in and pulling them out. That was before I knew they were actually old enough to growl so, even though it did sound a little feeble. I knew that their little teeth were probably as sharp as needles. I didn't try a damned thing until I fetched and put on my gloves.

The way it turned out, the rawhide gloves were great for this job. As soon as I put my hand in, one of the little bastards bit down on it. I pulled my hand back and he held on tight, assuring that he was captured right away. Lanita scooped him up at once. It didn't take her five minutes to have him settled down, especially since she'd been smart enough to bring a few scraps from our breakfast with her. It was literally eating out of her hand in no time.

Yes, I had run off without thinking about anything to put them in. Luckily my mates weren't that dumb. Nita, Katia, and Shaeta each had an empty skin bag with them and they proved large enough to hold all nine of the crew, a bumper crop to say the least. I figured they might be as much as eight weeks old, but that was a pure guess.

When we got back to Denac, Jekaycey, et al, they had everything loaded, the travois hitched to Matilda, and were set. We took a few minutes to dig out some food for the cubs and to give Jekaycey and Denac a chance to fondle them too. We mounted up and headed home a few minutes later. Nita, Katia, and Shaeta rode drag this time while Lanita helped me in scouting our way back.

Once we were close enough so the river and the hills made escape for the new Clydesdales impossible, Lanita and I had our mounts break into a slow lope and we went to the canyon's gate.

Jortah was on the ball this morning and he had one of the guys waiting near the gate to open it in case we made it back. He did the deed while Lanita and I moved past it as a sort of catch crew in case our new herd wanted to go on past. Luckily, they didn't think of it and just followed Denac and Jekaycey in.

We dismounted after the gate was closed and then decided to get the tack off Buster and let him resume his new herd stallion duties among the newcomers. We needed to get something figured out so we could start training the new stock.

While Buster went over to sniff around his new harem, Jonalton told me that Sir Longears had just done his daily duty to Candace. That was a good thing, but our new breeding program was occupying the pen we needed for our regular training. I hated to think about taking the time to build another pen that we'd have to abandon in a week or so anyway. Lanita came up with a workable solution right away.

"They all stay over here now Daddy, so why don't you bring Candace and Sir Longears over to the camp to hang around with Nosey and Buttercup. Can't they just wear hobbles to keep them from wandering off too far?"

"You are such a smart little thing, and cute too. That's a great idea. All we'll need to do is take the hobbles off Sir Longears when it's time for him to do his duty."

The details were arranged without much problem. Jortah had one of the guys put a hackamore on Candace and ride her across the river. We intended to put a halter on Sir Longears but it turned out we didn't even need to do that. As soon as the guy rode Candace away Sir Longears was hot on their trail. I hoped the guy could get someone over there to help him with the hobbles.

Meanwhile, we had a little rodeo to get started, but even that worked more easily than we could have hoped for. Our pen wasn't large enough to hold the whole new group, since it was much larger than the original one with Buster.

I took the time to get a good count, and even though I'd been looking at them and working with them for more than a day now, it was still surprising. There were thirty-one mature mares, seventeen of them had nursing foals and there were twelve obvious yearlings. We also had four young but mature stallions.

Our biggest problem was keeping the nursing mares out of the pen, but with some judicious use of the gate we managed it. I wanted the four young stallions in that pen too, but while it wasn't as big a need it was more complicated. They simply wouldn't cooperate. I gave up on that just before we took a break for lunch.

I'll admit I was glad to get back to the main camp's cooking, and I'm pretty sure that Lanita was too. We had a good meal and just after it was done Caltort came over with some great news. He had his first wagon wheel assembled, and he was anxious to try putting the rim around it.

There was even better news when I went to take a look at things. Caltort hadn't mentioned it, but the part making seemed to be done with. I could see stacks of spokes seven more hubs and an uncountable number of felloes. Apparently they had gone ahead and made all the parts before they put the first wheel together.

We talked it over and decided that the best way to do it was by setting the assembled wheel on flattened blocks of scrap timber and then heating the wheel rim and using the tongs to lower it over the wheel. In fact it was the only way I could see to get the job done. I left Caltort and Jagbac getting things ready and headed back to the ranch.

Jortah had things rocking along in the training pen when I reached it. There was a mare in the chute and they were babying her into submission. The four wild stallions were bunched up together away from most everything else but I figured they could just wait until the rest were in the fold, so to speak.

With nothing much needed out of me right now, I took a halter and lariat and headed for one of the mares that hadn't made it to the pen yet. I might as well see if I could do things the old-fashioned way, for a while at least.

The lead mare, who still had a foal nursing, let me walk right up to her and put on a halter. It wasn't a big surprise since she'd worn one that first night we captured them. I didn't have Nosey here to help me, but she cooperated anyway and soon enough I was leading her around. Since the snubbing tree was vacant right now, I spent an hour leading her and then tied her to it. She didn't like it much but she didn't pitch a fit, and she quit trying to pull away after about fifteen minutes.

Caltort and Jagbac were probably near ready to deal with the hot wheel by now, so I walked back to camp to check on them. They were about to send someone after me so things worked out fine.

It was all Caltort and I could do to lift the rim out of the coals with the two pairs of tongs that we had. There was nothing tricky about it, that damned rim was just heavy. We managed to get it about halfway onto the wheel and then I let he and Jagbac finish things with hammers and a lot of pounding. There was nothing I could do for them now except cheerleading and they didn't need it, so I went back to the ranch and spent the rest of the day leading another of the wild mares around.

When it came time for supper I was more than ready, and I was worn nearly completely out too. I wasn't the only one though. Katia, Nita, Shaeta, and Lanita had spent almost all day on their cashda. Riding in and among the thaka and cashda that weren't currently being trained. They'd even taken to including the unoccupied cashda into their practice cattle drive routine.

The next morning, when I woke, I realized that we'd let Lanita have too much fun the day before. She was still sleeping soundly in her own little spot, and so were all my mates. I even managed to get up, dressed, and out of the hut without rousing them.

We weren't the only ones that had been hard at it yesterday though. On my walk to the privies I noticed that Caltort and Jagbac had assembled another wheel yesterday afternoon. I also spied something I hadn't noticed before. One of the wagon boxes looked nearly complete, it even had a seat built on already.

For a minute I wondered who'd done this, then I figured it must have been Bruca and Charlton. It only took a single look to know they were doing a bang up job. It isn't easy to build something like that with no nails or other hardware but they'd done it. Wooden pegs and dowels were holding it together, and they required a hell of a lot of work.

By the time I got to Buttercup, Candace, Nosey, and Sir Longears I could see the latter was ready to do his duty. He had his dick run out and it was plain he was doing his best to figure out a way to pole Candace with his front feet hobbled. I decided to help him out and removed the hobbles. He didn't waste any time after that, and he didn't have the strength to complain when I hobbled him again after the deed was done.

Figuring that it was time for breakfast, I went to our log and took my seat. Denac was there and Jekaycey was already around the cooking fire but Lanita hadn't showed and I didn't even see a one of my mates anywhere.

"I guess I'd better go see if they're up yet. I think they're still asleep," I said.

"Keep your seat, I see the curtain on your hut opening now," he said, and when I glanced that way I saw Lanita coming out first.

I got up anyway and went over to show her the way to the privies. Of course she knew the way, but I wanted to see what they had to say. Their moods weren't strictly in my favor at the moment.

"Why didn't you wake us up Daddy?" Lanita asked, leading the charge.

"Because you all looked too cute to disturb," I said, saving my own ass with that one comment.

"I guess you were probably right," Lanita said, and then took my hand and led me to the privies, whether I needed to go or not.

For my sake I didn't, but Lanita was not to be denied on her morning visit to Buttercup and his friends. By the time she came out Nosey was with us and we made our inspection of the stock.

"Daddy, Sir Longears seems a little sluggish this morning. Do you think he is sick?" she asked.

"No, he's just winded. I removed his hobbles earlier and let him do his duty to Candace. He'll be back to normal in a few more minutes."

"Oh. I'm sorry I missed it," she said, and giggled.

"Well, let's get back to the log before we miss breakfast," I said.

"When you're right Daddy, you're right."

It was obvious that my mates weren't the only ones to sleep in this morning though. When Lanita and I got back to Denac, he was exactly as I'd left him, foodless. We could see that the cooking was still going on and so we waited patiently.

"Uncle Denac, how does it feel to have the herd stallion as your personal mount?" Lanita asked.

"It makes me jealous," Denac said.

"Jealous?" Lanita asked.

"Yes, Jealous. I wish I was the herd stallion," he said, and laughed.

"You probably wouldn't want to be for long. How do you think you'd like all those mares kicking you when you came to court?" Lanita asked.

"Carl, have I ever told you how smart I think Lanita is? That's the best advice I've ever had about letting my wanter overload my doer," Denac said, and we laughed at him about it.

The food came not long after that and we were mostly quiet while we ate. After we were done, plans for the day were made before the girls returned with the dishes.

We spent the next six days mostly getting ready to get ready for our move. Caltort, Jagbac, Bruca, and Charlton finished both wagons and they turned out much better than I'd anticipated, but it was easy to see that they were going to have to make two trips.

The smokehouse had done a bang up job, but the abundance of meat was much more than the Calak usually carried for a move. The hunting that produced the meat had been done so we could get enough hides, but there was no sense in wasting the meat now that we had it, and it would make more than one wagon load by itself.

Of course we could use many more travois now, or at least larger ones, with more overall carrying capacity, but with the new supply of hides we would need every one of them.

There was also a project I wanted to finish before we left. We had gathered a lot of the metal from the meteor strike, but I knew there was still a lot more. We were going to need every scrap by and by, and it would be a major pain in the ass to come back later to finish our dig. It looked like we would need at least another week to get to the point where we could even start loading up.

Then I woke one morning to Lanita's smiling face and I knew as soon as my eyes opened that Breezus wanted to make sure we didn't forget about mating. There was another pair that would find each other in a few minutes. We hurried to dress and get outside so we could have a chance to see the spectacle.

We barely made it. Silveata latched onto Jortah not five minutes after Lanita and I finished our visit to Buttercup and Nosey. At least Candace had finished her cycle two days ago, so she and Sir Longears were back across the river. It didn't matter to Jortah and Silveata one wit though.

Of course this meant another fight, for the sake of Jortah's official entrance. I was surprised though when Caloe asked me to do the honors again.

"I think Shaton is fit by now, but I'm not inclined to let him participate if you will do the job again," Caloe told me, after she'd managed to hustle me off to the side.

"I don't mind at all Caloe, as long as it is what you want to happen," I said.

"It is, but I want Shaton to resume the duty after we are moved to the new caves. I do have another request of you though. I want you to teach Shaton your method of fighting, if you will. It is obvious to everyone that you are the best. Not only that, but you seem to be able to do it with less damage to either party. Except for that time with Denac," she said.

"Yes, I'm sure I'll have no trouble with Jortah. I simply know more about what is going on during a fight. I'll admit that Denac had made me angry before we fought, and at that time I wasn't as sure of my methods, or of Denac's lack of method. All in all though, I think it's come out for the best," I said.

"You think? I can tell you that your fight with Denac has done more than come out for the best; the change in him has been a miracle. Before the fight, his one redeeming skill was his ability to find and acquire honey. Now, he is one of the most responsible and productive members of this Calak," she said.

"I'll agree with that, but I don't think the fight did it. I think he was so happy about finding that I wanted to be his friend that it changed his entire attitude," I said.

"Whatever it was, if you ever think you can do it for someone else, don't hesitate," she said.

It was settled then, the fight was on and I was the Calak's designated champion. It went almost exactly the same as Jonalton's trial did, but by now I wasn't sure whether Jortah was actually trying to win. I got the notion somehow that he was trying his best to make a good showing but had no intention of winning even if he thought he could. Didn't matter anyway, because he kept on coming until I threw him and told him to quit.

He did manage to get more banged up than Jonalton had though, so I advised Silveata to escort him to the creek, which was much smaller and colder than the river, and make him soak in the cold water for at least an hour. She said she'd see to it.

I was able to go on about my normal business for the rest of the day, without getting caught up in the mating festivities, in fact most men managed to get out of that stuff. Lanita and I crossed the river and spent the morning, until lunch, working with the cashda. We even returned after lunch for more of it.

On the day after drunk recovery day, all the loners and I left the cashda to Jortah and Jonalton and went back to our prospecting. We didn't even bother to take our finds back to camp; we just piled them near the crater. By the end of the day we had what must have been nearly eight hundred pounds of additional material, and I decided we'd found almost all of it.

After breakfast the next morning the loading was on. All the travois had been built and the harness manufactured. Every man, woman, and child that was old enough to ride had a full set of tack, including a saddle, and I'd built a small travois for Nosey. He even took it fairly well when Lanita and I hitched him to it for a practice pull.

All the loners except Bruca and Charlton were staying at the ranch with the thaka and most of the donkeys. Jortah and Jonalton and their mates, plus their mate's fathers and mothers were staying too, in the guise of providing adult supervision. It took no little time to carry enough food for six days over there for them.

We brought all the cashda over to the camp side of the river and hobbled them for the night, since we planned to be up and hitching them at first light, or maybe even a little before. We spent our last night at this camp in the open, since all the huts had already been taken down and packed.

We did wake right at false dawn the next morning and breakfast consisted of traveling food, which was already laid out. Eating it didn't take much time and the hitching and saddling was on. I helped Bruca and Charlton with the wagons first, they were going to drive one each, and had been practicing. I spent the next half hour prowling around to see if anyone needed help but everyone seemed to have things down.

Nosey was the last one to get his travois, and I'd made sure it was lightly loaded. After it was done, I put Lanita on Jeffry and mounted myself. Shaton got the signal that everyone was ready and away we went. It started out much better than I'd expected and we made good time too.

It took less than an hour for me to decide that Bruca and Charlton had the worst of it. Our wagons were very sturdy and seemed to be holding up fine, but we hadn't tried to include anything fancy like springs into the construction, not even on the seats. Hell, we didn't have anything to make springs out of anyway. Since the wagons had no springs and there was no such thing as a road here and now, their asses were taking a pounding.

I talked it over with them at the first break, after about two hours, and we all decided that they'd actually be better off without the seats. It would give them room to stand and their legs could take the abuse much easier than their butts. So we pulled the seats off and put them with the freight. If they hadn't needed to be in the wagons to apply the brakes every now and then they'd have been better off just riding one of the team.

Our traveling was causing a lot of disturbance in the forest and fields we passed though. I'd encouraged everyone to spread out as we went and take an impromptu survey of what we were bypassing, in case they spotted something we might want to acquire. It was always nice to know about bee trees, berry vines, and other edible and useful things. I knew that Nita and Darita were trying to watch for anything they recognized as a useful medicinal plant.

Lanita and I were riding wide of the group too. Nosey had wanted to come with us, alas he had his travois duty and he'd stayed with the freight haulers, even though it was obvious he hadn't liked it.

The Calak was traveling generally west-southwest and Lanita and I were basically paralleling them but probably a quarter mile to the north side. Just before it was time for our noon break I caught the scent of what could only be another Calak, and it was probably half a mile northeast of where we were.

I took Lanita back to the group at the break and asked my mates, Denac, Jekaycey, and Shaton if they wanted to ride out and see if we could find the Calak I'd sniffed out.

"We could go I guess," Shaton said. "Do you have some reason you think we should?"

"No pressing need that I know of, I just feel that it might be good to introduce ourselves."

"We've done that before and it won't hurt anything. I'll stay here, but I think it might be good to at least make contact with them," Caloe said, and that sealed the deal.