Someone had put a warm skin over me. 

I had thought about the situation I was in, and that of the tribe.  Every person here was in danger of being killed by some kind of animal.  I knew that it would be much safer in the cave.

It was a long slow march to the cave.  But by noon of the third day we were home.  But now I had a problem, no one wanted to go into the cave. "Cat".  They stopped almost fifty meters from the mouth of the cave and wouldn't budge in closer. 

They had  a fire started and I picked up a branch that was on fire at one end and walked up to the cave.  I went inside and looked around real good.  Nothing.  I stepped out and motioned them forward.  A couple of the men came forward and looked into the cave.  They slowly entered and looked around.  Finding nothing, they came back and motioned the rest of them forward.  They all came up, but slowly.

The men went in, spears at the ready.  A few minutes later a man came out and motioned the rest of them forward.  Then the mad scramble was on. 

A few fights broke out over who was going to get this or that area.  So to put a stop to it, I started assigning areas. 

I tried to put friends next to each other and to keep the not so friendly one as far apart as possible.

One man came up to me and said, "I do not like the place you have put me.  I will move over next to that man", pointing at a guy that had a very pretty wife.

I said, "No you will not.  You will stay in the spot I have assigned or you will leave the tribe".

The next thing I knew, he was swinging a flint knife at me. 

I ducked under the swing, and threw a punch at the spot just below his rib cage.  It was almost like hitting an oak tree.  But it did the job.  His breath left him and he fell to the floor of the cave. 

When he got his breath back, he slowly stood and said, "It will be as you say".

Soon, all of the people were settled.  It looked like it was going to be a good settlement.  A couple of people had put up the skin huts, and were being laughed at.  One man pointed at the roof of the cave and shouted, "Do you think that it will not keep the rain and snow off".  Soon all of the families had set-up housekeeping, and the unmated girls were set up to one side of the group, while the unmated men were on the other side. 

My family had finished our set-up.  Then a small boy came running from the back of the cave.  He was wet from head to toe, and shivering.  Seems he had found a source of water.  I went to investigate.  A small passage that was hidden behind a pile of rubble led to a pool of ice cold water.  Now, no one would have to go outside to get water. 

I went and got everyone and showed them the water.  The women were the happiest, no walking to the stream and bringing back water. 

The next big project was an outhouse.  It took me several days to explain what it was for and the advantages, but no one seemed to want to bother.  That is, until the day the chief came into the cave as mad as a hornet nest.  He had stepped into a pile and got it all over his new moccasins.  Then it was an all hands evolution to get a large hole dug and an outhouse built on top of it.  Four days later we had a six hole outhouse made from logs and a grass roof.   Then it was talking everyone into using it.  But once the chief used it everyone wanted a chance at it.

The smell around the mouth of the cave improved on a daily basis.

The women had come up with something that reduced their work.  Instead of cooking for just her family, they had gotten together and started cooking for everyone.  They would rotate the cooking duties on a daily basis.  The food they served varied form excellent to almost bad.  But the bad cooks were improving. 

Hunting and gathering was almost a daily thing, also.  Everyone was trying to lay in a supply of food that would last the group all winter long, until the new growing season was well underway.  The preserving of meat was now done by the group instead of by each individual family.  It was supprising that there were no shirkers.