Survival of the Fittest

Night was now falling. The battle with Spear took far longer than he'd anticipated. His foe was quick, wily, and hard to hold on to. By contrast, Brutus was a mountain of a man befitting his tribe and was therefore hard to hurt. Spear's attacks were quick but ineffective. Brutus only managed to land a couple of blows on his dancing adversary which were too many for Spear to handle, thus his retreat.

Brutus cleaned his cuts and tended to his wounds using the refreshing water and by utilizing plants nearby. He caught a fish with his bare hands and cooked it over a fire of his own making. Once he was clean, hydrated, and fed, he rolled in his cloak to sleep for the night. He would be hard pressed to follow Goldie's trail tonight and would find her at first light.

Before sleep came over him, Brutus looked up at the shining light of the Moon above. He paused, thought it over, and then got up to his knees, facing it. He bowed to the Moon and then lifted his head to face it. "I have never prayed to you, but you are the goddess of my mate. Please find favor with me so that I can take my mate home," he said solemnly. He bowed again and then plunged his hands into the cold river water. They closed around a large rock that just somehow felt right to him. The Boulder God seemed to speak to him to say; 'take this one'. He pressed his forehead to it and spoke again. "Great Brother of the land, hear my call and grant me victory with this challenger. Allow me to complete my duty to the tribe and allow me to make the tribe stronger through my mate and our children," he said softly.

With the gods and goddesses honored, Brutus was now able to fall asleep where he dreamed of mating with Goldie and having her lie in his arms once again.

*

After the fifth crushing blow that nearly took his head off, Spear retreated from the field of battle. He'd seen Goldie run off in to the woods and so he tried to simply find her. He was the last one to lay with her and by rights he had the most recent claim to her. Spear tried circling around to pick up Goldie's trail, but Brutus was already tracking her. He didn't dare go near that man again. Brutus would be on guard for another ambush now and would probably crush him to death this time.

Spear took his time, using the falling night as cover to get away. He had to be rational about this. There was no need to overpower his opponent when he could out think him. Besides, he needed rest and healing. He waited until Brutus was gone to go back to the clearing to retrieve his leathers, furs, and cloak. Then he went back into the wounds to fashion bandages with leaves and used vines to wrap his chest. The moment he did, the pressure lessened, and he could breathe easier. Food was scarce as he scrounged for berries and fruit. Without his namesake weapon, he couldn't hunt. But, with what little food he did get, his belly wouldn't growl tonight.

He took refuge in the trees, settling into the crook of some branches that were laid out like a hammock. His eyes settled upon the Moon peaking through the tree canopy above. "Grant me vengeance upon my enemy, oh Goddess of the night," he asked, shaking his fist to the air before falling asleep.

*

Goldie made it back to the Traveler's Cavern after nightfall. She took the time to gather enough wood to make a proper tribute to the bonfire before taking a torch and settling into the same stone hut that she'd shared with Brutus the night before. She tried settling down to sleep but it refused to come. To begin with, the grime, sweat, dirt, grass, and men's seed was coating her body and made it difficult for her to relax. She knew of the waterfalls in the caves here as it was where she and Brutus had refilled the waterskins just this morning before cleansing their bodies. She stripped out of her skins and furs before heading out of the stone hut, grabbing her torch, and heading deeper into the cave.

"Going somewhere, my dear?" the Caretaker asked when she got to the waterfalls and placed her torch into one of the holders.

"OH!" Goldie turned and jumped in fright, not expecting someone to be there, let alone the elder man of forty cycles who maintained the caverns. "My apologies, Caretaker, I did not hear you following me. I was just coming here to bathe."

"I see that," he noted, cocking his head in curiosity as he stood there and regarded her. He took a hand out of the long sleeves of the ancient robe that he wore. "Then may I have you tribute of cleanser, please?"

"Tribute..." Goldie blinked as her heart fell. "I... uh... my mate, this morning, had provided you one..." she said.

"That was for last night," the Caretaker said. "Just like the tribute of wood that keeps the bonfire going and the caves warm, the tribute of cleanser is required to bathe in the waterfalls."

"I..." Goldie's voice faltered. Then she lowered her head. "I don't think there is more in his backpack. We'd expected to be home by now," she explained.

"I see," he said, nodding, while looking her up and down. "There are... other ways... to pay."

Goldie shook her head. "I cannot give you my body, Caretaker, I am in contention between two mates," she said at once.

"There are other ways to pleasure a man that does not involve you spreading your legs and offering your womb," the Caretaker said, taking his robe off and placing it on a bench that had been carved out of the stone wall nearby. She saw that he was well built, somewhere between Spear's thin, lean, and willowy form to Brutus' muscular, hulking bulk. Despite his graying hair that still had hints of his original black color, his body looked like it could compete with anyone half his age. "I'll show you," he said, motioning down with his hand. "Kneel. Service me with your mouth, and you can use the waterfalls and cleansers tonight."

"My... mouth?" Goldie blinked as she sank to her knees while he approached. Her eyes locked onto his manhood, which was a good size in comparison to the other two men she'd had today. Caretaker took his cock into one hand and slid his other hand around the back of her head, drawing her forward. The soft, spongy tip of his cock touched against her lips. Goldie steeled herself to do this as she really wanted to clean herself off, and slowly opened her mouth. Caretaker pressed his cock in past her lips, slowly, allowing her to slowly accommodate to it as it increased in length and girth.

"There you go, just relax," Caretaker said softly, looking down at her. "Suck gently on it and make sure you keep your teeth out of the way. The male member is as sensitive as your nub and teeth hurt. That's it..." he said, coaching her and stroking her golden hair. "You master this, then you will please your mate immensely... whoever that winds up being," he added. "Now, look up at me, men find the submissive eye contact pleasing. There you go..." he said and smiled when she looked up at him with his manhood deep in her mouth and down her throat. "Now, while you gently suck, move your head back and forth along my length," he pulled her hair gently and then pressed her head back towards his body to show her. Soon she got the idea and was doing it on her own. "Oh yeah..." he breathed with pleasure, "just like that. Yesssss... you have a natural talent for this."

Goldie was starting to see the appeal for this for men. She even was deriving pleasure from it knowing that she was giving him pleasure with something other than her now sore cunt. Goldie tried sucking harder while bobbing her head back and forth along his cock and he let out a long, husky breath of pleasure. "Oh gods..." he croaked, arching his back and rolling his head back, his face contorted and his mouth hanging open. "Yes, like that, don't stop..." he moaned. Then he grimaced. "I'm going to come inside of your mouth now," he said through gritted teeth, obviously holding back. "When you feel it, put me in your mouth all the way and swallow."

She took the information to heart as she paid attention to his cock. Indeed, she felt it swell inside of her mouth. Goldie knew from her newfound experience that he was about to blow his seed down into her stomach. She felt the first bit of seed dribble out and then it came out in a torrent. Caretaker let out a primal growl as he shoved his cock all the way into her mouth so that her lips were wrapped around the base of his shaft. Then he held her head there as his cock twitched and spurt out his seed down her gullet. Goldie immediately started swallowing as if she were taking a long drink of water. She sucked in air through her nose while attempting to keep up with his climax of passion. His body shuddered and he was doubled over her head. She was pulled forward so far that she had to place her hands around his thighs to grip his buttocks to keep herself up. He didn't complain. Goldie continued to swallow until she felt his cock go soft and limp inside of her mouth.

Caretaker let out a long sigh of relief as he straightened up and pulled his cock from her lips. "Damn..." he moaned. "You will definitely please your mate if you remember how to do this." He said, stepping back so that he could retrieve his robe. "Feel free to use the waterfall for as long as you wish," he said before leaving her there.

Goldie was buoyed by his words. Not only did she get what she wanted but she really didn't have to give up anything to do it. She licked the last bit of salty ivory pearls from her lips, rolling the taste around in her mouth for a moment. Then she stood up, grabbed the bar of cleanser inside of one of the niches, and stepped under the cool water to clean herself from head to toe. She even washed her hair until it shimmered gold once again, using her fingers to draw it out and straighten it properly.

Sometime later, once she was relieved, totally clean and fully refreshed both inside and out, she walked back to her stone hut, giving a smile and nod of thanks to the Caretaker along the way. He smiled and nodded back before going back to his duties attending to the caverns. Goldie put her torch in its holder and stoked the fire in her hut back to life. She dug into the pack for the dried meat and ate it while sitting in front of the now roaring fire and staring long into it. Despair gnawed at her. She didn't know who had won back on the hill clearing. She didn't know who she wanted to win. Before her time with Brutus at the river today, she would've been more inclined to go with Spear. But after that, she felt herself leaning towards Brutus.

Goldie wadded up her furs as a pillow and pulled her fur cloak around her like a blanket. Her thoughts first drifted to Brutus as her hand found its way into the pack to close around the river stone. A smile graced her lips as she thought about his laughter at where she'd decided to keep the stone at. So she rolled to her back, trailed it down her skin between her breasts to nestle it back up inside the folds of her cunt. Goldie closed her eyes, arched her back, and sighed as she pushed it in. She then left one hand down between her legs to play with her nub as she brought one hand back up to squeeze her breast and tweak her nipple. She let out a low moan as she played with herself, fantasizing about Brutus being on top of her, driving his hardness down into her the entire time. Then the dream changed, and it was Spear who was holding her down, face first into the ground. The Caretaker's words about having other outlets for men to use came back and she pictured Spear taking her up her ass. She wondered what that would feel like. But then she pictured the Caretaker getting in on it and using her mouth while the other two used her cunt and ass.

The whole picture was too much for her and she climaxed fast, her whole body lifting up like a piece of wood being bowed for a nocking string. Then she collapsed back down moaning as the pleasure washed over her and her cunt quivered around the river stone. It was a warm feeling that left her tingling all over and helped her fall into a restful sleep.

***

CHAPTER 5:

Goldie was woken up the next morning with someone on top of her, straddling her stomach and clamping a hand over her mouth. She looked up with wide-eyed fright as Spear was taking a strip of leather and pressing it deep into her mouth. Then he tied it behind her head. "Not one word out of you!" he hissed as he then tied her hands together in front of her with a vine rope that he then tied off in the form of a noose around her neck. All it took was for one tug to notice that the vine rope would tighten around her throat, cutting off her air and killing her if she moved too much. Already it was uncomfortably tight. Spear smiled down at her when she stopped resisting. "Good girl," he said with obvious joy and triumph. "Now we are returning home for the elders to mate us properly for the good of the tribe.

Spear lifted her to her feet and grabbed up her skins and furs, stuffing them into the pack. He then took Goldie's cloak to wear overtop of his. The only thing he allowed her to wear was her boots. Once ready, he took another vine to use as a lead and yanked her out of the cavern's, warning her again not to raise an alarm with the Caretaker. "I'm risking enough as it is retrieving you in there. The last thing I need is for us to be cursed by the ancestors for violating the sanctity of the place," he said once they were outside. Goldie followed meekly along, unable to do anything else. To his credit, at least in her mind, Spear didn't try to ravish her in the caverns.

A sob of sorrow welled up in her chest. If Spear was here taking her then that must surely mean that Brutus had fallen a third time to his tricks and treachery. She now hoped that she was with Brutus' child and not Spear's.

*

Brutus didn't even bother going to the Traveler's Cavern even though he figured that was where Goldie had to have gone to. Spear, being the sort of person that he was, probably got there early to get Goldie. No, Brutus would meet him where Spear was likely to take her which is why he cut through the woods on a little-known path to head straight to the Moon Tribe village. He got there just in time to see Spear disappear into his hut, pulling a bound and gagged naked Goldie in with him. Brutus went straight to the hut, bellowing out Spear's name. "SPEAR!" he thundered when he got outside the hut. He hoped that just his presence here would keep the Moon Tribe warrior from ravishing Goldie again. "SPEAR!" he bellowed again. "COME OUT AND FACE ME! Face me in honorable combat with no retreating so we can settle this like men! Otherwise, I will the warriors of this village down upon your head to raze the whole place!"

"What is the meaning of this?" One of the village elders, Goldie's father Silvermane, in fact, asked as they slowly emerged from their huts and stepped out into the morning sun. Silvermane's eyes narrowed onto Brutus. "What are you doing back here?" His eyes widened. "Where is my daughter?"

"In there!" Brutus snarled, jabbing a beefy finger towards the hut. "Taken by the one you call Spear. He ambushed us yesterday at the river beyond the traveler's cavern and claimed her for her own! I demand either my mate back, for him to face me in combat, or for this village to be razed!"

"SPEAR!" Silvermane whirled on the hut suddenly. "Release her at once! She was given to Brutus as tribute for the Boulder Tribe's protection! You will doom us all with your vanity and your foolishness!"

"She was to be mine!" came the muffled response back. "You elders got cowed by this guy to give our women away! I will not stand for it!"

"Do you have any idea what you are doing?" Silvermane asked, exasperated. "Come out now and give Goldie to her mate at once or we will not be responsible for what he does to you next!"

"I got a better idea..." Spear snarled.

*

Goldie glared at Spear. They'd just gotten back to his hut and he'd taken the leather gag from her mouth when Brutus started yelling outside. He hadn't been killed by Spear after all, yet that was what Spear led her to believe. No, Spear had run from Brutus. That made up her mind right there as to who she wanted to be with. She belonged to Brutus and no one else. "If you were any such a man, you'd face him in combat instead of hiding in here like a coward," she spat at him.

"Shaddup," Spear growled after he pushed the shutters open to the window that was facing Brutus, Silvermane, and the gathering villagers. He reached down and grabbed her, pulling her up to her feet and wrestling her over to the open window. "Here's my response!" Spear called out over Goldie's shoulder as he put her bent over the window frame to hang half in, half out of the hut. He kicked her legs apart, ripped off his loincloth, and jammed his cock deep up into Goldie's unprepared cunt. Goldie arched her back and screamed in pain as she was roughly penetrated. "You all can bear witness to me taking Goldie as my mate!" Spear yelled amid her screams and cries.

It was all she could do to hang on to the window frame with her bound hands to keep them from moving so that she wasn't choked to death by the vines around her neck. Spear wasn't paying any attention to her as she sputtered and coughed as the vine noose slowly constricted around her throat. He was too busy digging his hands into her hips and pounding away at her cunt to notice anything. Goldie managed to look up. Brutus was there with his spear up and at the ready, but he wasn't throwing it. Then she got why. There was a look of concern in his hardened eyes. He didn't want to hit her. She felt Spear's cock already swelling inside of her and that's when she dared to do something that was virtually unheard of.

Goldie bucked her legs back against Spear, using the window frame as leverage. The moment her feet touched the ground of the hut she sprang forward through the open square. Behind her, Spear was howling and spitting in disgust. "YOU DAMN WOMAN! I've spilt my seed all over the ground!" he shouted in outrage. But Goldie didn't care. She was already diving out of the hut window and rolling in the grass. She got to her feet and ran behind Brutus to where her father was at, beckoning her forward with open arms. Goldie crashed into him, feeling his enveloping embrace.

Brutus let out another howl and she looked back in time to watch him hurl his stone spear through the window. Inside, Spear was now howling a different tune... this one of pain. "Torch!" Brutus ordered, holding out his hand. One of the elders of the Moon Tribe had one and pressed it into his grip. Brutus strode forward and lit the wooden hut on fire at the open window. Then he moved in a circle around the hut, setting it alight at the door and other window as well. Soon the whole thing was burning in the biggest bonfire Goldie had ever seen. She could do nothing but watch in fascination as her father removed the vines from her wrists and neck. Inside the burning hut, Spear's howls of pain and shouts of anger eventually subsided as the flames consumed him. Villagers stood by with buckets of water hastily obtained to contain the blaze should the grass around the hut catch fire.

Everyone watched as the fire eventually gave out to leave northing more than a shouldering circle of ash. Everyone had borne witness to Spear's treachery and ultimate demise. Brutus threw the torch into the circle for good measure, landing on top of a cage of bones of what had to have been Spear's body. "Salt the ground. Let all who gazes upon this spot know the penalty for being a cowardly thief!" Brutus shouted. Then he looked down at Goldie and smiled. He reached out and stroked her hair in that affection way of his and she melted into his hand. "Thank you for allowing me that throw. I didn't want to hit you."

"I figured as much, which is why I fought back against him," Goldie said, smiling up at him. "You are my mate."