The woman gave Flat a look over once she had pulled him off the ledge and down to her level. Flat, for his part, stood as still as he could, but he could hardly disguise his nervousness; after all, he had no doubt from the evidence so far that this woman was the same prairie witch Sheriff Reynold had sent them to the cave to find. However, Flat had not intended for their first meeting to go quite like this. Certainly not without Sam around to do most of the talking. Flat was no good at talking.

He hoped the woman wasn’t thinking to take his arms as she looked him over.

The woman finally cracked a slight smile. “Are you cold?” She asked.

“What? Oh, no, ma’am, that fire is mighty warm enough,” replied Flat, trying to be polite and obedient, “In fact, as I said, it wasn’t my intention to be of any bother to you at all, just got lost. So, if you don’t mind-“

“-If you aren’t cold, why are you shaking so much?” the woman inquired. Flat was, of course, shaking with fear. He did that when he got nervous. That was why he needed Sam there to cover for him. To come up with excuses. Without Sam around and his shivering called to attention, Flat didn’t know what to say.

“I…I’m…I…” he stammered. Great, the witch no doubt could smell his fear, he reasoned.

But the woman crossed her arms. “What’s your name?”

“My name? Um, it’s…it’s Flat.”

“Your name is Flat.” The woman incidentally did not believe him and was not happy with the response.

“Okay, no, it’s not Flat. It’s actually Hosea,” confessed Flat, worried she was already mad at him, “but no one’s called me that for years, ‘cept my ma and pa. Flat Horrigrove. Hosea Horrigrove, I mean. But I don’t like the name Hosea-“

“-Why are you called Flat?” the woman pressed on.

Not wanting to cause ire, Flat bowed his head. “It’s because I…I steal horses for a living, ma’am.”

The woman cocked an eyebrow. “You steal horses for a living? What’s that got to do with you being called Flat?”

She once more looked the man over; he did not appear to have the expected physique of a horse thief.

“Well, ma’am,” Flat answered, “it’s because of my technique. As you may suppose, most ranchers don’t take kindly to my sort. They build walls of all sorts to keep their horses in and people like me out.”

“But you somehow can get in, I imagine.”

“Yes, ma’am. Despite how I look, I am able to contort myself flat up against those same walls and get into the stables, or flat on the ground to slide under the fences where there are openings at the bottom and get into pastures.”

“Or flat through high ledges in caves and get into the company of a lady,” the woman remarked with a smirk.

Flat did his best not to blush. “Yes, I guess so. But it wasn’t my intention to end up here. I'm called Flat because I go flat to steal horses. And I wasn’t planning to steal anything here.” He paused. Shoot, why did he say that? Had he just implied to her he was there to steal something? Was the witch going to catch on?

The woman did seem a bit perplexed. “Then, Flat, why did you end up in here?”

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“I got lost in the dark. I didn’t mean to disturb you-“

“-No, I mean, why did you get lost in the caves to begin with? It’s my understanding most people know better than to be roaming around these caves because of how dark and dangerous they are. Is there a reason you’re here?”

She gazed at him and for a moment, Flat could almost feel as if he was being charmed or some sort of spell was being cast on him. The sheriff had warned Flat and Sam about the witch’s ability to do that with a gaze and he hadn’t been on-guard enough, he reasoned, surely she would make him talk-

…then, as soon as the feeling began, it seemed Flat managed to resist it. It was like a snap, suddenly gone. The woman, likewise, seemed a bit startled by it. Perhaps she was not used to strangers being wise to her ways. Her ruby red lips turned to a slight frown.

“Flat, why are you in these caves?” she repeated, this time with a firmness that caused Flat to start to shake again.

“I…my partner and I…we’re wanted men…” he began. That was true. Maybe if he stuck to being honest he would have an easier time looking less suspicious. “We were told a marshal was coming to town to get us and we both did not want that.”

“So, you fled to the Cheyenne Crossing Caves to hide, then?” the woman presumed.

“C-Correct, ma’am. We were thinking it would be a good hiding place for us until we could figure out our next move. My partner wanted us to come in here, actually. I thought we should just flee but-“

“-And where is your partner now?”

“I…I don’t know,” confessed Flat, himself feeling a tinge of sadness, “we were being chased by a cave buffalo and got separated. I…I can only hope he managed to elude it and is somewhere else in these caves, but I…I don’t know what’s become of him.”

There was silence between the two for a moment. The woman once more seemed to be analyzing the situation.

“Well,” she finally replied, “it would hardly be fair of me to judge you for choosing to hide out in these caves.”

“No, ma’am, it appears you and I had the same idea.”

The woman shot him a stern look. “What does that mean?”

“Oh! Uh...N-No, I didn’t mean to suggest you…I mean…it’s just you’re…you’re also here…in the caves….there must be a reason.” Flat swallowed hard. “But it’s not any of my business. As I said, I didn’t mean to bother you, I can go-“

“-I didn’t say you had to go,” she replied, “there’s still much more I would like to ask you. You’re right, I suppose there is a reason why I’m here too.” She returned to her seat by the fire and pat her hand on the ground. “Here, come join me, Flat. You seem like you’re a very interesting fellow.”

Flat froze. The woman so far had been okay. She hadn’t done anything too bad to scare him, but he knew he was walking on eggshells around her. That she had even more questions for him made him concerned.

“No, really, I feel I have already troubled you enough,” he protested. If Sam had been there, Sam would have known what to say. None of this tension would be present. But Flat was on his own, and he was bad at conversation when his own.

“I said come over here, Flat,” the woman repeated, giving him a hypnotic gaze as she had tried to do before. Only this time, it did not work at all. The woman’s eyes narrowed.

“You say you’re in the caves to escape the law,” she continued, a hint of doubt in her voice, “but I can’t help but get the sense you may be hiding more than just yourself…”

It was an odd comment and had Flat on guard. “What do you mean, ma’am?” He did his best to act natural but his best was not enough.

“I wonder, Flat,” she said, “why you chose to watch me so long before letting me know you were there.”

“I…I wouldn’t say I was watching you for a long time,” Flat anxiously countered, “like I said, I was…lost…and I happened to see your light and thought it was better than staying in the dark…”

“Yes, and when you saw little old me, why didn’t you greet me immediately? Why did I have to draw you out? I was just sitting here reading.”

“I…as I said, I…I didn’t want to intrude.”

“Uh huh. Flat,” she said his name in a very serious way, “I imagine you know Sheriff Rexford Reynold?”

“O-Of course I do,” Flat confessed, “he’s sort of a well-known figure around Fox Den. And when you’re in my line of work, illegal stuff, that is, I-I mean, of course…of course I know him. But not well. We’re not close or anything. I mean, I would never call him Rexford, just ‘sheriff’, so-“

“-He told you there was a prairie witch in Cheyenne Crossing Caves, didn’t he.” The woman wasn't asking and was to the point as she looked Flat dead in the eyes, though she did not try to to cast a control spell on him once more.

Flat stared back, knowing full well he was openly trembling and would not be able to stop. How could he answer that? What would happen if he said yes? What would happen if he lied and said no?

“W-W-Well, he-” Flat began, but the strange yell of an unfamiliar voice suddenly echoed through the air.