It turned out Will was worried about nothing, Void was extremely well behaved in the city to his surprise and he thought he knew what it was. It wasn’t the blinders, the big bastard was wary of the crowds but it was likely the first time he’d ever been in a place like that. He was actually kind of skittish.
That didn’t mean there weren’t a few mishaps, though none of them were technically Void’s fault. He was just existing and a couple horses in the street got scared and one human tried to give Void as much space as possible and jumped the curb with his wagon… nothing major, at least no one got hurt.
As they entered the square and got a little more room to maneuver Will glanced back at Kate behind him. She seemed to be enjoying the ride, whether she was having a good morning in general or the fact that nearly every eye they passed ended upon them, Will couldn’t know.
Will did get a kick out of Perrington’s face when the Marshall spotted him and tried to imagine what it looked like. Two people in nice clothing with western style hats on riding on the back of a massive, sabertoothed helhorse with four visible firearms between them. In comparison, the five men looked small as they climbed up onto their horses.
“Uh, oh,” Kate said behind him.
“What?”
“Silverstead’s out in bakarna country, we don’t have a stable for horses,” She explained. Looked pointedly at the five herbivorous animals that would probably die of shock if they were stabled with the carnivorous beasts, even with bakarnas locked in heavy iron cages at night.
“The sheriff will have something figured out,” Will assured her but after glancing back and remembering she wasn’t a fan of Teddy added to his statement, “We recovered three stolen horses from the outlaws that… you know... He said they’d have to stable them somewhere until they could find the owners. So wherever he put them, the Marshall and his men can hopefully use it too. If nothing else they can stick them in Lemar’s barn.”
Kate nodded her agreement and mumbled something about the ‘old man’ not being ‘completely worthless.
The three of them approached the lawmen but Will pulled on the reins and stopped Void short. He still hissed a greeting in his own way, causing all five of the lawmen to back up on their mounts. Will wasn’t sure if it was them or the horses that decided, maybe both. Will also noted more than one person in the square decided to take cover in case there was a fight.
“Mister Tempest, Miss Landry…” Perrington drifted off and looked at Void when he yawned, putting his teeth on full display before shaking his head to wake himself up a bit more. “I wasn’t aware that you only had one… well one mount between you. I can see if we can arrange a horse for you, Miss.”
“That’s quite alright Marshall. Mine was injured and is waitin’ on my in Vicksby. By now the healing ointment should have helped. I thank you for your offer though,” Kate said. Will just didn’t think she wanted to ride a horse.
“I see… Well then we best set out before we cause more of a scene,” Perrington said and he and his men waited for Void to turn around before falling in behind him, apparently not trusting the bakarna enough to take their eyes off him. Will didn’t’ see the problem. Well, he understood but it was nice from his perspective.
Earlier in the day, he’d seen people step out into the street without looking, but now people were taking notice and that didn’t happen to him. When a group of men started pushing a wagon out of a building to be hooked up to horses, a couple bystanders stopped them before they could push the wagon out in front of Void. And at a larger intersection with a constable he took one look at Void, who probably wouldn’t have stopped anyway, and cleared the intersection for him… or that was because of the Marshalls but Will chose to believe it was for Void’s sake.
“I must warn you, Marshall. Once we get outta town, Void here isn’t gonna keep a slow and steady pace. We’ll meet you in Vicksby,” Kate yelled back.
“I’m afraid I must ask you to keep pace with us,” Perrington said loudly enough to ensure that Will heard him. He could only turn in his saddle and shrug.
“Sorry… Void just likes to run, I haven’t figured out how to get him to slow down yet,” Will explained.
There was a bit more back and forth concerning that as Will and Kate tried to explain that Void just liked to run as fast as he could for as long as he could, among other things. Like his favorite activity of smashing plants under hoof. Will thought that was his second favorite activity but kept his mouth shut.
No sooner than they were outside of town did Void lower his head in a hiss-roar and Kate quickly wrapped her arms around Will while Will leaned in for what he knew was coming. He glanced back to see the five lawmen reacting to Void’s sudden change of posture. He shrugged at them and held onto his hat. With a jerk, they disappeared into a cloud of dust as Void quickly ramped up his speed. He could feel Kate pressed against his back, shaking uncontrollably and it took him a moment to realize she was laughing.
“Did you see their faces?” She laughed and glanced back again, Will could feel her every movement.
Will didn’t answer but was grinning ear to ear because he had. A look of worry at the roar that morphed to utter confusion as Void darted off the road and slammed into a small tree. Will wasn’t sure what they looked like after that, he was too busy ducking branches and trying to steer Void away from other trees in favor of things on the ground.
“Maybe we should get you a new one, I think I kinda like Void,” Kate said.
“I don’t think so, besides that other one was just as big,” Will retorted.
“I ain’t gonna try to break a female. Lemar just had her for breeding stock. Maybe we’ll have to have Void stud to her and hope for a colt. I’m sure we can get something arranged,” Kate said.
“Well, Skunks bakarna and Void already tried.”
“He didn’t kill her?”
“Kill her?”
“Yeah, the smaller ones usually don’t do well with breedin’ with the big ones. It’s too much for them and they know it. That’s why Marigold didn’t even whip her tail around for him,” Kate informed him.
“Really? Well, Mischief's still alive,” he said.
“Huh, I hate to say it but I might haveta speak with Skunk if it’s taken and there’s a colt or filly coming,” Kate laughed, “He must have been gentle on her.”
Will turned and gave her a look of shock. If anything he’d say Mischief was more than a bit of a masochist. He shook his head at Kate while trying to decide if she was messing with him but when he did, his gaze turned from her face to behind them. He could see five horses gaining on them.
“Thought we lost them,” Will said.
“One of them probably has a posse Skill. They’ll probably all outrun Void anyhow. They might not be able to hold his speed when he’s at a gallop but they can probably hold it a bit longer and match his cantering speed.”
Her words slowly played out over the next hour. The group of lawmen behind them would gain quickly with a Skill and then fall back over and over until Void started to slow and they caught up with him. When they did, Perrington glared at them but there was nothing Will could do about it. He shrugged to the Marshall and then quickly lifted his legs to avoid another cacti patch. Will had long since realized he should have tried to get Void to run on the other side of the road, where he’d already cleared a path. But there was nothing he could do about that either, Void wouldn’t stay across the road.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Will walked into the stable at Vicksby after a long day's ride. More than a little sore from multiple days spent on Void’s back. He began to understand why Kate looked good in her riding pants. It was from years of stabilizing herself in the saddle. Like doing a thousand microsquats and calf raises every day. He cleared his mind of that though when he realized the focus of his immediate thoughts was in the stable too.
“Gonna brush down Void? He needs it,” Kate said and without waiting for a reply tossed Will a brush. He caught it and looked at it for a minute before approaching Void. He realized that Void definitely needed a cleaning, particularly patches of dried blood from his meal around his snout but Will wasn’t willing to go that far yet.
He watched her while Void smelled him and then tried to emulate what she was doing. He’d never done it before.
“How’s Marigold?” He asked, making conversation.
“She’s good, they got the bullet out and there was no sign of infection. I was thinking about giving her some tonic but the ointment seems to have done the trick,” She said and patted the bakarna’s neck affectionately.
“So you can ride her again?” Will asked, keeping an eye on Void who was turned to look at Will.
“Mister Tempest, don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy ridin’ together these past couple days,” Kate shot him a wicked grin. He didn’t say that. Once she dropped the Skill or whatever she’d been using, she changed. She still knew mind games far better than him and gotten him to say things and do things he normally wouldn’t but he summed that up to her being smarter than him in ways. A little more experienced with the world and other people, he respected that.
“Ah…” Will blushed and was glad he was facing Void.
“I know you did. But to answer your question, yes. I’ll be on Marigold tomorrow but we’ll have to go ridin’ together sometime. Maybe you can let me take a turn on Void and you can ride her, see what a well trained bakarna handles like,” Kate said. Will turned to give her an answer but froze. Her hand was in Marigold’s mouth. He looked over at Void who was still watching him, likely trying to figure out what Will was doing.
“Yeah, sorry bud. Not doing that,” Will told him.
“Uh! Bud?” Kate turned to look at him with an annoyed look on her face.
“No, not you. I was talking to him… I’m not putting my hand in his mouth,” Will quickly corrected to which she grinned. He sighed, she’d played him again.
“I know, I wouldn’t go doin’ that anytime soon. He’s not fully trained yet and well, you’ve seen him eat. He gets startled and you’ll lose your hand,” Kate told him what he’d already figured.
“And that’s why I’m not doing that… why are you?” Will asked.
“Just checking her teeth and gums, you can tell a lot about a horse or bakarna that way. Mainly just different signs that their gettin’ sick,” She said, “So tell me something else about your home. You’ve obviously got some buildings like they're puttin’ up in Purebank. You’ve got paper cups to drink coffee and tea wherever you go, obviously you don’t got any Bakarna there.”
“No, we definitely don’t… we do have horses,” Will said.
“That’s one thing I didn’t know. Though I weren’t thinkin’ you were riding rams like dwarves… what else? Come on give me something,” Kate pleaded a little and he imagined her lip sticking out in a mock pout… also rams?
Will thought… there wasn’t a technical law against uplifting primitive civilizations and he wasn’t sure if it would apply where he found himself anyways. Kate was a human after all. It’d be like bringing new tech to an underdeveloped colony… a seriously underdeveloped colony that regressed a few centuries.
And he didn’t need to keep his knowledge a secret either as long as it didn’t bring harm to himself or cause serious problems for innocent people. But it wasn’t like he was going to teach someone about chemical weapons or nukes, not that he knew how to make either one. Still, he figured he should probably play it safe and stick with things that were at least similar to what he knew.
“Let’s see… You know that bus we rode to the diner. We’ve got them too-”
“That’s not really telling me anything, William,” she interrupted.
“I wasn’t done… Kate,” he grinned at her, “We’ve got them too. They're different but the same concept but that’s not what a lot of people use to get around, instead, we use trains… I guess. They’re also different but the same.”
“Trains to get around a city?”
“Yup, they’re underground trains,”
“Now you’re just pullin’ my leg,” she laughed.
“No, really. You walk down some stairs to an underground platform, a line of cars pull up and you hop on. It starts moving and stops at other platforms and you get off on whatever stop you want. Most cities that have them have developed complex systems with different train lines so that you can get just about anywhere,” he offered considering trains fair game. His map had train tracks on it and he’d seen a sign for the train station in Fairpoint, so he knew they already had them.
“Then what do they do with the smoke?”
“The what?”
“From the firebox… the smoke. I’d imagine it’d get hard to breathe with something like that filling a tunnel with smoke,” Kate explained.
“They don’t produce smoke.”
“They don’t produce smoke?” Kate looked at him questioningly but Will didn’t feel like explaining even electric motors much less mag-lev technology. So he gave her a cheeky smile and moved around Void, careful to give him plenty of space to start brushing the other side. He could hear her speaking quietly, repeating the idea to herself. It was possible they already had electric motors, so he waited to hear if that’s what she came up with.
He went back to brushing, keeping an eye on Void’s big mouth and big feet but Void seemed to like the attention, and more than once he shifted so Will could brush the same spot again. Will made it halfway down his side before the silence was broken.
“Hah!” Kate let out which startled Void slightly, thankfully he stepped away from Will’s feet. Will peaked around Void’s big ass to look at Kate, she was waiting for him to look with a wide grin on her face, “They use enchanted heating plates to make steam in the boiler instead of a firebox! It wouldn’t produce any smoke… probably take a lot of mana crystals but since high quality ones absorb ambient mana… and they never leave the city, so they can just switch them out throughout the day.”
Will stood perplexed at the idea, he could have told her ‘no but she looked proud of herself while at the same time it wasn’t a bad idea as far as he could tell. He guessed she meant something larger than the heat plate that Sheriff Teddy used to make coffee. Which did technically get hot enough to boil water, so enough of them could be used to build a steam engine. It also clicked that it was something an [Artificer] would build rather than an enchanter or engineer alone... Will returned Kate’s smile and watched her give Marigold a hug for her emotional support… not bad.
They finished taking care of brushing the coats of the Bakarna while talking about how Fairpoint or Silverstead could implement it. Will wasn’t too sure about either but decided that if there was going to be some sort of mass transit between Silverstead and Deathbane Ranch, it’d have to be a lite-rail system, which he explained as a mini-train. Even that would probably be a waste of resources though. Fairpoint he just didn’t know much about it.
Kate finished before him and left but came back just as he was finishing to show him a trick for Void. She dumped a bunch of cut up meat into a water trough and then moved Void over to it. Void of course went after the chunks of meat immediately. Thanks to them being so small it wasn’t easy for him and his trashing snout sent wave after wave of water over him, rinsing off any dried blood.
“Not a bad trick,” Will said looking at Void's clean head.
“Mmmhm. You should come out to the ranch sometime. I’m sure there’s a few other things we can teach ya for him,” Kate said and stepped closer to him. She reached for his face and stretched up to give him a kiss on the cheek, twice. Will was taken aback for it but before he could ask why, she answered, “You did save me back there a couple times… Wanted to thank you but can’t really be doing that in Silverstead…”
“Your family?”
“Yeah… Some wouldn’t mind if they knew what happened like ma. But my pa and granny wouldn’t be too happy,” she explained.
“You know you didn’t actually need to. Last I checked you saved me too. Both when you went under the house and when you stopped me from moving after I thought they’d left,” Will said.
“Sounds like you want an excuse to kiss me back, Mister Tempest,” Kate laughed and turned her head to point at her cheek. What the hell… Will wrapped an arm around her shoulder and gave her a peck. She smiled at him then nodded to the Bakarna “Come on, let’s get these two in their stalls and go find something for us to eat.”
They took care of Marigold first, getting her settled and dropping some meat in the cage for her butVoid was a bit more difficult. He didn’t want to give up his snack but still, they managed to get both of the bakarna locked up for the night. Once done Kate grabbed her saddlebag and they headed out into the half destroyed town of Vicksby. Kate led the way through town and Will was glad to follow her due to her knowing where to go... at least until he realized where she was actually going.
“The Red Rock? Really?” Will asked.
“If you know something else open in town, let me know,” Kate said and didn’t hesitate to head inside. Will walked up onto the deck and saw Miss Kitty walking around inside. He decided Kate did it on purpose but he couldn’t just stand outside all night.