Angela presented Lupis with quite a feast, and he tore into it with the zest of someone who had not eaten in quite a long time. Come to think of it, it probably had been a long time since last he ate. How long had it really been? He tried to focus on the last meal he remembered and could not.

  Hot meat and potatoes were set down before him, and he ate until he was stuffed. The easy-going female sat opposite him at a small wooden table, resting her chin on the backs of her hands, watching him intently.

  “I must confess stranger, it is not out of pure altruism that I now show such hospitality, though I probably would have.”

  Lupis paused momentarily to regard the female before going back to his food. The other female, who was named Blenche, was also Angela’s cousin, he had learned, brought over a wooden tankard filled with a honey-mead and set it down before him before also taking a seat at the table.

  “So, it doesn’t seem like a terrible deal for you to stay with us for a while then? You can help us out around here and in exchange, you can expect this royal treatment every night of the week.” Blench said with a wink.

  Lupis was full and pushed his chair away from the table, the wooden legs scraping loudly across the wood floor. The females pleaded with the large Titan to eat a little more, but he held his hands up in surrender. He felt like if he ate any more at this point, he would be sick.

  Angela got up briefly and disappeared. While she was gone, he began to contemplate their offer more seriously. It did not seem like a bad place to stay, and more unfavorable circumstances he could certainly find out in the galaxy. But still, something nagged at the back of his mind, as if there was something else that he should be doing, somewhere else he should be. The thought continued to tickle the back of his memory, but his lovely young hostess reappeared, and his attention was diverted completely.

  Angela set down a small black piece of wood and a narrow tube of chalk to go along with it. He had never used analogue implements so primitive before, but he understood their use. He started by writing his name down on the board and then held it up for the eager females to read aloud.

  “Lupis.” Angela rolled the name on her tongue like someone might enjoy a taste of wine. “That’s your name then, Lupis.”

  He nodded in return and began scribbling more down. Underneath his name he wrote: “I may stay for a while but tell me the truth. Why do you really want me to stay? Surely not because you need someone to fatten up.”

  It took a moment for Angela to read the words he wrote, admittedly his handwriting was not very practiced or extremely legible.

  “I have told you already, most of the men in the village never came home. The only ones that remain are the very old or very young. Either way, they are not much better than females when it comes to physical tasks…”

  Lupis shook his head and held up a finger. He wiped the small board clean with a towel on the table that was meant for his hands and started scribbling furiously.

  “You do not need me to reach the high places and carry heavy things. Do not take me for a fool. What do you really ask of me? Be honest and I may help.”

  Angela read the words and looked away sadly towards the hearth that was crackling busily and casting a warm reddish glow about the room. She seemed to struggle with the task at hand and coming clean to her new guest. Lupis waited patiently until she finally turned back towards him.

  “There is a group of bandits…” She began carefully.

  Lupis nodded knowingly as she continued, he understood there had to be something like this at the heart of the females’ generosity.

  “…they have been taking things from our village for two seasons now. They come here every now and again and demand taxes, a portion of our crops…” Angela’s face turned dark and pained. “…and sometimes they desire…other things as well to satisfy their needs.”

  “They call themselves the Red Pistol Brotherhood.” Blenche chimed in, drawing the attention briefly away from her cousin. “They are a tough, hard lot. But you have the look of a fighter to you. You might be able to stand up to them.”

  A moment later and Lupis held up the board once more.

  “True I am a fighter. How many are they?”

  Both females shared a look across the firelit table. It was Angela who finally answered the question.

  “It varies. They go for months on end and sometimes come back with many more than the last we see them. They might be losing and recruiting more out there somewhere.” She nodded her head to indicate outside the walls of her small shack. “But their roster seems like a revolving wheel. The most I think they’ve come here with was probably around thirty I would guess?” She looked to her cousin for affirmation.

  Blenche nodded agreement. “That sounds about right. The one thing she’s leaving out is that the core membership stays constant. Their leader and the inner circle.”

  “Their leader is a Titan that goes by Dustball. He’s a quick and savvy Canid. Quick with his temper and quicker on the draw.” Angela spoke low.

  Lupis grinned wolfishly and held up the board, his reply already scrawled eagerly upon it.

  “Leave him to me.”

* * * *

  Several hard months followed as the cold season came upon the little village. The cold was bitter and creeped in despite the best efforts of the hungry fireplace. Lupis spent much of his time chopping a seemingly endless supply of wood for the hungry mouths of the fireplace and stove. Besides the busy work, there was not much else to do in the grip of winter’s hard grasp. He grew closer to Angela within the confines of the small shack, and they eventually became lovers.

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  Once or twice when the weather permitted, she had taken him to town, where he met the rest of the villagers, though the whole thing was but a blur. He remembered meeting many Titans there, but he could not remember their faces or names. Was it because he had grown so focused on Angela, or was it because his focus was on the Titan known as Dustball and the trouble he would inevitably bring?

  Eventually the snows melted, and the ground thawed, and the growing season loomed around the corner. It was on a mild Spring day when the bandits returned to town, and truthfully, in the simple life he had been leading, Lupis had almost forgotten about them. In fact, he had nearly forgotten all about his previous hard life of fighting and violence altogether.

  They rode in mounted on primitive wheeled bicycles, that they called motorbikes, that roared like thunder and shattered the peaceful air in the valley. One could hear their rumble approaching from quite a distance and Lupis could imagine the courage leaving both the females’ faces when they heard the awful sound from within the sleepy cabin. He listened from atop a hill and tracked the sound of the machines headed toward the main town. He had spent much of the winter months planning on how he would fight them off while gathering firewood, and had many points within the woods mentally memorized. But this would be even better, he thought, for he could leave Angela behind and confront these bandits within town, sparing her the grisly memories of what would inevitably come next.

  Lupis hurried back to the shed, where he’d left the board that he’d used to communicate to the females over the past few months. He wasted no time scrawling a message upon its surface before grabbing a few things from the shed. With one longing look over his shoulder toward the little cabin, he struck out through the woods, headed towards town.

  Upon the board, which the females would find about two hours later was a simple but earnest message scratched into its surface.

  “Dearest Angela, these past months have been the best of my life. If I don’t come back, know that even though you never heard it come from my mouth, that I love you very much. What I go to do, I do for you and your future, whether I am in it or not.”

  When Angela eventually read the tender words that had come from the hard Titan she had come to love, her eyes swelled with tears.

* * * *

  Lupis’ nose turned toward the village as he jogged through the woods. Town was still a little over a mile away, but he was close enough now to tell that the ruckus of the demon machines has stopped. At first the racket was so loud that it seemed the sky above would come crashing down, but now that it had stopped could only mean one thing. They had arrived at their destination, and after riding up and down the roadways raising hell to scare the simple villagers, they had now dismounted and were probably extorting the Titans within the town.

  It took less than an hour for Lupis to cross the few wooded miles to reach the town at the pace that he kept. Once he saw the clearing and the strong stone and wood buildings that made up the business district, he eased his pace. Next, he crept quietly between the buildings and began looking out for the intruders. There were no more loud noises of the motorbikes, but no other noise elsewhere either, which he immediately found out of place. No midday strollers, no opened businesses, the court in the center of town showed no signs of activity either. It was as if the entire town had shut down for the day and become a ghost town. Maybe it had, perhaps the people wisely fled from their would-be oppressors.

  Then Lupis finally smelled other Titans, and the scent was coming from the large saloon at the end of main street. Cruel laughter and guffaws echoed out from within the large glass windowfront. He crept along the side of the building and managed to peek inside. There he found several unfamiliar ruffians holding a large portion of the town hostage within.

  These Titans laughed and sang rowdily, while the townsfolk inside shifted uncomfortably in their seats and exchanged worried glances. The males wore their weapons openly, firearms and brutal serrated blades, an unspoken threat to the unarmed Titans of the small town. Some furious part of Lupis’ psyche switched on, and he moved to the back of the saloon. There he lay in wait, knowing that it was a matter of time before…

  The back door flew open eventually and a ruffian drunkenly emerged. He let down his pants and began relieving himself a few steps from the door. Lupis watched this from his perch on the roof, where he positioned himself directly above the other Titan.

  The Titan didn’t know what happened until it was too late. Lupis dropped down from above and held the ruffian’s face into the dirt to stop him from crying out, using his own considerable body weight against the smaller Titan to keep him down. With the strength of madness fueling his strong hands, Lupis began choking the life out of the other Titan, who was smaller than him by a decent margin. Though, he kicked and twisted, they were ultimately futile attempts to flee his killer. Eventually, the kicks and struggles grew feebler, until they finally ceased altogether. Lupis glanced at the door once before reaching out to scoop the now lifeless body up and slumping the dead weight over his broad shoulder.

  The ever-silent Titan bounty hunter then walked away, but not before leaving a note scrawled in the dirt where he had strangled the life out of the Titan.

* * * *

  “Whaddya say we drink to that?” A large Titan slammed his empty mug against the counter and stood up. A dozen others began laughing and whistling at the pretty young server girl, who came over nervously.

  Half a dozen pinches, gropes and swats she moved through while trying to keep up with the demand from the upraised glasses that were thrust at her as she made her way through the smoky room. She exchanged a worried look to her mate match that worked cleaning the saloon. He was in the process of being humiliated by the gang members, on his hands and knees he was being used as a footstool by a large Wolfen in the middle of the room. She had been too young the last time the Red Pistol Brotherhood had come through town to garner their sexual advances, but now chafed at their unwanted leering glances.

  Dustball, the leader of this group stood up and put his arm around her, downed the rest of the beer in his glass and addressed the congregation like a showman.

  “We should thank our hosts for their hospitality!” He shouted, which garnered a raucous applause. “By the end of the week, we will be riding away with enough supplies to last a long time. That’s why we love this town so much and keep coming back. Because of the hospitality!” As he said this last word he gazed once more to the young waitress, who kept her eyes glued to the ground. He winked at her and then addressed the crowd once more with a grand sweeping gesture.

  “Maybe we’ll have to stay a little longer this time to fully experience their generosity!”

  She was angry though to be sure. This was no hospitality, this was extortion, and it was plain as the nose on her face. They had no intention of paying for any of this or working for it. They were coming into town to steal and pillage, plain and simple. But the thing that made her angry was that none of the other villagers stood up for her, or for themselves for that matter. Everyone seemed to be waiting for someone else to do something.

  Dustball was a smaller Canid, a mottled mixed breed with a docked ear from some previous fight, in filthy leather clothing with tassels hanging from his coat, his pants and sleeves. His dusty fur suggested a Coyid breed. He frowned suddenly and moved quickly to the back door. His pants were unfastened before he threw open the door to relive himself. A relived sigh escaped through a plume of cigar smoke held firmly in his chompers as the pent-up stream of alcoholic beverages came out like a flood. His eyes widened suddenly when he saw the message sprawled in the dust directly in front of the back door.

  “Dela, Rotar, get over here!” He roared back inside the doorway for his two trusted right-hand Titans, who both came scrambling outside immediately.

  They looked down in the dust and saw the same thing Dustball had seen.

  “I killed your friend. I want to kill more. Come find me.” Read the hastily scrawled message.

  Dustball’s face barely held the rage welling up in check. The sides of his maw began to curl as a growl escaped.

  “Get yer weapons cocked boys, we got a Titan hunt at hand!” He roared.