Prologue

The town had changed in the three years after the hawk incident; there were new buildings that had been built near the edge of the town, these were mainly residential homes. There was also a new sheriff in town; Jake had taken over the lawman duties after Rango had been elected Mayor of the Town of Dirt. It was a huge change for the outlaw, but it wasn't the first nor would it be the last.

A couple of months after the hawks, Jake had purposed of Sofia, they were married on the 15th of July. A year later they had their first set of children, four beautiful rattlers. Auberi was the oldest; Sofia gave birth to her a whole month before the rest. Next were Jackson and Magnolia, they are considered the twins of the family for they were born at the exactly the same time. The last was Jake Jr.; he had given both his parents a fright for he was a whole month behind. He did make up for it by being the loudest and most energetic of the group.

The Rattler family lived above the tailor shop, which had been enlarged a great deal to accommodate the ever increasing orders of dresses and suits. Pricilla was now working with Sofia, as her apprentice, and occasionally as her babysitter. The space above the shop now had three bedrooms: one master, one bedroom for the girls and one for the boys, a new bathroom was added and the kitchen was enlarged. They even added a living room so that the children had a place to relax and watch their favorite shows. The Rattler children were best friends with the Rango children, and often played wicked pranks on the poor towns people.

All in all, the Town of Dirt was slowly shifting from just being a town, to becoming a small city. This meant that the town would start attracting more critters from different parts, which would also attract a different breed of criminal. Which meant that Jakes job would never been completely done.

It has been a slow start to the morning, which wasn't unusual in the Town of Dirt. A dust storm had been sweeping through town the last couple of days, making every day life very difficult. Most stores remained closed due to the lack of customers, even the local schoolhouse had shut it doors because parents were too worried to send their children to school. This meant that the kids were copped up in their homes until the storm subsided.


The sun peaked through the dust and lightly tricked into the master bedroom in the Rattler household, slowly waking Sofia. She blinked her eyes a couple of times as she rose up from bed and peaked out her bedroom window. Dust, lots and lots of dust was all she saw. Slowly she closed the draped and hurried back to bed, snuggling up against her husband's strong back. She let out a happy sigh and drifted back to sleep. Suddenly a loud crash woke both rattlers up. Sofia let out a frustrated groan and rolled over on her back.

"Honey…go see what yer kids are up too," Jake grumbled into his pillow.

"They're not my kids until 7am," Sofia huffed out and rolled on to her side so that she was facing the window again.

"I gotta go te work today,"
"Same here,"

"… I got 'em last time…"

"No you didn't"

"Yes I did,"

"No you didn't"

"Yes I did,"

"Honey, can I ask you something?

"Oh dear lord… not the speech again,"

"Who carried them for eight long months? Who had to give birth to them? Me! All you had to do was aim and shoot at the right time… now see what our kids are up too, and when you come back we can…s.n.u.g.g.l.e," Jakes eyes popped open, he slowly turned over and faced his, now smiling wife.

"That's black mail, I can get ye arrested fer that lil' lady," he said in a low voice as he placed a loving kiss on her lips.

"Mmm… now there's a though," she chuckled and winked up at him.

"I'll be back soon…love you,"

"Love you too," Sofia said and gave Jake another kiss on his lips before snuggling back under the covers.


Jake slithered slowly over the hardwood floors, making his way to the kitchen. 'Please, don't let it be the coffee maker!' Jake though to himself, the last thing anyone needed right now was for both Jake and Sofia to be without coffee. As Jake made his way to the kitchen his youngest son stopped him. The young rattler looked up at his father.

"Daddy, daddy, daddy,"

" Hold on now Jr. Daddy needs te slither on over te the kitchen a get some coffee in him,"

"Daddy, daddy, daddy,"

"Hold on now, just gimme a darn min—"

"Daddy!"

"Yes!" Jake dropped his head down so that he was eye level with his son.

"Are mommy's silk ribbons supposed te go in the garburator?" Jr. asked with a confused look and he tiled his head sideways.

" Yeah, yeah, mommy's silk rib— wait…what did yer sisters do now?" Jake gave Jr. a stern look as he reared up. Jr. looked at the floor as he rubbed his rattler around in little circles.

"Well Auberi a told me not te tell…" Jake gingerly raised his sons head with his upper tail and gave him his tell-me-or-I'll-get-yer-mother look. "But under the circumstances, I think it's ok if I tell ye. See Auberi and Magnolia was havin' an argument on a count a Magnolia said to Auberi that it ain't possible te make silk confetti with the garburator. Then Auberi said 'Yu-huh', and then Magnolia said 'Nu-huh', then Auberi said 'Yu-huh', and then Magnolia said 'Nu-huh', then Auberi said 'Yu-huh', and then Magnolia said 'Nu-huh', then Aub—" Jake placed his upper tail over his sons mouth.

"Son…get te the point, please, afore yer mother gets up," Jr. nodded quickly.

" Magnolia and Auberi stuffed all a mom's good silk ribbons down the garburator te make confetti but the ribbons gots stuck." Jr. gave a tiny smile to his dad.

"…Go get yer brother son, we're goin' fer a walk,"

"But it's dusty outside,"

"Would you rather be 'ere when yer mother gets up?"

"I'll go get Jackson,"