Disclaimer- I do not own Bonanza.
Warning ahead of time, cursing in this chapter. Nothing as bad as the f- word, but some words are exchanged in Spanish. Translations will be provided at the end of the chapter, for those who want to read the translation and placed there for those who would not like to know and would like to skip it.
Max's POV
To my great surprise, Jaz pushed through the small saloon doors. They smacked against the wall and announced her presence with a loud "CLAP." The commotion stopped and that left me poised in mid-swing of a punch and sporting a cut lip. My sister was in the corner, a Mexican (by the look of him) had her in a vice grip by the wrist. Once Jaz's eyes saw Em, they seemed to catch fire.
"Max, kindly stop fighting and get Em." Her gaze flashed over to the Mexican. "And you, get your hands off my sister!"
The Mexican grinned widely. "Lo siento, señorita. Yo no hablo íngles." He roared with laughter, a huge mistake.
"¿Hablas a español, no?" My sister said dangerously. The Mexican nodded, surprised.
"Bueno. ¡Aléjate de mi hermana, antes de que cortaré tus escroto y arrastro a su auto lo siento detrás de mi caballo!"
"S..Si Señorita. Lo siento. Lamento que tu hermana es una puta."
I swear I saw dancing devils in my sister's eyes. She drew a pistol, pulled the hammer back, and released a shot. It lodged itself in the wood of the bar, an inch away from castrating the offending Mexican. The shot had everyone in the bar drawing their pistols. Jaz grabbed Em and stood in front of her, shielding her. I was right there next to her. I pulled the other pistol from her belt and held it out in front of me. Before anyone got a chance to fire anymore shots, three more people rushed into the bar. Jaz looked back, grabbed Em again, and dragged her through the saloon doors. I was following right on their tails. Even from outside we could hear a lot of yelling and crashing. Jaz whistled and, once again to my great surprise, a horse came galloping toward her. I wasn't about to question where it came from, but I was glad it was there as the yelling got louder.
Jaz pulled herself into the saddle, grabbing Em's hand to hoist her up behind her.
"Whistle!" She yelled to me, before taking off a couple of yards. I didn't know what that was going to do, but I whistled a shrill note. I heard a neigh to my right and a few seconds later a horse came trotting up. It was a dark mahogany colored horse, saddled up and ready to be ridden. I waisted no time leaping up into the horse and riding after Jaz. It didn't take me long to catch up with her.
"The hell is all this?" I yelled to her.
"Bonanza!" She yelled back.
"How did you know the horse would come if I whistled?" I asked.
She shrugged and gave a half smile. "I didn't. If it hadn't I would have went back for you."
"Thanks." I replied, rolling my eyes at the same time.
I hadn't ridden a horse in a really long time. Jaz even longer since she was older. But it didn't take long to remember and get back into the rhythm of riding. Em was having problems though. Having never ridden a horse, other than the ponies at a fair when she was little, she had no experience whatsoever. She was bouncing like popcorn in the microwave and there wasn't really anything Jaz could do to help. We ran the horses for another five minutes, before stopping behind a huge boulder.
"Is anyone following us?" Em asked me.
I took a quick peek, "No, doesn't look like it."
Jaz took out a piece of paper from her saddle bag, unfolded it, and studied it.
"How did you know how to shoot that revolver?" I asked "We've never shot those, we only shot pistols, rifles, and a shotgun. Uncle Neil never showed us how."
"It was easy, pull the hammer back, aim, and fire."
"Well, you have pretty good aim then. Did you see the guys face when you almost hit him there?"
"I didn't miss on purpose." Jaz answered without looking up.
"What? You were going to kill him?"
"No! I was aiming for his leg! I don't think I would ever be able to kill anyone. I even feel a bit bad for the deer I kill when I go hunting with you and Uncle Fin. The only reason why I don't stop going is because after we harvest the meat, we cook that deer right up, and boy does it taste great! The sausages are my favorite."
I scratched my head. "Well, anyway you had me fooled with a shot like that."
Jaz nodded, still studying her paper.
"What is that?" Em asked Jaz.
"A map of the territory. You know the guy at the magic shop? Well that magic man is responsible for us being here, but he was decent enough to give us a house, horses, and enough cash for us to live off of to get settled and we figure out what to do."
Em looked around and was about to whistle. She pursed her lips together, but Jaz put her hand over her mouth.
"Don't you even think about it. You don't even know how to ride. Once we get to the house. Max and I can show you, but not here out in the open.
Em nodded, looking a little dejected, but happy at the same time.
My horse nosed my shoulder. I patted its wide cheek. I checked the horse over, it looked like a Morgan stallion. It was the only horse breed I knew relatively well.
"You should name him." Jaz suggested.
"I will, I just need to think of a good one." I said.
I checked the contents of my saddlebags. In one of them there was a belt with a pistol in its holster. In the other there was only a canteen full of water. I buckled the belt on quickly. It fit perfectly. One side sloped downward on my hip. I looked up at Jaz. She was wearing hers the same way, so I thought nothing of it. There was two strings on the bottom of the holster that I didn't know what to do with, though.
"Tie them together on your leg. It prevents the gun and holster from moving around when you're walking or stuff like that." Jaz said.
I looked up, she was still studying the map. "How'd you know I didn't know what to do?"
"'Cause you looked at the strings all funny."
"Well, how did you know I was looking at the strings?"
She looked up at me then looked back down. "Just like that."
I couldn't help laughing.
The sudden sound of pounding hooves stopped my laughter and made me wary. I looked over to tell Jaz.
"There's -"
"I know. I hear 'em." She put her map away and hid Em behind her horse. The hoof beats got closer and closer until they were right around the rock. Dust was kicked up as the riders stopped. Once the dust settled it was pretty clear that the riders were friendly.
It was the three Cartwright brothers themselves. Between the three of them was the same Mexican man that had been harassing Em in the saloon.
"How'd you do." Jaz asked casually.
"How do you do ma'm." The oldest, who I knew to be Adam."
At that point Em came out from behind Jaz's horse. She walked up to Jaz's side, just staring wide eyed at the brothers, it got a little awkward.
"Excuse, my sister, she's still a little shaken up from the encounter with him." Jaz said. Gesturing to the Mexican.
The Mexican scowled. "Nunca voy a pedir disculpas a esa puta o cualquiera de ellos!"
Adam looked like he was about to say something, but Jaz beat him to it.
"Entonces no disculparse, pero escucha con atención. Si te oigo decir mi hermana es una puta una vez más, voy a hacer que escupas dientes. Ahora, si te veo dentro de los veinte metros de ella, voy a patear el culo cinco maneras de domingo!" She said angrily.
Adam's eyes widened and he gave a surprised smile. His brothers looked at him in confusion.
I knew that Adam understood and could speak Spanish, but I didn't know he would know what my sister was saying with her speaking so fast. All I got out of that conversation were some not very nice words and threats.
My sister took a deep breath. "Alright you can let him go now, I don't think he'll be bothering us anymore."
"Um, are you sure ma'm? He don' look like he gonna stop 'causn more trouble for ya." Asked Hoss. He was right too, the Mexican was glaring holes in Jaz.
Jaz smiled and nodded. "I'm positive, thank you for your concern though."
Little Joe and Hoss untied him. The man opened his mouth to say something, but my sister raised an eyebrow at him. Whatever he was about to say, he changed his mind quickly, closed his mouth and rode away with whatever dignity he had left.
We all watched him ride away until he was gone from view. Afterward, the three brothers dismounted.
"Sorry for not speaking in an understandable language." Jaz blushed.
"Oh no, sorry for bringing that horrible excuse of a person over. He had no right calling your sister what he did." Adam winked.
Jaz stood there a bit horrified. "You, um, understood all that?"
Adam nodded and smirked a bit. "Si señorita. Lo entendí todo."
Jaz's blush deepened but she didn't say anything further. Her eyes flicked toward me and she smiled. "How rude of me. I didn't introduce us. I'm Jasmine. My brother and sister just call me Jaz though."
"I'm Maximus. You can jus' call me Max though."
"I'm Emily, but you can just call me Em."
The three brothers nodded their heads to each of us. "I'm Adam Cartwright and these are my brothers, Little Joe and Hoss. I'm sure we've kept you long enough, though, we should be going now. It was nice meeting you all." Adam said.
"I hope to see you in Virginia City more often." Little Joe added with a wink.
Jaz's cheeks turned a light pink and she stared, but she snapped out of it. "Oh, wait, before you go, could you help me, or us with something?"
The three of them nodded.
"Well, you see, we're new here. Our parents have a cabin up here, but we haven't been to it in a long time. We have a map and all, but I, uh, just don't know the landmarks or the roads, so all in all, I have no clue how to really read this map."
Adam smiled and dismounted his horse. My sister handed the map to him. He took it and studied it.
"We,ll I'm assuming the blue...dot is your homestead?" He asked.
My sister nodded. "Yeah, my parents had a funny way of marking things. See here, I have no clue what these red dots are for. Knowing my parents, though, it probably has something to do with those rocks over there." She lied.
Honestly I was impressed. The way my sister told that outright lie seemed real! If I hadn't known we had been magically dumped here, I would have believed that story any time!
"Hm, yes well, assuming these red...dots are where we are now. All you have to do is go straight down this road here, then after a couple of miles, you'll want to turn right on the fork. If you keep going down that way, you'll find your cabin." Adam said, handing my sister back the map.
Jaz smiled. "Thank you very much."
Adam tipped his hat and mounted his horse. Hoss and Joe nodded to us and at Adam's signal they were off.
"Holy crap that was scary." Jaz sighed dropping to the floor on her butt.
I raised an eyebrow. "Why? All we did was meet the Cartwright brothers and they seemed all right. Hey, what episode do you recon we landed in?"
"What do you mean that wasn't scary. You could made a complete fool out of me!" Jaz yelled teasingly. "Anyways as for what episode, I don't think this is an episode. I would have recognized it."
"You're probably right." I said.
Jaz slapped her knees and stood up. "Alright, enough dilly-dallying, we've got to get to whatever place this blue dot is."
We all mounted up and trotted down the dirt path. The whole time we were looking around us. Long grasses bobbed with every breeze looking and sounding like a small ocean. The birds were constantly chirping and everynow and then a deer would suddenly pop up, always running away from us though. We were so distracted that we almost missed the turnoff in the fork of the road. What was supposed to be a few mile ride, felt like just five minutes. We looked at the map, we were not more than two hundred yards away. Jaz and I excitedly pushed our horses into a gallop and raced the last leg.
Even with Em on its back, Jaz's horse still beat mine by several horse lengths. What I saw though totally blew my mind. The blue dot on the map was not a cabin at all. It looked more like the John Marstin's ranch house from Red Dead Redemption.
"Jesus, did the magic man really give is this?" Jaz asked.
I shrugged. "I think so, it is the dot on the map yes?"
"Yeah, the red dots are right in front of the blue. So I guess this is our house. Ooooh, come on let's explore it!" Jaz tittered excitedly.
We all dismounted, Jaz and I hitched our horses, and we slowly walked up to the front door. Jaz wrapped her hand around the knob. She looked back to us. "Go on." I encouraged.
She took a deep breath and slowly pushed the door open. The door swung it and I'm pretty sure all of our eyes were popping out of heads, well I knew mine were at least.
The cabin was just as impressive on the inside as on the outside. Chairs and sofas that would have been antiques, back in our universe, casually sat in our living room in front of a large fireplace. A large expensive looking rug lay under it all.
"Oh, ho, ho. I could get use to this!" Jaz exclaimed, dumping herself onto one of the large arm chairs.
"Hey! Get your butt out of there!" Em yelled at her. "My butt hurts from bouncing around on your horse!"
Jaz laughed and got up. Em made a huge show of slowly lowering herself into the chair. "My butt with never be the same after today." She sighed dramatically.
"Aw, come on. It's not that bad." Jaz said, pulling her from the chair. "Besides we've got to check out the rest of this place."
We went to the kitchen next. It was pretty big. A cast iron stove sat on one side of the large room. A large table was in the middle, surrounded by large cupboards. The cupboards were filled with different boxes of foodstuff, plates, cups, pots, and pans. In the drawers attached there was silverware and food preparing utensils.
"This is kind of like our kitchen out home, only a lot bigger and it as way more drawers." I commented.
"I'm going to look at the bedrooms. The first one I like, I claim!" Jaz yelled then ran out of the kitchen.
Em was going to have none of it. She raced after her. "Come on Max! She might take a good one!"
I chuckled and calmly walked to where the bedrooms were. It wasn't that hard to find them, they were down a hall from the living room.
Jaz looked like she had already claimed her room. It was wide with a queen sized bed on the far right side of the room. A wooden dresser with a mirror was at the back wall, just a few feet from the foot of the bed. There was even a wash bowl, a pitcher, and a rag, right next to the dresser. On the opposite side of the wall there was a small desk, chair, and a book case filled books. There was no room for even one more. I wasn't surprised, Jaz is a major bookworm.
"So, roomy enough? Have enough books to last you am eternity?" I asked.
Jaz nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty cool. The bed is nice and the blankets are really soft."
"I better go see what room Em chose then see what room you left for me." I said.
Em's room was the next door down. I knocked, seeing that the door was closed. "You can come it!" Em yelled.
I opened the door. It looked like tailor parlor. There were small wire mannequins to fit outfits on and large bolts of cloth on the far side of the room, out of the way of the bed, desk, mirror, and wardrobe.
"Isn't it cool?" Em asked.
"Um...yeah, I guess. Well I mean fashion is more your thing, not mine. As long as you enjoy it though."
"Yeah, ha ha, this is going to be the best world transfer ever!"
"This is the only world transfer we've ever done."
"I know, but it's going to be the best. Do you think that "Magic Man" will send more people here?" Em asked me hopefully.
I shrugged "I don't know. I'm not the Magic Man."
"Well I hope he does. It'll mean that we don't have to be the only ones and be all lonely."
"I guess, well anyway I have to go see what room you guys left for me."
"Don't worry you'll like it." She assured me.
"I hope so." I muttered nervously. My room was the last door down the hall. I opened it slowly. Inside it looked like the same as Jaz's room only without the books. There were some deer antlers on a plaque over my dresser though. It wasn't as fancy as Em's room or as scholarly looking as Jaz's, but it was perfect for me.
I looked outside the window from my room. The sun was staring to set. I walked out of my room. "Hey, you guys hungry!" I yelled as I walked down the hall.
"Yes! We haven't eaten since lunch!" Em yelled, running out of her room, pushing past me, heading into the kitchen.
"Yeah, I can eat." Jaz said, calmly walking out of her room and into the kitchen.
Once we got there, Em was already lighting the cast iron stove. She had already put wood without us.
"And what do you plan on making?" Jaz asked.
"Baked potato." Em said simply.
Jaz sighed. "Don't, I'll cook a soup. You can't just have a baked potato. Now, out while I make it."
Em agreed and left the kitchen. "You going to need any help?" I asked Jaz.
"Nah, just give me an hour and a half and it should be good. I don't just get take-out when I'm in college, you know."
"Alright then. I'll leave you too it, but since there is still some light out, I'll see if I can show Em how to ride. I saw her bouncing like she was on a pogo stick in the saddle."
"It would be best. Can't have her complaining her butt hurts from riding all the time."
I chuckled and walked out of the kitchen. I found Em sitting in the living room looking extremely bored. "When is Jaz going to be done with dinner?" She asked.
"In about an hour and a half." (Em groaned.) "In the meantime though, I am going to teach you how to ride so your butt doesn't hurt in the future."
"Alright, anything to pass the time." She huffed.
"Let's go see if we can find your horse."
At this Em perked up a bit. We went outside and even before I asked, Em gave a shrill whistle. We waited. No hoof beats sounded. Em whistled again, still nothing. I listened for anything that resembled hoof beats.
"Em, stop tapping. I'm trying to focus."
"I'm not moving." She answered.
Puzzled, I went around the house. The tapping noise I heard started to get louder. It was coming from a barn.
"I think I may have found your horse, Em." I told her. "Although, I didn't know we had a barn."
We both jogged over to the large barn door. Em quickly undid the latch and sure enough, out came a fine looking palomino horse. Its' coat was a good looking gold cream color.
"Hi there." My sister greeted. She patted its head and stroked its mane. We checked the horse over. It was a well taken care of mare.
"Esperanza." Em said quietly.
"What?"
"Esperanza. That's the name of Spirit's mother in the movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. This horse looks just like her. So in honor of my favorite movie, her name is Esperanza. Ranza for short. You still need to give your horse a name." Em reminded.
"I will, not get up on... Esperanza, and follow me." I said, the horse's name didn't go as smoothly off my tongue as it did my sisters.
Em nodded and started to climb into her already saddled horse. I turned and walked over to the hitching post in front of the house. Unhitching my horse, I hopped on and turned around. Em was right where I left her. "Opps, telling her how to go probably would have been a good idea."
I nudged my horses side. He wouldn't budge. "Come on, boy." I nudged again, this time clicking my tongue as well. He still didn't move.
"He wants a name!" Em shouted. Her horse gave a small jump. "Don't shout, it spooks the horses." I said, loud enough for Em to hear, but not spook her horse.
"All right, buddy, you want a name. Okay, um... damn. I was never really good at giving things names. When I was younger I always said I would name my pets after some other animal, you know like name my dog "Cat" or my cat "Turtle", but now that I think about it, it was a pretty dumb idea.
My horse bobbed its head up and down, seemingly agreeing with me.
"Nah, can't name you after another animal. Well, let's see. Your big, about sixteen hands high is my guess. How about, Orion. You know like that huge constellation, Orion the Hunter.
The horse stood still, I'm assuming he was thinking, then he bobbed his head up and down. "All right Orion it is then." I said. I nudged him and Orion walked forward with the poise of a king. "Hey, Em just give Esperanza a nudge with your feet."
She barely moved her feet and lightly tapped her horse. "You can do it a little harder than that. She's not made of glass."
Em nudged Esperanza again, not much harder than the first time.
"Oh, boy." I sighed. "This may take awhile."
-:-
"Alright, now, keep your heels down and bounce with the rhythm of Esperanza's walk." I instructed as Em rode in a wide circle around me.
"I'm trying." She said, she was starting to get frustrated.
She was bouncing way to much still. I sighed. "Okay, stop-"
"No, I can do it!"
"Don't shout. I know you can do it, but you're not doing it now. If you keep on going like you are, your butt is going to be as sore as hell tomorrow. I just want you to watch me for a minute."
"All right. Whoa, Esperanza." Em grumbled.
I tapped Orion's sides. "Come on Orion." Orion started out in a walked then I sped him up to a trot. "You see?" I asked. "I'm keeping my heels down, back straight, and moving with Orion's tempo. Here, come over to me and we can do it together."
Em walked her horse over to where I was and started her trot. Once she was up near my side. She watched me, and then started copying my actions. "See now you're getting it." I encouraged. I slowly brought Orion to a halt, leaving Em trotting by herself.
"Max, I'm doing it." My sister grinned. She did a couple more circles before stopping. "I did it!" She yelled. Esperanza shook herself and bucked once. It wasn't that powerful of a buck, but it caught Em off guard. She was quickly imbalanced and having on to Esperanza's mane.
I rode over to her side. "Are you okay?"
"Y...Yeah. I can see why you told me not to yell." Em said, righting herself.
Esperanza still looked nervous. "Are you sure you're okay? Are scared of riding?"
"No." My sister stated indignantly. "Well, maybe a little."
"Don't be. It's fun and you'll get used to it. Your nervousness does affect your horse, though. If your nervous, she's nervous."
Em nodded and patted Esperanza's neck "Sorry." Esperanza snorted her forgiveness.
"Well, if you two are done. We can take our horses to the barn, groom them, then have dinner."
I turned around. Jaz was standing g a few yards away, leading her horse to the barn.
"Finally." Em said.
Once inside the barn Jaz and I taught Em the different brushes and how to use them. Then we showed her how to clean the hooves and give the horses their feed. Once all that was done, we all reeked of horse.
"Time for dinner!" Em yelled, once she was a good distance from the barn.
"Well, I can say living in this universe or whatever you want to call it, will never be boring." I told Jaz.
"Agreed." She replied.
We both walked into the house and into the dining room table, where Em and several bowls of soup were waiting.
Okay, these are all the translations in order.
Sorry, I don't speak English.
You speak Spanish, no?
Good, now let my sister go before I cut off your scrotum and drag your sorry body behind my horse!
Y..yes ma'm. I'm sorry. I'm sorry your sister is a whore!
I am not going to apologizing to that whore or any of them!
Then don't apologize and listen carefully. If I hear you call my sister a whore one more time, I will make you spit teeth. Now, if I see you within twenty yards of her, I'll kick your ass five ways to Sunday!
Yes ma'm. I understood it all.
Also, I was thinking of accepting some OC's. I'm not sure how many I will accept, but I know at least three. Anyway here are the guide lines.
Name: First Last (Nickname: if they have one)
Gender:
Age:
Appearance: Please don't just say tall or pretty. I want to read this and be able to "see" the character in front of me. Put descriptions! They can also have a race ( i.e. African American, Chinese, Korean, etc)
Breed of horse they ride:
Name of Horse:
Personality: They don't have to be an outstanding person with a really good personality. They could even be a valley girl or coward or etc. So don't only put the good, put in the bad, and/or maybe even the ugly too.
Fun facts: Little things that you think are important in the character. Interests, skills, hobbies, stuff like that.