The morning the men continued on their journey. Vin had offered use of a cabin he knew about that was well away from town, but could be found if there was trouble. Only the Judge knew of it's whereabouts just in case. The sky had began to cloud over.

"Looks like rain." Vin commented as they put up the horses and dragged their things inside.

"Well at least the cabins dry." Nathan commented looking around.

In short order the men had their things laying about and unpacked. Each one had stacked out a spot on the floor for the night that was still hours away. A flash of lightening outside let them know that the rain had arrived. "Won't be a bad one." Vin commented watching the clouds from the door. "It'll end by afternoon tomorrow if not earlier." He shut the door behind him and lit the lamp beside the door.

Chris nodded, no one doubted Vin's ability to predict the weather, even if they all were trying to out whit the others in a game of jokes. Chris was still trying to figure out Vin's angle on each joke so far, and wondered how come no one had tried one on him yet. Maybe that would be his job. Vin sat next to him as Ezra began passing out cards for a round of poker. "Don't even try it cowboy." Vin said studying his cards. "Paybacks are." Chris raised a hand.

"I get it." The others looked at them curiously and shrugged.

As evening approached the game of poker was abandoned, instead after their supper and the dishes were cleaned and packed away they settled down and began trading stories. At first they were just fun ones, then Josiah got a smile. "You boys ever hear of the hairy man?"

"Sure he's at the circus." JD said sitting down close the fire.

Josiah shook his head. "No not that one. The one that the Indians say is covered in hair. I've heard that they liken it to an ape that walks like a man." The others were staring at him, Vin hid his grin. "They say if you disturb him he'll follow you and wait till just the right moment to exact revenge."

Buck laughed. "Funny Josiah. But I ain't heard of no such thing."

"It's true." Vin cut in.

"Why you seen it?"

Vin shook his head. "No but the Indian family I lived with used to say that if the children didn't listen he'd come and take them away. They said he was over seven feet tall and all fur. Liked to live in the mountains on his own."

Nathan nodded. "I heard about that too. Some say you could smell him he smelled like rotting leaves and other smells no one can place."

"Never heard that before." Vin said looking like he was studying on it.

"You actually believe that hogwash?" Buck looked at the others who nodded. "You're all nuts." He laid down and began to snore.

Vin looked over at Chris and grinned. The back of Chris's neck pricked, something was up and he knew the tracker was in on it some way.

Shortly after midnight two figures crept out of the house. From under his hat Chris had seen them leave, and looked over to find Vin grinning. A few minutes later Chris shot up but was kept quiet by a hand on his arm. Vin shook his head and motioned to Buck. There in the doorway stood a hairy creature, that stunk worse than the skunk that JD had accidently scared that spring out of the bath house.

Nathan had snuck around and was laying back down he grinned at Vin before laying down. Chris wasn't sure he wanted to know the trackers part in this. The creature, which Chris realized was Josiah, growled and slowly stalked it's way towards Buck. Chris looked over to Vin who lifted his blanket revealing he'd swiped all the guns after they'd fallen asleep. Chris shook his head he'd been left with his a sign that Vin trusted him to trust him. It said a lot about their brotherhood and he was touched, and a bit sick from the smell coming from Josiah.

Josiah growled then moaned making all kinds of noises. JD rolled over his eyes slowly opening till he jumped up searching for his gun, not finding it he froze. The creature slowly reached down and grabbed Bucks ankle and growled. "Not now Rosey. Another five minutes." Vin choked beside Chris.

By then Ezra had woke up and was frozen in place once he realized he had no weapons, he knew he'd fallen asleep with them, he looked over at the tracker who waved, Ezra shook his head and waited. Josiah tugged harder on Buck's foot.

Buck tried to pull away when he couldn't he struggled awake. "Dang it let go of my." He was wide awake staring at a hairy creature that stunk to high heaven. His mouth moved but nothing came out as he tried to climb the wall to get away, the creature kept walking towards him. Buck frantically searched for his gun and stopped when he heard the creature begin to chuckle, then everyone else.

Buck looked confused till the creature removed his hide. "Josiah?" Buck squeaked out.

"Still don't believe brother."

Buck let out a string of curses before falling back on his bed roll. Everyone else laughed until Buck finally chuckled. "Alright I do. Now where is my gun?"

Vin stood and gave them all back. "Saw these two sneak out and figured it was safer this way. No one would get shot and ruin it."

"Josiah I suggest you get that thing outside." Ezra said coughing as the hide came close to him. "What did you do to it?"

Josiah grinned. "Nathan mixed some things together to make it stink then helped me put it on." The healer grinned.

They talked till slowly they all drifted off. "Night boys." Chris said shaking his head he looked over at the tracker who grinned. Chris rolled his eyes and decided he didn't really want to know.