Colony 7: Plains 3, by DarkBeta
(Prairie, Afternoon and Evening of the First Day)
Chris dreamt of how it had been for her, blackness and burning and hot stale air, but when he opened his eyes it was a lie. Sunlight dazzled in around the brim of the hat across his face. Grass rustled and a meadowlark chimed.
He didn't feel as bad as he should have, for as drunk as he must have been. He couldn't even remember drinking, much. He remembered the Fourth. Since he didn't hear speechifying or children shrieking or the whoop of crowds at a race or contest, the damn thing must be over.
So he got drunk and slept through it. Least he'd passed out someplace that didn't stink.
High sun and dark clothes didn't make for comfort. He needed shade, and maybe breakfast (since the throught didn't turn his stomach), and then another drink. He pushed the hat up on his head as he got up.
Where were the cottonwoods? The dry brown pasture? The July sky, implacable as enameled steel?
He stood on a mild slope, with new grass up to his hips. It was even taller in the swale below him, that kept the wet longer. Grass shadowed the handful of wagons so they looked like sinking boulders. Horses shouldered together, smooth backs sliding like trout under the surface. They'd started to trample or graze a clearing for themselves.
"They'll founder!"
He still didn't head down the hill. The swale below him was only a small part of a shimmering sea. The print of the wind moved like cloud-shadows across it. It blushed with new growth, and wildflowers surface in dapples of poppy-red, orange or yellow. A spread of water glowed silver at the horizon.
The grass behind him didn't rustle, and he didn't turn around. Vin moved up beside him. The rifle hung laxly from his grip. Chris had seen that cast of expression before. Vin was in love.
"The joyful place of hunting," he breathed.
"Indian heaven? Hah. If this was heaven I'd be somewhere else."
A woman shrieked. The gathered horses wheeled to stare in one direction.
"Missus Travis," Vin said.
"Mary."
They plunged into the tall grass, not stopping to count how many other places the grass shook with sudden movement.
ooooooo
Something like a panther made a low, eager chuff. Mary dropped into awareness like a winter baptism. Her eyes shot open. Light glowed through a canvas wagon cover. That square of black was the chest of pre-cast type, and those two were dinner baskets.
She lay with her head toward the open rear of the wagon. The animal was there. Moving might prompt it to strike.
Some weeks past, a panther had started grabbing chickens or shoats from nearby farmyards. They'd been afraid it would take a child one day. Vin – Mr. Tanner – had gone after it. He'd shot it, but not before it killed the calf staked out as a lure.
The farmer showed her the calf's skull with the meat boiled off. It had cracked like an eggshell, and a fang punched through the bone like a bullet.
The wagonbed shifted. Something thumped to the ground. Grass rustled.
She sat up. The wagon was empty. She scrambled to look out of it.
The animal was a gargoyle, like no cat she'd ever seen. It dragged Billy by his shoulder. He was unconscious. Or dead.
She was on the ground. (She never remembered moving, or deciding what to do.) She had a tray of lead type in her hands, that she couldn't possibly have lifted. It dropped Billy to snarl at her. She brought the tray down on its head.
"Get off! Filthy! Stinking! Thing!"
It lunged at her across Billy's body. She stumbled back. It had teeth like a bear trap.
"That's right, you bastard. Come after me. Leave him alone!"
She was laughing, or sobbing. Somehow the jaws snapped on her skirt instead of her throat. They snagged on a maw-full of petticoats. It shook its head, trying to get loose, and sent her staggering.
"Momma! Momma!"
He was alive. He was! She fell against the back of the wagon. It was the struggling beast that swung her about so she could grab another tray of type. The teeth finally ripped free of her dress. The creature snarled.
The shots were close enough to deafen her. The beast shuddered. Its eye turned into a bloody hole.
Vin put up his rifle. Ezra holstered his waist gun. Chris scowled at her as he holstered his. They swung around at the noise of a stampede. Mr. Sanchez and Yosemite skidded to a stop as soon as they were in view, and Yosemite raised his hands.
"Momma!"
She slid down to the ground. Billy threw himself into her lap. His shoulder was bloody, but both arms hugged her. She couldn't bring herself to worry just yet.
Buck plunged out of the wall of grass. He only had an undershirt on top, and his pants were precariously fastened. As a well-bred woman, Mary looked elsewhere.
"Who screamed? What's going on? Is everyone all right?"
J.D. chugged out of the grass, towing Casey behind him. Nathan slid out from the shadows.
"Animal bite? I'd better get that cleaned up."
"I see you've been throwing lead about, Ma'am." Ezra scolded. "As a peacekeeper here, I must decry such violence."
A dirty Chinaman peered from behind him. Three drabs sashayed out after Buck.
"Buck, sweetie, you left your shirt."
Mary realized she'd left it too late to indulge in a good bout of hysterics. She laughed instead, cutting it off when she felt herself growing shrill, and stood up with Billy in her arms.
"Thank you. Where are we? How did we get here?"
"And why would anyone trouble to shanghai such an ill-assorted crew?" Ezra added.
oooooooo
["People are shooting! Where do we go? What's going on?"]
["Hush, Moyag. Tokala, you take care of him."]
["Why should I take care of him? I'm not a girl!"]
When Tadi woke, until he heard Moyag crying and Tokala shouting at him, he thought he was alone. Then he'd been glad to find them. The younger boys were wearing that emotion thin.
["We need to find the others, Tasunke and the girls. Come on."]
There was a narrow path among the grasses, where something like antelope went toward water. Tadi went uphill instead. With the sun high there should be few predators, but he didn't mean to approach the riverbank until he'd found his elders.
Like the fox he was named for, Tokala was not so bad at moving silently. Moyag was hopeless, and too big for either of them to carry. When he heard the creak of wheels and something great shouldering through the grass, Tadi gestured for both of them to stay still and be silent.
The noise was a wagon drawn by the ghost people's buffalo. Tadi stayed still, until he was certain none of them were still around. Shots, and the ghost people; that was never good news for human beings.
The wagon was piled with boxes. Even that might not have drawn Tadi out of hiding, if it weren't for the tallest, sleekest horse he'd ever seen. It was wandering loose, saddled, with reins tied over its neck so it wouldn't shake them off and stumble on them.
["Come with me. Come with me, beautiful horse. You can't stay here."]
The horse looked at Tadi with his ears forward. Wouldn't Tasunke be surprised, when Tadi came back with such a prize? He reached smoothly for the headstall.
The horse changed as if it was a story being, the flattened ears turning the head snakelike as it lunged. Tadi fell back, too slow, as the great teeth caught and tossed him and hooves sliced just inches from his face.
["Tadi, where are you? What's going on?"]
Couldn't Tokala keep the littler boy silent for even a handful of time? But Tokala was just behind Moyag as they burst out of the grass.
["No, stay back!"]
Tadi tried to sit up. The horse showed its teeth at him, pranced aside, and then feinted at the younger boys. By the time Tadi got to his feet again, the other two were crowded against him.
["It's herding us!"]
["That is not an ordinary horse."] Tokala stated.
["It's a spirit horse! Is it going to eat us?"]
Backed behind Tadi, Moyag sounded like he was going to cry. Was he ever going to grow up?
["Of course not. See, it doesn't have sharp teeth,"]
Tadi wasn't entirely sure of that logic, and Moyag wasn't swayed.
["It's got big teeth. Maybe it'll crunch us."]
["He won't eat you. Will you, Ezra's horse?"]
If there was anything worse than being threatened by a horse that ate people, it was being rescued by a girl. Tasunke would have been bad enough, but Rain was the one who came around the back of the wagon. The horse put its ears forward again.
["He'll attack you too,"] Tadi warned.
["Let them go, Ezra's horse. We'll stay here where you can see us until Ezra comes back, and then he can take us to Nathan."]
Its nostrils flared at her, and then it put its head down and went back to cropping at the new grass. Rain caught the bridle and pulled it into the area around the wagon that was already cropped.
["Maybe no-one's coming back,"] Tadi argued. ["There were shots."]
Rain snorted.
["Only two. That isn't enough for any of the Seven to be hurt."]
["This demon horse belongs to one of the Seven?"]
["Yes."]
Moyag finally stepped out from behind Tadi and Tokala.
["No wonder it eats people, then."]
ooooooo
Hastily closing the vest over his knives, Nathan knelt beside Mary. Chris put up his gun, but he didn't holster it.
"What is that misbegotten beast? Hell's own catamount?"
"Hyena," Josiah said. "It's from Africa."
Ezra blinked at him.
"While aware of your travels, I don't believe I appreciated their full extent."
"I've not been there. Just heard my father's missionary friends lecturing. Well, in justice to them, not his friends. He didn't have much time for anything as human as friends."
"Ah. Fellow gleaners in the fields of belief."
"We're in Africa?" J.D. asked. "How'd we get to Africa?"
Behind Buck Blossom, or possibly it was Rose Camellia, gave a little screech.
"Don't be stupid! Of course we're not in Africa!" Buck said hastily, and caught Fleur as she fainted on him.
"Can't be. Cornflowers in the grass." Vin took a breath. "Smells like prairie."
"Shucks! I'd like to see Africa."
"Missus Travis, can I take a look at Billy's arm?"
"Oh, Nathan. Of course," Mary said distractedly.
She didn't loosen her grip on her son. Billy hiccupped, and burst into sudden noisy tears.
"Aw, Billy, don't cry!" J.D. said. "Bet none of the other kids ever got bit by a hyena."
Vin grabbed a foreleg and rolled the body over so its fierce teeth were farther from Mary and the boy. Chris had been afraid his shot would bounce from the ribs, but it looked to have gone on into the lungs. It wouldn't have killed quick enough though. The eye shot was Vin's, the reason Mary still lived.
"Don't think the hide's good for much," Vin grunted. "Preacher, can I get a hand here?"
Josiah and Yosemite both moved to help him drag it off. Already flies were settling around the seep of blood, like beeves at a waterhole. Josiah stopped to wipe the sweat off his face.
"From the stories, I didn't know they got this big. The missionaries said they hunted after dark, in a pack"
Chris looked around, not liking the way the grass screened everything.
"We saw some other wagons from up the hill, and horses. Yosemite, you get the horses together. Mary, you need to go with him, in case some of the women are getting hysterics. Vin . . . ."
Vin saluted silently, and vanished. Chris knew he'd find a vantage where his spyglass and that long rifle might do some good. Didn't mean they were safe, but he put his gun away.
"Bring wagon," the Chinaman said, and dodged back into the grass.
"And just after being told there are ravening beasts about, too," Ezra sighed. "If you gentlemen will excuse me . . . ?"
He didn't actually wait for an assent, which Chris had not intended to give. That wasn't a Chinaman. What was Ezra up to now?
Mary hugged her son again and then, with molasses slowness, gave him to Nathan.