Chapter Twenty-One

Priscilla sat outside the saloon with her usual ruffian friends, just listening to the piano inside. It was a nice day, which was saying something in the Mojave Desert. She tapped a stick in time to the clanky tune, staring into the distance. The other boys lay and sat on the porch looking bored, and preoccupied themselves by picking at strands in their clothes and observing the texture of the wood.

Then, a new sound seeped into the air, coming from a distance and moving closer. Dutch looked up and caught Priscilla's large, yellow eyes.

"Them Mariachi Owls?." he saidasked. She nodded.

But she'd never heard this song before, and there was someone other than the owls who was singing along. She focused on the new sounds, the instruments playing a far livelier tune than the piano in the saloon behind her, and the strong voice singing in… Spanish. It was a woman's, and as Priscilla saw the outline of four little owls appearing down the street, she also saw the black shape of a snake: Deliah, the newcomer. Intrigued, the cactus mouse sat up. She could just make out the lyrics, but didn't entirely know what they meant.

Toro, toro, to-u-ro~

Entra de largo

Que mi prieta chula torito

Te esta mirando~

The song was invigorating, exciting, and the cactus mouse even felt like dancing. But just as she got to her feet, it ended on a long, harmonized note sung by the cottonmouth. A little frown of disappointment crossed Priscilla's face, and she sat down once more.

Further down the street, the owls were talking animatedly to the snake, and she smiled and spoke ardently in return. They parted, the owls continuing to converse within themselves and Deliah humming the song's melody as she disappeared into a side street.

"I'm gonna go off for a minute." said Priscilla, standing up again and discarding the stick. The other boys looked at her.

She was curious about the new snake, and wanted to find out more. Behind her Kid Joad simply grunted his recognition, and to her side, Boo shrugged. She thought asking them to come, but decided not to bother. They would ask if they wanted to.

The cactus mouse jogged off in the direction the cottonmouth had gone, rounded a corner, and slowed to a walk. Looking around casually, she found the snake nowhere in sight, with not even a track to follow. She did see a rather climbable side of a house, however, and scaled to the top in a heartbeat.

One of the misfortunes in the town of Mud was that nearly no two roofs were the same, and almost all were full of treacherous footholds that only the most experienced knew of and avoided. Some were nice and flat, some inclined sharply, and some were curved like wide domes. It was rare to see any roofs without boards or tarps covering holes. Luckily, the various homes and structures of mud were also built close together, so as long as she was careful with her footing, she might not slip and fall and break her little neck.

She suddenly caught sight of a glint in the sunlight, a gleam. But in fixing her eyes on where it came from, she saw a black, winding shape making its way down a side street. Deliah seemed to be heading towards the taqueria, one of the few places in Mud that sold Mexican food. Priscilla stepped lightly over the house she was on, and at the edge, hopped a little to get to the next roof. She followed a path she knew across some of the safer tops of various buildings so she could move faster, leaping a little farther to avoid a rain catcher, slowing down to navigate through a series of pipes and chimneys

Finally she was on the shop across from the taqueria, just as Deliah was entering it. The mouse decided to wait and gazed around. It often came to her that what exactly she was doing was spying, but she couldn't help it. And really, she wasn't going to do to anything stop it. Sometimes her curious adventures procured some useful information, and the school teacher was always talking about furtherin' her learnedness, wasn't she.

She was forced to pull away from her rumination when the door to the taqueria opened with the tinkling of a bell, and the scaled head of Deliah came slithering out, a brown paper bag coiled behind her. Moving slowly, Priscilla continued to trail the snake. As she continued to follow the snake through town, watching out for holes in roofs, one eye kept on the cottonmouth, her interest started to lessen. What did she expect? Deliah had revealed nothing except maybe a good singing voice. She couldn't believe there wasn't something curious about her, but the cactus mouse was not sure if she was too bothered to find it out. Of course, she thought, there was a chance Deliah was pretending to be a demure, trivial woman, and she was actually sent by a few outlaws to work great mischief in this town. Another thought hit her, and an inkling of something, a past memory, trickled into her mind.

It was Angelique's voice, talking about a place called Fox House, and that Mongoose Marie was being sought by a "Red Leroy". What if, Deliah was a spy? And the dozen other newcomers, what if they had actually come to take Marie away?

Priscilla scrutinized the cottonmouth below with a newfound distrust. Was she an agent of this Fox House? She clasped her hands behind her back and trudged on, and in the distance she spotted another dark shape slithering through the streets. Rattlesnake Jake. He couldn't be in league with such people, surely. He'd saved Marie twice now, and he wasn't like before, in any case. She rather admired him, despite his notorious reputation.

Deliah had seen the approaching rattler too, Priscilla noticed, but he seemed to be too preoccupied to see the cottonmouth in turn. And then the mouse saw what was going to happen before it did. The female snake kept along her path, and collided into the scaly body of Rattlesnake Jake. Priscilla narrowed her eyes as Deliah flustered and apologized quickly down in the street, dropping the bag he had gotten from the taqueria with its contents spilling onto the ground. Had she, in fact, actually not seen the oncoming rattlesnake? Because who in their right mind would purposefully bump into the Grim Reaper? She watched him closely. He recoiled slightly and loomed over the smaller snake. She couldn't see his face under his hat from the roof where she was, but she imagined his famous fire-like eyes glowing with disdainful anger.

But the muscular rattler simply stayed still for the briefest moment and glided fluidly around the cottonmouth, and growled something too low for the mouse above to hear. He slithered around the bag she had dropped, not bothering to even toss it back to her. She picked it up and stared, not aghast as many would be in her shoes; Priscilla certainly was. Jake seemed apathetic. Calm, even. Looking back towards Deliah, she could just make out her blue-gray eyes…

And they looked hungry.

With the fact that Rattlesnake Jake no longer seemed to despise her, Marie could not help but radiate with a feeling of mild elation. Certainly, escaping Death from the Grim Reaper was always something to be happy about, but it meant more to her than anyone else knew. She could only hope that... Her brush stokes faltered. Blinking at the canvas she was painting, she adjusted her hat with the back of her paw and sighed. What was she hoping for, exactly? She cleared her throat and sighed. Rattlesnake Jake was powerful, bold, not to mention quite a handsome viper, but she was Mongoose Marie. The last kind of animal in the world for a snake to— to even like, and so far she hadn't done much good to improve that. Still, she did hope for a small miracle that, she might as well admit it, would give her a chance with Jake. But more than that, the revelation of a relatively calmer side to the rattler, in other words his disposition not to kill her, inspired her to as he had put it, work to make it happen.

Speaking of such, she was making another piece of art for him, another attempt to give a gift, to which she was using her life debt as an excuse. Though in reality, it was the least she could do, even if he'd never ask for it. There was also another reason. Just before the beginning of winter Rango had said Jake had come here... "to think". The meaning of that, as far as Marie could figure out, was that the rattlesnake might leave now that it was spring again, and she didn't like that in the least. Rolling her eyes, she vividly imagined the eunuchs back home scolding her for her concerns, and Kyren's disapproving look on her face.

Marie sighed at the vision. The mongoose was almost finished, anyways. Just another few lines of bright yellow in the painted snake's eyes, his shadow on the dusty earth, and why not add a little shine to that gun? Letting out a deep breath once again, she stepped back to view the piece. Very flattering, she mused, grinning to herself slyly. Her brows rose and she looked up and around, squinting. Since very recently she had the feeling of always being watched, no doubt from the paranoia of being attacked at any time by Red Leroy's lot. Or maybe it was her eunuch-induced conscience. In any case, she stopped her senseless grinning at once, as they would put it. It probably wasn't a good idea anyway, being so smitten; it seemed childish. Still, she couldn't help but smile again at the painting, because it was really a good one, better than the last.

Her smile faded. What did happen to the last one? It was only the day or so after she'd woken up from being attacked by that Croy Bolin, and— She walked downstairs to the kitchen, her brush and makeshift palette in hand, frowning thoughtfully. It was him - the bobcat - it had to be him. Who else would and could have taken the portrait? Certainly not Rango, Beans, or Angelique. She thought for a moment and washed her hands and materials in the kitchen sink. Then she flicked them dry, rubbed her hands on a rag, and leaned on the counter. Priscilla could have taken it, couldn't she. She'd been in the Reynolds' house too that day when the mongoose had woken up. But then again, Marie couldn't see why the young cactus mouth would walk off with a portrait of Rattlesnake Jake.

A sound - something like a clatter and cracking - came from somewhere above her. The mongoose looked up in alarm, then towards the living room, for the noise was becoming louder in there. She drew her knife in a flash and walked with caution to the open doorway. Then, just as she entered the room, there was a loud thump from the ceiling and, a small groan. Frowning, Marie took a second to think and dashed up the stairs. If it was Leroy's lot, she was ready.

But it wasn't any burly henchman. No wiry, armed animal at all. Upon kicking the door to her room open, the mongoose saw nothing bust dust and the bright sun shining through a great mess of a hole in her roof. And on the floor, lay the coughing, smarting form of Priscilla.

Author's Note:

Another one of those shorter chapters. Sorry it took so long. What with the iCloud deleting two of my files, I decided to come up with a new story direction for this chapter, especially since I got so many reviews on Deliah's character. x) Hope it turned out okay. Happy Easter!

Song is "El Toro" by Selena. :)