A/N: Yepz, my first fic!! ^__^ Hope it's up to ur liking and pleeze enjoy!! It's gonna be a series kinda thing, so yer… Plz review, kaez?? And tell me how u like it… (or hate it.. -.-)
Disclaimer's on the theme page…
-- sylver_rain
The Clydesdales
Chapter 1: Starting From Scratch
"Have you heard about the Clydesdale they have just found?"
Remy's ears pricked up at the sound of the word 'Clydesdale'. He spied the large, fat lady at the counter and listened intensively at anything else there was to say.
"Nope. What about it?" The man she was talking to asked curiously. The woman relied, "Well, I heard that it was from hell or something." "Really?" "Yep." "What else? Did they say which town they brought it to? What they did to it?" The woman shook her head and said, "No. Not another word. That was all I heard from Sherrie. Clydesdales are damn rare, honey."
Remy frowned. The man at the counter had just asked the woman every question he had wanted to ask, and yet no one actually knew the answers. Somehow, news of Clydesdales spread like wildfire, and the entire world was on a Clydesdale-craze.
A Clydesdale was a horse, but not just any ordinary horse. It was a mutation. It was a horse with a gift or unnatural talent, just like a human mutant. Remy gritted his teeth and took a swig of his beer. It was unfair that the humans were all out for the mutant Clydesdales, but when it came to humans with mutations, they thought of them as sorcerers and witches. Remy sighed and controlled himself from blowing up the beer mug held tightly in his grip. He got up, brushed his coat down and headed toward the door.
He stepped out of the inn and into the cool night air. The first time he heard of the Clydesdales, he had been shocked that not only humans, but animals were also mutating. But he found out from another mutant named Xavier that the Clydesdales were not horse mutations, but were actually mutants turned into horses by the infamous, but evil and sly wizard named Kar.
Remy had tried to find the wizard but the sorcerer was powerful, and was difficult to find. Xavier told him that he would look for a mutant that could either reverse the spell, or turn the Clydesdales back into their human form. He had thanked the older mutant and said that he would do his best to find all the Clydesdales he could and bring them to the mind-probing mutant. Hence he started his adventure, but he hadn't expected things to be this hard.
The Clydesdales had only started emerging four weeks ago, and there were only two so far in the entire world. Three, including the one he heard had just emerged, and he had only been searching for a week now. But it did make things easier that the Clydesdales were found only in a few kingdoms and towns, but still he had to search for weeks and maybe even months if he had to find them. Finding two mutant horses in several large kingdoms, towns and villages wasn't exactly and easy task for one man, and travelling just made things harder.
He sighed softly. It was like looking for two needles in a haystack. What's more, he had no idea as to who they were and what their powers were like. Xavier had told him that he'd try to find out, and would give him the information as soon as possible.
Remy LeBeau had wondered how the mutants had gotten themselves turned into Clydesdales in the first place. He hoped that the Clydesdales were distinguishable from other horses, and he had also wondered how they were being treated by humans. Like ordinary horses? Mystical creatures? Or monsters? He shook his head. He couldn't afford to waste any time, and Kar was turning mutants into horses by the week. Remy needed more information, and it was plain exhausting to start from scratch.
He then decided to try and find the woman named Shirrie, who seemed to be this town's gossip queen. He walked into every inn he saw, asked about her and finally came to and inn where the man at the counter pointed toward a round, fat lady who was talking to a group of women, no doubt sharing the latest news.
As Remy walked up to her, she was telling her friends about the newest Clydesdale. "What about it?" Remy asked, stopping at the table.
The fat lady looked up at him and smiled a toothy grin. "Hi, youngn'. New in town are ya?" Remy nodded and asked again, "What about dis Clydesdale?" Shirrie shook with laughter and said, "Why, another Clydesdale poacher? Well, I'll be…"
Remy winced a little, "Clydesdale Poacher? No, Remy ain't dat. Please, would you tell Remy what dey do?"
"Why, young man, Clydesdale Poachers are them hunters that catch Clydesdales. But dontcha worry, boy. They don't hurt them creatures or anything. They just catch em and sell em. And for a whole lotta money, I'm tellin' ya."
Remy nodded slowly and said, "So, tell Remy about dis new Clydesdale…" Shirrie smiled the toothy smile again and said, "Why, all I heard was that it came from hell or something."
"Where is it?" Remy questioned. Shirrie looked at him with a raised brow. "I'm sorry, boy, but I don't know. I didn't bother to find out cuz no one in this little town will wanna know. We aren't rich enough to afford one."
Remy's face fell and he said softly, "Ok… Merci anyways." He turned to leave when Shirrie called out, "Well, ya can always try asking Bonny, the mailman. He's the one who tells me the news about them Clydesdales. He comes here every morning at 7." Remy turned, gave a grateful wave and walked off to his inn where he was staying the night.
He pulled out a map and crossed the town off. "This town is cleared…" he muttered to himself. "Bonny… de mailman… Gambit should have a talk wit dis mailman…"
He got himself up at 6:30 that morning and went down just in time to see the mailman at the mayor's office dropping off some letters for the townsfolk.
"Hi." Remy said to the mailman, leaning on the mailbox. "Mornin' youngin'. The mailman seemed to be about 60 years old, small and skinny with a thick bushy white beard and a mailman's cap covering his baldhead. He wore a white shirt that had gone pale from the dusty trip, and he was taking letters out from a brown bag hanging from a musty beige horse.
"Your name Bonny?" Remy asked. "Yea, howja know?" Bonny replied as he continued working through the mailbag, pulling out letters that were addressed to the town. "A femme named Shirrie said so." The mailman laughed and started slipping letters into the mailbox. "Oh, that chatterbox?" Remy nodded and said, "She say Remy can talk to you about Clydesdales."
At this, the old man stopped and looked up at the tall teenager. Remy kept his hands in his coat's pocket and continued leaning against the letter box. Bonny nodded and said, "So what do you want to know?"
Remy was hoping desperately that this old man could give him a lead. "You said something about a demon Clydesdale to Shirrie. Remy wanna know where it is." Bonny shook the dust off his cap and said, "Well, I heard about that one in Cleedersville. Said it looked like some kinda demon from hell." Remy thanked the man. Cleedersville… Seems like dat is where Gambit have to start.
End of chapter 1
