Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Wings of Fire or the story of Home on the Range, only how the story goes. The characters of Wings of Fire belongs to Tui T. Sutherland and Home on the Range belongs to Disney. I apologize for any errors in grammar and/or if I was not accurate in reference to something.
A/N: I believe that there will be some hardships down the road in this chapter. Both for the girls and for those back on the farm.
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Chapter Six: Fighting for Faith
While Slim, his gang and their captive dragons were being taken away, Tsunami, Kestrel and Kinkajou all screamed as the chuck wagon rolled towards a ramp-like rock formation. Their screaming intensified when it went up into the air before coming back down on the conjoining side and went right for Rico and Spirit. The bounty hunter heard the commotion and got Spirit to halt, "Whoa. Ho, boy."
They looked back with a gasp as the chuck wagon came barreling towards them and knocked Rico and his trademark saddle right off of Spirit's back. The bounty hunter fell to the ground with a grunt while the chuck wagon full of dragonesses and a horse tumbled along the ground before coming to a stop in a crumbled heap. They all groaned from the ordeal while Rico picked himself up with a, "Hmm…"
He dusted himself off while the other cowboys came riding up just as the sun began to rise. When they stopped the bounty hunter, one of them said, "Oh, Rico, if you'd just been here a second earlier…
"You'd have had that darn dragon rustler dead to rights." He added. Rico narrowed his eyes when he asked, "You boys go and see anything before I got here?"
"Yeah, we sure did there, Rico." The same cowboy nodded, remembering what had happened not too long ago. While he was telling Rico the story, the girls and Spirit started to get up as well. Tsunami was the first to crawl out of the wreckage with a strainer on her scaley head. She looked a little ticked off when she looked about and questioned, "All right, what part of "cover me" didn't we understand back there?"
"Are you two OK?" Kinkajou asked as she stumbled out, a pot blinding her. She was mostly worried considering that her friends had nearly been taken by Slim. Kestrel, climbing out with a kettle over her eyes, shook her head, "I don't know. I feel like I was dreaming there for a moment."
"Yeah." Tsunami said in agreement. She felt weird about it, and the strainer fell off of her head when she said, "Slim went and started singing, and all of a sudden I just lost track of everything around me."
"Singing?" Kinkajou asked, thinking that wasn't singing to her. She shook her head, "That sure didn't sound like singing to me.
"And you'd know since I have perfect pitch." The Rainwing added with a proud smile. Tsunami rolled her eyes at that and started to say, "Uh, yeah. Kinkajou, about you and your perfect pitch-"
"Not now, Tsunami." Kestrel stopped the Seawing while taking the kettle off of her head. They were all surprised when Spirit suddenly said from the chuck wagon wreckage, "All right, show's over everyone!"
"Oh, no." Tsunami sighed in annoyance when they saw who it was. Spirit shook off the piece of cloth from him as he said, "You're interfering with official police bidness!"
The three dragonesses all looked to him with quirked brows as he walked by. Tsunami looked to the two and asked, "Did he just say bidness?"
"Be right there with you, big guy." Spirit nervously laughed to Rico while the man was still talking with the three cowboys. He glanced to the three dragonesses while saying, "Spirit's on the case. You know. Whoo!
"Don't embarrass me in front of my partner." Spirit shouted when he came back over to the girls. Then he went around them and pleaded with a, "Please!"
"You and he are partners?" Kestrel asked while glancing between the horse and the bounty hunter. She and Kinkajou tried to keep themselves from laughing while Tsunami asks with a grin, "So, how exactly does that work exactly between the two of you?
"I mean, do you get to ride him on the odd days or the even ones?" She asked and it caused a few snickers between the three of them. This caused Spirit to look at them with annoyed looks and defended him and Rico by saying, "Hey! He chose me specifically…" He gave a small proud laugh when he said, "Because I happen to have skills that are essential to capturing our quarry."
The three followed Spirit's movements as he started dashing around and made kung fu noises while making the motions. The three just looked at him with unimpressed looks. The commotion didn't go unnoticed by Rico while was inspecting some tracks from the stolen herd. He looked back to Spirit with a, "Huh?"
He saw the stallion acting all weird around the three dragonesses while doing kung fu moves and he narrowed his eyes to that. Glancing to the three cowboys he said, "You boys headed back to town?"
"Yes, sir." One of the cowboys nodded. He rubbed the back of his neck when he said, "We got to go and file a report with the sheriff about this."
"Give him back his horse." Rico told them, feeling he made the wrong choice about Spirit. He shook his head, "This one here's too skittish around dragons."
"Then we'll lend you one of ours." The cowboy said and motioned for one of the men to get one. Rico picked up his saddle and nodded to them, "Much obliged, fellas."
Back with the four, Spirit finished up doing the kung fu moves and noises to take a breather. Looking to the three dragonesses he said, "And that, girls, is what makes me and Rico equal parts of one heck of a lean mean crime-fighting-"
He was cut off when a grey blur zipped past him and headed up a rocky slope that went around the closed path. They all saw Rico riding on the back of another horse and Spirit's face dropped when he finished, "Machine?"
The three looked to his shocked and disappointed face. He started stuttering at what he just saw and Kestrel simply shrugged, "Well, there it is, then."
While the Skywing started to make her way to the path after Rico, Tsunami chuckled and said, "Well, well, well, there, stud.
"Now, I'm no professional on these types of things…" She shook her head, "But I'd say the only mano a mano you'll be doing now…
"Is in your dreams." Her words made Spirit look to her with an annoyed look. She surprised him when she shouted, "Oh, look out, Buck! He's about to make move on your left flank!
"Kaboosh!" She shouted while making an upper cut motion with clenched talons. Then she made punching motions with both sets of talons and it only seemed to tick Spirit off even more. Tsunami's fun was stopped when Kestrel shouted, "Tsunami! Kinkajou! Leave that poor animal alone. We have places to be!."
Tsunami just kept laughing as she turned to follow after Kestrel. Before joining her friends, Kinkajou, with the pot still on her head, walked up to Spirit. He looked to her as she started to offer, "Spirit, I realize that you're very upset with what just happened, but if you'd like to join our group…
"And help us bring in Slim and his gang, we'd be happy to have you along." That made Spirit look to her with a questioning look. Kinkajou then kindly said, "However, there are a few anger-management issues that you have that we need to discuss."
"I wouldn't go and help you drag-queen dragonesses…" Spirit bitterly started before shouting in her face, "Even if MY LIFE DEPENDED ON IT!"
"You see, that's just what I'm talking about here." Kinkajou nodded from his outburst while Spirit took in deep breaths. The Rainwing looked to her friends when Tsunami called out, "Kinkajou, come on!"
"Bye." She offered before leaving Spirit alone. Spirit watched them go with a disappointed look as he heard Tsunami shouted, "Come on, girls! Let's go and get Slim."
"Come on, girls. Let's go and get Slim." Spirit said in a poor imitation of Tsunami's statement. The horse turned away and muttered to himself, "Fire-snortin', water-breathin', magic death-spittin' dragonesses.
"I could catch Slim with one hoof tied behind my back." He confidently said. It seemed to spark an idea in the horse's mind when he gasped, "Wait a second. Why don't I go and do that.
"Yes!" He shouted and stamped the ground with his hoof. Feeling pretty confident about it he said, "And partner or no partner that's what I'm-a do. Hey!"
He turned to go while starting to sing…
Spirit: Ba ba ba ba ba
But before he could go anywhere, the three cowboys had managed to get close and grab his reins. Spirit started fighting back as they tried to get him under control. With a glare and a mighty yank, Spirit was able to pull himself free and make a run for it while one of the cowboys huffed, "Aw, just forget it."
Spirit galloped up the side of the rock wall that everyone else was going and saw that the dragonesses weren't too far. They were just coming around the bend when Kinkajou gave her thoughts about the horse, "He's definitely bipolar."
"Move it, sister! Hero passing on the left." Spirit shouted as he ran through them and nearly knocked Kinkajou over the edge while her pot fell over the side. Kestrel quickly went to grab Kinkajou and pulled her to safety. Kinkajou looked to the horse with an annoyed expression, "Hey, watch where you're going."
"Where are you going, hotfoot?" Tsunami questioned as Spirit kept running. Spirit stopped and turned before the next bend and declared, "I'm gonna nab that rustler and show Rico that I got what it takes!
"So say good-bye to your farm, girls, because Slim is mine to stop." He laughed before jumping off the edge and onto a rickety rock. The rock teetered towards another rock formation as Spirit shouted, "It's hero time, baby!"
He jumped onto the rock formation just as the teetering rock went over the edge. The stallion laughed as he went down and shouted, "Watch out now! Hey! Get back!
"Jump back! Kiss myself! Whoo!" He continued to shout until the girls couldn't hear him anymore. Kestrel huffed before turning away, "Oh, this is quite a fine kettle of fish.
"How can we compete with that?" She asked and gestured to the fleeing Spirit. Kinkajou shrugged and said, "Well, look at the bright side, Mrs. K." She leaned forward and said, "Don't forget about our secret weapon."
"A secret weapon?" Kestrel asked with a bit of skepticism. The Rainwing looked between the three of them and pointed out, "Who better to go and catch a dragon herd thief than a dragon, right?"
"Yeah, even you can't argue with that kind of logic." Tsunami agreed while wrapping around Kinkajou to show her support. Kestrel rolled her eyes and made her way to join the two to continue on their journey. Tsunami thought about it a little and said, "Ok, maybe you can."
"You know, Kinkajou." Kestrel said to make Tsunami stop talking for a while. She had a sly grin when she said, "Tsunami here does really love it when you sing.
"How about you give us a song?" She suggested and it made Tsunami cringe. She looked to the older dragon and promised, "I'm gonna get you back for this."
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Back on Pearl's farm, things didn't seem to be doing too well as the sheriff came riding in on a different horse with a sign, hammer and other things to prepare for the auction, even if he didn't want to. After getting the animals ready, he moved to the fence and started planting the sign into the ground with a few good whacks of the hammer. The sign read…
Public Auction
All Land, Property and Livestock
Thursday, Sept. 24
When he finished hammering the sign, the sheriff looked at it with sadness in his eyes before walking away. The animals behind the fences watched as the sheriff made his way over to the buildings of the farm and they each looked as if it wasn't looking good. He passed by Porky and his son's and the son closest to him asked his father, "I just don't get it. Weren't the cows supposed to come right back?"
"Daddy, what's going to happen if they don't come back?" The one on his other side asked him. Porky tried to lighten the mood by saying, "Oh, but they are coming back. You'll see."
"Hogwash!" Tops' voice said from his barrel, making them all look to the old Triceratops. Tops came walking out and shook his head, "We all know that they're never coming back."
"What? Ooh! Ooh!" Audrey clucked in alarm. Porky looked over to the goat and gave a nervous chuckle before saying through gritted teeth, "You don't know that for sure, Tops."
"Everyone knows that dragons are the most intelligent and craftiest animals in the west." Tops stated when he came over. Daffy was in agreement when he thought about it, "Yeah. He's right, you know."
"It doesn't take a dragoness to figure out that they saw the writing on the wall and flew the coop when the getting was good." He shook his head. That just made Porky look at the Triceratops with a skeptical look, "What?"
"Oh, no! They went and tricked us and deserted us all!" Audrey shouted in despair. While Tops nodded to his own words, Porky tried to calm her down by saying, "No, no. Aud-Audrey. Listen to me."
Everyone started squawking, screaming and panicking at the thought of Kestrel, Tsunami and Kinkajou leaving them. Porky tried to get them to calm down by shouting, "Excuse me. Excuse me.
"Excuse me!" He loudly squealed and it made everyone stop. Porky then noticed how quiet it got when he opened an eye. He sheepishly said, "Oh, uh, sorry." Glancing around he said, "But now, let's not forget who we're talkin' 'bout now.
"Audrey, do you remember when Grace helped you figure out why you crossed the road?" He asked the chicken and she seemed to remember. Porky turned to the Triceratops and said, "And, Tops, Miss Kestrel knew just what to do when you got your horn stuck in the spittoon."
"Get off my back!" Tops grumbled and glanced away. Porky then reminded, "A-A-And Tsunami was gonna go and make us all winners." He nodded as he had faith in them, "I truly do believe that there ain't n-nothin' that those dragonesses three can't do."
They were all surprised to see the sheriff walking back across the property with a small box in hand. When he came to a good spot, he set the box down and opened it to reveal the chicks that had become so found of Kestrel. They started chirping and looked about to see what was happening. It broke just about everyone's hearts when Audrey placed a wing over the spot, "Aw, no."
"Well, whatever they're gonna do, they had better do it soon." Tops said when he looked to Porky. With that, the Triceratops made his way back to his barrel.
The sheriff walked up to Pearl who was leaning on the fence just behind the newly placed sign. The sheriff removed his hat and genuinely offered her, "I'm so very sorry, Pearl. It's a real shame. It is."
With nothing more to say, he turned and left the farm until the day of the auction. Porky was able to get out of the confines of the pen and walked up to Pearl to try and comfort her. Pearl looked down to the pig and sighed before saying, "Porky, I just don't know what's worse right now-
"Selling the farm over to the highest bidder-" She looked to the sign on her property. She turned her gaze to the wilderness when she said, "Or knowing that my girls are lost and alone somewhere out there."
He gently nudged the side of her leg and she brushed her hand against the top of his head. They both looked out to the land just as thunder clouds started to roll in.
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Author's Note: I know that this is putting the story out of place. But I kind of wanted to let the villains have their own chapter before continuing. And I do apologize that it's been so long since a new chapter for this story. But don't worry, this is what I'll be working on for a while. I look forward to reading your reviews. Be sure to leave a comment either about if I've done something wrong or if you want something specifically to happen. See you next time.