It was quiet for a while as we sat around the campfire. The soft, cool breeze ruffled my fur and dress. I stared at my marshmallow as it slowly turned from white to a light brown. Finally, Mr. Furgus spoke up, breaking the silence. "I just remembered something I heard from some townspeople long ago," he said. Everyone turned to him. "What did you hear?" asked Ambrose, his glossy marble eyes looking at Mr. Furgus. Mr. Furgus continued. "I remembered the folks mentioning about the supernatural, to be more specific, ghosts," he said. No one said anything.
Everyone jumped when they heard a long lonely cry from an animal far out. "Nice subject to be talking about at this time," said Spoons bitterly. "Why are you bringing up the subject of ghosts anyway?" asked Sergeant Turley. White feathers fell from Mr. Furgus' arms. "Because, I remembered them talking about a specific type of ghost, a spirit to be precise, it reminded me of Miss Bat girl over here," he said jerking his head to me.
I froze when everyone turned to me. My marshmallow fell into the fire and burned to a sugary black crisp. "What about her?" asked Elgin. "Yeah, she's not a ghost," said Waffles, but then started touching my wings, checking to see if I really was. "She's not a ghost, or a spirit, or whatever you think she is," said Beans with a bit of anger in her voice.
Rango cleared his throat. "Um, Beans? Lets see where Furgus is going with this shall we? I don't think he is trying to insult her in any way," said Rango. "What is he trying to say then?" asked Doc who looked up from his huge bean he was eating greedily the whole time. Mr. Furgus held up his featherless arms. "All I'm trying to say, is that the townspeople were talking about ghosts and spirits, but the one they were mostly talking about, was the Banshee," said Furgus. A cold wind blew through us which sent chills down our backs. Some of the men gasped and murmured amongst themselves. "What's a Banshee?" I finally asked. Everyone turned to me.
"Oh come now Miss Bat girl, everyone knows what a Banshee is…" said Rango, but then turned to Mr. Furgus. Obviously he knew as much info on Banshees as I did. "Banshee is female spirit, cries heard far and wide, whoever hear it, mean someone die," answered Wounded Bird. I nodded.
"Banshee…hey! That's what yer name can be!" said Spoons excitedly to me. "Yeah, that's also what I was going for," said Mr. Furgus. "Yes, and me too as well," said Rango. Beans rolled her eyes. "Banshee… not a bad name for you," said Buford. "Yeah, it really suits you," said Elgin. "Yeah! Really suits you!" repeated Waffles happily.
I smiled. Banshee, not a bad name. Mostly I guess because of when I screamed and sent the coyote backwards and killed it. Everyone was buzzing with excitement. "Hey, Miss Banshee, do that scream thing again," said Sergeant Turley. "Oh yeah, yeah, do that scream thing," said Doc. Everyone nodded excitedly.
"Um, ok…uh, what should I scream at?" I asked them, standing up. The posse and Rango looked around for something for me to scream at. "Oh! How about that boulder over there?" asked Ambrose pointing a feather over to the lonely boulder ten feet from the camp. Everyone agreed and cheered me on. I slowly walked toward the boulder. I stopped about seven feet from it. I could hear them quieting down and waiting for me to scream at it. The cool wind whipped through my hair.
I closed my eyes, trying to remember how I did it last time. I don't think it could be that simple, could it? Just scream and then watch the object fly through the air and land about a good distance away from you? I might as well try, everyone is waiting.
I pressed by ears down against the back of my head, took a deep breath and screamed at the boulder. I wasn't sure if I did make the boulder fly through the air and land far away from me, but I didn't want to find out. I quickly went back to the camp and sat down. I buried my head in my wings.
I hated being in the middle of attention. I knew I failed. It was just a fluke, I didn't make that coyote fly through the air and land twenty feet away from me, I thought. Everyone was going to start thinking I'm a fake and then abandon me out here in the middle of nowhere. I waited for the posse and Rango to stand up and leave… but then, I realized it was still quiet. I looked up and noticed everyone was still looking the same direction where I was and the boulder. Suddenly I heard a loud crash. I jumped up and looked where the sound came from.
My heart skipped a beat. It was the boulder I screamed at. It landed about thirty feet away from the camp. On the ground, I noticed a huge crater in place of where I screamed. What? Impossible! I yelled in my head. I looked at everyone's face. Their eyes were wide with shock and awe. Some of their mouths were hanging open. The posse and Rango slowly turned their heads to me. Then their faces broke into smiles and they all cheered. "That was amazing!" said Spoons, patting my good wing. The posse crowded around me. They patted my back and the top of my head. After that, we all went to bed in our own sleeping bags and fell asleep under the stars. The fire died down and the embers flickered out.
The next day, we drank from our canteens, ate some food, and then saddled up. I fished out my sunglasses and placed them over my eyes. The sunglasses were my new best friends. I didn't understand why my eyes were so sensitive to the sun, but I just lived with it and gripped the reins tightly as my roadrunner bolted down the endless desert landscape along with the others. We rode the rest of the way and entered the canyon that Rango mentioned where the prairie dogs and bats lived. It went all the way down till it ended up at the end. Carved into the canyon, were a couple homes.
"Ok everyone, I'll talk with Balthazar and ask if Banshee lives here with them. Then we can ride back and feel good inside that we did the right thing helping Banshee return to her folks," said Rango happily. The posse looked down and shuffled their feet sadly. "Why can't Miss Banshee stay with us? I'm sure she could stay in an extra room or something," asked Waffles looking up at Rango. Rango looked at his posse and sighed. "But wont you feel a lot better if she is back with her own k-" started Rango but then was interrupted when the earth all of the sudden started to shake. Everyone gasped and moved closer together.
Suddenly out from the hard dry earth came up hundreds of dirty, filthy creatures. I gasped as I quickly turned around in a complete circle, realizing that we were surrounded. The creatures growled and snarled at us. Crazy and wild -eyed. They shook the dirt from their fur and dirty clothes. They gripped their deadly, sharp weapons in their furry hands.
"Oh, you guys are good," said Rango, admiring their cool entrance. The prairie dogs sneered. "What do you want now lawman?" asked a female prairie dog with a rifle pointed at him. Rango took a step back from the rifle and cleared his throat. "Oh nothing much, just mostly came by to visit, and to see how you guys were doing, but, I would like to speak to-" started Rango, but was interrupted again. A creature was seen pushing his way through the zombie- entrance- making rodents. "Sheriff? What in tarnation are you doin' here? You better not be tryin' to do somethin' stupid like last time!" snapped the creature who finally came into full view.
He was an old blind mole rat. He had a scratchy linen piece of fabric around his eyes. He wore a worn dirty black hat with a dirt covered white night gown with a worn old sweater over it. He used a twisted looking stick to help him guide his way, and not run into anything. He had a funny looking nose that was like a limp umbrella handle.
"Hello, Balthazar," said Rango cheerfully, ignoring Balthazar's comment. Balthazar snapped his head in his direction. "What the hell do you want?" Balthazar asked impatiently, his nose sniffing the air. Rango straightened up, trying to look brave, and cleared his throat again. "Sir, me and my posse have come here to discuss about your bats, you see, we found a bat in our town and she has no idea who she is, or where she came from. So, we wondered if she belonged to you," said Rango.
Balthazar placed his hands under his cracked, wirey haired chin, and had his hands resting on his stick. "Hmmmm, a female bat? Mine? I don't think so, bring her forward," Balthazar said as he brought one of his hands out from under his chin and waved his hand for me to come forward.
I hesitated. A couple of gentle hands pressed my back to make me go forward. I did and carefully came up to the blind Balthazar. Balthazar's head lifted and he sniffed the air. "Is this her?" he asked. "Yes," I said in a quiet voice.
Balthazar jumped a bit and took a step back. The other prairie dogs gasped and murmured to each other. The posse and Rango looked at them confusingly. Balthazar's head lifted up where he assumed the posse was. "This bat can talk?" Balthazar asked in a surprised voice. "Of course she can, how else would she tell us that she has no idea where she comes from or who she is?" Beans pointed out. Balthazar shook his head. "I've never heard of a talkin' bat before," he said.
With that, Balthazar carefully reached out with his right hand, feeling for me. He grabbed a chunk of my hair and carefully pulled me forward. I bit my lower lip and wrinkled my nose as I came closer to him. He placed his stick in between his legs and used both disgusting hands to feel my face.
I winced and held my breath as his cracked, dirt caked hands ran over my face. He felt my hair, my ears, and then felt around in the inside front part of my mouth. I had my eyes closed tightly the whole time.
When he was done, my mouth tasted like dirt. I spat and used a bit from my dress to clean out the disgusting taste in my mouth. Balthazar got his walking stick out from under him and leaned on it.
"Nope, not mine, she's smaller then the female adults, I don't even think she would be much use to us anyway, can't ride her," said Balthazar. With that, he turned around and headed back to his home. The prairie dogs all did a weird call and went back down through the tunnels they came up through.