Monster Cowboys The Book

Chapter Four

As Jack looked through a collapsible telescope that Jacob had brought with him, as he'd been a former officer in the Confederate Army, he counted the various people who had a certain look, a look that said, "You and everyone else in town is beneath me."

"Six... seven, eight, no nine, and ten. That's a hundred and ten people by my count," he said, as he folded the scope back down and gave it to the other.

"They outnumber us fifty-five to one, if I know my figures," Jacob said. "Even when I was fighting against Yankees, I never had to deal with that sort of odds."

"Likewise when I was fighting against Rebels," Jack said. "However, for my family, I'd take on every solder, warrior, and so forth, from when the Hebrews fought the Philistines at Jericho, up to Judgment Day itself, in order to get them back."

"I know how you feel cousin," Jacob said, as the two of them had been doing some talking about their families while they'd been scouting the place out. "Is that why you sent the two young ones away?"

"Actually, there are three of them," Jack said. "Lefleet bought a young male nigger, about fourteen years old, one who is a Witch Doctor. I told Lahorn to take him with him when he went to Red Horn's encampment."

"How come?" Jacob asked. "I thought that you'd trust that southern centaur over that Texas minotaur, considering how often the two of you seem to be fighting."

"Well, while I can trust him with protecting the boy, on a personal level," Jack said. "He wouldn't trust himself on another more, emotional, level."

"What do you mean?" Jacob asked. "It's not like he'd kill the boy, would he?"

"No, but he might rape him by accident," Jack said. "Lefleet prefers male lovers you should know, and several years ago, his father forced him to, well; eat the one whom he really cared for when the old man found out the boy's preference for sexual partners. Now I don't know if it was because the person was human, male, or a nigger, as that was what the person was, but he forced that poor boy to eat him alive. Needless to say, it has affected him greatly."

"Well I know this much Jack, you're going to have to turn into your wolf form if you are going to kill all of them," Jacob said.

"No, I made a promise," Jack said, as he looked at his cousin, who looked like he was part wolf, as both of them were werewolves. "I promised that I'd be as human as I could, and never use that form, not even if it was the only thing between life and death itself."

"Yeah, but this is your wife and kids we are talking about Jack," Jacob said. "What about them? Would you do it for them?"

At this, Jack lowered his head and said, "I don't know. I've been in my human form for so long, only doing partial shifts to give me an advantage in my hunting and fighting, that I don't think that I could just go full wolf. Besides, I want to humiliate that dridder and those people. That harpy back there had demanded that I turned over my weapons to him, because I looked human. Well I showed him, when I stabbed my Bowie into a post, right up to the hilt, and pulled it out with no problems."

"Well don't forget that you shot him from over a thousand yards away," Jacob said. "No human could make a shot like that."

"Yeah," Jack said, in a low voice, as he thought about the Deputy who lay several miles behind them. "No human could of done that."

He had killed the man in cold-blood. He'd had the man sent there, to try to kill Jacob when the one-eye werewolf got close to town. However, Jack had left town an hour after midnight, after playing a certain song for his wife, got up on the outcropping across from him, and waited until the right moment. When the harpy had stood up to fire a shot off at Jacob, whom he'd thought was Jack, Jack had shouted out a warning, and fired a single shot, hitting him in the chest, and causing him to fall to the ground. Then, when he'd walked up to the harpy, who was still alive, if barely, Jack had fired a shot with his revolver, right between his eyes, killing him.

"Jack, you did what you had to do," Jacob said. "You did it to save my fur."

"Yeah, I did it to save your life alright," Jack thought, as he looked back at the town. "But what you don't know is that I sent him there for that purpose. I used you as bait for a trap, a trap to kill him, and to get you to follow the one Code of the Wolf, 'Life for life'. Since I saved your life, you are bound by the Code to return the favor, even if it means your own death."

"So when do we strike?" Jacob asked, as he opened the telescope back up and looked through it with his one remaining eye, which was his left one.

"We'll wait until Red Horn and his warriors show up at the very least," Jack said. "With them surrounding the town, and loosing an arrow every so often, it will do two things, keep the people inside of their homes during the fighting, and make sure that that dridder and his men have no escape."

"Well what about the guys from the Double D?" Jacob asked, as he set the telescope down. "They'll be here to you know."

"They can get the cattle," Jack said. "They are in a pen on the north side of town. Also, from what I could tell, there's brands from four or five other ranches, including the Two Diamond, Infinite Eight, Crooked Arrow, as well as the Double D."

"You know, those three all came through here within the last year," Jacob said. "The cattle and those escorting them all disappeared. Also, several of the other smaller ranches around the area have disappeared, cattle and all."

"Yeah, it wouldn't be very good if they ate too many of the people in town," Jack said. "So they go after cattle, as well as those escorting them. I had to deal with that sort of people during the war. Personally, when I caught one of my men doing that sort of stuff, I'd shoot them. I didn't care if they were taking the stuff from those whose husbands, sons, or other kin, were in the Confederate Army, or if they themselves were sons, nephews, or younger brothers of some famous officer or politician, I'd shoot them right between the eyes and just leave the body as a warning to the others that we were soldiers, not thieves and murderers. If someone tried to complain about it, I'd tell them that the person was a deserter or a traitor, one who disgraced the Union, and they'd shut up about it. After all, it would look better for them if people thought that their relative died in battle against the enemy, and not because they had tried to desert or turn traitor."

"Were you one of those who marched with Sherman when he burned down half of Georgia?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah," Jack said, with a sigh. "I shot a lot of people for looting during that raid. I mean, it's one thing for soldiers to go after enemy soldiers, but these were non-fighting men, women, and children that those monsters went after, people who were trying to survive until the war was over. However, there were two people that I shot that I'll never forget, two young werewolves. I caught them after they'd killed this one old man and were in the process of raping his daughters. To say that all four of them were shocked when I pointed my revolver at those two men and shot them right between the eyes was an understatement. However, the damage was done, and those two women became pregnant as a result and gave birth to their children nine months later. But that wasn't the worst part of it."

"Then what was?" Jacob asked, as he picked up the telescope and looked through it, to keep track of the outlaws. "Did you know them from before the war, because you were friends when you were children?"

"Something like that," Jack said. "The one was a cousin of mine. The other, was my younger brother."

"Oh, now that must of been difficult to deal with," Jacob said, as he broke down his telescope and put it back in its case and put it in his pack. "What did you tell your folks?"

"They died a few years before the war broke out," Jack said. "Along with my one aunt and uncle. I'd spent the last few years trying to bring them up good and decant and, well, I shot them like they were dogs."

"There is a saying I heard somewhere," Jacob said. "'War brings out the best and the worst of all men.' Well, that's what I've heard anyways."

"That it does," Jack said. "I saw humans do things that even giants were scared to do. I saw grown men cry for their mothers, and I saw boys become men. I saw heroes and cowards and villains. I even saw myself become a monster."

"Well which side do you think these guys fought for?" Jacob asked, as the two of them got back to Jack's horse, and the pair started to circle the town, to try to find a place to bed down until the sun got lower.

"Blue, grey, both, neither, I don't care," Jack said. "They took over a town where honest folk used to live and ruined their lives, not to mention they took my family. If they hadn't done that, if I had found my wife, I'd of told her that her husband was dead, but he'd told me to deliver a message, and tell her that, even with his dying breath, he still loved her, and that he had longed to hold her in his arms again. After that, I'd leave, and never see her again, as she doesn't know what my human form looks like. However, I have a feeling that she knows that I'm alive."

"Why would you say that if you haven't seen her yet?" Jacob asked.

At this, Jack pulled out his harmonica and tossed it to him.

"I played my song for her last night," he said. "I played, 'My Darling Clementine' for her."

"Jack, almost anyone could play that song," Jacob said, shaking his head.

"Not the way I play it for her," Jack said, as he took back the blue instrument. "Listen."

Then he started to play. The tune was off-key to say the least, and Jacob's ears folded in on themselves.

"I think that everyone in the Arizona Territories just went deaf," he said, wincing in pain. "Are you sure that's how she liked it?"

"Not quite," Jack said. Then, he gave a long howl. After thirty seconds, he stopped. "Now, now that's how she liked it."

"I hope that's all you did," Jacob said. "As it is, if they weren't awake already, those men are now."

"Oh they'll be asleep soon enough," Jack said. "They'll be sleeping in Hell by the end of the week."

"Any particular order you want to tuck them into the ground?" Jacob asked.

"The three leaders are mine," Jack said. "The saloon owner goes first. He's got my daughter as his sex slave. The second is the Sheriff. He has my son as a pet. Then finally, the Mayor. As for the rest, I don't care what you do with them. You can eat them for all I care. But those three are mine."

"Any particular way you going to kill them?" Jacob asked, when they finally stopped under a mesquite tree and the pair got to cleaning their weapons.

"I plan on tearing out that dragon's manhood and watch him bleed to death," Jack said. "As for the naga, I'm going to slip a collar around his neck and watch him choke to death as I tighten it, even if it means tossing the one end of the leash over a beam and hoisting him up."

"Well what about the dridder?" Jacob asked, as he looked down the barrels of his double-barreled break-action shotgun. "How do you plan on killing him?"

"Him," Jack said, as he cleaned the bore of his Henry rifle. "Hell, I'll beat the bastard to death."

"Well what if he kills you?" Jacob asked, as he started cleaning his revolver. "What is the plan then?"

"I'll make sure he's dead before he finally kills me," Jack said. "If I go to Hell, I'm sending him there first. Then, if I am dead, I want you to turn into your human form, find my wife, and tell her that I loved her, and that I died loving her still. Can you do that for me?"

"Might as well," Jacob said. "Considering that you are doing this because of her."

"Thanks," Jack said, as he started to clean his revolver. "Though I sure do hope that you don't have to give her the message yourself, as I want to be the one to tell her."

"Even if we go through this whole thing, you're still going to tell her that you are dead?" Jacob asked, shaking his head. "That doesn't make any sense."

"She deserves to be happy," Jack said. "If she'd be happy with me, I'll stay. If not, I'll leave. In any case, it will be a while before the rest get here so I suggest we get some sleep."

"Sounds like good advice to me," Jacob said, as he put his head on his pack and yawned. "See you when you wake me up, as I was running all night."

"Yeah, I know that feeling myself," Jack said, as he put his head on his own pack.

Within minutes, the two werewolf cowhands were snoring.

****

Meanwhile in town, a woman with blue eyes and golden hair laid in a bed in a darkened room. Over the past year she'd been locked in the room, with only a window to see what was outside. However, it wasn't always open, meaning that she couldn't always see what was going on, but last night it had been open, when someone played a song on a harmonica. The song was very off-key, but she knew what it was, it was Jack playing "My Darling Clementine". For the first time in a long time Jane felt her spirits lift, though she'd been worried when she had heard the rifle shot, but when she heard the song just a little while ago, especially that howl, she knew that her real husband had come and was alive. Also, one of the servants had delivered a message to her, one that she got from one of the whores in town, which a strange werewolf told her to pass on, "Lambchops." It had been her brother's nickname for her when they were growing up and only a few people knew about it. All of this meant one thing to her, her freedom, and that of the town she lived in, was at hand.

"He'll come for me," she said, in a low voice. "Jessie (the dridder/mayor) made the wrong decision to stay here after he made that raid. He made the wrong choice to rape me and take my children away. Jack will kill him."

"Will Jack do anything bad to me?" asked a young girl's voice in the corner.

"No Jennifer," Jane said. "Jack may have broken one promise when he avenged my brother's death, but he is not a monster like Jessie is."

"Thanks for telling me that mom," said the girl, who came out of the corner, revealing herself to be the dridder child that Jack had seen in the saloon the other day, and went to give the woman a hug.

**

At the same time, Jessie was at the saloon, playing poker with his two partners when he heard a conversation that disturbed him. One of the guys told another that his full house beet the man's straight flush. Curious, he looked at a couple of mirrors that were angled just so, and saw that they'd had the same cards he and the one known as Jacob had had.

"He cheated me," he realized, crushing his cards.

"What's the matter Boss?" the Sheriff asked, as he finished dealing out the remaining cards.

"Let's just say that when that Deputy of yours gets back, I'm going to send him out and have him kill that other werewolf, the one who came here in his human form."

"How come?" the saloonkeeper asked, putting some money on the table. "We have his cattle in the pen. He's going to have to come here to get help in getting them."

"The mutt cheated us out of three hundred dollars, that's what," the dridder said.

At this, the dragon and naga's eyes narrowed in anger. While the three of them tended to cheat each other out of five or ten dollars, for some stranger to have the gal to cheat all three of them was unthinkable, especially three hundred dollars, which was a lot of money.

"I suggest we round up everyone and go after them," the naga said.

"No, that would be foolish," the dragon said. "If we were to just leave, the people would come out of hiding, get their guns, take up positions, and when we came back, they'd fight us. Also, what if Red Horn and his warriors showed up while we were outside of town? After all of our raids against his people he wouldn't hesitate to have his warriors attack us. I suggest we stay here and let the injins take care of him."

You have a good point Wesley," Jessie said, looking at the dragon. "But William is right in that we need to send some men out and kill them. Let's send some of the giants. They're getting fat and lazy just watching cows."

"That will suit me just fine," William, the naga, said. "Besides, we could afford to lose a few of them."

Suddenly, the day turned dark.

"What the Hell?" the three of them wondered, as it was just barely after three in the afternoon. Then, they started to hear gunfire.

"Boss," said one of the men who just came in. "Some cowhands from the Double D are at the cattle pen and are trying to steal the cattle. But that's not the worst of it, Chief Red Horn is here, and he has all of his warriors with him."

"Tell everyone to stop what they are doing and get into position," Jessie said, as he got out of his spot. "We'll show those redskins that this is our town, and those cowhands with them."