The wind blew in the scent of rain and fire as the thunder clouds rolled in. Even from a distance, the lightning could be seen streaking across the sky in red flashes that demanded your attention, wrenching your eyes to the black clouds as they lit up with electricity. Dust flew ahead in the micro bursts, coming in towers fifteen feet high as they fled the oncoming storm.
Arion pranced nervously, tossing his head against the bit. I held him easily, but his energy raced down the reins into my hands, and I felt the same excitement with such a powerful storm's approach. Back home, we'd only had a storm like this once, and Dad had told me about it tearing apart rooftops and scattering furniture miles from the house it was blown from. I shivered.
Ronnie rode up alongside, Buzz even more frantic than Arion. "What do you think of it, Sweetheart?" he asked with his canine smile.
I glared back with a smile. "It's more powerful than any of us," I replied, "but you could easily match its temper."
He pushed Buzz close to Arion, leaning towards my face. "I think we could match its power," he cooed, his eyes flashing with intent. "Race you back to my bunkhouse."
Thankfully, Snipe rode up at that moment. "Grand, get outta Klintson's face and get back to your job! We need to get these cattle in before the squall hits."
Ronnie, with a final wink at me, wheeled his horse around and headed for the tail of the herd. The cattle lowed at the rider, bellowing complaint as they were forced to their feet instead of left on the ground. Butch, Hasty and Zane, along with another rider, kept the animals close as they headed for the heavily wooded section of pasture. Within the trees was a rock face that could block most of the wind.
Snipe yelled over the howling wind. "Rylie, your job is to watch out for Casey over there." He nodded toward the rider I hadn't recognized, who was turning some calves back into the herd. "He's doing a great job, but Jack is keeping an eye on him. He's been weaving in and out of his cows, and I'm worried he'll make a move. So I want you to watch Casey, and give him advice. If Jack gets close, get his attention."
I nodded, a little nervous yet willing to do the job. I shouldn't have worried, though; we got to the rock face in easy time. Jack was certainly a little apprehensive about the new worker. But Arion gave me hints on what the old bull was thinking, and at times I could tell Casey to back off.
The cattle looked relieved as they stepped behind the protective rock wall that blocked the fierce wind. Even Jack took notice, strutting about loosely and checking on the calves. We gave the herd time alone, riding a couple meters away and unsaddling our horses. Then we climbed underneath an overhang, and soon horses and riders alike were sheltered from the rain.
Butch got a healthy fire burning, and Casey put on a pot of beans to munch on as we waited out the storm. Hasty and Snipe both checked all the horses' bridles and saddles for rain water. Zane handed out bed rolls to relax on, and I swiped the horses a couple times with a brush. Ronnie was the only one who didn't contribute, stretching out and sharpening his knife blade.
Finally, we all settled around the fire, eyes on Casey as he stirred the brown mixture simmering in the battered pot. Snipe, his head pillowed on his saddle, suddenly broke the silence. "Well, Klintson,"" he drawled, "you've been here almost three months. What do you think?"
The question took me a little by surprise, and I felt my cheeks turn pink as everyone turned to face me. "Um...I mean, it's tough sometimes, but I think I could stick with it."
Hasty cocked his head. "But surely this isn't all you planned to do with your life?"
I shrugged, becoming uneasy with the questions. "I really wanted to become an architect," I started. "I love the southern mansions, and plantation houses." For a moment, I felt the warm feeling I used to get when I thought of the drafting boards, and I lost myself in the memories. I wanted to design more houses like that, maybe combine that style with something else. But a flash of lightning seemed to bring with it harsh memories,and my focus returned to the fire as thunder rumbled above us. "But I didn't make the school, so I turned to other things."
That was only half the truth. That had been my goal before the dreams started. Afterward, the sleep deprivation caused me to fail tests, and I was forgetting homework- or falling asleep doing it. Not only that, but Mom didn't think that a woman should be working on designing buildings, and she made me miss any conferences or meetings I set up with the college in any way she could think of. When I didn't get in, it had become so bad that I'd become desperate to just get away from everything.
Now it was Zane's turn to chip in. "So how did you go from architecture to ranching? That seems like an odd change of majors."
I nodded. "Well, yeah. See, my dad's parents lived on a farm, and when we went to visit them, I would ride the old horses they had. Grandpa showed me how." I smiled, remembering his gnarled fingers placing mine through the reins, or when he adjusted my legs and back so I rode properly. When the last of the horses died, he'd offered to buy me one. But by then, Mom was adamant about not having me do something as laborsome and unladylike as ride. And when they passed away, she made Dad sell the farm before a month had gone by. I shrugged. "So when I was in town, I saw the offer here, and figured that it would be okay."
Casey looked up from the pot. "Beans are ready."
That caught my attention, as well as everyone else's, and we held out our mess kit plates to be filled. As I stirred my beans, I glanced up at our leader. "How did you end up here, Snipe?"
He copied my responses, shrugging his shoulders as he took a bite of mush."Well, you know-these are good, Casey-, I was kinda like you. I wanted to go on to be a doctor. But I'd proposed to a girl who was going to the school, and she ended up tossing my ring back. I tried looking for another college, and though some interested me, I just couldn't get my head back to the work." He took another bite, unfazed by a crack of thunder that made the rest of us jump. "I finally ended up just looking for money. Came to Boss to work for a summer, and I never left." He smiled as he finished.
Hasty nodded, chewing his beans thoughtfully. "I enrolled for a school of criminal justice. But I couldn't keep up with the finances, and ended up dropping out to find work. Got into the military for a couple years, got out, and by that time just wanted to find a good job. Boss caught me as I was drifting by the ranch while they were herding cattle." He chuckled. "'Course then, Boss wasn't boss; he was foreman. They needed another hand, and I joined."
Zane pointed his fork at him. "You remember that far back?"
Hasty snorted at the humor. "Yeah," he snickered, "you were still in diapers then."
Zane smiled. "Yeah," he said as a stroke of lightning brought his features into sharp focus. "My story's a lot like Snipe's. I was studying to be a full time writer. I love to tell stories, especially about the old west." He shook his head. "I was engaged to this great girl, a pure drop of sunshine. She loved poetry, and she was good at it." He paused, staring into the blazes of the fire. "But she ended up getting messed up in drugs behind my back. Within a couple months, a week before our wedding, she overdosed with this guy she'd started them with." Zane's face smiled, but his eyes reflected the sadness of his past.
Ronnie glanced at him as another lightning bolt streaked across the sky. "Oh, don't go gettin' sentimental on us."
Snipe glared at him, then faced Butch, who had been quiet. "Well, bushel-britches, why don't you tell us your story?"
Butch threw a withering look at him before he sat up, rocking on his haunches a little as the resounding clap of thunder seemed to shake the earth. "I was a fighter. Ya know, a boxer. I would go up against these guys who were twice my size, and they'd be down in minutes." He chuckled. "I could really knock 'em down..." A glaze came over his eyes. "Then one day, I was posted to go up against a champion. This guy'd won the national tournaments multiple times. As I looked in the mirror, I noticed the gray in my hair, the wrinkles on my face. Something in me said, 'kid, you're gonna get killed if you go up against anyone else.' So, I hopped a plane that night, got out here, and applied to the only job that was available."
I smiled, scraping what was left of the beans into my mouth before standing up and placing it under a runoff to gather water. "I guess it's my turn," Ronnie drawled sarcastically. He held up his knife to examine it, the blade catching a lightning bolt ominously. I paled. "My parents owned a ranch when I was younger, and I got started there. But they got older, and couldn't handle the place. I could have managed it on my own, but they really just wanted out of the business. So they sold it to this other family. Well, we'd done business with Simon before, and Mom was in the quilting club with Kora. So I came in, and they handed me a job."
The thunder didn't cover Butch's voice. "Most of us didn't come in here sucking on a silver spoon, Rugrat."
Ronnie shot him a scowl as Casey piped up, as if the foreman hadn't said a word. "I was in college studying agriculture management when Boss called, said he needed another hand. That was two years ago, and I haven't gone back to school since then," he finished with a smile.
We all laughed, then kicked back to wait out the storm that was only now passing. Ronnie started to scoot closer to me, but I quickly got up to check on Arion. Joe, watching the foreman, got up and followed.
I waited until we were behind the horses before I finally asked what I'd been dying to know since that morning. "Why didn't you tell me Dune could speak?"
Joe stumbled back like I'd pushed him, his eyes the size of dinner platters. "Dune spoke? When?"
I patted Arion's neck before reaching for his front hoof. He picked it up easily. "This morning," I replied. "It just came out of nowhere."
I couldn't see Joe's face as I picked out the hoof, but he moved around to face me when I moved to the back one. "What did he say?"
I snorted. "He asked if I wanted cream or sugar in my coffee." Arion let me pick up this one, too, and I picked out a large stone, making him flinch. "Easy, boy." I set it down and patted his rump.
As I moved to the next hoof, Joe pushed his hair out of his face. "I didn't think he'd ever really start talking again. I was afraid that he had stopped altogether." Then, as if something suddenly dawned on him, he stiffened. "Wait, you thought he couldn't?"
I sat down that hind hoof, and moved to the last hoof. But I took a moment to look Joe square in the eye. "All anyone ever said was that he 'didn't say much,' or that he 'never speaks.' What was I supposed to think?"
Joe thought while I picked up the front hoof, Arion giving it willingly. While I praised him, Joe spoke. "I guess no one really told you he could...wait, what about when I told you that he'd convinced Boss to have you stay with him?"
I shrugged, pulling a few smaller rocks before setting down the hoof and giving the blue shoulder a pat. "Sometimes he looked like he was going to say something," I admitted. "But I guess after a while, when he never did, I shrugged those off."
"Touche." Joe suddenly looked outside, and I realized I hadn't heard thunder in a while. "It's stopping," he commented. As he spoke, I could begin to see farther and farther into the gray curtain. He paused a moment, then turned. "Snipe?"
The older hand had noticed, too, and nodded. "Mount up," he called. "We start again in ten minutes."
^^^
I'm Back! I hope all of you enjoyed your holiday weekend. Although I didn't update C&N last week, I published the complete story Christmas at Kelly's. You guys should totally check it out, especially since our two favorite ranch hands make an appearance!
Anyway, I know it's a bit of a filler chapter here, and I apologize for that. But I wanted to give the other workers a bit of depth. They aren't what they seem...some of them are just big teddy bears(;
Hope everyone has a happy New Year. I'll see you guys in 2017!