Saddles and Scales

Hard Times

"To ya'll, I am the freak, but to me y'all are freaks," Indie threw another dry branch into the fire. Her reptilian eyes darting from the Lynx to the flickering light.
"Everyone has a problem with someone else, that's the world we live in and deal with. I'm sure when your kind ruled the planet it would've been the same way." Abeline reassured her sister and coworker.
"I can't help but feel like being a cowpoke is the way society puts away the folks they don't wanna look at,"
"Well... if that's the case then so be it," Abeline kicked back against her sleeping bag. Indie stared up at the stars thinking about how different her life would've been, when your kind ruled the planet. The words bounced around in her head as she drifted off to sleep, hearing the sound of the horses clipping grass with their teeth behind her.

"Indie! Indie wake up! We're being attacked!"
Indie shot up alert to a scene still coming into view, the sound of shouting and frightened steers. Abeline fired her revolver to try and knock a bandit off his horse but missed. Indie mounted her Appaloosa gelding and went after the rogue band. It wasn't daylight yet, there was a light blue hue to the still night sky. Her eyes adjusted and she could see a rider cutting the herd toward the east, she tried to catch up. The rider sharply cut his horse to the right, almost making his group of cattle trip from the change. Indie nearly got thrown off her horse as he locked onto the enemy as well. She made herself a lasso and planned to grab the opponent, that's when he threw an explosive behind him and it crackled then exploded as it hit the dry ground, Indie and her horse were thrown to the ground. Pain seared in her left shoulder and side, adrenaline running wild through her body she went to stand anyway but fell back down. "Wynd!" She called for her horse worried about him. Wynd was on his back, his front legs were cut up from shrapnel. Indie grabbed his reigns and urged him to stand, she got him to roll over but he was in shock. "We can't lay down, get up!" She cried out, a down horse was a dead horse, and he was her only. Using all her strength she pulled Wynd onto his side, the gelding moved his legs into a more comfortable position and steadily tried to stand. Hope filled Indie's expression as she encouraged Wynd to stand up by calling him on. Once the horse was on his feet she wrapped the worse off leg with a bandana from her waist. At this point the herd, the bandits, and Abeline were missing as the sky was turning pink.

Indie walked with her horse, following the trail of hoof prints trying to find her sister. An hour had passed when finally Indie could see the recognizable shape of cattle in the distance. Approaching the remnants of the herd she called out for Abeline. The herd parted and Abeline was on top her horse with tears still in her eyes. "Heavens Abeline... are you hurt?" Indie voiced with concerns. "I'm alive," Abeline wiped her tears "But these are all I could find and round up. Those thieves ran off with the lot of em" the Lynx looked remorsefully at the 27 head of cattle. Prior to this, they were watching over 50 head, therefore the bandits had ran off with nearly half the herd. Indie kept a brave face on and her black scaled hands rubbed Wynd on the side as she temporarily left her horse to approach her sister. Abeline met her half way and for a moment the sisters just hugged, thankful to be alive while devastated over the loss. "How will we tell the boss?" Abeline's tears fell on her sister's shoulder. Her Amber eyes were so pure yet so full of tired grief. Indie sighed rubbing her feline sisters back, "We will tell him the truth, we were outnumbered by a gang of armed bandits and we did the best we could,"
"Indie what if he fires us? Where will we go?"
"Ahh I'm sure there's always a rancher out there needing a few helping hands" The raptor let Abeline go and hiding the anxiety she put on a toothy smile, "let's get these steers back to the corral they came from, and if we don't have a job anymore then we can go to the saloon and look for new work"

After a couple hours of anxiety and defeated feelings, they arrived at their boss's corral with the 27 head. He came out of his cabin with a shocked look on his Badger face, "What is this? Where is the rest of them?"
Indie took her hat off, revealing her feathered head and neck in its entirety. Her color was ink black, with a white face marking that started at her top jaw and ended at her brow, identical to the markings of a bald horse. She spoke in a soft but sure manner, "We were outnumbered and attacked by a gang of bandits, we tried our best to stop them but they got away from us. I'm truly sorry for such a tragic disappointment."
The Badger was quiet for a moment as the wind softly whispered across the prairie grass. He was gathering his thoughts and then he let them go, "Well, these cattle were supposed to go to auction around a month from now. With this lot I'll likely just have enough, maybe, for my family and to try and regrow. As for paying you, and keeping you as my employees, I just can't pay you with money I don't have. I hope the best for y'all." He conclusively walked back into his cabin, leaving the roughed up cowpokes. Abeline let out a sigh but put on a chipper grin, "Oh well, it's not the end of the world! When we get to the saloon I'm sure we will make some connections and find work." She offered an outstretched paw to help her sister onto the back of her grey mare.