Fabula Obscrua

Wolves and Coyotes

“Miguel! Miguel!” Lilia shouted, running towards me, her skirts billowing out behind her.

I turned back to my horse, attempting to ignore her. Her father did not approve of her infatuation with me. It was time to move on.

“I need your help, Miguel. I beg you!” she cried.

I paused, one foot in the stirrup, about to hoist myself into the saddle. I'd half expected a tearful goodbye, but this request for help I had not. I took her in, her hands clasped before her, her chest heaving against the too-tight bosom of her dress, her freckled cheeks flushed red from the effort, pale brown hair escaping its bindings to hang in fly-away strands about her face.

“Did something happen?” 

“It's the cattle, Miguel! They're gone, every last one,” she gasped. “We're ruined, Miguel!” She threw herself at me, clutching at my shirt. I stood stiffly, refusing to reciprocate. 

“What do you expect me to do about it?” I asked, working to dislodge her fingers from my shirt and stepped back from her.

“Find them! You're the best tracker in these parts, I'm sure you could do it.”

“What for? It's clear I'm not welcome here.”

“Father can swallow his pride,” she said with surprising ferocity. “The Red Bull Ring has hit us once already. With the drought last year, we're near done for.”

“I'll see what I can do,” I said, taking her by the shoulders and turning her back the way she'd came. “Now get out of here before one of the townsfolk catch sight of you out here.”

She took a few steps and glanced back over her shoulder, smiling slyly. “I know you can do it, Miguel. You find them and make them pay."

“Go on,” I growled.

“You're not re really going to help that little white girl, are you?” Javier asked. 

“Her father is a beast,” I grumbled. I knew Javier wouldn't be keen on waiting another night to leave. “If they fall on hard times...” I shook my head. “I don't want to think on what that child might endure.”

“You've already shown that family more courtesy than they deserve.'

“Finding that child because my talents allowed me to is not a mere courtesy. I couldn't leave her out in the wilderness, lost and alone like that.” 

Javier shook his head. “None of them deserve our help.”

“Will you help me, or not?” I muttered, already moving to unpack the horse. “If the Red Bull Ring is to blame, I'll have my hands full if I go alone.”

Javier agreed to come, of course. I knew he wouldn't turn down the opportunity for a hunt, especially one that held the promise of blood.

We found the cattle rustlers by scenting the fire and the cattle. I recognized the brands as we stalked through the brush, downwind as to not upset the beasts. There were seven men in total, one on guard with a riffle.

A yip caught my attention and I saw Javier in the distance. He was going upwind. Why, I couldn't fathom. Stirring up the cattle wasn't part of the initial plan.

I caught up to him and he swung his head towards the dozing cattle. It was then that I caught onto his meaning. There were more men than we could handle. If we caused a stampede, we could pick off at least a few of them and possibly chase the cattle into town.

I gave him a wolfish grin, lifted my head and howled. Javier trotted off, nipping at the heels of the cattle. I took a deep breath and howled again before following Javier's lead, yipping and calling to the tawny coyote deftly avoiding the kicking hooves of the startled beasts.

We needed frantic chaos. I incited it by leaping onto a young bull calf and tearing into his hide with claws and teeth. The poor beast cried out in terror, bolting with my wolf form still clinging to its rump.

We'd succeeded. The herd was a churning, panicked mass, the men of the camp yelling and screaming in the midst of thundering hooves. Javier circled back to me, grinning, his jaws wet with blood. We'd take the men as a pair, more able to watch one other's backs.

With a howl and a yip, we hunted down each of the men. Three were trampled, one dead, one clinging to life, and the other suffered from enough damage to keep him down. We didn't concern ourselves with the injured. It was the four that were still able bodied that we hunted down with a vengeance.

Two of them we dispatched of quickly, ripping out their throats and moving on. One was able to pull a gun, a pistol shot that tore through my scruff. It ached and burned, but after testing my stride, I knew it was only a flesh wound. The heat of the blood trickling down my shoulders drove me on with fury.

I side stepped his next shot and Javier leaped, getting a good grip on the man's throat. Being only a coyote, lighter and smaller than myself, he didn't do as much damage and was tossed down to the ground fiercely, the man left clutching at his neck.

Javier took off at full tilt, having caught sight of the man going for the only horse that hadn't managed to rip through its halter and escape. I finished off the gunman with little thought and turned to follow. Javier had gotten the man by the calf and was holding on, growling and thrashing. The man called for his god to save him and I let out a wolfish chuckle.

He didn't seem to realize that he was at the mercy of a god. The wolf god and his brother coyote; the true gods of this land.