Just Like Old Times

Black Belle

Snow. Mountains. A town with red dirt. A white horse in the snow by a lake. Two gray wolf pups jumping from an oak tree. Fire. Sean's dead body on a red dirt road. A ship sinking in the sea during a storm. A bank in Saint Denis. An island. A treasure map in Flaco's cabin. A woman, the spitting image of Lilly, holding the real Lilly down.

"Let me out," the woman says. "Release me."

Lilly woke up with a start. She looked at Arthur and shook him. "Arthur! Arthur wake up!"

"Mmm?" Arthur opened his eyes slowly and rubbed them. "What is it?" he groaned.

"I had a dream about Flaco's cabin. There was a treasure map in it. And there was a white horse by Lake Isabella, I think. We gotta go back and get 'em!"

Arthur rolled over so his back was to her. "The only thing I'm goin' back to is sleep, you crazy ass woman."

Lilly chuckled and kissed his cheek. "Fine. I'll go take a look myself."

"Uh huh. You do that." Lilly stayed until Arthur fell back asleep and she left their small tent that was out in the wilderness of the grizzlies.

X===================X

Arthur opened his eyes slowly with a groan. Lilly wasn't there. Huh. Where'd she run off to? Then he remembered. "Shit!" Arthur shot up and crawled out of the tent. It was morning. He saw Liath and a fire but no Lilly. "Lilly!" he called out. "Lilleh!"

"Would ya calm the feck down? Yer gonna scare yer new horse."

He turned in the direction of her voice and his jaw dropped. Lilly was brushing a white Arabian female horse. "How? How did you-"

"I told ya, mo chuisle. I dreamed it. Oh," Lilly said, reaching into her sidebag. She pulled out a rolled up paper and shook it at him. "Found the treasure map, too."

Arthur stomped over and grabbed it from her hand. "You should'a waited for me to wake up, Lillian." He opened the map and sighed. Yep. It was a treasure map. "You shouldn't be goin' out alone."

"Yer concern fer me well bein' moves me, darlin', but I'm perfectly capable of handlin' meself!" Lilly snapped, patting the horse and walking over to the fire. "I bring breakfast, a map, and a horse fer ya and ya don't show the slightest ounce of gratitude?"

"I am grateful but god dammit, Lillian," Arthur said as he marched over to her. "You can't go out by yourself!"

"You can't go out by yourself," Lilly mocked in his voice. "I tried wakin' ya, fer fuck's sake!" Lilly pulled out a piece of meat and began to cook it. "And ain't ya the least bit curious as tah why I dreamed up things that were real? Do ya even care what I dreamt about?"

Arthur frowned. "I do, but you can't go-"

Lilly shoved the cooked meat on a plate and put it in Arthur's hands angrily. "Ya know what? I died. I admit it! But what are the chances I'm gonna get flogged and poisoned again? Joseph bloody Pierce and Brutus are in an Irish prison fer what they did tah me!"

"Yeah but we still don't know why they did it. We still don't know if they were workin' alone. And you're carryin' my child!"

Lilly threw up her hands. "Oh, so now I'm supposed tah be coddled again? Like I was when I was lost fer three days? What about you, ya feckin' arse? You have a better chance of dyin' out there alone than I do!"