Blackfeather
28 Killers
AFTER THANKSGIVING, it was a two-week race toward finals. It felt like we were more in sync this time, though, and like we had our girlfriend back. We decided to move to campus for second semester. There were a few ‘family’ rooms in the student apartments and one came available. We’d done a fair amount of negotiating with Cait and Phile to take care of the bulk of the ranch chores during the week. Either Kyle or I would come back mid-week and we’d all come home most weekends. We were excited about school and about being together again.
Our parents finally relented and told Phile and Caitlin they could have the efficiencies. I offered to go in and clean the wall where Kyle and I had drawn our map, but Caitlin thought it was cool and she didn’t have to worry about decorating so we left it.
We were out of school with finals finished a week before Christmas and wouldn’t return till the end of January. Aubrey promised to visit her parents for the week before Christmas and we’d come into town Christmas night, spend a night with her there and then all come up to the ranch for the next week. We were even thinking about spending a week someplace warm if we could find someplace that we could drive to. There just isn’t much within reach of Laramie that’s warm in the winter.
Kyle and I focused on our stock and our business. The kids had been doing a great job helping us and we loved watching the young colts and fillies romping around their mothers in the snow. It seemed like every chance they had, Caitlin and Phile would run out to check on the horses. I thought I was horse-crazy!
We still had antelope hanging around but they hadn’t added much burden to the hay supplies. Mostly they kept to themselves, just in the same pasture as the horses. Of course, we had a couple boarders come out for a winter ride that week and they all wanted to take pictures of the crazy animals.
Christmas Eve I helped Moms make a big dinner. We just planned on a quiet family time that night. We shared little gifts with each other and all headed off to our rooms. It was fun to just be together.
“Let me go! I’ll get my fucking gun and kill every fucking one of the fuckers!” Caitlin screamed.
“Pa! Ramie! Kyle! Moms!” Phile yelled as he stomped through the kitchen door. I turned to look at my brother and sister as he carried her into the house. She was beating against him and squirming all over everyplace.
“What is it? What’s happened, honey?” I asked. Pa grabbed Caitlin out of Phile’s arms and she turned to start beating on him.
“Wolves. Got Bows’ foal,” Phile sputtered out, still trying to hold on to Caitlin as she wailed. Oh fuck!
We all scrambled into our coats and boots. Moms wouldn’t let Phile and Caitlin out of the house. Put a gun in that girl’s hands at that moment and nothing would be safe. Phile wouldn’t leave her side. She quit beating on him and just clung to her brother while she cried.
There was nothing we could do. The horses were all up under the shelter, nervous as hell. Harley kept pacing around the herd like he could protect them all. Bells and Bows stood with Bells’ foal a little ways apart, looking off at the river. The antelope were all gone. The remains of the foal were a quarter mile away.
Arlen Logan got out there about midday and commiserated with us. Feds would compensate us $2,000 for the lost livestock. Fuck that shit! I held my little brother and sister as we cried over the carcass. Little? Hell, they’re as big as me now, but they’re still my baby sister and baby brother. Kyle held all three of us. Mom Mar and Mom Ash and Pa held all four of us.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I said on the phone. “We’ve got an emergency. It’s wolves. Kyle and I are going hunting. We’ve got to do this.”
“But it’s Christmas!” Aubrey cried.
“I don’t know how I’ll make it up to you, honey,” Kyle said as we shared the phone. “I’ll try, but I don’t know how. We’ve got to stop this.”
It took us half an hour to calm Aubrey down and tell her we loved her. Then Kyle and I started scrambling. It was already getting dark and we weren’t going to be leaving tonight, but we’d be on the trail at first light.
“You kids don’t have to do this,” Pa said as he inspected our gear. Mom Mar handed me the last of the trail rations and I stowed them in the panniers on the mule. Kyle packed plenty of ammunition for the guns we’d be carrying, including a shotgun in case we needed to hunt for food while we were gone. “I can have hired men out there within the week. Men who know how to stay clear of the law. You’re both over eighteen and I can’t keep you out of jail.”
“Pa, did you just let other people fight for you in the range war? Or when six riders came to rape your wife and children? It’s not just the stock, Pa. This is our land. Our home. We aren’t safe to take a walk on the hillsides. The wolves have got to go,” I declared.
“All God’s critters got a place in the choir,” Mom Mar sang softly. “Some sing low and some sing higher.”
“Ma,” I said through my tears, “they can sing in hell.” She didn’t warn me about my language.
“This GPS is set with the location of a special place up there,” Pa said. “It’s where Laramie made her home before they came down the mountain to homestead this ranch. It’s a good place to set watch from. There’s a tent platform and a strongbox for food. The wind can be pretty bad up there and you need to anchor your tent on the platform. I don’t want to see you blowing across the valley.”
“Thanks, Pa,” Kyle said. “You’ve taught us well and had us camp in all kinds of weather. I think we’re equipped.”
“Just remember you’ve got your sister and your stock to protect,” Mom Mar said. “Protect her first.”
Caitlin and Phile stood beside us as we saddled in the morning. Then they hugged us something fierce.
“I want to go, too,” Phile said. “But I understand. We’ve got to protect the herd.”
“If you ain’t back in twelve days, we’re riding up with fresh supplies,” Caitlin added. “I won’t come back without killing wolves.”
“When we see you, we’ll welcome you,” I said. Kyle and I mounted up and headed up toward the ridge. We rode slowly and quietly. On the way, we stopped to pay respects to our ancestors where they’d all been buried on the side of the mountain, neat little rows. Half an hour later, we saw the last glimpse of the house before we went over a low rise and lost sight of it.
We didn’t talk other than to point something out here or there. We kept an eye on our surroundings. I was thankful this had been a mild winter so far. Even so, the horses broke through nearly a foot of snow by the time we got up to the base camp, just before dark. We staked out a pen for the horses and mule and got our saddles up off the ground and covered. I set up the tent while Kyle gathered firewood and cleared the well-used old firepit.
I made up a pot of coffee while I tended the fire and our dinner. “You reckon we should take turns standing watch?” Kyle asked. I thought about it.
“Nah. Then one or both of us would be out of it in the morning and not alert,” I said. “I think we should get as much sleep as possible and depend on the livestock to alert us if there’s any danger. You know they’d go crazy if there was a predator within a mile.”
“Yeah. You’re right. We should sleep in our clothes, though, and keep our guns and boots beside us. If they start raising a ruckus, we need to be out of here fast,” he said. I agreed.
We crawled into our sleeping bags, checked our guns, and pressed our backs together.
“Kyle? Thank you, partner.”
“I got your back, partner.”
It was only a couple hours up over the ridge to where I reckoned we should find the spot Pa marked on the map. I checked the GPS and we corrected our course, then checked and corrected again.
“Seems this is about it,” I said. It was beautiful. We were in a little clearing and a spring bubbled out of the ground nearby before the flow disappeared under the snow. I touched the water. “I think this is a thermal,” I said. “The water is warm.”
“You mean we don’t have to melt snow? What a great place.”
We settled the animals down and brushed the snow off the tent platform. After camp was set up, we began exploring farther and farther out. Then we worked our way back in. We had jerky and dried fruit for lunch, washed down with water from the spring. It tasted so fresh and sweet.
We planned to work our way out from base camp looking for signs of wolves. We’d seen some tracks on the way up but it didn’t pay to just go running off after every track we saw. I brushed the snow off an old Douglas so I could lean against it and saw a blaze. More than a blaze; it was a carving on the trunk, scarred into the bark like a burn.
“Kyle. Look at this.” He came over to see where I was pointing. It was old, but still clear. ‘LK.’ Our brand. “I think Pa’s been here.”
We scouted out some more and found a pretty flat outcropping where we could see over a good section of the surrounding territory. We figured that would be a good place to set up our scopes for trying to spot the pack in the morning.
“I hope Aubrey forgives us for missing Christmas,” Kyle whispered as we settled into our bags for the night. I reached over and gave him a hug.
“She loves us,” I said. “I just hope it’s enough.”
We rode out to various vantage points with our stock over the next couple days and scanned the surrounding area with spotting scopes. It was spooky. We knew they were out there. The horses were getting more nervous with each passing day. We never left them tied where we couldn’t see them. The forest around us was quiet as if everything else had left. And if everything else had left, that meant we were the only prey around.
“Kyle, two o’clock.” He swung his scope to match where mine was. We could look out over 180 degrees of valley from our perch. I’d seen movement on the slope opposite us. I focused more carefully and then I was sure.
“I see them,” he said. I saw a long nose poke out of the underbrush followed by a mammoth body.
“Kyle? Them ain’t ordinary wolves.”
“Wait. There’s a big grey on the left. A pair of them. But those others are different.”
“They’re big. But look at the shape of their heads. Shorter snout. Big ears. It’s like they are some prehistoric granddaddy of wolves.”
“Well, one thing for sure is they’re headed this direction.” Kyle pulled his rifle and put a scope on it. He was a good shot, but I wouldn’t try from this distance. Those wolves were close to a mile away and across a gully from us.
Awk. I glanced up as I reached to put my hand on Kyle’s arm. Our raven flitted down and landed on my shoulder.
“Now?” Kyle asked.
Awkawkawkawk.
I was gone.
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