~-~-~-~-~-~

Cowboys and Wizards

S01E05 - Wolves at the Gate

~-~-~-~-~-~

A pack of wolves came howling up the trail after her.

My first instinct was to shit myself, swiftly followed by a strong urge to climb the fuck out of a tree. Horse bumped into me, knocking me out of my shocked state and I leapt into the saddle. Bounding over the pool, Horse landed on the other side and blazed up the trail behind the woman. We gained on her swiftly, pounding over the hard packed earth with the wolves racing behind. She swivelled in the saddle and sent an arrow flying so close to my face I could have plucked it from the air with my teeth.

A small detonation went off behind me, followed by the yelps of injured wolves.

Ah, the good ‘ol explosive Elven arrow trick. Sweet.

Note to self: Don’t fuck with the Elvish womens.

I turned to see dozens of snarling black bodies just yards behind me. Pulling out my trusty Mongoose, I fired off two mana shots and missed. I mentally triggered Aimed Shot and the world slowed down a fraction while a crosshair appeared over my target. BLAM! Right in the kisser! My target backflipped into the pack with a yelp. One down, twenty-ish to go. Horse caught up to the exhausted mare just as we entered the tree line and was about to pass our new elf buddy. I sent him a mental command to keep pace and head for the ruined fort. A horsey raspberry filled my mental space and I got the impression that he had strong opinions about dealing with the train this elf pulled.

“The fort is a mile up ahead,” I yelled over the pounding holes of our mounts. “Jump on top of the stable. We can hold them off there.”

The elvish woman (girl?) nodded at me and released another arrow into the pack where it exploded in a cacophony of anguished howls.

I dropped two more wolves with aimed mana shots before the gun clicked on an empty shell. Cursing, I struggled to reload as Horse galloped up the trail managing to complete the task just as the ruins came into sight. “Horse, get up by the stable and I’ll jump off. Kite these wolves around and I’ll pick them off from the roof.”

A mental image of Horse taking a huge shit on top of me was the response.

I laughed and jumped from his back, scrabbling to get a grip on the soot-covered wooden shingles and pull myself up. The elf girl rolled onto the roof and offered me a hand, hauling me up over the edge.

I watched as her white mare struggled for the woods past the ruined wooden walls, eyes rolling with fear. Three wolves leaped over the ruined gate of the fort and took after the horses with a howl. I plugged one with an aimed shot before the other two vanished in the ruins. Battery: 549/2600

What the fudge?

The rest of the pack appeared in a stampede of fur and fangs and attempted to jump the 8 foot distance from the ground to the edge of the stable roof. Two succeeded in getting half way up and were sent yipping back to the ground with stone bullets in their face. Battery: 599/2300

Shit. It looks like using battery power is twice as expensive as using mana. That sucks Horsey balls.

Another arrow exploded into the pack below and scattered it, sending the wolves circling around the building looking for less boomy access points. A scream came from the woods and Horse sent a mental image of wolves tearing into the white mare. I flashed back with instructions to run around and keep them occupied. ‘And don’t die. It’s freaking expensive to resurrect you now.’

Horse sent back an image of him pissing in a water trough. I have no idea what that means.

A moment later, Horse came galloping through the clearing with two wolves in pursuit. He lurched to a stiff-legged halt and kicked out at the closest pursuer, smashing it in the jaw. I snapped off a mana shot and sent it tumbling away, then used an aimed shot to pick off the other one. A chorus of angry snarls erupted from the backside of the stable and four wolves sprinted towards Horse. Reversing direction, Horse took off back into the woods with his new toothy play buddies.

A wolf sprang onto the burnt section of the roof and fell part way through. I plugged it with a mana shot and sent it to tumbling. I could hear the wolves roaming around underneath us, snarling and scratching in the ruins of the stable as they sought a way up.

“I am out of arrows.” My fighting companion said in thickly accented English, dropping her bow to the rooftop and pulling out a 12 inch pig-sticker.

“Just keep them off of me when I reload,” I grunted, aiming a through a hole in the shingles where a wolf snout had appeared moments earlier. “I’m allergic to wolf-bites.”

How many shots was that? Four or five? Click. Six. The answer is Six. I reloaded with fingers that were incredibly steady considering how hard my heart was pounding.

Tossing the spent brass into the clearing, I shot through the hole again and was rewarded with an anguished yelp.

A deafening howl ripped through the air. Jerking my head up from my new favourite wolf-shooting-hole, I stared at the source of the terrifying noise. A grizzled wolf the size of Horse.

‘You might want to wait a bit before circling back’ I thought at Horse, sending him an image of the new guy.

An image of Horse galloping down an endless road into the sunset came back to me.

I chuckled and triggered aimed shot. Time slowed a tiny fraction and I used that moment to punch a hole in the skull of the oversized wolf. Shaking blood from its skull it crossed the distance between us in a flash. BlamBlamBlamBlam!clickclickclick! I unloaded my gun into the beast and it kept coming on like a locomotive. I blinked once and then slavering jaws were inches from my face and Elf-girl was stabbing it like a mad sewing machine.

With a final spit-filled snap of its fangs, it slid off the roof and flopped to the ground like a thrown wolf-rug.

I managed to reload somehow and pop another two wolves that tried to climb on the roof. Horse gave me the heads up he was coming through and I picked off three of the four that were chasing him and reloaded again. Five minutes later, the last of the wolves was dead and Horse was chewing grass like nothing had happened.

Battery: 1989/2300

“Jesus Christ, that was exhausting” I groaned, flopping back on the sooty shingles. The wispy clouds overhead were filled with gold as the sun settled behind the mountains to the west. A blood-smeared face filled my vision as lie there thinking about nothing in particular.

“I am Deliliah Silverwood, of the Tengaoi Elves” she said in that strange, lilting accent. “My apologies for the trouble. I am grateful for your help.”

-= NOTES =-

[CAST]

Vincent J. Carter

Horse

[PLACES]

Trailside spring

Fort Galos

[PEOPLE]

Delilah Silverwood

Tengaoi elves

[OTHERS]

-=- PERSONAL -=-

[[ Next chappie Wed 23Dec20 ]]