Chapter 3

Down beneath the blazing sun and crawling clouds, the crowd of townsfolk stood or sat, looking up at the station bay and the podium that sat upon it. It had only been 20 minutes since the train had arrived, and now a man stood up in front of the congregation. Mayor North in his wide suit and fancy shoes stood behind the podium, clearing his throat into the crude sound amplifier they had mounted onto the podium. “Ahehem! May I have everybody’s attention for a moment! Just a moment of silence I might ask!” The mayor's voice called out to the people, a deep harrumph at the end. After a few moments of finishing mutters, the people in the crowd turned to pay their attention to the portly man at the podium.

“Now, I know how restless you all can be. So I’ll be keeping this short eh?” The mayor began the speech assuring it would be fast, chortling some to himself afterwards. “Now you might be wondering, why would the pride of the Vandell Company be coming to our little town? Well, I’ll be happy to be the one to tell you all eh?” The mayor started, grabbing the podium as he got further into his speech.

“My good friends and neighbors, our fair is no small affair!  We may not be a particularly large  frontier town, nor are we the oldest. But! We are far and beyond the fastest growing! And these fine ladies and gentlemen have come all the way from Venillo city to see our fair and our growth!” He announced proudly, gesturing to the more fanciful section of listeners. 

The Mayor began to get emphatic with movements of his arms as he spoke, his voice trailing off as in his fervor he walked away from the podium, his voice inaudible to the listeners before him. Dahlia walked forward, placing her hands on the mayor's shoulders. She began slowly turning his emphatic movements around and guiding him to the podium again as his voice trailed back into focus.

“...and so I ask you all to give the same warm neighborly smiles you give one another to our friends today, and enjoy the fair!” He finished his speech with a raise of his arms, a cheer erupting from the crowd at the announcement of the festivities beginning. However, as the mayor began to walk away, he was tapped on his shoulder by his assistant, Dahlia looking at him before jutting her head behind her. “O-Oh! How right you are Dahlia!” He stuttered out, doing a quick step and turning to the podium again. 

“Before you all leave! We have a word to be given from our dearest Alice Chestnut, whose family founded our town, and has been the chief contributor to our explosive growth.” He said, looking at the visitors as he explained who Alice was, before stepping down from the podium. 

From the side of the station, a woman walked up the small wooden staircase, the wood creaking beneath her shoes as she approached the podium. Alice took her place behind the podium, her large rabbit ears flicking as she looked over the crowd. “Thank you kindly for the introduce’n Simon. Like he said, my name’s Alice-”

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“CHESTNUT?!” Madeline’s shrill voice called out, pointing one her many fingers at Cole. “Your name is Chestnut? How much more silly could you get?!” She said, laughing at the bunny boy. “That would be like if Dill was named Grass!” She added with a snicker, holding one of the horseshoes the children were playing with, while pointing to the catboy in question who was up taking his turn to throw.

“Oh c’mon, if mah names so funny what’s yers?” Cole said with a brow twitching in annoyance, holding the horseshoe in both hands, turning to look fully at the shamelessly laughing girl. He waited for her to calm down, impatiently thumping his foot, a puff of dust rising from the impact of his stomp. Madeline used one of her hands to throw her hair back over her shoulder, smiling at the irate boy. “My name is Madeline Crafty.” She announced proudly, placing two of her hands on her sides and another set crossed over her chest, her last two idle. 

After a moment of silence at her proud announcement… 

“BAHAHAHAHA! You call Chestnut funny when you got a name that’s just a word?!” Cole burst out laughing, pointing at Madeline while she sat there astonished that her announcement was not met with awe. “Ugh! Why I…. My father says Crafty is a grand surname!” The indignant girl cried out, all six of her arms crossing over her chest as she turned her head up and looked away. Cole laughed at the reaction Madeline gave to his ribbing, a big grin crossing his tanned face. “You’re pretty funny when yer mad.” He teased further, enjoying how red her face got as she turned fully away from him.

“Funny has nothing to do with it! Papa says where we come from, surnames are descriptive of the family they belong to! My family has been craftsmen for seven generations! A-At least from what my papa said.” She explained, annoyed at her own name being made fun of when from what her father said it was a badge of honor.

While the two were having their back and forth, Dill was preparing for his throw, gripping the iron arch before swinging his arm back and throwing the curved piece of metal across the dirt ring they had made. The horseshoe flew across the air in a quick arc, before ringing around the steel peg they had put in the dirt. “Hah! Easy ringer for me.” The scores of the children had Cole with no throws yet, Dill with one ringer and an incredibly close horseshoe, and Madeline trailing behind with two far shots. “Welp, guess it’s second for you again Cole.” Dill boasted calmly while turning to the bunny eared boy, raising his hand and flicking his nose in an exaggerated manner, mimicking the motion Cole had a tendency to do.

“Tch, you wish! Just you watch, I’m gon’ get a double ringer ‘n break yer streak!” Cole snapped back, taking up his own horseshoe and stepping up to the throwing section. Cole took a deep breath, his ear flicking in response to the screech of a hawk above. reeling his arm back and letting the first horseshoe loose. It flew through the dry air, before landing and ringing around the iron peg three times and settling down on top of Dills own ringer. 

“Hah, there’s one!” Cole called back with a grin, seeing Madeline watching with crossed arms, and Dill grinning while leaning back. “Heh, one lucky shot ain’t something I’m worried ‘bout.” Dill chided back, his tail swaying behind him back and forth. Cole bit his lip some and turned back to focus on the peg, gripping his second horseshoe tight. “Alrighty then, here’n I go!”  He shouted, throwing the horseshoe towards the peg. 

Time seemed to slow down, everything moving so much slower. The mouse running through the ring, the hawk shadow from before sliding along the ground, and the horseshoe flying through the air much faster than the last. Cole had put too much force into it, and winced as he saw it start to overshoot the peg. But in that crawling time, he saw the form of the hawk they had heard fly in front of him, directly in front of the horseshoe.

With a squawk and a rapid flap of wings, he saw his horseshoe stop dead on the peg, hanging down with it’s center keeping it atop the peg. The hawk recovered from the hit it received, screeching as it flew back into the sky. After taking a moment to process what just happened, Cole turned around with the biggest smile on his face to the flabbergasted Madeline and Dill. “Hah, take a lookit that! Two ringers just like ah’ said! Perfect throws!” Cole bragged, putting his thumb to his nose and flicking it. 

“Why I oughta… You know that was just dumb luck!” Dill called back, pointing at the peg with the horseshoe resting on top of it. “That shouldn’t count for nothing!” Dill protested, his well learned speech falling off from his frustration. Cole however was unphased, laughing uncontrollably. “Ahahaha! You kiddin’? That was all me there! No luck at all!” Cole retorted, before turning to Madeline, who slowly replaced her shocked look with an evil grin.

“I think I’ve decided on what would be a great name for you from my home. Mr. Lucky.” Madeline said, looking over to Dill with a wink. Dill slowly nodded and began smiling to himself. “I think that’s a great idea, Madeline. That fits him a whole lot better than Cole. Ain’t that right Lucky?” Dill teased, buying into what Madeline was putting down immediately. 

Cole frowned at the teasing, putting a hand on his head and glaring at the others. “Now you two just wait a darned second! I ain’t lucky and you know it!” Cole contested fiercely, looking at the two other children with him. He knew that throw was dumb luck, but he couldn’t let them start calling him Lucky, then everything cool he did would be chalked up to dumb luck. “I-I… I knew that hawk’d be there! That’s why I threw it like that!” He bluffed, trying to puff out his chest to show a confidence in the claim he didn’t have. 

“Sure you did Lucky, we absolutely believe you.” Dill said, a smug grin on his face as he and Madeline started to walk over to the stake to pick up the horseshoes. Cole frowned and stomped after them, large amounts of dust getting kicked up from the impacts of his feet on the dry ground. As Cole followed the two however, he looked at Madeline and remembered what had led them to meet her in the first place, a smirk appearing on his face as he decided to start his questioning.

“Heeeeyyy Madeline, me ‘n Dill couldn’t help but notice that some of you folks gettin’ off the train didn’t look all too happy. You know what got them throwin’ their lil’ fits?” Cole asked with his hands behind his back, picking up his horseshoes while looking around, pretending not to care all that much.

“Oh dear, you should have seen it. It was awful frightening. That horrible outlaw Red Mirage Millie tried to rob the train! It’s only safe because Mr. Duke was there to stop her from taking whatever she wanted.” Madeline said while four of her hands went down to hold her sides as she recounted the reason so many people were upset. “Oh you should have seen it! We don’t know what happened when they fought, but she was so frightening that no one spoke even after she left! Why, even the train stopped making noise!” She added, clasping her middle set of hands together, her top set still holding her horseshoes. However, the two boys looked at each other incredulously, before turning back to Madeline.

“The train stopped making noise? You do know that’s not possible right?” Dill said with a raised eyebrow, his tail swaying behind him smoothly in his thought. He would admit her story had him intrigued though. The Red Mirage Millie on their train? That’d be enough to frighten anyone, and their anger was justified in that the train was marketed as impenetrable. But at the same time…It was Red Mirage Millie they were talking about, that’s not just some train robber. And for him to hear that she was defeated by some Sheriff he’d never heard about? That was something to think about.

“But it did! The train just went quiet! It kept moving though!” Madeline ensured, putting a hand on her heart and another in the air, the rest hanging idle. “Honest!” She swore, looking over the two boys. Dill opened his mouth to speak, but was cut short by a comment from Cole.

“Psshaw, I bet that Millie lady ain’t half as scary as yer makin’ her out.” Cole dismissed, waving his hand some. “She’s just some lady with a gun anyhow, my mama’s just as scary as she is.”  He added, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back while closing his eyes. However, he opened one when he heard Madeline huff, crossing all six of her arms at once. “Millie is one of the biggest outlaws this side of the Frontier! Everyone knows her name! Last I checked, no one outside of this town knows your name Lucky.” Madeline contested his casual stance on the situation, frowning at him. “And even most of the people here probably don’t know it.”

Dill stepped forward, looking at Madeline with a deep frown on his face. “Well hang on a second, you don’t have to go that far. You made your point long before any insults to him. Plenty of people know his name, they greet him almost every day!” Dill defended, looking at Madeline with narrowed eyes, not willing to stand idly by while someone insulted his closest friend. Though, his glare did soften as he rubbed the back of his head with one hand. “W-Well… they do just call him Chestnut though.” He said, his honesty winning out in the end.as he turned to Cole to see how the bunny eared boy was taking it.

Cole’s ears were flat down against his head, drooping down at the sides before he chuckled a bit, giving a small swing of his arm, gesturing down the road where they came. “...If ya’ll wanna keep up, the Mayors speech oughta be done by now. I figure the Fair must have somethin’ fun ta do.” He said, a smile overtaking his face as he started to move back towards the main square. “D’ya think they got some ring toss Dill?” He called back, Dill sighing and running after the other boy. “I’m willing to bet they do, what kind of fair would it be without it?” Dill replied, understanding his friend really didn’t want to address the subject. He turned and jutted his head to Madeline, walking off after Cole. 

The three children made their way around the fair, a bit of an awkward silence to start with, but as they started to play the games around the Town Square their talkativeness returned quite quickly, laughing and playing just like before. The day flew by, and before the kids knew it, the sun was sinking into the horizon. The three children began to go their separate ways, starting with Madeline, who went to go to her fathers new shop. Dill followed soon after, having been told by his mom to be home before sundown to get ready for the ball that night. And so lastly there was Cole, walking down the road back to the ranch by himself, the sun having long since disappeared while he walked. 

Underneath the stars and the moon Cole walked down his familiar road, his head looking down at the ground. Cole had his hands stuffed in his pockets, kicking a small stone along the road as he went. He lost himself in his thoughts as he went, raising his head to look up at the moon that shone brightly between the clouds, stopping for just a moment to exhale. 

“One day I’ll be like you. No more ‘Hey Chestnut boy’ or ‘That’s Alice’s kid’. I’ll be worlds bigger’n that Millie lady. I’ll be just like you.” Cole promised up to the moon. Almost the instant the words left his mouth, for a moment, he felt his heart beat in his chest, echoing in his ears. Shaking off the odd sensation, he rubbed his ears to distract himself and kept walking. Stuffing his hands back in his pockets, he turned his head off down the side road to his family’s home. 

Off down the road he could already see the massive building. It was a brown wooden building, topped with some fancy tile roofing. It was large enough to fit the family of 47, taking up more space than a whole church. There was a nice stable a little ways off the houses grounds with their riding animals tied up with their watering trough. The dining room  lights of the house were on, as he could see through the small windows scattered around the home’s exterior. 

 He could see a few of his siblings outside, talking to their mom. He started to walk up the main path to the staircase to the front door. Upon his foot hitting the first step, his mother turned to him and crossed her arms over her chest. “N’ just where’ve you been mister?” She said, raising an eyebrow while one of the big white bunny ears on her head flicked. 

“I uh-” Cole began, seeing his siblings that had been talking to his mom turn to him. Before he could continue, his mother interjected again. “You were playin’ hooky. ‘N since you did that, yer gonna be feedin’ the cows before you eat anythin yerself. And yer lucky you’re getting off light boy. If it weren’t fer Mr. Daniel’s good word ‘nd askin’ me to thank you for ‘em, I’d be tannin’ yer hide and sending you right to bed.” She said firmly, frowning down at the much smaller boy. 

Cole nodded quickly, fear written all over his face at the firmness of her words. Her expression did soften just a bit, as she waved one of her hands. “Now run along before I change my mind, I have to get to Mayor North’s Ball.” She said, rubbing his head between his ears to ruffle his hair and send him on his way. The boy didn’t hesitate to run like she said, waving goodbye to his mother before running off to the Barn where they kept their cows. 

“Hoowie! Thank you Mr. Daniel whoever you are!” Cole thought to himself, thanking whoever it was that made his mom not go through with the original punishment. He slowed down once he was out of earshot of his mother, stepping along the dirt road towards their big brown barn. As he went, he noticed that the door was cracked in the distance, subtly swaying in the wind. 

An expression of confusion crossed his face, but he continued his approach, figuring that one of his siblings must have left it open on accident or something. So, all he had to do was get some of the feed and give it to the c-

Squelch

Recoiling in disgust, Cole hopped back and looked down at whatever it was that he stepped in, sighing in relief when he just saw some freshly wet dirt stuck to his shoe. Before he thought a bit more about it.

“Huh…? It didn’t rain today…” 

He thought to himself, before looking at the barn door again. He slowly reached for it, opening it slowly. He saw a few splotches of some kind of liquid further in, his tail and ears twitching in fear. But what he saw deeper inside had every hair on his body standing on end. 

He saw a silhouette of a person sitting in the barn with a rifle, and a horse with almost glowing eyes in the dark. He was quaking in place, his eyes staring at whoever it was that had made their way into his barn. “W-Who’re you…?!” He asked with a quivering voice, his body shivering in the humid night air.

There was no response at first. Then he saw the figure shift forward on the rifle. He was waiting with bated breath for what would happen, before the figure slumped forward, the sudden motion causing Cole to almost scream then and there. But he held it back, seeing that the figure wasn’t moving at all. 

Hesitantly moving further into the barn, Cole thought it might just be some haystack prank from his family for playing hooky, but as he got closer, he got a better look at what was going on, and what those splotches were earlier.

Mustering all the courage he had in his little body, Cole reached out to the body. Lifting the figure up slowly, he saw this was no scarecrow, nor was it any kind of fake. It was a person who had fallen unconscious. And the way he knew that was looking under their leg in the moonlight, seeing what the source of the splotches was.

Blood.