Cogs Of Fate

Waltz For The Moon

1822

The team decided to follow Jedediah Smith and his men carefully as they gathered their gear. It was obvious these men were planning to leave as soon as they were set.

"What's the plan here?" Rufus began. "Are we seriously thinking about traversing across the wild west on foot to keep tabs on Grizzly Adams and company?"

Lucy bobbed her head to the side for a moment. "I was thinking we'd hire horses?"

"Hire horses?" Rufus repeated.

"Or we could...you know..." her voice dropped low as she whispered, "Steal them?"

Rufus blinked at her, mouth falling open. "Sure, why not?" he muttered. "We steal every other mode of transportation that has horses under the hood, why not real ones?"

"They're leaving," Flynn announced, eyes locked onto the train of horses and their riders. Jedediah and his men headed for the edge of town while the team walked a decent distance behind them, debating how best to proceed.

Just as the team passed by the open door to the sheriff's office, Lucy heard the sheriff speaking to one of his deputies. "It's the strangest damned thing," the man stated. "In all my years, I've never seen anything like it."

Lucy stopped in her tracks, pretending to read the bulletin board hanging by the door outside.

"But no body?" the deputy asked.

"No," the sheriff replied. "Just the hands, feet, and heads..."

"How many does that make now?" the deputy inquired.

"Oh, uh," the sheriff paused to think, "today's findings put us at around five, I think."

"You think the Indians are behind this?" the deputy asked.

"I ain't never seen no Indian do anything like this before," the sheriff admitted. "It's always possible but why keep the body? Why not the damned scalp like they seem to want?"

"The scalp was still there?" the deputy asked, stunned.

Lucy felt a hand tug on her elbow. Quickly glancing over her shoulder, she saw Rowan gazing at her with worry. "What are ye doing?" he asked quietly.

Lucy swallowed hard, eyes darting around in thought. "I don't think we're here for Jedediah Smith..." she glanced briefly around the corner of the doorway into the sheriff's office, "I think we're here for whatever they're talking about."

Rowan asked, "Are ye sure?" When Lucy nodded, he stated, "I'll go get the others." He walked briskly to Flynn and Rufus, who had stopped just on the edge of town when they realized not everyone was together.

The moment Lucy turned back to the board, the sheriff and the deputy stepped out of the office, closing the door behind them. They spotted her, tipped their hats as they walked away. Lucy carefully followed, peering around the corner to see which way they were heading.

"What's going on?" Rufus asked as they neared her. "We're losing them." He motioned to the expedition as they grew smaller into the distance.

She said, "I don't think they were ever our mission." Turning to face them, she explained what she overheard just moments before. When she finished, she added, "It's not the Native Americans, whoever is doing this..."

"So, what should we do?" Rufus asked, glancing over his shoulder. He could barely see the figures of Jedediah and crew on the horizon. He knew there was no chance of catching up to them now.