Hey! Look who it is! Two days in a row, must be some kind of record!
Yeah, I’m being sarcastic.
I gotta say, this exercise ball is a lot of fun to bounce up and down on while you’re actually using it, but when you’re done, it does a number on your hips that you wouldn’t believe. Especially if you’re bouncing on it for a half-hour or more at a time.
Anyway, the Coyotes of Silver Mooon…
When we last saw our heroes, John and Custer Fulton have discovered the that coyote they thought they shot the night before is actually Roswell. And he’s not dead, but he is pretty upset. He doesn’t have much of a memory of what happened the night before, but he doesn’t seem to mind too much. What happened to him the night his pigs were slaughtered opened up his eyes to a world he never knew existed. One of carnal passions and simple instinct.
He doesn’t really know what happens to him on nights of the full moon. He knows what’s coming, and he finds a place where he can change in private, then he joins the rest of the pack. He doesn’t know who they are, but they are all compelled to come at sundown of the first night of the full moon. They can hear the Master’s cry at sunset. Nobody knows his name, but they all simply call him ALPHA. (This name will obviously have to be changed, but seeing as how I’ve just spent the last half hour trolling the internet for the Apache word for ‘coyote’ and come up with bupkis, I’ll save it for later. Which brings me to something rather important. I’ve got to stop interrupting myself while I’m writing to look up some bit of trivia that I may think is important, but not entirely necessary at this stage of writing. The important thing is to just keep going and not stop until I hit my mark. I can always go back. Got to hit that goal. PUBLISH.)
(Almost halfway home for my goal tonight. Only 500 more to go. Yay me!)
(Okay, enough rambling. Back to the story!)
Roswell doesn’t know who the others who are being called, nor does he think any of them know him. He doesn’t recall much about what happens when he changes, only that he enjoys it.
So now John and Custer have a dilemma on their hands. They’ve got to stop all the killing before people start getting hurt, but they’ve also got to protect their son and brother.
Okay, so that’s a pretty strong dilemma. They’re not even sure they can tell anyone else about what they’ve discovered. Roswell promises to run away if they try to stop him from going out again that night.
There is that… this is the first night of the new moon. There WILL be two more nights of mayhem unless they can do something about right away. But what? How will they handle this with the rest of the family? Even as they talk to Roswell to get him to calm down, Custer tries to restrain him and Roswell is incredibly strong and violent.
Okay, so now I’ve got something good to deal with… I’ve got a man and son who discover that one of the other sons is basically a werewolf. They know that there are others in town who are being affected. They know it’s their friends and neighbors (and even family) who are killing all the local livestock.
And they can’t tell a living soul because they don’t even know how their own family would react. Would someone try to kill Roswell while he slept? Orland might. Ellis almost certainly would. So what do they do? Where do you get help when you have nowhere else to turn to?
You know, I honestly don’t know, but my first guess would be that, assuming they survive the next few days, they would either head to the closest fort or the closest Indian settlement.
Unless there’s someone in town who might know more. The crazy old man who always rants but nobody listens to, perhaps? Maybe the dark newcomer whom nobody trusts? Maybe an old spinster whom people believe is a witch? These are all possibilities, and if they’re valid within the context of the story, they need to be discussed, maybe even followed through on.
But from a logical point of view, the first trip is to an Apache settlement nearby, to visit their medicine man.
And they’re not exactly far from the reservation, are they? Maybe a day’s ride, maybe two.
So the three of them ride—all three because, let’s face it, they don’t want Roswell running off while they’re gone, and they don’t know what else might happen in the meantime. So, they lie to the rest of the family and say they’re heading to Fort Bennett for some kind of help—
NOTE: Why hasn’t anyone gotten help from Fort Bennett already? There’s a question for you… Maybe the soldiers at the fort don’t think it’s their job to take care of the varmint problem in the surrounding communities… or MAYBE it’s because they’ve all already been infected… Hmmm…
Anyway…
Oh, will you look at the time! That’s my 1,000 words for the day!
Posted by wesleysmith 
Posted by wesleysmith 
Posted by wesleysmith 
