Wild Country

Tolya arrived moments before Tobias Walker, who smelled of fear and was still wearing a forbidden weapon. It took effort, but Virgil ignored the fear smell. That was easier when Saul Panthergard and Joshua Painter walked into the office, because the Panther’s anger overpowered every other scent.

The Sanguinati didn’t live in the wild country, so Tolya and the others living in Bennett were Virgil’s first experience with this form of terra indigene. So far they’d figured out how to work together, mostly because Tolya had had experience working with Wolves when he’d first arrived in Prairie Gold, and there had been some Wolves in the Courtyard back east that had been Tolya’s home territory. But Virgil was still learning how to read the town’s leader.

Tolya’s face and body provided no clues, so Virgil couldn’t decide if the Sanguinati was angry or sad.

“You are carrying a forbidden weapon, Tobias Walker,” Tolya said, his voice revealing nothing.

“Where is the long weapon?” Virgil asked.

“I took it back to the truck and put it in the gun rack,” Tobias Walker replied. “The truck is locked, and there’s a big Eagle perched on the tailgate, so I guess one of your people is keeping an eye on things.”

“This human killed a dog that was attacking Joshua,” Saul said.

“Why did you bring a weapon?” Tolya asked, looking at Tobias Walker.

“I usually carry a shotgun and rifle in the truck’s gun rack. I usually have the revolver in a case under the driver’s seat. I work on a ranch. It’s a long drive to this town for supplies or when my mother comes up here to help you.”

“You think such weapons will protect you from what lives in the wild country?” Tolya asked.

“Your kind, you mean?” Tobias Walker shook his head. “But there are rumors lately of men stopping people on the road and stealing from them. Even hurting them. There have always been people like that. I guess there always will be people like that. So I have weapons in my truck when I drive up here, just like I’ve got them on the ranch.”

“Have you seen these humans?” Virgil asked.

“No, but when it comes to sensing people, my mother is the best there is in Prairie Gold, and she’s been feeling uneasy about being away from home so much.” Tobias Walker looked at Tolya. “Not that she isn’t willing to help out, but it’s not just the people coming in here that have been pushing at what she’s feeling.”

“Jesse Walker is concerned for her safety?” Tolya asked sharply. “She has said nothing to me.”

“Maybe she thought you already had enough on your mind and didn’t need to know about something on the horizon that might never reach here.”

“If she didn’t think it was going to reach here, she wouldn’t feel concerned.”

To Virgil’s ears, Tolya sounded ready to nip someone. But Tobias Walker was right—a storm on the horizon was a maybe threat. They had a problem right here, right now.

“I want to give Tobias Walker special permission to wear a human weapon when he is in Bennett,” Virgil said.

They all stared at him.

“Why?” Tolya finally asked.

Virgil focused on the Sanguinati. “Because we need to kill the dogs.”

Tolya stared at Virgil, not knowing, or caring, if he was somehow issuing a challenge for dominance. “You want to kill all the dogs after we went through the trouble of releasing them from the houses and feeding them and arranging for Barbara Ellen to come to Bennett to care for them?”

“Yes,” Virgil said. “They are predators. They are forming packs, which is their way, but today one pack attacked Joshua Painter and another pack attacked the horses that couldn’t run away. There is a human pup in the town now, and there is a human female with a skippy brain. The Elders won’t attack those humans. The rest of the terra indigene won’t attack those humans. But the dogs will. Those humans are easy prey.”

“You don’t need to kill all the dogs,” Tobias Walker said. “Most of the dogs are still good dogs. They aren’t going to attack people or livestock. But I have a feeling that some of the dogs that are out there now were raised and trained to fight and to kill, and that’s what they’re going to do. It isn’t going to matter if the prey is another dog or a human or one of the terra indigene. Those dogs are going to hunt and kill, and the packs forming around them are going to be just as savage.”

“So you agree with Virgil that these animals need to be killed?” Tolya asked.

“Yes, I do. The ranches we’re restoring will be bringing cattle up to send to market, and the surviving ranches north of here will be bringing cattle down. We can’t have dogs attacking penned cattle or causing a stampede.”

Tolya looked at the Panther. “Saul? What do you say?”

“When I find the other two dogs that attacked Joshua, I will kill them.”

“Then we’re agreed?” Tolya met each of their eyes.

“There’s a vet’s office here,” Tobias said. “Maybe there’s a kennel too? Someplace that boarded animals when people went out of town? Even a place with a fenced-in yard would work for the time being.”

Tolya didn’t remind the human that animals had been freed from fenced-in places as well as houses because that had been the only way to care for all of them. As it was, Barbara Ellen spent many hours each day taking care of the birds in cages, as well as putting out food and water for the animals that were wandering about in the town. Had she considered what would happen to these creatures when the stores in Bennett ran out of their particular food?

That was a problem for another day. But it reminded him of the problem someone would have to deal with as soon as—

Barbara Ellen slammed into the sheriff’s office, rushed past him, Tobias, Saul, and Joshua, and stopped in front of Virgil.

“I want to report a crime!” she said, her eyes bright with tears. “Someone shot a dog!”

Barb sat on the cot and stared at the plastic bucket and roll of toilet paper that the mean, mangy excuse for a sheriff put in her cell as “emergency facilities” in case she needed to squat before the next designated potty break. That’s what he’d said—in case she needed to squat.

Forelock! She should have remembered that she couldn’t argue with a dominant Wolf the way she could have argued with her brother, Michael. And she hadn’t been arguing. Not really. An impassioned plea to save the dogs was not arguing! But did the big, bad Wolf take that into account? No, he did not. He just hauled her into one of the cells, came back long enough to drop the bucket and toilet paper into the cell, and then left!

And to think she’d written sort of nice things about him in her first letter back home. All right, her only letter back home. But that was only a couple of weeks ago. Okay, maybe a little longer, but not that much longer.

Long enough for Michael to have received reports from the big bad without getting her side of the story? She’d write to her parents and her brother tonight—if she was out of jail by then.

Hearing the door to the cellblock open, Barb sprang to her feet and waited at the bars. She wasn’t argumentative by nature, but Virgil seemed to bring out the worst in her. But she wouldn’t argue with him. She’d be polite and ask if her “me time” could be done now.

Joshua walked over to her cell. “Virgil said it was all right to bring you some things and visit with you for a while. He said your me time will be done at four o’clock unless you start yapping at him again.” He sat on the floor on the other side of the bars and opened the daypack he’d brought in with him. “You shouldn’t yap at Virgil. He’s the dominant Wolf—and the sheriff.”

The way Joshua said it, being the sheriff—a human occupation—was an afterthought. The dominant Wolf part was the part that meant something to the terra indigene.

Barb wasn’t thrilled with sitting on the floor, but it looked clean enough and she sure didn’t want to spread the blanket on the floor if she was going to have to sleep with it later.

Joshua passed her a sandwich wrapped in wax paper, followed by an apple and a container of cookies that just fit between the bars. The bottle of water didn’t fit between the bars, so Joshua rummaged in the pack until he found the cup he’d brought. They made sure it fit before he filled it and passed it to her. Then he unwrapped a sandwich for himself.

“Someone shot a dog,” Barb said, wanting someone to understand why that was wrong.

“Tobias Walker shot one of the three dogs that attacked me.” Joshua’s unusual green eyes focused on her. “I would have killed it if it had gotten close enough for me to rake it with my claws or choke it.” He reached through the bars and caught most of her sandwich before it plopped on the floor.

“Dogs attacked you? Why?”

He shrugged. “Guess I smell more like Panther than human to them. Or maybe I don’t smell enough like Panther. If three of them had attacked Saul, none of them would have survived. As it was, Tobias Walker and Saul coming to help me scared them off. Two of them ran away. Tobias Walker shot the third.”

“Then I can find the other two and—”

“Barb, the terra indigene will find those dogs and kill them. They will keep watch for the rest of the dogs that attacked the horses.”

“Attacked . . . ?” Appetite gone, Barb rewrapped the sandwich in the wax paper, then set it on the cot with the apple and cookies. “Are the horses all right?”

“Most of them. I heard one of them was too hurt to save. Not sure if the injuries were made by the dogs or by the horse trying to get out of the corral and run away.” Joshua took a big bite out of his sandwich and chewed. He swallowed and licked his lips clean before adding, “I don’t think your blue horse was in the corral when it happened.”

“He wasn’t. I was at the house where I’m keeping the birds. Rowan was tied up out back.” What would have happened if the dogs had found Rowan? “The sheriff could have told me, could have explained about the dogs.”

“He would have,” Joshua replied. “Tolya would have too. But you yapped at Virgil and got him riled, so . . .” He looked around to indicate that this is what happened when subordinate human females yapped at dominant terra indigene males.

Barb almost asked him if he considered her a subordinate female, then decided she didn’t want to know. But this was a reminder that the Others didn’t operate on the human idea of everyone being equal. With them, there was a hierarchy and everyone had a place within that hierarchy.

Joshua leaned forward, his expression fierce and sincere. “I can defend myself, but there’s a cub . . . a boy . . . living with a group of females, and there’s a female with a skippy brain. They aren’t safe from a dog pack.”

“I haven’t had any trouble with the dogs!” Barb protested.

“Have you seen all of them? Tobias Walker said these dogs had been trained to fight and kill.”

“Of course I’ve seen . . .” She stopped. Thought. Had she seen all the dogs lately? The food was gone at each of the feeding stations. So was the water. And some of the dogs that were sheltering near the feeding areas were always there to greet her, always seemed glad to have human company. But some had been missing these past few days. Smaller dogs, mostly, but she hadn’t seen some of the larger dogs either. Then she remembered the cat collar Virgil had given her the other day and wondered what had killed Fluffy.

“I’ll help you round up the good dogs,” Joshua said.

“Okay. Thanks.” What else could she say? Despite her collisions with Virgil, she wasn’t stupid. A pack of savage dogs, big dogs, posed a danger to everyone, and posed a special danger to someone like Becky Gott, who would just see a doggy and want to pet it.

Joshua finished his sandwich, then dug into the pack again. “I brought you books. I’m supposed to do more sorting after I’m done visiting you, but I stopped and picked up books so you could read while you’re waiting for Virgil to let you out.”

Barb accepted the books. One was a cozy mystery she’d read before. The other was by Alan Wolfgard and looked scary. Well, maybe reading a story written by a Wolf would give her a few pointers on how to avoid annoying the sheriff.

Thank the gods the human deputy arrived tomorrow. Maybe then she could voice an opinion to someone in authority without ending up in jail.