Saloon Knight
Saloon Knight
A black furred wolf with red hair and gray eyes in black jeans and chaps, red boots and gloves, black shirt and duster, red vest with black ravens on it and tie, black leather gun belt with twin double action Colt Peacemakers and a raven's skull belt buckle as well as a black cowboy hat with a raven's skull on the front of the wide leather hat band featuring silvery moon coins evenly spaced around the circumference of the band rides a dark scaled pachycephalosaurus or bone head into a small town along a trail where ranchers drive long horn triceratops so they can be shipped to a big city by rail. A Winchester rifle is holstered within easy reach should he need it. He ties his ride to the post outside of the Heavenly Sin saloon, inn and brothel before entering the establishment.
The saloon is sparsely populated as the first sun sets and besides the bull tending bar, the sheep, kitty and bunny wenches waiting on tables the only other patrons are a turtle with thick goggles over his eyes, a quartet of pig cowboys and a crocodile trail boss. The croc is joined by a pair of sidewinders and a Gila monster soon after licking their lips. The wenches look desperately at the wolf as the player piano activates on its lonesome.
"Howdy, Stranger," the bull says amicably, "What can I do you for?"
"Beer if you don't mind," the wolf says as the reptiles look at him with fiendish grins. "Something amuse you scaled folk?"
"Dead dog walkin'!" The turtle giggles fiendishly.
"You best drink yer piss water and keep yer muzzle to yerself, wolf," the croc growls. "I be Don Scaletti and those that look at us funny wind up in Boot Hill."
"And I am Phelan Mahoney," the wolf says to identify himself and at the mention of his name the snakes go for their guns but their actions do not go unnoticed.
Phelan draws his revolvers and shoots both serpents dead before the surprised eyes of everyone in the tavern save the wolf who just glares at his victims. Both the Gila monster and the turtle are slow on the draw so Phelan targets them next as the go for their rifles. The turtle gets it right between the eyes as does the Gila monster but only the turtle goes down as the other staggers and struggles to remain on his feet.
Don Scaletti laughs at Mahoney for only taking out three of his four henchmen with his four shots but then is reminded that Phelan is using twin six shooters. As Geronimo, the Gila monster staggers the wolf puts half of his remaining eight slugs into the trail boss gangster crocodile. None of the shots are fatal but they crippling as Don Scaletti lays bleeding on the floor.
Geronimo comes to some semblance of his sense just in time for Phelan to put a pair of bullets through his eyes and into his brain to finally end his life. Don Scaletti is no longer laughing and reveals that he is effectively the Mayor of the town by fixing the elections as a means of saving his pathetic life. Something in Phelan might be sympathetic but he also knows what else the Don has done and the abuses he has perpetrated in the name of security and prosperity which is what brought Phelan here in the first place.
"You think you bring order to the chaos of the land," Phelan growls as the eye socket of the raver skull on his hat starts to glow an angry red, "But you bring tyranny instead of true order. Those who would freely trade their freedom for security deserve neither but you didn't really give these folks a choice did you?"
"They could have left any time!" Scaletti thunders.
"In a pine box!" The bull barkeep retorts. "Jenkins was pulling up stakes to see his fortune elsewhere and your sidewinders gunned him down!"
"And how many times did a girl decide she wanted to leave only to be found floating in the river?" A pink furred cat asks pointedly.
"There is a tax..." Scaletti starts to retort.
"They have to pay you to leave?" Phelan asks as an ankylosaurus with a Gatling gun on the howdah on its back with a team of gators attending it and driving the huge dinosaur they are using to transport it.
"About time you boys got here," Scaletti grumbles as he rises unsteadily to his feet but with the swagger of a man who knows he is back in charge of things with back up firmly and deadly in place.
"Move along of the first..." Phelan starts to growl when the Gatling gators kill their boss themselves as the second sun sets. "Well that was unexpected." Then he sees them reload. "Phantom Queen, Morrigan of Ancient Eire, hear the plea of your faithful knight and grant me the power to protect these good folk from those who would slaughter us!"
The Gatling gunners are not about to leave witness so they intend on slaughtering everyone in the saloon. Bullets fly freely but bounce off of an invisible wall of force between them and the saloon as unseen voices laugh and make fun of the gunners in Gaelic. The phantom voices spook the gators who run off; driving the great beast of a dinosaur as Mahoney watches and laughs.
Inside the saloon phantom leprechauns and other faerie folk of Irish folklore dance on the tables. Phelan goes to his bone head and withdraws some tools from his saddlebags. As the folks inside watch, Phelan etches wards on the columns and walls of the saloon to protect it and its inhabitants from mystic and mundane threats.
Before heading back into the Heavenly Sin, Phelan retrieves his rifle in case he needs to do some sniping. Once back inside he helps Duncan the barkeep toss the bodies of the reptiles out into the street. The four pigs are somewhat anxious to leave as a swarm of chicken sized dinosaurs, compysognathuses or compys for short, come along and drag the dead away.
Phelan notes that each compy wears a collar made of bone as their appearance disturbs the denizens of the bar. Duncan Dunbar tells Phelan that the horde were corpse collectors for Momma Bone Saw, an alligator Voodoo priestess more feared that Scaletti ever was for her army of zombies and the fact she was always looking for new recruits for that army. The first moon rises in the horizon as the lights around the town start to come on but dimly.
The lanterns around the town are lit by magic rather than anything wrought by science. Phelan takes not of this as he enjoys his beer with the pink furred cat, Miss Kitty as she's known, on his laps. All four pigs draw their revolvers as they leave the House of Sin as if expecting trouble on the way back to their hotel.
As on they walk off and out of sight as Miss Kitty straddles Phelan who has every intention on staying the night. The other girls and Duncan sigh in relief when Phelan produces enough gold dust to pay for a month's stay, food and fun included. Kitty includes her services as a maid as well as a whore as she pops her tits out of her corset for Phelan to play with as she reaches down to unbutton his fly.
Eve and Lillith, a sheep and a rabbit respectively are frankly jealous of Kitty as she rubs her slit on his sheath once she's gotten him undressed enough. A cow and a mare come out from the back with a steak and fries for Phelan, a burger for Kitty and salads for Eve and Lillith. The cow is Mary Dunbar, Duncan's wife and the mare is Jenny, one of the working girls and the openly secret mistress of Duncan.
Jenny doesn't like carnivores much and gives Phelan the stink eye for the duration of the evening. Phelan doesn't have a high opinion of horses, especially pure white ones like Jenny who apparently thinks she rules the roost, but does his best to ignore her in favor of Kitty.
Kitty glares at Jenny as she feels her efforts starting to get rewarded with cock. Eve and Lillith back her up, more because they want a turn riding Phelan's pole than anything else. Duncan gives her no help because as far as he's concerned the wolf saved their lives which is worth a lot to him.
Mary is up on who's who outside of Goldwater, the town in which they live and recognizes Mahoney by reputation as a professional adventurer. She is not comfortable with him because he is a Pagan priest and not a proper Parson of the One True God as she rubs the gold cross around her neck nervously. But she also knows he is a bit of a hero so having him here will actually be a kind of blessing.
Jenny scoffs at the tale told about how Phelan made a defiant prayer to an alien goddess prior to the gators trying to rip apart the saloon with a Gatling gun but Mary smacks Jenny upside the head for her lack of belief. Kitty Laughs as she guides Phelan's member into her slit as subtlety as she can. The invited invasion does not go unnoticed as Phelan is the saloon's only patron at present.
Phelan is denied a floor show as Jenny refuses to put one on for him but with Miss Kitty attending him, Phelan knows he doesn't need a show to watch as he is getting his rocks off with the cat. Jenny tries to pressure Duncan to make them go upstairs but she ends up annoying him instead. Mary kisses her husband as she forces Jenny to her knees and give her husband head to shut her up.
Duncan plays with his wife's tits as his mistress gives him a blow job. Mary is a Holstein who knows about Jenny and tolerates it to a point; in fact she has talked with her husband about having Jenny service them both in bed as a means of keeping the mare humble. Shamus, their calf, takes Stormcloud, Phelan's steed, into the stable out back and later shows Phelan where that is.
Shamus is a young and impressionable young bull calf and while he reads the same papers his mother does to keep informed he has a different opinion about Phelan. He saw the Pagan gunslinger in action, first killing the reptiles that were bullying his pa and making the lives of the girls miserable, then by using magic to protect the Saloon from the gators. He saw them in secret as his mother would tan his if she found out but he witnessed and was impressed by what he saw.
Mary did not see but believes her husband on his account of what happened both due what she has read that Phelan is capable of and because her husband rarely tells tall tales. Duncan runs his saloon as a place to relax and enjoy one's self and that includes his employees and himself. The potential rivalry between Eve, Kitty and Lillith over who gets to be the sheath for Phelan's soft sword is a concern but a man like Phelan is smart enough to give them all what they want because trying out different cock sheathes is what a man does before he settles down.
Duncan saw a few key things about Phelan today: he's quick on the draw and can do some fantastic things by calling on old gods. As far as Duncan is now concerned, Phelan is a border who can take care of himself and will probably help out with security if need be. All in all somebody you want on your side and Duncan intends to keep it that way in spite of what his wife and mistress might think about it.
Once Kitty gets Phelan's phallus inside of her she is almost oblivious to anything else around her. Lillith decides to make the most of this and slips under the table as Eve watches in jealous horror. The bunny licks at Phelan's scrotum as best she can and gives Kitty's clit a lick or two while she's at it.
Kitty finally realizes what Lillith is doing and growls at her in a menacing fashion. All seven of them have had nothing but reptiles, pigs, rats, badgers and beavers to service for the past six months and truth be told, Kitty prefers canines over tomcats. Jenny does her best to keep the "Carnivorous Riff-Raff" out their establishment which annoys both cats as well as Eve and Lillith even if the other rabbit and ewe could care less but they like the sexual action of predator taking prey species wise especially when it's them that a given predator preys on.
Don Scaletti was the "Owner" of the Heavenly Sin in that he took charge of the books with occasional help from Duncan and Mary. Duncan is now the owner as per an arrangement Scaletti never meant to honor. When the second moon rises Phelan has climaxed in Kitty and finished his supper.
Shamus shows Phelan the secluded stable and asks abut the deity that Phelan invoked earlier. Phelan tells Shamus that the Morrigan is a triple goddess, maiden, mother and crone and part of the Celtic pantheon that once ruled a chain of islands until the one true god's missionaries and their soldiers repressed their worship save for a handful of men and women who honor the old ways in their hearts and champion their causes. He also tells the young bull calf that it is his devotion to the Morrigan that compelled him to use raven symbolism in on his clothes because the raven is sacred to the Morrigan, as are the colors of black and red.
After checking up on his bone head, Phelan decides he needs a bath. Lillith sees Phelan enter the bath house in the back near Demon Falls and decides it's her turn. The bath house consists of three main rooms and a large supply closet with one room being essentially a huge hot tub; one room is for Oriental style bathing and the other is a massage room.
Lillith entices Phelan to forego the hot tub in favor of a massage and Oriental bath conducted by her. Phelan lays on his front on a leather bed as Lillith pouts hot water over him before scrubbing his entire backside. She gets his tail caught in his crotch momentarily and moans as he wags it happily in a slow manner that indicates contentment among those furs that have a tail to wag before pouring hot water again to rinse him off. .
She takes special care with his foot pads when she gets down there without removing his tail from her slot if she can help it. Phelan flips himself when Lillith finishes his back and repeats the process with front. His front presents a challenge for her in that his member is already starting to peak out of his sheathe and she wants to end the massage with a happy ending.
Lillith is still diligent with her scrubbing of Phelan's front although the fact that his groin gets a great deal of attention should be a surprise to no one. After gets him cleaned up and dried the massage can begin. Despite how much she wants to have sex with him, the massage is not an excuse to grope him.
Sexual attraction and temptations aside, Lillith is actually a trained masseuse and she uses those methods to loosen Phelan up. Phelan lays on his front again for this and through trained techniques Lillith relaxes her wolf so much that he's almost ready to sleep. He is almost too tuckered out to flip himself which in its own way amuses Lillith greatly.
Phelan is so relaxed he's more ready for sleep than sex but Lillith will not be denied. She worships his sheath and scrotum with her mouth until she coaxes his soft sword out and suckles it until she gets it firm enough to penetrate her folds. Lillith is too short her to ride his pole and offer him her breasts to suckle but she tries to make up for it by bouncing up and down his shaft with all the seriousness of a penitent parishioner on their knees in church praying their hearts out.
Climax comes quickly as Phelan already blew a big load in Kitty and hadn't had the time to properly reload when he fires in Lillith. She still gets enough to fill her up and when she walks into the main house a little funny she draws an amused look from Kitty and dark looks from Eve and Jenny for entirely different reasons. Eve is just jealous of Lillith for getting a turn at Phelan who staggers up to his room with a smile on his face while Jenny is disapproving of the rabbit just offering herself to a predator like she did.
Four people react to the silent sermon Jenny is preaching in their own ways. Lillith flips Jenny the bird as both Eve and Kitty give her deeply disapproving looks. As Eve helps Phelan to his room with own ulterior motives to be sure, Mary uses a rolling pin to crack Jenny's skull to silently voice her own disapproval as well as hammer that point hom in no uncertain terms in the vain hope that the violence the cow perpetrates will make the message sink into the mare's thick skull that much more readily.
"Ow!" Jenny yelps in protest as Eve and Phelan disappear into his room. "What was that for, heffer?"
"I know you got a chip yer shoulder fer all carnivores," Mary growls. "But sometimes that attitude ain't appropriate. And this here is of them times!" Then she turns to her son: "Shamus! Did you take Mister Mahoney's rifle to his room like I told ya?"
"Already there, momma," Shamus beams proudly. "I even took up extra shells and metal etching supplies from his saddle bags."
"Metal etchers?" Kitty asks. "Why in tarnation does he carry metal etchers?"
"You saw him use magic earlier today, Miss Kitty," Duncan explains, "He's a pagan priest. I'll bet you anything he puts a little bit of magic in his bullets by etching symbols in them."
"That's right!" A voice from outside calls and when everyone turns to look a fat alligator female with all the fetishes and face paint of a Voodoo priestess is standing there with a crazed look on her face. "He marks his bullets with runes. I couldn't make those sidewinders, the Professor of Geronimo into zombies because of it. Where is the varmint?"
"Come in and we'll bring him down for a chat," Mary challenges.
"Damn mammal put up wards against me!" Momma Bone Saw thunders from the doorway once she steps past the columns. "My mojo is bein' suppressed! But I can smell the treacherous dog. What old time god or goddess is he partial to?"
"The Morrigan," Shamus answers. "He told me about her when I showed him the stables."
"So he serves the Phantom Queen does he?" Momma Bone Saw says with a fiendish grin. "No matter, I just have some extra things to make. This is gonna be fun. I ain't had no challengers to my power in quite some time. When the druid wakes up, please tell him I came to call."
With that she leaves as weird things accompany the rising of the third moon. They look like hairless gorillas with bat wings, horns like spirals and d tails with spade like terminuses but no faces whatsoever. No one in Goldwater has ever seen one up close and personal and lived to tell the tale.
A troop of these things land on the roof of the Heavenly Sin and perch there like gargoyles. It's as if they were looking for someone. Inside the Heavenly Sin Eve is tucking Phelan in for the night and herself with him naked as the day she was born.
Eve knows she has little chance at taking a turn tonight but nights can get extra cold so her wool can help keep a body nice and toasty. In the morning Phelan has wood just as Eve had hoped he would and she is close enough to get first crack at it. Without ceremony and before Phelan awakes, Eve helps herself to his morning wood via impaling herself along his length.
Phelan awakens to the sensation of a wooly rear bobbing up and down his shaft which both amuses and annoys him. He takes over as feels his climax start to reach its crescendo. Eve submits to Phelan and lets him do whatever he wants to her and as his muzzle suckles her nipples the ewe is in ecstasy with all the pleasure she has gotten this morning.
The "gargoyles" stir when Phelan howls his climax howls his climax with Eve and the noise changes his mood for the worse. Once he can disengage from Eve, Phelan gets dressed, grabs his Winchester and goes to the roof. Everyone watches the wolf fearfully as he climbs the ladder but only eases first his head and then his rifle out of the trap door.
Fearful stillness fills the hallway as all eyes go to the wolf standing on the secured ladder taking aim at something with his Winchester. Exactly what he aims to shoot nobody really wants to know but those that interacted with Momma Bone Saw last night are sure she had something to do with it as the first sun starts to rise. The report of his rifle and the fluttering of wings is what breaks the silence as an angry Phelan Mahoney comes down from the root.
"Seems like you developed a gargoyles problem overnight," Phelan growls. "I downed two of 'em but four more flew off."
"Momma Bone Saw was looking for you last night," Jenny growls back with extra venom. "She rarely comes to town and never comes here. Not until you showed up!"
"Shut yer muzzle!" Mary yells and smacks Jenny upside the head. "If there is anyone who can take her down, it's him!"
"Oh, I have every intention of visiting her," Phelan states with a dark smirk. "Morrigan is telling me I need to stick around a bit more."
"Momma Bone Saw lives out of some caverns in the Demon Fang Mountains with a cottage on an island in Blood Lake which is that Mountain range, Mister Mahoney." Duncan states. "Word is she supported Scaletti."
"Somehow that don't surprise me," Phelan state. "Hellmouth caverns has been a hot bed of weirdness for quite sometime. Not all houngans are bad but she seems like she goin' for bokor. So that would be a perfect place fer her to set up shop."
"Maybe your goddess sent you to kill her and not the Don?" Sandy Sagebrush, a sand colored cat that works for the Dunbars in the same fashion as Miss Kitty.
"More like in addition," Phelan says in partial agreement. "The vision I got to come here told me there was at least two I needed to kill she's not happy with me right now."
"Momma Bone Saw did complain that she couldn't use the bodies of the ones you killed," Lillith observes. "You do something to yer bullets that does that?"
"I carve special runes in all my bullets soon after I buy them," Phelan admits. "General runes at first and add to that on a case by case basis. But among the basic set is a rune from Arawn, Lord of the Underworld so those that die at my hand don't come back. He's a little miserly that way which is good since he hates the undead. He thinks their better off in his keeping and I am to send my victims that I been told to take to him. It makes the risk of revenants comin' after my hide that much less likely."
"Another part of your agreement?" Mary asks. "As their priest and champion that is?"
"Aye, Ma'am, that it is," Phelan states as they go downstairs for breakfast. "I am keep them happy and that ensures I can still do magic and help folks."
Mary cooks up a hearty breakfast of eggs and scrapple for the carnivores and fruits and grains for the herbivores with the aid of both rabbits. Duncan provides Phelan with a map of the county showing where they are in relation to the Demon Fangs. Phelan mounts his bone head after breakfast to get a feel for the lay of the land.
A band of coyote braves meets up with Phelan after the second sun rise on sheer coincidence. The coyotes are wary of all euros they meet but the ravens in Phelan's attire makes them curious. When they learn what they signify the coyotes are a lot more comfortable with the wolf as a kindred spirit.
The coyotes tell Phelan that they are on patrol looking for zombies to kill and cultists of Momma Bone Saw's camp too,. It seems Momma Bone Saw will raid anyone's graveyard and the coyote tribes are sick of it. Phelan has them take him to where they have camped for now so he can teach them the runes to put on their weapons so when they kill someone they stay dead and when they strike zombies they are destroyed as well.
At the camp the shaman's daughter and the chief's niece as his sister is her mother demands to be taught first. Her father and uncle are gravely ill and she is next in line to be shaman due to her training, so while her father is incapacitated she is acting shaman. Princess Niagara doesn't trust the wolf at first but after a short debate about religion that proves him to be an open minded pagan and not a closed minded trinitist, she is more open to his teachings which ends up and exchange of information than anything else.
Niagara gifts Phelan with a rune etched steel tomahawk when he goes to leave as well as a kiss. Phelan did more than teach runes to the coyotes with his magic healing arts he cured the chief and the shaman which only helped cement his reputation as a friend to all. Shaman Moon Eyes is more angry with his daughter than Phelan as he could sense how much she liked the wolf but chose to stay with her people.
"The good spirits are strong with that one," Moon Eyes says to his daughter as he watches Phelan leave. "He also has a Hero's heart. He may look for trouble but it's only so can help fix it."
"He is also not one of our kind, father," Niagara retorts. "I am coyote and he is wolf, if he were to take a non-wolf as his squaw it will probably be a vixen."
"His people allow for more than one squaw just as we can." Moon Eyes prompts. "I know your heart, Niagara, a male will not be enough for you. He will find a vixen eventually but I see you bearing him pups as well."
Moon Eyes chuckles as his daughter turns away, parts of her reddish brown fur turning a deeper shade of crimson as she goes to be by herself for awhile. She and some of the other females play sexually where the males can easily find them as a way to tease them but Niagara found she likes her own gender than any male of the tribe. Until Phelan came along that is.
The meditation tent is only for the Shaman and his apprentices of whom Niagara is the most advanced. She sits and thinks of what she should be doing with her life. By no means is Niagara a virgin, a night at the Heavenly Sin and a bottle of fire water took care of that long ago but still she hasn't been back there in ages with her father being as sick as he was.
She knows her goals coincide with Phelan regarding Momma Bone Saw and the fact that his magic overpowered hers when took on the disease spirit to kill them starting with the Chief and his brother in law and defeated it with only his Bowie knife only makes it clear who will win a contest of magic between them. As she meditates Niagara gets a vision that disturbs her. The fact that Bone Saw would cheat is of no surprise but the notion that a lack of fair play would tip the balance is something she cannot abide by.
Niagara goes through the tribe's store of fetishes and other enhancements to magic to see what she has the right to use or give. Phelan can whip Bone Saw in an honest fight but Niagara got the impression from her vision that help might be needed to ensure the bokor's dirty tricks are kept to a minimum to ensure the fight is fair. Moon Eyes finds her and demands an explanation for what she's doing.
"I got a vision, Father," Niagara explains, "Phelan will need my help when he confronts that gator bitch to keep the fight honest."
"Bone Saw never fights fair if she can help it," Moon Eyes agrees. "Your reasons are just. You're not looking for a way to interfere but looking for ways to keep the fight honest. Phelan Mahoney is our friend, he goes to fight an enemy only he can defeat. But is that all the reason you seek tools in here?"
"What you want may happen, father," Niagara teases. "But it may not."
"And some wonder how it is that women can drive men folk crazy?" Moon Eyes yells as he mock storms out of the tent.
Niagara is still laughing when she enters the Heavenly Sin and surprises everyone there. The coyote shaman is looking for Phelan but isn't too thrilled when she learns that he's upstairs with Sandy. Miss Kitty gives her a kiss though which embarrasses Niagara slightly.
"Not out in the open, Kitty!" Niagara whispers harshly. "I try to keep my general gender preference in the shadows."
"It's alright my injun girlfriend," Kitty teases. "Watcha want Phelan for?"
"I think he's gonna need my help, with Bone Saw, " Niagara says nervously. "Where's Jenny? She's been looking for an excuse to boot yer tail..."
"Move along, Shamus," Kitty scolds the young Dunbar and once he's out of earshot she tells Niagara: "Jenny and Mary are up with Duncan right now."
"Have you double teamed him with anyone?" Niagara asks point blank.
"Land's sake, no!" Kitty says with mock indignation. "But I think Eve and Lillith are plannin' on it."
"Damn!" Sandy says as she joins Niagara and Kitty. "I wish he was a tom! If I could get pregnant but that wolf..." The she notices Niagara. "Well, look who's here! I'd entertain you myself but I just got done with Phelan."
"That's alright, Sandy," Niagara says with a coy wink, "If Phelan's gonna get me pregnant it's because he sowed his seeds within me himself and not second hand."
"I just left your people a ways back," Phelan says with some concern. "Is there something wrong?"
"Other than that evil gator bitch?" Niagara asks. "Nothing, when were you gonna take her on?"
"Soon," Phelan admits. "She has something nasty brewing. I can feel it. And whatever she's building I get the impression that I need to put a stop to it."
"Oh, Phelan," Eve says as she comes to their table. "Lillith and her sister are missing. They went to the bank and ain't been back yet."
"How long ago was this?" Phelan asks.
"Couple of hours," Eve explains. "While you was up with Sandy they went to the bank."
"I can't imagine there are that many folks with accounts ared these parts," Phelan reasons. "Plus there are those faceless gargoyles which you can't tell me aren't mixed up with this Bone Saw woman somehow..."
Phelan grabs his rifle and goes to the bank to check on Lillith and Jezebelle. At first they though Phelan came to rob them but when he asks about the rabbit sisters and not money it becomes clear that robbery is not his way of life. The bank manager tells Phelan that one of those gargoyles snatched both girls which makes him mad but not at the bank.
As Phelan goes back to the Heavenly Sin he finds it ablaze with gargoyles tossing Molotov cocktails to keep it a blazing inferno. A pair of headshots kills two of the four and forces to the survivors to retreat. Jenny and the sheep are still in there with their throats slashed while Duncan and family, the cats and Niagara are severely wounded. Phelan does what he can for the injured before riding off towards Blood Lake with Niagara as a guide and the dark look on his face tells everyone that the wolf means to avenge the dead and rescue the living as Jenny and the sheep walk out of the burning building as zombies.
Shamus loads shells Phelan gave him into his father's rifle and starts to shoot. Duncan comes out his shock first when Jenny's corpse is brought down with a shot to the heart. Mary comes too soon after as her son uses the family Winchester to bring down the other two zombies.
"The Sheriff and his deputies have wasted a lot of shots to take down the zombies Bone Saw makes, son," Duncan begins to asks and then realizes how his initial question might be answered and changes the question he wants to ask: "Did Mister Mahoney give you some special shells?"
"Yup," Shamus answers honestly, "He gave me a box and told me to use 'em only if I needed to."
"This counts as need I reckon," Mary says proudly. "Good work son, Duncan, we'll need to thank Mister Mahoney when he gets back."
"That we will, Mary, that we will," Duncan says before joining the bucket brigade to save his saloon.
The air becomes thick with dread anticipation the nearer one gets to Blood Lake. Most normal folk get one whiff of the evil palatable in the wind and turn back, but for Phelan it causes him to grit his teeth go forward with grim determination. The evil in the air means he's getting closer to his target, closer to ending the reign of terror Momma Bone Saw enjoys over the populace.
Dead trees with skulls carved into their trunks line the road leading up to the lake with branches that intertwine to such a degree that they form a kind of tunnel of eternal darkness as light struggles to get through the canopy and are greatly weakened by the struggle. Whispers on the wind can be heard faintly as if the dead warn travelers to turn back before it is too late. Phelan and Niagara largely ignore the foreboding atmosphere around them as cheap tricks of magic that Bone Saw has put in place to scare away the curious.
Here and there red lights alight in the hollow eye sockets of the skulls as if someone were watching their approach. Phelan hopes this is the case as he knows the one who would be watching would Bone Saw herself and his approach being noticed would convey the fact that he is here to take care of her once and for all. Once they get out of the woods Bone Saw has a ranged for a really nasty surprise waiting for them.
The waters of the lake are a shade of crimson normally seen in freshly spilled blood giving the lake its name. This much is known to all who dwell here as is the legend of a leech of such proportions that it seems too large to properly exist in the lake if its dimensions did not rival many town and cities in the surrounding countryside but it still was of a large enough stature as to make some trains seem like toys in comparison. Most church going folk put the tales of this monster in the same bucket as the Easter Jackalope or the Tooth Fairy but the truth is that the creature is very real and under the complete control of Bone Saw herself.
In the middle of the lake is an island with a primitive wooden castle on top of a high hill with steep sides. The only safe path is a bridge that is barely wide enough for the wolf and the coyote to ride through single file. The skulls of victims long past decorate the posts and palisades of the fortress, some of which can even speak to jeer at the approaching heroes and promise them that their skulls will joining them soon.
Phelan puts all this down to more of Bone Saw's tricks before the titanic lamprey rises out of the lake and roars at them. Niagara takes one look and flees in panic at the site while Phelan takes out his Winchester and starts firing. Shot after shot sinks deep into the monstrous form but seemingly does nothing until finally Phelan runs out of ammunition.
He closes his eyes and prays again to his Goddess and again his prayers are answered as the lamprey roars again and falls over against the rock wall before sliding ever so slowly back into the water. Niagara is ashamed by her fear but comes back to ride behind Phelan as the drawbridge to the castle proper lowers. The skulls jeer in congratulation for passing Bone Saw's first test but still promise that they will be joining the choir soon enough.
Once inside, Phelan reloads his rifle as the drawbridge raises again to cut off their escape even though this is exactly where Phelan wants to be. In the courtyard is a titanic cauldron easily the size of the Heavenly Sin itself brewing over a fire just big enough to heat fed with headless corpses of Bone Saw's many victims by skeletons of various species of furs and scales. The wispy forms of ghosts orbit the whole of the cauldron as while zombie stegosauruses move in a circle, harnessed in such a way as to turn gears which in turn are attached to huge batters stirring the cauldron endlessly.
Momma Bone saw herself is dancing and cavorting on a platform extending over the lip of the cauldron but nowhere near the beaters. Phelan takes careful aim with his rifle and pulls the trigger to put a bullet in her skull. But nothing happens as Momma Bone Saw stops her dancing to address her intruders.
"Gun won't fire will it, hunter?" Bone Saw asks mockingly. "No firearm works here. If it's powered by gunpowder or something like it, it don't work here and that's that. I put my own wards in this here castle. Magic rules here, not science."
"Any magic or just Voodoo?" Phelan asks calmly.
"I may be powerful, but even I cannot deny the will of the gods." Bone Saw admits.
"That's just what I was hoping for," Phelan says with a smirk. "Mighty Lord of the Underworld, Arawen, Cernunnos, I, Phelan Mahoney call upon you now! Grant unto me the power of destruction over those who remain on this plane instead of your great halls!"
Lightning strikes Phelan from above, or rather more specifically Phelan's hand, becoming a saber for him to use. He rides forth with his sword held high as Niagara takes out a tomahawk and joins him. Up above them, Bone Saw is looking a little worried as she leans on her staffed topped with a triceratops skull.
Phelan slashes at the hide of a stegosaurus and it lashes its thorny tail as it goes down. Both canines barely manage to avoid getting spiked as the beaters stop once one stegosaurus goes down and the other two soon follow. Without the constant agitation of the beaters the contents of the cauldron get very volatile very quickly.
Fighting the gator on dino back is very unsporting and Phelan knows it as he dismounts to run up the ramp and face Bone Saw in single combat. Bone Saw is smirking as he does this and grips her staff tightly. As he runs he mutters a quick prayer to Morrigan for protection as Niagara runs up behind him.
When Phelan and Niagara turn a corner of the ramp Bone Saw sends waves of bad juju at them that Phelan is actually able to dodge. Niagara is not so lucky but she does get a good throw of her tomahawk to shatter the skull finial of Bone Saw's staff from whence the bad juju came from that the gator gal was using as a weapon before she collapses. Phelan is furious when he gets up to his opponent and swings the saber wildly and in doing so forces Bone Saw back towards the cauldron.
Bone Saw block most of Phelan's saber slashes with her staff but always has to take a step back from the sheer force of the blow. Phelan's form turns skeletal as he wields the blade but only in the eyes of Bone Saw. To her it's as if Death himself had come to claim her soul.
Finally Phelan is able to break her staff with his sword and with the next slash he pushed Bone Saw into the very cauldron she was preparing. Ironically despite the fact that most alligators can swim quite well, Bone Saw drowns in the primordial soup of power she was brewing. Once the priestess dies the whole place starts to come apart.
Phelan is not so enraptured by his victory that the fact that he needs to get out of here escapes him. In fact he had started down the ramp as quick as he could to attend Niagara when Bone Saw went under. And when the quake starts indicating the whole place was coming apart, he grabs Niagara, yells for Stormcloud to get ready and then they ride out as fast as they can with Zephyr, Niagra's bone head close behind.
Once they are out of the woods, Phelan uses his magic to save Niagara's life before the juju could snuff her like a candle in the wind. When she awakens, Niagara and Phelan are camped out on the plains between the Demon Fang Mountains and the town of Goldwater. She notices that she is naked and under her own medicine blankets as Phelan is cooking frankfurters and beans over a fire.
"Hey," Niagara calls to Phelan who almost doesn't hear her with her voice being so faint.
"Welcome back to the land of the living," Phelan says with a smirk. "You had me worried a little."
"If I'm going to die, I want it to be in child birth or after more adventures than this," Niagara growls with mock indignation. "You didn't do anything with me while I was out did you? I would not have minded."
"I have my standards and raping a bitch, even one as lovely as you is a definite no-no," Phelan says as he nuzzles her. "And I mean bitch in the best possible way. Not as the cuss word it's fast becoming."
"I know, but it's not endearing even if I know you mean well by it." Niagara says as she rubs his groin. "Lay with me? After that I think I want the chance of getting pregnant."
Phelan does not answer verbally but gets undressed and does as she asks. He licks her breasts as a means of really getting her motor running. Niagara spreads herself and practically begs him to take her as she massages his scrotum.
Under the light of the triple moons the canines make love on a stone altar in a Stonehenge like formation on the plains that tribes use for shelter even if they know not who built them or why. For Phelan this is a kind of sacred act for which the goddess Morrigan is looking down at them and smiling. Ravens perch on the connecting monoliths and sing in harmony as wolf and coyote consummate a new partnership in unspoken terms.
Eventually they make it into Goldwater where a hero's welcome is waiting for Phelan Mahoney. Duncan Dunbar is still running the Heavenly Sin and is in the process of expanding it when Phelan rides back into town. The railroad station is a little grander and there is a tower being built to welcome zeppelins.
There is no official Mayor yet, but Duncan is one of those being considered for the job. A suite of rooms are planned to be set aside for Phelan when the place is done being built up as a proper hotel with the saloon and brothel included among the special services of the place. The townsfolk offer to make a church for Phelan to preach, but he politely refuses and explains that the Stonehenge on the badlands is the only church he needs, which actually saves it from the attention of the townsfolk as they were thinking of cannibalizing the place for stones but if the pagans need it for their worship, those espousing the one true god vow to leave it alone for the use of those for whom it is sacred.