Slaughter at Stringybark Creek - Chapter Two -
#3 of Stringybark Creek
Lachlan returns home, to find everything he's ever known, burned to ashes, and makes a terrible discovery - his life will be forever changed by these horrific events - a life he offers to share, with someone he once thought of as a servant of the King, but forges an unlikely truce with, when the young Constable takes stock of his own short life - and makes a decision of his own...
Slaughter At Stringybark Creek Chapter Two (c) Cederwyn Whitefurr 30th November, 2012. All Rights Reserved.
Lachlan screamed himself hoarse, as he ran wildly across the stream, water sloshing as high as his hips before he broke into a frantic, flat out run - his hooves thudding against the fallen leaf litter and leaving deep impressions, mane swirling and tail raised and streaming out behind him. As the rifle fire faded away, Lachlan had no doubts as to where it'd come from - he only prayed to whatever Deity was listening - he wouldn't be too late.
*
Constable Clanton lay unconscious in the blood spattered dirt of the burning farmstead, oblivious as the fire raged and consumed the slab hut and small stable, smoke curling up into the uncaring late afternoon sky. As a pealing scream of equine anguish shattered split the air, Constable Clanton grunted groggily and flicked an ear - without warning, he felt himself gripped by his uniform collar and physically slammed against a Ghost Gum, the air crushed from his slender lungs. As he struggled to draw breath, he felt the paws lock like manacles about his throat - then lift him at least a foot off the ground. Choking and gagging, he used his one working paw to claw at the iron-like fingers in a futile gesture. As spots and jagged lines erupted behind his eyes, the Constable gagged and strangled, his paw instinctively reaching for the pistol holstered at his right hip - only to feel the steel barrel trust up under his chin, forcing his head back and the unmistakable click of the heavy hammer being pulled back.
"You - " Lachlan roared, tears streaking down his muzzle, as he ground the barrel deeper and with his left hand, tightened his already crushing grip, lifting the choking kangaroo higher.
Constable Clanton thrashed and struggled, his lungs feeling like they were consumed with fire, yet he was powerless to break the strong grip of the enraged and hysterical equine.
"You murdering bastard!" Lachlan shrieked, his voice cracking with emotion. "Give me one damn reason why I should not pull this trigger..."
Despite suffocating, Constable Clanton heard the slight clicking of the revolver chamber turn, his eyes wide and paw flailing ineffectively at Lachlan's wrist. Something - in the terrified, pain riddled Kangaroo's eyes, stayed Lachlan's rage and he released the Constable, who crumpled to the ground and began wheezing, paw splayed against his throat and desperately trying to breath. Lachlan ignored him, as he walked towards where his mother hung, then slumped to his knees and clutched his muzzle in his paws, the revolver falling from his fingers to thud onto the ground.
"I was not here to save you - " Lachlan sobbed heart-brokenly, as he clung to his mothers calves, his tears running unimpeded down his cheeks and dripping to the ground.
Gagging and retching, Constable Clanton staggered to his feet, then dropped to his knees and continued struggling to draw breath.
"It - " He rasped.
With frightening speed, Lachlan spun around and his fingers locked around the Constable's throat again and began squeezing inexorably.
"Shut up - just - just - shut up!" Lachlan screamed, giving full voice to his guilt, pain and anger as he began to shake the Constable like a Terrier would shake a rat.
Throwing the Constable to the ground, Lachlan turned his tear streaked face back to his mother, before running to the tree and fumbling at the knots until he finally undone them and carefully lowered her body to the ground. Oblivious of the agonised Trooper laying nearby, Lachlan knelt and cradled his mother to his chest, before tipping back his head and completely surrendering to the conflicting emotions inside him, as Constable Clanton crawled away, using only his one working paw, his feet refusing to work.
*
For an hour, Lachlan wept at his mothers side, everything he'd ever known - everything Silvermane had taught him - it all bubbled to the surface in an endless wave of grief and sadness, before he cried himself out, the unmistakable burning hate and need for revenge mounting his spine like a white-hot flame. As he gently as he could, he laid his mothers head on the ground, reaching for the pistol that wasn't there...as he blinked, he heard the hammer pulled back, and he stared in disbelief, as Constable Clanton leaned against the tree, holding the revolver in his shaking paw and pointed at Lachlan.
"Listen to me - " Corporal Clanton gasped, feeling the agony of his shattered forearm nearly send him to his knees.
"You listen to me - Copper - " Lachlan snarled, his rage barely suppressed and ears flat against the back of his head, then slowly touched his chest, then right between his eyes. "Here, or here - anywhere else - I'm going to kill you..."
Constable Clanton managed a weak laugh, his ears twitching backwards. "I'm - the one with the gun. Now...please - just, just listen to me - please?"
Barely reining in his rising anger, Lachlan knelt and placed his interlaced fingers behind his head, in a submissive gesture. Even still Constable Clanton kept a nervous gaze on him, knowing from experience how fast this young Colt was.
"It - it wasn't me, I swear - Sargent MacGoven and his - goons, they did this! They did all of this, I tried to stop him and - "
Lachlan trembled, his rage building, yet he remained kneeling.
Constable Clanton swallowed, then tightened his grip on the pistol, his paws sweating profusely.
"I tried to stop him, he - he's mad with his power, he - he is in the pay of powerful men - they wanted your family out of the way and...and...its no secret. He hates - us - for what we are, in his eyes, we're neither animal nor human and..." Clanton rasped, before is throat locked and he could barely breathe.
"So - " Come the low, venomous hiss from Lachlan. "Why do you stay? Why don't you report him, or something! How - look at you, you're what - barely seventeen? Not even a man yet - "
Constable Clanton's ears flattened, his anger finding an outlet at last.
"You dare criticise me? Do you know half of what I've endured? How I've had to work so very hard, just to get the position I have? How much I've - "
Lachlan merely gestured to his dead mother, then his burned home, everything he'd ever known, taken from him. Constable Clanton swallowed, the formerly rock-steady grip on the pistol wavering slightly. It was at that moment, something touched the Constable deep in his heart, before he took one faltering step, then another, his dark brown eyes locked on Lachlan's - before he realised how close he was, then made the ultimate gesture of faith, he flipped the pistol in his paw, then held it out butt first too the equine.
"You want your revenge - " Constable Clanton whispered, his tears spilling forth, before he slowly knelt and lifted his head. "Then start with me..."
As he squeezed his eyes closed, Constable Clanton prayed silently, waiting for it all to end, when there was nothing - he cracked open his eyelids and stared. Lachlan has stood silently, and turned his back, the equines broad shoulders trembling as he lowered his paws, the gun once more falling from his nerveless fingers.
"I may be many things - " Lachlan whispered, his voice choked with sobs. "Yet I'm no cold blooded murderer - "
*
Sometime later, Clanton shed his uniform, throwing it on the hot coals and standing beside Lachlan, watching his uniform first smoulder, then catch fire.
"I'm done with that life - " Clanton whispered. "I can't go back, Sargent MacGoven would have me in irons and -"
Lachlan shook his head, turning his back on the smouldering ruin that had been his home, before he walked a short distance and picked up a shovel that had somehow survived the conflagration. Clanton watched him, before he shivered and turned towards his ever patient mare and dragged some rough cloth from his saddlebag and found two tick, yet flexible sticks. Making a rough splint for his broken forearm, he nearly screamed as he bit down on the end of the rough-spun cloth and pulled the knots tight. He felt the pain lancing through his body like a gunshot, and with nothing at hand to ease it, he formed a crude sling from his belt and slipped his wrist through the loop, then clumped against the tree and watched Lachlan as he dug a deep hole, then buried his mother...Lachlan never cried, but the former constable cried enough for both of them...
*
Hours later, Clanton rode the mare as Lachlan walked with the reins in his right paw, the revolver tucked into his pants.
"What will become of us?" Clanton asked in confusion.
"I know enough about trapping and hunting - we'll - survive. What we can't catch ourselves, well, there's always..." Lachlan muttered.
Clanton's eyes went wide as the realisation of what Lachlan was insinuating began to sink in.
"NO!" He rasped. "You can not expect me too - "
Lachlan never paused, but moved off the tree lined road and headed through the thick scrub, the mare baulking slightly as she felt the branches slapping against her belly and sides.
"What choice do we have? You're a Copper, I'm - I'm nothing - you at least, could get some supplies to tide us over, I'm sure there's a few, shopkeepers who owe you a favour or two..."
"I - " Clanton moaned. "I got some of my wages left, I could clear out my barracks chest when Sargent MacGoven is out patrolling...it - its not much..."
"Anything is better than what we have - my rifle, " Lachlan's voice trailed off for a moment, as his ears flicked. "your pistol, the mare on which you're riding..."
"You - " Clanton whispered fearfully. "You know what you're asking of me - the punishment for..."
"Take my offer, or leave it Buck - its my only option. Who wants me? Nobody, I go to town to trade my meagre goods, to sell the skins - and what do I get? Derision, insults - no, this is the only way. I - I'll be grateful for whatever help you can give - and your silence."
"I - you could get a job, you're young, fit, healthy - " Clanton stammered. "There has to be an alternative..."
"What about you? What will you do, Mr. Ex Police Trooper? Think that they'll just forget about you? No, they'll hunt you down as a traitor to the Colony and the King...I've seen the 'justice' - forgive me, if I place no faith in it. You saw what they done - you know - don't you? Just how much of the 'Kings Justice' really rules in this Godless colony! Powerful and influential men with pounds to burn, rule here! Not us mere 'commoners' - even convicts - would receive better treatment than we would around here!" Lachlan's voice was low, filled with a terrible sadness and wisdom, far beyond his own tender years should bring him.
"I - " Clanton blinked the words suddenly vanishing.
Lachlan uttered a weak, bone weary laugh and nodded his head, before taking a convoluted path through a thick patch of lantana, following an almost invisible game trail. Once again, the mare baulked and snorted, but with a forceful tug of the reins, Lachlan made he push through it and Clanton stared in amazement.
They found themselves before a deep cave, the overhanging granite casting the cave mouth in deep cool shadows, the thick scribbly gums, lemon scented melaleuca and other trees providing a thick screen of protective foliage. If one did not know this cave was here, Clanton swore silently, you could walk within fifty paces of it, and never know it existed. Clanton could smell water nearby, and he became aware of just how dry his throat had become. Carefully, using his uninjured paw he slipped from the saddle and stood beside the mare, who nickered quietly in confusion, her head slowly moving from side to side, ears pricked forwards. Clanton soothed his mare with a gentle pet to her sweaty neck, before taking stock of the situation.
"Guess this - " he whispered, his own long ears twitching back.
"Home - " Lachlan snorted.
To Be Continued...