{"sf1_id":566489,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Guns of Legend: Chapter Five","author":"ThisAdamGuy","words":812,"posted_at":"2013-07-22T21:24:00.000Z","tags":["Action","Adventure","Cowboys","Fantasy","Guns","Indians","Shotguns","Western","furry","monsters","rifles"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/566489-guns-of-legend-chapter-five","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/566489","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=566489\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"\nChapter Five\nAmbalin rum coursed through\nKulgan's veins.  The amount of alcohol he\nhad in his system would have been enough to make a kashni pass out, but it only\ninvigorated the watchful zik, enhancing his senses and giving him the energy he\nneeded to stay awake for yet another night. \nIt was funny, he thought.  From\nwhat he'd heard, getting drunk had the opposite effect on most people.  If he had any sympathy left to give, he might\nactually feel sorry for them.\nNot that it would matter tonight,\nthough.  The last kidnapping had happened\nless than 24 hours ago.  The closest two\nkidnappings ever occurred to each other was three weeks.  It would be a while before the\nwhatever-it-was returned for another. \nStill, Kulgan did not let this thought lull him into a sense of\nsecurity.  He would remain vigilant\nthrough the night, as he always did.\nThe hours passed slowly, but Kulgan\ndidn't mind so long as he had a spare bottle of rum on hand.  Popping the cork on his fifth one of the\nnight, he tilted his head back and allowed the drink to pour into his mouth.\n\"No!\" someone down below screamed.\nCaught completely off guard, Kulgan\nchoked and spewed his rum all over the side of the watch tower.  Without stopping to think, he threw open the\nhatch and slid down the ladder, pulling his pistol out of his belt as he\nwent.  His feet hit the ground running as\nfast as they could carry him towards where the sound had come from.  Lights in a nearby house had been lit, and a\nsmall group of villagers had crowded around the doorway to see what had\nhappened.\n\"Get out of my way!\" Kulgan\nshouted.  \"Back off!\"\nShoving his way through the crowd, he\nfound a toola waiting in her doorframe.  Four\nof her spindly insectile knees rested on the floor while her large claw pointed\ndumbly out into the distance.  Kulgan\nrecognized her instantly.  She was\nBivvip, the mother of a small child named Rhow. \nAbout three years ago, before he'd even come to Everdry, a pack of wastraps\nhad attacked her in the desert, and she'd lost one of her foreclaws.  Kulgan knelt down next to her and placed a\ncomforting hand on her remaining shoulder.\n\"Bivvip, what did you see?\" he\nasked as gently as he could.\nThe toola didn't answer, just kept\npointing out into the desert, her vertically hinged jaw quivering in\nshock.  Kulgan sighed and got up.\n\"I said get back!\" he yelled at the\ncrowd.  \"How am I supposed to track this\nthing if you destroy its trail?\"  The\nvillagers backed away, except for one.\n\"This is the closest these\nkidnappings have gotten to your tower,\" Tikta growled, walking up and angrily jabbing\nhis claw into the zik's chest.  \"If you're so good at this, how on Larz did\nyou not realize something was happening?\"\n\"I don't know,\" Kulgan answered,\nmeeting the kashni's glare.  \"It makes no\nsense that something like this could have happened so silently.  All I know is that every moment you stand in\nfront of me is taking Rhow further away from his mother.\"\n\"You know what I think?\" Tikta\nsnarled, baring his formidable teeth.  \"I\nthink you're letting them happen so that we'll have to keep paying you!\"\n\"Are you really going to do this\nnow, of all times?\" Kulgan asked, his voice rising in anger.\n\"Either that or you've got no idea\nwhat you're doing, and you're stealing from us!\" Tikta concluded.  \"Either way, I've had it with you!\"  The kashni raised his claws, intending to cut\nthe zik down on the spot his drunken rage. \nA sharp crack rang out, and Tikta screeched in pain before falling over,\na bullet lodged deep in his left foot.\n\"Anyone else want to argue with me?\"\nKulgan roared. \"Or may I be left alone long enough to do my work?\"\nThe crowd scattered, only two people\nsticking around just long enough to grab the crying Tikta and drag him\naway.  Fuming inwardly, Kulgan knelt down\nat the base of the doorway and studied the ground.  He cursed under his breath.  The idiotic villagers had tramped all over\nthe scene.  Any normal tracker would have\ndeemed finding any of the real tracks hopeless, but Kulgan was a Ranger, and\nfinding what he was looking for only took a little extra effort.  There they were, clear as day to Kulgan's trained\neye.  Standing up again, he turned to\nface the toola again.\n\"I'll get him back, Bivvip,\" he\nsaid.  \"I promise.\"\nAs he began to follow the tracks,\nthough, all he could think of was how he'd said that same exact thing to every\nmother and father who'd had their child stolen away.  How long would it be, he wondered, before he\nhad to say it again?\n"}