The city watch of Fishbin had always kept the peace, even when hostiles came wandering in and tried to stir up trouble, fear of what the city watch and constable Clinton Swift had all the proper resources to put them in chains and lock them away in a cell for days or in some cases weeks on end, even guys like Furlong knew better than to try anything even remotely hostile. He had two of his lieutenants with him when he began to make his rounds through the shops along Trader's Row gathering information on any possible strangers in the area and when he finally had gotten word that Mox Kile and Trip Anders had been spotted traveling through the area with an unknown female that he’d made a beeline for The Brass Bottom Trade Center. It wasn’t until early afternoon when Ferral first heard the heavy boots walking on the floorboards right outside the front door of his shop that he knew for certain who was going to be coming in. He was rather tall, not as tall as Ferral, but still taller than most, and while Ferral hadn’t ever had much in the way of personal business with him, like everyone else in Fishbin- he just knew it was Morg Creel’s henchman Furlong. It was the long fiery red hair, the dark menacing eyes, the stern somber way that he carried himself that made people wary of him, he walked into Ferral’s shop and slowly scanned the room for any other people, with a slight hand gesture, he motioned for the two smaller men with him to stay by the door, Ferral eyed him cautiously as he walked up to the counter.
“I understand that Mox Kile and Trip Anders have been through here, any idea where they might have gotten off to?” Furlong asked.
“Yep, They traded some sharpening stones for some dried goods and a hot meal, said they were on their way to the Diablo range, going to hunt large game there,” Ferral answered flatly.
Furlong looked him up and down, studying his demeanor carefully, Ferral was a tough nut to crack for anyone, and terribly difficult to read.
“Were they alone?” He asked.
“Nope, they had some blonde girl with them, she didn’t talk much though, from what I gathered they were going to help her get to Sawtooth to meet up with a friend of hers there before heading up to the Diablo’s. The trail ain’t no place for a good-looking young girl like her to be traveling alone, you never know what kind of cutthroats may be hiding around the next bend.” Ferral told him.
He turned away from Ferral and looked out the front window and considered his options, Morg Creel really wanted him to come back with someone’s hide, four of their men were dead, and he was fairly certain that the unknown blonde girl was a person of great interest and would more than likely at least have some kind of information that would tell him who killed them, but Furlong knew given the temperament of Ferral it would not be wise at the time to press the issue, and he didn’t dare test his luck with the city watch, they knew good and well who he was, who he worked for and were watching his every move. Without so much as another word he motioned for the two men by the door to return to the pack, he turned briefly before making his exit to eye Ferral one last time, he knew for certain that Ferral, Mox, and Trip were lifelong friends, it was common knowledge in Fishbin and the surrounding areas that Ferral and Mox’s mother grew up in the same village and were in many ways like family, but still, although he suspected that Ferral was flat out lying to his face he didn’t have any information that would conclusively prove it. He opened the door and stepped back out onto the wooden walkway, he nodded down the street further to the two men, they needed to look elsewhere, they weren’t going to get any information out of Ferral.
They made their way along the wooden sidewalks of Trader’s Row until they came upon a small group of street urchins who remembered seeing Mox, Trip and the girl heading down to BlackRock Beach, Furlong knew right then, the road to Sawtooth lead off to the south/southwest, they wouldn’t go to BlackRock unless they were hiding there or heading in the opposite direction, he paused a moment to consider the prospect. The entire length of BlackRock ran east and west, if you went further west the cliffs were too high to get back above it to the trails, and the beach itself would narrow to the point where you would eventually have to cross large sections of water just to continue on the path that you were taking. If you went east, however, there were several wide trails from the beach leading up that could be used to get back onto the Pacific Trail and continue on from there to wherever you were going. After giving the situation serious thought Furlong concluded that it would be best for his pack to go back the way they came along the Pacific Trail, sooner or later Mox and his two companions would have to turn back up there, and Furlong and his pack would be waiting for them. Unknown to Furlong however, was Mox had a whole other plan of his own, he had already considered the possibility that someone could have seen them returning to BlackRock, and that they might have told Furlong and that he would possibly double back to the Pacific Trail and return the way they came, what Furlong nor anyone else knew however, was that Mox, Trip, and Ava, wouldn’t be on foot once they’d reached Thor’s Tower’s, there they had three horse’s and supplies waiting for them.
They walked along BlackRock Beach for over four hours, they passed people going to and from Fishbin less and less the farther they traveled from town, Ferral had told Mox just before they’s left Fishbin for the towers that his friend Sassy Federline would be waiting in the beach caves below the towers that only a few of the locals knew about that everyone called the Attili’s that held access to the Pacific Trail from inside of the caves themselves. You could lead the horse’s single file up a series of trails that ran inside of the caves that would eventually lead to another opening that led out just below the Pacific, it would save them precious time from going back out the way they came in and moving up and around the cliffs. From there Mox would lead them along a lesser traveled trail that began just below the Pacific that would allow them to have a treeline to keep them concealed from anyone who was traveling above them, eventually, it would lead them to the northeast in the direction of Dewfork. The locals called the cove that the caves overlooked Mutiny Bay, and when Mox saw it forming in the distance he knew that they were getting close to Thor’s Towers, he also knew that Furlong and his crew weren’t far off on the Pacific Trail so he was going to have to think on the fly if they were to stay ahead of them. When they finally reached the edge of the rocky shores of Mutiny Bay, Mox lead them up the trail that would take them to the Attili caves, where Sassy Federline was waiting with the horses and supplies.
They moved up the narrow path toward the Attili’s when Mox saw Sassy poke her head out to see who was coming, once he saw her-he vaguely remembered meeting her once or twice before in his dealings with Ferral, she was kind of short, with brilliant long blonde hair that she kept pulled back into a ponytail, and was incredibly fit, and as he recalled she was usually barefoot. When she saw Mox leading up the path, her blue eyes lit up. She walked out of the cave to greet them and took Mox’s hand and gave him a warm greeting. She told them that they were the first people that she’d seen in the past two hours and that the horses were well rested and ready to go, but they only had two or three hours of daylight left so if they wanted to stay ahead of Furlong they could only rest up for a few minutes before they had to leave for Dewfork. Each horse had saddlebags on the side full of dried goods and extra lead shot and two Flintstones for making fires, just above the stirrups there were long leather lined quivers filled with extra bolts for their crossbows. It seemed as though even when doing it on the fly- Ferral had thought of everything, now Mox just had to keep them ahead of Furlong and his crew. after several minutes, they thanked Sassy for her assistance and began to lead the horses up the inside trails that would bring them out below the Pacific. When they exited the caves the sun was still reasonably high on the horizon so they knew they still had, at the very least- two full hours of daylight left, and Mox had already thought of a place for them to spend the night, but they would have to get moving to reach it before nightfall. Furlong wasn’t far behind them.
~Scratch. A.B.T. Copyright © 2017~
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