It was the time of the rainy season along the coastal areas that often brought in the most unpredictable weather patterns in from out across the reaches of the Pacific Ocean. It could be clear as a bell one minute and then a god awful storm front would roll in and douse everything for miles around in a torrential downpour, leaving anyone caught outside scrambling for shelter. Mox knew to keep track of weather patterns whenever he and Trip were away from Firebend and was familiar with most of the places where you could go to get out of a storm in most areas, he had traveled near Dewfork before, he knew how to get there from Fishbin, but had never ventured into the actual township before. It was a place where mostly hoarders lived, and not many people from the outlying areas went there unless they knew somebody that lived in the small trade village, hoarders were generally viewed as being off center and unpredictable and could become violent with strangers if provoked. Dewfork however, was still a long ways off from their position below The pacific trail, from where they had started from the Atteli’s caves, Mox lead them to the Diamond fork where the one trail tapered off into three, which he led them along the northernmost part that took them even farther away from the Pacific Trail making them almost impossible to spot from above even if Furlong did manage to catch up with them.
The low, distant rumblings from out over The Pacific took his attention away from their travels long enough for him to see the large storm system coming toward them. He knew it would be almost over them within two-possibly three hours, and that they were going to need to find shelter soon. Mox knew that it would mean risking moving to higher ground and possibly being spotted, they could have sought out another cave or simply push the animals that much harder to reach an abandoned fishing shack that was farther to the northeast of them along the same trail that they were presently on, rather than deal with the possibility of running into Furlong and his crew, they all agreed that the fishing shack would be their best option so they pushed the horses farther northeast. They rode a full three miles along the outer trail, and they turned farther inland before they made it to the fishing shack, there was one out building where they could secure the horses, and they made it to shelter just before the storm hit them at full throttle, Furlong, however, at a full five miles behind Mox, Trip, and Ava hadn’t faired so well. The downpour had caught his crew out in the open, and they’d lost two pack animals into a deep ravine alongside the Pacific Trail, they had broken legs and both animals had become mortally wounded, and when they’d fallen both had thrown most of their supplies into the now muddy terrain.
The only possible cover within range was a group of trees up on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Trail, Furlong pushed them up to the trees and decided to ride out the storm there, he would send someone back down to the ravine to recover as much of their supplies as possible, but that would have to wait for later. They had put a full three days ride between them and Fishbin and were at the point where the Pacific Trail was beginning to lead them into the higher elevations, and still, there was no sign of Mox and his two companions. Furlong had begun to question his own instincts and started to wonder about his own decision-making on several occasions. The storm had moved in on them suddenly and caught them with their pants down and Furlong knew it, all they could do then was to ride it out and pray for the best. The rain had lessened only slightly, but to the point where he could walk away from the trees for a short distance to survey the sky, there were black and gray clouds looming as far as the eye could see, but the sounds of rolling thunder told him that the worst was yet to come. Thor's Towers were too far back to reach before the brunt of the storm would be on top of them, He had to make a decision, leave half of their supplies and push farther inland to seek out better shelter, or stand their ground and risk further loss, the thunder grew closer almost forcing his hand, he told his men to mount up they would head for a place called Rainfort, there were no caves there but some rather large rock formations that could at least provide shelter from the winds and maybe even the rain itself. Mox was going to slip away from him.
The wind lashed at the fishing shack and the out building, and the rain pounded everything around them, but they stayed inside and were dry, in the brief lulls that the storm afforded him Mox would run back and forth to the out building to check on the horses, He cautiously moved up beside of Ava’s appaloosa as it began to fidget nervously, something just told Mox that it wasn’t the storm making the mare nervous. He stepped outside the out building and ignoring the wind began to look around, there was something out there in the storm, and although he couldn’t tell what exactly he knew that they definitely weren’t alone. Five shapes began to come into focus in the form of shadows, and Mox knew immediately that it was a pack of feral dogs, there were only five, but they were all fairly large, he went back into the shed to get Trip and to gather their weapons, he was fairly certain that he wouldn’t be able to take out all five dogs by himself. Trip took the northeast corner of the out building and knelt down on one knee to load the crossbow, while Mox took the opposite corner. Mox waved his finger in the general direction to where he last saw the pack of wild dogs, and almost immediately Trip spotted them slowly coming forward through the wind and rain and raised the crossbow to fix his aim on the closest dog in the pack. He held his breath for a time until it was within range, and he let fly his first bolt, and it struck the lead dog right in the chest and dropped it, Mox took out the second with a shot that landed directly in the second dog's skull, the remaining three hesitated and began to circle, it afforded them both ample time to reload, a loud crash of thunder caused the remaining three dogs to turn and run, They both agreed that they would be needing to stand watch over the horses for the remainder of the night.
~Scratch. A.B.T. Copyright © 2017~
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