Black Wings

*Author's note: I am working on this for NaNoWrimo. I'm attempting to get as much written as I can. I feel behind early in the month. I'm posting sections as I find myself taking a long pause. Some of the breaks are a little rough. I'm hoping I'll at least have most of this finished by the end of the month, I plan to submit it to a producer as a potential movie. I'd really appreciate critiques regarding the story line flow and character developement. Thank you for reading <3)

“I do remember that,” Kayse smiled. “You made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.”

“We all were delighted to have you around here,” Wilhelmina said. “Your uncle especially. I wish so much that you had known that.”

Kayse nodded softly and looked back at the papers in her hand. She smiled softly and closed the folder. “I suppose I better get work learning how to run this place so I can earn my keep.”

Outside, the weather was fair and there was hardly any wind for a change. Wilhelmina led Kayse out to the barn and opened the big sliding doors revealing an old, red, flatbed farm truck.

“All that money and he couldn’t spring for something newer?” Kayse asked going through the keys on her belt.

“We can go in to Cody and find you something newer if you like,” Wilhelmina said. “Kal just liked his old truck, probably could have bought a new one with all the money he sunk into repairing this thing. Can you drive a stick?”

“Oh, yeah,” Kayse waved the question off. “I dated a gear head down in New Mexico for a few months. Cars, trucks, bikes, if I didn’t know how to drive it, I learned. Turns out he didn’t exactly own all of them though. I would like to pick up something newer for sure. And, I need some new clothes.”

“Why don’t we go on Sunday,” Wilhelmina suggested.

“That would be great,” Kayse agreed. “So, what’s on the to do list for today?”

“Bringing the quarter horse mares in,” Wilhelmina gestured to the truck. “You drive, you’re going to need to know your way around here.” They climbed into the cab. “The mares have all been bred and preg-checked, confirmed since May. They’re going to need more feed through the winter than the rest. There’s four winter pastures in total that all border the homestead.”

“If we’re getting ready to move the quarter horses in for the winter,” Kayse paused, with her hand on the key in the ignition. “Why did we just move the clydesdales further out?”

“They’re more resilient in the cold,” Wilhelmina explained. “We try to time breedings out to make sure the clydesdales and quarter horses aren’t having babies at the same time.”

That made sense to Kayse. She started the engine and the truck roared to life. She had to admit, the sound of the old big-block did have its own appeal. They roared out to the west most field where a group of red and brown mares were grazing. Wilhelmina let out a sharp whistle and three mares came forward. Wilhelmina jumped out and pushed the back of the seat forward, retrieving a handful of ropes and halters, passing a set off to Kayse.

The mares were well trained as promised. Wilhelmina explained that three were some of the eldest in the herd and had established themselves as lead mares. If they went, the others would follow. Kalvin had customized the bed of the truck to hold attachments for nearly any purpose. Wilhelmina raised a pipe from alongside the bed, bent it at a hinge in the middle and secured it to another pipe on the other end.

“That’s handy,” Kayse remarked.

“Well,” Wilhelmina remarked, as she began to tie the first mare to the rack, “it’s not what it was designed for, but it works. It would take all day, lots of fuel and multiple trips to move all these girls by trailer. Come here, I want to make sure you know this.” She began to tie a slip knot around the bar with one lead rope.

“Oh, I already know that,” Kayse said.

“Picked it up from another boyfriend?” Wilhelmina cast a sideways grin.

Kayse flushed a little, “yeah, actually, probably the only decent one I’ve had. Navy man.”

“Ooh, a soldier,” Wilhelmina raised her eyebrows. “What happened to him?”

Kayse shrugged. “He was deployed when Charlie showed up. I waited for him to call me before I left town. We hadn’t been together long. He was really understanding.” She shrugged. “He was sweet. But, I think I just enjoyed him while he was enjoying his leave. We had lots of fun.”

Wilhelmina nodded and gave a knowing smile. “Alright then, I’m too darned old to be riding with the girls,” Wilhelmina said. “Stay on the back, if it looks like trouble, pull the rope loose.”

Kayse nodded in agreement and climbed up on the bed. The mares cantered along behind the truck as it rolled slowly across the field, the rest of the herd followed eagerly. It took over an hour to reach the field they needed to and Kayse spent most of the time thinking. She wasn’t sure that she completely believed Wilhelmin’s explanation about why they had been moved so far from the homestead. They passed near the north pasture and Kayse couldn’t help but notice that there were two steers standing out in the pasture.

She tapped on the back window of the truck and Wilhelmina slid it open.

“Are those cows supposed to be in there?” she asked.

Wilhelmina looked over, “oh, yeah. They’re fine. I’ll have Orion come check on the fence.”

Kayse felt a little confused as the window slid shut and Wilhelmina opened her cell phone. She looked back towards the cows as they carried on. The steers were not grazing, or moving. They simply stood in one place, noses raised in the air, ears forward and eyes glued to the hills. Kayse made a mental note to remember to ask what kind of predators lived in the area.

As they reached the west pasture and released the mares an unseen horse called out from the barn.

“Oh, that’d be Brigit,” Wilhelmina cooed. “Bring the truck around, I’ll introduce you.”

Kayse pulled the truck into the drive while Wilhelmina closed the gate and disappeared into the barn. A few seconds later, she returned with a black clydesdale mare behind her. This one was significantly smaller than the others, but still a good sized horse.

“This is Brigit, my baby,” Wilhelmina smiled.

Brigit stepped around her and placed her head right against Kayse. With a warm chuckle, Kayse began to scratch her neck.

“Awe, she’s so sweet.”

“She’s under the impression she’s a pet,” Wilhelmina laughed. “I brought her over since it looks like I’ll be helping around here for a while. She’s one hell of a ranch horse.”

“She works?” Kayse asked in surprise. “Orion told me about her. He said she was stunted.”

“Only in size,” Wilhelmina said. “Compared to her Aunty Ember, she’s just a slight of a thing.”

“What happened to her?”

“Oh,” Wilhelmina reached over and stroked Brigid's shoulder, sadness overtaking her countenance. “Brigid was just a newborn and her mother Nuria was killed. We found the poor baby out in the rain by herself, half starved.”

Kayse caught something in the statement that surprised her. “Ember is Brigid’s aunt?” she asked.

Wilhelmina nodded.

“So, Nuria was Ember’s sister?” Kayse asked.

“Yeah,” Wilhelmina nodded. “Full sisters.”

Now Kayse knew something was off. The paperwork she had glanced at the previous night had shown Nuria to be Ember’s offspring. She made a note to herself to go over all the horses’ paperwork.

The rest of the day was spent doing ranch work. A feed trough had to be put out so they could give the pregnant mares grain. A few of the fields had their own wells and automatic water systems. Since they wouldn’t be used for the rest of the year, Wilhelmina showed Kayse how to shut the water off and blow the lines. They checked the irrigation canals to the crops on both her and Orion’s land, finding a few blocks created by plants and branches that made their way in from the barrow ditches. The size of the two ranches and traversing raw terrain made it so a majority of the day was spent driving from one place to another giving her plenty of time to talk to Wilhelmina. She explained that they hired custom cutters to harvest and bale the hay since they used most of it themselves rather than selling it, it wasn’t profitable to buy the equipment themselves. She had already made the arrangements and they’d be arriving in a few weeks time.

As the day came to a close, Wilhelmina headed home, saying something about having to tend to an injured mule she was caring for. Kayse went inside and grabbed a soda from the fridge before collapsing on the couch. There was so much to learn and become accustomed to around here. Her head was swimming with all the information she had taken in. While she felt like going over the horses’ papers was important, she just could bring herself to do it tonight. With a sigh, she picked the remote up off the end table and switched the tv on. She tuned out into the world of sit-coms for the rest of the night until she drifted off to sleep on the couch.

The rest of the week was more of the same. Kayse learned to mend fences and busted pipes, trim hooves, administer dewormer, give antibiotics and a handful of other tasks. Wilhelmina took her into the nearby town and showed her the general store, which had basic goods and groceries for a home and just about everything she could imagine for a ranch. The quarter horses were taking a large amount of the attention. The filly’s and geldings under two years old were all sent into the largest pasture near the homestead, and the rest were put right next to them. A group of studs were put on the other side of the pregnant mares. Some of the studs were a little “hotter” -as Wilhelmina put it- than the rest and had to be penned separately to prevent fighting or anyone running through fences.

Sunday had rolled around and Kayse still hadn’t got to looking over the paper work. She had Wilhelmina knocked out the basic tasks like putting oats out for the mares and checking the automatic waterers before they headed out to Cody in Wilhelmina’s truck.

At a local car dealership, Kayse stood awkwardly in front of a row of trucks. She hadn’t put much thought into it until she found herself looking at brightly painted numbers on the windshields and realized, much her her dismay, that she had the money in hand.

“What’s wrong?” Wilhelmina asked, noticing her frozen state.

“My little car,” Kayse said. “I paid eight hundred for it in a grocery store parking lot. My car before that, I worked as a secretary for a small mechanic shop on weekends for a few months in exchange for it. I had to work there another two months for him to get it into running condition. I’ve never even dreamed of being able to honestly afford a brand new vehicle.”

“Oh, goodness,” Wilhelmina laughed softly. “Did you ever imagine you’d own a whole horse ranch either?”

“No, I didn’t,” Kayse said, agreeing to the point.

“Best get used to living a life you’ve never imagined,” Wilhelmina said.

Kayse looked over at her, noticing her gaze had become distant.

Just then, a salesman walked up. “I didn’t mean to be eavesdropping,” he said with a smile, “did I hear you say you’d recently come into a ranch?”

“Yeah,” Kayse said, accepting a firm handshake from the man. “Horse ranch.”

“Ah, so you’re going to need something with a complete tow package,” he said. “Four wheel drive, satellite stereo…”

“Start with the engine details,” Kayse cut him off. “I can accessorize later.”

The man stopped short, his eyebrows raised in surprise for a moment. He nodded and led her a few rows back. He showed her three trucks before her gaze landed on a one ton, V-8 big block, dually with an iridescent, navy blue paint job.

The salesman began rattling off the details as he noticed her staring at it. They walked over to take a closer look.

Kayse looked the truck over, noting that it already had a towing package. She opened the door and breathed in the scent of the leather seats.

“Go ahead,” the salesman gestured to the driver seat.

Kayse climbed in, adjusted the seat and rested her hands on the steering wheel. A thrill came over her as she imagined driving the truck down the road.

“I think I found my soulmate,” she looked at Wilhelmina and the salesman. “I want this one.”

As they sat in the office filling out paperwork, the salesman began to make small talk.

“So, you said you own a horse ranch, huh?” he said. “What kinda horses do you raise?”

“Just quarter horses,” Wilhelmina answered before Kayse could speak. “Rodeo stock mostly. We’ve turned out more champions than I can count.”

“Quarter horses,” the man said, “forgive me I’m not actually a horsey person.”

“Ah, normal sized, athletic, highly trainable, versatile, agreeable temperament,” Wilhelmina explained.

Kayse bit her tongue about the clydesdales.

“Just got to get the financing paperwork and your keys here real quick,” the man stood up.

“I’ll be paying for it in full today,” Kayse said. “Do I need to call my bank to preapprove a purchase like this?”

“Might not hurt to let them know,” the man said with a tight smile. “I’ll be right back.”

Kayse took her phone out and began to dial the number on the back of the debit card she had gotten from Charlie.

“There’s something off about him,” Wilhelmina said. “Here,” she set a business card with an address in Cody on it in front of her, “don’t use the house address on any of the paperwork. I own an investment property here in town.”

Kayse just finished up her call pre approving the purchase with her bank when the man returned with keys and a couple pieces of paper in hand. Kayse filled the paperwork out, using the address Wilhelmina had given her.

“So, you guys don’t raise anything else then?” he asked.

“A few cows,” Kayse said, instinctually backing Wilhelmina’s story.

“Just enough to keep us and our business partner stocked up on meat,” Wilhelmina said.

The man seemed to think for a long moment. “You know, my daughter loves those big, big horses.”

Kayse didn’t look up from her paperwork but she felt herself freeze momentarily.

“Belgiums? Percherons? Fresians? Clydesdales?” Wilhelmina asked.

“The ones that pull the big beer wagon,” the man said.

“Clydsdales,” Wilhelmina said. “If you’re looking to buy one, there’s always tons of draft horses in the loose horse sales. You may find, for a child, a belgium is a better idea. They have a really mild temperament.”

“No local breeders then?” the man asked.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Wilhelmina said.

Kayse finished the paperwork and handed it back across the desk. The man’s gaze was fixed intently on Wilhelmina. Kayse cleared her throat and slid the debit card across the desk.

The man turned back to her and pasted a smile on his face, “I’ll go run this then.”

As he left again, Kayse tapped on the desk and gave Wilhelmina a questioning look.

“I’ll explain in due time,” she whispered, “I have a feeling that our friendly salesman might be involved in some less-honest endeavors.”

The man returned with the keys and debit card. “Well, congratulations, you’re the proud owner of a brand new truck. Here’s the keys. We’ll get the warranty paperwork mailed out to you. Is this address where you live?”

“For the time being,” Kayse lied. “The house on the ranch needs some fixing up, so I’ll be staying with my grandma,” she nodded at Wilhelmina, “here in town for at least a few months.”

The man forced another smile and shook both their hands before walking them out. He congratulated Kayse again before returning inside.

“Grandma?” Wilhelmina asked.

“If you’re going to ask me to back a lie, I’m going to go for broke,” Kayse said. “Are you coming shopping with me? Maybe you can offer an explanation over lunch?”

Wilhelmina gave her a soft smile. “I’m going to head home. You go enjoy yourself.”

Kayse spent the day picking up everything she figured she’d need out on the ranch. At the ranch supply she found more suitable clothes, boots and gloves as well as a new saddle and bridle. On impulse, she stopped at the automotive shop and picked up some accessories for her new truck. Once she had gotten groceries more suited to her dining style, as much as she appreciated Wilhelmina’s home cooking, she headed back to the ranch. Tonight, she was determined to get a look at those papers.

She was relieved to find Wilhelmina was nowhere to be found when she pulled in the drive. She backed the truck up to the step hauled all her shopping inside, eagerly stuffing everything away before she returned to the desk.

She went into the locked drawer and pulled out all the files. It seemed this drawer was strictly for the clydesdales. As she suspected, as she started looking through the paperwork, there were contradictions all over the place. It seemed every fifteen years, the paperwork had been completely re-arranged. Kayse stopped to think long and hard about it. According to the paperwork, Ember was no older than ten and her foal, according to the most recent paperwork, had produced foals for the past several years even though she had apparently died when Brigid was born and according to the paperwork, Brigid was five. Kayse rubbed her forehead and leaned back.

“What were you doing with these horses, Uncle Kal?” she asked aloud.

She shifted a little in the chair causing the arm rest to hit the open drawer. The strangely hollow sound it made caught her attention. Curiously, she pulled the drawer all the way out, revealing that it had a false back and was much longer than it appeared, so long that it must have sunk into the wall the desk was built against. On the top of the solid box was a brass emblem that appeared to be an inverse image of… were those bat wings? She thought again of the grill guard on Orion’s truck. She tried to press and turn the emblem but it wouldn’t budge.

“Gotta be a key,” she muttered.

She looked around the living room but there was nothing of a similar shape in plain sight. If it was a key, why would it be in plain sight?

She heard the sound of a truck in the driveway and quickly shut all the folders and shoved them back in the drawer. She stood up and went to the door meeting Orion as he walked in.

“You know,” Kayse said. “It’s polite to knock when entering someone’s home.”

Orion paused for a second, backed up two steps into the mudroom and knocked on the frame.

“Come in,” Kayse said with a roll of her eyes.

“See you got a pretty new truck,” he said. “You gonna pay to wash it every week?”

“Keeps the rust away,” Kayse said. “I’m afraid it’s too late for you to take precautions though.”

“I built Elvira from the ground up,” Orion said, stepping around her and into the kitchen. “She may not be pretty, but I earned every ounce of that rust.”

“Elvira?” Kayse scoffed.

“Yeah,” Orion retrieved a beer out of the fridge. “You haven’t named your truck? It’s bad luck not to name a new vehicle.”

“I guess I’ll have to think of one,” Kayse said. “My question is, why didn’t you upgrade when you inherited everything.”

“I did,” Orion said, taking a sip off his beer. “Got a new engine, built a brand new custom grill, reupholster the seats, put in a new radio and speakers.”

“You made that grill yourself?” Kayse asked. “Why the bat wings?”

Orion shifted his weight a little and shrugged. “I thought they looked like dragon wings.”

Dragon wings? Kayse felt her confusion growing, especially since Orion was clearly holding something back too. She shook her head and sighed.

“Why are you here drinking my beer anyways?” she asked.

“Need some help and Willy is otherwise engaged,” Orion said, setting the beer down. “Come on.”

He led the way out to the barn where a sorrel quarter horse gelding stood, tied to a support post, clearly favoring one leg.

“Who’s this guy?” Kayse asked, approaching the horse, offering her hand out for him to smell.

He put his ears back and turned away from her.

“This is Pierre,” Orion said, pulling a tool box off a shelf on the wall, “He’s a damn good horse, now that his sack is empty at least. Somehow, he got himself a nasty abscess on his leg.”

Kayse looked down Pierres back leg. Right above the knee, a strange round growth protruded under the skin.

“Abscess?” Kayse asked. “Like what happens to teeth?”

“It can happen anywhere really,” Orion said, taking a brown bottle and a small plastic container out of the tool box. “It’s a pocket of infection. We have to cut it, drain it and flush it out. He’s not going to be too happy with us, but he’s going to feel so much better when we’re done.”

“Why am I here?” Kayse asked.

Orion pulled a huge syringe full of clear liquid out of the tool box. “Make sure he doesn’t kill me. Call the EMTs if he gives it an honest effort.”

He closed the tool box and set everything he took out on the lid before going back to the wall where various items were stored on shelves and hung on hooks. He returned with a chain with fabric cuffs on each end.

“I’ve trained all these horses to this,” he explained, “I’m going to hobble his back legs. That will keep him from kicking me. You make sure he doesn’t bite me.”

Kayse nodded and took hold of the lead rope close to the horse’s chin. Orion secured the hobble before picking up the bottle and squirting the orangish brown liquid directly on the leg. He picked up the plastic container and took out a wrapped scalpel.

“All right buddy,” he said as he unwrapped the blade. “Let’s both try to hurt each other as little as possible.”

Kayse held her breath as he bent over. In one swift motion, he drove the blade into the bubble and sliced it open. Pierre tried to side step against the hobble, tossing his head. A putrid smelling fountain of white erupted from the wound. Kayse could help but gag as the smell filled her nostrils. Even Orion coughed against the stench as he donned a rubber glove. He pressed the abscess, forcing more of the infection out. It was disturbing how much of it there was. Pierre danced against his hobble and pulled on the halter a bit, but didn’t fight too hard. Finally, red blood started to come from the wound as Orion squeezed it. He reached back and grabbed the syringe.

“Regular saline,” he explained.

He took the cap off and set the tip up against the cut, squeezing the liquid into the wound. To Kayse’s surprise, Pierre settled down.

“Does that feel good?” Kayse asked, gently stroking his face.

“Bet it does,” Orion said.

As he finished up, he pulled a jar of salve out of the tool box and spread a generous amount over the cut. “We’ll keep him in here and keep an eye on it for a couple days.”

He undid the hobble and led Pierre to a stall on the other side of the barn to a stall next to Brigid who had slept through the whole ordeal. He picked up a bag of sidewalk salt and poured it over the puss that had pooled on the barn floor.

“You handled that a lot better than I expected,” he said nonchalantly. “Even seasoned ranchers can get sick draining an abscess.”

“I can honestly say it’s not the worst thing I’ve cleaning up,” Kayse said. “Ever see what comes out of a drunk’s stomach when they’ve been mixing booze and pizza all night?”

“There’s an image I could have lived without,” Orion’s tan face contorted into a grimace. He shook his head as if rattling the image loose from his brain. “I have to say,” he set the bag of salt back down, “you impressed me this week. You could have easily gotten away with hiring a hand and sitting in the house.”

Kayse walked with him to the barn door. She stopped to look out at the sun setting over the field . “I couldn’t do that after all Uncle Kal after all he did for me. This place is his legacy, it wouldn’t be right for me to not be an active participant in it.”

“Naw, this ground isn’t his legacy,” Orion said. “He did so much more than run some horses and plow fields.”

“What do you mean?” Kayse looked at him.

Orion had a thousand mile gaze, staring to the north. “He played a huge role in preserving and sustaining a dying breed. Generations before him struggled to do it. He and my grandfather made it a lifestyle. Now, generations to come will get to see them flourish. Maybe the whole world some day.”

“I didn’t realize they were that special,” Kayse said.

Orion seemed to snap back to reality. He scoffed nervously, “yeah, they’re pretty damn special.”

“Can I ask something?”

“Shoot,” Orion crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame.

“If these horses are hard to come by and there aren’t many left,” she shifted her weight. “Did they practice line breeding with them? I mean, we just threw three studs out there. Are there any of their daughters or granddaughters in that field?”

“No,” Orion said. “Absolutely not.”

“So, where did the studs come from?”

“Same background, different lines,” Orion answered curtly.

“How did they happen upon three quality studs of such a rare…”

“Look, you’re new here,” Orion cut her off, standing up straight. “You’re new to the lifestyle. You can’t just show up out of nowhere and question the integrity of the entire operation based on a week of observation. You got a lot to learn still.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” Kayse defended herself. “Learn. It doesn’t help when you jump down my throat for asking a simple question.”

“You’re asking if the two greatest men I’ve ever known were crooked,” Orion took a step towards her.

“I’m not saying they were crooked.”

“What you’re talking about is unethical,” Orion’s voice raising.

Kayse rolled her eyes, “ethics and morality are often sacrificed, nobly so, by men determined to serve a higher good.”

“I-” Orion raised a finger then paused. “What the hell’d you say?”

Kayse sighed, “I’m saying, I wouldn’t think any less of them if, for the sake of something as great as preserving a nearly lost breed, they bent some rules. How far would they have gone for something they really cared about?”

Orion’s expression softened. “Why didn’t you just say that?” He looked down and kicked the dirt.

Kayse paused for a moment, “I…” she sighed “I did.”

Orion sighed, “English isn’t my first language, you know. And, well, I’m not very smart.”

“You don’t have to have a large vocabulary or be well read to be smart,” Kayse assured him. “You know two languages, fluently. I can’t say that.”

He looked up and their gaze locked for a moment.

“They’d have given everything for them,” Orion said so quietly it was almost a whisper.

Kayse found herself unsure of what else she could say. There was a look of pain in his eyes. He turned and started across the driveway towards his truck he paused and looked over his shoulder.

“And, thanks for saying that,” he said, “about me, y’know.”