Canyon Lands

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February 23rd 2012 | 4 Comments | Category: Supernatural | Author: Shaun Adams | 684 views

The man on the roan mare was a Texas Ranger; his name, Robert Kirby. He weaved through entanglements of riparian vegetation beneath a cobalt sky. Passing under Cedar Elm and Hackberry, reins held lightly in his hand, he steered his mount onward.

He traversed the arroyo with measured caution, his predatory instincts keen, searching for sign of his quarry.After three days in the saddle, he felt confident. Heavy imprints of a shod horse suggested a tired rider and exhausted animal, his prey was close.

A startled Crissal Thrasher taking flight drew his freehand closer to the scattergun holstered behind his right thigh. The moment passed. He relaxed. His horse plodded on, indifferent.Guiding his horse out of the arroyo, he followed a wanted man deeper into the canyon lands.

Later in the day, Kirby found a vantage point in the form of a mesa. Leaving his horse tethered below, he risked scrambling up a steep escarpment, carefully avoiding the spines of Ocotillo shrubs growing in the scree.

At the top, a view of the endless purple-blue line of the horizon awaited him. However, his attention focused upon something much closer. Above a canyon to the southwest black vultures circled in the air.

Kirby approached the canyon on foot. He led his horse slowly forward, holding the scattergun with its chained triggers in readiness. Above him, the vultures squawked indignantly. In the mouth of the canyon lay the body of a horse. The Ranger knew its rider was somewhere nearby.

“Travis Butler?” Kirby hollered. “Don’t make me come in there after you.”

He glanced down at the horse, its unseeing eyes bulged in it’s head. Lathered sweat dried on its neck, inviting a cloud of flies to gather.He heard a thin wailing sound within the canyon and hesitated, waiting.

“M-Mr, Kirby? “ The voice that floated down to him sounded more like a frightened child’s than a man.

“Don’t shoot me, I surrender.”

To Kirby’s surprise, Butler was as good as his word. He came stumbling down the canyon with his hands behind his head, eyes darting in all directions as if he were afraid of the lengthening shadows.

Butler seemed more than happy to oblige when Kirby threw down a set of shackles and motioned for him to put them on. Butler fastened the cuffs to his ankles and wrists and led the way, shuffling out of the canyon as fast as he could. The Ranger followed at a distance, still leading his horse, scattergun pointed at the outlaws back. They travelled in silence.

In the gathering gloom Butlers pace began to falter, he became increasingly agitated, flinching at every sound the desert made.

“Okay, we stop here for the night.” The Ranger said. His prisoner’s reaction was sudden and unexpected, nearly costing him his life.

“NO! We must not stop. He will kill us both.”

Butler tried to lunge at Kirby, but tripped over his chains, falling to the ground. Kirby slowly removed his finger from the trigger of the Scattergun.

He strode over to the prone figure, placed a boot upon his back and rested the barrel of his gun against Butler’s ear.

“I don’t know what game you’re playing Butler, but I’d just as soon take you back dead if’n you don’t quit your nonsense.”

“You don’t understand Mr, Kirby,” whined the man under his boot.

“Death followed me here. He chased me into the canyon. Now he will return to take us both to hell.”

Butler twisted violently causing the Ranger to lose his balance; a chain wrapped around his ankle, pulling him down.Kirby felt the weight of Butler on top of him, hands clawing at his face, between them the scattergun discharged.

As their blood ebbed away, a huge grey horse appeared under a moonlit sky, its riders bullet riddled frock coat billowed out behind it. Where there should have been a head, their dying eyes saw only desert stars. On the far horizon, lightning probed the earth.

February 23rd 2012 | 4 Comments | Category: Supernatural | Author: Shaun Adams | 684 views