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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3262237" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter One-hundred-twenty-six, “Nanuet’s Return“, Sunday June 11th, 1882, 9:30 A.M. It was mid-morning on Sunday, any hope of the Yavapai warrior making the service at the church was gone.  His wolf companion Maska loped lazily besides the chestnut skinned man who smiled broadly at the prospect that he would be back home today.  That was the one realization he had while he was gone, that Promise City was home. And it was where he belonged. Suddenly his daydream was shattered with the sound of an explosion. It was definitely far off, but in the direction of Promise City no doubt. He spurred his mount on and called to the wolf and together they surged forward towards the sound of destruction.  When he arrived Nanuet was shocked to see the devastation. He wandered the streets looking for Minerva, Jake, Ruby, Kate, Chester, anyone he knew. It seemed that by the time he arrived only the cleanup was left. Nanuet did what little was left that he could do and headed towards the house he shared with Minerva. Once he entered the familiar building he found his cousin Nakoma, asleep at the table, obviously exhausted. In any other circumstances he would have let the young half-elf sleep, but he had to find Minerva. He shook his cousin by the shoulder, waking him.  "Nakomo, wake up... wake up, it's Nanuet. I'm back home, where is Minerva, is she OK? What happened here?""Huh?" Nakomo raises his head and rubs his soot covered face. "What do..." His eyes grow wide and he gives a loud whoop as he leaps up from his chair and hugs Nanuet. "Cousin! you're back!" The boy then says, "Minerva?" He looks about the room. "I guess she isn't back yet. She said that she was heading over to the Lucky Lady to check on Miss Katherine and Jake. Oh, She is going to be so happy to see you. A lot has happened! The goddess Diana told her that you were not coming back! Looks like the gods don't know everything." He grins and hugs him one more time."Nanuet hugs his cousin back. "Well I guess the gods don't know everything now do they." he says, his voice less dreary than it was a few seconds ago. "You'll have to tell me what happened around here soon, but for now I have to head to the Lucky Lady and see the others, assuming that the gang will have gathered there. You look like you need more rest but you are more than welcome to come along if you like." With that Nanuet heads briskly out the door and walks with purpose towards the familiar saloon, his heart pounding in his chest. He practically bursts into the door and immediately begins scanning the room for his friends, looking for familiar faces."Hair of the Dog.." Minerva says from across the room as she raises the amber glass to take a sip.   Chester takes a glass and says. "Good for what ails you. Here's mud in your eye."   But before the medicinal liquid reaches her lips she sees who is standing in the doorway.  She freezes, causing the glass to slip from her fingers and shatter. With a shout she leaps up and runs toward the swinging doors of the saloon and leaps into Nanuet's arms. "Oh my gods! Oh, my gods! You came back!" she repeats over and over while showering him with kisses.Nanuet catches Minerva in his arms and is overwhelmed by her affections. He takes a moment to soak it all in before speaking. "Of course I came back, did you doubt that I would be back? I did what I had to do and I returned. Promise City is my home now, this is where I return to when my work is finished. This is home."  Nanuet scans the room looking at his other friends and acknowledges them all with a smile and a nod. "Yes, this is home.""Damn woman cannot even hold onto a glass, full of whiskey too." Jake grouses good naturedly. "Some folks have no respect at all for how hard it is to run a saloon." He watches quietly almost wistfully as the two greet each other and then finally says to Chet and Katherine, "See? There is proof; life is one fool thing after another where as love is two fool things after each other."   "Not always," Kate said, trying not to wonder how Conrad could have slept through all the noise and whether he had sought her out at all. "But in this case it seems to be true." "Welcome back, Indian." Jake says without standing. "It is a pleasure to see you again. I had a feeling you were too stubborn and ornery to chase away that easy."   Nanuet responds to Jake, "Glad to be back white man. I never intended to be gone long, just had some things I needed to take care of. Glad to see you haven't lost your wit and charm." Kate says, "I'll get another plate, or maybe two. Who knows what he's been eating the last few weeks."   Minerva exclaims, "I did not doubt that you would return when you could, Mi amor.." She stands but keeps hold of his hand. "Come and sit. We are about to eat. You can tell us of your travels and we will tell you what has been happening while you were away."   Nanuet says, "I have a better idea, how about you and I get reacquainted with one another and worry about telling stories another time? Would that be too rude? It's not that I am uninterested about hearing the news, but I did miss you... uhh... very much." Nanuet's face turns crimson as he realizes that the more he speaks the worse he is making the situation. He waits awkwardly for Minerva's reply.Minerva's eyes glitter at his bold remark. "Oh, my. Where is my patient elf?" she teases. No, not rude, perhaps just a bit naughty." she grins. "I have missed you too. "she whispers in his ear. "But where shall we go? My house is currently filled with priests and the grove is not very secluded in the middle of the day. Perhaps we could go for a ride?""Full of priests? I guess I was in such shock over the mess in town I didn't even notice. The grove is not the most secret place during the day that is true, a ride would be in order." Nanuet excuses himself and Minerva, apologizing for leaving them so quickly but promises to catch up with everybody soon.The interruption over, Chester picks up the conversation where he left off, "We followed the riders out of town. They tried to hide their tracks in Pine Creek, but we picked up a couple sets of tracks headed downstream. Looks like they met up with a wagon, which led us to Drover's Livery. Problem is that there were 9 wagons there. How bad does the damage look? Tombstone bad?"    Kate replies, "No, the firefighter's managed to get everything under control before anything could spread. I'll have to go over to Drover's later myself, I was supposed to take Mr. Blake out to the ranch today. He might be able to tell you who the wagons belong to."Chester takes the glass again and makes his previous toast, "Good for what ails you. Here's mud in your eye."  But before he downs the drink this time it is Helen Barker who charges into the Lady's side entrance and says, "There you are! No time for drinking Chet, there's work to do. Mitch wants to see us over in his office! We've got a pair of bodies to unmask!"Chet sorrowfully puts down the glass. He says to the others, "Duty calls. I'll have to take you up on that drink later, Minerva." He calls to Helen, "I'm coming. Two bodies, eh? Reckon the riders didn't figure on people fighting back." He follows Helen back to the office. "What's up, Mitch? Helen says we have a couple masked bodies."Mitch says, "Yeah, but first we have to take care of our visitor," gesturing to Ike Sherman who is in the cell.   Berg says, "Look Ike, I'm a reasonable man and understand that with your business up in flames you weren't thinking rationally. I'm going to have Neil walk you over to Doc's Office and patch you up. I'll be keeping your gun. Have your attorney drop by later and we can discuss whether charges are warranted or not." Sherman looks like he wants to say something in response but keeps it to himself and says, "Fine Berg." Cassidy unlocks the cell and takes the Papago Cash Store owner out. He returns later saying, "The Doc will get to him soon once he finishes fixing Leslie Hutton's arm." At Chet and Eddie's confused looks he adds, "One of the girls from the Palace." Berg says, "Okay, we found two bodies. One was on Fremont in front of Fly's, looks like somebody kept him from blowing up the boarding house. The other was over by the Palace's south wall. It appears he was his own killer, dropped some of the dynamite he meant to toss into the window and it blew up at his feet. Good thing too or the south wall would and gone up like the north one did and the whole place would have collapsed. Anyway, I had them both brought here and locked in the cell that Ike wasn't in, figured we'd want to keep this unveiling a private matter until we could investigate further. No point in having folks jump to conclusions and start up their own lynch mob after these guy's friends, some of whom might actually be innocent."  The deputies wince at the mention of a lynch mob. Chester says, "After what happened last time, I don't blame you. Is there enough left of them to look at? Getting blown up is messy business."Berg says, "One got shredded pretty good but his dead horse shielded him from some of it. The hood looks to be intact so what's beneath it should be. The other body looks intact. Let's have a look at our visitors."  They unlock the cell and head inside. They start with the managled one, removing the hood. "Never seen him before," Helen says. "Me neither," Berg adds. Cassidy says, "I have, I don't remember his name but I cut some timber near a farm he was on around twelve miles southwest of here." Eddie says, "That's it. He's Hawkins....Kansas Clem Hawkins. Raises hogs and wheat." Berg says, "Okay, his was one of the farms that opted not to join the town."   They go to the other one and pull off the hood. The face is in rough shape, having been managled by a bullet but he is clearly recognizable to all present. Berg declares, "Carson Block, one of the three remaining ranchers of the Crazy-Eight." Neil asks, "Anybody what to take bets that the other two might have been riders too?" Berg says, "And they would be Clifford Allman and Ken Wagner.""That's a sucker bet. What would possess to blow up the town like this? Threatening someone not to run in an election is one thing." Chester waves his arm around. "This is a whole different ball of wax. I say we pay the Crazy Eight a visit. And not so openly as before."  Berg says, "Good idea, take one of the other deputies with you. I should probably head out to the Hawkins ranch with another deputy. The fifth should stay here in town following up any other leads. How would you suggest we split up Marshall-to-be?"Chester smiles, "Don't get ahead of yourself there, Marshall. Helen do you want to come with me to the Crazy Eight? Seeing you there will make them think twice of shooting at us. By the way, here's your gun back. It is a work of art."  Helen says she'll go get her horse. Neil says he'll stay in town, as Berg may need Eddie to track out a the Hawkins farm."I'll meet you out front. We'll have to go loaded for bear, just to keep a lid on things." Chester says to Berg, "Keep an eye out for Snavely. He might not know that people have seen his face under that hood."   Cassidy says he'll follow up on the junior bank teller.  Helen and Chet get their horses and ride out to the Crazy-8 Ranch.</blockquote>

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