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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3269825" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter One-hundred-twenty-eight, “School Registration“, Sunday June 11th, 1882, 11:45 A.M. Flint intercepts Kate and says, "Oh no you don't, you're not going in by yourself. I don't trust that guy that much. Do you want me to go get your boyfriend up or should I accompany you?"  They see Sonoma walking over towards the cave as well.  The word "boyfriend" always made Kate cringe just a bit. It seemed to be the wrong word. "Let Conrad sleep, he'll probably just try to convince me not to go at all, and he doesn't know that much about all this." Kate waved at Sonoma and they held up, waiting for her. "You have the same idea I did? I'm not sure how much longer we can have this going on."  Flint replies, "Not if those Deputy Sheriffs are going to be poking around here we can't. Let's go talk to the man."   Kate nodded and walked with the others into Flint's cave. It took some time for her eyes to adjust to the cool, dark cave so she could make out Earp's form laying on the floor. She made sure to make some noise so the twitchy ex-lawman wouldn't pull at gun suspecting ambush.Earp indeed sits up and reaches for his gun upon hearing people entering. He relaxes his gun hand when he sees who it is.  Wyatt Earp physically looks a little worse for the wear from when Kate saw him last. He has on the same dark hat and boots as before but the rest of his attire has changed. There are dark circles under his eyes and he has several days growth of beard where before he was always clean shaven except for his mustache.Sonoma states, “Mr. Earp there are issues we need to settle and trouble we need to not have. Although the money has been very good and you have not harmed us you have protected the ranch the law is about to start looking about for you and we can not have them find you here.”Earp says, “I’m sorry to have to come back but I needed to get some messages to the town. I had stopped by Cook’s house before dawn to pass the information on to him instead but he wasn’t home. It didn't strike me as safe to try poking around the Gay Lady looking for him, so my only alternative was to come back here to see you."  Kate replies, "Information is something we've been sorely lacking. I'd appreciate any you can give us, and I appreciate your understanding of our position."Earp replies, "First, please get a message to Josie Marcus that Behan’s boy Buckskin Frank Leslie has been hot on my trail and it’s gotten too dangerous for her to see me around here any more. Second, I need you to get a message to the Marshals. I can’t approach them directly about this as they’d be obligated to arrest me. Berg warned me not to commit any crimes within town and I can’t relate this message without confessing to having done just that. As of last week there were three guys still left who had a hand in my brother Morgan’s death. One of them was Bronco Madson. A week ago I grabbed him in town when he staggered drunk out of the Palace. I took him a short distance off, avenged my brother, and buried him.  I now read in the paper Madson’s running as a candidate for Town Council with Fisk’s Liberty Party! I went back and checked the grave. It was all dug up and the body was gone. Mrs. Kale, when I finished with him he was dead-as-dead can be. I got a glimpse of him two nights ago heading in to the Liberty Party’s headquarters. He had on the same leather vest, gun belt and boots that I buried him in, I’m sure of it. Mrs. Kale, I’ve heard of powerful clerical magics that can bring back the recently deceased, but I don’t know why a High Priest would go to all that effort for the sake of a nobody like Madson. And if Fisk had that kind of power available to him why didn’t he use it on Hunter or Thayer instead? They’re a lot more helpful to him than Madson would be.”Kate replies, "This had nothing to do with the gods or clerics. There are many legends that have their basis in truth, and we seem to have more than our share here in Promise City. He isn't any more alive than when you put him in that grave, but he is now a creature who will prey on the people of this town for their blood to keep his borrowed life. We slain these things before, and knew there were more here, but we didn't have any idea who they were."Earp replies, "Please just tell the Marshall, don't be thinking about taking him on yourself. I plan to move on soon, one of Morgan's killers is Deputy Sheriff Leslie who I can't touch due to his badge. There's one more who had his hand in Morgan's killing that I won't name so as not to make you an accomplice, but I need to deal with him before I move on. Then there's also the matter of Warren's killers. Miss. Duprey was part of that but she's disappeared. Her teacher is still around, a French wizard named DuMont. He's working with the Cowboy Gang, doing wizard work for them. He's gone by other names before, Pierce and Murdock being two of them. He was at that farmhouse you attacked last March when your friends were kidnapped. Anyway, I spotted him around five or six days back out near the Beatrice Mine, teaching some magic to one of the miners. But there were too many people around for me to take them on then without having to kill everybody present and some of those miners may have been innocent.""We'll pass it on," Kate said. "With Mr. Martin being a deputy we can usually manage to get information to the law without implicating anyone in how it was discovered. Have you learned or seen anything else odd? No matter how insignificant you think it is? A group of hooded riders blew up several buildings in town this morning, and they tried for the school. Any thing you might have seen could help discover who they were."Earp is surprised to hear of this, as are Flint and Sonoma. Kate spends the next ten minutes describing what occurred. Earp says, "I know nothing of that. I was out at the Crazy-8 Ranch most of the night and came directly here once I found that Cook wasn't home, so didn't see any other activity. If the Papago store was destroyed is it unlikely that Fisk and his Cowboy Gang are behind it, as both of the Sherman's are running for Town Council on his party."Kate replies, "We need to know who they were before we can figure out why. Do you have anything to tie Fisk to the Cowboy Gang? We've always suspected it but never had any real proof."   Earp says, "If I had the proof I would have arrested him long ago. It's basically guilt-by-association plus unfounded rumors. All the folks he surrounds himself with are with the Cowboy Gang, and he always seems to have more income than his attorney fees, gambling winnings and collecting rent from his property would account for.""Thank you for the information. You can rest here a little longer, but you probably don't want to linger. Leslie thinks we're friends for some reason." Kate took a deep breath, then added, "Revenge will eat at your soul until there's nothing left if you're not careful. If you have the chance to leave this place and get on with having a life, you should do it, before you can't live with yourself anymore."  Earp replies, "I am rested enough and am ready to go now. But I would suggest that two head go to the hills both north and south of here to first guarantee that the Sheriff's or Cowboys aren't watching this ranch before I emerge from the cave."Sonoma says, “Mr. Earp from now on I would suggest that if you "deal" with the others of your brother's killers you send them to their rest after removing their heads to make sure that they do not return. If one has risen then others may also.”   "A stake through the heart and a fire never hurt either. Flint and I will go have a look outside and try not to be too obvious about it," Kate said, then led the way back out of the cave.Flint heads in the direction of the southern hill while Kate rides to the northern one. Once they confirm that both locations are unoccupied they give Sonoma a signal and she ushers Earp out of the cave. He saddles up his horse and rides off to the north east, tipping his hat to Kate as he goes by where she is. At the Crazy-8 Ranch Deputy Helen Barker uses the man's belt to cut off most of the circulation to the leg so he doesn't bleed to death on the animal. They make the best speed possible back to town, arriving early afternoon just as Doctor Eaton is finishing up with Ike Sherman.  Helen says that she will stay with Wagner. Chester goes back to the Marshall's Office where Neil Cassidy is waiting. "How did it go Chet?" Neil asks.  The deputy replies, "Not so good. Earp tortured Ken Wagner and left him for dead. Wagner says he didn't know what the other two were up to and I believe him. Helen is with him at Doc Eaton's place. He's in bad shape. How did you and Mitch do?"  Cassidy replies, "Actually I stayed here in town. Mitch and Eddie aren't back yet. Deputy Sheriffs Leslie and Nagle stopped by a while ago. Their horses were at the Papago Corral when it got blown up and Nagle's horse was injured, they're none too happy about that. They want to know if they can help round up the responsible folks and I said we were already working on it. I think they're sincere about wanting to help. You may want to see if they'll go back out to the Crazy-8 and wait for Clifford Allman to return. Technically the Crazy-8 falls outside of our jurisdiction since it isn't joining the town, although since the crimes were committed in town we're without our rights to make arrests.""They are, are they? I reckon I'll have to take them up on that offer. The deputy’s probably be out at the Papago caring for their horses. It won't hurt to have them around to make things nice and legal. Let Mitch know where Wagner is, OK?"   Neil says, "Of course, Chet. We'll find out whether or not Wagner is telling the truth. Find those riders before they do something else." Chester says, "Will do." He lights a cigarette and walks to the Papago.Chester finds that not enough of the corral remains to keep the horses contained. A few of the firefighters are still making sure that all of the coals are extinguished. Jessie Sherman has on work gloves and a shovel going through the ruins of her store for anything salvageable. When Chester asks she tells him that the horses have been moved to Drover's and that the Sheriffs are probably at their Office on Main Street.Chester tips his hat. "Thank you ma'am. I'm real sorry your place burned down. We're doing everything to figure out who did this." He heads for the Sheriff's office. Chester knocks on the door, calling out, "It's Deputy Marshall Martin. I heard you want to go out the Crazy-8. I'm going with you."  Leslie and Nagle ask Chester about what he found out there on his first trip.  Chester says, "Me and Deputy Barker found Ken Wagner badly wounded in the ranch house. None of the other ranch hands were there. Wagner said he didn't know what they were up to." Chester paused. He didn't owe Wyatt Earp anything and Wagner will tell the deputies anyway. It wouldn't be a good idea to get caught in an obvious lie like that. "He also said that Wyatt Earp tortured him for information, but left before we got there." They agree to ride out there together and wait for the other rancher to return. They say they will be ready in twenty minutes, since they may need to wait there a while so will have to bring along some provisions. Chester heads back to the Marshall's Office and sees that Marshall Berg and Deputy Rodriguez have returned. He gives them a quick update. They say that they found the Kansas Clem Hawkins’s Sunset Farm to not only be deserted but it looks like the three riders with the five horses stopped by that morning after the attack on the town and gathered up anything of value there. The tracks ended at Five Mile-Creek.   Eddie also found evidence in the barn that the eight horses had been boarded there for the week since they were rustled. Neil Cassidy returns to say that Jason Snavely was just seen heading into the Great Western Boarding House where he lives.  Chester replies, "Someone better get over there. Leslie and Nagle are heading for the Crazy 8. I'd like to go with them, Mitch. We'll need a couple of us to be with them to know what they know."Emery Shaw comes back after lunch is done and asks, "Well Emily, would you care to take a walk around the town?"   "Absolutely," she answered, jumping out of her seat. "I was afraid you'd be gone a long time and I'd be stuck inside all day." Emily grabbed her Uncle's hand and almost dragged him outside where she took a deep breath. The smell of smoke still hung in the air, but she ignored it. "Where will we go?"Shaw brings her on a tour around. They first head west on South Street, with him pointing out the Promise City Hotel where he says, "You'll find some great home cooked meals, Mrs. Smith is quite handy in the kitchen." They bass the smokehouse and butcher shop which he says, "That's Rudy Baines's place. He has three kids in your school." Next on the other side of the street is a building with the sign "Arizona Territorial Office Building". Emery says, "That's where the Judge holds court." After it is a large building with the sign "Lacey's General Store". He says, "A friend of mine owns this, let's stop by and spend some money spoiling you young lady." They enter the thirty-by-fifty foot single-story wooden structure. It is filled with rows and rows of tables and shelves filled with merchandise. She sees a considerable amount of all types of clothing, a case full of books, and near the main counter are boxes with various types of candies. "I don't really need anything," she answered even as her eyes hungrily flew over the store full of pretty things. "I have five dresses, two pairs of shoes, and three bonnets. I wouldn't have any idea what to get."A muscular man with a long mustache comes over to the counter. Emery says, "Emily, I would like to introduce you to my friend Judge Lacey. He is also a decorated veteran from the Civil War. Judge, this is my niece Emily, she will be staying here in town with me." "Delighted to meet you," the man says with a warm smile.  Shaw adds, "Judge Lacey is also the Deputy Fire Marshall, the second-in-command of this town's Fire Company. It was due to his efforts that the town is still standing." Lacey replies, "You give me far too much credit sir. It was more of a case of the foresight and training that Fire Marshall Mills has instilled in us during the last two weeks. The town fathers were so wise to build the town by a water source, I realize they did so just to service the stamping mill, but without it we would have likely now been in the same situation that Tombstone was a few weeks back.""Well, I'm glad you were here to help put out the fire, I wouldn't want my new home to disappear just when I got here. My Pa helped fight the fire in Chicago when I was little; it's dangerous.  You have an awful nice store here. Lots of the stores in Chicago only had a few kinds of things and you had to go all over to get everything,"Lacey replies, "I'm glad you like it young lady. This is the largest and best stocked General Store in Promise City!" He reaches into two of the boxes on the counter and says, "A butterscotch and a peppermint for the young woman. Consider them a 'welcome to Promise City' present."  She replies, "Thank you, sir, I feel welcome already. My uncle says he's going to spoil me in here, what would you recommend we spend his money on?"Emery Shaw says, "Judge, do you still have that silver vanity set?" The store owner reaches down beneath the counter and removes a metal case, oval in shape being twelve inches on one side and eight on the other, and around two inches deep. It stands on four small silver legs. The metal has scalloped etching and designs on both the lid and sides.  He lifts up the hinged lid. Fastened to the underside of the cover is an oval mirror with white etching around the edge. The main compartment of the case has a royal-blue velvet padded area containing three silver combs of different sizes, a silver hair brush, a silver nail file and a pair of silver tweezers.Emily was silent for a long moment, looking at the rich blue lining against the gleaming silver. Despite her many tomboyish habits, she was still a girl and had an eye for beautiful things. The mirror was better than any they'd had in her house in Chicago and the pretty face in it was a bit of a surprise. Her fingers traced the etching as she said, "Could I really have something like that, Uncle? It is awfully pretty; I would feel rich with something like that."Emery Shaw replies, "Consider it yours my child, a memento to represent your new and free life here in the countryside. I anticipate that many of the activities you become involved with out here will be the more gender-neutral ones, riding and such. But there will also be times where you will want to be the lovely young lady that you are, and items such as this will help." He turns to Judge Lacey and says, "Wrap it up kind sir, we will be taking it." The judge wraps the case in some ivory linen and ties it with twine.She impulsively hugged her uncle, holding on tight. "Thank you. I hope I can make you proud riding or trying to be a lady. I'm so glad you asked me to come. The next time you want to spoil me, maybe we could spoil my brothers and sisters instead and send them something?"   "That's very generous of you young lady, I'll consider it." He takes the package and the two of them walk back to the Comstock House to put it in her room. He says, "We should probably head over to the school now and see about getting you registered for classes tomorrow."Emily was so happy at the moment that she didn't even mind the idea of school. "It's Sunday, will there be anybody at the school? I wouldn't be at school on a day I didn't have to be."  Shaw replies, "Mrs. Kale lives on the second floor of the school building, and her kitchen is in the back of the main floor, so she will probably be there."  "I don't think I'd want to live at school," Emily said, shaking her head. "But I suppose it's real easy to get to work. Get up and tumble down the stairs, eat breakfast, then walk through a door and you're there." They walked together toward the edge of town where the school building lay. As they got close, Emily saw a crater that had been blown into the side of a hill behind the building and the ruins of another building that used to be its neighbor. "I guess maybe we're lucky there's still a school at all."   "Indeed we are," Emery replies. He knocks on the door. They wait a few minutes and here some movement inside. The door opens. Standing on the other side is a young human girl, who Emily guesses to be around ten years old.Emily smiled cheerily at the girl, then looked back at her Uncle hoping there might still be a reprieve on this school thing. He just nodded encouragingly at her, so she turned back to the girl and said, "My name is Emily Banks. My Uncle wants me to get registered for school. Is the teacher here?"  The girl replies, “The teachers aren't here yet but I may be able to help you. My name's Ginnie and I live here. Why don't you both come in and I can start the process, answering your questions about the school and finding out what you like so we can start to craft the specialized parts of your studies.”"Specialized parts?" Emily asked as her uncle herded her into the room. It didn't look like any school room she'd been in before. "I guess I don't have a lot of questions other than when I'm supposed to be here. School's school, after all."   Ginnie shows them both to seats and pulls out the application and interest form that she had developed. Ginnie says, “School is school but here it's likely different than any school you've been to. There are three direct teacher that cover the major subject areas in levels in the mornings. Each person works at their own ability level in each area so we actually have students that may be in advanced placement for mathematics and below average in another area. Also some students are only able to attend school every once in a while because of the distance they live out of town or family issues. Everyone really works at their own pace moving on when they complete exams or are able to prove their ability  The afternoons are set up for more focused studies for some of the kids that means intense instruction on areas that they have missed or are having trouble with, for others it means that they are exploring subjects that may be outside of the regular subjects with or without tutors.  So tell me about yourself what do you like what do you hate and do you play baseball?”"I don't play baseball," Emily said slowly, a bit startled by the last question. "I like to be outside whenever I can. I like sitting in the tops of trees. At home I had a garden that I liked to work in and I always get on well with animals. Riding and running and being generally unladylike." She snuck a look over at her uncle when she said that. "There's not much I really hate in school, but most of it isn't very interesting either. Everything we read was pretty dull, I can do math I was pretty tired of practicing it, science is interesting sometimes but mostly we just read things and memorized them. That I don't like."Ginnie states, “The teachers here aren't big on memorization for memorizations sake, although there are some things that we do need to recite but a lot of the lessons are based on "is it useful?". We have a baseball team as part of the school won our first game against the "human only" school team. The hole in the hill over there is the direct result of me learning how to pitch but that's another story for another time. We also have by weekly horse riding lessons and a gardening area dedicated to the school out at the ranch where we work on agriculture and using the scientific method to increase plant yield and we should have a super crop of cactus flower jam coming up. Some of the students have been working on better ways to preserve food as part of their science lessons Harvest time should make for a really interesting picnic. You will have to sit for placement tests but I think you'll like some of the hands on herbology lessons that we've been developing along with some of the geology and astronomy. I'm studying the astrological links between lay-line placement and standing stones on a global level and have some interesting theories. Oh we also play jump rope and work with some of the animals on the ranch too that should be something that you might like.”"Are you sure this is a school?" Emily asked. "It sounds more like... well, not school. I would like all the work at a ranch, and getting to study herbs and agriculture. Tests don't sound like so much fun, but I suppose you always need a few of those in school. I've heard a bit about ley-lines before, but not much. Uncle didn't tell me school was like this here.  What was that about a human only school? I can't see why anyone wouldn't want to come to this school instead. Guess I'm glad I wouldn't be eligible for that school."Ginnie replies, “It is still school and you still have to write the papers and turn in the homework but it has a more um... individual practical outlook. There are a lot of different people here and some of them still believe that only humans should be educated. We seem to get the best of all cultures here and that makes us better students. Promise City is changing and we're right in the middle of it. But because of the other school and it's attitude we've become determined to show them that we are not only as good as the human only school but can excel too. That is one thing your going to have to decide you only get out what you put into school and the entire place has decided that we're going to do our best to show what different people are capable of. There are a couple of things that just won't work here one is prejudice the other is not trying to do your best at whatever you do. If your planning on spending the time slacking and just getting by your not going to be happy here and I for one will give you grief and I can be really good at it. So what do you think you going to be ready to start tomorrow?”Emily sat up straight and tucked her hair behind her decidedly pointed ears. "I don't slack. I've always had to work twice as hard to make anybody think I could do anything; I know how to work. If I wasn't going to work I wouldn't come, I'd go back to Uncle's ranch and stay with Ellen. I can start whatever the teacher wants me to tomorrow. Although I almost think I'd like to get the boring stuff out of the way first. I'll probably be taking tests tomorrow."Ginnie replies, “If you are up to it and your uncle is agreeable I can have you sit the tests now ...or at least some of them and get a basic gage of what you know what, you think you know, and what your missing and need. I have the entrance exams that I made up that the school has been using as a pre-assessment. It's up to you.”Emily resisted the urge to look longingly out the window, not wanting to give away to this girl how much she would rather do something else. "Maybe just a couple today. Uncle did you need me for anything for a while?"  He says, "Well, I was planning to head over with you to Frye's Harness Shop and Boot maker to see if he is around. His shop isn't officially open on Sunday's but he often is in his workshop in the afternoon. I wanted to see about having him make you some appropriately sized riding gear."That was just too much to resist. "I think I'll start my working hard tomorrow. It's my first day here, after all and it's been a long time since I got to spend time with Uncle Emery, and he's going to be busy running for mayor. I'll be ready for my tests bright and early tomorrow. I can even stay late if you need me to."  She turned back to Ginnie and said, "You made up the tests? Not the teachers?"  “Yes,” Ginnie replies. “I wrote the tests as part of my studies. I also am one of the upper level tutors and sometimes teach a class as needed. The tests were something that the school needed to work well, so I wrote them with the teachers having final say over the material that was presented. You can take the exams tomorrow as part of the school day. That's not a problem I actually wanted to go and check out what's going on in town and make sure that I don't get left out of the loop on what's happening. Sunday is one of the best gossip days there is and I have a lace project that needs finished and there is a new study out on manipulating matter with chemicals that I need to finish reading. So I'll see you tomorrow.”"Um, okay. Sounds like you don't let grass grow under your feet. I admit, I like to keep up on gossip too, but since I'm new here it wouldn't mean anything to me anyway. With all those things going boom this morning I bet there's lots to hear.  I'll be here in the morning, thanks Ginnie. Uncle, are you ready?"   Emery Shaw replies, "Indeed I am young lady, let's go see about getting you a new riding outfit."</blockquote>

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