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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paka" data-source="post: 1729203" data-attributes="member: 100">SunriseWatchdogs are given a jar of consecrated earth for their rituals, a pistol or a rifle, a horse, the Book of Life and a quilted trench-coat.  Jeremiah’s trench-coat was made by his Ma back home.  She and the other women in their congregation gathered and quilted it together.  The jacket was so obviously a labor of love, modeled after the jacket his father had worn when he was a Dog.  Jeremiah also carried his father’s Winchester with pride.Cain’s jacket was also made from his congregation where he grew up but his family didn’t pay him much mind.  They threw it together, despite the honor of having their own child achieve the rank of Watchdog.  Before the coat was sent to the Watchdog’s Temple his friends and buddies had gotten a hold of it.  They stitched on patches, to remind him of the mischief they got into as boys and the friendship he still had in them.Anadarch’s family was killed but the Watchdog who had found him and helped him sneak into the murderous bandit’s camp and see that justice was done made his coat.  There were slits on the sides so even while wearing the coat closed Anadarch’s Left Hand of the Lord could still retrieve his pistol.  Anadarch’s qulted coat wasn’t a labor of love but was a functional tool.  Tucked in his belt was a tomahawk, a gift from the Mountain Folk heathen he had nursed back to health during his training.Benny’s coat was made by several of his Watchdog Elders.  It was a bit too small for him in length and at the shoulders but he wore it with pride as he saddled up on his horse, Bunny, a draft who many said could outwit Benny nine times out of ten.The Elders left them in front of the Temple, allowing them to choose their own path as the sun made the horizon blue with morning.  The mountains ran north and south for as far as anybody cared to know.  There were small communities of the Faithful in the mountains but not many.  Mostly, the range was home to the heathen Mountain Folk.  East was a den of sin.  To the east were cities of high society types not of the Faith.  Cabals of business-men and railroad barons made deals with demons who could earn them more money.  They bowed before golden calves and sucked at demonic teats.West were the communities they were to serve and watch over.  There were towns not of the Faith but they were the exception to the rule.  Anadarch was the first to mount up and turn his horse west.  With the sun on their backs, they road west towards the Faithful.They road until dark until they reached the ghost town of Garden, population: zero.Garden, Population: OneGarden had been a gold mining town but when the mines went dry and mostly collapsed the people moved on.  The town’s sign had been embossed with gold or maybe some silver but it had long since been chiseled away, leaving only scarred letters.  The sign had population tallies from the town’s golden days and scratched into the wood with a bowie was evidence of the exodus until Garden’s last soul carved an ominous zero.Anadarch, being the oldest of the boys, took up a role as leader.  Jeremiah set up camp and began heating up beans while Benny and Cain dealt with the horses.  Anadarch got a lay of the land and saw the town in the hills where many of Garden’s folk had run off to.  In the valley below, lay Eden.  The town’s Temple bells were ringing faintly in the distance, letting town-folk know that someone had died and a funeral service would be held on the morrow.Goats began to drift into town.  They were kept together by a smart herding dog and a boy of 14 followed them.  Benjamin Ibex III was the first of Eden’s populace to see the Watchdogs.  He greeted Anadarch with slack-jawed awe.  The other boys he greeted as heroes out of the Book of Life despite the fact that he was not much younger than Jeremiah and Cain, if at all.“Howdy, Dogs. My name’s Benjamin, just like my Pa and my brothers.”Jeremiah pointed out that they had in their Watchdog posse, a Benjamin of their own.  Benny grinned.“Call me Tres, though.  Everybody does in these here parts.”Jeremiah, never having done anything of the sort before stepped forward with his hand raised, fingers spread in an official Watchdog greeting.  “Greetings, we are the Watchdogs of the Lord and I offer my official greetings to the town of Garden.”Tres giggled.  “Dang, mister, ain’t no people here but me, you and the goats.  This town don’t have no problems.  Its deserted.  I just brought the goats up for the good grazing.  No, Eden’s where you’ll want to go.  That’s where trouble is.”Jeremiah waved his finger at Tres.  “Tres, now you have to watch that language of yours.  That is how Satan gets in, by forcing his way past your Faith through cuss-words and the like.”“Sorry, Dog, sir.  I’ll watch that language.”“Y’see, the Steward won’t come visit our homestead in the hills and we was in bad shape after ma died of the pox.  Me and my brothers tried to go into Liztown and get the vaccine but we didn’t get back in time before her passing.  The guilt was something terrible.“My pa and the Steward known each other since they was boys in this town of Garden and they don’t like each other none at all.”They gently asked him about the funereal bells.“Probably Old Man Carson passing on.  He was an old one, not yet ninety winters in him but certainly eighty.  He’s been going for some days now.  That’d be a good place to meet the townfolk, I reckon.”After helping Benjamin Ibex III put his goats into closed off pens in Garden, they shared some beans with the boy and he shared some jerky.  After their meal they slept in the town of Garden, population: five.</blockquote>

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