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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2604743" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 141, "Stories, News and Gossip" Tuesday, January 17th, 9:30 PMNanuet heads over to the El Parador to tell Dorita about the large humanoids in town. On his way back to the Lone Star Maska intercepts him. “What is it girl, what’s the matter!” Maska bites at his leg and gestures further south. He pops his head back into the El Parador and tells Pedro “I’m going this way if they come looking for me.” Maska leads him to the abandoned minehead where he had previously met Kajika. Maska acts as though she wants in. Nanuet does not know how to cast the Warp Wood spell yet, so Nanuet pries some of the boards off. Once enough boards have been removed so that he and Maska can enter they go inside. Nobody is inside. Maska charges over to where the shaman had lit the fire. Maska sits and waits. Nanuet locates some wood to start a fire with. He gets a fair sized fire going and the smoke then swirls around and takes the form of a female centaur. He exclaims “Storm, Maska has led me to you. Do you wish to speak to me?” “Yes” she replies. He asks “Does this have anything to do with the nine-foot-tall furry guys and the giants in the middle of the street?” She replies, “Yes, and the creature you need to protect from them.” He says “So where is this beast?” She says, “In the Dos Cabezas Mountains.” He asks, “What does this have to do with Mother Jiminez?” She states, “Kajika will return tomorrow from his trip to the Navajo and will be able to tell you more. The hunters are heading into the mountains tomorrow to seek the creature. Kajika has the answers that you seek.” “Is there anything further?” he asks. She says “Your friends will need you.” “I’m going to need them,” he exclaims. “Indeed, this will be a mutual situation,” she states. He replies, “I hope that they will be obliging to help me defend a monster from other monsters.” She answers “After they hear what Kajika has to say they should be willing to assist.” Nanuet asks “So, are you troubled in your afterlife?” “I am troubled that I died,” she states. He thanks her for answering his call. She says, “You did not call me, I called you through your animal companion. There are many skills that you have learned. There are many people and things that you have gathered. It is getting better.” She then adds, “Don’t let Ruby shoot you.” The smoke then dissipates. He checks his pouch for the blue wampum bead, finding it to be very warm. Nanuet and Maska head out. He thanks her and gives her some food scraps, then plays with her for a few minutes. He heads over to Grand Keebler’s shed and borrows a hammer and a few nails then heads back to fix the boards so that it will not be obvious that anyone was in the mine shaft. Nanuet makes a mental note to ask Kajika how to cast the spell. Nanuet heads back to the Lone Star. Things are continuing peacefully. Tony Lucky’s poker game comes to an early close and Job isn’t doing very well. One problem with the Long Branch being feared of disease is that the better gamblers have relocated to the Lone Star for this night. However, these high rollers are also big tippers so the women get nearly $ 20 in tips and Niles has good night selling liquor. They also have several Comique patrons present, as there is no longer a singer there. Job's game finally ends and he is $ 46 ahead for the night. Things wind up around 11:15 PM. Hoover suggests that the next day they should consolidate the liquor into two of the upstairs rooms rather than five. Jeff Mills and Job Kane head upstairs to their rooms. Ruby is concerned about Kate being alone for the night but Kate says that she will be okay so Ruby decides to stay at the Lone Star. Chester walks Kate back then heads up to the Silver Dollar, finding it closed. Wednesday, January 18th, The water in town has finally receded and the streets are turning back to dirt. The temperatures are back in the low seventies. Lots of people are hauling water from the creek to wash up all of the mud. Most of the party sleeps in since they don’t have anywhere specific that they need to be. Nanuet heads over to the Lone Star to assist with the construction until Kajika arrives back in town. Things are quiet there as the lunch crowd has moved on since Maggie is no longer there to help cook, with the daytime business just being Hoover selling alcohol. Sonoma and Kate ride out to the ranch. Sonoma instructs her in farming chores. Kate is not opposed to doing the work; she just needs to be shown how, being totally inexperienced in this type of chore. Sonoma has her spend time picking up rocks to clear the field. Sonoma explains how the rocks will be needed to build the rock wall for the lower foundation of the house. Sonoma begins the structure. Ruby awakens early afternoon and heads downstairs where she finds Chester over at a table sitting and reading the newspaper. “Good afternoon Chester. The weather is so nice, feel like going for a ride and a walk with me today?” Chester stands up and doffs his hat. "Good afternoon, Ruby. I'd love to. Is there any place you'd like to go? Or we could ride around. It'll be nice to get out of town for a while." She replies, “No where particular. Hasn’t had much chance to explore. Let’s take some lunch with us and if we find nice spot we can enjoy it together. I already took the liberty of getting some ready. I figured you wouldn’t turn me down,” she says with a smile holding up a small basket. Chester smiles back, "You figured right." Ruby leads Chester out to the horses and they prepare them to ride. Ruby hands Chester the basket and he ties it on the back of his horse. “You don’t mind me wearing my dress, right? I don’t feel like wearing that stuffy riding outfit.” He answers, "No, not at all. You can ride however you want to. Somehow, I think you'd probably do it anyway, even if I did mind." He chuckles. "So, how's life as a saloon owner?" They get on their horses and start riding out of town. “Well, it hasn’t been all that long. Ask me again in a week,” she smiles. “But it does feel good to have somewhere to call home. I haven’t had that, well, ever really. I don’t normally stay anywhere long enough to even make friends." He says, "Well, that's good that you've found a home. Why don't you stick around long enough to make friends? It looks like you make them easily." "Yes that is true," Ruby replies, "I can make friends easily if I want to. It's not the making friends that is the hard part, it's the keeping them," she laughs. "Never had a reason to before I guess. You can imagine, most girls are jealous of me, so they don't want to be friends, and the men I've met, well, let's just say they usually want something from me that I don't want to give..." Ruby shrugs then changes the subject. "So, where did you call home before here?” He answers, "Just before I came here to Arizona, I was in Dodge City, Kansas. I did odd jobs there, but I got bored of the place, so I came here." "Kansas is pretty far from here, what made you decide to come all the way to Arizona? And what kind of odd jobs did you do? Anything exciting?" They continue to ride on as Ruby asks her questions. He says, "I guess I wanted to go someplace warm. The plains can get really cold in the winter. Especially when you're living in a tent, like I did in the cavalry. Brrr." He shivers. "As far as any exciting jobs, no, not really. Definitely not as exciting as I've had here. Just cleaning bars, crop harvesting, that kind of thing. Where did you call home before you came here?" “Calvary, huh? I didn’t know you really were a soldier,” she laughs. “I thought Jake just made that up. As for your question, I haven’t had a home, well, not ever really, Chet. A long time ago I came from New York, and I lived in a house with my parents but it was never really home. Since then I’ve been all over. No place special,” she shrugs, “The last place was just another place I left.” He says, "That's a shame about you not having had a home. Life on the road must get dreadfully lonely. I know after I left the Army, I had trouble making friends." They get to a spot with green hills and some groupings of shady trees, with a small river running by. There are wildflowers growing in abundance all around. “This looks good,” Ruby smiles as she jumps off her horse. Chester follows Ruby’s lead and jumps off his horse too, then takes both of them and ties them to a tree. They lay the blanket out and set up lunch. As they start eating Ruby says causally, “So, you believe any of this dream stuff, you know, this Reilly guy and saving the world and all that?” Chester talks around a mouthful of bread, "I'm not really much for mysticism and magic. So it surprised me to see Kate, Sonoma, and Mr. Gonzales using it so freely. As far as those dreams go, Reilly seems to believe it. But saving the world? Nah. I mean, why us?" She says, “Why, do you have a problem with magic? He answers, "Well, not really. I guess I never thought about it much. It's spooky, though. Did you know they were magic users?" “Yes, I knew. As a matter of fact.. well… yes I knew,” she smiles knowingly. She decides to save her talents as a surprise for Chester. “You have to admit, it was strange that Reilly seemed to know all of us before he met us, don’t you think? And he did describe Kate perfectly. I have to agree with you on the saving the world bit. I can’t even save myself.” Ruby rolls her eyes then laughs. "Reilly is a strange bird. He could be a con man. What he wants, I don't know. As far as taking care of yourself, you've done a good job of it so far. Course, I've known you less than a week." He grins. “So how long you planning on staying in Promise City? It would be a shame to lose one of my new friends too soon.” Ruby smiles at Chester, grabs some bread and rips a small piece off and offers the rest to him. "Thanks, Ruby. You all seem like nice folks, so I'll probably stick around for a while. Mr. Cook will keep me busy, I'm sure. And thanks for calling me a friend. It means a lot." “Not sure I get called nice too often, beautiful all the time, but not nice, so thanks. I guess that goes along with you only knowing me a week. As for Mr. Cooke I think he’s keeping us all busy. But busy is good right, we stay out of trouble that way.” Ruby realizes how silly it sounds to say Jake was keeping them OUT of trouble and she laughs to herself. “And yes, you have kept our secrets and risked your life with us so I count that as a friend. This friend thing seems to be working out so far so it’s good to hear that you’ll stay. Now, let’s go for that walk.” Ruby stands up and takes Chester’s arm and leads him down to the river. As they walk near the river, Chester says, "Is there something wrong with Katherine? She's seemed a bit distant the past couple days. Is she worried about this monster we're supposed to protect?" Ruby sighs. "No, actually she isn't. Well, I can't say if she is worried about the monster or not. She has been distant because she has gotten some bad news. Her husband did not die of illness, he was murdered. Jake and I found this out and I told her on Sunday. I know she is still in shock over this and I am worried what will happen when she stops being in shock and starts being angry." She shakes her head. Chet exclaims, "He was murdered? Who did it?" She answers, “I think he was, I’m fairly certain. I believe that Morgan Earp killed Thomas Kale.” Chester replies, "Morgan? Wasn't he the Marshall who got shot when we were on the stagecoach?" Ruby says, "Yeah, he is. And the worst part is, Kate saved his life. And I’m pretty sure he knows it too." Chester shakes his head. "So what do we do for her now?" "What she needs is watching over, to make sure she doesn't do something foolish." Ruby pauses then adds with a smile, "And some tender loving care from her friends, so if you have any to give now would be a good time." He says, "Well, OK. I'll try. She's too nice a woman to have something like that happen to her. Do you and Jake have any evidence to bring to the judge?" “Well, the judge doesn’t like me or Jake so I doubt either of us would go to the judge anyway. What happens now is up to Kate. Tom was found with Earp's knife in his back but unfortunately the other Earp’s did the investigating so they covered it up. Tried to blame it on Johnny Ringo.” Ruby continues to tell Chester the story, finishing with “And I’m only telling you this because I know you are worried about Kate. And that she can trust you.” He says, "To lose your husband is bad enough, but murder? I can't imagine what she's feeling. Thanks for telling me this, Ruby. You must be really worried about her."  Ruby replies, “I am worried about her. She is my best friend and I’m not sure I can really help her with this. Right now she needs time and for us to be there when she is ready for whatever it may be she needs from us. And,” Ruby pauses and squeezes his arm, "You are very sweet to be concerned." Then continue to walk around for a while not really talking about anything else important. After their walk they head back to their horses and ride back to town. As they are putting their horses away Ruby thanks Chester for the nice afternoon out and adds, “ I hope we can so it again soon,” with her trademark smile. He blushes. "It was my pleasure, Ruby. I look forward to it. It's nice being out in the open, not worrying about being shot at." During a break from work Nanuet heads over to both the minehead as well as Jeremiah Peck’s cabin to see if Kajika is back. Nanuet also notices that none of the hunters appear to be around anymore, including the South Americans who had stayed at the El Parador. He heads back to the Lone Star to continue with the construction. Chester and Ruby get back in town and Ruby heads back to the gunsmith shop. Ruby mentions that she and Jake now own the Lone Star. Al Brower says “I know, Tom Whipple ran off with my singer from the Comique.” She says that she had heard that. As Ruby leaves the shop she sees Angelica Young out selling the latest copy of the Promise City Herald. She purchases a copy. The main story is about Sam Slade’s dynamite shed blowing up and destroying the three buildings. The other story is about the trial of the two bank robbers, Pinto Joe Weams and Pamela Yeats and how Judge Isby has sentenced them both to hang. The group is pleasantly surprised that their names are in neither story. There is a story on page three about Tom and Maggie Whipple getting a divorce and giving up the Lone Star. No mention is made of the new owners, implying that the saloon ran out of business. The group decides that they need to take out an ad with Chumbley, as he should be back in town this day with his newspaper. They conclude that is why the Herald is being distributed earlier than usual in the day, to get a scoop on their competition.Out at the ranch, Sonoma discusses the purchase of seed for planting with Nanuet and Kate. Nanuet questions if the feed store burning down will create a problem with getting what they need. Sonoma says that word around town is that the owners of the Feed and Grain store are not planning to rebuild and will instead convert the first floor of their two-story brick home on Sierra Street into the business so will be back in business real soon. They will then sell the lot of land on South Street adjacent to Condon’s Bank. On the subject of the fire, she has also heard rumors that they have heard are that Sam Slade is planning to rebuild his hardware store although there is now discussion among the Merchant’s Association about having him store his dynamite elsewhere. Since he owns a house in a more remote location south of town he is encouraged to keep it there in the future. Back in town, Ruby goes looking for Chumbley who has just arrived on the 2:00 PM stage. She finds the halfling and asks Chumbley if Jake Cook came in on the stage as well and is disappointed to hear that he has not. She hears that Warren Earp also rode back from Tombstone, apparently now replacing his brother Morgan as the Promise City Deputy Sheriff. Chumbley exclaims, “What’s new and exciting!” She offers to get him and drink at the Lone Star and tell him what has been going on in town for the last three days. He agrees, and then makes her help him carry his bundles of newspapers. They aren’t too heavy, this edition only being an eight-pager. The top headline in the paper is about the unusual weather with the torrential downpours the past weekend. He missed the other recent stories due to having left town on Sunday. She tells him about the quarantine of Fly’s boarding house and Edsel Trask’s death. She tells Chumbley that she has heard rumors that Trask got the disease during a visit to the Palace Saloon and advises him to stay away from the Palace. Next she relates the story of Slade’s Shed blowing up and the fire that then followed. Then she tells him of the strange monsters that came through town, describing the bugbears and giants. He diligently writes all of this down as she then tells him about Buffalo Bill Cody being in town. Chumbley is real excited to hear that. He had previously gotten the story from Billy Comstock about Cody coming to town but had not printed it yet since his arrival was still unconfirmed. He tells her that with all of this news the next paper will be a dandy, probably another twelve-pager, possibly a sixteen-pager! He mentions how well he has been doing with advertisers, that the current paper has ads for five-and-a-half of its eight pages. Ruby asks if he has heard about the Whipples? He says that he has not, that Maggie Whipple was on Sunday’s stagecoach to Tombstone with him but that she was quiet the entire ride and he assumed she was just on a supply run. Ruby tells him of the divorce and how they each went off separate way, having sold the Lone Star. Chumbley exclaims, “Oh, oh, they were such a nice couple too. He was an advertiser with me, you know!” He rattles on an on but does not ask her any further questions. She exclaims, “Are you going to ask me who bought the Lone Star?” He replies, “Well, you said that Niles Hoover’s store burnt down, and I see him standing over behind the bar, so I assume that he did.” She says, “He’s a part owner, and so is Job Kane, plus Jake and I.” Chumbley congratulates her and says “Jake?” “Jake Cook” she answers. “Ah, the one who the other paper mistakenly printed was your husband.” She says “But he’s not.” Chumbley says “Of course not, I wouldn’t be sitting here and sharing a drink with a married woman.” His face then turns red. Without even pausing for a breath he then asks her about taking out an advertisement in the paper. She agrees and tells him what she wants it to say. He then tells her his pricing, $ 25 for a full-page ad, $ 15 for a half-page and $ 10 for a quarter-page ad. She comments about those prices being high. He replies “The ads are what makes this a worthwhile business venture for the Tombstone Epitaph. At a nickel-a-paper we don’t even make enough selling them to cover my stagecoach fare. He then launches back into his sales pitch, telling her that since the Lone Star is a repeat advertiser he will give her a twenty-percent discount on whatever size ad she places. He also offers to add a multi-paper discount of another ten-percent on top of that if she wishes to advertise in more than one edition. She tells him that she will have to think about that. She then discusses where in the paper the ad will be placed. He says that he will be leaving on the 9:00 AM stage the next day so to get it to him by then. He thanks her for the drink, gathers up his two bundles of newspapers and bounces out the door. Once Chumbley is gone Ruby curses Jake for buying a business and then running off and leaving her to make business decisions. As it starts to get towards early evening Jeff Mills calls it a day for the construction workers. Nanuet heads downstairs and says “Hello” to Ruby before heading out. He decides to start at the church to get the opinion of the priest Valdez and to ask about Mother Jiminez. He says that he has not see her and that her house has been dark. Nanuet asks his opinion of the recent stormy weather. Valdez tells him “She said that it was supernatural in origin and I have no reason to doubt that.” Nanuet then asks about Edsel Trask and Rita Lopez. Valdez says, “He should have come here for healing. Nanuet asks about how communicable the disease appears to be and if any of his companions could possibly come down with it. Valdez says that it is possible but unlikely. Next he checks the mine head, finding it as he left it. He then heads back to the one-story log cabin that is the Peck residence, finding that Jeremiah and Cornflower have just returned.</blockquote>

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