George Weaver sat in front of his large, stone fireplace, letting the warmth saturate into his weary bones. He was old, so much older than was expected from someone in his old line of work. He could hear Ann, his wife, puttering around in the kitchen. He smiled at the occasional curse she uttered under her breath. She never wanted him to know she spoke like that. She always said it didn’t befit a body’ dignity to utter such obscenities. He looked to his left and saw the lush Georgia landscape out of his segmented window. Outside he heard his three grandsons playing at cowboys and indians. He smiled at the sound of that as well. He knew he was lucky. In fact, he was the luckiest of all the men he knew. All the rest were dead. He heard a crash from the door, announcing the boys’ return from whatever pretend combat they had been engaged in.
“Goodness gracious,” Ann exclaimed, “don’t you boys just look a fright! You had better get washed up before your grandpa gets up and shows you what for.” Ann said cheekily. She knew he’d do no such thing. The boys reminded him too much of himself as a young’un. They even looked like him. All of them were lean but fit with blonde hair and blue eyes just like George. Well, George’s blonde locks had long since faded to white but still. He chortled at her joke. One of the boys came careening into the room, probably on his way to clean up for supper. He accidentally knocked into George’s old service revolvers hanging in the corner by the stone hearth on an old coat rack. He never really used them anymore but you never knew when a little protection might come in handy. They were hanging in their holsters still attached to his old ammo belt. He kept fresh ammo in that belt just in case but the weapons were never loaded.
“Gosh, Grandpa, I’m sorry!” came the morose reply from the youngest, Robert. He looked down at the mess he made and looked over at George. The old man just smiled at the boy and started to get up out of his chair. He felt his back shoot with pain. Damn arthritis. His smile broke slightly into a grimace which he quickly corrected when he saw the boy again. No reason to frighten the boy, he thought, I’m just getting older.
“Ain’t no reason to fret, young man. It's easy enough to fix.” George reached down to pick up the belt. He looked at the two revolvers. Both were Colt Walker .44 caliber revolvers. One had the word “Pride” etched into its black barrel and its twin had the word “Glory” in the same location. On the butt of the stock, both weapons had an etched cross. He loved these weapons. They got him through some hard times.
“Hey, grandpa, could you tell us a story from your time in the Marshal Service?” The oldest boy, Timothy, looked up at him with such earnest eyes.
“Well, it's almost supper time and you boys need to get washed up.” George said, his eyes twinkling with remembrances of older times. He was already reliving those old days. Ann had been watching this exchange. She was smiling to herself.
“Now, George, I’ve still got a while on supper. Why don’t you entertain these young men while I finish up.” Ann smiled at him. She was slim and black haired with white streaks and had grey eyes and even after all these years, her smile was as radiant as when they were young. He smiled back at her. She knew he loved his stories.
“Hmmm… Alright, I can spin a yarn or two.” He smiled mischievously at his grandsons. He went back to his chair. “Well, come then, gentlemen. I’ll tell you a tale that’ll make your hair stand on end.” The boys all whooped and followed him over. They sat positioning themselves between George and the fire, looking up eagerly waiting for a tale of his grand adventures. He knew he couldn’t disappoint them.
The Town:
I let the bat wing doors of the saloon close slowly behind me. I surveyed the room in front of me. Various types of individuals came into view. A few cowboys, some miners and the bartender stopped their conversation to look over at the stranger in their midst. I was young at the time having just turned thirty years old. I wore a black stetson hat, a white long sleeved collared shirt and a pair of black pants. Around my waist was a gun belt with my two Colt Walkers hanging on either side. That belt held .44 caliber bullets for my old service weapons. I looked every inch a lawman, which I was.
I was looking for the rest of my crew. I had just gotten in and needed to meet up with them. I figured this would be the most likely place to meet them. I was right.
I saw Jed and Will nursing a pint of beer each at a table in the corner. Jed raised his right hand to get my attention. The ring and pinky finger were missing everything above the second knuckle, a hazard of his career. Jedidiah Margrave was the best munitions expert in the service but even he made a few mistakes in his life. Even his keen green eyes couldn’t catch everything. He was a short man and thin as a whip. He wore a blue button up shirt, a pair of tan pants and a green bowler cap over a mop of red hair. William Logan sat beside him. He was a big man at 6’5” and stacked with muscle. He had on a gray shirt, a pair black pants and a white flat brimmed Brexley hat crowned over his shoulder length black hair. He wore his two long swords crossed behind his back. Those were his favored weapons and he was surprisingly quick with them for such a big man. He regarded me with his golden brown eyes. A thinking man’s eyes, they were.
All three of us had earned a distinction in our time with the Marshal Service. We had been moved to a special unit. The Marshals have always been responsible for bringing in fugitives and we were no different. We just brought in a special kind of fugitive. We hunted monsters.
“The talk is pretty thick around here, George,” Jed said as soon as I sat down. He handed me a beer. I took a grateful gulp and smiled at him. “They really don’t know what to do,” He looked around furtively and then said, excitedly, “I think we might be dealing with something we’ve never seen before”. He smiled. He loved finding new monsters.
It seemed like the townfolk of LaGrange, Wyoming had been losing valuables for a year now. People would go to bed with everything accounted for and then wake up and various things would be gone. The only real evidence was a window left open. Whatever it was it liked anything valuable but would especially lock in on gold. Another strange thing started happening around this same time. A lot of sheep and cows started going missing too. So my squad was sent to check things out, decide what was behind it and use deadly force to right the situation if need be.
And here we were, getting ready to face the unknown again. Jed, being the least intimidating of us, had been sent ahead to do some investigating. Apparently, he found some interesting information. No one had really seen the thing, only a hint of bat-like wings and the smell of sulfur. Will, who was our lore expert, thought of quite a few things we could be dealing with.
“But none of it really fits.” Will said to the group, “Though they did point Jed to a trail. Isn’t that right, Bomber?” Bomber was Jed’s nickname being he was our munitions expert. We found that, sometimes, it was better to explode a monster at a safe distance rather than get close. Will, however, was our melee expert. Some monsters can only be dealt with face to face, after all. I was our gunslinger. My rounds were made special to help dispatch monsters that Will couldn’t get close to but didn’t need huge explosions to dispatch. We tried not to blow up the countryside unless we had to, no matter how much Jed might want to. We did find that silver was useful on most of these horrors. So most of my rounds were jacketed with silver. It still worked on people too.
“Well, not a trail as such. There are places where the sand near the Rockies in this area are scorched, almost to the point of turning to glass. That sounded like it might be a good place to start, what with the sulfurous smell and all. I went to that area. These scorched areas seem to be close to some caves up the mountainside. I think it might be the best place to go look. What do y’all think?”
“Hell, sounds as good a place as any to me,” Will laughed. He was spoiling for a fight. He looked over at me. “What do you think, boss?”
“We’ll get to it tonight,” I nodded. “It sounds like this thing sleeps during the day anyway so we might as well get a meal and rest. I have a feeling it's going to be a long night. Let’s eat.” I looked at both of them and smiled. They looked ready to take on the world. They usually did.
We talked for a while after eating. I always demanded we ate on missions. I didn’t want anyone falling out and not being able to back someone else up. We chatted about prior missions and laughed about things that were terrifying when they were happening. Memories are like that. After a couple of hours, I suggested we all try to get a little rest before the work began. Jeb had already gotten some rooms together so we parted ways for the night.
Truthfully, I was exhausted. I had been on a mission in Texas and the travel had finished me off. The room was fine. There was a mirror and a sink for water to wash in. a small single bed sat under the one window in the room opposite the door. There was no decoration. I took off my gunbelt and hung it on the end of the bed. I pulled one of my Walkers out of it and checked the cylinder to make sure it was fully loaded. I put it under the pillow for easy access then I layed down fully clothed and passed out.
The Monster:
I woke up to being shaken. Will stood over me and he looked panicked. I could smell fire and he looked at me and motioned for me to come with him. I followed him out of the room and down the stairs to the saloon common room. Outside the sun had gone down but I could see the orange-red flames licking the sky. Jed came up to us. His eyes looked haunted and he seemed shaken.
“What is it, Jed?” I said. He exchanged looks with William and he pointed out the door. At that moment, a keening cry split the silence. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. It sounded like a hawk’s cry but magnified a thousand times and it filled me with dread. I looked at them and we ran to the doors of the saloon. I looked up and couldn’t believe what I saw.
Twisting through the blackened smoke-flecked sky was a green reptilian creature. It had giant bat-like wings that blasted the dust and smoke out of its way as it turned and twisted in the sky. It looked to be about fifteen feet long from tail to nose. Its four legs ended in huge, cruel-looking claws. It had a short snout that ended in two nostrils that leaked smoke. It opened a slash-like mouth filled with sharp teeth that looked like pointed rock formations and it spit out a tornado of fire. It actually breathed fire. I realized what we were looking at and I couldn’t believe it. We had seen many things in our time as Deputy Marshals but nothing like this. This was a dragon.
I looked at my squad. Jed was checking his supplies. He looked like he was deciding whether this was the best day of his life or if he was going to scream and run in fear. I didn’t blame him. I looked at William. He wore a grim expression and looked in the general direction of the ceiling. He pulled out his longswords, getting ready for a fight. I smiled. I could have definitely had a worse squad. I checked my Walkers and the cylinders. They were both full. I was as ready as I would have ever been.
“You ready?” I said to my crew, my closest friends. Well, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather die beside. They looked at me and nodded. “Alright. Let’s get this goin’. You got some idea of what’ll take this thing out, Jeb?”
“Hell, George, I’ve never seen one of these in real life. Just heard stories you know,” Jeb rubbed the back of his head with his right hand, “but I think these things are pretty impenetrable on the outside so I guess I can whip up something to blow it up from the inside.” Will and I exchanged rueful glances. That meant we were bait. We both shrugged. Will spun his swords in his hand and I cocked my Walkers. Together we left the saloon through the batwing doors… and entered Hell itself.
The dragon had been attacking for a while now and fire was burning everything in the town. People were running around and panicking. We went to work immediately. While dealing with this specific monster may have been new, we had worked many years together. Will was a close in fighter and I had my pistols. We were both bait to a point but I could do more good saving civilians while he distracted the monster. I started gathering up people and getting them as far away from the attack as possible. Every so often, I would fire at the general direction of the beast to help Will in his task. Will was a whirlwind with his swords, spinning in wild dervish swings just a hair slower than the dragon itself. He may not have been able to beat the dragon in speed but he was able to counter everything it threw out including being able to avoid its flaming spouts of breath. It was a sheer wonder. I’d never seen him move like that before or since. It may have been adrenaline or providence but he kept that beast at bay. Jeb ran up with a barrel about three feet tall and one foot wide. He was a short man and the barrel made him look smaller. He had the lopsided grin he usually had when he did something incredibly dangerous but also ingenious.
“Tell me you got something to deal with this thing, Bomber!” I shouted over the din of flames and monster growls. I was damn exhausted and if I was, I knew for sure that Will was about to fall over. He just smiled at me and nodded quickly.
“I got this mixture here that should just do it. It should have enough concussive blast to knock over a building. I been watching it, George. Every time it breathes a spout of fire, it keeps its mouth open just a few seconds. I think it has to cool down the inside of its mouth before blasting again. I think if I throw this into its mouth at the right time and it explodes, it’ll blow the monster’s head clean off. Only catch is that since this has to be thrown, I made the explosive shock based. Jostling it to throw it at the creature ain’t gonna set it off. We’ll need you to shoot it and hit it with both pistols and you got to hit it in the dragon’s mouth or it might kill me or Will.”
“Well, just make it easy,” I said sarcastically. I could make the shot but there was a chance I might not hit it just right. I sighed. “At least if it gets in that thing’s mouth it’ll kill it, right?
“I’m pretty sure,” Jeb looked down. He knew that wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
“Pretty sure? Damn it, Jeb!”
“George, we ain’t never killed a dragon before. Hell, until a few minutes ago, I didn’t even know they existed. Short of a canon, this was the best I could do since we had all this missing information.”
“Yeah, that’s true. Well, do me a favor. When you throw this thing, try to get Will out of the way. Just in case,” I said grimly. I was scared I might lose a man that day. That would have been the first time.
“I’ll drag that big gorilla along even if I have to drag the landscape with me,” Jeb said and I laughed. I knew he would. He was a good man and would never want to lose a man anymore than I did. I gathered my willpower and walked toward Will dancing with the beast. Jeb ran ahead. He took position to Will’s right as he fought.
The dragon didn’t seem to notice Jeb. It let loose a spout of fire out of its mouth. Will danced around it again. I marveled at his endurance. Just as the spout disappeared, Jeb threw the barrel into the dragon’s mouth and tackled Will, moving him out of the way. I fired my Walkers twice. Four bullets hit the barrel dead on in the creature’s mouth. It exploded, throwing Jeb and Will back several feet. The body of the dragon fell headless and lifeless on the ground in front of us.
The Future:
“Supper’s ready, boys!” Ann shouted from the kitchen, waking all four of them up from the reverie. George smiled at his revolvers and then his grandsons. All three of them were smart and strong. He was proud of them and the men he knew they would become.
“Alright. Its time to eat and you know how I feel about meals.” He smiled at them. They all nodded as solemnly as only children could.
“We need a meal before and after every mission!”, they chorused at the same time. He laughed a little at their seriousness. “You go on in. I’ll be there directly.” He motioned for them to join his wife in the kitchen for supper. He looked and Robert had stayed back and was holding his belt and revolvers. He looked at them with a strange light in his eyes.
“Grandpa, do you think I could be a Marshal one day even though I’m small and scrawny.” he looked up at George. The look in his eyes nearly broke his old heart. He took the belt gently from his grandson.
“Of course you can,” George told the boy, putting his left hand on his right shoulder. “You’re strong, smart and have the biggest heart I’ve ever known. And that’s all that matters.” Robert’s face broke into a smile as he ran into the kitchen after his brothers.
George looked after the boy and laughed. He thought about his family and his friends that helped him defeat the dragon that day. Yes sir, he thought, you are the luckiest man alive. He walked into the kitchen to join his family.
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Here There Be Monsters
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The Past:
George Weaver sat in front of his large, stone fireplace, letting the warmth saturate into his weary bones. He was old, so much older than was expected from someone in his old line of work. He could hear Ann, his wife, puttering around in the kitchen. He smiled at the occasional curse she uttered under her breath. She never wanted him to know she spoke like that. She always said it didn’t befit a body’ dignity to utter such obscenities. He looked to his left and saw the lush Georgia landscape out of his segmented window. Outside he heard his three grandsons playing at cowboys and indians. He smiled at the sound of that as well. He knew he was lucky. In fact, he was the luckiest of all the men he knew. All the rest were dead. He heard a crash from the door, announcing the boys’ return from whatever pretend combat they had been engaged in.
“Goodness gracious,” Ann exclaimed, “don’t you boys just look a fright! You had better get washed up before your grandpa gets up and shows you what for.” Ann said cheekily. She knew he’d do no such thing. The boys reminded him too much of himself as a young’un. They even looked like him. All of them were lean but fit with blonde hair and blue eyes just like George. Well, George’s blonde locks had long since faded to white but still. He chortled at her joke. One of the boys came careening into the room, probably on his way to clean up for supper. He accidentally knocked into George’s old service revolvers hanging in the corner by the stone hearth on an old coat rack. He never really used them anymore but you never knew when a little protection might come in handy. They were hanging in their holsters still attached to his old ammo belt. He kept fresh ammo in that belt just in case but the weapons were never loaded.
“Gosh, Grandpa, I’m sorry!” came the morose reply from the youngest, Robert. He looked down at the mess he made and looked over at George. The old man just smiled at the boy and started to get up out of his chair. He felt his back shoot with pain. Damn arthritis. His smile broke slightly into a grimace which he quickly corrected when he saw the boy again. No reason to frighten the boy, he thought, I’m just getting older.
“Ain’t no reason to fret, young man. It's easy enough to fix.” George reached down to pick up the belt. He looked at the two revolvers. Both were Colt Walker .44 caliber revolvers. One had the word “Pride” etched into its black barrel and its twin had the word “Glory” in the same location. On the butt of the stock, both weapons had an etched cross. He loved these weapons. They got him through some hard times.
“Hey, grandpa, could you tell us a story from your time in the Marshal Service?” The oldest boy, Timothy, looked up at him with such earnest eyes.
“Well, it's almost supper time and you boys need to get washed up.” George said, his eyes twinkling with remembrances of older times. He was already reliving those old days. Ann had been watching this exchange. She was smiling to herself.
“Now, George, I’ve still got a while on supper. Why don’t you entertain these young men while I finish up.” Ann smiled at him. She was slim and black haired with white streaks and had grey eyes and even after all these years, her smile was as radiant as when they were young. He smiled back at her. She knew he loved his stories.
“Hmmm… Alright, I can spin a yarn or two.” He smiled mischievously at his grandsons. He went back to his chair. “Well, come then, gentlemen. I’ll tell you a tale that’ll make your hair stand on end.” The boys all whooped and followed him over. They sat positioning themselves between George and the fire, looking up eagerly waiting for a tale of his grand adventures. He knew he couldn’t disappoint them.
The Town:
I let the bat wing doors of the saloon close slowly behind me. I surveyed the room in front of me. Various types of individuals came into view. A few cowboys, some miners and the bartender stopped their conversation to look over at the stranger in their midst. I was young at the time having just turned thirty years old. I wore a black stetson hat, a white long sleeved collared shirt and a pair of black pants. Around my waist was a gun belt with my two Colt Walkers hanging on either side. That belt held .44 caliber bullets for my old service weapons. I looked every inch a lawman, which I was.
I was looking for the rest of my crew. I had just gotten in and needed to meet up with them. I figured this would be the most likely place to meet them. I was right.
I saw Jed and Will nursing a pint of beer each at a table in the corner. Jed raised his right hand to get my attention. The ring and pinky finger were missing everything above the second knuckle, a hazard of his career. Jedidiah Margrave was the best munitions expert in the service but even he made a few mistakes in his life. Even his keen green eyes couldn’t catch everything. He was a short man and thin as a whip. He wore a blue button up shirt, a pair of tan pants and a green bowler cap over a mop of red hair. William Logan sat beside him. He was a big man at 6’5” and stacked with muscle. He had on a gray shirt, a pair black pants and a white flat brimmed Brexley hat crowned over his shoulder length black hair. He wore his two long swords crossed behind his back. Those were his favored weapons and he was surprisingly quick with them for such a big man. He regarded me with his golden brown eyes. A thinking man’s eyes, they were.
All three of us had earned a distinction in our time with the Marshal Service. We had been moved to a special unit. The Marshals have always been responsible for bringing in fugitives and we were no different. We just brought in a special kind of fugitive. We hunted monsters.
“The talk is pretty thick around here, George,” Jed said as soon as I sat down. He handed me a beer. I took a grateful gulp and smiled at him. “They really don’t know what to do,” He looked around furtively and then said, excitedly, “I think we might be dealing with something we’ve never seen before”. He smiled. He loved finding new monsters.
It seemed like the townfolk of LaGrange, Wyoming had been losing valuables for a year now. People would go to bed with everything accounted for and then wake up and various things would be gone. The only real evidence was a window left open. Whatever it was it liked anything valuable but would especially lock in on gold. Another strange thing started happening around this same time. A lot of sheep and cows started going missing too. So my squad was sent to check things out, decide what was behind it and use deadly force to right the situation if need be.
And here we were, getting ready to face the unknown again. Jed, being the least intimidating of us, had been sent ahead to do some investigating. Apparently, he found some interesting information. No one had really seen the thing, only a hint of bat-like wings and the smell of sulfur. Will, who was our lore expert, thought of quite a few things we could be dealing with.
“But none of it really fits.” Will said to the group, “Though they did point Jed to a trail. Isn’t that right, Bomber?” Bomber was Jed’s nickname being he was our munitions expert. We found that, sometimes, it was better to explode a monster at a safe distance rather than get close. Will, however, was our melee expert. Some monsters can only be dealt with face to face, after all. I was our gunslinger. My rounds were made special to help dispatch monsters that Will couldn’t get close to but didn’t need huge explosions to dispatch. We tried not to blow up the countryside unless we had to, no matter how much Jed might want to. We did find that silver was useful on most of these horrors. So most of my rounds were jacketed with silver. It still worked on people too.
“Well, not a trail as such. There are places where the sand near the Rockies in this area are scorched, almost to the point of turning to glass. That sounded like it might be a good place to start, what with the sulfurous smell and all. I went to that area. These scorched areas seem to be close to some caves up the mountainside. I think it might be the best place to go look. What do y’all think?”
“Hell, sounds as good a place as any to me,” Will laughed. He was spoiling for a fight. He looked over at me. “What do you think, boss?”
“We’ll get to it tonight,” I nodded. “It sounds like this thing sleeps during the day anyway so we might as well get a meal and rest. I have a feeling it's going to be a long night. Let’s eat.” I looked at both of them and smiled. They looked ready to take on the world. They usually did.
We talked for a while after eating. I always demanded we ate on missions. I didn’t want anyone falling out and not being able to back someone else up. We chatted about prior missions and laughed about things that were terrifying when they were happening. Memories are like that. After a couple of hours, I suggested we all try to get a little rest before the work began. Jeb had already gotten some rooms together so we parted ways for the night.
Truthfully, I was exhausted. I had been on a mission in Texas and the travel had finished me off. The room was fine. There was a mirror and a sink for water to wash in. a small single bed sat under the one window in the room opposite the door. There was no decoration. I took off my gunbelt and hung it on the end of the bed. I pulled one of my Walkers out of it and checked the cylinder to make sure it was fully loaded. I put it under the pillow for easy access then I layed down fully clothed and passed out.
The Monster:
I woke up to being shaken. Will stood over me and he looked panicked. I could smell fire and he looked at me and motioned for me to come with him. I followed him out of the room and down the stairs to the saloon common room. Outside the sun had gone down but I could see the orange-red flames licking the sky. Jed came up to us. His eyes looked haunted and he seemed shaken.
“What is it, Jed?” I said. He exchanged looks with William and he pointed out the door. At that moment, a keening cry split the silence. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. It sounded like a hawk’s cry but magnified a thousand times and it filled me with dread. I looked at them and we ran to the doors of the saloon. I looked up and couldn’t believe what I saw.
Twisting through the blackened smoke-flecked sky was a green reptilian creature. It had giant bat-like wings that blasted the dust and smoke out of its way as it turned and twisted in the sky. It looked to be about fifteen feet long from tail to nose. Its four legs ended in huge, cruel-looking claws. It had a short snout that ended in two nostrils that leaked smoke. It opened a slash-like mouth filled with sharp teeth that looked like pointed rock formations and it spit out a tornado of fire. It actually breathed fire. I realized what we were looking at and I couldn’t believe it. We had seen many things in our time as Deputy Marshals but nothing like this. This was a dragon.
I looked at my squad. Jed was checking his supplies. He looked like he was deciding whether this was the best day of his life or if he was going to scream and run in fear. I didn’t blame him. I looked at William. He wore a grim expression and looked in the general direction of the ceiling. He pulled out his longswords, getting ready for a fight. I smiled. I could have definitely had a worse squad. I checked my Walkers and the cylinders. They were both full. I was as ready as I would have ever been.
“You ready?” I said to my crew, my closest friends. Well, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather die beside. They looked at me and nodded. “Alright. Let’s get this goin’. You got some idea of what’ll take this thing out, Jeb?”
“Hell, George, I’ve never seen one of these in real life. Just heard stories you know,” Jeb rubbed the back of his head with his right hand, “but I think these things are pretty impenetrable on the outside so I guess I can whip up something to blow it up from the inside.” Will and I exchanged rueful glances. That meant we were bait. We both shrugged. Will spun his swords in his hand and I cocked my Walkers. Together we left the saloon through the batwing doors… and entered Hell itself.
The dragon had been attacking for a while now and fire was burning everything in the town. People were running around and panicking. We went to work immediately. While dealing with this specific monster may have been new, we had worked many years together. Will was a close in fighter and I had my pistols. We were both bait to a point but I could do more good saving civilians while he distracted the monster. I started gathering up people and getting them as far away from the attack as possible. Every so often, I would fire at the general direction of the beast to help Will in his task. Will was a whirlwind with his swords, spinning in wild dervish swings just a hair slower than the dragon itself. He may not have been able to beat the dragon in speed but he was able to counter everything it threw out including being able to avoid its flaming spouts of breath. It was a sheer wonder. I’d never seen him move like that before or since. It may have been adrenaline or providence but he kept that beast at bay. Jeb ran up with a barrel about three feet tall and one foot wide. He was a short man and the barrel made him look smaller. He had the lopsided grin he usually had when he did something incredibly dangerous but also ingenious.
“Tell me you got something to deal with this thing, Bomber!” I shouted over the din of flames and monster growls. I was damn exhausted and if I was, I knew for sure that Will was about to fall over. He just smiled at me and nodded quickly.
“I got this mixture here that should just do it. It should have enough concussive blast to knock over a building. I been watching it, George. Every time it breathes a spout of fire, it keeps its mouth open just a few seconds. I think it has to cool down the inside of its mouth before blasting again. I think if I throw this into its mouth at the right time and it explodes, it’ll blow the monster’s head clean off. Only catch is that since this has to be thrown, I made the explosive shock based. Jostling it to throw it at the creature ain’t gonna set it off. We’ll need you to shoot it and hit it with both pistols and you got to hit it in the dragon’s mouth or it might kill me or Will.”
“Well, just make it easy,” I said sarcastically. I could make the shot but there was a chance I might not hit it just right. I sighed. “At least if it gets in that thing’s mouth it’ll kill it, right?
“I’m pretty sure,” Jeb looked down. He knew that wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
“Pretty sure? Damn it, Jeb!”
“George, we ain’t never killed a dragon before. Hell, until a few minutes ago, I didn’t even know they existed. Short of a canon, this was the best I could do since we had all this missing information.”
“Yeah, that’s true. Well, do me a favor. When you throw this thing, try to get Will out of the way. Just in case,” I said grimly. I was scared I might lose a man that day. That would have been the first time.
“I’ll drag that big gorilla along even if I have to drag the landscape with me,” Jeb said and I laughed. I knew he would. He was a good man and would never want to lose a man anymore than I did. I gathered my willpower and walked toward Will dancing with the beast. Jeb ran ahead. He took position to Will’s right as he fought.
The dragon didn’t seem to notice Jeb. It let loose a spout of fire out of its mouth. Will danced around it again. I marveled at his endurance. Just as the spout disappeared, Jeb threw the barrel into the dragon’s mouth and tackled Will, moving him out of the way. I fired my Walkers twice. Four bullets hit the barrel dead on in the creature’s mouth. It exploded, throwing Jeb and Will back several feet. The body of the dragon fell headless and lifeless on the ground in front of us.
The Future:
“Supper’s ready, boys!” Ann shouted from the kitchen, waking all four of them up from the reverie. George smiled at his revolvers and then his grandsons. All three of them were smart and strong. He was proud of them and the men he knew they would become.
“Alright. Its time to eat and you know how I feel about meals.” He smiled at them. They all nodded as solemnly as only children could.
“We need a meal before and after every mission!”, they chorused at the same time. He laughed a little at their seriousness. “You go on in. I’ll be there directly.” He motioned for them to join his wife in the kitchen for supper. He looked and Robert had stayed back and was holding his belt and revolvers. He looked at them with a strange light in his eyes.
“Grandpa, do you think I could be a Marshal one day even though I’m small and scrawny.” he looked up at George. The look in his eyes nearly broke his old heart. He took the belt gently from his grandson.
“Of course you can,” George told the boy, putting his left hand on his right shoulder. “You’re strong, smart and have the biggest heart I’ve ever known. And that’s all that matters.” Robert’s face broke into a smile as he ran into the kitchen after his brothers.
George looked after the boy and laughed. He thought about his family and his friends that helped him defeat the dragon that day. Yes sir, he thought, you are the luckiest man alive. He walked into the kitchen to join his family.