Broken Bess
Sativa found where her companions had wandered off to by following the sounds of plaintive mooing. There in a nearby clearing she found Sulik and Vic had joined a small group of townsfolk gathered around a Brahmin lying in the dirt, unable to move.
"What's happened?" she asked.
"Hey, Boss. Looks the poor things got a busted leg. Probably belonged to one of the caravans passing through," Vic shrugged.
"A Brahmin that can't walk isn't any use to anyone except for the meat and skin off its bones," a townsperson said.
"Can't anyone do something for it?"
"Well, a bullet's the best thing for it now. "Ol' Grisham up at the slaughter-house could do you a good deal for turning it to jerky," another suggested.
One of its heads tried to face her as she bent down to examine it. According to the collar around its necks, Bess was its name. She looked into that one pair of its big black eyes. She had a fondness for the animals, even if they were smelly and left their doings everywhere. "No one's laying a hand on her," she warned the small crowd.
"Hey it's none of our business, but the things as good as dead anyhow. No one here can fix anything like that."
"Maybe you can't. Sulik, come over here and help me keep her steady..." You didn't live somewhere that kept and lived off cattle without learning a thing or two about them, and you didn't hang out with someone like the medicine man without learning other things, like bones and how they fit together, and how sometimes broke or got bent out of place.
She stroked the beast comfortingly, and ran her hand along the stricken leg. "Sulik, put your hands here, and when I say push, you push..."
"What's happened?" she asked.
"Hey, Boss. Looks the poor things got a busted leg. Probably belonged to one of the caravans passing through," Vic shrugged.
"A Brahmin that can't walk isn't any use to anyone except for the meat and skin off its bones," a townsperson said.
"Can't anyone do something for it?"
"Well, a bullet's the best thing for it now. "Ol' Grisham up at the slaughter-house could do you a good deal for turning it to jerky," another suggested.
One of its heads tried to face her as she bent down to examine it. According to the collar around its necks, Bess was its name. She looked into that one pair of its big black eyes. She had a fondness for the animals, even if they were smelly and left their doings everywhere. "No one's laying a hand on her," she warned the small crowd.
"Hey it's none of our business, but the things as good as dead anyhow. No one here can fix anything like that."
"Maybe you can't. Sulik, come over here and help me keep her steady..." You didn't live somewhere that kept and lived off cattle without learning a thing or two about them, and you didn't hang out with someone like the medicine man without learning other things, like bones and how they fit together, and how sometimes broke or got bent out of place.
She stroked the beast comfortingly, and ran her hand along the stricken leg. "Sulik, put your hands here, and when I say push, you push..."