Kuro´s moment

The invisible attackers had a huge advantage on their side – the moment of surprise. If Kame and the soldiers didn´t happen to be near that rock, into which shadow they escaped as fast as they were able to, while Captain Walker supported the wounded soldier on the way, it was highly probable that the precise arrows would have killed or at least hurt all of them. But fortunately, at least the luck was with them, and as soon as they slipped under the natural protection, the arrows, which were threatening them during their escape despite the difficult angle of the shooters´ position, couldn´t reach them anymore.

Three of the five horses, which belonged to soldiers, ran away somewhere between the rocks and scrubby trees, Ukushi remained by Kame´s side faithfully, as well as Captain´s stallion.

Kame made sure that his mare was unharmed, and after that he focused on the rest of their little group. The two remaining of Walker´s men were on full alert with rifles in their hands, observing the open side of their temporary shelter, while the third one was groaning in pain. Captain, who had helped the man to sit down and lean over the wall of the huge rock, stood up from him, turned and looked at Kame.

"I have to say that I didn´t expect your help to be so efficient," he stated and started to inspect his revolvers carefully.

"Believe me, Captain, me neither," Kame reacted and observed their surroundings, while Ukushi was neighing behind him softly.

"They´re almost directly above us," Walker assumed.

"Yes, at least six, but no more than ten," Kame reacted.

Captain moved closer to him, checking all possible spots from where the attackers could appear.

"How can you tell?" he asked.

"There were no more than six shots at once and by the way they attacked, it´s a small group," Kame explained.

"I´m amazed that you were able to count the arrows in this situation," Walker murmured appreciatively. "Well, a small group or not, they managed to surprise us anyway..."

Captain gave one painful glance to the lying body on the rocky road a few meters away, before turning to Kame again.

"You have no firearm?" he asked after checking out his hands.

Kame repaid his look firmly: "No."

"Ah..." Walker seemed surprised and at the same time not so much.

Kame himself didn´t really think about it when they set off from the city, he wasn´t used to carrying a gun with him. The bear hunt with Jin was an exception. Not only he had a certain form of aversion to any type of lethal weapons, also he didn´t believe he would use it around here. He grew up in the woods, he knew how to survive in them, and he knew how to kill anything what would stand in his way even without a rifle.

At that very moment, he thought that it was not such a good idea to cling onto this habit, but it was too late to change that. And it was not important right now, as he already saw the way how to get himself and the others from the dangerous situation.

"Do you see that narrow line between the rocks?" he pointed out at the steep path. "It is covered with bushes and I think that those attackers cannot see there. I will go first and distract them. When they will go after me, you can bypass and surprise them from behind."

"It´s too dangerous, Kamenashi!" Walker stared at him shocked. "I cannot let you..."

But Kame didn´t pay an attention to him, as he was already focused on instructing his dear mare. Ukushi shook with her head, then moved away and with a slow trot she overcame the part of the road which was not covered by the huge rock. As Kame thought, no arrow appeared during her passing by. He knew that she would wait for him nearby, if his escape led him too far from the soldiers.

He turned his attention back to frowning Walker then.

"I recommend you to return for the wounded man later. He would have held you back. Attack them as soon as you get them in sight. They will be focused on me, so you should handle it even with three of you."

"Kamenashi!" the captain tried again and even the two other soldiers seemed not too happy about the plan.

"Do you have any better idea?" Kame asked sharply.

The keen silence was a response to his question.

"Give me two minutes lead and follow me," he said and immediately set off to the difficult way up, crouching behind the thick bushes, which were almost without the leaves, but still able to hide him from any looks from above.

During ten minutes, which took him to get to the intended spot, from where he hoped he could see the attackers, Kame was so grateful for his training under the Blackfeet Tribe´s warriors, when they forced him to repeat all those physically difficult tasks so often, that he was as good in tracking, sneaking and running as any other young Indian. The path he chose was very difficult to climb and it was very important for him to stay quiet, if he didn´t want to end up as the next dead body on the road under him.

As soon as Kame reached the place and found himself to be a little above the attackers, who were arguing on their quite well-covered position, and whose voices led him during the last meters, he realized that they were really damn lucky.

It seemed that the Indians chose their base for the attack randomly and in a rush. It was not bad for hiding, but completely inconvenient for a sudden attack. Their vision range was limited by the narrow space between the rocks under them, which were covering most of the road on which Kame and the soldiers came. Not to mention that their group was rather small, just six Indians and only one of them had a gun. The rest was armed with bows and tomahawks.

Kame was observing them through the twigs of the dead tree for a few seconds. He assumed that their arrival surprised them. The Indians were not from Blackfeet Tribe, he would know immediately. Their clothing style was a little different, the moccasins not so well-made, as they obviously didn´t consider the forthcoming winter and all of them had a black stripe across their eyes. Those were the rebels from Sioux Tribe.

His time for distracting them, which he agreed on with Walker, was almost gone and he had to act fast. He moved back a little and as fast as he only dared to without making any noise, he made a small semicircle. He ended his repositioning on the opposite side of the attackers than from which he came up. He didn´t like the idea of exposing those Indians to the high possibility of death, no matter what tribe they were from, but there was no other choice; the circumstances forced him to it.

Kame checked his escape route, which he hoped would lead him to Ukushi waiting somewhere down under the hill, took a deep breath and he got up on his feet.

"Hey!!"

His loud whoop echoed between the rocks, creating an almost scary effect. It took a few seconds for Indians to spot him on the slope above their heads.

"Aren´t you ashamed, Sioux crows?! Ambushing us from behind?!"

The red men collected themselves very quickly and with the battle cries on their lips they aimed their bows at him. But Kame didn´t wait for any arrow to go in his direction and was already on his way down.

Kame was running for his life, fighting not only against the Indians behind him, but also with branches, stones and hidden holes in front of him. It reminded him another recent escape like this one, when he was fleeing from the king of the woods.

He was fast, but so were his chasers. They caught up with him fast. They were not yelling anymore and were pursuing him quietly. Kame could feel them behind him; he could hear the rustles under their feet from time to time.

He was almost back down on the level, where he had started and already two arrows missed him dangerously close, when he finally heard the loud gunshot from behind – Walker and his soldiers caught up. Kame immediately jumped behind the closest bole, to avoid the danger of stray bullets.

The Indians were screaming and swearing surprised, the soldiers were shooting fiercely. The forest was full of noise from the unbalanced clash.

When Kame checked up on the situation carefully, he found the Indians retreating up the slope, supporting one of their bleeding companions.

The soldiers with Walker in the lead were reaching his spot, still shooting. They were only three, but they were in advantage now. Though the Indians were already too far and in the bad angle.

Anyway, the plan worked out. They were confused by Kame´s appearance on one side and they didn´t expect the others to come from the other one. At that moment, when Kame watched the hasty retreat, one of the Indians turned back to them with quite an angry expression on his face.

Kazuya froze on his spot. He knew that face very well. He probably saw only his back before, otherwise he would have known sooner... He recognized the Indian despite the black stripe. When the Indian´s eyes met his, Kame knew that the other one realized who he was too.

Kame watched him wide eyed, as the Indian spat onto the ground scornfully and disappeared right before Walker with the revolver in his hand reached him.

"Are you all right?" Walker asked.

"Yes..." Kame breathed out, still in shock.

"Captain! Should we pursue them?!" one of the excited soldiers yelled from above.

"No," Walker denied immediately. "It´s not worth the trouble, we need some backup."

"I agree," Kame stated, collecting himself again. "I´m quite sure that they have their base somewhere around, we would have only run into their arms."

"But, captain, what if...!" the second soldier was in somehow over-motivated mood as well.

"As I said!" Walker reacted strictly and focused his eyes on Kame again. "Did you recognize any of them, Kamenashi?"

Kame repaid the sharp glance.

"No, I didn´t," he said. "Those were Sioux, Captain."

"All right. We should leave immediately," Walker said, watching the slope above them. "We will return here with a bigger unit."

"I suppose they will be long gone by that time," Kame noted.

"I will not risk the rest of my men´s lives," Walker replied firmly. "I will send a request for support to the nearest fortress. We found them now; we will find them again."

Kame didn´t say anything more to that. He felt a little guilty because of that lie he told to the captain. But he just didn´t want to expose the whole Blackfeet Tribe to other problems which they didn´t need. Not when he didn´t know what this was about. Not before he would talk this out with the Chief directly, because the Indian, whom he had recognized, was Manipi; the Tribal Chief´s son.

***

The mouth of Grenet´s revolver was in direct line with Karnaka´s head. Although the faithful servant jumped forward to protect his master, he would have been too late, as Jin had already pulled the trigger. The old man was supposed to sit there in his armchair with a huge bloody hole in his damn forehead. He was supposed to be dead. But he was not.

Raynold Karnaka was still looking at Jin with those cold emotionless eyes, with the eyes of the dead man, but he was very much breathing and alive. Jin was standing there with his hand outstretched like a statue, and for a brief moment, he didn´t understand what had happened. He did move his finger to pull the trigger, but the gun didn´t fire.

Then there was a deadly grip on his arm, almost breaking his bones with the force, which made him release the revolver. And in the next second he couldn´t breathe.

It was Grenet, who wriggled Jin´s right arm behind his back and with the second hand he took him into the suffocating grip around the neck.

"I so knew you would try this, you stupid shithead," he hissed directly in Jin´s ear. "Just for your information, you wouldn´t have been able to shoot even yourself with it; I unloaded it."

Jin said nothing; he had already figured it out. How incredibly huge mistake he had made. He totally underestimated Grenet. And that mistake was probably his last one.

Karnaka, now partially covered by Cameron, who was standing in front of him killing Jin with his eyes, got up from his armchair, still smoking the cigar, totally not shaken out of his composure.

"It´s all right, Cameron, thank you," that old bastard stated.

The servant stepped aside a little and the man approached Jin, who was prevented by the Grenet´s deadly grip from any movement at all.

"Revenge, I suppose," the old man said, looking into Jin´s eyes.

Jin knew that at least now, he didn´t need to cover anything anymore. But he couldn´t speak, so he just let that anger and hatred he felt to reveal in his look in their full power. Karnaka just grinned awfully.

The pressure, with which Grenet was squeezing his neck, was stealing Jin from breath and the strength to resist. Despite that he had tried a few times to release himself from the grip, making it quite hard for Grenet to hold him down, but that was his limit. He already saw the tiny black spots in front of his eyes.

But Jin didn´t feel fear, not yet at least. He was just angry with himself that he screwed his chance up like that. He awfully underestimated not only Grenet and his suspicion towards him, but also his own bad hunch.

How could I be so naive?

If only Grenet had his gun loaded, Karnaka would have been dead by now. Cameron and Grenet would have probably killed Jin on the spot for that, but at least he would have died knowing he fulfilled his vow, and that maybe he made other people´s lives easier. For example, Kazuya´s life...

But like this... For this failure, he could blame only himself.

"Let him breathe a little, Math," the boss was so nice to order his subordinate. "I don´t want him to pass out right away."

The pressure on Jin´s throat released a little, so his lungs could get a little air. But the grip around him was still firm as stone, Grenet didn´t intend to let him move even by inch.

Being able to breathe again, Jin´s nose could catch other things too. The man stink after cigarettes and sweat and horses, but almost all cowboys smelled like that, it was nothing new for Jin. But Grenet´s breath was somehow disgusting. It smelled like cold coffee, old tobacco, stale beer and it was mixed with the odour, which was coming from that compost, where he threw the ugly content of basket. And this very breath was touching his face. Jin felt like he would vomit from it.

Karnaka was watching him with cold self-confidence, knowing his power over the young gunslinger and continued the one-sided conversation.

"Revenge for that pathetic little peasant? I have to say I had higher expectations of you, boy."

Jin didn´t care about his behaviour anymore, what could go worse, anyway? So all of his hate and disgust he felt, he put into the three words, which he made go through his throat, sounded half-choked but still clearly.

"Go to hell."

Karnaka just raised his eyebrows a little and Cameron moved faster than Jin had expected from him. The hard hit under the ribs unsettled his body, despite Grenet still holding him. Jin had a feeling that he would cough his stomach out, but Grenet wouldn´t let him bend to release it.

"Watch your manners, you little bastard," the servant asked him incredibly politely.

At that moment, he seemed more disgusting to Jin than Grenet himself.

"I see," Karnaka said. "You´re quite angry with me, boy."

This time Jin thought it would be wiser to keep quiet. Karnaka gave him the last sharp glance, before he returned to his armchair.

"Math, take care of him," he decided calmly. "Get out of him any information which may be useful. Especially whether he had any accomplice in the city, or not."

"Of course, sir. Any special instructions?" Grenet asked in the tone, which brought shivers to Jin´s spine.

"No, just keep him alive, otherwise you have a free hand," Karnaka stated.

"I understand," Grenet sounded awfully content with the order. He backed off the hand with which he was strangling him, but he didn´t release his painful grip on Jin´s arm and pushed him toward the door. "Let´s go, fucker. Now we´ll see how brave you´re."

Grenet basically threw Jin out into the corridor, so that he stumbled on the way, almost falling onto the red carpet. Right after that the two of Karnaka´s guards grabbed him and dragged him out.

Jin knew that he should accept the situation; there was no way out of it, but he couldn´t help to resist and fought with the men, so he was rewarded with quite a few more punches, before he gave up.

His appearance outside was welcomed by the curses and mocking, as the other ass-climbers realized, that a rumour which Grenet had told them before, was real. Jin just sucked it up and ignored them, as he was tossed further around the house.

"Oh, boss! Boss!" it was young Danny, who was desperately trying to cover for being the one who brought the bad news that morning. "I´m sorry, but what should we do with his horse?"

He was talking to Grenet, who walked behind Jin and his captors till that moment.

"Right, I almost forgot," Grenet took a few steps aside, observing Kuro, who was still standing on his place patiently, the head turned toward his master. "Your precious horse, greenhorn," he hissed. "What should we do about it?"

Other men moved closer, in expectation of some fun. Jin had absolutely no intention to play this game and kept quiet. Grenet approached Kuro with the self-confident smirk on his lips and probably intended to ride the animal.

He reached out for the bridle and suddenly everyone around saw the deputy flying in the air. Grenet´s subordinates stared as their boss fell into the grass with a surprised exhale a few steps away.

The black horse snorted and with a surprising gentility he placed his back feet, with which he kicked Grenet as soon as the man was in his reach, back to the ground. The smirk on the sheriff´s deputy face was exchanged with anger from the humiliation.

"So... The horse is just as annoying as his owner, huh?"

Grenet got up on his feet with a dangerous shining in his eyes. Jin was watching him closely, worried about his dear animal friend.

This time, Karnaka´s right hand approached the horse more carefully. He went from the side and he almost grabbed the bridle, when so far innocent and peaceful Kuro jerked his head backwards, releasing his tie from the pole completely and turned into a black tornado. He pranced on his back feet, kicking with the front ones high in the air, the hooves dangerously close Grenet´s head. Grenet backed off surprised as the threatening neighing cut through the air.

"Watch out, boss!"

"Careful!"

"That horse is a devil!"

Jin´s horse was demonstrating quite an impressive example of what indomitable animal can do. Nobody from the men around dared to go closer than three meters from the stallion and even pissed Grenet was not able to approach him, as Kuro was turning on his heels in incredible speed, putting anyone who was close enough to the deadly danger of his hard hooves.

Jin couldn´t help but smiled satisfied, as he saw that deputy bastard in the humiliating situation in front of his men. Once again, he was reminded that listening to his instincts pays off. And he was proud of Kuro. During the time on the roads, he had created only hardly believable bond with the animal, which was sometimes cleverer than his master, even though Jin would have never admitted that.

But Jin´s smile vanished in the second he saw that Grenet retreated behind one of his men, who were hopelessly trying to capture Kuro, and with the angry hissing started to load his revolver... It was quite clear what he intended to do.

The horror from what might be the result of this gave Jin the strength to resist the men, who were not holding him so tightly anymore. He got rid of them, pushing one away and kicking the other´s legs so that he fell down heavily and faster than he had thought he was able to, jumped right onto Grenet, knocking him down to the ground, from which he looked up to his jumping horse.

"Kuro! Run!"

His clear and loud voice shouted down all the other noises and also the yelling of Grenet´s men. Kuro froze on the spot, and his dark eyes focused on Jin. The men around stopped and stared in awe above this sudden change. The animal shook his head in obvious disagreement and Grenet started to fight against Jin´s hold. The others turned to them too; there was no time.

"RUN!" Jin repeated desperately, trying to save at least the faithful animal.

And Kuro moved. Or better to say – the stallion set off so fast, that two men almost didn´t manage to get out of his way; they thrust into each other and fell on the ground in very nice unison. The tramp of horse´s feet hurtled forward to the main gate and away from the group.

Many hands grabbed Jin and got him off Grenet.

"Stop him, you idiots!!" Grenet screamed in furious anger, jumping back up on his feet. "Close that damn gate!!"

But it was too late. Before the guards at the gate were able to comprehend what was happening, Kuro already ran by them, with his mane flying and then he was out of the farm´s lands and the sound of his hooves disappeared faster than Jin was able to breathed out for three times.

Grenet´s face was contorted in pure rage.

"You two!!" he barked at the two poor men weltering on the ground. "Get up, on the horses, catch him for me!"

"But, boss..."

"Shut up and go!"

Nobody dared to say anything to Karnaka´s right hand this time. Two assigned men got up on their feet and ran to their horses.

Jin, who was held by three gunmen, was completely sure that they wouldn´t catch up with Kuro. Nobody could catch him when he was without a rider. He was stuck in this mess, which was basically what he was asking for, but he was really relieved that Kuro wouldn´t end up paying for his mistakes. So Jin didn´t really give a shit about the hateful look which Grenet focused on him as soon as the chasers disappeared behind the gate.

He had probably noticed how satisfied with the events Jin was, as he grabbed him by a collar, pulling him closer.

"You have no idea how much I will enjoy our time spent together from now on, greenhorn," he hissed right into his face. "You will wish your mother had never given a birth to you."

"I am not afraid of a bastard who pulls out his gun against a horse," Jin stated calmly.

This time it was Grenet himself who punched him and caused the sparkling stars in front of Jin´s eyes.

"Get him out of my sight!" Grenet ordered angrily. "We will see, greenhorn, how much humour you will have left, when I´ll be finished with you!"

***

Their ride back to Bozeman was long and very quiet.

First, they had to look for the horses, which were startled by the unexpected attack and if not for Ukushi, who was able to let Kame know when she sensed her distant relatives, the soldiers wouldn´t have found them at all.

They took the body of the dead soldier with them, as Walker was determined to arrange a proper funeral for him in the city. The other three soldiers grieved for their companion, who was also their friend, but they couldn´t afford to let their guard down and they kept their rifles in hands for the whole way back. And they were also obviously angry, not scared.

They got back quite late, a few hours after the darkness fell onto the city and covered it as wet and ugly blanket. Kame helped the soldiers to take the body of their dead friend, and also the wounded one, to the Dr. Best´s clinic and then headed home finally, too tired to go to the saloon for that evening, even though he knew the pub was still opened.

At least he took care of Ukushi properly, taking time to brush her hair, for which she thanked him by pushing the soft blowholes to his neck and snorting softly. Kame smiled and caressed her a few times gratefully. He realized that the mare sensed his uneasiness and tried to calm him down.

Kame let Ukushi have the last apple, which was left from his lunch, and with the tiredness burdening his steps he went out. He closed the stable and intended to move toward the house, when he was stopped by the sound of very fast hooves approaching.

He looked in the direction, from where the gallop was coming, trying to see through the darkness and with his heart beating heavily. It was only three meters from him, behind Ukushi´s shelter, when he was finally able to see the animal.

The black horse reached their back yard stomping loudly and snorted as soon as he spotted frozen Kame standing in front of him with the lantern in his hand.

It was Kuro. Perspiring, dancing on his four in the small circles as if something evil possessed him, with the saddle on his back, but without a rider. His master was missing.

Terrified Kame just stared at the nervous horse for a while, unable to make his feet move. Kuro came directly to his house all by himself, which almost seemed like a miracle, but the horse being there without Jin could mean only one thing. Something bad happened. And that realization immobilized Kame for a moment, during which he couldn´t stop the flow of horrific scenarios of what might went wrong.

Only the loud neighing of Ukushi from the inside of her shelter reminded him that Kuro was creating quite a fuss behind their house and that it might attract an unwanted attention.

Kame put the lantern back on its hanger hastily and very carefully approached the scared horse with both his hands extended to show he meant no harm. It was not easy to grab the bridle, but as soon as he could touch Kuro directly with his other hand, the horse started to calm down.

"It´s going be all right, I promise," Kame spoke in a soft voice, and kept holding and caressing the stallion till the movement of the sweating body stopped completely and only the hasty breathing indicated the previous craziness with which Kuro arrived.

"We will help your master, no matter where he is... Agreed?" Kazuya asked the horse .

Kuro snorted anxiously.

"Of course that I´ll take you with me," Kame assured him. "We will save him. We will..."

There were only two options, which Kame was willing to accept. That Jin was somewhere on the road toward Karnaka´s farm wounded, unable to move and Kuro ran away from him for help, or his cover was exposed and they didn´t let him leave the farm, but somehow, he managed to let Kuro escape.

He couldn´t let any other option take its place in his mind. He didn´t want to think about the possibility that Kuro´s master was already...

Kazuya closed his eyes for a moment, forcing himself to calm down.

No need to panic. Just don´t... Just don´t think about it. Jin needs my help now.

"All right," he whispered to Kuro. "We will hide you for now, so that nobody can see you here. Come on..."

Ukushi´s stable was small, but for a little while it could serve for both animals. Letting Kuro outside or in the stalls behind the saloon was simply not an option. It was better that nobody knew he came to Kame´s house. And fortunately, his mare was tolerant enough to her new neighbour.

Kame took the saddle off Kuro, wiped him dry and gave him some oat. After that he closed the shelter again, leaving the animals alone.

He looked at his home and with a deep sigh he skipped the shortest way to the front door. He needed to go to the saloon first, to check if Grenet returned to the city or not. And then... Then he had to figure something out. For now, it seemed that he would have to pay a visit to the place, which he had never desired to see – Karnaka´s farm.