Chapter Text
“Good morning my little rawhide riders. I’ve been working on this adventure for ages. It’s gritty, out of this world, grounded, and fantastical. It will be paradoxically perfect for everyone!” Caine lowered his volume and said in a whisper. “Perfect for everyone; please love my adventure…”
The group gathered around the stage before Caine continued again. “Today’s adventure is ‘Gore Gulch Getaway’. You must run your cattle drive through Gore Gulch in order to get top dollar for them at the legendary Stardust Ranch. Avoid unscrupulous rustlers who would steal your cattle, protect yourself from martian spiders, and navigate the dangerous terrain in the gulch.”
“Martian… spiders?” Gangle asked, worriedly.
“Forget I mentioned them.” Caine looked at his wrist. His watch is nowhere to be seen. Caine twirled in the air and summoned a fractal portal. “Now hurry up, you’re burning daylight and you don’t want to be in the gulch when the sun goes down.”
Bubble chimed in, “Ooh, an ominous deadline!”
Caine herded the characters through the portal before Zooble can escape.
The cast landed around a paddock filled with about forty wooden-mannequin cattle. The paddock has a gate with “Circus Circle Cattle” carved above it. A brand of three C’s under the outline of a big tent flanks the words on either side. Jax, Pomni and Ragatha land close to the gate.. The other three characters seemed to land on the far side of a wagon in a jumble and it sounded like Zooble was untangling Kinger and Gangle from some rope or something. It sounded like they would need a few minutes.
Ragatha climbed up the paddock’s fence to take a look at the herd. She looks around and does a double take at herself and the others. She wasn’t in her blue patchwork dress, instead she wore a blue vest over a button-up shirt, blue jeans, and a bowler cap sporting her blue bow.
Pomni came up to the fence, blushing slightly up at Ragatha in snug jeans. Pomni is wearing a rodeo clown outfit, with suspenders, patterned kerchiefs, a floppy hat and a clown nose. Pomni is trying to look around but the size of the cattle and her height are conspiring to keep her in the dark, as she can only see to the nearest cows.
Jax comes up and leans on Pomni’s head.
Jax is wearing a red vest, with a revolver in a harness over his chest peeking out from under a black duster coat. Jax is also wearing a black pants and black hat, with his ears extending out from the hat. He spins his revolver playfully before reholstering into his harness, channeling his inner Doc Holliday. “Finally, Caine gives me something to work with in this adventure!” He reaches down and squeezes Pomni’s clown nose, causing it to honk and her face to turn bright red.
Ragatha glares down at Jax picking on Pomni. Ragatha tries to refocus on the adventure in front of them. “I see some horses in the paddock with the cattle. Looks like there’s one for each of us. I wonder…” Ragatha whistled; one of the horses came up to her. It was a rag doll of a horse with a pale body, orange mane and tail, and with blue tack. Ragatha coo’ed and climbed over the fence to mount the horse, checking the saddle, saddlebags and tact. Ragatha’s face lit up in a smile, seeming happy and comfortable on the horse. “We can do this.”
Jax and Pomni whistled and watched as two more creatures appeared. One was a squat pony with two small barrels on either side of a pack saddle, and a seat on top of the pack saddle, in reds and blues. The other was a sleek dark horse with purple tack and saddle. “Do you think your pony can keep up with us, Pomni?” Jax chuckled at Pomni’s continued difficulty but seemed genuinely pleased with his horse.
“Double Barrel and I will be fine, thank you very much,” Pomni said with a touch of embarrassment. “It’s not like it's a race or anything.”
“Keep telling yourself that, Pomni,” Jax said condescendingly. “Everything’s a race. If you don’t know that, you’re already losing.”
The wagon started to move outside the paddock, and the three mounted characters saw that Kinger was sitting in the chuckwagon, guiding the two drafthorses in an arc to meet Ragatha’s group at the gate. Kinger was wearing a bolo tie over a shirt, with hints of his robe in the shirt’s plaid. The wagon was painted in a black and white checkered pattern and the drafthorses had little chess knight emblems on their harnesses.
Gangle and Zooble came over to the paddock to get mounted, so the group could get on the trail, the deadline fresh in everyone’s mind. Zooble was wearing a dark blue vest over a yellow shirt with the top buttons unbuttoned. Gangle was wearing a red anime school uniform with horse ears added to her mask. She was already in her tragedy mask, having apparently broken her comedy mask when Kinger landed on her. Zooble was trying to keep themselves between Jax and Gangle. As Gangle got to the paddock, a ceramic horse with red ribbon mane trotted up to her. Gangle made a high pitch cry of joy before clambering up onto the horse.
Zooble looked around for their mount but no more horses were appearing from the wooden cattle. Finally, the random motion of the cattle seemed to leave a gap and Zooble could see a motorcycle with bull horns waiting for them. The motorcycle looked garish and partially abstract but started on the first try.
Ragatha pulled a map from her saddle bags and addressed the group. “The route on the map is a bit tricky but I think I can lead us there. I’ll lead the way, if you all can keep the herd together and following me that would be great.” Ragatha got nods from Pomni, Zooble and Gangle. Jax kept his grin in place but didn’t object to the plan for now. Kinger was fiddling in the wagon for something but Ragatha thought that the two drafthorses gave her a knowing look and nodded at her.
With a beaming smile, Ragatha opened the paddock gate. She urged her horse forward with a tongue click. The mannequin cattle followed her easily and the others fanned out to circle the herd. The two drafthorses kept the chuckwagon to the rear of the herd as Kinger fiddled with setting up a canopy, seemingly unaware that the wagon was moving. Ragatha led the herd out of the paddock and into the trail toward Gore Gulch, as the morning sun continued to rise.