Advent Of A Gunslinger

Down in that canyon…within one of the scrap metal buildings…

“So…you think you can just waltz up in our territory, eh?” A hyena-like diamond dog woman was standing in the middle of a dimly lit room speaking to a certain someone that was tied to a chair. “What’s a birdman like you doin’ down here?”

Stratus had been bound to the chair and was currently being grilled with questions from the large canine. “I already told ya!” he squawked, “I was here just on a walk and I got lost!”

“Sure you was,” the hyena lady replied, “That’s exactly why you was standin’t behind one’a them dunes starin’ off like you was followin’ someone, eh?”

The finch man was forced into silence. This diamond dog had managed to sniff out his exact reasoning before he could say a word. In turn, it left him with limited options in regards to what to say next.

“Dammit, she knows,” he thought to himself, “Can’t let her know that I was here tryin’a find Remington. Then he’ll be in danger…”

Since he wasn’t answering, she approached him, placing her big, meaty paws upon his bound arms and leaning in close while drooling. “...And you’d better make sure you answer honestly,” she breathed into his face, “I can smell when someone’s lying to me.”

“Eegh…” Stratus grit his teeth and turned his head away to avoid eye contact. “...D-don’t…alright, I’ll tell ya. Just back off’a me.”

“Good boy. Now let’s start over,” she stood upright, placing her paws on her hips. “My name is Ejei. What’s yours?”

“...Stratus,” he answered quickly whilst looking down at the floor.

“Look at me when I’m talkin’ to ya,” she commanded, “Show some respect to those above you. Or did yer ma not teach you that? Heeh!” she teased with a slight wheeze of a laugh.

Such words caused the finch to glare up at the hyena with contempt in his eyes. “You shut yer dog-ass mouth. Don’t bring my ma into this.”

Ejei leaned over, getting close to his face once more. “She clearly didn’t raise a smart one,” she shot back with a wide smirk, “Now why oh why were you out here in the first place, hm? Ya don’t look stupid enough’ta travel out here of yer own will.”

Once again, she was correct. Stratus only came here for the sake of Axel--not because he really wanted to be here. And in that moment, the finch slowly came to realize how foolish he had been as a result.

“God…dammit. Here I was thinkin’ they was just some pushovers that needed a wranglin’. Should’ve just stayed home…” His lamentations could do little to save him now. After all, Axel had no idea he was down here. “No…I gotta get outta this myself. Ain’t no one gon’ save me.”

With his mind made up, Straus replied, “Nah, I’m just a researcher.”

“Oh ha!” the hyena lady threw her head back and cackled, “Researchin’ what? Ain’t shit from shinola six ways’ta Sunday but sand as far as the eye can see out here!”

“I’m looking for fossils,” he bounced back and continued as smoothly as possible, “Which tend to be buried under the sand.”

But Ejei was smarter than she looked and was able to throw that right back at him. “Oh really? Honey, I’m a bitch--we find bones on a regular. Ain’t none’a them thangs makin’ no damn fossils.”

“Well, if you’re a simple-minded creature who simply gnaws on bones,” the finch scoffed, “Then of course you won’t recognize them as such. They could be worth a lot of money to the right person.”

The mention of currency caused Ejei to stop in her tracks. “...Money, eh?” But naturally, she still didn’t take him at his word. She couldn’t. “This dude could be sayin’ any-damn-thang just’ta sweet-talk his way through. But…what if he’s tellin’ the truth?” It was difficult for her to tell whether or not he was honest--even with her keen sense of smell. His words were rather sincere and he came off as someone who knew what he was talking about.

“Yes,” Stratus replied with a chirp, “Lots of gold could come from fossilized bones.”

Ejei shot him an unconvinced glare, and turned towards the door that led out of the room. “Give me a minute, would ya?” She left the room, and stepped out into a hallway. “I’d better get the boss’s take on this.” She would then walk towards an office where a certain short dog-woman would be at her desk.

“Ah, you’re here,” Kolasi commented as Ejei entered the room, “Has he told you anything yet?”

“Something about bones that could be worth a lot of money,” she explained, “But could any of them bones we’ve found really be fossils?”

“Shit if they are, I want a good cut of it first,” the dog boss ordered, “Nothin’ gets past my nose around here.”

Ejei nodded, and then began to voice her concerns regarding Stratus. “Of course not. But then what should we do about the bird? How do we confirm whether or not he’s actually telling us the truth? Should we have someone to verify how much they’re worth?”

“Hm…the way I see it, there’s multiple ways to handle this…” Kolasi tapped the tip of a pencil against her chin. “To kill him or send him off to the dungeons would be a waste if he’s telling the truth. So we’ll keep him alive for now. And I think your idea is pretty good. I’mma call for someone that can tell us whether or not the bones we have are worth anything.”

“Gotcha,” the hyena woman replied, “I’ll make sure to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t try anything. I’ll also continue to question him and if I find out anything else, I’ll report to you right away.”

“Excellent,” the short bulldog boss grinned at the proposition of even more money, “We’ll be able to buy out that whole damn castle soon…”

Meanwhile, back in Klugetown…

About a full day had passed since Zula had left and eventually, she had made her way back to the dusty city in the middle of the desert. But she was in for quite the surprise when she came back to the saloon only to find…

“Dead…captured?! What the actual hell happened down here?!” the tigress snarled once she realized that absolutely everything had been thrashed in her absence. Only a few of the nurse she-cats had managed to survive the incident and were able to relay what happened.

“...and that’s the long and short of it,” one of the nurses, a calico, explained, “I hid when I had the chance but everyone else was dead by the time I woke up. And Rongu was plum taken by ‘em. It’s not unreasonable to suspect he’s in custody of Abyssinia now.”

“Great,” Zula huffed, “Just great. Absolutely nothing is going right because I can’t, for the life of me, get ahold of anyone worth a damn. And where the hell are Topaz and the big black cat man?”

“...” The nurse didn’t have an answer. She simply gave an awkward shrug.

“Ugh…” Zula grabbed the bridge of her nose.

Moments later, they would have a visitor. A certain porcupine Klugetowner. “Ey, ey! Boss! You got a visitor! Some sorta eagle lady that wants’ta speak to ya.”

Zula looked up and replied. “...Eagle?”