Shame

"I told you to lock the doors, señora," winced Ruiz.

"An' I told you, I don't take orders from nopony," Sadie spat back, wrapping a strip of gauze around his shoulder. "I do whatever I feel is best for me an' my kin. An' right now, that means keepin' you alive. Now, hold still!"

Ruiz did his best, but it was hard to keep his body from shaking. A complex web of emotions, the likes of which he'd been numb to for over a year, was tugging as him in every direction. He didn't want to seem ungrateful to Sadie for rescuing him; he'd be dead if she hadn't stepped in when she did, but she had to know that stepping out into the fields where death was swarming was inherently dangerous.

More importantly, there was something that weighed heavily on him, something that should have been weighing on the others, as well. "Do you think Maria actually met up with Curt?" he asked, turning his head to Sadie.

"Well, she didn't go to the sheriff on her own," answered Sadie. "I don't know what happened out there, but there's nothing we can do about it now. We'll just have to fortify our house and hope she's still kicking by the time Jed comes back."

"You're not going to do anything?!" Ruiz was bewildered by what he was hearing. "You just said you do what's best for your familia, señora. What about your daughter?!"

"Don't you take that tone with me!" she spat back, grabbing him by the mane. "I love Maria! But I can neither take Mint into the hornet's nest to pull her out, nor leave her here on her own to fend off the gryphons by her lonesome! It's a shitty thing that we have to leave Maria in their clutches for now, but we don't have a lot of choice in the matter. When Jed comes back, and you're all healed up, we can figure something out, but right now, we're too few. Our best bet right now is to prepare for another wave of gryphons and try to hold out until reinforcements arrive!"

Ruiz turned to look at Mint. She was just a filly. He remembered the look on her face when the gryphon had tried to grab her. She was barely any bigger than he was, and they'd tried to take her innocence. The Ravens were relentless and cruel, and they would stop at nothing, especially if the sheriff was around to protect them.

"Okay, señora," Ruiz sighed. "I'll make sure that your family is kept safe. That's what Jed asked me to do, regardless."

"Good," nodded Sadie. "And you have my word that as soon as we have a means of recovering Maria, I'm going to ensure that it comes to fruition. I'm not leaving her there any longer than I have to."

As Sadie tied off the last of the bandages, Ruiz looked down at his belt. "I need to go collect my knife, señora. As good as I am with a slingshot, I need something in the event that they come too close."

Sadie nodded and patted his shoulder. "If you haven't sharpened it recently, now would be a very good time."

He had sharpened it recently. In fact, he had done so right before the scythes, because he knew that his knife wouldn't take very long to sharpen. He made his way out to where he'd dropped it, and noted that the gryphon he had blinded was crawling ever so slowly deeper into the farm, away from the road. He was the only one still alive. With very little effort, Ruiz picked up one of the spears and stabbed clean through the beast's leg, pinning him to the ground.

"You have but one chance, pendejo," he said, his voice level. "Tell me where Maria is, and I'll release you. Any funny business, and I will make your death the slowest, most painful experience I can. Bake you in the sun, cut off your penis half a centimetre every day, and shove a pear of anguish up your arse, keeping you alive so that you feel every second of it. Make your choice."

"Sheriff's office," he whimpered. "In the basement."

In truth, Ruiz had no intention of torturing this gryphon under any circumstance. It was just more work, another mouth to feed, and to no benefit. Keeping prisoners was a luxury he could not afford. Still, he kept his word. He reached down and slit across the gryphon's throat, killing him and freeing him from his bodily torment.

Ruiz looked up toward the house. He did understand Sadie's point of view, and he knew she was right, but he disagreed with her method. It would be much easier to defend the house with Maria around, and it would probably be a few days before the sheriff sent anypony else out here to satisfy themselves. After all, if those spears were any indication, he'd expected Ruiz to die if he didn't comply. What better time to strike than when he was thought to be either subdued or dead?

As he took off down the road, he considered what he had been ordered to do by both Sadie and Jed. Jed wanted his family protected. Sadie wanted what was best for her kin. Ruiz was going to do both, if not the way they wanted it done. He was still following orders, by his own interpretation. Not the words, but their spirit.

He'd grabbed a large box of threaded nails before leaving. He was done firing rocks as a way of stunning or warning. This was not a time to pull punches. This was a time to raise up his weapon and strike decisively.

It wasn't until he reached town that he realised that he had no idea where the sheriff's office was. He guessed that it was near the center of town, and stuck to the shadows. He didn't want to risk being seen before finding the place. When he did come across it, it was from behind, and there was no sign back here, only some evidence through the window, and the sheriff with his back hooves on top of a desk, talking to a Raven.

The building was fortified, with the only entrance being out front and leading out into the main street. The walls were thick and made of stone, and the windows were all barred. Nopony was breaking out of here without significant help.

With a deep breath, Ruiz made peace with his existence. Grabbing a half dozen nails from his box, he circled the building, kicked the door open, and shot the raven through the eye, driving a nail into his skull. Before the sheriff could so much as jump to his hooves, he, too, had been shot through the eye with a spiral shank nail.

From the stairwell, a voice called "What's going on up there?" As soon as the gryphon's head crested the stair rail, it had a steel rod driven into its ear. Another imbedded itself in bone, but a swift kick from Ruiz drove it all the way through.

Ruiz dropped down the stairwell and turned left. Maria, along with Meteor and another mare he didn't know, were chained to the wall, their knees bound to their shoulders. One last gryphon was down here, but as he was lost in pleasuring himself with Maria's bound body, he was an easy target, and a swift slice across his neck was all Ruiz needed to drop him.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you, Ruiz!" called Maria. "Do you have the key?"

"No," he answered, breaking the support rail for the stairwell and removing the anchor from the wall. He slipped it into the mount for her chains, climbed up her body, and began to pry the anchor directly out of the wall. Just as the mounts ripped free, a loud whistle was heard upstairs.

He rushed up to see the sheriff up in the window, blowing hard into a steel whistle. Ruiz stabbed him in the throat, but it was too late. The sky was beginning to blacken as a wave of Ravens took to the sky and came down to the street in front of him. He had thought that there were perhaps thirty, or at most fifty. Now his guess was closer to eighty. This was a swarm.