Chapter 7: Bighorns

Lady Di came out to meet us when we got to her homestead.

She seemed in a good mood and pleased to see Cora and me. She gave Bea a couple of long looks, but she didn’t behave inappropriately towards her or Cora. She told me that the reports from her other properties were coming back that the sickness had gone and the herds were improving in health.

We went to look at the herd she had purchased from me, and I introduced Snort to Bea. We all laughed when he gave her a big sloppy kiss. He seemed happy to see us and all the girls wanted to greet me.

Di said she had taken my advice to heart and wouldn’t breed Snort to her bighorns until summer. He was still fairly young, and I didn’t think him getting a chance to grow a little more would hurt his status with the new ladies.

I informed Di that he had managed to impregnate the ten girls with him and all of the calves were healthy. I pointed to one of the girls, “She has a bull calf.”

Di was very pleased with this bit of news and told the stable manager to make sure the longhorn was well looked after. She told me if the calf proved as good as Snort, she would move it to Darh’s property.

We chatted a little longer and then I asked her for the letters she promised. She looked at me with a calculating look, but when she took note of my expression, she capitulated and took me to her office.

“Are you sure you can’t stay longer?” she asked me as she handed me the letters. I read them carefully folded then and slipped them into my shirt.

“Sorry, I need to find the stock I want and get to the wharf. I already feel the pull to return home,” I said. She looked at me with a question in her eyes. “The spell to return,” I reminded her.

“Oh yes! Your master is very crafty to devise such a spell,” she said.

“Bulls don’t keep their positions or possessions for long if they are stupid,” I told her.

“Is it your master you wish to overthrow?” she asked me.

“No, he and I have an understanding. It is another Bull to whom my wrath is directed towards,” I told her.

“Poor bastard. It took me a while, but even I have learned that to be your enemy is not good for one’s health,” Di said.

“Treat me with respect and honesty, and I am not your enemy,” I replied.

“Just what level of mage are you?” she asked as she looked at me to try to see just what items I had on me.

I gave her my wicked grin. “One high enough to look after myself,” I said.

She decided not to push it even though I was sure she really wanted to know. “What did you do to Cora and the other woman? I saw the rings,” she then asked.

“What I needed to,” I replied.

I could see my answers were frustrating her, but as far as I was concerned, it wasn’t any of her bloody business. She tried again. “Did you find the items here?” she asked and looked at me intently to see if I lied or not.

I guessed someone had reported to her about our trip into the hills. “No. I found several boxes in the old spaceship that is on our island. It is shaped like the two in Garson City and must be part of the original ship. I found the ship when I was in the hills with my herd. That is where my box comes from as well.”

“Oh, by the way, Bea was prospecting in the hills, and she found some flecks of gold in a stream on the southern end of the range near that little town. Cora and I went for a look, but we didn’t find anything significant in the stream Bea took us to. It’s a shame as one can’t have too much gold,” I mentioned.

The prospectors often found flecks and small nuggets of gold, even fool’s gold, but nothing of any significance had been found in the area. The miners mostly mined silver and lead from the mountains.

Di nodded. She knew even better than I did what the people mined. She seemed happy with my answers. I think she thought of asking me if I had more boxes, but I stood to stall her.

“Thanks for the letters, Lady Di. We had better get on the road if we are to reach the next property tonight. I hope you don’t get the sickness back next year and Snort meets your expectations.”

“If I get to come back next year I’ll let you know. I’m going to tell bull Cavil not to accept a contract and to just load the ship and get the best price he can for what animals we get here.”

“If they get here in the condition yours did this time, you will have no problem selling them. You make sure I’m told you’re coming, young man,” she said seriously.

I grinned at her. “Will do,” I said. I nodded at her and putting my hat on to indicate I was finished, I left. I was surprised we had gotten away with so little trouble from Di. I still didn’t trust the woman.

I’d noticed that she had a lot of dark spots in her aura and especially around her items, but I believed it was for different reasons to what had been wrong with mine. I felt that what had been done to her items had been deliberate. It was something I had to think of.

Why anyone would deliberately try to corrupt the items didn’t make sense to me. I’d not found any reason to try to subvert them. I guessed some people didn’t like following the rules or thought they didn’t apply to them.

I had no problems with rules as long as they were fair.

The girls and I made good time.

We arrived not long after dark at the next property. We were put up in the bunkhouse and got to eat with the hands. We didn’t meet our host until the next morning. The man didn’t impress me.

He was very full of himself and seemed to think that because he wore a medallion that he was hot shit. We noticed the strange spots in his aura and around his magical items and decided the less we have to do with him the better.

I inspected the animals he had in his barns. They were on the lean side. I suspected he didn’t have enough feed to get him to spring and had to cut back on the feed. He also wasn’t feeding them a lot of grain from what I could see.

He may cause Di a problem in spring, but that wasn’t my problem. I didn’t like the cut of his animals either and didn’t offer to purchase any of them. He hinted at selling me some, but I didn’t pick up the bait.

I made the decision to leave rather than stay the night. I told him that we were getting behind on the tight schedule I had and we took our leave before lunch. He didn’t offer to feed us, and after the previous night’s poor fair, we didn’t even ask for supplies.

We headed north-east following an outcrop in the mountain range. Bea suggested we pull off the main trail and camp in a small valley she knew of. She mentioned that we would need to keep an eye out for bandits, as we got closer to the Slit.

I woke to the bawling of a bighorn. At first, I thought I was home. Then Cora moved, and I remembered where I was. I slipped out of the blankets and changed to wolf, avoiding getting dressed. I pushed the tarp aside and wandered out.

I looked back into the little valley behind us and was surprised to see a bull with twelve cows and eight half-grown heifers and two young steers. I approached them warily and checked them out. I knew all of Di’s brands but none of these was branded, they were wild bighorns.

Bea had said this was public or more precisely crown land. For whatever reason, this side of the road we had been using was not owned by anyone. The road was considered the edge of Domo Ethen’s domain.

The whole mountain range was, in fact, free to be used by whoever wished to claim it and keep hold of it. Bea said it was the only freehold land available. She didn’t know why Domo Ethen had never tried to claim it, except for the local rumour that it was protected by a spirit.

The story goes that people who wished to behave badly or harm others couldn’t camp on or use the western side of the road. They experienced bad dreams and suffered great misfortune if they did. I don’t know how true that was, but so far, we’d not had any problems.

I trotted back to our camp and nosed into the tent. I was greeted by Bea’s sexy arse and wet cunnie. She had decided to have a feast on Cora and had her knees pulled up, so she was displaying her treasures to me. Still, in wolf form, I licked her from clit to tail.

She squealed, and I licked her again making her shudder. I then changed to human and stuck my tongue into her wet cunnie. She wiggled her arse, and after a couple of quick licks, I mounted her.

I didn’t have to work too hard to get her to come for me. She rolled away after the second time, and I moved forward to fuck Cora. Cora had no objections to finishing the job of getting me off.

We packed up and had a cold breakfast. I took the girls to see what I had found. Bea looked the bighorns over and agreed they were free range, and if I wanted them, I could claim them.

I walked up to the bull. He wasn’t real happy to see me. I stared into his eye and moved closer. He huffed and snorted a few times, but he didn’t charge me. I reached out and placed my hand with the ring on it, onto his snout.

I watched him relax as he accepted I was to be his master. I offered him one of the little salt cubes I had. He damn near licked my fingers off to get all the salt. I patted his head and approached the matriarch of the herd. I followed the same procedure and then introduced myself to the rest of the small herd.

They were all in good condition and healthy. We rounded them up, and we were soon on the road again. We found another small valley close to the turn off to the next property I had to visit. It still had good grass, so I decided to leave the girls with the herd and rode into the property alone.

I noticed the difference between this property and the last right away. The fences were all in good order. The road smooth and the first barn I saw was painted and in good repair.

I rode up to the homestead. I was greeted in the yard by a woman. She was dressed for work, and her clothing fitted her small frame and highlighted her huge tits. I guessed she was a mix of Genteli, Pix and Burgis. Most unusual.

The Genteli considered themselves a cut above their older and shorter cousins the Pix. To be honest, they didn’t look a lot different except the Pix were a lot shorter and had pointier ears.

They were both slim races and had pale skin tones. Pix tended to have a more pale apricot completion, and the Gentili’s were more pale pink to white. Not many of them were big breasted. Women of the Prol and Burgis races tend to have the biggest breasts of all the races.

The Burgis races were a little shorter than the Genteli but taller than the Prols. They had small round ears, and stockier builds like their cousins the Prols, but they were more in proportion body wise as they had the longer legs. They also tended to be darker in skin, eye and hair colour.

This woman was definitely a contradiction. While Genteli can mate with Pix and Grandteli, they can’t mate with Prols and Burgis. Pix, however, can mate with any of them except Grandteli. Shapeshifters like me can mate with anyone. It’s weird but what can I say, it is what it is.

The woman had Genteli height and slimness, Pix ears, and Burgis breasts and skin tones. She even had green eyes. They are not common to our races but are common to the people who were living here when our people dropped in. They tend to be lighter skinned versions of the Burgis, are taller and have bigger ears and blue or green eyes.

I found her fascinating. She looked me up and down and watched as I got off Red. I noticed her looking at my arse. She smiled. “You have got to be Bron,” she said.

“Why is that?” I had to ask. She chuckled. “I’ve heard all about that tight tush and the long sable hair.”

I looked at her as I deciphered her words. I could only determine the ‘tush’ she referred to was my arse. That was a new word for me. I turned so she could see my arse again and looked back at her over my shoulder, “What’s so good about my arse?”

She let out a peel of laughter, “Honey, if I’ve got to tell you, you haven’t been with enough women yet.”

I grinned at her and wiggled my arse before turning around again. “Sorry, most of them mention the front rather than the back,” I said as if perplexed as to why they would.

She laughed again and said, “I’ve heard rumours about it as well. They say you are more bull than man.”

“Well as long as they don’t say I’m full of bullshit, I can live with that assessment,” I replied and added a cheeky grin.