Chapter 12

Once the funeral was out of the way, life at the Flying M Ranch settled into a comfortable routine. Fire Bringer spent a couple of hours each day taking care of ranch business. It was amazing how easy this was when one had the powers he did. He wanted to switch them from depending on longhorns to a more profitable breed of cattle, such as White Faced. To do this, he would have to locate several bulls, so he spent some time with his Far Seeing skill looking for a source where he could purchase them.

There was a dealer in Dallas who could be trusted, so he TPed there one day and looked around. The stock had been picked over, so the best bulls were already gone. However, he did learn the name of the dealers in England who were the ultimate source for the cattle. Fire Bringer TPed back to the ranch and told the women his plans: he was going to England to buy bulls. The next question was whether or not they would like to join him?

This was the first time that Bobby had ever heard a woman as old as Juanita emit a squeal! Of course, they would like to go with him. When could they leave? Bobby told them that he would TP ahead and make arrangements for a hotel suite in London, where they could spend some time as tourists. When he had found a suitable place, he would bring them over. He was not interested in a long, boring ocean voyage, but they could travel that way if they wished to do so. Both women agreed that they were not interested in a trip by ship, TPing would be much better. Bobby suggested that they only bring the absolute necessities with them, and they could purchase the clothes and such they needed once they got to London. He assured them that he had the capital to handle anything they might want. This produced more squeals!

Fire Bringer had no need to turn the Flying M Ranch into a "paying" proposition, but he wanted to use the ranch as a showcase of what could be done if the longhorns were replaced by a more productive type of cattle. He wanted to try breeding the resilient longhorn with the more meat-bearing White Faced, hoping that the resulting offspring would be a more profitable "crop." This would serve as a example for the neighbors on how to improve their ranches, too.

Fire Bringer jumped to London and reserved a suite at a suitable hotel under the name of Robert Thornton and party. To simplify things, the women had agreed to travel under the name of Thornton, as this cut down on the number of explanations expected. Juanita would be Robert's mother, and Maria would be his sister. Fire Bringer supplied the necessary passports and visas with all of the appropriate official stamps. The paperwork looked so legitimate that even the women were fooled.

Their first two weeks in London were spent doing the usual tourist things: shopping, visiting fancy restaurants, shopping, seeing shows, shopping, and shopping. Were it not for the fun the women were having, Fire Bringer would have gotten bored in short order, but he made every effort not to rain on their fun. Finally, the women were sated with shopping, so Bobby rented a suitable carriage and accouterments for their trip into the country. Bobby shocked everybody who saw them because he did all of his own driving, but he wanted to save some time and trouble by TPing the long stretches of the trip. Usually, what he did was transport to near the farm or estate of the cattle dealer and drive in to keep his appointment to see the stock before he purchased it.

They were in no great hurry to return home, so they had plenty of time to sight see as well as purchase bulls. Bobby wound up buying 6 bulls and putting them into dummy storage before TPing them to the Flying M Ranch. The bulls were not at all unhappy, because they suddenly found themselves surrounded by very receptive cows. Both sexes were happy with the outcome!

All of the purchases by the women had been stored in Fire Bringer's special place, and only taken out as needed, so there was no packing necessary for the return home. They went through the necessary slight-of-hand to make their departure from London without raising suspicions, and TPed home, exhausted, but very happy with the trip. The next day, the women asked where they were going next. They really wanted to see Paris.

However, Fire Bringer felt like he had been neglecting his primary job, so he set about making a through scan for evil-doers. The Comanches were becoming a problem, again, as a new group of young warriors set out to prove themselves worthy of the name. As it happened, they were more active in Mexico this season, and the Mexican Army was just not able to cope with the large number of widely scattered attacks on isolated farms and ranches. Fire Bringer discussed the situation with Storm Who Walks and they concluded that it was time for Fire Bringer to show himself and his power to the Comanches. They just had to learn that they were no longer living in the Stone Age, and they needed to modify their culture to meet the modern reality; therefore, Fire Bringer was going to make many more public appearances among the Comanches.

He started out with a war party that was playing hell with the western edge of their territory. He found them in the process of attacking a rather large farmhouse in an oasis of green surrounded by desert. This family of farmers had worked diligently for 4 generations getting the desert to produce something more than cactus and sand fleas, and the Comanches were about to ruin all of that in one day. This could not be tolerated!

The first thing that Fire Bringer did was to surround the farmhouse with a wall of frozen air. The attacking Comanches realized something had changed when their arrows and thrown spears bounced off an invisible wall. The people inside the house saw the arrows and spears being deflected, but could not see the same for their bullets because of the speed and relative size of those bullets. Nevertheless, they stopped shooting when they saw that the Comanches could not reach them.

Everybody froze in astonishment when Fire Bringer put in an appearance. He made a rather spectacular arrival by appearing to ride in on a comet or meteor trail that was bright enough to be seen even in the bright sunlight. He had already identified the Comanche leader, so he directed his trajectory to put him in front of the war chief and suspended about 5 feet off the ground; he appeared to be standing on a fiery platform that was otherwise unsupported.

Fire Bringer spoke to the Comanche in the man's native dialect, "You must stop this wanton destruction immediately. The spirits command it!"

"Never! These invaders must be driven from our land. They are nothing but Mexican filth, not worthy to live on our territory."

"Look around you! See what they have done to bring forth the fruit of the land from a barren place which your people have never made any effort to improve. You have no right to harm these hard working people who are striving to make the world a better place. You are trying to tear down years of hard effort, and the spirits will not allow you to do so!"

The other Comanches had gathered around by now to get in on this grand entertainment. People could be killed any day, but it was indeed rare to see a visit by a representative of the the spirit world. Fire Bringer made sure to talk loud enough so that everyone could hear, and the war chief did the same.

"It makes no difference what the invaders do, they must be driven off of Comanche land."

"This is not Comanche land, it is Mescalero Apache land. You are merely trying to steal it from them, as you have been doing for years. The Mescaleros do not object to these people living here, so you have no right to try to drive them out."

"Piss on the Mescaleros. They are not great warriors like we Comanches are. We take what we want and kill all who stand in our way, just as I will kill you!" With that statement, the war chief tried to plunge his lance into Fire Bringer's chest.

As soon as the metal tip of the lance touched Fire Bringer's chest, he melted the point and set fire to the wooden shaft of the lance. This caused a gasp of surprise from everybody who saw it, even the war chief of the Comanches and the people inside the house.