Dude meets the wildies

August 4, 2025
Dude would have let the girls slip quietly past him without so much as a second glance. He was good at keeping secrets. But Grace stopped, stared at him for a moment, then motioned for him to follow. Dude was also good at basic sign language. Grace's single motion meant be quiet, drop what you're doing, and come with us.

There were unfamiliar footprints in the soil where it was sandy. Much of what they walked on was hard-pan, baked solid and dry by the sun, retaining little in the way of tracks.

"Probably hunters" Skye said softly. "Setting up their game cameras." Grace nodded. She was probably right.

In the shade of a pine they came across a gopher snake, roughly four feet long, stretched out across the ground. Skye saw its tail first. It froze as she moved around to get a look into its eyes. She smiled, looked to Grace and Dude. "Playing dead so we leave it alone!"

The horses appeared rather suddenly. There hadn't been a lot of time to explain anything to Dude.

Grace turned her head slightly toward Dude and spoke softly.

"This is Highlander's band. The stallion is Highlander, then Katana, the Dun Mare and her filly Piper."

"The Dun Mare had a dunalino colt last year, but it disappeared" Skye added.

Dude listened, his gaze never leaving the horses. They were healthy.

"Gramma Francis...she loves the draft-type horses" Dude whispered, "and the Spanish types. And not a lot of white."

Grace smiled. It had only been more recently that pinto patterns other than sabino were cropping up.

Highlander was aware that Grace and Skye had company. Regarding which, he made his sentiments clear.

The horses moved off.  And the observers became the observed.

August 9
It had been a long day in the Down Below, or the Underworld, as Skye sometimes called it. Grace leaned back in the driver's seat so that Skye could point the camera out the window.

"What are you shooting?"

"Just the trees. The boss said she watched this program called The Nature Effect, and it has been scientifically proven that even looking at pictures of nature has immediate beneficial health effects. So she wants to get back into taking nature pictures again."

"Are you channeling the boss?"

"Uuuuuhhh...yes."

The mountain mahogany in Meadow Campground was Skye's next target.

Then the sun setting through sycamore leaves.

"Skye are we going for a ride before dark?"

"Oh yeah. Sorry."

Shadows consumed the landscape.  La Barilla and Ladyhawk moved along the familiar rock ridge line. The mosquitos were hungry. The gnats and flies swarming all about. It was both lovely, and fairly miserable.

On the ridge behind the ranch, the day's last light retreated. A bevy of quail burst out of the brush somewhere on the slope. Skye strained to see the birds, or what might have flushed them out of their evening roost. Grace followed suite.

The quail settled again. The evening fell still and silent. Except for the mosquitos.

Home again, Skye showed off her new shirt.

"It's way too big for you Skye."

"But I love it."

"I think it's a man's shirt. Is this your hand? Way up here?"

"Hands are over-rated."

"Okay then let's talk about the stitching."

"It was on sale. And. The boss has stitch witch. She said you can fix about anything with stitch witch. But it probably would fit you better."
"I'm good."

"Oh come on."

Desperately disarrayed seams or not, the shirt fit. A little long in the sleeves...but not much. Grace had her doubts about stitch witch being able to fix it, but Skye probably wouldn't care anyway.

"Well!" Skye beamed. "Look at you! We're gonna make you an Indian girl yet!"

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