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Description
October 31, 1903; Rancho de los Brujos, New Mexico Territory

It only figured that they'd be caught out in the middle of the desert the one time it decided to rain. It wasn't much, just an average thunderstorm, but they had been riding for a while, and the combined cold of the desert night mixed with the rain dampening their clothing didn't exactly have a positive impact on their attitude. Evelyn was about ready to just drag her horse to a stop and have her and Chaytan just huddle up in the nearest cave. She was exhausted. She just wanted to be back home.

“I hope Winona is having a better time than we are,” she tiredly laughed to her husband, thinking back to their daughter who had been waiting for them on the opposite side of the country.

He chuckled back, sitting tall in his saddle for her sake despite clearly feeling just as exhausted as her behind his eyes. “She is, I guarantee it,” he said. “There is no safer or friendlier place than with my family.”

“I don't doubt that. I am glad she's getting the chance to experience her heritage first hand. Most of the Shawnee had fizzled out of my bloodline after my mother was born. The most teachings I received were brief visits with my aunt and grandmother in Canada.”

“I am glad she has such a fond interest in her heritage,” Chaytan agreed. “She is indeed a Lakota girl, and I am proud of her.”

“She's a bright young lass too. God, I wish we could've brought her along for this trip… she would've loved the fossil beds.”

“She will join us when she is a little older, I promise Evelyn. Perhaps it would be good to start her off with a more local expedition. One not quite as treacherous as other areas we frequent.”

“Maybe… I've heard some plans from Dr. Walcott to expedite a few strange invertebrate specimens from the Canadian Rockies within the next few years. I might see if we can join him.”

“What of those expeditions you told me about up in Hell Creek?”

“No, those digs have mostly been completed. The Dynamosaurus specimens have already been shipped to New York for Dr. Osborn to study.”

“Dynamosaurus? I thought they had named the animal Tyrannosaurus?”

“I don't know, to be honest. I've heard both names getting thrown around the circles of that place. I suppose it's just a matter of whichever Osborn decides to make official when he publishes his papers.”

“I prefer Tyrannosaurus if I must be honest.”

Evelyn laughed. “It's certainly catchy,” she agreed. “Either is a good name for that ferocious behemoth, in my opinion.”

Chaytan simply chuckled in agreement, and then the wave of tiredness washed over them again as they continued along the beaten path of the New Mexico desert. They rode for about another mile, Evelyn checking her map every now and then to try and get their bearings.

“Bloody hell we won't be able to get to the next train station for a while…” she complained. “Chaytan, I can't keep going on all night. We need to rest.”

“Do you want to just set up camp here?”

“Unless you have any other alternatives, I don't really think we have much of a choice in the matter.”

“Well… we could always try to make it to that settlement over there.”

Evelyn's expression perked, and her head swiveled into the direction her husband was pointing. Sure enough, she saw a distant light barely flickering through the cloudy night on the edge of the horizon, outlining the faint but unmistakable silhouette of a small town.

“Oh thank the Lord!” she sighed. “Hopefully they'll have an inn we can hunker down in.”

Chaytan smiled and nodded. “Shall we then, my love?” he asked.

Evelyn didn't even need to answer. She simply smiled, turned her horse towards the town, and kicked it into gear.

It was a bit of a long ride, but they powered through the wait, always keeping the eerie glow of the town in their sights. The closer they got, the more… unnerved the felt. They didn't quite know why. Perhaps it was just the dark and rain getting to their minds. Perhaps it was the odd silence that seemed to grow as they came closer down the path. Something just felt… off. Evelyn shook her head. She was just tired, she figured. She just needed a night to rest.

They came up to the rickety gate that marked the entrance to the town situated between the foreboding canyon walls that served as its defenses from the outside world. An old wooden structure topped off with a cattle skull just dangling loosely in the wind.

“Well that's… welcoming,” Evelyn commented. Nonetheless, they continued on, past the creaking fence and into the walls of the canyon, down the old dirt path that led them into the town.

The first thing they took notice of was how empty the place appeared to be. They saw a few ranch hand type folks scurrying around the tangle of old buildings, but that was all. They didn't think much of it. They hardly wanted to be out in this rain either. But they couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Maybe it was just the eerie combination of the rain and the dark and the flickering lights that barely lit up the town's streets. Just a trick of their minds.

They wandered slowly around until they finally spotted something that resembled an inn. One of the few buildings who's windows were actually fully illuminated from the inside. It was still quiet, almost too quiet, but that didn't matter much to the travelling Assassins. They smiled at each other and Evelyn sighed in relief. Finally she’d be back in a proper bed, and could get some proper rest.

She and Chaytan got off their horses, and brought them to a small shack of a stable where they could be tethered and watched. Once that was dealt with, the couple didn't waste any time hurrying across the street and pushing through the creaking door to the inn.

They were relieved to see more people sitting at the tables of the lobby, a confirmation of their suspicions from earlier that everyone was just taking shelter from the storm. And yet, it was still rather quiet. Still rather empty. They only saw a handful of people, and none of them had the drunken energy that many other saloons had. There was a slouched man dressed in a sheriff's uniform sitting in the dim corner of the room, his face practically in his mug. And on the other side of the room there was a tired-looking young woman, simply sitting at a table with her baby sleeping in her arms. They made no sounds, or even seemed to acknowledge the entrance of the Assassins. The room was simply quiet, save for the pitter of rain from outside.

“Hola!” a voice suddenly tore through the silence.

Evelyn and Chaytan almost jumped. They turned towards the bar counter that sat on the opposite end of the room, and there stood what they could only assume was the bartender. He hadn't been standing there before, they were sure of it. And yet he stood there, cleaning a glass as if he had been present the whole time. He smiled at them from behind his mustache, a friendly smile. The first normal looking man the Assassins had come across since they left the open desert.

“Hello sir,” Evelyn said, mustering up a polite smile of her own as she and Chaytan approached the bar. “My name is Evelyn Arlie, this is my husband Chaytan.”

“It is very nice to meet you, Mrs. Arlie. Very nice,” the man said. “You two are travellers, yes?”

Chaytan nodded. “Indeed, we are.”

“I figured so. I don't recognize your faces. We do not get many outsiders around this town. Many simply pass right through.”

“We've been passing through a lot of towns,” Evelyn laughed. “We’ve got a long way to go and we just need a place to rest for the night.”

“Ah, of course of course!” the man said, reaching under the counter to pull a key out of a drawer. After listing his price, Evelyn promptly passed a few coins into his hands and he thusly exchanged them for the room key.

“Thank you so much, sir,” Evelyn smiled to the man, pocketing the key.

“It is no problem,” he waved. “And you may call me Ignacio. Ignacio Archuleta. Friends call me Nacho.”

Evelyn and Chaytan shook his hand when he offered it to them. “Lovely to make your acquaintance, Mr. Archuleta,” Evelyn said.

“Can I get you two lovebirds anything before you head up? A drink? A meal?”

Chaytan looked at Evelyn, and the two smiled after a silent conversation. “We could definitely go for both those things,” Chaytan nodded.

Nacho gave a salesman smile and immediately got to work on putting together a couple plates of sandwiches and full mugs to match for his newest guests. Evelyn brought the food to her mouth as soon as she got it, the refreshment feeling heavenly after the long ride through the rain. Still, that eerie feeling still clung to the hairs on the back of her neck. Something didn't feel quite right still. The silence coming from the other people in the lobby wasn't exactly helping.

“So,” she eventually said to Nacho, trying to fight the silence with conversation. “I don't recall seeing this place on the map. What do they call this town?”

“We call it Rancho de los Brujos,” he told her. “It's never really been a place to make it onto many maps. Used to be part of a larger land grant from the days of the Spanish, and only just sprung up as a town within the past few decades.”

“Rancho de los Brujos...” Evelyn pondered, trying to recall what little Spanish she knew. “Doesn't that mean something along the lines of ‘Sorcerer's Ranch’ or something like that?”

“Vaguely,” Nacho confirmed. “The people around here are a rather superstitious bunch. Many legends from the Native people have carried through to the modern day. They say spirits roam these lands, ghosts that dance in the night and punish the wicked.”

“Dancing ghosts eh?” Evelyn laughed to Chaytan. “That's a sight I'd love to see.”

Chaytan smiled, and opened his mouth to respond. But then suddenly he was cut off, cut off by a angered shout.

“Dammit! Stop!”

The Assassins quickly turned around to see the drunken sheriff stumbling out of his seat and running out the front door, cursing through his teeth the entire way. Evelyn and Chaytan looked at one another, and then promptly sprang out of their seats to see what was going on. They burst out the front door just in time to see the sheriff almost stumbling face-first into the road as a cloud of dust was settling on top of him. Evelyn looked in the direction he had been running, and caught a glimpse of the source of the dust running far off into the distance: a couple of men riding away into the canyon on horseback.

Horsebacks which looked very familiar.

Evelyn and Chaytan’s eyes widened and they swiveled their gaze over to the stables where they had tethered their horses. But instead of their steeds, all they saw was an empty shack and sliced ropes.

“Dammit!” Evelyn cursed.

Nacho suddenly came running out of the inn, a look of concern on his face. “What's happened?” he asked.

“Horse thieves,” Chaytan fumed.

The sheriff coughed the last bit of dust out of his lungs as he stumbled to his feet. His face was deep red, his fury obvious. He snarled through his teeth and then tossed his hat to the ground. Then he slowly turned towards Nacho. With bared teeth, he sauntered up until his face was inches from Nacho's. “I'll tell you this once, Archuleta,” he barked. “There will be a day where this does not happen again! I swear that to you there will be!”

The sheriff then promptly turned on his heels and stormed off down the road, drunkenly disappearing into the night.

“Dios mío...” Nacho said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Does this happen often then?” Evelyn fumed at him. “Bloody horse thieves coming out of the canyons to rob people blind?”

“Unfortunately it does…” Nacho said, his expression saddening. “They've been terrorizing our town for years, taking whatever they want from the townsfolk and killing anyone who dared to stand up to them. It's been a plague on this town for so long…”

Evelyn rubbed her eyes in frustration. It took all her energy not to blow up in her host's face.

“Of course there's some sort of evil gang roaming around,” she grumbled. “Why not?”

“We may be able to take a shot at dealing with these scoundrels,” Chaytan told Nacho.

“It's hopeless,” Nacho shook his head. “No one can stop them. Even the sheriff has given up his quest.”

“We've dealt with worse than run of the mill horse thieves,” Evelyn said.

“They aren't run of the mill. They… they have a special tactic to inspire fear in the hearts of this town. They have… immense power. I do not know how to explain it but… it is as if they are able to harness the very spirit world itself. They command lights and ghosts with this golden light… and no one dares to challenge them once they see the teeth of their beasts.”

Evelyn's ears perked at that. Golden light? Powers from the spirit world? Oh, that couldn't be good. In her experience, that could only mean one thing.

“A Piece of Eden?” Chaytan mouthed to her. She responded with an unsure look, and shook her head in frustration.

“Whatever ‘ghosts’ these bastards command, we'll fight past. We don't take kindly to people who step on the innocent like that. Do you have a name?”

Nacho seemed hesitant, but the stern expressions that the Assassins gave him quickly convinced him. He sighed. “His name is Pedro,” he said. “He and his brother have been behind so many atrocities here.”

“Where does he and his kin lurk?” Chaytan asked.

“They make their base out in the gorge, amongst the barren rocks that the spirits are said to enter our world from. They say Pedro uses the horses they steal to use as sacrifice to the demon they worship… a hideous beast from the endless pit.”

“There is no way in hell I'm going to let my ride home get sacrificed,” Evelyn declared, pulling up her hood. “We’ll hunt these bastards down and make sure that none of them live to terrorize this town ever again.”

“I hope you are successful in your mission then, my friends. Many in this town would benefit from his loss.”

Evelyn and Chaytan nodded, and then they promptly turned down the road where the thieves had fled to. Evelyn sighed. So much for a peaceful night of rest.

Description
October 31, 1903; Rancho de los Brujos, New Mexico Territory

It only figured that they'd be caught out in the middle of the desert the one time it decided to rain. It wasn't much, just an average thunderstorm, but they had been riding for a while, and the combined cold of the desert night mixed with the rain dampening their clothing didn't exactly have a positive impact on their attitude. Evelyn was about ready to just drag her horse to a stop and have her and Chaytan just huddle up in the nearest cave. She was exhausted. She just wanted to be back home.

“I hope Winona is having a better time than we are,” she tiredly laughed to her husband, thinking back to their daughter who had been waiting for them on the opposite side of the country.

He chuckled back, sitting tall in his saddle for her sake despite clearly feeling just as exhausted as her behind his eyes. “She is, I guarantee it,” he said. “There is no safer or friendlier place than with my family.”

“I don't doubt that. I am glad she's getting the chance to experience her heritage first hand. Most of the Shawnee had fizzled out of my bloodline after my mother was born. The most teachings I received were brief visits with my aunt and grandmother in Canada.”

“I am glad she has such a fond interest in her heritage,” Chaytan agreed. “She is indeed a Lakota girl, and I am proud of her.”

“She's a bright young lass too. God, I wish we could've brought her along for this trip… she would've loved the fossil beds.”

“She will join us when she is a little older, I promise Evelyn. Perhaps it would be good to start her off with a more local expedition. One not quite as treacherous as other areas we frequent.”

“Maybe… I've heard some plans from Dr. Walcott to expedite a few strange invertebrate specimens from the Canadian Rockies within the next few years. I might see if we can join him.”

“What of those expeditions you told me about up in Hell Creek?”

“No, those digs have mostly been completed. The Dynamosaurus specimens have already been shipped to New York for Dr. Osborn to study.”

“Dynamosaurus? I thought they had named the animal Tyrannosaurus?”

“I don't know, to be honest. I've heard both names getting thrown around the circles of that place. I suppose it's just a matter of whichever Osborn decides to make official when he publishes his papers.”

“I prefer Tyrannosaurus if I must be honest.”

Evelyn laughed. “It's certainly catchy,” she agreed. “Either is a good name for that ferocious behemoth, in my opinion.”

Chaytan simply chuckled in agreement, and then the wave of tiredness washed over them again as they continued along the beaten path of the New Mexico desert. They rode for about another mile, Evelyn checking her map every now and then to try and get their bearings.

“Bloody hell we won't be able to get to the next train station for a while…” she complained. “Chaytan, I can't keep going on all night. We need to rest.”

“Do you want to just set up camp here?”

“Unless you have any other alternatives, I don't really think we have much of a choice in the matter.”

“Well… we could always try to make it to that settlement over there.”

Evelyn's expression perked, and her head swiveled into the direction her husband was pointing. Sure enough, she saw a distant light barely flickering through the cloudy night on the edge of the horizon, outlining the faint but unmistakable silhouette of a small town.

“Oh thank the Lord!” she sighed. “Hopefully they'll have an inn we can hunker down in.”

Chaytan smiled and nodded. “Shall we then, my love?” he asked.

Evelyn didn't even need to answer. She simply smiled, turned her horse towards the town, and kicked it into gear.

It was a bit of a long ride, but they powered through the wait, always keeping the eerie glow of the town in their sights. The closer they got, the more… unnerved the felt. They didn't quite know why. Perhaps it was just the dark and rain getting to their minds. Perhaps it was the odd silence that seemed to grow as they came closer down the path. Something just felt… off. Evelyn shook her head. She was just tired, she figured. She just needed a night to rest.

They came up to the rickety gate that marked the entrance to the town situated between the foreboding canyon walls that served as its defenses from the outside world. An old wooden structure topped off with a cattle skull just dangling loosely in the wind.

“Well that's… welcoming,” Evelyn commented. Nonetheless, they continued on, past the creaking fence and into the walls of the canyon, down the old dirt path that led them into the town.

The first thing they took notice of was how empty the place appeared to be. They saw a few ranch hand type folks scurrying around the tangle of old buildings, but that was all. They didn't think much of it. They hardly wanted to be out in this rain either. But they couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Maybe it was just the eerie combination of the rain and the dark and the flickering lights that barely lit up the town's streets. Just a trick of their minds.

They wandered slowly around until they finally spotted something that resembled an inn. One of the few buildings who's windows were actually fully illuminated from the inside. It was still quiet, almost too quiet, but that didn't matter much to the travelling Assassins. They smiled at each other and Evelyn sighed in relief. Finally she’d be back in a proper bed, and could get some proper rest.

She and Chaytan got off their horses, and brought them to a small shack of a stable where they could be tethered and watched. Once that was dealt with, the couple didn't waste any time hurrying across the street and pushing through the creaking door to the inn.

They were relieved to see more people sitting at the tables of the lobby, a confirmation of their suspicions from earlier that everyone was just taking shelter from the storm. And yet, it was still rather quiet. Still rather empty. They only saw a handful of people, and none of them had the drunken energy that many other saloons had. There was a slouched man dressed in a sheriff's uniform sitting in the dim corner of the room, his face practically in his mug. And on the other side of the room there was a tired-looking young woman, simply sitting at a table with her baby sleeping in her arms. They made no sounds, or even seemed to acknowledge the entrance of the Assassins. The room was simply quiet, save for the pitter of rain from outside.

“Hola!” a voice suddenly tore through the silence.

Evelyn and Chaytan almost jumped. They turned towards the bar counter that sat on the opposite end of the room, and there stood what they could only assume was the bartender. He hadn't been standing there before, they were sure of it. And yet he stood there, cleaning a glass as if he had been present the whole time. He smiled at them from behind his mustache, a friendly smile. The first normal looking man the Assassins had come across since they left the open desert.

“Hello sir,” Evelyn said, mustering up a polite smile of her own as she and Chaytan approached the bar. “My name is Evelyn Arlie, this is my husband Chaytan.”

“It is very nice to meet you, Mrs. Arlie. Very nice,” the man said. “You two are travellers, yes?”

Chaytan nodded. “Indeed, we are.”

“I figured so. I don't recognize your faces. We do not get many outsiders around this town. Many simply pass right through.”

“We've been passing through a lot of towns,” Evelyn laughed. “We’ve got a long way to go and we just need a place to rest for the night.”

“Ah, of course of course!” the man said, reaching under the counter to pull a key out of a drawer. After listing his price, Evelyn promptly passed a few coins into his hands and he thusly exchanged them for the room key.

“Thank you so much, sir,” Evelyn smiled to the man, pocketing the key.

“It is no problem,” he waved. “And you may call me Ignacio. Ignacio Archuleta. Friends call me Nacho.”

Evelyn and Chaytan shook his hand when he offered it to them. “Lovely to make your acquaintance, Mr. Archuleta,” Evelyn said.

“Can I get you two lovebirds anything before you head up? A drink? A meal?”

Chaytan looked at Evelyn, and the two smiled after a silent conversation. “We could definitely go for both those things,” Chaytan nodded.

Nacho gave a salesman smile and immediately got to work on putting together a couple plates of sandwiches and full mugs to match for his newest guests. Evelyn brought the food to her mouth as soon as she got it, the refreshment feeling heavenly after the long ride through the rain. Still, that eerie feeling still clung to the hairs on the back of her neck. Something didn't feel quite right still. The silence coming from the other people in the lobby wasn't exactly helping.

“So,” she eventually said to Nacho, trying to fight the silence with conversation. “I don't recall seeing this place on the map. What do they call this town?”

“We call it Rancho de los Brujos,” he told her. “It's never really been a place to make it onto many maps. Used to be part of a larger land grant from the days of the Spanish, and only just sprung up as a town within the past few decades.”

“Rancho de los Brujos...” Evelyn pondered, trying to recall what little Spanish she knew. “Doesn't that mean something along the lines of ‘Sorcerer's Ranch’ or something like that?”

“Vaguely,” Nacho confirmed. “The people around here are a rather superstitious bunch. Many legends from the Native people have carried through to the modern day. They say spirits roam these lands, ghosts that dance in the night and punish the wicked.”

“Dancing ghosts eh?” Evelyn laughed to Chaytan. “That's a sight I'd love to see.”

Chaytan smiled, and opened his mouth to respond. But then suddenly he was cut off, cut off by a angered shout.

“Dammit! Stop!”

The Assassins quickly turned around to see the drunken sheriff stumbling out of his seat and running out the front door, cursing through his teeth the entire way. Evelyn and Chaytan looked at one another, and then promptly sprang out of their seats to see what was going on. They burst out the front door just in time to see the sheriff almost stumbling face-first into the road as a cloud of dust was settling on top of him. Evelyn looked in the direction he had been running, and caught a glimpse of the source of the dust running far off into the distance: a couple of men riding away into the canyon on horseback.

Horsebacks which looked very familiar.

Evelyn and Chaytan’s eyes widened and they swiveled their gaze over to the stables where they had tethered their horses. But instead of their steeds, all they saw was an empty shack and sliced ropes.

“Dammit!” Evelyn cursed.

Nacho suddenly came running out of the inn, a look of concern on his face. “What's happened?” he asked.

“Horse thieves,” Chaytan fumed.

The sheriff coughed the last bit of dust out of his lungs as he stumbled to his feet. His face was deep red, his fury obvious. He snarled through his teeth and then tossed his hat to the ground. Then he slowly turned towards Nacho. With bared teeth, he sauntered up until his face was inches from Nacho's. “I'll tell you this once, Archuleta,” he barked. “There will be a day where this does not happen again! I swear that to you there will be!”

The sheriff then promptly turned on his heels and stormed off down the road, drunkenly disappearing into the night.

“Dios mío...” Nacho said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Does this happen often then?” Evelyn fumed at him. “Bloody horse thieves coming out of the canyons to rob people blind?”

“Unfortunately it does…” Nacho said, his expression saddening. “They've been terrorizing our town for years, taking whatever they want from the townsfolk and killing anyone who dared to stand up to them. It's been a plague on this town for so long…”

Evelyn rubbed her eyes in frustration. It took all her energy not to blow up in her host's face.

“Of course there's some sort of evil gang roaming around,” she grumbled. “Why not?”

“We may be able to take a shot at dealing with these scoundrels,” Chaytan told Nacho.

“It's hopeless,” Nacho shook his head. “No one can stop them. Even the sheriff has given up his quest.”

“We've dealt with worse than run of the mill horse thieves,” Evelyn said.

“They aren't run of the mill. They… they have a special tactic to inspire fear in the hearts of this town. They have… immense power. I do not know how to explain it but… it is as if they are able to harness the very spirit world itself. They command lights and ghosts with this golden light… and no one dares to challenge them once they see the teeth of their beasts.”

Evelyn's ears perked at that. Golden light? Powers from the spirit world? Oh, that couldn't be good. In her experience, that could only mean one thing.

“A Piece of Eden?” Chaytan mouthed to her. She responded with an unsure look, and shook her head in frustration.

“Whatever ‘ghosts’ these bastards command, we'll fight past. We don't take kindly to people who step on the innocent like that. Do you have a name?”

Nacho seemed hesitant, but the stern expressions that the Assassins gave him quickly convinced him. He sighed. “His name is Pedro,” he said. “He and his brother have been behind so many atrocities here.”

“Where does he and his kin lurk?” Chaytan asked.

“They make their base out in the gorge, amongst the barren rocks that the spirits are said to enter our world from. They say Pedro uses the horses they steal to use as sacrifice to the demon they worship… a hideous beast from the endless pit.”

“There is no way in hell I'm going to let my ride home get sacrificed,” Evelyn declared, pulling up her hood. “We’ll hunt these bastards down and make sure that none of them live to terrorize this town ever again.”

“I hope you are successful in your mission then, my friends. Many in this town would benefit from his loss.”

Evelyn and Chaytan nodded, and then they promptly turned down the road where the thieves had fled to. Evelyn sighed. So much for a peaceful night of rest.