Change of Scenery
By Donna and Abs

The first rays of dawn came creeping through the rustic cabin that had been Wyoming Davis' home since late spring. She stirred, and hearing her horses calling out, she rose from her bunk and threw a shirt on to go see what was the matter. The last time her Appaloosa stallion had raised that much fuss had been when he had ran off during the night and had come back with several mustang mares. As she stepped outside of her cabin, she froze. The scenic lake that had been her source of water and a good deal of her food was gone! In its place was just a stream that seemed to sing as it ran over the rocks along its path. 

Swallowing hard, she looked around, the hairs on the back of her neck rising. "Freaky...," she whispered. She glanced over at her stallion, who was snorting and carrying on, even though his little band of mares didn't seem to be upset. "Calm down, Nighthawk," she called out. With a shake of his head, he lowered his muzzle to the grass and started to eat. "Way weird," she whispered again. Even the mountains in the
distance looked wrong! Then she shrugged. She might as well eat first and then explore the territory around the cabin and find out why she was suddenly someplace else. 

******

Tom Kirby had ridden out with the half breed, Buck, to Sam Grey's place to help choose some mares to take out to the Singing Creek Camp to be mated to the new Paint stud that was there. Buck was going, because the Kid’s prize Paint mare was one of them. The Kid would have killed him if anything happened to Katie! After they were chosen, they mounted up, and then drove the small band ahead of them. As they neared the camp, Shiloh and the men that lived in her camp greeted them. 

Shiloh looked at Tom Kirby but did not make eye contact with Buck. Tom didn't need a truck to fall on him, though, and he contained a grin as he went with the young woman to check over the stud. He was a beautiful animal! His young would vastly add to the stock they already had.

Buck looked around the camp. Already the residents of it had come a long way of making it a comfortable home! "Welcome," Coltec called out from the fire he was sitting by. "Coffee?" Most of the things they had made from the raw materials around them, but coffee was one thing that all of them wanted first thing in the morning, and so had gotten it and a few other supplies from the mercantile in Edan. 

"Yes, please," said the young man. He was still watching Shiloh, though, and Coltec chuckled. 

"Beautiful, isn't she?" When Buck nodded, Coltec continued. "Too bad, though."

"About what?" Buck asked. 

There were two other men around the fire, both white. One was a mountain man, the other one a man that had obviously gone almost totally *native*. Both were sipping the hot coffee and listening in silence to the conversation. 

"She has no self esteem at all," said Coltec. The other men nodded, and some sighed unhappily. "Half breed," the Hayoka said, watching Buck's reaction. The young man was half white, half Kiowa.

Buck was looking at Shiloh with even more interest now. The man they called Trapper chuckled, but the other just sighed deeply and said he was going to see if he could catch anything in the stream for lunch. 

Shiloh would cook fish if they caught it, but Buck knew that Blackfoot - and he had heard that was what she was - only ate fish when there was no other option. "It's a shame buffalo are not local to this area," he said to the man as he walked away. "I'm sure she would love it if we caught one."

"We found elk nearby," Trapper spoke up when Wolf just shrugged, pointing to the rack where strips were hung out to dry. They had only killed the one, and were in the process of using every single piece of the animal for something. The skin was stretched out on the ground and was being worked to become buckskin, and the bones were being made into tools and other things. 

Buck nodded, smiling. Of course, that was where he had gotten his own name, though it had been a deer, not an elk. "Fine one, too," he smiled.

Just then Shiloh and Tom came back. "What is that?" asked the vet.

Everyone stood up and looked to where Tom was pointing. A thin trendril of smoke was rising from the trees on the other side of the river. Wolf came back while they were looking. "Something strange is going on. There is a cabin over there that wasn't there yesterday!" 

"Something strange happens every day here," said Tom. 

Coltec laughed. "Can't argue with that. Who's coming with me to check it out?"

Wolf and Trapper had followed the others to see where the smoke was coming from, and they told Coltec they would come along with him, Tom, Sam and Charity. But when Shiloh hesitated, Buck offered to stay with her in the camp. Shiloh looked at him very briefly, then rushed to her own cooking fire to tend it. The rest mounted up and headed out to see what was making the smoke.

It was just a short ride, and after they crossed the shallow river, they saw a log cabin with a small herd of horses grazing near it. One of them, a loud colored Appaloosa stallion, raised his head and bugled a welcome to the mares that they were riding. 

"What now, Nighthawk?" a female voice called out from the cabin. A moment later, a petite young woman stepped out onto the porch, dressed only in a pair of socks and an oversized man's shirt. "What the hell?" she gasped, seeing the strangers looking back at her. 

Sam Grey flushed at the sight of her undress, but Tom Kirby just nodded and called out a welcome. "New here?" he asked.

"And just where in blue blazes is here?" she asked with a frown on her pretty face. "When I went to bed last night, there was a lake where you guys are standing." As she spoke, a huge, wolf-like dog came out of the cabin, glaring at them. She put her hand on her head and told her to stay. 

"We're in Edan," explained Tom, who had somehow become the spokesman for the group. He liked the look of the woman anyway. "It's a bit hard to explain, may we come closer and explain it to you?"

She glanced down at the dog, who thumped her tail. "Apparently you have all met her approval at least. Come on up." 

They dismounted. Since Charity was the only female in the "welcoming committee", they let her go first. Then the men followed. Tom did the introductions.

"Nice to met you all. I'm Wyoming. Wyoming Davis. But you can call me Wy. I was spending the summer up in the mountains doing wildlife research for the forest service." 

"You're a wildlife biologist?" asked Tom, even more interested now. "I'm just a country vet, but I've always found wildlife interesting."

"And wildlife biologists," Charity added to Sam.

Sam laughed and put his arm around Charity "I've never seen a horse marked that way," he said. "What kind is it?" 

Wy looked over at the stallion, who was standing with his mares, watching them all with interest. "He's an Appaloosa. The Nez Perce Indians of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States bred them. My great grandfather is one of the tribal elders, and he gave him to me when he was just a colt." 

Coltec nodded. "They were very good ponies! I have had several of them over the years."

"We were jes' bringin' some mares over ter ther camp 'cross the creek, there," Sam went on. "A lass that way has a piebald stallion we wanted to use fer stud."

"Crap," the girl sighed. "If I let Nighthawk stay loose and there is another stallion around, they will eventually fight over the mares." She jumped down from the porch and walked over to the Appaloosa. She led him by his forelock to a small paddock, his little harem following him. Once they were secure, she went back to the cabin. "Looks like I'm out of a job if what you say is true. So what now? Do I just stay here, or what?" Her voice was reflecting her growing agitation about the changes in her life as the fact that she could never go back started to sink in. 

"Well we have wildlife here, too," Tom said hopefully. "We can use all the good scientists we can find."

"An' Shiloh's pie ain't ther only stud in Edan," Sam added. "The lass here has one we call Bony. Huge bugger he is!" 

They talked a little bit more about horses, before Wyoming turned to stare out at the mountains. "Five months of research shot to hell...," she murmured. "Oh well. No use crying over split milk. Not the first time I've had to pull up stakes and start all over again." 

"What were you researching?"

"Wolves mostly," she said. "But I was keeping notes on all the animals around here.. I mean there...," she stopped. "The cougar kittens!" she gasped, running back into the cabin. A moment later she came out with jeans on and a pair of moccasins in hand. "If the horses came with me to here, do you think there is any chance a den of cougar kittens would have, too?" 

"We can look," said Tom. The others agreed to go help.

"Leave the horses here," she said. Once they were tied up, she led the way into the woods. "They were over in this direction." A few minutes later, she stopped at an outcropping of rocks, holding her hand up to stop them. "There," she said, "in that little den. It's not the one they were in, but I can hear them. They sound hungry." She looked around carefully. "Hell fire and damnation," she hissed. "The ground is clear of tracks around the front of this place. Apparently the mother didn't cross over with the kittens!" 

"There's a number of things we can do," said Tom. "We can mother them ourselves, or we can send to Esperanza. I understand there is a cat expert there." He smiled in spite of himself at the lunacy of it all. Sending cougar kittens to a vampire!

"I can help you try to feed them until that expert can get here," Trapper offered. Wolf raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. 

The girl nodded. "Give me your coat then," she said.

Trapper stripped it off and handed it to her, and the girl knelt down before the den with it. One by one, she pulled out three squalling kittens, and after wrapping them in the coat, picked them up. "Let's go then." 

Everyone followed her back to her cabin. "I'll have to send to Esperanza," Tom said, explaining the town to the north. "I can send Buck north, or one of the other riders if I can't get him away from Shiloh." He grinned. "But it means going back to Edan." His grin slipped at that thought.

"Let me feed them something first," she said. With Tom's help, she concocted a thin gruel from a can of milk and chicken broth mixed with her own breakfast, some oatmeal. Charity and Sam took one kitten, Trapper and Wolf another, while Wy and Tom had the last one. 

It was a messy business, but eventually they had all gotten enough to eat to satisfy them. Sam and Charity offered to take the mares back to their place, and Trapper said he would watch her cabin for her. A short time later, Wyoming and the vet were on their way to the town of Edan, the cougar kittens sleeping away in her saddlebags.

Arriving in Edan, Tom took Wy over to the Hotel, where he introduced her to Lupe. The very pregnant Lycine came out to check on the kittens, then ordered a cart to be brought. Not a horse and cart, but just a cart.

It had been decided that to save time, they would take the kittens to Esperanza to the expert there, rather than had someone go there and bring him back. There was another reason having Julius make the trip would be inconvenient, but Tom didn’t tell Wyoming that! Looking at the cart, Wy shook her head. "Nighthawk has never been hitched up to anything before. He would probably kick the crap out of that cart!" 

Tom chuckled. "You don't know Lupe very well," he said. "Watch." As the cart was brought up, horseless, a flash of white light brought Wy's attention to the petite pregnant woman. In her place was a sturdy black horse that was actually the size of a large pony.

"Holy sh.." Wy gasped. "Now I've seen everything!"

Tom just laughed. "This is only the beginning, Miss Davis, only the beginning."