"Anything with great power can be used badly," Sky Dog remarked as Whateley ran off, then pressed his lips together, bemused.

Korpi, by this time, had perked up enough to have been poking about - landing beside Randolph from inside, she presented an offering of a pickled egg.

Daniel waited for instruction from Sky Dog on cleansing the thing, as he had been the most insistent party concerning the book. When none appeared to be forthcoming, Daniel simply disposed of it in the remaining flames of the barn before heading back toward Jacques and getting him ready for the ride back.

The shaman visibly untensed when the book was handed over to the fire and crouched nearby a moment to murmur his thanks to humanity's oldest ally. This done, he set off to fetch his skillet as a substitute for the drum needed to help clear the corruption and massing of spiritual scavengers left in the sorcerers' wake.

In reply to Korpi (msg # 110):

Darling accepts the proferred egg with a grin, inspecting it closely: "Thank you kindly, Miss Korpi. This is a fine egg. Perhaps you'll do me the honor to share it with me a bit later." He wraps the thing in his handkerchief and tucks it into the pocket of his duster.

Korpi craned curiously to see what else might be in Darling's pockets, then skittered a few steps sidewards, ever wary of nearby hands. "Spath'ba," she said.

The raven gave a graceful headbob and pattered over to sit on the edge of the step, alternately preening the ashy dust from her feathers and keeping an eye on proceedings.

By the time the wagon hauling the corpses rolled back into town, the sun was on the verge of setting. There was a little bit of commotion as they approached the town on the main road, but a voice rang out clear calling "Hold!" and Earp emerged from hiding along the road and approached them.

As he came near the cart, he almost recoiled at the stench of the corpses piled high in the cart. "What in the hell do you people have in that wagon?"

"Christians," Sky Dog answered from off to the side, sliding off Igor.

"It was my thought they would prefer to be buried in the ground...do you know if the raiders' bodies are buried well, Wyattearp? I told Whateley it would not be well for them to rise up and go running in the settlement when he would make better walls, but he did not listen, I think."

"Ka," Korpi interjected from atop the wagon.

"I'm afraid I don't really know much about the burial situation here. That would be the province of the undertaker, Mark Calaway," he said. "Mark! Get over here!" he called, and a well built rifle toting man emerged from hiding, jogging over to join them.

"Mark, these men have some bodies in a wagon that need to be seen to. We can't have a cart full of bodies just sittin' around, so I need you to-."

Before he could finish what he was saying, the sound of gunfire reported from somewhere not far off. Earp's horse got restless at the noise, but the law man quickly brought the beast under control. "Sounds like we got trouble. We'll have to get to this later." Turning his horse, he looked at them over his shoulder.

"You folks comin'?" Another gunshot followed, then another.

Daniel had done his part in the labors and had been mentally preparing what he wanted to say. But the sound of gunfire jolted him as surely as it had Wyatt Earp's mount. "You betcha." He turned Jacques toward the direction that Earp did, but waited to see if any of the others needed a ride. He briefly worried about what might come of a cart of dead bodies, at night, but figured they could worry more about that later.

Caleb also nodded from atop his mount, his stetson bobbing once to emphasize his words. "Certainly." He didn't feel the need to say much more, but he squinted off in the distance from the direction of the shot. Caleb double checked his gun while his horse pawed at the ground.

"I will come behind...Korpi-" he turned to address the raven, [Language unknown: "Ek ckhoou t llro li ol thustrhis la wh sontinher letr k."]

"Calaway, the Confederates that were killed yesterday: are they well-buried, that they cannot walk again?" the shaman asked the undertaker before the man ran off.

On the ride back to Oakley, Darling is quiet, his mind busily mentally composing his latest report. He also gently discourages the raven from poking into his pockets, but her persistence makes him chuckle.

At the sound of gunfire, as the others rode off, he checks his mount. Walking it a few paces from the wagon, he hitches it to a post and asks Mark Callaway: "Can you find me a lantern I might borrow? I want to examine these dearly departed."

He hadn't taken a very good look at these 'deaders' but as he rode, he recalled the earlier resurrectees and the chips of ghost rock that powered them. He wants to examine these for similar mineral motivation. With the light fading, he figures a source of illumination will be handy.

Callaway promptly handed the lantern he was holding in his hand to Darling. "Sure, look all you want. I've examined plenty in my life time," he said.

---

Wyatt Earp followed by Marshal Caleb Morgan and Daniel d'Alex made their way down the street in pursuit of the noise of gunfire. Despite the continuing reports of gunfire in the distance, Earp pulled up short in the center of the small town as he caught sight of the general store on fire.

"Shit," he swore. The air was slightly chillier than it seemed when they had just arrived in town, and there was a loud commotion coming from a saloon across the street.

"There's trouble here, and that gunfire ain't stopped."
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:52, Thu 04 June 2015.

Sky Dog lightly tapped the man's shoulder with his riding-pole. "Calaway, I am not a ghost. Quanterill will use the corpses from last night if he can do so: so, I would know how well they are buried; it would be well to answer, yes?"

"Huh? Oh," he responds at being poked by the strangely dressed pale man. He squints a little bit at him in the darkness. "Yeah, yeah, they're buried."

"Deeply, I hope," the shaman responded, lips pressed to a thin line as he scanned the air over the disturbance for his sister's movements.

Daniel nodded at Earp's accounting. "Since we're here, let's check th' saloon." He dismounted quickly and tied Jacques up hastily before drawing his sword.

Caleb nodded at the suggestion. "I've got your back." He also dismounted and tied up his horse before drawing his pistol. He quickly checked that it was loaded, though it was more force of habit than any likelihood he had forgotten to fully load.

He pointed down the road, where a couple figures were approaching. In the twilight of the day it took a moment to recognize them, but the figures of Dr. Whateley and Coraline became much clearer when they neared.

OOC:

Daniel and Caleb, please move to Episode 8-8: Oakley.

Meanwhile, near the wagonload of corpses...

Korpi landed on Sky Dog's shoulder and started squawking loudly, ignoring the corpses and the pickings of eyeballs - for the moment.

Sky dog started a little as Korpi struck his back and fluttered to an awkward stop, quickly focusing to watch/listen to her explanation. [Language unknown: "O maprul...u inadou e ie ur antiv ncwaie ear atri isacri adleni ing his intartare di eaume ntwetr seos po. K enll il on, I t ersna isnano om bleillven Earndevormantra mota letio ametr...I ulpeus di n virlinate Wh enast evehasion."]

Korpi bobbed and returned to the air.

The youth led his deer to the side of the road, mutely indicating to the horse that she should keep an eye on him. After a second's hesitation, he swapped his riding-pole for his roll of white fur, just in case, then drew his knife and loped on down the street, looking for Korpi's guidance above.

Darling examined the corpses, but didn't find the tell-tale signs of Radcliffe's work. Grint must have a different method entirely, he mused to himself. Kneeling, he jotted down a few quick notes by lantern light before handing the lantern back to Callaway with a nod of thanks.

"Hold on, Sky Dog. I think I'll come with if you've no objections," he said. "I'm here for more than just a story. Gotta job to do as part of this posse."

Sky Dog turned and jogged backwards a step, hearing his name, but just beckoned urgently to the reporter as though to say 'come on' and carried on.

OOC:

Sky Dog and Randolph, please move to Episode 8-8: Oakley.