“I’ll call Jesse, tell her we’re on our way back. She can send up another truck with supplies to meet us,” Tobias said. “We can make camp in the same place we did last night—on terra indigene land.”

<He wants to be away from here,> Tolya said.

<Let’s help him check for deliveries and get out,> Joe replied.

They carried out two boxes of books from Howling Good Reads, and eight boxes of goods from different parts of Thaisia, all addressed to Walker’s General Store. And all around them, humans who should have left the station by now stood around and stared, their hatred pulsing in the air.

Why so much anger, so much hate? Joe wondered. He looked at Tobias, whose hands were tight on the steering wheel as the pickup followed the Wolves and ranch hands on horseback out of town. “Has it always been like this between you and the other humans?”

“Not like this,” Tobias replied.

“Is it because of us? Because some of the terra indigene came into town with you?” Trains couldn’t go from one place to another without the tracks that ran through the wild country, and that right-of-way was predicated on the terra indigene’s being able to travel by train. So the Others had to come to town once in a while to pick up guests or packages. But they didn’t need to go beyond the train station. Even when Tolya asked to see the town during the last visit, Tolya and Jackson—and Tobias, for that matter—never got out of the pickup.

“There have been stories lately that the creek beds in those hills are filled with gold nuggets,” Tobias said. “That you can scoop them up by the handful.”

Wasn’t that easy, but he’d been told by the Wolves who had been living in the terra indigene settlement for a while that there were some places where the yellow pebbles were fairly easy to collect—a gift from the Elders that allowed the Others to trade with the Intuits.

But if humans invaded those hills . . .

Joe shuddered.

“You okay?” Tobias asked.

“Yes. I will be glad to get back to our own territory.”

“You and me both.”

Tolya said nothing, but when they stopped to rest the horses, he shifted to smoke and headed down the road as a scout. Joe stripped and shifted to Wolf, letting another Wolf ride in the cab for a while, along with one of the ranch hands.

Aware, aware, aware. They moved on, alert for anything and everything.

The Stewart was right; there was trouble on the horizon. As he trotted along, Joe thought about the Intuits. They had a few pups in their settlement, and no good places to hide if other humans turned rabid.

Joe didn’t like bringing himself to the Elders’ notice—he was a small shifter in comparison—but he would go up to meet them and ask them to allow the Intuits to hide in the hills if Prairie Gold was attacked.

CHAPTER 21

Moonsday, Juin 18

A vigorous debate between members of the Courtyard’s Business Association ended minutes before Jerry Sledgeman drove in from the train station, his livestock truck filled with bison. None of the Others had been happy about allowing Jerry so far into the Courtyard, but everyone agreed that unloading animals in the Market Square wasn’t a good idea, particularly if the bison stampeded down the access way and thundered into the traffic on Main Street.

That was the reason five yearlings were unloaded at the Pony Barn, and the female pack and Kowalski were on hand to witness the arrival of a future item on the menu.

Simon itched to shift out of his human skin and help herd the bison to the part of the Courtyard where they would be settled—once everyone decided exactly where that would be. Henry had just laughed, saying deer roamed throughout the Courtyard’s three hundred acres and the bison would do the same. Since Simon agreed with him, he didn’t offer any opinions. A full-grown bison would go where it chose, but most of the Others in the Courtyard hadn’t lived in the Northwest and had no experience with prairie thunder.

Meg looked at the bison and then at him. “You said we were getting little bison.”

“They are little bison,” Simon replied.

She waved a hand to indicate the female pack. “We thought you meant baby bison.”

“Yearlings are close to babies.”

“Don’t go there,” Kowalski muttered.

“Besides,” Simon continued, ignoring the man, “if we’d brought calves, we’d also have to bring the mothers, and they’re big.”

“Oh,” Meg said. She and the female pack stared at the bison.

“Even if they’re bigger than we’d expected, they are kind of cute,” Ruthie said. “And so docile.”

Jerry Sledgeman scratched his head and looked at the trees. Vlad pressed a fist against his mouth and stared hard at the ground. And Nyx gave everyone the complacent smile of a well-fed vampire.

Jackson was currently in Meat-n-Greens quieting a sharp appetite, but Nyx hadn’t gone hungry during the journey. Docile bison were testimony to that.

“What are you going to call them?” Meg asked.

“Lunch?” Simon offered.

The female pack gave him a look that made him think running away would be a good idea, if he wasn’t the leader and couldn’t back down.

“Simon? Shouldn’t you and Jackson be heading to the River Road Community to settle the other bison?” Vlad gave the female pack a pointed look. “And shouldn’t the rest of us be getting to work? I know some of you have to review the items Jackson brought from Prairie Gold.”