by Katri

Anyone may do with it as they please. As always, I have no rights to the characters or the show, etc etc.

"Buck! I am sick of your daggoned tall tales! Will you just leave me the heck alone?"

JD was not amused. First he was forced to leave Casey for two days of picking burrs out of his hair and clothes, then he finds himself partnered with Buck guarding camp while Vin and Nathan head out to find Chris. Buck had talked incessantly for the last 12 hours and JD had spent the last half of that soused on whiskey to try and drown out Buck. Now Buck was trying to tell a story of a witch who supposedly lived out here and ate people to stay young. His dime novels told a tale better than Buck AND they had pictures.

Time to go to sleep, JD reckoned, folding his saddle blanket as best he could under the bedroll draped across his saddle. Some pillow. The ground would be softer but he didn't want the lice. Buck had fallen asleep sitting up, apparently dreaming of women. That mewling noise was gonna drive JD insane if it continued. "Shut up, Buck!" JD threw a handful of dirt at Buck.

Buck immediately woke up and sneezed. "JD, what is the matter with you?" JD didn't answer. The mewling was continuing. "Buck, do you hear that?"

"What? Someone out there?"

"Listen... sounds like a cat or something."

"A cat? A cougar you mean?" Buck reached for the rifle.

"No, a cat. A.. you know.. kitty cat."

"KITTY CAT?? JD have you lost your mind?"

"LISTEN, BUCK!"

Buck listened. He heard a soft whickering noise, but it didn't come from the horses. He motioned to JD to go around the camp and look around, and he went the opposite direction. After a few minutes, they were both turned around ikn the low mist that was settling over the area. Unseasonably cold for even New Mexico territory, Buck thought. JD was wondering where in the hell the camp was, staring at the ghostly outlines of the annoying briar patch he'd ridden through earlier that day. He thought... or maybe it was the one he was to ride through in the morning. Or one he was never supposed to see at all. JD sat down to think about it.

Meanwhile, Buck was headed up, and up, and up.... looking for whatever horse was making that sound. It wasn't Vin, but maybe Chris was playing a trick on him. He wasn't going to be fooled into spooking like a young colt until he saw for sure what was going on. Figuratively speaking, of course; he couldn't see a thing in the mist. The sound was closer, he thought, and he pulled himself up onto the ledge, drawing in a curse as a rock dug into his groin. Then he yelled and fell backwards over the ledge.

JD heard Buck's yelp of terror and nearly cried out himself. He still heard that mewling noise, but was equally concerned over whatever Buck had seen. He'd never known Buck to be truly frightened of anything. There wasn;t any whiskey left, so he slapped himself on the leg and moved forward into the mist.... and saw something white scurry across in front of him. Kitten, he thought, disgusted. Now he was separated from Buck and couldn't see anything in the mist. Then the something white ran right up to him - it was a skeleton of a cougar kitten. The gaping black holes where it's eyes should be... the crack in its skull where a tomahawk had split its head... the contorted vertabrae.... the high rear characteristic of the genus felis.... JD felt dizzy. Had to be the whiskey. He swallowed air, blinked hard and tried desperately to find some saliva so he could lick his lips. The kitten was rubbing against his leg... JD ran. He had no idea where he was going, but he ran.

Buck awoke with the sticky feel of blood on his face and in his hair. He licked his lips and tasted iron. Damn it, he thought. He sat up and cursed again. Then he focused on the white blob in front of him - it couldn't be. A foal??? A white skeleton of a foal?? Crawling next to it was... was...was the skeleton of an Indian papoose. Buck fainted.

JD stopped running after maybe a minute. The tree he nearly smacked face first into helped a bit, he mused, turning quickly to see if the kitten was still there. It was. He swallowed hard and reached out toward the kitten. He walked up to him, mewling plaintively, arching its back to be petted. He never touched it. It passed right through his fingers.... expecing to feel bone, JD wasn't quite sure what to make of this. A ghost, he thought finally. It's a ghost. I've heard of ghosts and now I'm seeing one. Why it's a devilcat I'm not sure but it IS a GHOST and I'm wide awake and all alone and... "BUCK!!! WHERE ARE YOU,BUCK???"

Buck heard JD's yell and it snapped him out of his faint. Nothing was in front of him. "Damn that JD, can't he keep his mouth shut? I'm seeing things from all that whiskey and he's invitin' trouble..." Buck climbed the rest of the way back down toward the camp, and found the fire. No JD, though. He headed off in the direction he'd told JD to search.

In a moment, a full-sized Indian woman's skeleton stood before him, still covered in a rotting deerskin serape. Buck kept walking forward, ignoring these figments. Yep, figments, he thought. "JD, where are you?" Buck hissed through his teeth.

"Right here, Buck." JD wasn't 40 feet to the left and straight up - treed by the skeleton of a large wolf-like critter. JD's horse had followed him and was actually standing on... or in... the ghostly skeleton of a child. Buck was convinced he'd lost his mind. He climbed up next to JD, trying to ignore the hawk sitting by his left ear.

A loud gutteral stream of sounds surprised them both, forcing JD to grab onto Buck's arm. Vin rode forward, still speaking that strange language. The skeletons faded away and the mist began to retreat back towards the campfire. Buck shook JD loose and climbed down, motioning to JD to do the same.

"Vin, did you see something funny?" Buck asked.

"You fools built your campfire in the middle of an Apache burial ground. Those stones were from a sacred circle where the children bury their pets."

"But I saw a woman."

"A white woman adopted by the tribe, most likely. She could not be buried with the others of the tribe. She may have gone insane or bore a dead child."

"You saw them, Vin?"

"Yes."

JD and Buck looked at each other, and walked back to their horses. JD was relieved to find his horse alone and munching on leaves with no apparitions under his hooves. Buck was surprised to see how close to the campfire he was. Looking up , he was shocked to see how close he came to killing himself - the ledge continued upwards to a cliff obviously overhanging a deep flashflood gully. He was almost frightened to death. What would all the fine ladies of Four Corners have thought? He would have had a fine funeral with many to grieve for him. Why nearly every lady in Four Corners would have had to wear black for the next year, which washed out their pale skin and would have ruined things for any man riding into town in the next year.....

Pondering the effects of his death on the social scene, Buck mounted up and rode to meet JD and Vin, who were already turning East to where Nathan and Chris were waiting. They had a bank robber to catch after all.......

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