"Something Doesn't Feel Right."

Prompt: Western - A meeting on the prairie; chance meeting of a loan rider and small band of cattle ranchers. Spend a night sharing a camp fire.

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It had been a hot day and even though the sun was starting to get low on the horizon the days heat was not quite gone. Jeb knew that was going to change quickly as soon as the sun set behind the horizon. The high plans of New Mexico were hot as an oven under the summer sun but the elevation of this seemingly endless plain in combination with a near constant clear sky caused it get uncomfortably cold at night. It was not uncommon for a 90 or 100 degree day to be followed by a night in the 60’s, 50’s, or even the 40’s on not so rare occasions.

A dust cloud rose up from the hundreds of head of cattle that stretched for nearly a quarter mile causing a haze that partly obscured a man on horseback from Jeb’s view. “Mule” Jeb yelled across the backs of the 20 or so cattle that separated him from the other man. Samuel, though everyone called him Mule, was one of the three ranch hands that were apart of this years cattle drive. Mule’s head turned to look over towards Jeb seemingly not sure if he had heard him or not over the cacophony of noise that accompanied a steadily moving heard. Jeb gave a wave to beckon him over and without a response Mule pulled on the reigns of his horse and slowly threaded his way through the herd always making forward movement to keep pace with Jeb and the heard.

A couple of minutes later and Mule had made it across the living river of cattle and trotted up next to Jeb.

“What’s up bossman?” Mule said, pulling his bandana down from his face; it was his only protection from the dust cloud that was a near constant with this job.

“We didn’t make it as far as I had hoped we would today. The watering hole is still probably another quarter days ride and we definitely won’t make it before the sun goes down. We should probably stop and make camp here for the night.” 

Mule took a quick look in the direction of the herd’s movement. “If you say so Bossman, I still can’t tell where the hell we are and this is my fourth trip. I know we’re going in the right direction but how far we’ve come…” He gave a shrug. "I guess that’s why you’er the bossman, eh bossman.” Jeb gave a quick “huh” then squinted across the land scape making a full 360 degree sweep. 

“There is a small stand of mesquite trees up wind from the bulk of the heard. Why don’t you ride up ahead tell Diego and Lonan to get the heard stopped and grazing then start setting up camp by the trees. I’ll do a wide sweep to look for any straggles from the herd and then meet you all there.” Mule gave a quick two fingered salute from the brim of his cowboy hat. “You got it bossman.” 

“And Mule, don’t forget to check for snakes this time.” Jeb said with a cocked eyebrow and a stern look. Mule gave a sheepish grin and with that gave his horse a little “hep” and a squeeze with his heels and galloped away.

Jeb was left alone scanning the horizon and turned his horse to head back the way the group had just come to start his scan for stragglers. As they got closer to the mountains of Santa Fe this would be a more taxing job but out here to the south east on the high plains there was hardly an obstruction other than the occasional mesquite tree stand or yuca. There weren’t even any hills that could honestly be called a hill. The only shape the land had was a slight rise or fall that tapered a few feet over tens if not hundreds of acres. This land was so flat in every direction you could actually see the curvature of the earth at the edge of the horizon. So, looking for lone cows was typically no more than riding a circle around the outside edge of the herd since the cows themselves were the only real obstruction to your view for miles in any direction. 

As he rounded the tail end of the herd there were a few slow moving cows that he and Mule had been driving back up to the main group all afternoon but none were far enough back to give any concern as they would catch up as soon as the main body stopped moving forward. As Jeb rounded the tail end crossing over to the southwest side of the herd he caught sight of a black dot on the horizon pretty much straight west. He pulled the reigns on his horse coming to a stop to get a better look. The sun nearing the horizon behind the dot made it difficult to see exactly what the object was but the back light made it clear that there was a small dust cloud coming up from this smudge in the distance. 

Jeb thought to himself, It’s too big to be a person on foot, that would be nearly unheard of this far away from the closest town anyway; and too big to be a coyote. So, it could be a lone cow or possibly someone on horse back but it’s too far away to tell at this point. 

Jeb and Mule were going back and checking the tail end of the herd frequently enough that it shouldn’t be one of there cows plus its the wrong direction as they had just come from the southeast. Jeb though for a bit longer then decided, Well it is coming closer not getting further away so I’ll finish my circle and come back to check before heading to camp. Jeb pulled his reigns and gave a gentle tap with his heels to get his horse moving again, heading northwest towards the head of the herd. As he reached the head the bulk of the cows had stopped moving and were now grazing around for anything edible which wan’t much. He made his way around to the east then back southwest to where the camp site would be for the night.

By the time Jeb reached the stand of mesquite trees Mule, Diego and Logan were all there setting out their bedrolls and making a fire ring with stones they’d found near by. Mule had started gathering dead wood from the hand full of trees that made a southern border to there camp. Jeb was happy to see that Mule had at least set up the camp to use the trees as a wind block.

Jeb got off his horse tied it to the make shift hitching line that one of the others has set up. Mule and Diego had already unsaddled their horses and were moving to start a fire with the wood Mule had just collected. We would need more wood than that if we wanted the fire to last longer than just cooking. Jeb thought to him self, but there was still plenty of time to gather more with what light was left.

Jeb pulled his hat off hitting it against his leg sending dust flying everywhere. “Diego, Lonan, did either of you notice the animal or rider to the west of us?” “Rider?” Diego replied quickly standing to look west. Lonan was already standing squinting west both had a hand up shielding their eyes to the sliver of sun that was barley peaking over the horizon. There wasn’t much to see with the combination of sun’s glare and the mass of cattle that blocked their view. Jeb took their non answer for a “no”.

Jeb put his hat back on and turned to his horse. “Lonan, you’er still saddled so why don’t you come with me. Let’s go now before we loose the light. Something doesn’t feel right and I don’t want to be caught off guard in the dark.”