by Simon Archer
“Absolutely I can! One of my best friends owns the best restaurant in the western United States!” Kennedi said proudly.
“What restaurant is that?” Clara inquired. She mounted her horse and looked over at Kennedi.
“Belavi!” Kennedi answered happily, walking over to get back on Wicker.
“I have never eaten there before. I will be certain to try it next time I’m in town!” Clara looked past Kennedi to make sure I was ready to go on Stringer.
I had just mounted, and I nodded to her. The three of us rode out of the clearing into the small grove of trees Clara had motioned towards. Just as I was noticing that the trees were shorter than the ones in the forest and sparser, Clara yelled back to us as though she read my mind.
“This entire area had a fire about ten years ago. That is why the growth isn’t as thick as it is on the other side of the clearing.
“How did the fire start?” I wanted to know.
“It was a controlled burn that got out of hand. Thank goodness it didn’t cover much land before it was able to be put out. I can’t imagine what this place would look like if it had spread any further.” Clara's voice almost sounded sad.
“It seems to be recovering well,” I commented.
I saw that the path before us started to decline steeply. It cut away so quickly that a moment later, I could not see Clara at all. Then Kennedi started to disappear on her way down. I was close enough behind her that I never completely lost sight of her. When Stringer and I started down the decline ourselves, I saw that Clara was just coming to the bottom of it. At the same time, I saw movement from a bush beside the path. Before I could call out to warn her, one of the largest rattlesnakes I have ever seen struck Teal in the leg.
The horse reared up in panic and pain. When his front hooves were almost on the ground again, he was about to take off running as fast as he could. Unfortunately, it wasn’t fast enough to keep the snake from striking him in the back leg as well. A snake bite on one leg is bad enough, snake bites on two legs, both on the same side of the horse, was a disaster. Clara managed to hold on until Teal’s front legs were almost down, but when the snake bit a second time, Teal tried to kick it off without having put his weight down fully on his front leg. It felt like slow-motion as I watched Teal fall to his side. Clara did not have time to get off, but she reached out with her arm. As Teal’s full weight came down on Clara’s leg, I heard her arm snap.
I was expecting her to scream out in pain, but instead, she started yelling frantically, “Where is that damn snake? Where is that damn snake?”
Before I could answer, Kennedi was off her horse. She ran down, reached through the bush, and grabbed the rattler. The snake struck at her twice ineffectually before she snapped its neck. By that time, I was off Stringer and running towards Clara.
“The snake is dead,” I yelled out just as I got to her. Teal was still struggling to stand back up and, in doing so, was grinding Clara’s leg into the ground. Clara screamed out in pain.
“Kennedi!” I yelled. “We have to get this horse off her!”
In less than a second, Kennedi was by my side. She slid her hands underneath Teal and started lifting. I grabbed Clara by the shoulders and pulled her out from under him as soon as Kennedi had him up high enough. I saw the trail of blood from Clara’s leg as she grabbed me with her one good arm.
“Can she suck the venom out of those bites?” she pleaded. “I have to get the venom out of those bites!” Clara started struggling to try to get up.
“Lay down!” I told her forcefully. I looked over to Kennedi. “Can you get the venom out of Teal’s legs?”
Now, most people would have thought I was crazy to suggest that. Venom spreads too fast for most people to even have a chance of sucking it out, and cutting so deep to do so would cause more harm than good, but most people didn’t have catgirl saliva. While it couldn’t heal deep trauma, its antibacterial and antitoxic effects could carry through the bloodstream just as swiftly as the venom.
Kennedi put Teal’s side back on the ground and jumped over him. “I can get the back one, for sure,” she screamed back to me. Without hesitation, I saw her straddle Teal’s back leg to hold it still and put her mouth on the snakebite. I returned my focus to Clara.
“Kennedi is removing the venom right now. Now, you have to tell me, did you pack first aid kits in our saddle packs?” I demanded to know as I stripped off the belt I was wearing. I was watching the blood flow out from the inside part of Clara’s thigh. It wasn’t flowing fast enough to be a complete severing of the femoral artery, but it was certainly flowing fast enough for her to bleed out if we didn’t take action fast.
“They are on the bottom left of all of the packs,” Clara cried out. I reached down and wrapped my belt around the top of Clara’s thigh and started buckling the buckle. I looked to see Kennedi stepping off from over the top of Teal’s leg.
“Bottom left of the packs!” I yelled to her. “I need both first aid kits! Then see what you can do about that front leg!”
Kennedi sped over to Wicker and Stringer like a lightning bolt. Both horses were already heavily startled, and Stringer reared up when she approached. This time, Kennedi wasn’t scared. She reached in the saddle pack on Wicker first to get the first aid kit to let Stringer calm down. Once his front legs were back on the ground, she darted over and grabbed the first aid kit out of his pack as well. She was by my side with both kits in under thirty seconds. She dropped them and ran back to work on Teal’s front leg.
“She has to get him to stand up,” Clara said. This time her voice was weaker.
“Kennedi will take good care of Teal. I need you to lay still so that you don’t lose more blood than you have to.”
I examined Clara’s head for trauma before gently rolling her from her side to her back. Her broken arm was still lifted over her head. Her shoulder joint jutted out at an unnatural angle. As much as I wished that I could just ask Kennedi to lick this closed, there was only so much that catgirl saliva could do. These wounds were too deep, too large for her to seal up. So, I ripped open the first aid kits and took out all of the gauze I could find. I packed the laceration on her thigh and used medical tape to secure it.
“My leg is broken, isn’t it?” she asked weakly.
“There’s a good possibility. Your arm is definitely broken. Can you tell me, do you have pain in your ribs? Does it hurt to breathe?” I had lowered my voice to try to keep her calm.
“It does not hurt to breathe,” she answered.
“That is a good thing,” I tried to reassure her. “Do you have a radio or phone that works out here?”
“No, but Stan is supposed to be here any minute. He was bringing lunch at twelve.” I saw her take a deep breath. It looked painful.
“Are you sure nothing but your arm and leg hurt?” I asked again.
“My hip isn’t doing so hot,” she answered. “Is Teal up yet?” I looked over at Kennedi. She was just stepping off from over Teal’s front leg. The moment she was clear, Teal stood up.
“Yes, he is standing now,” I told her. She sighed, and I could visibly see the calm wash over her face.
“Get him to the water trough.” I looked up and saw that Kennedi was already walking him over.
“He is on his way to water now,” I told her. “I need you to lay here and not move. I’m going to make a rail bed so we can get you out of here.”
She nodded slightly, and I stood up and looked around. Kennedi ran back over to me.
“Teal should be okay. What do you want me to do next?” she asked.
I pointed at two nearby saplings. Both stood about six feet tall. “Can you tear those out and break them off?”
She didn’t ask for a reason. She just rushed over and snapped both trees off at the base, and where the upper branches started. While she was doing that, I pulled the blankets and reins off all three horses. We came back together, and she laid the trees on the ground three feet apart. I used the reins to tie them tog
ether and create a support. Just as I was laying the blankets down over the sapling, we heard an engine off in the distance.
“That must be Stan,” Kennedi said. She immediately took her off to meet him. I pulled the rail bed over next to Clara.
“I am going to have to lift you, one half at a time, onto this,” I told her. “It will most likely hurt like hell.”
“Let’s get it over with, then,” she acknowledged. I replaced one hand under her good shoulder, leaned over, and placed my other hand around her ribs to avoid her broken arm. I lifted her up and put her top half on the improvised stretcher.
“Holy fuck!” she yelled out.
“You are doing good, just one more move,” I told her.
“Do it,” she whispered back. I walked down towards her legs and slid one arm under her knees and the other under her lower back. Doing my best to keep all of the weight on the arm that was under her back, I picked up her lower half and moved it onto the stretcher. Clara screamed out in pain.
“That was it. We’re done moving you,” I tried to calm her. Meanwhile, I heard Stan on his four-wheeler break into the clearing. Kennedi was running right behind him. He pulled up beside Clara and me and came to a stop. He jumped off and ran to Clara’s side and looked up at me.
“How bad is it?” His face was twisted with concern.
“Possible broken leg, laceration to the femoral artery, broken arm, possible broken hip, from what I can tell,” I filled him in.
“The rack on the back of the four-wheeler extends. I will pull it out, and all we will need to do is get her up on it,” he explained.
“Now that is a piece of good news. I was wondering if we were going to have to drag her back.” I wiped some sweat from my brow. “Can these horses be written without reins?”
Stan looked up to see which three horses we had with us. “Yes, those ones can.” He got up and walked over to his four-wheeler and extended the rack. “Are you ready to get her up here?”
“Yes, and we had better hurry. She’s losing a lot of blood.” I looked down at Clara. “We are going to pick you up and put you on the rack that is on the back of the four-wheeler,” I explained slowly. I could see that she was struggling to stay awake.
“Do it,” were the only words she could muster up. Stan and I each took one end of the impromptu stretcher we’d made. We slowly lifted and placed it on the rack. Stan had a rope that he used to secure the stretcher to the four-wheeler.
“How are you going to get through the woods like that?” Kennedi asked Stan.
“We won’t be going the same way you guys came in,” he answered as he climbed behind the controls. He glanced at me and started the four-wheeler.
“We will get the horses back to the ranch and meet you there,” I said as he started to pull away. Kennedi and I watched him go before we walked over to Wicker, Stringer, and Teal. I would have preferred to find another way to get Teal back without walking, but we had to make do.
“How do we ride them without reins?” Kennedi asked.
“You will have to use their manes, like you would the reins,” I explained. I got up on Stringer and took hold of his mane. “Just like this.” Kennedi nodded once I got up on Wicker. She grabbed her mane and tugged slightly to the left. Wicker moved to the left.
“Wow! That works really well!” Kennedi was surprised.
“We are going to take the same trail out that Clara came in on. We will put Teal in between us. I imagine he will follow pretty freely. Do you think he’ll be okay to make the walk?” I looked over and saw that Teal was still favoring his front leg.
“He will make it, no problem,” Kennedi let me know. “By my analysis, my saliva neutralized the venom out of his back leg. There was some damage done to the front leg as I had to attend to that second, but nothing that should endanger his life as long as we take the trip slowly. Then I healed the puncture wounds.”
“Thank you so much for acting so quickly,” I started. “I don’t think Clara would have accepted medical attention had she not known her horse was being taken care of.”
“I’m just happy I was able to help in some way,” Kennedi replied. I turned Stringer towards the path into the forest and urged him forward. Kennedi leaned over and tugged on Teal’s mane until he turned and followed me. She hung back to make sure Teal went down the path with Stringer and me before moving in closer.
By the time Kennedi and I had made our way back to Triple Bar Ranch, the place was deserted. Stan’s four-wheeler had been left in the middle of the drive outside the main house. No doubt, Clara and Stan were on their way to the hospital already. The nearest one was in Elko, so they may even have arrived there already.
We rode the horses to the water trough and got off. We let them drink before leading them back into the stable and returning them to their stalls. I didn’t want to go back in the house without anybody there so I could get my and Kennedi’s original clothing, so we jumped in my 4Runner wearing our cowboy outfits and headed to the hospital as well. Once we made it to the emergency room, we found Stan in the waiting area. He stood up when he saw us.
“I’m so glad you two are here,” Stan started. “I was worried.”
Kennedi walked right up to him and gave him a hug. “We made it just fine. You don’t have to worry anymore.”
“We got the horses back in the stalls and got their tack removed after we watered them. We made sure that everything was locked up tight before we came. We did leave our clothes and such in the house, however,” I recapped for him. The last thing he, or Clara, needed was to worry unnecessarily.
“I can’t tell you how thankful I am that you two were with her when this happened.” Stan’s voice was shaky and weak with worry.
“How is she?” Kennedi asked Stan.
“She is in surgery right now,” Stan reported. “They are working to repair the artery in her leg. When her legs broke, the bone severed the artery on one side while the saddle cut into the artery on the other. Her arm is broken in three places, and her shoulder is dislocated. The good news is, she does not appear to have any spinal injuries, and neither one of her lungs was punctured.”
“Do you have any idea how long they expect the surgery to take?” I asked as I motioned for Stan to sit down again.
“They won’t give me an estimate, unfortunately,” he answered, sounding defeated. “They did say that without the tourniquet and packing you put on her leg, she would have bled out long before making it back to the ranch.” Kennedi and I sat on either side of Stan. There was little we could do to comfort him. Something occurred to me.
“Shouldn’t you be in the OR waiting room instead of out here?” I was positive they would have a different area to wait for people in surgery.
“They did tell me about a different waiting room, but I thought you two might show up, and I didn’t want you to have to run all over the hospital trying to find her,” he replied.
“That it was very considerate of you, Stan,” Kennedi told him. “Why don’t you let us walk you down there now?”
“Okay, that is probably a good idea,” he replied. The three of us stood up and followed the hallway signs until we found the surgery waiting room. We found Stan a comfortable chair in the corner that reclined. I was hoping she could get some rest because the man looked wrecked.
“Again, I appreciate everything you have done today. Neither Clara nor I will ever be able to repay you,” Stan said once he was settled.
“There is absolutely no call for repayment of any kind, Stan,” I told him. “We feel fortunate that we were able to help get her out alive.” Stan gave us a tired smile and leaned his back on the chair.
“You two should go on home. I will call you with any changes. There really isn’t a need for you to hang around here longer than you have to,” Stan said quietly. Had Stan been anything but exhausted, I would have made an argument to stay. However, because I knew he wouldn’t rest while we were there, I agreed with him.
“We will head back ho
me, but please be sure to call us at any hour, if you need anything. Even if it is just to have us go back and check on the horses, in case you can’t get out of here for some reason,” I instructed him. He managed a weak nod of acknowledgment before he closed his eyes and fell asleep. Kennedi and I slipped out of the room and went back to my car. The sun was just starting to go down as we drove home. I felt like I had been awake for two days.
The drive home only took a few minutes, but I appreciated the sight of our house as we drove up to it. After we were parked, Kennedi and I went in through the kitchen door and headed straight for the living room. I collapsed into one of our loungers. Kennedi came into the room after me, holding an envelope.
“This was on the island in the kitchen,” she told me as she stretched her arm out to hand it to me.
I reached up and took it from her and checked out the return address label to see who it was from. It read, ‘Monarch, Heller, and Glenn, Attorneys at Law.’
“What the hell?” I muttered. I flipped up the envelope over and tore at the seal. I pulled out a single sheet of paper and unfolded it. As I read what was written on the paper, I felt heat rush into my face and neck. The more I read, the more anger bubbled up inside.
“What does it say?” Kennedi asked tentatively. I knew I would have to calm down before I could properly convey the message on the letter. So, I told her the next thing I could think of.
“Get Charlie on the phone and tell him to meet us here first thing tomorrow morning.”
9
I was mainlining coffee in the dining room the next morning when Charlie arrived. Rosie let him in and poured him a cup of coffee before she, Krysta, and Ellie left to go to Belavi. Kennedi had gone to her art studio to take care of some things for Samuel. Charlie walked into the dining room with his coffee and sat down across from me. He glanced around the room and smiled.
“You look like shit,” he joked sarcastically. “But the room looks amazing. I don’t think I have seen it since Kennedi finished decorating.”