[DL] Valentine's Labors Part 3

[Michael Cone <Michael.Cone@phoenix.edu>]

Blackfeather took me out of Shan Fan and south along the crags that the
coastline had become until we were days for just about anywhere. There we
made camp and he told me that he had been taught to make his pistol do some
strange and outrageous things when he put his mind to it. Chen had told him
that I had the talent buried away inside me to do something like that.
Blackfeather believed him and said that he was willin' to try and teach me
but that this particular practice could get me good and dead inna real
unpleasant fashion if I wasn't real careful. I got real cold inside when he
told me that just learnin' what he had to pass on could maim me for life,
twist my mind like rope in a hurricane or worse. I thought about what he was
sayin' for hours but finally told him that I was going to rough it out. That
very night, Blackfeather gave me my first pistol; a well used Navy Colt. It
took me by surprise just how natural it felt there. It took him by surprise
when I showed him that I could shoot just as well out of both hands. 

	For weeks, I did nothin' but shoot at targets and learn how to
maintain the gun. He said that I was making it a piece of my hand and after
a while I understood what he meant. He got me another to make a set and all
my trainin' got doubled up. Drawin', watchin' the other guy to see what his
face and stance could tell ya, and how to make sure to shoot damn straight
at any distance. Now after a couple of weeks out in the boonies, I asked why
we couldn't bunk in town somewheres and walk outside to practice. He just
gave me a real cold grin and said it was because of what I was gonna learn
the next day. The look in his eye haunted me as I tried to sleep that night.

	Now pour me shot of that stuff and have one your self, cause here is
where things get dark. That next morning Blackfeather called me to get out
of the roll and stand up. I did it and the just about wet myself when his
hand drifted down to his hip. He had a look of pure murder in his eyes and I
thought he had decided to get rid of some extra weight, namely me. Then I
saw something really spooky. Still in the holster, not yet touched, the
actions on his pistol were movin' by themselves. The cylinder was spinnin'
round and round and the hammer was droppin' over and over again without a
shot goin' off. Then his hand dropped, the gun was out and with that old
Army Walker he always carried, Blackfeather blew a six inch hole in the cast
iron cookpot we had made dinner in last night. A hole big enough fer me ta
put a hand in, goin' in and goin' out. I stood as still as I could until he
put that thing back in his holster and then I went weak in the knees. He
just grinned a little and said that was just the beginnin' 

	Blackfeather said that there were stories from all over the world
about wizards, magicians and other weird types that could do things that
other folks couldn't. His Apache brothers called them medicine folk but they
all meant the same thing. People long ago could do tricks and whatnot but
that, over time, they lost the knack or just plumb forgot how to do it. The
one who had taught him how do his tricks, like make real big holes in
people, had said that recently, folks started to be able to make the tricks
work again. All in the last couple of years or so. Now Blackfeather
mentioned that the one who taught him was real closed mouthed on a couple of
things, so he had to do some checkin' of his own. The only thing he could
come up with was that there seemed to be no mention from anybody on this
stuff before 1863. Yep. I told you that date would come around again. So now
people who are willin' to put somethin' on the line can make magic happen.
And there are some real right potent things folks can work up to doin'. Real
barnburners, if you take my meanin'. But the price for doin' it can be a
real heartbreaker.

	Now pass me that bottle, I gotta wash this damn taste out a my
mouth. Whew! Yeah, I know but it tastes better if ya don' pay attention.
Now, The trick, if you'll pardon the expression, is that do make magic,
there has to be source of power to tap. Or so I was taught. Most folks don't
make that much energy themselves so it has to come from somewhere else. I
was also told that most folks can't handle that much power runnin' through
their minds. Makes 'em nuts or their heads split like melons tossed off a
cliff. So how do they make it happen? Glad you asked! They don't, the
spirits do. That's the next part. When one of us it tryin' to make a trick
go, what really happens it that we open up our minds to spirits that exist,
these spirits are what really make magic work. Now it ain't nearly as easy
as I just made it sound. It takes long days o' trainin' to make your mind
open up to these little buggers and that's when the real fun starts. Y'see,
these little things that hang around, the Indians had a bunch a names for
them. The one your hear of the most, it's a funny little soundin' word for
mischievous spirit. Other folks call them demons. Yeah, you heard me right,
demons. Sure go on and have another or two, I'll wait. Better? Good. These
little spirits are what actually channels the energy to make the magic work.
Now, the real problem is getting them to just go ahead and do it.
Blackfeather had all sorts of tales of helpful little things that would lead
people out of the wilderness, give wise words and stuff like that. Not these
contrary little bastards. You have to actually trick 'em. Beat them in a
kind of contest to get them to do the trick. It's these contests that will
separate the men from the boys. Present company excluded. These contests can
run from just about anything. Card games, shootouts, punch-outs, it all
boils down to spiritual wrestling to make the little damn thing funnel the
power. From there, you just kind of use your mind make the energy do what
you want. Run faster, see through walls, damn near anything you want.

	Now, Blackfeather helped me visualize the contest as a shootout at
High Noon. Me at one end of an old decrepit town with that damned little
demon at the other end of Main Street. Win the shootout, and the bugger has
to do what you want. Lose and, well, it's never pretty. I could make yer
hair fall out with the stories that he told me about what happens when you
lose to one. I have seen a trick go way outta hand and a man gets his memory
erased to a woman's eyes just fallin' out. Sometimes you can see what
happens, some times you can't but there is always something. Speakin' of
seein', that brings me to the other part of makin' magic. Usually, there is
some sort of display that happens when somebody tries to go and make a
trick. Some folks have cards spring out in their hands, others have to wave
their arms and do some shoutin' in tongues. You might remember me sayin'
that Blackfeather's pistol's action workin' by itself. That was his display.
Mine is a little different. Let me step back and I'll give you a taste.

	Aw now, get up from under there. That wasn't that bad. If had had
gone on, the only things that would have happened would be me gettin' a
little more durable, that's all. Kinda eye catchin' ain't it? Someone once
told me it looked like one of those little fiery Chinese pinwheels they
light up on holidays. I just took to spinnin' them on my fingers to make it
work. Just kinda weird on how things end up. Now you know why the sayin'
about me goes the way it does. Let me tell you. The first time I really put
some effort into makin' a trick go off, all I was doin' was spinnin' them on
my fingers to help me concentrate. Ol Blackfeather's eyes just about popped
out onna the sand when the barrels on my pistols started to burn with that
damn orange spookfire. When things are getting really excited, the cylinder
will start blowing out embers like there's a bonfire goin' on inside. That
was why he was training me far away from anyone else. If we'd been seen,
people would have had a mite hard time dealin' with it. Folks don't care for
other folks doin' magic tricks anymore. Guess if the neighbors could burn my
house down with a wave of his hand, and I couldn't, I'd be a little touchy
too. I' m wandering off again so you just sit back down, have another drink
and I'll try to keep on track.

	With the training, the rather fiery displays that can happen when we
work our magic and the chance to have real long talks about what was going
on with the world, these were the reasons that we were in the backside of
nowhere. I had to practice where no one but me would get hurt and
Blackfeather also taught me some other skills that weren't so dangerous to
use. Trackin' things and people for one. How to get around without bein'
noticed. What to look for when your hunting..... Well I'll get to hunting a
little later. My magic was all kinda geared towards my pistols like his was
so that was usually what kinda tricks I would do. Now others would make
themselves shoot better or clear their holsters faster. Blackfeather made
damn sure I could shoot as well as I could without needin' to do a trick to
close the gap. That way when it came down to brass tacks, I could shoot my
way out of things, without have'n to do a trick and maybe givin' myself
away. It also gave me the practice to learn some other stuff that has come
in real handy from time to time. Well, if I told you everything, I'd be
givin' away the things that let me stay up and around. A lady has to keep
some secrets, now.

	Hunting? Well that was what all of my trainin' and sweatin' was
leading up to. All the changes goin' on the world had really opened up and
up let loose with all sorts of things that most people had just heard
stories about. Ghosts, beasts that could turn into men, specters, things
that ate people, just all sorts of monsters that now could walk the earth
and make life hard for the good folk. What that old apache and Chen had done
was give me the tools to hunt down these bogeymen and get rid of them
permanent-like. Much easier said than done. Once he felt that I was ready,
Blackfeather and I left those isolated beaches and took things on the
offensive.

	My first real job with these fancy new skills was to get rid of a
pack of ghouls makin' a buffet out of a local cemetery north of Shan Fan. I
almost ended up as dessert. It took me a long drawn out fight with my guns
and a saber that someone had buried a soldier with to get rid of the damn
things. My talents in fightin' had stood me better just because they turned
out to be more vulnerable to the sword than my bullets. After that, he told
me to always learn everything about whatever you were going to hunt. Never
pass up a chance to learn about what the world has become. And never ever
stop trying to change it back. It maybe as simple and as hard as killing
every one of these damn monsters or it may take changing the way people
think. I'm not sure which is harder, but you need to do both and everything
in between. I'm preachin' now. I'm sorry.

	After the ghouls, Blackfeather took me up and down the coast to meet
any and everybody who knew anything about what was going on. It was mostly
scraps and bits we found out but every little bit helped. I was with
Blackfeather for another three years, learnin' about all manner of uglies
and how to fight 'em. He had others teach me how to talk in different
languages, so that I could get what they were sayin' and then the juicy bits
about how to kill what was botherin' them. I will say that those were some
of the most trying times of my life up to then. So many times we went
lookin' fer some animal from nightmare only to track it down and find out
that it was a plain old ordinary evil person behind it all. Some things just
don't change.