CHAPTER 6: BILL AND LIGHTNING

 

Art by Jack A. Warren

So, Bill had beaten the Nueva México Cascabela Grande, walloping it back to its diminutive form as Rattlesnake, the venomous villain and death dealer, and after squeezing the last of the venom out of the once mighty serpents busted fangs, and into his bottle of Pecos Delight, he sauntered over to check on the still cowering little horse.

It was a tiny thing, lanky n thin, like Bill in a way, but where Bill was lean muscle, and with a little bit of a gut, the colt before him was sickly and boney, ribs showing and all, with it still covering its head with its withered four legs, shivering in abject fear of the now, long gone monster.

Pecos: Hey liddle feller, you doin alright.

Pecos said to the little guy, concern clear in Bill's big blue peepers, the colt still shivering peeked from behind his cracked hooves and saw the visage of Pecos, however instead of seeing the concerned heroes eyes looking down at him, and a helping hand outstretched, the horse saw the tall Bill holding one of the giant fangs of the creature and resting it on his shoulder, like some sort of mighty club, his skinny frame heavily shadowed from the midday sun, his hair wild and red, almost looking like a flame, and his dirty and clearly calloused hand outreach towards the colt.

Bill looked like a visage of Death itself had come and was asking the young horse to take his hand to the hereafter, or even worse, a demon wishing to forcibly snatch the colt for some sort of sinister purpose.

So to the young critter, in his state of astonishing fear and immense panic, Bill appeared to be even more terrifying than the giant rattler was.

So as one does when presented with such a terrifying sight, after a traumatic experience, the colt got up, and started running as fast as his spindly legs could carry him while screaming as loud as he could.

Colt: DON'T EAT MEEEEHEHEHEEEEE.

Pecos, being shocked at the colts volume and more importantly its speed, quickly ran after the young horse, Bill barely being able to keep up as it ran, it's tattered blonde mane rippling through the wind while it hollered and cried at the top of its lungs from what it truly believed was, none other than the devil himself.

Pecos: I ain't gonna eat cha, I was just tryin' to make sure yur ok.

Upon hearing Bill, and more importantly, the continued genuine concern in his voice, the colt began to slow down and turn to face Pecos, effortlessly keeping up a slowed, but still fantastically fast Gallup, now running backwards as he got his first good look at Bill, seeing through unclouded eyes that he wasn't a beast but a boy.

Now the colt, still running backwards just fast enough to be outta reach from Bill, sniffling with tears in its eyes, really truly seeing Bill for the first time, asks a simple question.

Colt: you mean it mister.

Pecos: O' course liddle feller, I wouldn't have fought off that there big scaled phony "papa o all snakes" if I hadn't wanted to make sure yur ok.

Instantly, the colt stopped on a dime, with a mighty sigh of relief, however Bill, not being able to stop that fast, ended up failing miserably, If not spectacularly.

Bill thinking as fast as he could at that time, tried stomping his heels into the ground as hard as he could to stop himself, however this only caused his heels to cut through the earth, causing a sizable chasm to form in his wake, then after a mile or three of this, he tripped and flew, hurdling through the air for a mile more, laughing madly all the way, before falling flat on his face, and then sliding for one and a half miles more, until finally coming to a complete stop.

Immediately after which the lanky lad hopped back up, lightly dusted himself off with a bit of a chuckle no worse for wear, and turned to the still rattled but now calming colt, who nervously chuckled at the slapstick he just saw.

But Bill paid no mind to that light laugh at his expense, Bill was the son of a joker after all, and a bit of one himself, he enjoyed bringing folks of all kinds a nice and genuine laugh, no matter how big or how small.

Granted he hadn't entirely gotten the hang of the whole, intentional comedy thing quite yet, with most of the laughs coming from him making a stupendous mistake rather than a purposeful funny, but a laugh was a laugh.

Anyways, Bill hastily walked up to the horse and started looking the critter over, taking note at how bad of a condition the little guy was in, from the aforementioned ribs poking out, tattered mane, and cracked hooves, to various cuts, bruises and even substantial missing patches of the poor feller's tan fur.

The little feller was definitely not doing the best.

Pecos: So, it looks like you eren't doin to hot here buddy, so did that big ol scaled worm attack ya, or was it all bluster, and no bite and this all happened cus a somthin else.

Colt: um, yes, I think, see, that terrible thing cornered me and started talking about how he was gonna rip me apart and eat me limb by limb, hissing, rattling and laughing that awful, terrible, bone shuttering laugh the whole time.

The small critter shutters, recoiling from the recent memory.

Colt: That was until you showed up mister, um, say what's your name anyway.

Pecos: Mah name is Pecos, Pecos Bill, and i yam tha hero of this here land, makin' sure critters are safe is my job, a job bestowed upon my purddy liddle head by mah Mamog and Papog, speaking o names n such, what's yurs friend.

The colt looks distraught and sad as it lightly kicks the ground while looking down and replies.

Colt: I don't have one mister, my mama couldn't give me one do to passing shortly after I came into this world, and the heard abandoned me as soon as they could, cause, well, I couldn't keep up, no matter how fast I ran, so ive been on my own really, for as long as I can remember, which has led to, well, the current state I'm in.

Bill looks sad for a moment, but then gets a big smile on his face as he comes up with an idea.

Pecos: Maybe I can give ya a name if 'u'd let me.

The horse looked a bit taken aback and quite surprised.

Colt: You'd really give me a name.

Pecos: Course, and I think I know the perfect one, givin how fast ya are, and how that speed commin from such a meak critter as yur self is a bit shockin, I think the name Lightnin is rather fitting, and given you said you dun lost yer kin, maybe you can come en live with me and my folks, that is ifn you don't mind comin and helpin me out from time to time.

The Colt, who I'll now be calling Lightning, is absolutely speechless as he stares starry eyed at Bill, no one had ever been this nice to him, he'd always either been viewed as a liability at best or a meal at worst.

This kinda kindness was just unprecedented in his life so far, it all being overwhelming as young lightning began to tear up and cry.

Pecos: Are ya ok, did I say somethin rude er uncooth.

Pecos was worried for only a moment as quickly those worries were squashed with a H.H.H, otherwise known as a huge horse hug.

Lightning: Thank you so much Mr Pecos.

Pecos: Weren't no thing, and please just call me Bill.

So Bill and Lightning began there walk home, to Bill an old one and to Lightning a new one, with new people he would come to know as Mamog and Papog, with Badger and Coyote quickly adopting little Lightning into their family as a second son, the two getting the speedy thunder horse cleaned up, well fed and all around healthy.

Although this all did take some time, not only getting healthy, but Lightning getting used to having and being part of a family, especially one as unusual as Bill's.

Notably Coyote and his tricks were particularly hard for lightning to get used to, oftentimes them unintentionally frightening the string bean of a colt, this was especially the case when poor Lightning would get stuck in the crossfire of a prank war between his new brother Bill and Papog Coyote.

This would more often than not result in the speedy Lightning bolting to his adopted mother for either protection from the perceived threat, or for safety from the various humourous traps and active prank attacks Bill and Coyote would be setting up and sending each other's way.

Lightning quickly proving himself to be quite the mamas boy when it came to his relationship with Mamog Badger, sticking close to her when he could, learning all sorts from her, like the ways of medicine and the wonders of the healing arts, to tactics and even a bit of social engineering, all valuable skills the young horse was able to learn from the wise and thoughtful old critter he knew as Mamog.

Maybe this closeness blossomed cause the twos personalities just meshed well, with Badger's immense knowledge, chilled fierceness and kind humor working well with the easily frightened, curious but constantly anxious and on edge Lightning, or maybe it's cause of lightnings trauma from losing his own mom at a young age, either way the horse was most definitely a mama's boy, and well, that was that. 

Now where was I?

Oh yeah.

I'm honestly not sure if Bill and Lightning realized the extent of they're intertwined destinies when they walked home on that fateful day, but one thing they both knew for sure, that not just a friendship was born on that day but a true, unbreakable, brotherhood between man and critter, come what may, and god knows the may would come.

(Author/Scribe's note: This chapter probably took the longest so far for various reasons, probably the most notable of which being me wanting to nail the introduction of Lightning later Widowmaker (getting that name is it's own story that will come later), and really present him to the best of my ability, how I've always been told and imagined him to be.

In a lot of ways lightning reminds me of Cringer aka Battle Cat from He-Man, the little horse being a bit cowardly, but for good reason, and also strangely a bit refined in a way.

Again I really wanted to nail this introduction, and I wanted to nail Bill and Lightning's relationship as friends and siblings, Lightning often being the more reserved, easily frightened voice of reason, while Bill is the out and about, fearless bringer of unintended chaos.

This even goes down to making sure there's a distinction between how the two speak, with Bill having a distinctive dialect and accent that I've written to the best of my ability, while Lightning for the most part doesn't, being far more clear and while not always understanding his brother, always does understand his brother if that makes sense.

Also that's another distinction between my family's version of the Bill story and plenty of other interpretations of it that I've seen and read, in a lot of them Lightning is usually nothing more than a friend at best and a pet at worst, with a little to no personality, while in my family's interpretation, again he's always been rather Cringer like as well as definitively being considered Pecos's brother.

And there's no ambiguity to that, the two, Bill and Lightning, while being friends are considered by themselves and the world around them, as being brothers despite one being a horse and the other being a man, although he is a man that's raised by two spirits/gods who are "animals" So Bill being brothers with a horse ain't exactly too strange all things considered.

Honestly I'm kind of glad I made this a different chapter from the previous one, I was concerned splitting them up would take away from both but I think it's done the opposite, It's allowed me the proper time to reflect on this particular and incredible important part of bills lore and story, and I think better tell it overall.

Giving me time to breathe and think and really remember and engage with the story, and the tapestry that is my family's version of the Pecos bill folktale/s.

Anyways, hopefully the next chapter won't take as long as this one to iron out and release, a story of Pecos and Lightning's first proper adventure together)