GLITTER GULCH

Chapter 33: The Light Choice

Kento stared at the small gold band in his hand. Cye was gone. Just like that. He sighed. Maybe he should have done something more. Maybe he should have punched Philip in the face and stolen Cye out from underneath him.

Literally.

But no. He couldn't have done that. Cye wouldn't have wanted him to do something like that. He couldn't go around blindly attacking people just because they had an interest in the schoolteacher. Even if he really did want to punch Philip's lights out, sweep Cye up into his arms and carry him off from that boorish prick.

Because Philip didn't deserve someone like Cye.

Kento lowered his head. Yeah, like I do.

He fingered the small band of gold. Twirling it around his fingertip. The tiny engraved waves around the edges had been a bitch to do, but with Aaron the blacksmith's help, he had managed to make the little bitty lines with only minor mess ups. He just hoped Cye didn't take that close of a look. He ran his rough finger over the shiny surface, amazed that something so tiny could fit over Cye's finger. But he knew it would. He'd watched intently as the schoolteacher worked in the kitchen. Had even managed to wrap a string around the Brit's finger, telling him that it was to remember the cherry pie that he'd promised to make… again.

Kento stopped and raised his head, remembering the day he'd decided to show the delicate schoolteacher the sensual delights of a cherry pie. The way the sunlight had drifted in through the window, highlighting the dust in the air as it lazily swirled just above the schoolteacher's flat chest. The bittersweet taste of the cherries mixing with the tang of the Brit's flesh. The way Cye's back had arched to give Kento better access to his body. The lilt of the redhead's voice as he'd begged him for more…

No. Philip Masters wasn't going to get Cye. Not if he had anything to do with it. He was going to tell Cye exactly how he felt, sweep the Brit off his feet and take him back home. At least that was how the scenario played out in his head. So what if it didn't quite work out the way he'd planned?

That day when they'd almost done it on the kitchen table, Kento had known that Cye was the one. He had been certain of it. When had he lost that certainty? When had he lost the belief that he could make Cye happy - that he would make him happy?

Kento frowned. The moment Philip had come to get Cye. The moment he'd seen that fop standing next to HIS schoolteacher, arms around HIS redhead's shoulders. And it had been cemented when the stupid idiot had booted him out of HIS room that he shared with Cye.

And where did Philip get the idea to come here anyway? He sure had some nerve to dump Cye by a note and then travel all this way to get him back! Why? Then- Then he'd actually TOLD Cye what was going to happen. He hadn't even given the schoolteacher a real chance to say no. That he was going to stay with Kento and the others in America. That he didn't want to go back to merry Olde Englande even if it was to go to some fancy school and teach. Even if that was Cye's dream…

Well. To hell with that. Those little kids in that backwater schoolhouse in this hick town deserved a good, knowledgeable teacher like Cye more than some stuffy, high-brow university.

Kento walked purposefully toward the corral for the horses, grabbing tack along the way.

He would ride out, find the stagecoach, tell Cye how he felt as he was yanking the schoolteacher out of his seat, and to hell what anybody else thought. Including Cye. Dammit. They could make it work. He knew they could. And he'd make Cye see that.

Even if he had to tie the Brit up and throw him over the back of his horse.

Sage watched with mild interest as Kento stomped up to the corral and saddled a horse. So the man finally got wise. He hoped Kento was able to catch the stage, but he figured one man on a horse had pretty good odds of catching four horses toting a coach, passengers and luggage.

He kept his violet eyes on the mountain man as the big guy rode off in a blaze of glory to catch his British lover and was amazed at the incredible ease with which he was able to read Kento's mind. He blushed slightly at his intrusion on a scene being replayed there over and over again that involved hot cherries, but he chuckled instead and let his gaze drift to an approaching figure coming toward the ranch.

The man walked slowly and purposefully up to where Sage was leaning against a post on the porch. Never faltering, always that unerring stride bringing him closer and closer to the violet-eyed cowboy, long robes billowing in a nonexistent wind, tall staff jingling with each firm step, large straw hat shading his face and eyes.

Only when Doc Kaos stood next to him was Sage able to break the mesmerizing hold the man had placed on him. Nodding his head slightly, he greeted the old man. "Kaos."

"Korin."

"What brings you out here to this neck of the woods?"

The old man raised his head, and Sage was struck again by the vision of Kaos as a young man, proud and strong, standing in the middle of a battlefield dressed much as he was today, except the front edge of the straw hat had been shorn off and it was falling from his shoulders, and his long white hair was being tossed by the wind.

"I have need to speak with you, Korin."

Sage merely nodded. He'd known Kaos was going to show up today. Knew it in his heart. "About?"

"The visions."

"Ah." The cowboy smiled. "Thought you might want to talk to me about that."

"Then you have seen it?"

"Yes."

"And you will still attend?"

"Yes."

"Hnh." Kaos nodded. "You are Korin no Seiji. Putting the good of the whole above the desires of the few."

Sage snorted and rolled his eyes. "It's not like I have a choice."

"There is always a choice."

"Not for us." The cowboy fluffed his blonde hair. "How long will we keep fighting this battle, Kaos?"

"For as long as it takes, Korin no Seiji."

"I was afraid you'd say that."

The two stood in silence for a few moments, listening to the sounds of nature. At peace and still. The living, breathing Earth taking a short respite from the encroaching evils of mankind.

Kaos finally broke the silence. "Will you tell Rekka?"

"No." Sage shook his head. "He will know. So will Tenku. All they have to do is accept their fate and they will know."

"Very well." The old man patted Sage's back. "You are a good man, Korin. The Light is pleased with its choice."

The cowboy smiled. "Can't say that I'm glad, too, Kaos." He turned to face the old man. "You coming tonight?"

Kaos shook his head. "No. It is not destined for me to be there. Only to show you the way. I shall not see tomorrow with these old eyes. But you knew that, did you not?"

Swallowing the regret that lodged in his throat, Sage nodded. "I just hoped-"

"The Light is never wrong, Korin. The Darkness may cloud its vision, but the Light is never wrong." His staff jingling as he stepped from the porch, the old wise man looked into Sage's eyes. "None of you have a need for me any longer. Even Tenku, stubborn as he is, has been reborn." Smiling, Kaos waved a hand at the cowboy. "Make your decisions wisely, Korin no Seiji. They will affect all of you."

Violet eyes watched the old man leave as the wind picked up and once more Sage saw the vision of the proud young warrior slowly making his way from the battlefield.

Bandanna covering his face, hat shoved down as far as it would go on his head, and riding his horse as hard as he could, it wasn't long before Kento saw the coach. He felt like an outlaw riding after the stage to loot it. Well, in a way, he guessed he was going to rob it. Rob it of its most precious cargo.

Cye Torrent.

Knowing the path the coach would have taken, Kento had chosen a short cut he knew that got him there quicker, but even as he spurred his horse on and pulled up beside the coach, he panicked. What was he going to say?

He hadn't thought that far ahead.

Well, he'd just have to wing it.

First he had to convince the driver to stop.

Which proved to be a little more difficult than he'd thought. It was hard trying to communicate while riding on the back of a horse to a stagecoach driver over the pounding hooves of 5 horses and the creaking and shaking of a wooden coach. But the man finally got his message and after a muttered curse about delays and pushy people, the coach finally stopped.

Kento didn't waste any time as he dismounted and yanked open the door to the stagecoach. But he was struck dumb as soon as he did because only one pair of startled eyes looked back at him. Philip's.

The mountain man jerked Philip Masters out of the coach and threw him into the dust along the trail, satisfied when the fop's tall stupid hat fell into the dirt and rolled into the brambles nearby. "Where the hell is Cye?!"

"What the bloody hell do you think you are doing?!" the prick bellowed.

"Either you tell me where Cye is or I'll kick the living shit out of you, you filthy bastard!"

"Why should I tell you?!"

Kento grabbed Philip by the lapels and yanked him to his feet before planting a solid punch right to the man's prissy little nose. He felt a satisfying crunch before the prick sank to the ground.

"Aw… SHIT!" the mountain man screamed. He hadn't pulled his punch enough and now the English fop was out cold. It made Kento want to kick the shit out of Masters. "You stupid, stupid sissy! You can't even take a punch?!"

"Hey!"

"I oughta kick the living shi-"

"HEY!"

"WHAT?!" Kento wheeled on the stagecoach driver.

"The feller you lookin' fer got red hair?"

"Yeah! He does! You know where he is?"

"Not rightly sure, but that feller there and the redheaded feller got inta some kind of argument. The little guy had me drop him off 'bout a mile or so back yonder."

Kento's mouth was wider than a canyon. "You- you dropped him off?"

"Yeah. Tried t'git me t'take him back ta town, but I cain't. Gots a schedule t'keep, ya know?"

Dumbstruck, Kento stared at the driver. "He- you… He's back there?"

"Yeah, now help me git this here feller back in the coach. Gotta git movin' again 'fore I lose too much time."

The mountain man nodded, grabbed Philip by his arm and dragged him back to the coach. Picking the man up with one hand, barely even noticing the blood from the fop's nose was ruining the Englishman's pristine cravat, Kento stuffed the Brit into the coach, not bothering with any kind of proper decorum, and shoved the door closed, accidentally whacking Philip on the head with the door. Well, mostly accidentally. Then without thinking - otherwise, he never would have done it - the mountain man retrieved the stupid top hat looking thing from the briars and threw it in the coach's open window, not bothering to pick the prickly burrs from the soft fabric. Kento hit the side of the coach and the driver tipped his hat before goading the horses into action again, leaving Kento in a cloud of dust.

"Well, what do you know. Cye got out." The big man shook his head and grinned, the smile widening with every step he took toward his horse. "Cye got out! He stayed! Yaaahooo!" He swung up onto his horse and rode off in search of his little lost schoolteacher.