That night, Jake mulled over all of his unanswered questions. There were a lot of them.

How had Colt made it to Broken Horn before he did? Perhaps he had sent men earlier to take it over as part of some grand plan. It was well known for being an old mining town, and there were rumours of long seams of gold running through the hills there.

Then he thought of his experience with the angel-demon creature. It had given him a second chance. Colt's bullets hadn't killed him, but the river almost did. Perhaps he was only immune to man-made objects.

The third and final thing he thought about was the most confusing. The creature's riddle - take out the colt and save the guardian. But watch for the crawling ones, and the man who calls himself king.

The colt could only mean one thing, Colt Johnson himself. The guardian was possibly the mountain at Gold Creek, and the crawling ones could only be the Crawlers. But the man who calls himself king... Now that was a mystery that Jake could not solve.

He slowly drifted into an uneasy sleep, filled with natives and gunfights and a man with a crown on his head.

***

Jake woke with a start. The grey dawn was creeping in and reaching long fingers around the lace curtains to light up the dust motes dancing in the air. All was quiet.

Jake slipped out of bed and trudged to the washroom. He was awake now; might as well start the day.

His first stop was Lightning Tree; his horse was probably still there. He bought a horse off one of the men in the saloon. It was overworked and weary, but it made it as far as the lightning-struck conifer outside of Lightning Tree before it collapsed. It was completely spent and to keep it alive was cruelty. Jake shot it.

Men ran out of doors at the sound of the gunshot, but upon seeing Jake they all cheered and led him towards old Sam, who was waiting with a grin on his face.

"Jake!" he cried, clasping the cowboy's hand in both of his own. "We thought you were lost! Your good chestnut mare came back, but you weren't with her. What happened?"

"She threw me on the Broken Horn trail," Jake answered. "The town was completely destroyed. I saw a body downriver but as I went to investigate, I fell into the rapids."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "I'm only a fool when I'm drunk, Jake," he said quietly. "Now, what really happened?"

Jake sighed and looked around before nodding discreetly towards the sheriff's office. "We'll talk there."

***

Sam listened intently to Jake's story, but he had a tale of his own to tell.

He leaned in close and looked around. No one was being held in the cells. They were alone.

"Strange things have been happening, Jake," he muttered, still looking furtively around as if someone might suddenly spring out. "Some of the men from this town had to go over the mountains to the other towns, and they heard some terrible, terrible things in Sunville."

Sunville was a town near Gold Creek, and everyone had to pass through it to get over another mountain range opposite the river. It had been a great town once but now it was as corrupted and rotten as the sheriff who owned it. Barely anyone dared pass through it to get to the towns on the other side of the mountains. You could die in Sunville.

Jake furrowed his brow. "Everyone hears strange things in Sunville."

Sam sighed and drummed the desk with his fingers. "But my men heard worse than strange. They were coming out of the saloon - dangerous place, but a man needs refreshment - and they overheard the sheriff talking with Colt. A grand plan." His brow was furrowed with worry and sadness - nobody liked to be the bearer of bad news.

Now Jake was interested. He leaned in closer, holding Sam in an intense brown gaze. "What did they hear?"

Sam swallowed. He paled slightly, but shook his head and licked his lips. "They're going to blow up a mountain, Jake," he said at last. "The Guardian. It's full of gold, they say. And it's full of Crawlers."

Jake leaned back. He knew it. He knew that Colt was planning something terrible. "How do we stop them?" he said at length, swallowing a mouthful of whisky from one of his hip flasks.

"We can't," Sam answered wearily. His shoulders slumped. "We're none of us young men, Jake. We can't take them on. They're going to release the Crawlers, they'll destroy us. Colt said it all. The sheriff only laughed and said, 'When we're rich, Colt, I'll be the king of the land over the mountains. We'll rule on both sides.'"

Suddenly it all fell into place. "The man who calls himself king," Jake whispered.

"What's that you say?" Sam asked, but Jake was already out the door.