A Texan Cowboy lost in th Sea of Time

[MendicantBias219]

October 12th 2023 AD (450 AD Post "Event" Calendar)

"Come on, hurry up!" That's all Dylan could say to himself while preparing his quad bike and made a double check in both his Colt and AR-15, preparing for a quick departure to the northern part outside of the fences of his family farm.

After his vehicle and weapons were ready he accelerated, not caring for the consumption of his limited amount of Gas, he went straight ahead to give chase to Riley, his German shepherd, who had run out of the farm about ten minutes ago. This normally wouldn't have scared him this much if not for what he had seen with his drone the previous afternoon.

Part of his mind was screaming at him for being this reckless, back at West Point they have taught him to be more prepared and to have a plan before acting, specially in life and death situations, but he let his emotions cloud his thoughts.

After "The Event" as he has named it, Riley was the only family he had left, after he had lost contact with the rest of the world, and he would be damned before he allowed him to get hurt without him doing something.

After riding his bike for what it feels like an eternity, getting past his farm fence and going for another ten minutes, he spotted something moving in some bushes and finally saw Riley hiding there, looking intensely at something in the distance, so he accelerated to get closer before getting off the vehicle and running after his friend.

"Riley!" He said in what could only be described as a muted scream, although it seemed to be enough to get the attention of his friend who looked back at him and got closer. With his heart finally slowing down as he hugged his friend "don't do that ever again please, I thought those things had already got you" He said while refusing to let go of his friend.

After a few seconds he grabbed Riley collar and tried to drag him back to his quad bike, finding resistance in the process "come on man, we have to get out of here" Riley didn't seemed to want to go, refusing to take off his eyes form the same direction and seemingly trying to pull Dylan back to the place, but Dylan knew they couldn't stay there for much longer.

That's when he heard something that made him stop in his tracks, a woman scream and what he could only describe as unnatural feral growlings. He stopped in his tracks and thought about if for a moment, thinking about the pros and cons of going to check, but he realized that he was armed and there seemed to be a girl in danger, he wasn't raised to be a coward and he'd be damned if he started now and allowed civilian to get killed while he could have helped, so he attached the leash he brought with him to Riley's collar, adjusted his black cowboy hat and allowed his friend to lead the way.

They ran for a few minutes, with Dylan keeping his rifle in his hands, until the sounds got more intense and Riley stopped. So, guided by his training, he dropped into a prone position and started to crawl until he got cover behind some bushes, with Riley following his example, he looked out just enough to see what was happening, and what he saw was something he didn't expect.

About 20 meters away he saw about 20 of those creatures he saw last night through his drone footage. He had thought that dealing with coyotes and foxes in the Texas countryside was bad enough already, but what he saw was bordering monstrous.

Through his rifle's scope he spotted what looked like big black wolves, just these were actually bigger than any he has ever seen at a height of about 2 meters, and the damned things were bipedal! Those were honest to real life werewolves. Those things had been too close to his farm last night, that's why he kept his farm animals indoors, armed himself and stayed up all night with his rifle ready to face those things if they even thought of attacking his home, fortunately they didn't even got near his fences.

But what really surprised him the most, and that's saying a lot after watching freaking werewolves!, was the sight of a short blonde girl dressed in what seemed like a combination between a white dress and silver armor, fighting those same monsters with a golden sword.

Ok, he wasn't really that knowledgeable about swordsmanship, he has never seen a sword fight outside of movies and he has just seen swords as replicas in museums or toys in stores, but he knew that the way this girl was fighting seemed unnatural.

What Dylan was looking at, was that blonde girl slaying the werewolves with what appeared to be superhuman capabilities, with speed and grace he had only seen in cartoons when he was a kid. He had seen army soldiers and marines displaying some actions that could be called human peak performance, but he recognized that what this girl was doing was far beyond that.

By the time he had got out of his stupor, the girl had already finished 14 of the 20 beasts, with the remaining six growling and trying to encircle her. That's when Riley loudly barked at one of the creatures when it was trying to sneak behind the girl. That bark was enough for the girl to turn her head to their direction, a huge mistake, the werewolf using the distraction, hit the girl with its pawn with such a force that he could hear the sound of it from his position, lifting the girl from the ground and making her hit a three, she fell to the ground and didn't seemed to get up. Dylan saw some blood coming from her head.

He knew that he needed to act right there, otherwise those things would kill the girl, they were already going after her unconscious form, so he took a long breath, aimed his rifle at the beast that was closer to the girl and pulled the trigger.

The 5.56 mm bullet left the gun at supersonic speeds and hit the werewolf in the waist in a fraction of a second, visibly wounding the animal, but to Dylan's surprise the damned thing was still standing and its companions didn't flee.

He has shot the beast expecting to kill it or, at least, heavily wound it. He has also expected (hoping really) that the other werewolves would run away after the first shot, knowing that many wild animals tend to escape after the sudden sound of gunshots. But unfortunately, that wasn't the case this time.

Without hesitation aimed again and pulled the trigger again, this time, hitting the werewolf in the chest and the beast fell and didn't raise again. Without giving it a second thought he aimed at the other beasts and started shooting, three more beasts fell to their death, some of them took one shot to put down while others needed more than one depending on where the bullet hit.

The only two remaining animals have already identified the smell and location of their attacker, so they rushed towards him, running incredibly fast. He knew that the distance was his only layer of defense against those things, after witnessing their speed and strength he knew that they would rip him apart if they reached him.

With his heart pumping he aimed at one of his attackers and pulled the trigger hitting it on the leg and making it fall, but he realized too late that his magazine was now empty, and that the last beast was already too close, he wouldn't have time to reload. That's when Riley jumped into action and ran towards the beast managing to bite it's leg and shake his head with all of his strength managing to make the werewolf stop and growl in pain towards the canine. Dylan rapidly got up from the ground and pulled out his Colt Python from his holster, and, before the werewolf could attack his friend, he shot the thing multiple times until it got down.

With his revolver still fuming in his hands and his rifle hanging at his side he got near the last beast that couldn't get up due to the bullet wound in its leg, but was still trying to crawl towards him. Dylan considered ending the life of the abomination with his knife, if only to save some of his ammo. He shaked his head, knowing better than to risk his well being by getting too close to a predator, so he just aimed his Colt and ended the last of those abominations with the last two shots, one to the chest and one to the head, blowing off part of its brain.

After that he let out a sigh of relief he didn't know he was holding, with his heart beating hard in his chest. His first real combat situation was over and it wasn't against some foreign military attacking his home, an armed group in the middle east or even an armed robber in his home, but against some kind of freaks of nature.

He realized something and could only say in a whisper to himself "I Almost die" the last two of those animals had gotten too close, he knew that if Riley wasn't there with him the last werewolf would have torn him apart. He didn't allow those thoughts for more than a few seconds though, he realized that he had more pressing matters when he saw Riley running to the wounded girl, so he ran to her direction and bent next to the girl to examine her.

The first thing he noticed was that she was a really short girl, wondering how she was able to kill so many of those things with just a sword made of... was it gold? He shaked his head, it wasn't important right now "hey miss, are you ok? Can you hear me?" He asked, but there was no response, realizing that she was indeed unconscious, he noticed she was still breathing and rapidly checked her pulse, it seemed stable.

He carefully continued to examine her head, watching some blood covering her factions, fortunately it seemed to be just a small superficial cut that has already stopped bleeding, she didn't seemed to have lost a lot of blood, but he wasn't a doctor and he knew that head injuries are complicated, specially if the person was unconscious.

he looked around to see if there was someone around, but there was no one around, was she really traveling alone with these things roaming around? He realized that was probably the case and that there was no one nearby to help her besides him.

He decided that, even if it was risky to pick a stranger, he could at least take her back to his house, disinfect her head wound, bandage it and wait for her to wake uo to explain her situation. So, carefully he lifted her and her golden sword (he deduced she wouldn't like to lose it in the woods), noticing that she was surprisingly light, and carefully he carried her back to his quad bike where he, Riley and the nameless girl mounted it and began their journey back to his farm.

During his drive back home, after the adrenaline of the whole ordeal wore off and his mind could properly process the events of that afternoon, in Dylan's head there was only one question:

"Where the he'll am I?"
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So, I've been working on a story, inspired by the classic of Mark Twain "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" but with a change of setting, by being a person from the real world on the Nasuverse Arthurian Mythos and this man being from modern America, from the state of Texas and having different circumstances. So I thought of sharing this idea in here to get some feedback and advices from people who knows better than me about the nasuverse setting and mechanics.

First of all, how different are the people from the Nasuverse Arthurian Legends be compared to a human from the real world? I don't mean in a cultural way, since apart from some anachronistic elements it would still be possible to determine that by doing some research. What I really want to know is how different they're in a more physical and spiritual way, I know that people from the Age of God's were basically superhumans that would just destroy a modern IRL man, but what about people from the Age of Fairies? That period of time seemed more like a transition between the Age of Gods and the Age of Man, so your average humans would still be stronger than modern people but would they be invincible superhumans or just above average modern humans? Since part of the story is about the exploration of the islands by the Texan and his interaction with the people there, that would be an important element to the story.

Second of it, assuming that the guy is from a secular reality without supernatural or fantasy elements at all, could a he survive on the British islands before the Foundation and the fall of Camelot? I was under the assumption that modern people couldn't survive in places like Avalon since the amount of mana would be toxic and lethal to them, and the British Isles of the past, being one of the last places to make the transition to the Age of Man, may be similar to the secular modern human. I'm going by the idea that, despite being a human, the dimensional traveler is something different from the humans of the nasuverse and since he came from a reality without the supernatural his body simply doesn't react to mana and exposure doesn't really harm him.

I also wonder how Gaia would react to this guy and the animals and plants that were transported with him? It would be somehow a grey area since they do share the genetic composition of their Nasuverse counterparts but they come from a different magicless reality. That would be a central theme as well with the OC, being a human but not a Nasuverse human, technically is an interdimentional alien but not an eldritch abomination neither.

This won't be a story with a Gary Stu where he'll be able to destroy every enemy and win all the battles just because he has guns with him, he is just a guy with some military training, who has been sent to another universe with his family's farm with limited supplies, that will try to survive and maybe thrive in a world of monsters and heroes while trying to help the people of his new home, exploring the lands and getting into the the conflicts of someone being suddenly separated from his family, his home and everything he has ever known, feeling completely out of place in this new world. Domething that most isekais don't aboard these days.

So, what do you guys think?

 

[MendicantBias219]

October 12, 2023 AD (450 AD Post "Event" Calendar )
Barlow Farm

"So they did hear me, huh?" After a few minutes of driving, being careful not to accidentally drop Riley or the mysterious blonde girl, I finally reached the entrance to the farm and witnessed the aftermath of my sudden departure to find Riley. Near the house I saw the different cowboys on the farm checking their guns and preparing the jeeps and trucks, all apparently alarmed, probably preparing to go looking for me, so I accelerated towards them.

Among all of them, the one I considered the closest to me stood out, Luis, who seemed to give orders to the others, a cowboy a few years older than me with black hair, brown skin and a serious look. Upon hearing me approaching, the cowboys turned around and seemed to relax after seeing me. So, when I parked the aforementioned man quickly approached me while I got off the ATV and carefully carried the blonde girl, Luis looked at me perplexed by the presence of the unknown girl.

"Dylan, we heard the shots. Are you okay? Who is the girl-" I raised my hand to interrupt him, being careful not to hurt the girl, there were urgent things to do "Luis, listen to me, I can explain everything later but right now there are urgent things to do, call Chloe and tell her to meet me at the house right away, this girl is hurt." I said while pointing to the wound on the blonde girl's head, "tell the boys to go to the armory and get their weapons and bring the dogs, we have to repair the outside fence immediately, we leave in five minutes." Luis, without hesitation, nodded his head, ready to address the other cowboys to give my orders.

I was about to leave when something else occurred to me "Luis, wait!" I said before Luis could leave. I carefully handed him the girl's golden sword and looked at him seriously.
"Leave this in the armory and lock it, I don't want this girl armed in my house" He nodded as he took the sword and walked away. Being satisfied I quickly headed to the house while looking at the unconscious girl in my arms "I hope you know what's happening," I said quietly, more to myself than to anyone else.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

After entering my family's house I quickly headed to the living room and carefully laid the girl down on the couch, being careful not to move her head more than necessary. I quickly did an ammo count for both my AR-15 and my Colt Python, reloading both weapons and realizing I still had more than enough ammo for both, I considered heading to the armory to get more ammo, but realized that I didn't have time. Thinking some more I headed to one of the wooden drawers under the bookcase, telling myself I was lucky to still have the key to this one, and pulled out a black bulletproof vest and a black case. I quickly put on the bulletproof vest, knowing that I would be out soon and that it would be better to have the extra protection, once the vest was secured, I looked at the black case, but before I could open it, someone called me from behind.

"Dylan, what's going on? Luis told me to come right away." I looked around and saw a young girl, a few years older than me, with blonde hair and blue eyes who, as soon as she saw me, showed genuine concern. "Oh my God! Dylan, are you okay? Are you injured?" Chole asked me, quickly approaching me. I looked at myself to see why she was looking at me so worried and when I looked down I could see that I was covered in blood, so I began to pat my body, concentrating on my sense of touch to see if I could perceive any kind of pain, Luckily I was able to realize that the blood on me was from the werewolves and the blonde girl.

"Don't worry cousin, I'm fine, this blood is not mine" I said as I raised my hands to calm her down "But this girl is hurt" I turned my head to point at the blonde girl still unconscious on the couch, Chloe quickly turned her gaze towards the girl and with some confusion he approached to check her.

"Who is she?" Chloe asked me as she checked the unconscious girl. "That's what I 'd like to know." I said to myself. It was actually a good question, more than a day has passed since that strange light show that everyone on the farm except me witnessed and the sudden loss of communications with the rest of the world, losing phone signals, internet and even radio had made everyone in the farm nervous. The presence of this strange girl might give us information about what was happening outside the farm fences, but that could wait.

"I don't know, she was attacked by some strange animals outside the fences" I knew I didn't have much time to explain all the details "I need you to check her, she hit her head really hard" I told her with a serious look.

"Dylan… I don't know, you know I'm still in training and these types of injuries are very complicated" she said with obvious concern in her voice "she needs to go to a hospital, I know people at Baptist Medical Center, they will be able to take care of her better ther-"

"We can't do that Chloe," I interrupted her with a serious tone as I looked her directly in the eyes, "we still don't know what's going on out there and from what I saw it's very dangerous to try to drive to San Antonio right now" I wouldn't risk it to go out with those things outside and with night approaching, this was already a life or death situation. "Listen to me, here you are the person with the most medical knowledge, I need you to do what you have to do, I don't want this girl to die without us doing something" those words seemed to startle her when she realized the seriousness of the situation.

She was clearly still nervous, but she composed herself as best she could and nodded as she addressed me once more "I will need medical supplements if I am going to treat her," I nodded as I once again took the black case "Nana will give you whatever you need of our medical supplies, but Chloe… I need you to take this" I told her as I opened the black case to take out its contents.

"I'm glad Mom didn't move it while I was away," I thought to myself as I pulled out of the box a Colt Detective Special belonging to my mother. Unlike my father, she didn't carry her gun everywhere with her, preferring to keep it home in case of an emergency and this clearly counted as one.

"Dylan, you know I don't like using those things," she told me as she looked apprehensively at the gun in my hands. "Of course not" I thought to myself. Unlike my parents, my siblings and I, Chloe had not grown up within our culture, she and her brothers had grown up in New York, without as much exposure to guns as we did, so the only times they had fired a gun had been when they accompanied my siblings and me to the shooting range where we made sure to teach them everything we could.

"Look, there's not much time to explain, I'll leave some guys here to take care of you guys while we're out but I'll feel better if you have this with you, I taught you how to use it the last time you were here so you shouldn't have any problems using it, besides…" I said as I shifted my gaze to the sofa with the unconscious girl, apparently Chloe noticed my worried look. "Do you think she is dangerous? She's just a girl" Chloe asked, looking at me in disbelief.

I honestly couldn't blame my cousin for being confused, normally I wouldn't be so paranoid about an unarmed and unconscious girl, but I was the only person on the farm who had seen what said girl had done, those creatures had been incredibly resistant against my rifle shots, not to mention that they were very fast. The fact that the strange girl had killed several of those werewolves with a sword was incredible, but at the same time worrying.

I knew better than to leave this girl alone on the farm with everyone else, so giving Chloe a gun gave me more confidence that she would be okay while the others and I took care of perimeter security.

"Listen to me, this girl can be dangerous and I won't be sure until she wakes up and I can talk to her," I said as I tried to give her a holster for her and took the gun from its barrel and brought it to her. Seeing that she was still hesitant to take it, I decided to give her some last words to convince her "I'm not asking you to shoot her, just take it and in case she wakes up and becomes hostile, make it clear to her that you have it with you, she will think twice before starting any problems." With those last words she nodded and took the gun from my hands. I was pleased to see her put on the holster on her right leg and to see that she kept her finger off the trigger and made sure the gun was loaded, still remembering the lessons we had given her before.

Nodding once more I turned towards the door, ready to leave the house and join the others. One last thought came to my mind before heading to what would probably be another encounter with the mysterious hostiles, so I turned and gave my cousin one last look. "Take care" were my last words before heading to the room's door.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Leaving the house with Riley at my side, I headed to where the vehicles were. When I arrived at the place I realized that Luis had been in charge of informing my orders and organizing the other cowboys, some of them carried the tools necessary to repair fences around the farm while others checked their weapons, several of them were armed with a variety of rifles and pistols that my family kept in our armory and with several of the dogs we had on the farm alongside them, raging from German Shepherds, Rottweilers and Belgian Malinois.

Luis noticed my presence and addressed me, "Dylan, can you tell us what's going on outside?" I nodded and quickly pulled out my smartphone and showed him the pictures I had taken of the bodies of the werewolves I had killed a little over an hour ago. In the photographs you could see the true size of those beasts when comparing them with Riley, Luis and the others were clearly surprised by the bodies of the beasts.
The previous night the videos taken by the drones had shown that these things were hanging around the farm, but we had not been able to observe the dimensions of them. Like me, none of the workers, not even the oldest and most experienced cowboys had observed these types of beasts and, like me, they were surprised and worried by their existence.

"Dios, are those werewolves?" Although Luis was clearly surprised, he composed himself quickly enough and looked me straight in the eyes seriously. "What are you planning to do?" I smiled a little, Luis was always the type of person who would take action on problems without overthinking things, something I always admired about him, that was a quality I clearly needed right now.

"Everyone listen to me," I said out loud so that the little more than thirty cowboys could hear me, "these things were much closer to the farm fences than they were last night, they are very hostile and don't seem to get scared easily." They all listened to me attentively as I gave the information I had been able to gather.

"My father told me that the fence had been damaged a few weeks ago and had not been repaired, I want the places where it has been damaged to be repaired before nightfall, I don't want to spend another night without defenses against those things" I said with the utmost authority that I could muster in my voice "Those animals are very aggressive and resistant, and they are fast, but they are not invincible, they die like any other animal so If you find them shoot them without hesitation, I want you to divide into groups and go to repair the fence."

I raised the Walkie Talkie that I had in my hand, the only means of communication that was still working after everything else fell. "If any of the groups have difficulties, contact the others and reinforcements will be sent." I directed a serious look at everyone present, bringing together all the leadership and confidence that I learned from both my father and grandfather, as well as from my years at West Point. "I know we are all worried about yesterday's events, but until we can figure out what is happening we are on our own, our safety and that of our families is my highest priority, let's make sure we are safe until help arrives."

I felt satisfaction when I saw the security and determination in the eyes of everyone present. I have said it since I was a child and I will never get tired of repeating it, my grandfather and my father had put together an excellent team over the years.
Without anything else to say, after forming the groups, they got into the cars and we headed off to do our work.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
East Fence of the Barlow Farm

"It's still as intimidating as ever," I said to the others once we were near the fence that divided my family's property from the outside. I always thought my father and grandfather were exaggerating when they insisted on surrounding the entire property with an 8-foot-tall heavy duty wire mesh fence with razor wire on top of it. Growing up in this place my friends used to joke with me and tell me that it looked more like a prison fence than a farm fence, and in fact I used to agree with them, however it worked perfectly well to keep the cattle in and to deter intruders and predators, at this point I'm glad they insisted on spending extra money to keep this place safe.
Once we were close enough to the fence, we got out of the vehicles with Riley and two Rottweilers accompanying us. Luis, two other workers and I would be in charge of keeping the others safe while they were in charge of repairing the fence. I remember that Dad had told me that the fence had been damaged a while ago and in fact I was supposed to help them repair it today, however, after "the Event" and my encounter with those creatures outside the fence, its repair became an urgent matter.

Again I was grateful that the others had the expertise to be able to repair the fence, as they were doing it quickly and efficiently, something I didn't think I could have done on my own. Usually the fence would be electrified, but after last night it seemed that, along with communications, the power grid had stopped working, leaving us with only the electricity that our gas generators and solar panels could give us, so I hoped that the fence and razor wire would deter anything that wanted to enter.

While we stood guard Luis approached me as we kept our weapons close at hand, out of the corner of my eye I saw my friend's weapon of choice, a Benelli Supernova shotgun, I think it was a good choice, personally I was never a shotgun person "Dylan, who do you think that girl is?" Luis said, taking back my attention to the nature in front of us. Along the way I spoke with Luis and the other workers who accompanied us about my encounter with the blonde girl and the werewolves, at first they seemed incredulous of the story, and with good reason, but knowing me and understanding that I had nothing to gain by lying to them, they took my word as truth and paid attention to the details in order to know how to put an end to the beasts.

"I honestly don't know," I said without looking away from the nature beyond the fence, my previous encounter with the creatures having affected me more than I would like to admit "But she's the first person we've run into since The Event, I hope she can tell us what's going on out there," I said, trying not to let my voice reflect the worry I was feeling.

Luis must have noticed my tone of voice, he knew me too well, because he turned to look me in the eyes "I'm sure your family is fine, but if you're worried we could go check what's happening ourselves" he said with the confidence and determination with which I remembered him speaking ever since we were children.

Honestly, going out and trying to find my family was something I had wanted to do since I woke up from that strange dream after The Event, and if it hadn't been for the images my drone had captured the night before I would have done it without hesitation, but knowing that there was something dangerous outside, I didn't dare leave the farm without someone to organize everyone. Since the communications had gone down the farm had become a pandemonium, I had been asleep when it all happened, but apparently strange lights like the northern lights had appeared in the sky, the animals had gone crazy and after a great roar they we had lost communications of all kinds with the rest of the world.

My parents and siblings had left the farm a couple of hours before and I hadn't heard from them since. Part of me wanted to drive to San Antonio and look for them, but I knew I had a responsibility to this place and I couldn't just abandon everything, I just hoped I could reinforce the property and go out to find my family, I really just wanted to know that they were okay.

"Thank you Luis, but until we secure this place I cannot abandon it and I am not going to send someone else out there" I said with more confidence, I would not allow myself to despair in this situation.

"Mr. Barlow is a tough man," Luis said with the respect he has always had for my father. "No matter what is happening, I know he and your family will be fine," he said as he patted me on the shoulder, I gave him a small side smile knowing he was right, my father would go through hell before he would let anything happen to our family, I trusted him too much to doubt that.

The moment was interrupted when Riley and the two Rottweilers got on guard and focused on the space beyond the fence. Suddenly they began to growl and bark aggressively at something in the distance, Luis and I quickly raised our weapons, I aimed the sights of my rifle in the distance while I raised my voice "Everyone pay attention" I said out loud, drawing the attention of the others, knowing that problems were surely coming.

It was then that we heard gunshots from other directions and our Walkie Talkies started going "Bzzz Oh my God! Don't let them come closer Bzzz" I heard as the shots continued.
I quickly grabbed my walkie talkie, "Say agai- I mean, what's going on over there!?" I said without lowering my rifle as the sounds of gunshots continued. We received no response as the sound of semi-automatic fire continued, I was worried about not knowing what was happening to the others but until they answered us or asked for help I could only keep my guard up.

Not even ten seconds passed when, through the scope of my rifle, I saw more of those animals. "Shit," I said in a low voice as I counted at least 50 of the creatures, this time they looked more agitated, probably the sound of the gunshots had got them that way. Immediately one of them directed its gaze towards us and, although I could only see it through the scope, I could swear that it saw me directly in the eyes and gave me a look of hatred, suddenly I saw him raise his snout " OWOOOOO!" He suddenly let out a howl that, despite the distance, was loud enough to be annoying to me and the others. Suddenly that thing and several of them came running towards our position, being as fast as I remembered.

"Multiple targets ahead!" I said out loud as the others raised their weapons, at that moment I aligned the sights of my rifle with the werewolf who had howled, took a deep breath, exhaled and pulled the trigger, despite being about two hundred yards from us I could see clearly as the bullet hit the creature in the skull, it fell to the ground and rolled on the floor, never to get up again. At the same time, I heard the others opening fire. I aimed my rifle at more of the creatures as they approached, firing two or three times to each of them so that they would fall.

The sound of fire from the weapons of others could be heard from miles away, among them were rifles, shotguns and revolvers, while more of those beings died. Despite our superior weaponry, there were only seven of us and the damn things outnumbered us more than seven to one and were too fast. I cursed inwardly as I realized the werewolves were getting too close. "I wish I had some damn automatic weapons now!" I said to myself as I kept shooting, realizing the limitations of our weapons in this situation.

By the time the creatures got too close, we had already killed 36 of them, but that left fourteen of them, who did not slow down and, while some of them tried to jump the fence, others crashed hard against it. Despite the strength that those things had, those that tried to jump over the fence were stuck in the razor wire, while the wire mesh was strong enough to resist the onslaught of those that collided with it. So, immediately, making sure not to damage the fence, we shot at the creatures that were growling, scratching and biting the fence trying to get to us. Luis pointed his shotgun at one of the creatures and fired, the shotgun shells proving to be incredibly effective against those animals throwing the damn thing back several feet.

After a few seconds all those things were lifeless on the ground, full of bullet holes. I let out a breath I had been holding when I saw that all those things were on the floor. "Is everyone okay?" I asked the others as I pulled the last magazine out of my AR-15, realizing that this and my previous encounter with the creatures had caused me to run out of the bullets I had taken to go out looking for Riley.

I saw the others reloading their weapons and calming down after the fight. All of them seemed somewhat surprised and agitated after having faced these beasts, although the older cowboys seemed calmer than the others,I approached Luis who was still looking at the remains of the animals with his shotgun still in hand "Have you seen anything like this before?" I asked him when I was close enough to him.

He looked away from the body of the creatures and saw me before answering me, "What do you think?" He told me with some concern in his voice, something he rarely did. I clearly noticed that he was still in shock, but I quickly saw him take a calming breath, when I saw him calm down he finally answered me "We just faced an army of Chupacabras, this doesn't seem real" he said as he returned his gaze to the bodies of the werewolves.

I honestly couldn't blame him, these things brought me a feeling of aberration just by looking at them, it was something different than simple fear, it was like just watching these creatures brought a feeling of discomfort to me, I couldn't explain it, but I hoped there weren't any more of those things nearby, that's when I realized that it wasn't just our guns that had stopped firing.

"Right!" I said as I took out the Walkie Talkie and activated it. "This is Dylan, can anyone hear me? Over" I said, waiting for a response.

"Dylan, this is Matthew, we're fine. What happened to you?" They responded, that made me relax, it seemed like they were fine "We are fine, the werewolves attacked us. What happened to you? Over" Then Matthew explained to me that the same thing happened to them as it did to us. While repairing the fence they had been attacked, fortunately no one had been hurt and they were finishing the repairs.

I decided I'd better follow their example, at least this encounter had taught us that the creatures could not cross the fence defending the farm, that gave me some security, but I would feel safer if the fence remained electrified, something I will have to talk to the others about later.
The encounter had interrupted the repairs to the fence, there was still a gap in it, so it would only take a few minutes to repair it and then we could leave. My sight was directed to one of the bodies that was on the ground on the fence, this one was particularly injured as it seems that he had gotten stuck in the razor wire before falling during the shooting. "Thank God for the razor wire." I said to myself as I walked over to examine the bodies.

"GRRRRRRRR" I suddenly heard a sound behind me, Riley and the two rottweilers seemed to still be agitated after the shooting, that behavior was understandable, besides the target practice we did on the farm, they were not used to the sound of a shooting like the one that we did today so their nervousness was normal.

I crouched down and started petting Riley's back and head trying to calm him down, that's when I noticed something strange, the three dogs were growling in the same direction and that's when I realized, all three of them were growling at the werewolf's body that I had been examining. I noticed at that time that, other than the wounds the barbed wire had caused, there did not appear to be any gunshot wounds on that werewolf.

Before I could react, the werewolf's body rose and jumped directly into the gap in the fence and, regardless of the damage the beast did to itself trying to get in, it tore through the gap and fell directly in front of me, I quickly raised my rifle and pulled the trigger "click click click " the sound of the empty magazine was the only thing I heard "Damn!" I said to myself as I remembered that my rifle was empty. I quickly directed my hand to the holster of my revolver, realizing that the creature would reach me before I could draw my weapon, unexpectedly it moved its front paw in my direction, hitting my left arm with its claws, the blow moved me to the side and the wound caused was deep enough to draw blood.

Before the creature could get close to scratch or bite me again, it was thrown violently to the side at the same time I heard the loud click of a gun next to me. While my heart was beating rapidly, I turned my head to see Luis with his shotgun raised at the same time that he pumped it and ejected a shell from it, nodding in his direction in gratitude, I quickly upholstered my revolver and pointed it at where the creature had fallen.

Fortunately it seemed that the adrenaline of the moment prevented me from feeling the pain of the scratch and the fact that my dominant arm hadn't been the injured one would give me some time to deal with the damn animal before having to treat my arm. Surprisingly, the werewolf was still alive, although he was clearly injured by Luis's shot, he seemed unable to stand up while his neck was bleeding from the pellets of the shot.

At this point everyone was pointing their weapons at the werewolf, but before we could open fire Riley and the other two dogs took the initiative. Riley and one of the Rottweilers went straight for the wild animal's front legs, while the last Rottweiler attacked directly the werewolf's neck, being careful to avoid the werewolf's jaws, the three dogs with some of the most powerful bites of the dog breeds had the beast pinned to the ground, demonstrating that thousands of years of domestication and cooperation with humans had not eliminated their pack instincts and had not made them any less capable hunters.

The beast, clearly in pain, tried in vain to shake and attack the dogs, but after the damage from the razor wire, Luis' shot, and the dogs' attack, it was too weak to do anything else. Luis approached with his gun to finish off the animal once and for all, but I quickly raised my hand to stop him when something came to my mind. I quickly pulled my Leatherman multi tool from my belt and pulled out the knife inside it, these things were pretty tough, it would be a good idea if the farm vets could examine it and this was the least damaged of all the beast, killing it with a knife would leave the body much more intact.

I crouched down, careful to avoid the animal's jaws, and, being careful not to hurt the dog holding the animal's neck, I stabbed the knife into its neck. "This thing is strong!" I thought as I realized the resistance for the knife was to penetrate the fur and flesh, "no wonder they can withstand so many bullet impacts" I thought again, I'm no expert, but I'm sure not many animals have this kind of resistance.

After using more force I managed to stick the knife into what I think was the werewolf's neck, his body went limp and after stabbing him again for safety, I verified that he was dead.
After this last surprise, the workers continued with the repairs , while Luis tied the destroyed sleeve of my shirt around my wound, while Riley licked my face trying to comfort me. I had been hurt worse before but never by a wild animal, with the adrenaline wearing off the pain started to bother me so I just resigned to sit and wait for the fence repairs to be finished so we could leave.

After checking that there were no more problems with the fence and checking by radio that the other groups had finished their repairs, we decided to leave. After loading the tools and the werewolf's body into the trucks we began the journey to the center of the farm, closing my eyes and allowing myself to rest after the two battles that day.
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October 12, 2023 AD 10:30 pm (450 AD Post "Event" Calendar )
Barlow Farm House

I stood on the balcony of my room on the second level of my family home in more comfortable clothes, as I continued to think about the events of the day, mainly what had happened after we returned from making repairs.

To say that everyone was nervous would be an understatement, the sound of multiple shootings happening around would make anyone nervous, but everyone seemed to relax after seeing that we were all okay. The body of the werewolf surprised everyone, it was one thing to see the monster in a photograph and another thing entirely to see a body, we gave the body to the vets in the farm to examine it and, hopefully, they could tell us something about it, but the look of confusion on their faces told me that I couldn't expect too much information form them, but there were more important things to do than play the X Files with the bodies of some fantasy creatures.

Chloe was one of the most concerned people about the whole thing and seeing my arm bleeding didn't help, she quickly demanded to treat me quickly, her instincts as an older cousin seemed to have not diminished since we were children, her concern and the fact that my arm was really starting to hurt at that point convinced me to let her treat me immediately.

While Chloe was disinfected and stitching my wound I decided to ask about the condition of the mysterious blonde girl, my cousin told me that she was able to treat the girl's wound and that it was just a matter of waiting for her to wake up, although she mentioned again that it would be best to go to San Antonio so they could check her it in a better way. Again I mentioned that it wouldn't be best, I hoped there weren't any more of those creatures around, but I didn't want to risk anyone in case that was the case, which she reluctantly accepted.

Until we could call for help from outside I decided it would be best for us to take turns taking guard in case those werewolves or other things tried to get into the farm during the night, I volunteered to take some of the shifts, but Chloe seemed ready to scold me, telling me that I hadn't slept since The Event and that I needed to rest to recover. I was ready to argue with her but Luis intervened and told me that she was right. He also thought that I needed some sleep and that he and the other cowboys could be in charge of standing guard for that night, so I reluctantly agreed and after a good dinner and taking a bath I headed to my room to sleep.

That left me in my current situation. I was awake around midnight with Riley keeping me company while I observed a clear sky illuminated by the stars and the moon, despite being a big fan of NASA and other space programs, I was never an expert in astronomy. but I could swear the sky looked different tonight, something I decided not to delve into, attributing it to my tumultuous mind. I don't know why, but at that moment I took out my smartphone and dialed my father's number, "NO SIGNAL" was the only message that the device showed me, again I tried to make calls to my mother and my brothers, but the same message kept showing, so with some frustration I decided to stop thinking about it for the night and headed to my bed.

I laid down on my bed and Riley decided to sleep on my legs, the sensation of lying in my bed after months away from home was a welcome little comfort that I didn't know I needed after the events of the last few days. Even though Spotify, like any other internet-dependent service, wasn't working I still had at least 50 gigabytes full of music on my phone so I decided to play Fear of the Dark by Iron Maiden, letting the music relax me a little, for some reason the first verses of the English lyrics of the song caused a strange sensation inside my mind, but since it lasted less than a second I didn't care about it.

Little by little my mind began to fade into the embrace of sleep accompanied by the melody of heavy metal. I was still full of questions and with little to no answers, but I decided that, no matter what happened, I could deal with it the next day. That was the last thing I thought as my mind fell into the arms of Morpheus and I was finally able to fall asleep in days.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey everyone! It's been a while huh? Fur that I must apologize to everyone of you. These last months have been crazy in my life and with work and college it was impossible for me to write anything. I hope that this longer preview, which is a sequel to the first one, will work as an apology to all the people that took an interest in this project of mine.

Those who remember the first preview that I posted should be able to note the differences with this chapter. Truth be told, I've decided to make some changes to the original concept of the story. At first I wanted the main protagonist to be alone in this situation with his dog and all the resources of his family's farm, something like I am Legend, but the more I thought about it the more I didn't like it.

Part of what I wanted to achieve with this story was exploring the clash and interactions between two cultures and ways of life that, in normal circumstances, would be separated by more than a thousand years, and in this case, by an infinite amount of narrative by being the interaction between two realities. It was then that I realized that just one normal person, no matter how intelligent or the amount of military training, wouldn't be able to achieve, so having a little over a hundred loyal and competent workers with skills and experience of farming and ranching would have a greater chance of success.

Also, at some point in the story I want for the texan cowboy to venture into one of the most interesting locations within the nasuverse while seeking answers about the current situation, but I realized that it would mean abandoning his family's home and patrimony during one of the most hostile times in human history, effectively leaving the place for invaders, bandits and other people to sack the place. Having competent people there would give him some peace of mind to embark on such odyssey, I decided to add some more OC's that will play a major role in this story and I just showed you some of them in this chapter.

Nowadays I have more free time, so I'll try to update this story every two weeks, starting starting Saturday next week, it would be the first official chapter of A Texan Cowboy lost in the Sea of Time, so I hope you will enjoy this project of mine, have a nice day and until the next time!