a man and his ox - 3

It was a hard day. Immediately the wagon started to move from the camp site a large tribe of shorter’s rushed the wagon. They were a fearsome bunch and were relentless in their cries of short, short, short. The cries were so loud, droning and constant, it made some "more susceptible" people scared and caused them to shake. After a while they would lose their balance and fall from the tall wagon. The shorter’s fed on their tickets and the sounds were horrible. The shorters mouths were soon caked thick with red ink as were their claws. It was disgusting.

This was a large band of shorters and they were raiding all wagons on the road. There had not been this many of them for a long time and they were hungry. They had not fed for a long time, and it was this that made them dangerous.

It was important to keep the true believers calm and not let them lose their heads and balance. Some believers were held on by the efforts of others, who told them to keep a clear head and be rational. Luckily OH was able to keep the shorter’s at sufficient distance to limit the damage. 15 million tickets were used on the day and freight prices fell by 16c by the time the shorter’s had to go home and count beans with mummy, or turn back into oxygen thieves.

OH had to keep the OX at a steady pace and maintain direction to keep ahead of the shorter's so they couldn’t slow the wagon and surround it. Some wagoneers would lose direction in these raids and possibly lose their wagon.

Shorters werent the only problems OH and his Ox had lately. Rumours were circulating about a Swiss gnome and cohorts (no relation to Goblins), who had a very large wagon (that did not sell tickets). They were looking for beasts to hitch to their wagon so they could haul all the freight and put the other wagons off the road. The gnomes liked the look of OH’s OX as it was in excellent condition, very powerful and carried a lot of goods. If the gnomes could get the price of OH’s tickets down enough and collect more than half the tickets, then OH would lose control and send the OX to work for the gnomes.

The gnomes bought beasts and wagons all over the world, but were not liked anywhere. They had a bad habit of passing wind when they got nervous. They got nervous a lot when telling lies to get tickets. They stank a lot as they ate lots of beans and told lots of lies.

OH did not want his OX to be hitched to another wagon. He knew the gnomes history with other teams. After collecting enough tickets and gaining control, the gnomes separated the beast from its wagon. The beast was then slaughtered, broken up into meat packs and the wagon sold of separately. All so the gnomes could get more beans and pass more wind.

How could OH look after his OX so the nasty gnomes could not afford to buy enough of his wagon tickets? By keeping the ticket prices high, the gnome would find it harder to get more than half OH’s tickets.

As the carrier pigeon from his friend Kitco landed on the OX’s back, he opened the small tube on the birds leg and unrolled the paper. The gold freight rates were down a little but not enough to worry him.

The wind had a subtle chill to it tonight. He heard the wolves were closer and this unsettled his friend the OX. The howls reminded him of the sounds of frenzied feeding by the shorter’s on the carcasses of the fallen true believers during the day after scoffing thier tickets. A cold shiver ran down his spine. He went to bed early and rested.

Tomorrow would not be easy.