dead before the dusk ♱ cephas&tanner

c e p h a s .

"So I surrender all
All I want is to live within your love"

Part of being a healer was the procurement of the supplies I needed to fulfill the role. Once a week I would venture out onto the desert plain to reap the harvest of the earth. Most times I would ride solo, however every now and then brother Garcia would join me out in the wild.

Tanner and I grew up together and whilst both on divine paths in life we still went in separate directions. Tanner focused on the sermon and preaching the lords work meanwhile the hand of the old god guided me to my calling as a healer. Once inseparable always inseparable. We took every chance we had to spend time together, there was nothing more I enjoyed than sharing my knowledge with my god chosen brother. Today was one of those blessed days he would accompany on my errands.

Blazing hot sun shined down on us as the wind caused by the velocity of our steed cooled our bodies. I hugged Tanner tightly as we rode through the plain in order to not fall off. If we had it my way, we would have taken the desert by foot, but Tanner was always a bit sensitive to the rigid landscapes. Thus, we rode his mother’s horse with nothing but a gun, six bullets and a leather flask filled with water each attached to our hips.

As we reach our destination in the midst of the knee-high grassy prairie, Tanner quickly ties the horse to a pinus taeda, a useful tree but does not possess any medical properties. I have had the plants of our homestead memorized by the time I was 10. My mother’s hand drawn guide taught me everything I could have ever wanted to know about the nature and its qualities. Today we were on the hunt for prosopis pubescens to create a wound cleansing solution from its sap.

"Show me the way, brother Mayweather. Promise I will learn something this time” Tanner jokes with a tip of his hat. Every time we embark on this mission, he always promises to remember some of my teachings and every time he fails. I have given up long ago on teaching him the names of the plants that ever so graciously serve our community. I smile warmly back at him knowing that there was not a word of truth to what he just said.

”Right we must head west bound. Do your best to keep up brother Garcia. I do not want to tell your mother I have lost her son in the desert.” I consulted the mental map of the lands I have been working on since my first trip out into the wild when I was only an 8-year-old boy guided by his father. I always meant to chart it down as my mother had for me, but I was never gifted with any artistic abilities. This left the knowledge of the dessert to be locked up in my brain and in my brain alone.

We head westbound with the grass grazing our well-worn jeans. In the distance an unsettling sound ever so faint travelled through the light breeze. A sound belonging to a wild dog in need of aid. We could not let the animals of the earth suffer, as disciples of the gods old and new, we must cherish all of their creations. I hold my hand out to stop Tanner from wandering any further. ”Do you see it? Lying there between the grass? We can’t in our best intentions just leave it there. Quick, my water, I need to assess its wounds.”, my worst flaw was my desire to help everyone and everything in need.

c e p h a s .

"So I surrender all
All I want is to live within your love"

Like my mother, my father did his best to teach me everything he knew. From a young age that meant reading the holy scripture and learning to apply its teachings in every aspect of my life. There never went a day without a verse from the good book finding its way into my mind as I struggled with the tasks of day-to-day life. They guided me through the maze that would ultimately end in savior from the grand reaping.

Now in front of me a wounded creation of the gods, everything created serves its purpose. There is no evil in the lord’s creation only in the sins of the people who strayed away. Turning my back on a creature in need would be immoral, go against every grain of who I was. I could not fathom turning my back on someone or something in need. This was one of the infrequent times brother Garcia and I did not see eye to eye. My dear friend had his reservations on aiding the coyote pup and was vocal despite knowing there was no point in telling me otherwise.

”Do not forget proverbs 12:10 my friend, whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel” I calmly respond to my doubtful companion as I reach for the water. Crouching down to the same level of the injured animal, I attempt to clear the space around so that I could properly access the wounds.

Blood spilling from the creature’s neck like a botched execution attempt from a creature bigger and stronger. What must have happened to have had its predator leave so hastily. An eagle could have thought to attack the youngling and could have been frightened by something else. The wound deep but not completely unsalvageable. I poured water over it to clean away the blood and bits of sand to see if the wound went any deeper than my first assessment. There was hope, I knew what had to be done however not here. We did not have the proper supplies with us. Nothing to bandage the laceration, we needed pressure to halt the bleeding.

I unravel the dust brown shaal protecting my throat and face from the sand flying through the wind. Carefully lifting up the animal’s head to wrap it around applying hopefully enough pressure to the wound but not suffocating the helpless creature. I turn back around to brother Garcia with a pleading look on my face. I knew he would not like what I had to say next and possibly disagree. His position ever so slightly higher in the church still made him my senior despite our unified upbringing.

”I beg you, I cannot in good faith leave this pup to die.” desperation flooding my voice. ”Let us ride back home and take the animal with us. There we can rehabilitate him and then release him back into the wild where he belongs.” I had a bad feeling that Tanner would not agree with my suggestion, but if I did not ask then there would have been no hope to begin with.