[In collaboration with Hondo...]
 
Fernando carries Macey to Hondo's camper, helping her to the steps to its entrance before going in after her.  
 
"Good afternoon, Val." He says ignoring the others in the room, "Until Ruth and Joanna come in later to get her for me, you mind making sure Macey is fed and taken cared off while I am gone with Hondo this afternoon and evening?"  
 
Val answers though she is busy making sure nothing gets burned, "I've been wanting talk to you about Macey," before she looks over to them and sees that Macey is hurt and bandaged up, "...What happened to her?!!"  
 
"Before you think it is your fault, Val, it is not your fault." Fernando tells her, "Somehow she made it to the roof of your camper and either jumped or fell off, and got herself hurt. She probably watched you until you were distracted to make her escape. So, like I said, this is not your fault."  
 
"What! I . . . oh, I am so sorry! I must have forgotten about her when Karl and the two girls got in." Valentine apologizes.
 
Fernando states, "Like I said, it's not your fault."
 
Valentine apologizes further, "But it is! I was responsible!! How can you even trust me with her now? I..."
 
"I will say it again, it is NOT your fault. She had to be good at vanishing and hiding where we got her. It was a matter of survival for her where she was. And you had a lot in your hands. I trust you with her. You are not just my friends woman, you have proven yourself time and time again. You have things to learn still, but you have proven yourself to me. I consider you a friend too in the very least. You and Hondo are like family." Fernando tells her.
 
"I am honored and humbled that you still trust me." Valentine says.
 
"If she is family does that make Miss Valentine like my sister." Macey asks.
 
"No. More like a cousin or Aunt." Fernando points out
 
"Aunt V?" Macey asks.
 
Valentine laughed, "I kind of like that. Thank you, Fernando. I'll try not to let you down this time."
 
"You didn't let me down. It just shows me what I need to work on with her. Anyway, she isn't moving so fast now so she won't be slipping away so easily, for now." Fernando points out.
 
"OK. I'll take care of her." Valentine replies.
 
"Just make sure she is fed then Ruth and Joanna will make sure she is asleep by 9PM the latest." Fernando tells her.  
 
"Will do." Valentine replies.
 
Fernando nodded and turned toward the door. He stepped out of the camper.
 
About that time Zoey burst past him and into the camper. Trailing behind was Hondo making a mumbling Karl walk in front of him.
 
"Ready to go, Jefe? What are we gonna do with this moron while we are gone?" Hondo asks.
 
"He's coming with us so the girls can eat in peace and we teach this class." Fernando answers.
 
"And if I don't want to go?" Karl makes his snide remark heard.
 
"You do not have a choice. Either you do as I say or I drag your unconscious body by the tail to where we have to go. I'll give you a hint, cooperate and walk with us and you will get to eat. If I have to knock your ass out, you'll be sipping your next meal through a straw without any teeth. The choice if yours." Fernando growls at him.
 
Karl looks at Fernando and then at Hondo, wondering if he can take on both but knowing he lost to Hondo moments before.
 
"Don't even think about it. Hondo wont make a move unless I say so, but I'll be placing this 13 and a half triple E boot across your face before sending your unconscious ass back to Lucy if you try anything stupid." Fernando tells him.
 
Karl just freezes in place as recent memories of a T-Rex breathing down his back makes his fur stand up on its ends.
 
"Lets go. My hungry stomach waits for no one." Fernando tells him, slapping his hand to the back of his neck and giving Karl a shove to the direction to town.
 
[To be continued...]

"First off, Lucy is a Tyrannosaurus Rex, King of the Tyrannosuars from the Late Cretaceous some 65 million years ago. She is not a pet for she is a feral animal of some many millions of years ago." Fernando tells her, "Now, Hondo, Karl and I have to go some where. You can not be out here alone, so who is watching over you and be with that person or the person they assigned to you in their absence."

"Children should be seen and not heard; as this is a dangerous place to be alone. I doubt the ability of a crow's ability to save you from an abduction, which I will remind 'Mr Winston,' one lesson I learned in Chauffeur's Survival Driving School, when they come for the VIP in the back of your limo - they kill the driver. Get my point 'Mr. Winston?' Now Penny, for your safely, you are not be be outside alone without adult supervision. for your safety, get in the camper and find something to do in there." Fernando tells them.
 
"Sorry, I forgot myself - Penny. I do not have a walled area to hold a T-Rex in it. All I got is the clothes on my back, my personal equipment and the Electric Camper the Spirits are letting me have for this mission. Nothing more. But if I did have a T-Rex here and now within a walled area, where would I get 20 tons to Brontosaurus meat to feed it every day?" He then adds.

"What do you want to eat?" Fernando's voice echoes in Karl's head, "Meat and Bread, Meat and Vegetables, Meat and Pasta, Meat in Soup?"
 
"What ever they have will be fine." Karl says.
 
"How 'bout table scraps?" Hondo utters under his breathe.
 
"We must show 'our date' a good time so he can tell us all he knows before I get the supplies for a 'Sinkin' Jimmy.'"
 
Hondo tries to hold in his laughter but lets out a snort.
 
"What's a 'Sinking Jimmy?' A Bar Drink?" Karl asks.
 
"'A Flaming Skull' is a bar drink. A 'Sinkin' Jimmy' is the result of someone crossing the line into the territory of disrespect and they think they can get away with it when they do it to me. Let see, ever heard about 'Cement Shoes?'" Fernando points out to him.
 
Karl stops in his steps but Fernando gives him a shove from where he held him on his neck, "Keep walking."
 
Karl almost trips on his next step but recovers quickly.
 
"Consider yourself lucky that this is not the 1990s. There were a lot of construction accidents where people 'fell into' the cement mixer and they end up being part of a support column of some highway overpass or building foundation." Fernando begins to tell him. He continues, "There is a price to pay for disrespecting me and the people I care about. But I am very forgiving to a point. That point is - Do Not Be A Goldfish."
 
"A Gold Fish?" Karl asks.
 
"A Gold Fish is an animal that will talk, sleep, swim, eat and drink where it pisses and shits." Hondo clarifies for Fernando.
 
"Thank you Hondo." Fernando tells him, then he turns to Karl, "I do not care who you go to bed with, except for those in our party. You are to leave the girls alone - That's One. Two - Make any contact with the spirits or slavers to go against us, I will guarantee you will not see the sun rise the next morning. Then I'll take what money they gave you for us from your cold dead paws. Three - make any physical attempt to harm any of us while we rest or sleep, consider yourself dead at that point. So, consider this, Karl. I have no enemies because they are all dead. And anyone willing to make themselves my enemy will be killed in the process of making sure I'm dead. Because Karl, you can think I am dead, but I have a way of coming back. And when I come back, the skin on your ass will not be worth the fur and leather coat I will pull off of it."
 
Fernando lets those sink into Karl's head for a moment before he continues, "Treat me and those I care about right and with all the respect in the world, I will make sure you're well fed, got some nice clothes to put on, a vehicle to drive in, a radio to talk on, washed up and smelling clean, and money for gas and other personal expenses. All I ask is that you help out in the group, whether it is guard duty, hunting/fishing, cleaning out the toilets, cooking, baby-sitting, anything - as you will have a job to do and you will earn your keep like everyone else. Only the children are excused from doing work and even then they still got something to do."
 
With a shove, Fernando pushes Karl into a Bar & Grill restaurant and follows behind him. Hondo was right behind, surveying the scene before going in. They take a booth, making sure that Karl got the seat between he wall and Fernando with Hondo directly in front of him. Fernando hands out the menus.

"A beer. And you got any whiskey, rum, vodka, or anything that would run on a piston engine?" Fernando circles his finger to the three of them.
 
"White Lightning will suit ya?" Dutch says.
 
"As long as it can run on my engine, I'll take it, bring the bottle and keep it here. We'll order the food later."
 
 Dutch walks away from their table to fulfill their order.
 
"Hondo, You remember Old Sakamoko?" Fernando then asks.
 
"That thar's a name I have not heard in a long time." Hondo answers.
 
"Too bad our friend is too far off into the future to understand the past." Fernando says.
 
"I Understand - Sakamoko's Japanese. Right?" Karl throws in what little intelligence he has.
 
"Sakamoko does not exist, his real name is Sakamoto, not Sakamoko. Sakamoko is Spanish for 'Booger Picker.' But like I said, you are too far off into the future to know that." Fernando tells him.
 
"So?" Karl tells him.
 
"Well, let me tell you this much. Sakamoto was part of the United Nations Japanese representatives and personal envoy for the emperor himself. He was also dirty, with as many fingers in as many pies he can stick them into - prostitution, drug distribution, extortion, money laundering, pleasure slave, voter scamming, you name it, he was doing it. And with the government and hired thugs, he makes the slavers you got here look like church choir boys. He was the worst of the worst, and I say dare say that I once called him friend." Fernando explains.
 
Dutch arrives with beer, shot glasses and the bottle of white lightning. Fernando pours himself a shot glass before setting it on fire.
 
"What are you doing?!!" Both Dutch and Karl says.
 
"That is called a Proof - if it burns with a blue flame, then it is proof that it is pure, like it is here. Now..." Fernando explains, before pouring the flaming shot into the beer, making it burn a blue flame in a column from the center of it where it was poured, "That is a Flaming Skull..." He then takes the mug of beer and drinks it quickly, making the liquid put out the fire immediately though to those watching, it looks like Fernando just swallowed the drink - flames and all.
 
Hondo laughs at the sight of astonished onlookers.
 
Fernando lets out a sigh, "That was good. I'll take a one of these Roast Beef dinners with all the fixings."