"Kid," Teaspoon begged. "Do somethin'!" He had heard a commotion coming from the bunkhouse and came to see what was happening. When he arrived, the boys were running for the hills and it seemed that Lou was throwing everything that wasn't nailed down at them.

"I am Teaspoon. I'm gettin' outta here and quick." Kid said as he scrambled to safety on the other side of the fence.

"Yeah Teaspoon," Buck said. "You weren't there. She wants to kill us."

"Startin' with Cody. I've seen Lou mad before but..." Jimmy shook his head and ducked as the water pitcher flew out the window. He flinched as it hit the ground next to his foot. "Has anyone seen Noah? We can give Lou his whip."

"Lou now calm down, let's talk about this." Teaspoon hollered towards the bunkhouse. As he looked around he noticed that the target of Lou's rage was no where to be seen. "Where is Cody?"

Lou let out a string of very un-lady like words and threw a chair out the front door.

Buck looked worried. "Hopefully not still in there."

"Will someone tell me how this all started? Lou's not typically a violent gal."

"Cody, Buck and I were walkin' towards the bunkhouse, and Lou was showin' Kid the dress she got to wear for the upcomin' social. We just happened to walk in when she asked Kid a question. Cody couldn't resist givin' her one of his cocky answers." Jimmy said trying not to laugh. It had been so funny at the time and they'd all had a good laugh. Well almost everyone did.

Teaspoon stood there puzzled. "What did she ask?"

Buck couldn't help smiling. "Did the dress make her... Um if her..."

Kid blushed and shook his head. "She asked me if the dress made her butt look big."

"Come on Teaspoon," Cody grinned. "What do you think could happen?" he said climbing over the fence of the corral.

"Now son, I don't think that's such a good idea," the stationmaster said as the blond rider continued to move closer to the strange animal in the pen.

"I'm with Teaspoon on this one Cody," Jimmy told the young man with a grimace. No way was he getting anywhere near that thing.

Sam walked over from where he'd been talking to Emma to see what was going on. "So Teaspoon, you ever find out what that thing is?" he asked staring at the strange creature as it eyed Cody warily.

Buck watched as the huge animal took several steps towards Cody and made a loud noise that had him covering his ears. "Cody you're crazy you know that?" he hollered with a shake of his head. "He's going to kill himself," Buck said to the others as they watched Cody try to lasso the animal.

Scratching his head, Teaspoon told Sam, "Don't know for sure what the thing is other then some kind of huge bird. Been looking in books but so far haven't come across anything that looks like it. Got to wonder where it came from though."

The four men stood leaning against the rail of the corral as Cody began to circle the huge bird. At the first attempt to lasso it, the bird flapped it's large wings and ran several feet away from where the rope landed in the dirt.

"Really Cody, I don't think you should be doing this," Teaspoon told the young man once more as the bird made a small lunge at the rider. "It's getting' upset and no tellin' what it might do to ya."

Not taking his eyes from the bird, Cody was about to attempt another try at getting the rope around its neck. He had the bright idea that he'd be able to ride it seeing how large it was but the others thought he was crazy. In a few minutes, he'd be showing them who was in the right. Why just wait until they saw him sitting on the birds back prancing around the corral.

"Watch out!" Jimmy yelled at the same time Sam called out, "Better move!" both of which distracted him from watching the animal.

When he looked back, the huge bird was scraping one of it's feet back and forth in the dirt like a bull about to charge. Panic filled Cody's eyes as it began to run towards him at a speed he'd never seen anything that big move at.

Turning away from the animal he let out a loud yell as he made a dash for the fence, intending to climb it before the bird got him. With a loud screech the animal picked up speed, it's gaze never wavering from Cody's backside as he started to climb the fence.

The others were transfixed as the animal made it's way across the pen at lightning speed. Teaspoon yelled, "No!" as Jimmy turned away from the sight, cringing. Sam stepped away and Buck stood watching with huge eyes as the bird opened it's beak and took a bite out of Cody's backside.

The yell from the man hanging over the railing was unlike anything they'd ever heard before. Looking over at the bird, they saw it prancing back and forth in the pen with a piece of Cody's pants in it's beak like a trophy.

"Damn! That hurts!" Cody whined scrambling over the railing to stand next to the others. "Is it bleeding?" he asked, trying to see behind him where the bird got him but couldn't.

"I'm not touching that one," Jimmy said hands up in front of him. Buck and the others had similar reactions.

"Guess it's a good thing I don't got a run for a few more days….don't think I'll be able to sit for a while," he said eyeing the bird with disdain as it shook the piece of his pants at him in a teasing manor.

"What's that Teaspoon?" Kid asked as the Marshall carried a cloth-covered bowl into the bunkhouse. Jimmy and Buck the other pair in the three game hand of poker the boys were playing looked up.

"Polly took it into her head to make some Easter Eggs for the Sunday school tomorrow." He placed the bowl down in the center of the table.

"So why are you bringing them in here? Once Cody gets back from his run later you know they won't be safe." Buck joked picking up the deck of cards to deal out a new hand.

"Well Polly didn't realize that the eggs in my pantry were a bit old and she decorated them along with the rest of the eggs she boiled."

"Just how old are these eggs Teaspoon?" Kid asked, eyebrow raised.

"Well er, you see, I don't know. I stopped eating eggs when we lived back in Sweetwater."

Jimmy whistled.

"Well they are beautifully decorated." Buck commented picking one up and looking at the patterns Polly had painstakingly painted onto each eggshell with dyes.

"That's why I didn't have the heart to tell her. I knew these were the ones from my pantry because Polly had boiled them separate like. I told her I was bringing them to you boys to liven up the bunkhouse a bit. Because there was only half a dozen of them she didn't mind."

"That's not fair. Now we won't get any real ones." Jimmy complained.

Teaspoon was just opening his mouth to reply when a commotion from the yard caused them all to rush from the bunkhouse.

Once outside they quickly found the source of the noise.

Cody had returned early form his run and as he was leading his horse across the yard it had spooked and pulled free of his grip. Rearing up it had bought its front legs crashing down on the top rail of the corral.

Once the riders arrived on the scene Cody had his horse back under control

"Stupid creature. How Blue Creek ever let this horse become part of the express stock I will never know. That's the forth time it has spooked on me."

"Cody see to the horse. Boys looks like we have a new chore." He nodded to the top rail of the fence.

None of the Riders complained. They knew how important keeping the fences maintained was.

By the time they had finished with the fence it looked good as new. As they were returning to the bunkhouse they saw Cody enter in front of them having finished in the stables.

Teaspoon pulled open the door and froze in horror. Over his shoulder the other riders could see Cody with a freshly decorated Easter Egg halfway to his mouth.

"Cody... No...!"

But it was too late.