Protector--Part 1

Protector--Part 1 (originally stylized as ProtectorPart 1) is the fifteenth chapter of Blazin' Trails and the first part of the Protector arc.

Plot
During a break from a recent case, Ricochet notices something odd with his deputy, and questions him about why he won't let him help him when he's obviously in trouble. An obviously nervous Droop-a-Long walks out of the saloon, prompting Ricochet to chase him and demand what's going on. Before Ricochet can get an explanation, two men make themselves known: Dave Reeves and Chuck Carstairs, who proceed to mock Droop-a-Long and degrade him to the point of making him cry. An enraged Ricochet tackles the two through the window of the bank and beats them both up, and has to be pulled away by his deputy before he can cause further damage to Dave. As he's dragged away to the jail, he vows to get revenge on Ricochet. The townspeople are shocked by this, but nobody moreso than Droop-a-Long, who is oddly terrified of Dave.

When they return to the office, Droop-a-Long cracks and begins telling Ricochet that he shouldn't have attacked Dave, as well as apologizing for bringing him into his problems. Ricochet calms his deputy down and tells him that he can tell him anything that's on his mind, and that he wants to help him. After Droop-a-Long swears him to secrecy, he tells him the story of how he'd met Dave and Chuck not long after they'd come to Hoop 'n Holler, and how they'd tricked him into following them before they and Dave's gang savagely beat him. They also told him that not only was he worthless, but that Ricochet would never defend him because he has nothing to his name. They blackmailed Droop-a-Long into silence by saying that if he told Ricochet, they would kill them both; he hid this incident for years but all of the abuse that he got from the townspeople has been eating away at him.

Ricochet makes Droop-a-Long promise that he'll never hide things like that from him again, and says that he'll handle whoever tries to hurt him. His talk with Droop-a-Long, however, brings up another incident when he treated Droop-a-Long similar to how Dave and Chuck did; namely, when they first met. This makes Ricochet feel as though he's unworthy of being Droop-a-Long's friend, and fears that he resents him as well. When he talks to Droop-a-Long about it, the coyote states that although what Ricochet had said back then was harsh, he forgave him and forgot about the whole incident, so he doesn't even hate him. Ricochet is relieved to hear this, and as the two prepare to have a TV night to relax, he silently vows to protect Droop-a-Long from those who try to harm him.

At the county jail, however, Dave and Chuck are not only planning to do just that, but to also kill Ricochet as well...

Trivia

 * The inspiration for most of the racial/speciest parts of the chapter came from the documentary Freedom Summer, which profiled the real life event of the same name that was part of the Civil Rights movement.
 * Although the chapter Breaker of Barriers briefly talked about the topic of racism, this chapter and the following chapters of the Protector arc expand more on the racial tensions between the "animal folk" and the humans of Hoop 'n Holler.
 * This chapter is so named because of Ricochet's fierce protective streak towards Droop-a-Long.
 * There is a continuity error: in the author's note, it was stated that Ricochet worked in Gopher Gulch for six years before leaving for Hoop 'n Holler and later appointing Droop-a-Long to be his deputy, which is also mentioned in Breaker of Barriers, and that Droop's been his deputy for two years. However, with the rewrite that Ricochet was sheriff for five years before meeting and hiring Droop-a-Long, and that they remained in town for one more year before moving to Hoop 'n Holler, this negates that statement, especially since the next chapter makes it clear that he's worked as Ricochet's deputy for five years.