|~ Gray's Stories ~|

[Roden_TheSkullDog]

The Woman:

Two men settled for the night. They settled for a camp near an outcrop. One went to hunt and came back empty handed. To pass the time, they told ghost stories. Urban legends from long ago and some more recent. One man, named Ivan, told his companion and brother, Eli, of a rumor going ‘round about a woman. About how she was a ghost. Eli laughed. “ Ghosts ain’t real.” He taunted Ivan by standing and saying “ OOoOOoOoOo, i'm a scary ghost!” Ivan remained silent, he knew better than to taunt the dead. When Eli was done with his joke he sat down. It took a while but they realized it was quiet, not the normal silence of night, but dead quiet. No crickets, no sounds of night animals, nothing, just the wind blowing over the desert.
An eerie feeling fell upon the men and their camp. Ivan stepped outside to get away from the smoke of their fire. He stepped outside, the moon at her fullest light. He noticed a shadow next to his own, he turned to look where the shadow could be coming from. Eli noticed this and joined him. Clouds covered the moon for a moment and they heard a soft nicker. One of a horse. The moon came out from her shadowy cover to reveal a person on a horse. Eli called up to them “ Who’s there? Come down or I'll shoot!” Ivan elbowed his brother into silence. The person reined the horse back and down, climbing down the outcrop. As the pair got closer, the men could see the horse was a breed they’d never seen before. The person they saw riding was a woman. Eli held his hand on his gun holster, ready to shoot if need be. The woman dismounted. Ivan asked “ Who are you?”. She only stared at them. Ivan asked another question. “ Are you a ghost?” She burst out laughing. “ Nah, I'm no ghost, I'm as real as you and him.” She eyed Eli and looked at Ivan. “ You can keep that revolver in its holster, sir.” Eli didn’t move. “ How’d you know?”. She turned to him. “ Your posture, the way you hold your body just screams you have a trigger itch”. Eli moved slowly, adjusting himself.
Ivan pressed on. “ So, why you here, ma’am?” He eyed the stranger, wary but intrigued. “ I’ve been watching ya’ll for a while.”. Eli reached for his rifle. “ Put that hand back, sir.” She looked up to face him. Eli remained frozen and slowly moved back. Ivan eyed her, even more intrigued. She went on. “ I know y'all robbed that train in Pueblo. I also know a posse is right behind you.” Eli tensed. Ivan stared at her. “ How you know that?”. Ivan asked. She jerked a thumb to where she was previously standing on the outcrop. “ Can see for miles up there, posse ain’t far behind y’all.”. Eli eyed her distrustfully. “ So, what you want?” She looked at the pair of men. “ I want y’all to trust me. You can either follow me to a safer place, or stay here and let the posse catch up with ya.” she stood from where she was sitting by the fire. “ I’ll wait for an answer out there, I'll be on my horse.”
The men watched her walk out. “ What’re we gonna do?” Eli pressed. Ivan sat, thinking. “ We go with her.” He decided. “ You trust that woman!?” Eli exclaimed. Ivan looked up at his brother. “ What choice do we have? We stay here, posse will get us. She’s offering a way out. If there’s any chance, I’ll take it.” Eli sighed and began packing up, Ivan joined in. They stepped out to meet the girl.
“We’ll join ya” Ivan said. The woman smiled and hopped on her horse. “ Well, let's get moving, posse is about 5 hour’s ride out.” The men hopped on their horses. Ivan’s a stunning black mare. Eli’s a sharp bay. The trio rode out, the woman in lead. Ivan behind her, and Eli at the rear. “ So, what's ya name?” Ivan questioned. Without looking back she answered. “ The name’s West.” Eli smothered a laugh. “ What kind of name is that?” A train roared on the tracks across the path, she slowed. She looked back at Eli and impaled him with an icy glare. “ It’s my name.” She said as the train rolled on by and the end went out of sight. She urged her horse forward. The brothers followed. Ivan couldn’t keep his eyes off of West’s horse. She glanced back at him and asked “ What ya lookin’ at?” He looked up to meet her eyes. ‘Man, her eyes are beautiful’ he thought. “ What kind of horse you have? It’s like no other I've seen.” Her horse was a light dun color, tall and sturdy with smooth muscles and strong legs. She looked back at him. “ It's a Kiger Mustang. She’s a beaut’, ain't she?” He looked up again to stare at her. “ A Kiger Mustang? I never heard of that breed.” She turned to look ahead yet again. “ Y’all are foreigners, ain’t ya?” Ivan looked at her. “ How’d ya know?” Eli asked from behind. “ The fact ya haven't heard of a Kiger Mustang, and a slight accent in your voices. What’s that anyway, German? French?” She questioned. Ivan kept his eyes ahead. “ Our mother was French. Our dad was American.” She nodded, seeming to understand. She slowed down and stopped at a ridge. The brothers stopped behind her. She observed the land below, paused to look at an area, and urged her horse back and continued on the path down the slope. The pair followed her. “ So. Where we headin’?” Eli asked. She didn’t look back but answered him still. “ To my camp, I have a friend up there. He’ll keep y’all well fed and rested while I'm away.”
Ivan couldn’t get a question out of his head, so he asked her instead. “ Why.. Why did you help a couple of outlaws like us? It’s not like we helped you or anything.” She turned to face him. “ Because.. I know how it feels to be alone and being hunted. I left my gang after my gang left me.” She went silent for a moment, then continued. “ Point is, I help where I can and when I want to. I don’t want to see y’all suffer the consequences I did when I went off on my own.” She didn’t say anymore and the brothers knew better than to ask her questions at that time. They rode up to a campsite, a young man sat on a stump, whittling a branch. He looked up and held up, from what the brothers could tell, was a strange hand symbol. West returned the symbol and the man nodded. The trio rode up and hitched their horses. “ I'm gonna change into something real quick, make yourselves at home, and welcome to the gang.” Ivan and Eli both looked at the man. “ Welcome to your new home, boys.” He said without looking up. “ West must really like ya. She never brings people unless she knows they’re good folks.” Eli looked at Ivan. Ivan returned the look.
The Woman pt. 2:
West stepped out of her tent in fresh, cleaner clothes. The sleeves were a bit shorter than before. The longer sleeves covered her arm, but revealed a bit of a wound . The man looked up and his expression changed. Eli noticed her scar and asked “ What’s that you got there?” He didn’t mean it in a harsh way, he was just curious. West looked at him with a look of not anger or sadness, but numbness. No emotion whatsoever. She gestured the pair to sit by the fire Rick had built. West looked at Rick. “ Tell ‘em the story, Rick. I can’t talk about it right now.” Rick nodded and faced the boys, and proceeded to tell them how West had been injured in a fight. After he finished, he turned to face West. “ You able to show ‘em?” Ivan and Eli turned to face West. She carefully pulled up her left sleeve to reveal slightly scared wounds. Not normal ones, but bullet scars, all the way from just above her elbow to her shoulder. Ivan stared in shock, when he had seen her, she’d been moving as if nothing was wrong. The wounds were somewhat fresh, maybe 1-3 days old. “ May I have a closer look?” Ivan asked gently. “ I’m trained in medicine, I just want to see.” West nodded and Ivan scooted closer to look. He reached his hand out gently and looked at West for an answer. She nodded, allowing him to hold and look at her arm. Ivan gently took hold of her arm, he barely brushed against a wound and he felt her flinch. “ May I?” he asked. West nodded, and he gently rubbed over a wound, she winced and flinched away from his touch. He sat thinking.
“ This looks a bit infected. Did ya ever get the bullets out?” She shook her head, near the fire, she looked tired and drained. Ivan looked at her. “ If we don’t get those bullets out, you could get very sick, even die.” She nodded, knowing this information already. “ West, I want to help, but I can’t if you don’t let me.” West shifted to look at him. Her eyes were pits of pain and hurt, but gratefulness and thanks. “ Would you? Would you truly help someone whom you met not even an hour ago?” Ivan nodded. “ I see you're hurting, West. I want to help, the question is, will you let me help?” West looked at him with a questioning look, as if deciding whether she should accept the help or not. After a minute or two she answered. “ Yeh. I’ll let you help. Just… nevermind.” Ivan stared at her curiously, but accepted her answer. Rick stood and walked over to a hitching post with a white horse tied to it. He hopped on and looked back at the gang. “ Keep safe y’all. I’m going to the store, need anythin’?” Ivan stood and walked to Rick, whispered in his ear and went back to examine West’s condition. Rick rode off towards the nearby ranch. He came back a few minutes later with a satchel full of items. Rick handed Ivan a bottle of something. He took it and walked back to West. Ivan motioned West to follow him, and they both went inside a tent. Inside Ivan took one more closer look at her arm to examine what he could do to help her. Ivan went back out to a bag tied to his saddle. He took this bag and went back inside the tent with West. Ivan rummaged through his bag for something. He pulled out a needle, he took the bottle Rick had given him and opened it, stuck the needle in and took some of the medicine with it. Ivan gently took West’s arm and stuck her with the needle. She looked up to see what he was up to and flinched as the needle met her skin. “ Sorry, West. I don’t want you to hurt more than you are already.” He looked up and met her eyes again. “ What is that stuff anyway?” She asked. He injected the rest of the medicine into her arm and looked up. “ It’s just numbing anesthesia.” She looked up to meet his eyes. ‘ Man, he’s stunning’ she thought. She shook the thought as she felt her arm go numb.” Hey, my arm is numb now.” She called to Ivan. He looked up and walked to West. Ivan took some tweezers and went to work on the wounds. After some time of work, Ivan got the last bullet out of her arm. After working on her arm he found only 5 bullets in the multiple wounds. As he had worked, some blood was spilt, he wrapped it in some clean cloth. West began to stand and Ivan gently guided her back down. “ You need to rest. You shouldn’t be moving around so much.” She stared at him with light gray eyes. Ivan stared back with green eyes. “ Ivan, can I tell you something?” She asked warily. Ivan sat down next to her. “ Sure, what's up?” West avoided his eyes. He reached out and gently grabbed her chin, turning it to face him. “ What’s wrong, West?” She turned away. “ Nevermind, it's nothing. Thanks for this Ivan.” She went to stand again but Ivan stopped her. “ Rest. Please. You need it, if you move around it could cause the wounds to become infected even worse. West, please.” he begged. She turned to face him, his eyes were pleading. She sat again and sighed. “ Fine, I’ll rest. But for how long?” Ivan sat thinking for a moment. “ Rest for a day or two, after that, just move around carefully.” She looked at him. “ Who’ll take care of Arron?” He looked up. “ Who?”
“ My horse.”. She looked at him. “ I will. She’ll be ok I promise.” She smiled. “ Thank you”