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Pink Silver Glory
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Shooter is content to sit in quiet and relax for much of the ride back to camp, letting the tension of the day's adventure seep out of her into the winter air. The ride is long though, so eventually she puts her hat back on and breaks the silence.
She asks Owain why they sat and watched her let the fox and driver go, since it certainly didn't seem like they thought it was a good idea. Buddy seemed particularly annoyed.
"What, you wanted us to stop you? Just gun the fellas down on the road?"
She thinks for a second, feeling the same gnawing emptiness she felt earlier - or perhaps just the memory of it, and shakes her head.
He smiles his big, gentle smile, "Then what's it matter? You made the call, kid. If I didn't trust your judgement, you wouldn't have been on the job."
She starts to interject about Buddy, but he interrupts, "Buddy is just looking out for you. If he wasn't gonna trust you on this, he'd have just shot them."
She presses the matter, concerned that this means Martin's gang is going to be coming for the Redcaps.
His smile fades, but he still shrugs off her concern, "Martin was pretty big on control, his boys aren't gonna be able to organize for anything for a while. That fella on the road seemed pretty sharp, he probably knows better than to try to stir 'em up right now. They're gonna be busy fighting over his legacy for some time, and if he goes back having botched this they'll skin him and string him across the prairie before anything else."
She checks again to be sure that he's fine with her choice.
"Sure am, kid. In fact, I'm proud of you."
She feels a warmth welling up within her, overcoming the gnawing feeling. She says she just has one more question; why this job in the first place? What do they have to gain by stealing a corpse?
He continues driving the cart for a few minutes in silence without responding; and when he does his accent slips out - something Shooter's only actually heard from him on rare occasions, "Just bringin' him back home, lass. Ay, just bringin' him home."
She looks up at him confused, and he notices as he glances down at her. "I guess you wouldn't know, it's an old story. Back when I started the redcaps, it was just the two of us. Martin and me. We grew apart for some pretty good reasons, but e'll always be a brother to me."
He can clearly see that she's taken aback by this, and adds on, "Let's just keep this between us for now though, ay?"
She nods, and goes back to watching the road, having plenty to think about for the rest of the ride.
Toward the late afternoon the pull down into the old valley where the camp is squirreled away. There's a few lean-tos and a big cabin all set up around a central area with a fire pit, and they've even got a stable and yard set up for their horses. The fresh snow adds an air of serenity to the place, Shooter is used to it looking a lot dumpier without the nice dusting of clean white.
Judging by the smoke rising from the fire pit and the time of day, Josey is probably cooking dinner. The stew he makes has an indescribable smell yet somehow tastes like absolutely nothing - it isn't particularly appetizing but it sure is filling, and she hasn't eaten anything all day. It looks like Liberty is tending to the horses, and as they get closer to the camp it looks like there's still two out, so Buddy and whoever he went to round up haven't made it back yet. Since there's two horses gone, that means that either Frank or Indio isn't around, at least. If anyone else is around, they're either off hunting, getting water from the nearby stream, or in the cabin.
Owain pulls the cart up to the edge of the camp and stops it, and Shooter quickly jumps off. Owain waves her off toward the camp, saying "Go ahead on, I'm gonna sit here with Martin for a bit."
Shooter is pretty tired, and pretty hungry. She hasn't eaten all day, though she didn't really notice from the adrenaline until just now - She also didn't get much sleep last night what with all the snow while she was trying to camp.
Should Shooter:
A - Go get some food with Josey
B - Go say hi to Liberty
C - Head on back to the Cabin to lie down for a bit
D - Other (specify)
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