Setting Sun

The darkness of the night quickly settled over the empty desert, though all was far from peaceful as Sunset heard a wet raspy gasping. 'Guess he'll drown in soon.' Sunset thought as she started to walk past the boy. "Help me...." Coughed the young man as he heard her start walking past him, one of his arms flailing against the rough ground kicking up dust. The desert lit up as the clouds finally passed for the night, Sunset merely stared down at the boy as he desperately towards her, the fear in his eyes as death quickly closed it hands around him.

Sunset felt herself thrown to the ground as a blinding pain ripped through her shoulder, she quickly shook her head as the disorientation of being knocked down so violently had rattled her. "You're not bad girly," Called out a raspy feminine voice "Almost fast enough to pull that pretty gun from it's holster." The taunting was frustrating as Sunset rolled onto her back. A dark silhouette towered over her as she prayed for mercy. "Calm down girly, I ain't gonna kill you. Not yet at least, you've got some potential," Relief overcame Sunset as she listened intently to her victorious enemy. "I'm going to make you an offer... I'm in the market for a new partner, and you've got the skills, but you lack discipline." A gust of wind caused the shooter to pause in her rambling, Sunset watched as the woman gathered her thoughts. "Join me and I'll teach you everything I know, refuse and I'll leave you here for the coyotes." There was no decision for Sunset to make.

The weight of her six-shooter felt comforting, she stared at it as she inspected the scuffs and scratches over the gun, just as quickly as the memories came they left her alone next the fatality wounded boy. "You got hit in the lung kid, the only thing can save you now is a bullet through the brain." The boy seemed too far gone at this point to hear her, sighing Sunset pointed the gun towards his head, she took a breath to steady her aim and barely felt the recoil of the gun as she put the kid out of misery. 'A wasted bullet, I should have just let him alone.' Her frustration was soon forgotten as she started to search the cart for anything good.

Years of discipline usually kept Sunset stoic in the face of most things, yet finding a compass was something she couldn't help but let out a shout at. The light of the moon enough that Sunset could loot the cart with very little trouble, though at this point she was starting to feel exhausted as the day started to catch up with her, there was still stuff in here that would prove to be invaluable. Sunset paused as her fingers brushed a lock, with something this protected there must be something worth taking.

"What's the matter girly? Ain't you ever skinned an animal before?" Sunset sighed as Dash slapped her back, it had been just over a year since the older woman had taken her under her wing, yet the lessons she had learned felt trivial compared to the skills she could learn in shooting from the more experienced woman. "That's right RD, I don't know how to skin an animal." Dash merely stared at her with a bemused expression and Sunset continued to butcher the dead animal. "Alrighty then, it's time you learned by error, you're gonna be eating that for dinner." The deer looked less then desirable at this point in time.

A few hours later Sunset had a few less than desirable cuts of meat to cook for her dinner that night, sighing she started to make a fire for her and Dash to start cooking their food, off by the river Dash was gathering water in their pots. Dash deposited the largest pot on top of the small grill sitting on the fire pit and put the smaller one next to the fire, it was going to be boiled for drinking water later. Sunset studied the way the slightly older woman carried herself, yet couldn't gleam anything useful from Dash, she was too hard to read.

A few days had passed since her raid on that small caravan, the only real thing of note she got from it was a compass and poncho to throw on over her beaten duster. Shortly after she had left the caravan she had spotted an inuksut, it had been built to point south east, so that's the direction she headed off in. The last few days had been uneventful as she wondered what she could hope to find out in the barren wastes of the Badlands, some had claimed that there were hidden treasures to be found if you came across an abandoned Changeling hive, yet the idea was so outrageous that it was really only laughable.

Of course the Badlands did indeed hold riches for people to find if they didn't mind bloodying their hands a bit, mercenary work out here was thriving as people offed each other faster then rabbits reproduce, the upside to that was the fact that a lot of young gunslingers came in to prove just how good they were and there was no shortage of young idiots. Sighing loudly Sunset took a swig from her animal skin flask, the water felt heavenly as it ran down her throat and cooled her down from the unrelenting sun overhead. Taking out her compass she reaffirmed her heading and settled her mind.

Sunset rubbed her right shoulder as it flared painfully, it had been just over a year and a half yet the damage beneath continued to remind her of her over-confidence and her mistake of challenging someone with more experience then her, a lesson she took to heart since that time. The lessons Dash had taught her had paid off way more then she could have imagined when she start all that time ago, the hunting and foraging skills had proved to be invaluable in helping Sunset keep her independence.

"Hey girly, come here you need to see this." Dash still never used her name despite how much time had passed, at this point Sunset took it as term of endearment, it was comforting being with someone who cared so little about titles and backgrounds so long as you could keep up.