Advent Of A Gunslinger

Remington and his crew had little interest in the investigation that was going on at the castle. Slow, methodical approaches to situations simply wasn’t their style. As if one couldn’t tell already--they preferred to be right in the middle of situations and take down their targets. But the problem here was that these particular targets would be unlike any that they had faced before.

Why? Well, they were about to find out…

First, they had to make their way to the Junkeryard. Similar to Klugetown’s position in relation to Abyssinia, the Junkyard was about a dozen miles away from the main kingdom of Caninia and beyond their borders.

Soon, the green, fertile land transitioned into a harsh, hellish desert with unrelenting heat. Luckily, the trio was prepared for such a thing with extra water that Queen Fiona had provided for them.

“Ay….” Vido muttered as he walked along the designated sandy trail, using his wings to block out the ferocity of the sun. “This place has a worse temp than the Klugetown desert.”

Axel had been doing the same with his wings as well. “No kiddin’. How in the hell do furry-ass dingos survive out here?”

Kora had been given a rather comically large, straw sun hat from Fiona’s storage room to protect her against the sun. “I nary have the faintest idea. Twas nice of Queen Floppyears to lend me this hat, though.”

Vido tried to make light of the situation with a joke. “Lend? Pfft. Sounds like she was trying to give it away,” he said with a slight, wheezy chuckle, “Did you see how many she had in that chest of hers?”

“Gsh--” she hissed and blocked out such a claim, “She’s obviously just a very passionate collector. Wouldn’t you agree, Remington?”

Believe it or not, the small exchange had elicited a chuckle from the gunslinger. “Heh…erm, huh?” In those few seconds, he had lost himself to the humorous nature of the situation and had to ask, “Whatcha say?”

“Hmph,” Kora continued walking as she pouted with a purr, “Never mind. Let us continue.”

“If it helps, ya look fine in it,” Axel complimented her as he continued to walk. “Now, we should be arrivin’ there soon. Beyond these sandy dunes is some kinda village made’a junk and scrap metal…shouldn’t be too hard’ta find.”

From behind a sand dune nearby…

“So that’s where they headed. I’mma make sure I git there first.”

The finch man continued to follow them, but now he was the one with the advantage. Why? He was quited used to dry, arid conditions and managed to muscle through them quite often. That was the whole reason why he felt cast aside.

“You gon’ be wishin’ you let me tag along in the first place, hombre. Just wait until I show you what.”

Unfortunately, while he thought he had the upper hand…

“Rrrrrgh…”

There was a sudden snarl, followed by the sensation of hot breath directly onto the back of his neck. Stratus’ eyes had sunken into his head as he felt his heart drop. Fear had overtaken him and he was unable to move.

Click.

A gun would be pushed against the back of his head, followed by a deep female voice. “You’ll do nicely. Now come quietly or I’ll fry you up and leave you for the buzzards."

With Axel’s group…

Soon enough, the trio would find themselves at the edge of a canyon. Down within?

Junk.

Nothing but junk and scrap as far as the eye could see. Some of which were fashioned into crudely-shaped buildings and homes. These Diamond Dogs weren’t skilled architects by any means, but there was no sign of activity just yet…

“Landsakes…” Axel muttered as he looked down over the ravine and into the chasm. “Looks’ta be about a mile long drop.”

“Good thing we got these,” Vido flexed his wings, then looked at Kora. “You can hitch a ride on me if you like, gatta.”

“Oh--much appreciated,” she replied while staring down into the open, rocky chasm. “But we should formulate a strategy before we drop in. The area looks to be very rural and the buildings appear to have no windows whatsoever--likely to allow the wind to cool their abodes against the harsh heat.”

“Hm…” Axel sat on his haunches and observed the area down below as he removed his facemask. “Sneak in. We’s lookin’ for gold, ain’t we?”

“How shall we find it, Lord Remington?” Kora asked out of genuine curiosity. “It’s not like we have a trail to follow.”

“We do,” he tilted his snout upwards, “Just ain’t visible.”

The she-cat tilted her head and flicked her tail with an interested purr. “An invisible trail?”

Vido leaned over and whispered, “I think he means he’s trying to see if he can smell it.”

“Ohhh…” Kora gave an affirming nod, but quickly did a double-take, glaring at the griffon with confusion, “Wait what? Hang on--how does one smell gold? From what I’ve read, gold has no discernable scent.”

“Not unless it’s all you’ve been around yer whole life,” Axel replied as he shut his eyes. His nostrils started to quiver, and soon enough…he’d have something. “Bingo. We gotta git down to the buildin’ that’s near the middle of this here shebang.”

Kora and Vido looked down…

The central building of this Junkyard…looked no better or different than the others. It too, was a pile of miserable scrap metal and other materials that appeared to have been crudely salvaged and mangled together into something that resembled a structure.

“I see…” Vido muttered, “Which puts us right in the middle of a bunch of mean perros. Muy bien indeed,” he spat flatly, “And how do you propose we do this without being spotted?”

Axel looked over with a rather confident expression on his face. “They don’t know who we is yet,” he explained, “We git in there, propose that we wanna work for ‘em, and git as much info as we can git before we head back and report to the dog queens.” He then put his facemask back on, looking as grizzled and steeld as ever. “No need to draw no weapons or blood. Savvy, ya’ll?”

“Hrm…” Kora took another look at the sheer scale of what they’d be up against. “I have no issues. Vido?”

“Nada,” he added, “Seems simple enough.”

“Alrighty…let’s git a move on,” Axel proclaimed as he looked at a set of nearby boulders that were perched near one of the canyon’s cliffs. “And I know just how we gon’ do this.”