Freak

9.

***

Arthur was having a really good time. He'd been drinking some whiskey which always caused him to lighten up and relax. He made sure, however, to not drink too much, considering the fact that both Blue and Jack were still around the fire with the celebrating gang and he didn't want them to see him drunk.

Dutch said that they were celebrating because Blue had done so well on the horse but Arthur knew well enough that it was more due to the fact that they had all been kind of tense because of the increase in lawmen and bounty hunters that had be circling the area recently.

Arthur smiled as he looked at Blue and Jack, sitting side by side at Abigail's feet "I found the prettiest bunny when we went to Valentine, it was white, like snow!" she said, causing the little boy's eyes grow with interest.

"I've only seen brown ones! Was it really white? I want to see that..." Jack admitted.

Blue nodded in conformation "Yeh, it was really nice too! I picked it up and it was so soft, I asked Arthur if I could take it back here but he said no..." sadness crossed her face and Jack let out a disappointed sound and looked at Arthur accusingly. Getting ready to defend his decision Arthur opened his mouth but was cut short by a drunken Sean, who apparently was very upset about what he'd heard the children talk about.

"Why'd ya do-do that Art'ur? Huh? SO MEAN!.." he slurred, turning towards Blue he bent down and put an unsteady hand on her head, ruffling her hair "I'll I'll get you that bunn-bunny Blue, you just wait and see, uncle Sean sa-saves the day!" and with those words he made his way away form the others, who were very entertained by the Irishman's drunkenness, but didn't get all that far before he stumbled over his own two feet and fell face first into the mud. Only seconds later snores could be heard from his direction which caused more laughter to erupt from the group.

"But really Arthur why didn't you let her keep it?" This time it was Abigail who spoke up. Now they were all looking at him like he had done something awful. This was ridiculous, since when did this band of outlaws' care about little white animals?!

"There was something wrong with it, sick or something, it didn't move when the horse go close OR when Blue picked it up! And it's eyes were all red, now I ain't never seen anything like it but if you wanna tell me that that kind of thing is normal I welcome you to find it, but if it bites you and you die I won't dig your grave that's for sure!" Arthur felt silly defending his choice in front his gang and could feel heat creeping up his neck and cheeks.

"It was probably albino... it doesn't explain why it didn't move but it'd explain the eyes and the color." Charles offered as an explanation, making Arthur feel somewhat better about the situation, not that he would remember whatever Charles had called it...

The next person to speak up was Micha, and what came out of his mouth caused Arthur to see red;

"Good thing you didn't bring it, one freak in camp's enough..." the blond man mumbled while staring at Blue.

"What did you say you piece of shit?!" Arthur roared, standing abruptly, whiskey bottle falling to the grown with a thud. Before anyone could registrar what was happening, Arthur stormed over to Micha and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt threw him over the log he'd been sitting on.

Micha didn't have time to get up before Arthur was hovering over him, delivering blow after blow to his face. Hands grappled for Arthurs arms, trying to pry him away from the man below him, and succeeded, but not before he got the pleasure to hear the distinct 'crunch' that came from a broken nose.

After being pulled off of the man on the ground and pulled to a safer distance, with Dutch as a wall between them, Arthur violently shook off the hands that had been holding him and pointed to Micha.