These past few weeks been alright. I know everybody and they know me. I will say there's a few people I don't particularly like but I actually tolerate them. Micah was a bit of an ass at first but he's gotten to be quite a gentleman. Sometimes. I dont like the way he treats other people and how he's always whispering in Dutch's ear.
I walk to my horse, planning on hunting a few rabbit. I pass Arthur's tent and see him looking in the small mirror on a barrel, fixing his hair.
"My my, don't you look mighty handsome? Why you gettin' so dressed up?" I tease.
"Stop." Arthur lets out a small chuckle and puts his hat on.
I laugh a bit, enjoying poking fun at him.
"I gotta go do some things, I'll be back later." Arthur puts his guns in his holster and walks to his large black shire horse (the one you get for free).
"Whatever you say, Arthur." I smile and walk to Ace.
I get on him, straighten his mane a bit, and then turn him down a trail into the woods. I sat on the cold ground for nearly two hours before I was able to get three rabbits.
I tie them onto Ace's saddle horn and head towards camp.
When I arrived, I headed towards Pearson's tent and laid the rabbits on the butchers table.
"Thank you Miss Robin." He said, grabbing them by the ears.
"Course." I smile.
I decide to head into town so I could get a haircut. My hair's gettin' far too long for my liking.
I grab Ace's reins and hop on him.
Kieran passes by me.
"Hey, Kieran." I wave.
"Hi." He nods.
I turn around and head towards town, humming a little tune as I go.
It was so nice to be alone for awhile. Feel the air blow my hair in all directions was super fun as well.
That was sarcasm.
I pulled up by the barbers and walked through the back way of the saloon.
"Cut it to about here." I made a small gesture of how much hair he should cut off. My hair would still be long but not so annoying and in my way.
After he was done, I got up and walked through the saloon way.
"Mike! Ohhh Mike!" I felt a rough heavy arm go around my shoulder, almost tipping me over.
Now I'm not a weak girl, but when a grown man puts his weight on a woman unexpectedly, especially with a bad leg ... well the woman is gonna topple over.
I used the pillar as support and tried to fling him off me.
"Y'know Ma was worried." I could smell his drunken breath.
"Get the hell off me!" I say.
On hearing my voice the man stumbles back.
"You... are not a man!" Mike pointed at me.
I adjusted my hat.
"No, sir." I said.
"Well shit... Mike!" He went around calling this mans name.
I shake my head, my whole side crashed against the pillar and that left a good bruise. I get on my horse, riding towards camp.
I see little Jack playing on the trail to our camp.
"Jack?" I stop the horse.
"Yes!" He looks up.
"Why you so far away from camp?" I look to see if anybody's behind me.
"I dunno, but look at this ant." Jack held a tiny ant in his hand, letting it crawl around.
"That's great, bud. C'mon I'll give you a ride back." I reach down and Jack takes my hand. I had to use two hands to pull him up.
He sat in front of me and started braiding Ace's mane.
"Have you seen Arthur?" I ask, starting to head towards camp.
"Yesss. He's back. Aunt Robin, look at those birds!" He points in front of us. A bunch of crows fly over us.
"Those are crows." I smile.
"Oh... look there's Pa!" Jack waved to a figure holding a rifle in the trees.
"Who-... oh it's Jack. Where did y'all go?" I hear John's raspy voice ask.
"Jack was pretty far away from camp, I was just takin' him back." I explain. John nods and we head into camp.
Abigail instantly runs up and grabs Jack, worried half to death looks like.
"Oh my Lord, Jack I thought something happened. Don't run off ever again!" Abigail gently shook him.
"Sorry, Momma." Jack smiled brightly. Abigail thanks me and then walks on. Jack gives me a happy little wave. Such a sweet child.
I hitch my horse and then practically flopped down on the ground near my tent. My whole side of my body ached because of that stupid drunk man.
"Well hello, princess."
"Hmmm, hi Micah." I say, knowing who the voice belonged to.
"Why you sleeping in the middle of the day?" I hear the creak of the wagon as he leans up against it.
"I just got slammed into a pillar by a damn drunk. I deserve a rest." I glare at him.
He slightly kicks my good leg with his boot.
"You wanna go on a ride?" He asks.
I think about it.
"Sure." I shrug. Why not?
I get on Ace and he gets on his horse and we walk down the path of camp.
"So you like it here?" Micah asks.
"It's nice." I nod my head. We round the trail.
"What did you do before all this." Micah looks around the forest.
"Don't really remember. I just remember you guys helping me." We head back towards camp.
"Yeah well a pretty woman like you I'd guess you'd have a husband."
I chuckle a bit at the thought.
"Nah, I never was married. Never found the right feller y'know?" We arrived at the camp and I slide off Ace. Micah walks around and I feel him gently touch my ear with his hand.
"You will someday." He walks off.
I couldn't decide if that was flirting or encouragement... or both.
I head towards my tent. It started getting dark around this time and I wanted to head to bed early. I pass by Arthur's tent to see him buttoning up a new blue shirt.
"Lookin' mighty handsome, once again, Mr. Morgan. Who's the unlucky gal?" I tease.
"You stay at our camp for a month and already you're poking fun." Arthur mumbles.
"Just doin' my job." I say.
"You need a job you're good at."
Well ouch.
When Arthur turned around, I grabbed his suspender and pulled it back, then let go before he could react.
I flinched when I heard the loud SNAP and Arthur's surprised reaction.
"What the hell!" He turned around, but I was already at my tent. I peek around the wagon to see him walking my way. Oh shit.
"Arthur, stay back!" I threaten as he gets closer.
"So you really think I'm gonna let you go after that childish shit?" He growls.
I limp to one side of the wagon. He intercepts me and I turn to try and run some how but Dutch's booming voice stops me.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" I give Arthur one last glare and quickly limp over to Dutch. I was dead scared he was actually gonna punch me in my jaw.
"We are happy to have new family members as our journey goes on! But we still need to do our part. And fast. Soon we'll be away from here and safe from the damn government and they're laws." Dutch say, earning a few cheers and nods of heads.
I stay on the opposite side of where Arthur was, still scared but also a bit giddy.
"Arthur, ride with me. You too." Dutch pointed to somebody else and walked past me.
I stuck my wrinkled my nose at Arthur and he shook his head.
I just started a war and I'm gonna end it.
"Hey.""Hi, Mary-Beth."
I look around and see Kieran talking to Mary-Beth.
Being the nosy pig I am, I leaned against a tree in the middle of camp and acted like I was cleaning my pistol.
"How-how you doin'?" Kieran asks.
"Fine." Mary-Beth responds.
A slight smile creeps up on my face when I hear Kieran compliment Mary-Beth.
"Robin!"
I almost jump out of my boots. I drop my pistol out of surprise and turn to see Micah standing there.
"Yesss?" I pick my gun up and put it in my holster.
"I was 'bout to head to the saloon. Wanna come?"
I walk up and look at him for a second.
"Sure what the hell?" I shrug.
Soon enough we were on the road to Valentine.
"See you and Arthur are gettin' along." Micah said.
"He's a-ight." I smile, watching birds fly from the ground.
"Glad you got familiar with everyone already." Micah says, turning to the streets.
"Yeah. Everyone seems real kind. Especially little Jack." I respond, following him.
"Yep. Bright kid."
"Yeah."
It was silent for a bit before Micah cleared his throat.
"Here we are."
I hitch Ace up and follow Micah in the saloon. He leaned against the bar and I leaned next to him.
"Beer." I say, throwing some money on the table.
Micah throws some down as well.
"Whiskey." He nods.
Once we get our drinks, we can't even strike up a conversation before a drunk man walks over.
"We.... allow women in here now?!" The man slurs. I take no offence to it but I see several faces glance to each other, confused.
Micah lets out a chuckle.
"Thissss is not how... the founding... fathers would have... auh.."
The dude was drunk as balls!
"You okay?" I ask turn around to look at the man.
"Whore!" He spits near my shoes.
This time half the saloon lets out a few gasps and 'Oos'.
I sit up, hands on my belt.
"Listen, feller. I don't stand a chance to beat you if you were sober. But right now. I could whip ya." I smile at him.
I hear a few claps and 'fight fight'. I hear Micah laugh louder this time.
"Youuu?"
Before I could see it coming, he backhands me across the face. I go down and Micah catches me by the arms. He lifts me back up, patting my back.
I limped forwards and drew my fist back so far, that when it landed on the end of this mans face it had a lot of power behind it. He went sailing down, landing with a thud.
I feel several pats on my shoulder as the crowd roared with laughter.
I thought Micah was gonna die of laughing. That is until somebody knocked him down.
"I believe y'all are pickin' on my friend." A large man said. He had hit Micah hard but Micah jumped right back up and delivered a right hook and jab in the large man's gut.
I was gonna cheer for him but I felt a pain in my head and before I knew it, the drunk was on top of me beating the shit out of me.
I felt somebody tug him off me. Micah was trying to get him but the large man attacked him again. Before the drunk could get on top of me again, I get up as fast I can and grab my beer bottle and slam it over his head.
The drunk fell down, his lights knocked out.
I feel my nose all bloody and leaking down my chin. I look to Micah and limp over to help. The large man had him in a chokehold. I aim at the mans head and deliver a left hook at his temple, earning Micah enough time to elbow his face and give him a final knockout.
Before we could even recover, the back of my shirt was grabbed and I was sailing through the air and into the mud out the front, Micah right beside me.
"Stay out until you can behave!" The bartender shouted.
I rolled over on my back and groaned.
"That was fun." Micah got up with a grunt and offered me his hand. I took it and limped to my horse.
"Let's... go back." I held my head.
"You look like shit." Micah chuckled.
"You don't look too good yourself." I smile painfully and we head towards camp.
When we arrived I limped to my tent and collapsed.
I fell asleep.
----
"Robin?"
I peek open an eye. Abigail was there.
She offered me her hand and I slowly got up with her help.
"Yeah?" I say.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Just... scuffle." I shrug.
I walk over and take a small mirror out of my bag and cringed at the sight in front of me.
My nose had dried blood all down it and over my lips and to my chin.
My left eye was black and I had a cut on my forehead.
"Don't you look handsome?"
I look at the voice.
"Fuck you." I hiss at Arthur.
He chuckles and turns away.
I groan.
---
Tysmmm for reading this was 2k words!