There is nothing but sand for miles around. Scattered about the sand dunes are lone cacti, some so tall they look like hands reaching for the heavens. With a quick whack of his machete he takes a limb of a cactus off, picking it up carefully and draining what little precious water it has in it, into his rawhide water sack. He pulls out all the thorns and begins to squeeze all the water he can out of it. He looks behind him at the tracks his made, and he can't help but feel some loss for his horse with no name.
The sun is high in the sky and he uses his hand to shield his eyes from the harsh rays. There is a screech from high in the sky and he looks for her. She is Vesper, an albino Osprey hawk, circling high above. He spots her just as she is diving head first towards him at incredible speed. Standing his ground, he holds his arm out as a perch for her to land on. Just mere feet from him, she spreads her wings out wide and proud and flutters to land on his arm and lets out a screech of accomplishment.
"Good girl Vesper." He hands her some dried meat which she reluctantly takes; it's not alive but its food and that'll do for now.
"Now, what did you find, hmm??" The man asks.
He stands well over 6 feet tall and is covered in desert sand from head to toe, wearing a dark brown leather trench coat, a long thick brown glove on one hand where his companion landed. His other hand, uncovered and open, reaches up gently and pets Vesper and she squawks a little.
His eyes close and a moment later he is soaring high in the skies. A soft voice whispers in his head, "Hello Master."
"Hello Vesper." The man says. "What do you have to show me dear?"
"There is a town north of you, it's at least three or four miles away" Vesper whispers. Though she can't be seen, she is the voice of his hawk. "There is nothing else for miles, Master. Are you sure you will make it?" she asks with concern.
"I'm sure." He says. And he gently tosses her upward and she takes flight, screaming for the sky.
He looks up at the setting sun and decides to find a place to rest for the night. With the sun hanging lower, he begins to build a fire with twigs and Devil's Brush. Devil's Brush has a few different uses, good for smoking, chewing, or fires. It burns real slow and casts a blue, not red, light and people have been known to hallucinate from the brush, hence the name Devil's Brush.
They say though, if you use too much, it starts to eat away at your memories, like a vulture on a dead horse; picking away at your childhood memories and dreams. If you've had a horrible childhood, I guess that wouldn't matter too much though. Vesper screams high in the sky, and a few moments later three dead snakes fall on the ground. He picks them up and cuts the heads off, skins them and skewers them on a stick, propping them up by a rock in the fire circle to cook. Vesper lands on a branch in a tree across from him and settles down.
Reaching into his coat, he pulls out a flask, unscrews the cap and takes a small sip. Leaning forward he turns the cooking snakes. The firelight is now a greenish color, which is the devil's weed burning. They say that if you stare long enough the devil will reach into your soul and force you into a contract for it. But those kind of rumors were only told by those who were truly too far gone from eating the weed.
"Jeremiah!" A young girl yells. He's climbing up a the side of a mountain. "Jeremiah wait!!"
Jeremiah is a few feet further up the mountain than Amy, his younger sister by four years. He hears her yelling and sighs, but keeps going up faster to get further away. He can't stand his sister, she grates on him because she doesn't understand him. She follows him everywhere, asking him all sorts of questions. So yeah, he tries to lose her all the time, even playing hide and seek with her and leaving her hidden and not found for hours.
"Hurry up already Amy!" He shouts from the top of the mountain and puffs his chest out in accomplishment, while Amy continues to climb further until she reaches the top. "Why you always gotta try and out run me!" She asks huffing and puffing. "Cuz your a turdeater." Jeremiah says.
"I am not!" she retorts, stomping her foot and making a mean face at him. "Race you to the bottom then!" She takes off back down the mountain at speed.
They race back down the mountain, laughing and chasing each other; hearing a bell ringing in the distance. Standing up, they brush themselves off and race toward home. Deep in the desert somewhere, their log house is only a few miles outside of town. Their father used to be the town lawman, until he was found hanging out on the gallows. No one knows why or what happened to their father; there were no notes or signs of a fight or anything.
Arriving at their house, their mother is standing at the door. "You guys took forever!" she says.
"It's Jeremiah's fault!" Amy shouts as she runs past their mother.
"No it wasn't.." Jeremiah starts to defend himself.
"I don't care who did what, just get cleaned up for dinner" Their mother says and then closes the door.
Vesper squawks and he jumps. Finding himself staring into the fire too long again, he leans back against the rock wall behind him, folding his arms and tipping his hat forward. A few minutes later he gets back up and pulls the cooked snakes off the fire and begins to eat. After eating he takes another couple of sips from his flask and then rolls a small cigarette of the devils weed.
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Vesper screams high above Jeremiah, but this is Jeremiah only fifteen, climbing up the side of a mountain again. But this time it's much higher, a lot steeper and more dangerous. He has ropes looped around him and a belt holding assorted climbing tools. He reaches up and grabs onto a small outcropping, he shoves a device in that grabs on to the rock and then loops the rope through it.
"Jeremiah!!" Amy yells from below him. She's still following him doing what he does, she's become a regular tomboy; running around killing rabbits and snakes for dinner, going out with her brother on runs to the market, and doing anything else she can insert herself into.
"Good grief sister, can't you ever move fast enough? You're always slow as a snail." He shouts back down at her, moving faster and further away.
Getting to the top he waits. Amy struggles to reach from rock to rock, placing her foot into a hole, she puts her weight on that leg and begins to tries to reach up. The rock breaks and she loses her grip and falls, yanking Jeremiah almost off the top.
"Amy!! AMY!!" He yells.
"I'm here, I'm hurt, but nothings broken." She's holding her arm to comfort it and starts to swing herself back to the mountainside. Jeremiah struggles to hold onto the rope and he eventually is able to wrap the rope around him and put his whole weight into pulling her up.
"I'm almost there." She yells.
Suddenly the rope starts to fray and come apart. Fearing the worst, Jeremiah tries to pull faster.
"Amy hurry up, the rope is starting to break!" He pulls harder and gets closer to the ledge to try and help get her to safety, but the rope keeps continues to shred against the cliff edge. He looks over the ledge and sees his sister almost at the top; he reaches out. "Take my hand." he says.
She reaches up several times, their fingers touch but pass right through each other. But she continues to try and reach for his hand, getting closer and closer every time. The rope snaps and she starts to fall but stops sharply as Jeremiah manages to grab her wrist just in time. He is slipping himself now and trying to hold on by bracing his foot against a rock; his other hand holding on to the rope behind him.
She screams loudly, she panics and starts to flail around, making it hard to keep a hold of her hand.
"Stop flailing about damn it!" Jeremiah yells, but it does no good; she continues to flail about and his grip starts to weaken.
He's hanging on with everything he has, but she just doesn't listen, she keeps on screaming and flailing around. Slipping a little from his hand, she starts to scream and panic even more, making it harder to hold on to him.
"Please don't drop me Jeremiah, I don't want to die!" she cries out, trying to grab on to anything she can.
Everything stops, the wind, the birds are quiet, there's no sound. She looks up at him with an open mouth, screaming, her eyes wide and her hair blows into her face as she plummets to the ground.
"NO!" He shouts and wakes himself up.
He glances around to make sure no one had crept up on him in his moment of sleep. Getting up and poking the fire, he goes searching for more wood to burn. Noticing a small cave in the distance, he decides to investigate. He lights a torch and ventures inside, stumbling across a skeleton clothed in some kind of workman's uniform. A quick hunt through his pockets reveals some form of identification, with the words "Muhn Chi Xu", along with a still working pocket watch and a small carving knife that looks well cared for and old. Perhaps an heirloom of some kind?
Returning to his fire he settles down for the night. The next morning he wakes and takes the time to give the dead man a proper burial. He leaves no headstone, just a small pile of rocks with a make shift cross in the ground. He says his prayers and blesses the soul of the man's remains. He collects up his things, slings his backpack on and continues on his journey. The sand, heat, and sun are a brutal combination without a hat, so the dark cloaked man pulls his hat over his face even further.
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There are telling signs that the man is getting closer as signs of life litter the edge of the trail. Tracks were beginning to look more worn in and used, rickety carts, markers and signs scattered around about. Off in the distance a church bell chimes, either for school or just to mark time. Alert, he hears a gang of men on horseback come riding up behind him; they stop in front of him, and he tries to go around.
"What's your name, and what's your business in these parts?" The cowboy asks and then, just like the typical asshat alpha man, he spits in the hooded mans direction.
