Prelude
"Are you the mayor of this town?" I asked the man behind the desk of this old building. "Hmm? And who might you be?" he asked me in a gruff voice. I grinned and said "The name's Hawk, and I'm interested in the job you have." He stared at me for a bit before answering. "I see, well do you think yer' up for it?"
"I reckon so sir."
"Very well then, the bandits are up Cougar Mountain. Find em' and either drive em' out…or kill em', you'll get half the pay now and half after. That work for ya'?" I growled a little before I said "yep, works just fine." The mayor looked a little intimidated as he handed me the money.
Outside was dry and hot. The sun was blazing high up in the sky. I put two fingers in my mouth and whistled. My partner 'Haste' ran up to me and whinnied. "We got the job Haste, so shall we be on our way?" He nodded his head enthusiastically. I hopped on his back and we road off toward Cougar Mountain.
I looked down at the bandits through my binoculars. There were twenty of them at least. Wait…they had guards posted up the cliff as well, that made twenty-five. I took out my sniper rifle and aimed. I looked for the one that was probably the leader. There! I took aim and fired. He went down in one shot, but now all the others were on to me. I aimed at a few more of them, got like four when one of them got a really good shot. He shot my sniper rifle right out of my hand. "Aughh!" he'd grazed my hand deeply. And my sniper rifle was ruined. "Damn!" I had no choice but to get closer. I started moving down the mountain, keeping to as much cover as I could. I took my normal rifle out and found a spot to shoot from. I was able to take down ten before I couldn't see them anymore from the spot. I moved down, cover was getting more scarce. Bullets whizzed past me, narrowly missing. I made it to the bottom of the mountain. One of them rushed at me wielding a sword. "That's stupid" I thought "he's left himself wide open". I fired but he dodged "he's fast!". I had no choice but to pull out my dagger. But a dagger against a sword? Wait what am I thinking I'm Hawk. I'm the most feared cowboy in this wild country. I grinned and threw my dagger at him, hitting his leg. He just pulled it out and kept coming. I growled menacingly at him. He hesitated for a split second, but it was enough for me to pounce on him. I bit the arm holding the sword with my sharp teeth. "AUUUGHHH!" he screamed "I didn't realize it at first! You…you're one of them freaks!" he yelled, I flinched, I hated that word 'freaks'. Although I suppose it's true, I am only half human, the other half is dog. I was once fully human though, a long time ago. I even had a family, but my family and I were captured by scientists. They were experimenting with genetic manipulation. My family 'a wife and two sons' died during the experiments, I survived.
I growled at him fiercely, and leaped at him. I bit deeply into his neck, his blood ran down my face. I glared at the bandits that were left. They screamed and ran. I doubted they'd be back. I sighed, Haste trotted up and nudged me. "Ya…I'm fine Haste, don't worry."
I washed up before going back to the mayor. He gave me the rest of the money and thanked me on behalf of the town. He offered a room to rest for the night. I politely declined, and me and Haste went on our way, riding off into the sunset.
To Be Continued…