Hey guys

I'm writing for a pretty much non-existing fandom where on this site has a single 3-chapter story and A03 has one story but it's for the TV show who stole the name.

The film series is The Man from Snowy River which are two films produced back in the 1980s.

My experience with them started watching both on VHS tape in my childhood, mostly forgetting about them beyond vague memories until re-watching the films on DVD.

I watched them to my surprise for discovering they are still decently enjoyable films.

Anyway, this is just me publishing this short plot bunny idea I have so I can get it out of my system and due to wanting to write something in this universe.

Onto the story

Craig's homestead in the Snowy Mountain regions of Australia during the late 1800's

The sun has settled in the late morning sky as Jim Craig in his early twenties wearing a dirty, white long sleeve shirt, tan pants and black boots is near his horse corral. Also, Jim's hat and grey coat is resting on one of the corral's fence posts.

Of course, the only horse currently in the pen is a young female buckskin horse that was a part of the wild black stallions heard, but now is a replacement for his buckskin horse who was killed by Alistair Patton. During the past two months, he's spent time working on breaking the horse in, especially given the needed quality for a mountain horse.

Placing his saddle on one of the wooden fence rails, Jim knows Jessica is off riding on an early morning check of their larger heard of horses. Thinking of Jessica, Jim smiles because he sometimes still can't believe is married to her despite all the hardship it took them to get to this point.

Suddenly hearing a horse coming Jim turns to see a young man dressed in a rumpled suit and tie, on a horse.

"Alistair Patton" Jim growls, "I thought you were in prison waiting to be hung for stealing my horses."

"My dad helped me with his connections to escape so I could flee the country but not before getting my revenge" Alistair replies snarling.

"Revenge? For what?" Jim asks like the man's being ridiculous.

"For stealing Jessica from me and beating me in combat Craig" Alistair says.

"She never wanted you at all, you were the one who pursued my wife" Jim replies.

"Enough" Alistair yells with removing his Colt revolver from his thigh holster with pulling the hammer back and pointing it towards the young mountain man.

While Jim succeeds in grabbing his whip off the saddle Alistair fires only for the bullet to get jammed in the gun.

In response, Jim sends the whip through the air striking Alistair's face leaving a bloody red gash. Resulting in the man yelling in pain, dropping the gun while falling off his horse onto the dirt ground. The horse goes running off as Alistair gets to his feet with racing towards Craig, who tries to hit him again with the whip only to miss.

Getting tackled to the ground Jim grunts in pain when Alistair begins to repeatedly land blows on his upper body. Kneeing Patton in his stomach Jim throws the man off him and quickly climbs to his feet.

Alistair grabbing a handful of dirt throws it into Craig's face who does his best to clear his eyes. While Alistair begins heading for the fallen revolver Jim reaches down grabbing the whip. Upon reaching the weapon Alistair cocks the revolver and spins around to face Jim.

Only Jim sends the whip through the air with it making a cracking sound before wrapping around Patton's throat. Dropping the gun Alistair tries to claw at the leather only yanking hard Jim snaps Alistair's neck.

Letting out a sigh Jim can feel a part of himself slip away and he didn't want to kill, but knows it had to be done. The last time he faced Patton despite having more than one chance to kill the man, Craig chose not to. Although since Alistair Patton killed his horse Jim can't really bring himself to care all that much either.

The sounds of horses coming fill the air with Craig looking over at the entrance road sees Jessica and Harrison riding towards him. Jessica is wearing gray pants and a white long sleeve shirt with a brown coat over it. Jessica's black hair is let down to the middle of her back.

Meanwhile, Harrison is dressed in a dirty blue button-down shirt, with brown pants and boots. Harrison's wearing a heavy tan coat with his white hair reaching down to the bottom of his neck.

Both Harrison and Jessica quickly unmount with Jessica rushing over to Jim in worry, and despite having noticed Alistair's lifeless body she ignores it for the time being. Harrison walks over to the body by moving it with his foot, just to be sure the man is dead.

Jessica and Jim share a passionate kiss before separating with Jim wrapping his arms around her, as she leans into her husband's embrace.

"Are you okay?" Jessica asks in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine darling" Jim replies then glancing towards Harrison "What are you doing here?"

"One of my ranch hands told me about Alistair escaping and murdering his father to cover his tracks" Harrison says.

"So, dad figured that he would have been headed up here and decided to come warn us" Jessica replies.

"Despite us not having the best of a relationship Mr. Harrison, thank you" Jim says.

Harrison merely nods with reaching down to pick up Alistair's body with throwing it over the back of his horse and securing it with a rope.

"I'll go take the body to the local authorities" Harrison says.

Jim and Jessica watch as Harrison climbs on his horse with riding off as they both stand there for a few minutes, just content in each other's presence.

"I'm glad you're okay and I'm here if you need me" Jessica says.

"Glad you are too, and I know." Jim says before glancing around "You know Patton's horse left before the fight got started. I wonder where he is."

"Let's go find it" Jessica says.

Jim nods with gathering his whip and returning it to the saddle. Meanwhile, Jessica already has the gate opened on the corral while gently leading the horse out by its harness. Putting the saddle on the horse Jim secures it in place as Jessica mounts her own horse. Reaching over to the fence post Jim removes his coat and hat with putting both on before mounting his horse.

After both glancing at each other with sharing a grin Jim and Jessica begin to ride down the dirt road while enjoying the breath-taking expanse of the mountains, an experience that never gets old, as they search for a horse.

Hope you all enjoyed this. If anybody reads this leave a review and let me know what you think if you want.

There was a deleted scene in the second Man from Snowy River film where Jim and Jessica got married so I'm using that. Plus, it is a natural progression of their relationship anyway.

Although you can only find the scene on YouTube since it's not on the DVD of the second film.

For Alistair Patton who only shown up in the second film, we never did get to see what happened to him after Jim beat Alistair in combat. So, explaining that he got thrown in jail for stealing his horses is by way of tying that loose end up.

I've got some ideas for other stories in the Man from Snowy River setting, but we shall see what the future holds.

Until next time