Lux had been lying on her watching spot for an hour straight. She had prepared it by cleaning all the snow from the patch of land, which was not too frozen yet, and covering it with some blankets. But it was not enough to protect her from the cold. Since she hadn't moved in a while, her body went wreck and freezing, and she had starved for the last three days. The only thing that kept her focused on her mission was this fat rabbit she had spotted a while ago, and now Lux smiled because it was approaching the knot she had carefully tied.
'It's really fat', she thought. 'It may be a pregnant female. I am a monster'. But even monsters have to eat.
That had been undoubtedly the hardest winter since the war began. It became harder when she and her family had to leave the horse farms due to the hunger: if they had to feed the animals, there was even less for them. It went worse when her father died from pneumonia and her siblings decided to move away and try luck on their own. Then she moved with her sister Sarah, but even she had asked her, sorrowfully, to sell her shotgun and try and bring some food for the family, including the kids. 'How exactly?' She had tried to ask, after selling it.
'And now I'm late for dinner, if there is', she wondered now, upset. The Sun was totally wrapped in grey clouds, and anyway it hadn't heated the ground at all that day. "And you bloody ball of fur won't fall in the trap, will you".
But the rabbit was about to jump into the thin rope, the whitest she had found, so it couldn't be told apart from the snow, and Lux saw it like it was already roasted.
However, her rabbit ran away, distracted by a blasting shot, and a guy screaming "Woohooo!", thinking he had killed it, and his friend mocking him, "That vermin is as hard to kill as you, bastard".
Lux turned mad.
"You idiots, it was mine already! It's gone and it's your fault!". She shouted, too loud.
The boys were in total shock. They hadn't seen a lonely woman in years. Indeed they had barely seen a woman in years.
"I don't know who you are, but don't worry!, Mr. Teethy ain't gonna argue with my knife. I'll bring it to you in a moment. That way we're set."
Lux realised she had just insulted two strangers she could not see from her hiding place, they were armed, unlike her, and she was over an hour away from her sister's house. It was getting really dark, and she didn't even know the area she had moved to, a month before.
"I'm sorry Sir, you win. I'm leaving!". She stood up and shook the snow from her clothes, pulled the rope backwards and rolled it in, and gather her things together to run away at that second. But the two guys had already approached her. One was big, enormous, somewhat too big for that time. Unexplainable, that was the word. And his face didn't explain anything either, it just didn't look intelligent at all. But he was smiling, that was a slight relief. The other one, shorter but still very tall, thinner, carrying a huge shotgun on one hand and her beloved rabbit on the other, and wearing a Northern Army coat, spoke to her hiding his eyes with his expensive hat.
"Good evening lady, here's your dinner. Congratulations on your knot, you deserved the victory".
She just couldn't answer.
"In fact, I haven't seen a snare like that in ages". He gave the shotgun to his friend and lifted his hat, showing an intense, dark gaze, too dark for his snow white complexion. "So you must have come from the mountains".
"Y-yeah, that's right". All the remaining blood on her body had climbed to her cheeks. "We were horse farmers in Indiana, but now I'm living here with my sister, and I must leave now, she's waiting for me".
"I hope your sister's home is not so far as your home town, but the thing is that we don't know any cottages in some miles around, do we?". He turned to his buddy. "No, we don't", the big guy replied.
"They live at the back of the valley, next to Black Rooster's Bridge."
Lux was shaking so much that the rabbit she was holding from its ears began to dance. The stranger got worried for her gaunt, blue face, and her long, skinny fingers.
"That's way too far for you, Miss. You're coming with us and we'll take you to your house tomorrow morning. Where's your horse?"
"I had to sell it", she lied. "Listen, I'm thankful for your offer, but... ". She looked at her lack of choices and her inability to stand on her own feet for longer.
"OK, I'll go with you. My name is Lux".
"His name is Georgia", the fatty friend laughed. "That's a strange name for a person, doncha think".
'Strange and suspicious for a Northern Soldier in Kentucky, actually'. She thought but didn't dare to say.
"OK, you can call me whatever you want." He helped her getting on his horse. "My loyal pal is called Pangle, though he forgets sometimes"
"Pleased to meet you", muttered Lux, as she gently caressed the back of the horse she was on.
A big, scarlett stain froze on the snow, where the rabbit had been killed. It was February, 1862.