Okay, so here is the second chapter. It is REALLY long and even though I am not absolutely happy with it, I don't know really what I don't like, so if anyone knows what mistake I did, please tell me. I also would like to know if I really should continue this or not… Reviews or PMs are always welcome ;)


Golden Sunset

Chapter 2 – What are you grinning at, stupid-head

Once outside the house I made my way over to the saloon, which was only a couple of houses away from my, on the other side of the road situated home when I noticed a huge building which was opposite to my house and looked rather rich, or at least once looked rather rich. I couldn't put my tongue on it, but something seemed odd about it. I had to ask the sheriff.

"Hey, wonder sheriff. To whom does that building belong? It must have once been quite a rich and pretty place." Looking down at the sheriff, I could for once not decide what he was thinking, because of the way he suddenly looked. It was really strange.

"Well, see. That used te belong te the mayor of the town, but he was corrupt. All he wanted was to make money, so he shut of the pipes, which led 'ere from the city and brought the town the water. but at that stage no one knew of that, except for the ol' mayor. When I arrived in this 'ere town, everything was dried up. No agua what so ever! Killed a hawk that day too. A real big one, with only one bullet, ya know!" I rolled my eyes, but chuckled at the same time, while watching the sheriff puff out his chest and tell his story. I doubted his story, but then I had heard all the stories and couldn't make up my mind, so I just went on listening to the, in fact, really fascinating story.

"Well. I was made sheriff for freeing the town of that terrible beast. But then the agua got robbed and we went to look for it. At first we thought the moles had stolen the water, but in fact it was the ol' mayor himself. He even killed our dear financial adviser in the progress. Poor guy. We didn't know what te do. The mayor noticed that I was a danger to him, so he wanted to eliminate me. So he called in the Grim Reaper. Damn. Just thinking of the time I first saw that outlaw- I thought I was gonna die, but well, uhm, then, eh, uhm. Well, not so important. I travelled through the desert and met the Spirit of the west. After that I-"

Wait? Had he just said that he had met the Spirit of the West? But that was not possible! That dude was just an imagination for the lunatic people out in the desert. He wasn't really real! And why hadn't the Grim Reaper killed him? What had happened? I was now more than interested in the story. This was getting better and better!

"-found the water pipe, which had been shut off. Together with a wise ol' friend of course. I came back te town and challenged Rattlesnake Jake, who was now working for the mayor. I only had one bullet in my gun. It was suicide!"

I rolled her eyes. "But sheriff. If that was suicide, you couldn't be standing next to me now and telling me that it was suicide! Do you get my point?"

But Rango just waved it off and went on talking. "As I said. It was crazy! And I knew that, but I had a plan. Ya know, underneath the town is a huge cave system, really interesting. Thinking of it, we could turn it into a tourist attraction… but that ain't the point. I made Rattlesnake Jake get into the right spot in the right time, ma ol' friend and the walking cacti opened the pipe on the other side of the road and-"

I raised a scaly eyebrow. Walking cacti? Helping? What was this lunatic talking about? "Sheriff. Where did the cacti come into the picture? And how on earth are they supposed to walk? They are god damn plants for heaven's sake!"

But again the sheriff just waved it off, irritating the hell out of me. " – the water came rushing through the tunnels underneath the town and came shooting through the earth, because of the pressure. The ol' gunslinger was right over one of those holes and he got shot high up in the sky. Never knew that snakes could fly, but well. Of course when he landed he wasn't too amused about the little prank – "

"Just for the record, if you even think of trying such a little prank that with me, I will kill you and this is not a joke!" I gave him a death glare, which made the sheriff flinch, but he still kept on talking, telling his story.

"But the thing is. He has his uhm, issues with them hawks, so I got the moles and their bats to cause a hawk silhouette and its shadow. That scared Jake off, but I was silly to underestimate him. He's the deadliest outlaw out there and he ain't dumb! He saw that it wasn't a hawk and came out of his hiding. Killed half of them in mid-air. Was really creepy to watch, but suddenly he was out of ammo, so I had him in gun point, but the mayor had imprisoned a person who is very important to me – "

"You have a girl? Really? Who is the poor thing?" I snickered, but stopped when I saw Rango's scowl. It was just so funny to make fun of him. He was the perfect victim!

"If yer could please stop interrupting me! So, yeah. The mayor locked me and my, uhm, well, he locked my friend and me into the water tank in the bank and started to let water in, but I had taken ma bullet out of ma gun, before that ol' tortoise took it, so when he suddenly turned on Rattlesnake Jake and tried to kill him with ma gun, nothing happened and I could break the glass with the bullet. In the end, well, Jake was more than pissed with the mayor and –"

The sheriff paused, looked up at me and then pulled his thumb across his throat, signalizing that that outlaw had killed the mayor.

"And that is it. Now, what was your question?" Rango looked up once again and I rolled my eyes at him, once again.

"I asked who used to life in that stupid house. You told me that the mayor used to live there. But who lives there now?" I lowered my spikey head, so that the sheriff was forced to look into my rather captivating eyes.

The sheriff fidgeted with his belt and mumbled something incomprehensible but then just shrugged. "Well, we took a couple of month to get the city all fixed up again, but nobody wanted to fix the mayor's ol' house, to Rattlesnake Jake just took it and built it up again. It's his house now."

I nodded but then decided that I really could use a drink after that story and nudged the sheriff with my nose, but that nudge nearly sent him toppling over. "Are you now going to get me a job or what? And I am dying of thirst here!"

When we reached the saloon, I gave him a wink and stopped in front of the swinging doors, waiting for the sheriff to go first. "Ladies first, sheriff." I smirked when I saw the look on Rango's face, who simply answered with a sarcastic laugh. "Ha ha, mighty funny miss Roxette."

As soon as the sheriff walked through the doors, I followed him, but the second I appeared in the doorway, everyone went silent and I felt like I had been turned into a main attraction or something. I shot the sheriff a glare, who quickly cleared his throat and spoke up. "No need to worry folks. This 'ere is miss Roxette. Roxette will stay 'ere and I don't wanna hear no complaints, yer folks understand me?" All the desert critters nodded and low murmurs in agreement were to be heard.

I didn't look at anyone, when I slowly made my way to the bar, the sheriff by my side, most probably trying to show the people that it wasn't dangerous to be close to me. I couldn't care less what these people did or thought about me. If anyone messed with me I would kill them. I had no problem what so ever with doing that! But then I did start to look around in the saloon. I liked it. Danger seemed to be everywhere and that excited me. But then again they weren't as good as some of the discos and clubs I had been in, with the throbbing lights, the booming music, the adrenaline, the sweat, the smoke coming from the smoke machines. On the other hand the saloon was nearly just as good. It was more homey.

I came to stop in front of the bar, behind which a bullfrog stood, most likely the guy Rango had mentioned. What was his name again? Buyfol? Bulfard? No, no, that was not it. What was it again? Oh yes, Buford! Right.

I leaned against the bar and raised my voice. "Hey, toad guy! You looking for a waitress?"

Okay, didn't need his name in any case.

My rather load but smooth voice seemed to cut through the air like a knife because everything went silent once again and everyone stared at me. Well, everyone except Buford. The toad or bullfrog or whatever he was didn't even look up, but kept on smoking his cigar and cleaning a small glass with an old piece of cloth and only once he had finished did he look up and answer.

"Yer wanna have it? As long as ya don't go eating ma customers yer've got the job, starting right now." With that he turned around, tossed me an apron which I caught in the air with my yellow tipped tail. Then I gave Rango a questioning look, who just lifted his shoulders but nodded, so I tied the apron around the middle part of my body and made a bow with my tongue and tail on the back. Then I slithered behind the bar in a fluent movement and started to check out were everything was. I found many weird drinks, from which I never had heard before. For example a drink called mule skinner, cactus wine and lots and lots of cactus juice. The cactus juice seemed to be the most popular drink to go around, so I decided to give it a try.

"Hey toad! Can I have a sip of this?" I took one of the prickly bottles with my tail and held it up. Buford gave me a look but then nodded, so I poured myself a tiny little glass of the amber colour liquor. I actually wasn't a woman who liked to drink, but I wanted to get to know how the things rolled around here! But before I could take a sip, Rango place one of his green hands on my tail, holding it down.

"I would be careful with that, lassie. It is a brutal drink that!" I just gave the sheriff a dirty look, indicating that I couldn't care less to what the sheriff said or did, especially what he thought when it came to alcohol. I was a big girl, I could handle a simple sip of juice or whatever it was.

I wrapped my delicate, white tipped tail once again around the little glass, lifted it to my mouth and took a sip.

Fire burned my throat and a heat hundred times more tormenting than the desert sun spread through my body and in a jerking movement I spat the juice out. Right smack into sheriff Rango's face.

Every single desert critter who was in the saloon burst out into laughter, some of the slightly more drunk ones even fell of their chairs and started to roll around on the wooden floor.

I watched, heavily amused and with a big grin across my face, as Rango whipped the liquid of his not amused face. I couldn't help it and also started laughing out loud.

"That was fun, I think I'll do it again!" Grinning mischievously I held the glass back to my lips, but did not dare to take another sip. The one taste had been enough. Never again would I even dream of drinking the cactus juice again. Even though I loved hot and spicy things, that stuff was just totally grouse and burnt my delicate tongue!

"Har har har. Well ain't ya funny! Told ya it was a mean drink, now be so kind and give me that there bottle of cactus juice. Yer shouldn't forget to go around and ask them there folks if they don't wanna have something more te drink." Rango made a shooing movement, so I just rolled my eyes, slipped past Buford and slithered in fluent movements to the tables, where I asked every single person if they wanted something more to drink and when someone said yes, I would bring them whatever they desired, but hardly anyone dared to ask me for anything, due to the fact that the most of them were so scared of me, that they jerked away as soon as I came close.

'Oh, they will get over it. And in any case. It is good that these morons have respect for me. I mean, I could kill them in the split of a second. They would be dead before they could figure out what had happened. So in a way they are cleverer than so many other people, who thought they could treat a snake any way they pleased. Those critters mostly didn't survive very long.'

Once I was finished with serving everyone, I went back to the bar, but as I approached it, I noticed Rango talking to a female desert lizard. Wondering, if that could be his "special person" I snuck up from behind and as soon as I was looming over the two talking figures, I let out a hissed laugh. "So this is this important person you told me of! Your girl, right sheriff?"

Rango yelped and jerked backwards, nearly throwing the sand coloured lizard over, who had a rather shocked expression. I chuckled and raised a scaly eyebrow at the sheriff. "How on earth do you want to impress a woman when you are a god damned chicken? So, lady, who are you exactly?"

I lowered my head and looked into the brown eyes of the lizard, forcing her to look into my own, beautiful golden coloured ones.

"Roxy! How could you give us such a fright! And yes, this is her. Beans, Roxette. Roxette, Beans." Rango had caught himself once again and had slung his arm around the lizard's waist. I smiled a toothy grin at Beans, while looking her over. She had short, brown and very curly hair, a rather slim figure, as if she did not have much to eat and she wore a long light blue dress, made from wool or something similar. I didn't really like the looks of it. She had a serious look on her face and big brown eyes which were, at the moment, filled with fear, but the lady lizard seemed to get her guts together and nodded towards me, but did not smile. I simply nodded back. I had come to the conclusion that I didn't like this Beans, and who in the whole wide world was called beans? That was really an odd name!


I had spent the night in a cave, a couple of miles away from Dirt. I often did so. It calmed me down, when the idiocy of the townspeople got on my nerves and all I wanted was to shoot them or even better, sink my fangs into their small little bodies and watch the light vanish from their eyes. But I couldn't. No sheriff would allow me to stay in his town. I was wanted throughout the desert and even in some cities. I have been living in many different places, always on the go, never looking back, never pondering over the many lives I had already claimed. But since that time, with that strange chameleon sheriff, Rango, I began to see some things differently. When I used to believe, that one could not forgive, well, Rango taught me otherwise. Even though, I threatened his life, and the life of his stupid girlfriend, he still hadn't killed me when he had the chance to do so. Instead, he had offered me the mayor's old house, the one time I came back…

'Slowly I slithered into the town, the people screaming around and hiding in their houses, as soon as they saw me. All except for one. Rango came running out of his office, fumbling around with his gun and I let out an unnerved sigh. How was it possible that such a pathetic little creature could be the way he was? I couldn't understand it. I still couldn't understand myself, for not just killing him. He was, in some way, an insult to all other western people, but then again, he was one of the only truly honourable creatures in the whole town and I respected honour. I respected it more than anything in my entire life. If I hadn't kept at least that last spark of honour in me, I would no longer be the Grim Reaper, oh no, I would be a monster with no heart or soul and I didn't want to end like that. No, not like that.

"Hello brother, how yer been keeping? Looks like ya folks are mighty busy?" Strange. I had called him my brother? Well, it did have a certain ring to it and I also could see the fear in my enemies eyes, although, were we still enemies? I did not know, but I decided that I would keep on calling him brother. It would remind him, that he could never lie to me, that I would always know more. It gave me power over him and I certainly did like to possess power over other creatures.

I was on the same eye level as he was. I normally did so, when I talked with other people. It was a habit, because like that they were always forced to look into my eyes, which mostly scared the hell out of them. Even sheriff Rango flinched visibly, when looking straight into my eyes, which were light by the red fires of hell.

"Oh, hello, uhm, brother. What brings yer here? I do hope yer ain't looking for trouble, but only fer a drink." Rango had his green hand on his gun in his belt, ready to pull it in case I did something that he did not like, but what I did find strange, was that he had offered me to stay and drink something in his town. No one would have ever dared to do so, in fear of me killing someone in the process. So I simply nodded.

"Yes, I just came here te wash out that terrible old tortoise taste from my mouth." And with that I let the old tortoise's shell, which I had carried with me in my coils, fall the ground, causing Rango to jump back and I watched how not only his face turned white, but his whole body did the same and I had to say, that looked hilarious. I had always thought that it was just a joke, that chameleons could change their colour, but no, it was real and now he was turning a sickly green and I moved a little back, in case that idiot threw up.

I knew it would be a bad move, but I hadn't been able to restrain myself. Desert creatures hated to be confronted with the fact that we snakes were able to eat them. Normally the hawks and some coyotes were the only really dangerous things out in the desert and as long as one didn't mess with a snake, nothing would happen to you. Well, it was true in a way. My kind didn't enjoy eating talking prey. We ate like everyone else, but now and then it could happen that we ate someone and I had been so angry with that moron mayor, for betraying me, that my instincts had taken over. I had tossed him out of his pathetic old shell and then and struck him with my fangs, again and again, always only injecting very little venom into his system, so that he would not die immediately and would have to suffer on. Then, finally, shortly before the light in his eyes had faded, I opened my mouth and ate him. It just had felt right, even if I afterwards had had a funny feeling that it was wrong to eat the creatures that I killed.

Slowly Rango managed to control his colour and it went back to normal and a rather sad expression found itself onto his face. "He deserved it. Now, yer wanna have a glass of water in the saloon?" Rango cleared his throat, which he did pretty often when there was something awkward to him, and looked at me expectantly, so I nodded, even though I frowned down at him. I was curious if he had something to say to me.

I followed him into the bar but went right to the back of the dark building, there were no one else sat. Rango soon came after me, with two bottles of cactus juice in his one hand and a huge water vase in the other. Both he put down in front of me on the table and sat down on the chair, opposite to me.

After a couple of moment, Rango spoke up. "Say, Jake. Nobody wants te have the ol' mayor's house, so, if yer want it, yer can have it." Rango didn't dare to look at me, which I now was thankful for, because else he would have seen my rather shocked expression. I couldn't believe it. The sheriff was offering me, the Grim Reaper, the Snake of death, the incarnation of the devil himself, the house of the mayor. Rango must have lost his mind. That was the only possibility, but then again, I thought of something different. What was that one saying called? Keep your friend close to you, but your enemies even closer? I had to give it to this lizard. He was not dumb.

"Hmmm, well, if yer ask me so nicely, why not?"' ….

I made my way down the main road, when I suddenly saw some figure running towards me and I could not help it, but to sigh. The little figure which was heading towards me was that eye-eye girl called Priscilla. Ever since I had come to stay in town, she had followed me around where ever I went. At first I would threaten her and she would run away, but with the time she seemed to lose her fear of me and would always be close. I once asked the sheriff if he could not lock the little brat away or something, but Rango had just laughed and said, that in Priscilla's eyes, I was her hero or role-model…

'"Say, sheriff, can't yer just lock that wretched little gal away? If that stupid little thing keeps on following me, she'll end up in ma mouth!" I had stuck my head into the sheriff's office, the rest of my enormous body did not fit in.

Rango, clearly uncomfortable having my head in his house, had started shifting around and playing around with some papers, but then he suddenly laughed. "Well, see Jake. Priscilla sees yer as her hero. She wants to be just like ya. Tried to talk with her, but that girl won't listen! Damn stubborn, I tell ya!"

I did not answer. I could not answer. I was way too deep in thought. No one had ever looked up to me and seen a hero. A role-model. Yet that young girl wanted to be like me, wanted to have me as her company. Me. The one who killed many creatures. Suddenly I had a strange feeling, so I just scoffed and mutter a "Stupid girl!" and then pulled my head out of the sheriff's office.'

Since then I did not chase her away any more, it did nor bug me, to have her following me all the time. I still mostly didn't talk to her, but listened instead, to her stories. That girl knew everything what went on in town. She was better than any newspaper! And somehow, even though I would never admit it and clearly never showed it, I enjoyed having the little girl around, who so clearly did not fear me anymore.

After a couple of meters she had reached me and leaned heavily panting on my scaly body. Between loud gasps she tried to communicate with me. "Mister Rattlesnake Jake, sir. *gasp* Yer won't believe it! *gasp* I just saw it! *gasp*"

I scowled down at her but did not push her off me. "What are yer talking 'bout, girl?" I asked her, slightly annoyed. I hated it when someone didn't get to the point right away. In my eyes it just didn't make any sense. If you had something to say, you should say it and not talk around the whole thing!

"A snake arrived 'ere today! Her scales are on fire and her eyes are molten gold! She got that ol' barn house and she's Buford's new waitress and she spat cactus juice into Rango's face and-" I cut the little girl off, with a warning rattling of my tail. What did she say? A snake and female too? And what was that with the cactus juice?

'Hmmm, if that is true, I think I will even like the snake. Ha! Spitting cactus juice into the sheriff's face. Oh how I would have loved to see that!'

"Why don't ya show me, this snake who's on fire, girl." And with that I started to move towards the saloon, because the little girl had said she had gotten a job at Buford's saloon, so she would most likely be there. And something told me, that this would be very interesting. Not only hadn't I seen another snake in nearly two years, but contact with a woman, I hardly could even remember how a woman even looked like.

'Well Jake. Then it is high noon, that you refresh your memory.'

With an evil smirk playing around the corners of my mouth and a dangerous spark in my bright red and yellow eyes, I pushed to doors of the saloon open and entered, causing everything to go quiet, well nearly everything. Because just as I pushed my long body through the entrance of the saloon, did a screaming desert critter come flying past me, screaming at the top of his lungs. I just managed to duck in time.

I let out a vast row of swearwords and curses, only to be interrupted by something else.

"Now, does anyone else believe, that I am an incapable waitress?"

Immediately my eyes scanned the room, looking for the owner of the female voice and when I found her, both my eyebrows shot up. There, in the middle of the room, stood a female viper, looming over a couple of townspeople, while showing of her large fangs, from which reddish orange venom dripped down. I had never, in my entire life, seen a snake like her. Her scales were a fiery red and orange, even more intense in colouring as my eyes and her scales also seemed to stand away from her body, making her look rather spiky and to some extent even scary.

I smirked at her question and then, without even thinking it through, I raised my tail, declaring that I did, believe that she was incapable.


I loomed over a couple of the desert critters, bearing my fangs and letting my highly toxic venom slowly drip down causing the creatures fear and mental pain. I hadn't even noticed that everything was quiet, when I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. In a movement as fast as lightning, I spun my head around, only to lock eyes with an enormous rattlesnake.

I didn't even have to see the black hat on his head, or the gun which he wore instead of a rattle. One look into those hellfire red eyes, were enough to make me realise that I was looking into the eyes of the Grim Reaper and that, with him raising his tail instead of a non-existing, he had heard and seen everything. How embarrassing!

The fury seemed to be washed away from my face, instead a mixed expression, between curiosity and fear and even slight embarrassment took over. Now that I saw the outlaw in flesh, I understood why everyone was so scared of him. Even though very few things really scared me, the sight of the bigger snake did spark the fear inside my heart, but at the same time my curiosity but also my arrogance took over, so when I saw a rather devious smirk on his face, I furrowed my scaly brows and scowled at the larger viperous snake.

"What are you grinning at, stupid-head?" I quickly moved away from the tables and closer to the bar, which also brought me closer, much closer to the outlaw. To be precise, it brought me way too close for my liking.

"Watch what yer say, woman. Ya were the one who asked and I was the only one with enough spine te say something. So, what yer gonna do, sweetheart?" His voice was like rough velvet and a jolt of excitement raced through my body, but I did not dare to show that instead I just threw him a dirty look, stuck my tongue out at him in a rather childish manner, held my head up high and turned my back to the gunslinger. I was not so dumb, as to start a fight with the Grim Reaper. Or was I?


Review People!