Boy I bet I threw you guys for a loop! Who's tied to the bumper? Is it Max?! NOPE! Bahahaha~…. Any who, on with the story, before I get shot!
Chapter Two:
Three figures make their way across the sparse landscape under the heated gaze of a blazing sun. With Brodie at the lead and our lovely lady and her four-legged companion taking up the rear, this arrangement having been decided after the woman reiterated the fact that she had justified trust issues.
"So, ya found the nag at a butcher's lot and decided outta the goodness of yer heart to save the thing?" Brodie said over his should.
"Yes."
"I take it you didn't buy nor trade for him, did ya?"
"Nope."
"Care to share the details of that little endeavor?"
"Not really."
"Oh come on, girly! We've been walking for hours, my ears are itching to hear a bit more about ya." Brodie exclaimed slightly and turned to face her while he proceeded to walk backwards.
"Ya might just have ear mites."
"Ear mites." Brodie crossed his arms and looked to Dundee, "She always this difficult?" Dundee flicked his ears forward a moment as if he were listening then let them relax, flopping to and fro as he trekked along, giving way to a rather comically bored expression on his long face. "Well, ain't you helpful." The man then turned with a sigh, grumbling about the lack of back-story his new companions offered him, and gave up for the time being.
Hours passed by rather uneventfully for the trio, rarely stopping and not seeming to be getting anywhere. The terrain had gone from flat desert to great sand dunes, back to flat desert and then to an abundance of rocky outcroppings leading into a spider's web of canyons. It was needless to say that some one was bound to start complaining eventually.
"Yo, Blondie… Do you have any idea as to where the hell we are?" Brodie sounded rather exasperated from his perch atop Dundee. Having been heaved over the horse's back after he had collapsed due to heat, dehydration and exhaustion. Though by the way he perked up a short time later the woman suspected he was acting. She decided to let it slide and leave the man be for the time being, even if his growing complaints were beginning to grate on her nerves.
"Hello~ anybody home~?" The man persisted, "I asked you a perfectly legitimate question, girly."
"That you did."
"So, where might we be goin' to then?"
At this the lady stopped in a patch of shade from the stretch of canyon they currently resided. She looked to the sky a moment, then to the left and to the right, contemplating. She then turned around to face Brodie, "We're in the Spider's Trap." She said making quotations with her fingers.
"Spider's Trap?" Brodie repeated, "Don't tell me that you've gone an got us lost!"
"Oh, as if you could do any better. You would probably end up gettin' us tangled up with some more cannibals if I let you lead."
"Right, ya had t'bring that up, and you leading us straight into The Spiders Trap is the exact opposite of lost?" He said crossing his arms.
"It is if you know where you're going." She countered also crossing her arms.
"And you do?"
"I do." They stared at each other a moment, each sizing the other up.
"… Fine. Oh wise silent one. Sorry if I show a blatant lack of confidence in your navigation abilities… It definitely has nothing to do with the fact that you have obvious memory restrictions."
"Understood." Then she smiled slightly, "I didn't survive out here all by my lonesome with out a trick or two."
Brodie's face fell into one of discontent, "Why do I feel a sudden uneasiness at that statement?"
"Because you have good reason to." She replied turning and continuing their trek through the vast twists and turns of the canyon, "Or did you forget about how you came to be in my company?"
"No." He slumped slightly in the saddle, "How could I forget I travel in the presence of an utterly crazy woman with amnesia and her incredibly well trained animal who could probably kill me with a swish of his tail!" At the end of this outburst he raised his hands to the sky in a dramatic gesture.
An hour and a couple dozen twists and turns later, Brodie found himself staring into a gaping hole in the side of a canyon wall.
"Shut yer mouth before somethin' crawls in and lays eggs."
"That's a huge fuckin' hole…" Brodie said in amazement.
The woman shook her head and continued walking into the mouth of the cave with Dundee at her heels still toting their newly acquired fairly talkative third wheel.
"Don't tell me you guys live in here." He said while inspecting the cave's interior, ducking his head every now and again to dodge a low hanging stalactite.
"You might consider dismounting soon, the ceiling gets pretty low up ahead before it opens up again." She informed him casually over her shoulder.
"Right. Is this the part where you ditch me and leave me to wander hopelessly in this canyon death trap?" Brodie questioned with a humorless chuckle as he ungracefully slid from Dundee's saddle, catching his left foot awkwardly in the stirrup causing him to hop along side the still moving horse rather comically until he loosed himself.
"If that were the case, I would have done so already." Answered the woman.
"Oh good… Wait! A thought just occurred to me. You're not a cannibal, are you?! B'cause that would just be my luck! Make it home with a beautiful desert maiden only to be served up as stew for her group of ravenous ruffians!" Brodie exclaimed while making faces and waving his arms exasperated at his sudden imaginings.
In reaction to the sudden outburst, Dundee flicked an ear back lazily then curved his neck slightly to look at the man now walking behind him, as if to give him a look that said, "Really?"
And as if to drive the point home, Dundee wiped his tail out just enough to smack the man across the face, causing Brodie to jump and possibly think on how ridiculous he sounded.
All the while their seemingly tireless female counterpart never faltered in her march down the cave tunnel, the light from the entrance now a dim backlight barely allowing visibility. One can sympathize with why Brodie was suddenly on edge, with the supposed 'mad woman' leading him to his untimely death, but his fears were for naught. Just as Brodie was about to open another can of complaints the passage veered suddenly to the left then continued on and opened up into a higher vaulted tunnel. This tunnel had a light at the end of it.
"Good God all mighty, I'm dead already." Brodie said flatly as he peered around Dundee's rear end.
A mumbled, "Good lord, he's a dramatic bastard, isn't he?" could barely be heard as the lady whispered into Dundee's left ear, who simply sighed and licked his lips in reply, his focus forward again.
As they continued threw to the exit of the tunnel Brodie, much to the woman's relief, had gone silent. That is until they stepped out into the sunlight where his silence burned away like a dried leaf.
"You've got yerself a fuckin' oasis!" he exclaimed as he looked out over a modest view, the landscape having opened up slightly though still boxed in by the canyons high walls on either side. The canyon stretched on for miles on end, it seemed, while cradling a small river that cut its center and snaked around lazily, splitting off in a few directions in the distance. The plant life was healthy looking; a very welcome contrast to the endless desert that surrounded it, and a few birds and animals could be seen flitting about in the sparse greenery.
Just as Brodie was about to pass by his new lady friend in all manner of excitement, a light yet firm hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Easy there, hoss. Good things come to those who wait… unless you consider a bullet to the brain a good thing."
"Cryptic and foreboding. What the hell am I in for now?" He said rhetorically.
A stirring of earth came from above as a pair of long thin legs and bare feet resituated themselves over the edge of what seemed to be the main entrance to this hidden paradise. Brodie's face pulled into a grimace as he turned to look up and found a gun barrel accompanying the limbs. Our lady on the other hand paid no mind to the dangling company; her attention was forward, a grin threatening to escape her lips. Then she announced simply, "I come to trade."