"Viper"
Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun, and I'm not making any profit from this. I'm poor, so nobody sue.
Luz Sandoval, proud new inheritor of the Agave Saloon, wiped down the blue tiles of the bar in slow circles. The place was as quiet as it would ever get; it was late afternoon and the noisy lunch break crowd had largely trailed away. She bent down to put away the washrag, and looked up to see the most dangerous creature on the planet perched at the end of her bar.
A pair of bright eyes glittered at her in the afternoon heat. She saw the quick flicker of a pink tongue, and fear began to rise in the pit of her stomach.
Her memory threw up an afternoon several years ago, when she was eight, before her parents had bought the bar. She was walking home with her father after his shift digging the town well and she had frozen in fright when she saw a horned viper lying in the road, two steps in front of her.Everyone knew that this snake, so sleek and beautiful, could strike soundlessly and kill a man in seconds.
"Stay there." Dad had said, "It just needs help, see where it's hurt?" Luz noticed that the tip of the viper's tail was crushed, as if a car had rolled over it in the road. Her father swung his shovel blade down from his shoulder, scooped up the snake, and placed it safely on the side of the road, where it slithered back towards the dunes.
"If you treat animals with respect, even the most dangerous ones won't hurt you." he had said, as they walked on. The grown up Luz studied the sleek and silent occupant at the end of the bar. She could not leave things in this state, something had to be done. If she moved quickly and quietly, she would probably not be hurt.
She would show no fear. With silent steps and quick fingers, Luz approached the stool where Legato Bluesummers was eating and held his hair out of his face.