Over the course of two months, the blonde had landed herself a rather enjoyable job as a rider and also had gained the gun skills she needed in order to take on harder routes. The first month working she spent as much free time as she could going over Jak's instructions with the pistols. After the second week, the callouses on her thumbs began to lessen and harden which allowed the blonde to handle practicing for longer periods of time growing faster on her draw. The woman could pull her guns out and fire them off rather quickly practicing on firing six times with each pistol the last two weeks of the first month. Beginning on the second month, Jak had noticed the callouses on the hands of the other rider and finally caught Haruka's attention after she returned from a run into the nearest town.
"Blondy, catch." murmured the woman as she threw a box of shells in the direction of the mounted rider. Haruka rose in her saddle standing in the stirrups and managed to catch the box before realizing what they were and smirked a bit. "Don't look at me like that, kid. Go start firing at the targets with those bullets and prove to me your worthy to start riding the harsher routes we riders take." she grumbled.
It didn't take long for the woman to ride her horse around into the barn to get him taken care of after that. She was a bit curious to see just how that kind of practice would pay off with the guns actually loaded for the first time. Her tack had been removed off the horse and she moved to brush him down before leaving him in a stall to pick at a bit of hay. The animal needed to cool down quite a bit before she would dare give him water knowing full well the ill effects that would have on the beast. Once her saddle and reigns were put up with the others, she grabbed her holster out of the saddlebags and calmly put it on glancing down to see how it felt. The way the holster and guns felt around her waist only made her more at ease on keeping them on her in the future.
She started practicing firing off the gun that night for a solid hour going through the box of shells in the process. While the practicing she did truly did increase her accuracy of hitting the targets, her wrists had to make the adjustments of the guns recoil. The first few times she shot but not in the center of the can but she still hit them nonetheless either to the far left or far right corners. She cursed in a bit of frustration but she would soon fix that error in her shooting with the next box of shells she got her hands on. Time and time again the blonde would practice and eventually she became deadly accurate after the fifth box of shells she went through. It seemed the way Jak had explained how to shoot had rubbed off well on the young student showing she could handle shooting well at the end of the second month. With that, Dobson gave her more freedom to take some of the harder routes on the mail runs.
The blonde rider and her mustang took numerous letters to dispatch camps for the Calvary and United States army at times when her routes took in in fort location areas. She was one of the fastest riders some of the men had seen in a long time though they all thought the rider was male like Dobson did. Most of the time it never bothered her since no man bothered to harass her as much as other women when she decided to stay in small towns over night on long extended trips. Matter of fact, she had gotten stuck needing to rest her rather exhausted horse in a small town which was slowly being settled into by quite a few people from the east of the country. It didn't take the woman long to figure that one out as she noticed how the majority of the people dressed. The men seemed to enjoy flaunting their wealth with their suites made of fine material while the women were content in their elaborate dresses walking the boardwalks from shop to shop gathering up some minor place got Haruka's blood to curl as she remembered the exact reason she had left the eastern part of the United States in the first place.
Grumbling a bit beneath her breath, she spurred her horse turning him to walk toward the nearest livery stable where she took liberty of dismounting. The rider took the time to let a reign drop before stretching out her rather sore legs from beneath the chaps and black jeans she took a habit of wearing. The chaps were a bit scrapped up but otherwise in decent shape as they did their job protecting the rider from thorns and other slicing debris. She finally stood straight and grabbed the reign off the ground only moving into the stables to find the owner.
"Excuse me, sir? Are you by chance the owner of this here stable?" she inquired toward a short and balding individual who was half asleep on a bale of hay. It didn't take much for him to stir as Haruka's horse snorted rather loudly. The action sent the man in a flurry of motion before he froze noticing the odd rider in front of him with a horse who looked like he had done enough running for the day.
"Course I am, mister. I take it you want to leave him here over night?" he finally murmured showing a southern accent.
"Yes sir, I do. However, I was wondering if perhaps I could use the loft to sleep in for the evening as well. You see I have a habit of not leaving my horse along on his own at night."
The man sighed before looking the person over in front of him again. It wasn't often he got odd requests from an owner to stay in his stable over night with their animals but he figured he could allow it. He gave a calm nod toward Haruka showing he was fine with her staying in the loft. "Just make sure you pay for any hay you use along with the boarding fee for the evening of five dollars. Each hay bale will cost ya a dollar."
Haruka gave a calm nod herself before reaching into her back pocket behind the tattered and weather worn brown duster of hers. She removed her wallet and handed the man six dollars knowing she'd be using a bale of hay to feed her horse. He took it without complaint and watched her as she walked to the back of the stables picking out a stall to put her buckskin mustang up for the night. It didn't take the rider long at all to remove her saddle and other items off her horse only to carry them up into the loft with her where she would use them later on that evening. Once she had a spot settled out with loose hay and had her sleeping bag set up underneath her saddle, she turned on her booted heels and climbed back down the ladder and left the barn for a short while needing herself a drink for the night. Even a Pony Express rider found themselves thirsty for a drink now and then and it didn't take her long to find the nearest saloon.
She pushed the door aside and walked into the establishment immediately wishing she hadn't upon seeing the amount of gentlemanly figures at the majority of the tables. In the pit of her stomach she could feel that the night was not going to end well for her if she didn't manage to behave somewhat. She cursed beneath her breath before approaching the bar counter noticing quite a lot of eyes on her. The citizens of the town must not have been used to seeing drifters or people like her move through the town much as she seemed to cause quite a stir amongst the other patrons. Haruka merely ignored the chatter and simply kept walking allowing her spurs to sound off with each step her black boots took. Reaching the bar, she put her arm against it before taking a seat on a stool calmly ignoring the sideways glance from the bartender on he far right. Another tender turned from facing the numerous array of bottles only to turn and spot the man sitting on the stool with a dark cowboy hat upon his head.
"What will it be, sir?" asked the bar tender calmly while cleaning a shot glass with a clean cloth.
"I'll take a shot of whiskey." responded Haruka calmly having gotten used to being called sir.
The bar tender turned and moved to grab a bottle only to get a hand on his shoulder from the other individual behind the bar working. He sent a wary glance back toward the drifter a moment before looking down to his friend. The exchanged some minor heated words from what Haruka could make out but she noticed the one with a slightly curly mustache back off to the other end of the bar where he had been when she walked in. The other tender with a slightly gray head of hair returned with a shot glass and filled it full with the whiskey leaving the bottle out for the woman to use to her leisure.
She gave him a nod of thanks before placing a few coins on the bar surface paying for a few small shots while she was there. After downing the first shot, she shivered inwardly from the hot and strong liquid going down into her gullet. It was certainly an acquired taste that was for certain but the blonde got used to the sensation after having another shot. While she enjoyed the minor time ignoring the company within the fancy saloon, her ears couldn't help but pick up a particularly strange sound from within a saloon. Then again it probably wasn't as strange since the establishment was an upper class kind of place so perhaps the sound of a violin playing was quite a custom to the normal patrons of the bar. Nonetheless, the sound caught the attention to the wandering rider and she soon rose from the stool to look for the player of such entrancing music.