The Red Woods, Redwood Run
CRACK!
BURN!
SLURP!
GULP!
…
"So… let me see if I could compress all of that information into an understandable account without sounding like I am losing my mind."
The bounty hunter seated across the fire from him raised an amused brow and lip at that, a bowl of half eaten soup in her hand.
"You are… a wanted bounty hunter in several states including this one, employed as an enforcer by a semi-anonymous organization determined to rid the world of any and all forms of magical abilities in the name of an honest, hardworking society built on skill rather luck, but were then terminated of your employment and then blacklisted by said organization after a job gone wrong and are now currently on the run from the law while surviving off of low-paying bounties from under-the-radar clients."
…
"To be honest, aside from the magical attributes, it sounds like a modern take on a spaghetti western come to life."
"And how many modern takes on spaghetti westerns have you watched?"
"Just 2, El Mariachi and Desperado." a subtle smirk sneaked onto Zora's smile.
"Funny, I was half-expecting Three Amigos to make that list." the missionary huffed a small scoff at such a slandering assumption.
"That asinine attempt at Hollywood humor? Please, Robert Rodriguez has more dignity to the Latino name than John Landis and those three idiotas in sombreros could have ever hoped to have." a short silence exited his bold claim.
Followed by a pair of good-hearted laughs from the bounty hunter and missionary as they both giggled away at the silly nature of it all.
"Ah, but we are not here to discuss my niche movie preferences." a hand held on Nada's chest as he calmed his breath.
"The real question is: what are you going to do now, seeing as you are pretty much unemployed."
"Well… I guess I'll have to keep playing the long game again." she sullenly stirred her spoon in the murky mix of chicken and cream. "Maybe try to get back on the good graces of my older clients again if I could."
"Do you not have anyone to turn to… any family perhaps?"
…
It was at this moment that Nada got a full frontal view of Zora's barely contained ire in action, her hands holding tightly onto her spoon and bowl as both began to glow brown with rust, with the soup leaking through as a result.
"Oh, I… I am sorry."
"If you don't change the subject right now, you're gonna be a hell of a whole lot more than just being sorry, Blood Eyes." seeing her point made murderously clear, Nada was quick to correct himself.
"Right, um… how about your initiation into Bliss Ocean, how did that happen?"
A seething sigh escaped her lips as her spoon and bowl soon returned to the silver they once were to prevent anymore soup from leaking, herself seeming to have returned to some sense of calm and she turned to the missionary, though not without a small glare to put a shiver down his spine.
"It was an easy opportunity for them. They liked what they saw and gave me a call. By the time it was all over, I was pretty much put in with the big kids table, no questions asked."
"And these individuals, how would you describe them?"
There was an audible groan of disgust from the bounty hunter as she recounted her story to the man.
"Bunch of creepers, they were." she took a slow slurp from her now cold soup, strangely savory the chilling taste it gave her.
"There was this one girl, dressed like the Mad Hatter himself, even sounded like him too. Then there was the other guy, or girl. I really couldn't tell from the red cloak and shades they wore and really, I don't wanna care."
…
"And then…" her voice hesitated for a moment, as if feeling truly traumatized for the first time in her life. "There was the boss." there was a light shake in her head, her eyes staring blankly into the crackling fire, unmoving and unblinking.
"I don't even wanna begin to think about him…"
She looked up from the flame for a moment to see the missionary staring back at her, red eyes full of fearful concern. It strangely comforted her knowing he was willing to sit through this unpleasant memory with her.
"Are you okay?" a sad but small smile lined her lips after a short silence.
"Yeah… yeah, I'm okay." she looked at her bowl of soup. It was mostly empty now, except for a few uneaten chicken bits, not that she bothered to finish up at this point.
"Are you sure?" the bounty hunter looked to retort her reassurance to him, but now, all she could muster was a solemn sigh as her eyes held downcast.
"It's just that… I don't know what I'm even trying to do. Am I doing this because this is what I signed up for? Do I do it just for a bit of fun? Am I even cut out for this line of work?"
Her spoon and bowl fell uselessly to the side, an arm hanging loosely on her lap as she took off her orange cowboy hat and held it in her hand. What was once a smiling symbol of pride and joy to her, now felt like nothing more than a mocking motif of her constantly climbing list of failures after failures.
"Lately… I'm just not sure anymore."
…
PAT!
A comforting palm rested on Zora's shoulder. Looking up, she saw Nada sitting right next to her, his face wearing a soft and supportive smile.
"I think I know what you need."
"What's that? A cheap bottle of booze and some dollar store cigarettes?" the two shared a small laugh at such a sarcastic suggestion that seemed to lift her spirits up a little bit before the missionary cleared his throat.
"No, but I will say this: we can have a little fun in the woods." the bounty hunter could not help a humorous brow at that as the missionary met her teasing smirk with a semi-serious scowl.
"And no, it is not the kind of fun most people think when they are all alone in the woods."
"Hey, I ain't the one who brought it up."
"No, but you were certainly thinking about it."
"Only because you implied it, Blood Eyes."
…
"I know." he leaned back and sighed in exasperated embarrassment, not noticing Zora resting her hand on his chest until he opened his eyes, seeing the warm smile on her face.
"You know I was only playing, Nada." he smiled in return, placing a comforting palm on hers and simply enjoying the moment with her.
"I know." a pair of soft, subtle sighs escaped the two's lips as a short but benign pause built between them, until the bounty hunter brought up the brass tacks.
"So… whaddya have in mind?"
—
Gods & Demons around the World - Piasa
When one mentions dragons, they usually imagine destructive fire breathing monsters in Europe, or benevolent serpents riding the winds of Asia. But as it turns out, North America also has its own version of the popular mythical winged beast. Described as consisting of the talons of a bird, the wings of a bat, the antlers of a deer and most notably a hauntingly human face, the creature originally preyed on the plain's bountiful herd of buffalo until it saw a dreadfully delicious opportunity in the arriving Illini people.
—
When Nada made his suggestion known, Zora was quick to initially refer to it as 'completely and utterly ridiculous'.
A simple game of Marco Polo, or as he referred to call it, Poco Loco, in the middle of the woods with only the gleam of the moonlight to guide their stage.
The last time she played cat and mouse in the Red Woods, one of her Remingtons got smashed to splinters, she lost her two-bit bounty to the cops and then proceeded to lose her job, all in the same day. She severely doubted that playing the same game with a different name was going to give her any semblance of solace on that miserable Monday afternoon.
But strangely enough, the bounty hunter soon found herself having the time of her life, surprisingly more so than she ever did whenever she was on the job and especially more so when she was still in cahoots with Bliss Ocean.
No bounties.
No long arms.
No enigmatic higher ups breathing down her neck every time she had blooming bounties to fill while eluding lingering long arms.
It was just the light of the moon, the shadows in the forest, herself and the man who had come to be her first real friend having an uproariously wonderful time together.
Speaking of which.
"Poco!"
"Loco!" a sudden shift across the woods, a shadow stalking amongst the endless sea of trees.
"Poco!"
"Loco!"
The call was getting closer and closer, louder and louder.
"Poco!"
…
"Poco?"
JUMP!
"GAH!" a blinding blur suddenly burst out from a nearby berry bush as a pair of hands suddenly wrapped themselves around Nada's waist, knocking his hat out of his head and sending both it and him tumbling across the dirt and dust before skidding to a stop by a nearby stump.
Struggling to sit himself up because of his unseen attacker, the missionary risked a glance to see the feminine form of the beautiful bounty hunter, eyes soft and a blissfully beatific smile lining on her lips as was the bliss of her brown hair flowing down her back without her hat obscuring a single strand.
Mother Maria, was she ever so perfect.
"Loco." she sneaked a sly smirk at his expense, to which he huffed a small scoff in response.
"That was a dirty trick."
"All's fair in love and war, Blood Eyes." Nada might have had some form of retort for that.
But neither would have really cared as the two found themselves unable to look away from one another. Red and brown eyes stared silently at each other, almost longingly as their smiles breathed the occasional soft hum. It was like a trance that neither of them ever wanted to break free from.
But the precarious position they were in would say otherwise.
"Oh, um… s-sorry about that." Zora quickly removed herself from him, struggling to hold down the red hue on her face as Nada finally sat up, he himself also finding difficulty in hiding his own blush.
"N-no no, it is alright." an awkward pause passed between the pair with neither speaking a word, before the bounty hunter turned to her friend with a serene smile.
"Thank you, Nada… I really needed that."
The missionary offered a warm grin in return.
"Just happy to be able to help, Dawn." Zora raised an amused brow at that.
"Dawn? What, don't got a fancy Spanish nickname for me?"
"An overused Hollywood stereotype." he then flashed a sly smirk of his own. "Unless you want to be seen like that." the bounty hunter rolled her eyes with a light grin.
"Ha ha… huh." a hand held over her mouth to hold in a gaping yawn. She had been having so much fun with him, she did not realize the hours passed even as the moon passed by them. And now the chicken coma was beginning to kick in.
"Tired?"
"Hmm… yeah." her eyes weighed heavily, begging for the sweet release of slumber as she struggled to remain awake.
"Think you can head back into town, now?"
"No, never. You… hmm." another yawn escaped her lips, followed by a hiccup and a light laugh. "You'll never take me alive."
Nada could only shake his head in amusement at the now apparently drunken-by-soup woman sitting beside him before gently holding onto her swaying shoulders.
"Come on, now."
"Okay… Blood Eyes." slowly, shakily but soon steadily, the bounty hunter was eventually brought back up to her feet.
FALL!
Before immediately collapsing to the cold hard ground like a puppet with its strings cut, the effects of the cream of chicken having finally taken to full effect and putting her into a slumbering food coma, all while Nada could only watch with an embarrassed sigh and a hand over his silver hair.
"Oh dear."
—
Redwood County Jail, Redwood Run
PUSH!
"M."
PUSH!
"U."
PUSH!
"R."
PUSH!
"D."
PUSH!
"E."
PUSH!
"R!"
…
"Red rum!" appointed town sheriff, or whatever could hope to pass as sheriff in the backwater, brain dead town of Redwood Run, Gorou Shimizaki, smiled in ignorant satisfaction in his asinine attempt of first grade spelling on his front desk using nothing but a brown bag of uneaten Chef Boyardee Mini ABCs and 123s he had ordered from Howdy just a couple of days ago as he leaned back on his on his chair.
"Now that is a productive day's spelling." he scratched away at his rainbow sprinkle-covered bushy beard.
Before said rainbow sprinkles got stuck up his nose and started to itch.
…
"Uh oh."
SNEEZE!
…
"Aw, donuts." the sheriff frowned as his handiwork scattered across the floor. But as he was about to go clean them up…
KNOCK! KNOCK!
"Huh, who could that be at this hour?" he moved for the blue door and turned the rusted knob before opening.
CREAK!
…
"Ola."
"Why, hello there friend!" Gorou smiled warmly at the man in black, as he does with almost anyone that came to his office, by choice or not. "What brings you here?"
SNORE!
…
"Oh." his eyes lowered in questioning at the sleeping woman in orange and brown wrapped up tightly in the missionary's arms, her slumbering sighs passing with each labored breath she took as her head leaned on his chest.
"I do not suppose that you have an extra cell to spare for one more, do you?"
…
"Bring her in."