Life on the frontier has settled down some since the old scores were settled, but that doesn't stop me from riding into town and taking a look around when the urge strikes.
Woke up in one of my favorite bunking spots, Manzanita Post. Took a walk outside and over to the General Store for some conversation. The old fights might be fought, but that doesn't scratch the itch that surfaces every so often for retribution on those who harm the good people of this land, those who cannot or will not defend themselves. Happened upon a Wanted poster at the train station for a derelict and his gang holed up over at the Aurora Basin. The crime? Murder.
Just like old times, I saddled up the horse I worked so hard those many moon ago to buy and we rode off towards the basin. Just me, my horse, my guns and a reckoning.
A gentle blanket of snow betrayed the scene that was about to unfold as I rode up on the gang. I decided to stay close to the waterline, which would limit the gang's ability to flank me should things head south. Took out my trusted Rolling Rock Rifle and commenced swift retribution for those who were wronged. First the compound guards closest to me, mostly gutshots but the occasional headshot just to remind those behind them that the skills of this particular ghost in the trees hadn't lost a step in his months of inactivity. Bodies dropped quickly and eventually I switched to the Henry Repeater to make quick work of those left. I saved the murderer for last.
Although I could have finished him from afar with the rifle, I rode up on him so I could see the whites of his eyes while this final act played itself out. The coward ran in the opposite direction, firing from the hip all the way. My days of patience and forgiveness, law and order, long since have faded after bearing witness to what those qualities can lead to out here - I read his crime back to him and delivered final justice.
I rode into Blackwater and collected my reward, although that was already harvested along with the reckoning delivered back in Tall Trees.
Things are quiet again, but the quiet only lasts so long before I get the urge to settle scores and bury hatchets. I'll be back again before too long, just to look around and see what's changed, and to help deliver justice with that which stays the same.
