The Cowboys

Bethany woke to the gunshot, immediately grabbing her shotgun an cocking it. "Damn drunks," she muttered, laying her gun by the bed. "I knew I shouldn't've rented a room here." She lay back down, unable to fall asleep now that she was wide awake. When she heard steps running across the hall, she stepped quickly to her door and opened it. She saw women's hair fly down the stairs along with drunken shouting.

Sighing, Bethany went back in her room, grabbed her hat and shotgun and went downstairs. She saw a woman talk to a shouting drunk, complaining that his hat was shot off. The woman went outside, and Bethany went back upstairs to see if she could fall back asleep.

** Im not going to be able to get on a comp for a while... sorry... Ill post when i get back from vacation... sorry if this causes any inconveniences**

Jade:
She looked up at Matt's face and saw a look of fleeting surprise cover his face, but it was gone as quick as it had come. A half grin was on his face now. He pushed himself off the hay sack and crossed his arms.
"You haven't changed that much," he said, raising a knowing eyebrow. "You've done some pretty crazy things for money, if I remember correctly." He was staring straight into her strange eyes. Jade clentched her teeth.
"I don't wanna talk about it right now," she muttered. He smirked.
"Yeah, sure," he said. "We'll talk later." He turned around and headed to his bunk, throwing one last comment over his shoulder.
"We will talk though, don't you worry about that." Jade scowled and stormed out of the barn.

The next morning, Bethany woke, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She leaned out her window and smiled. Good. The sun's just coming up. That'll give me enough time to ask around about that Billy Cook and, if I get lucky, maybe about Jack, too. Changing back into her jeans, she put on her hat, grabbed her shotgun, and went downstairs. She nodded to the bartender, who smiled at her.

"Y' leavin' so soon, BJ?" he asked politely.

Bethany smiled back. "Yep. Livin' don't come cheap, y'know."

The bartender gave a hearty laugh. "Sure don't. You come back soon, now; visit yer old Uncle Joey sometime."

Bethany chuckled. "Will do." She walked out of the bar and headed for the barn next to it. She immediately saw her horse, Phantom, who nickered at her. She walked up to him, petting his forehead. "Hey, baby. Did'ja miss me?" She set her shotgun by the stall door and opened it, just noticing the man sleeping next to the stall in a small stack of hay. She furrowed her brow.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked the sleeping form. She didn't expect to get a reply.

Billy Cook

"Yeah...i s'ppose I do" was I blushing? I hoped not.
"Oh...it's ok you..." whatever Georgia was going to say was interruptted by Pippa return to the dining room.
"Where is everyone?! I thought they said they'd be no time at all," Pippa looked as stressed as someone in a hostage situation even though this was such a minor 'crisis'. Ah, different priorities I guess.
"Have you considered that they might not be comin' back?" Jude piped up.
"They wouldn't..." Pippa replied with doubt in her eyes and her voice. Suddenly, like some dynamite had just gone off in her undergarments* Pippa shot over to the door, ripped it open and rushed off to find her lost dinner guests.
Jude made a face that implied she thought Pippa was worried about nothing (to put it politely) and Georgia rang her hands awkwardly and seemed to be trying to stare at her feet through the table.

Feeling this silence needed to be filled somehow I suggested we had a look around the town at night as I had only just arrived in town. Jude said they hadn't been in town very long either and practically jumped out of her chair in her eagerness. Georgia wasn't so sure about this plan - "Maybe we should wait for Pippa to come back. She seemed awful stressed that the others had left" - but after I explained that dinner was technically over now ("si it wouldnt really be rude to leave now would it?")and Jude added, almost only to be included in the convincing, exactly what Pippa could do with her plans to continue dinner 'after darn near all her guests have up and left' Georgia very relcutantly agreed to accompany us into town.I like to think her accompanying us was mostly my doing, but I have to give Jude some credit: her description was very good, lots of adjectives...Anyway, so our little trio set off back into town, not realising just how far away this ranch was from it. When the town was still in the distance after two and a half miles we gave up and returned to the ranch disheartened. We all went our separate ways to our accomodation - Georgia giving me a furtive glance which actually made my knees feel weak for a second as she hurried after her exhuberent sister - and I lay restlessly in my simple bed for hours, thinking over that days events. And Georgia.

The sun was rising, rosey and fresh on the next day, when I was awoken by the clunking boots of someone coming back from the corral. I dragged myself out of bed - no use trying to get back to bed until I had satisfied my curiosity - and looked out of my rooms small window to see a female figure marching proudly and happily across the yard. Her name was Adriane or something and I hadn't really interacted with her that much yet. Ah there was plenty of time for that, I thought as I stumbled back to the warm cinfines of my bed. I managed to steal another couple of hours of sleep before I was roughly woken ready for the next day's work.




*would they say "undergarments" back then...?

Jack Stanley

After being ushered back inside by a mildly annoyed looking Pippa, Jack found his way to the room that had been set aside for him. He kicked off his boots, tossed aside his jacket and laid down his pistols before collapsing back onto his bed, simply tilting his hat over his face so he wouldn't have to put up with the sun early the next morning. He thanked his lucky stars he was little more than security, or he knew Ty would be kicking him awake at some ungodly hour.

His hat was warm when his eyes opened drowsily the next day, the sun beating down on it, tiny shafts of light popping in to it. The voice that had woken him shouted out again, "Jake, get up, man! I can't run this ranch on my own, y'know!"

Jack groaned, picking his hat off his face and sitting up, rubbing his eyes, "Wass the time?"

"Sevenish."

Jack groaned as he started pulling his boots on, "Christ, Ty. I'm just a glorified watchdog, ain't I? No rustler's gonna be up at this time, they're lazy as hell. If they want to get you while you're sleeping, they'll do it late at night, not now."

"You're meant to be helping with the cattle, too, Jake."

He sighed, pulling on his coat and returning his hat to his head and guns to his side as he stood, "Yeah, yeah. Alright, I'll help ya out. But I don't usually do early mornings, you know that." He shook his head, "But I guess I'll have to get used to it, huh?"

Tyrel:

Tyrel laughed and nodded. "After you eat you'll feel better." He smiled as he turned and walked back into the living room, then the dinning room. Pippa was busy as a bee walking around and getting the other two (think that the right number) to set the table letting them know where everything was. She smiled at him and gave him a hug then went right back to getting the eggs, bacon, biscuts, gravy, and hashbrowns on the table.

"Where is everyone else?" She asked.

"Bed probably." He replied leaning agianst the door frame. Pippa glidded past him, went to the huge triangle that was hanging on the porch and rang it so loud he had to cover his ears.

"Good God, are you tryin' to make us deaf?" Billy yawned. PIppa smiled at him and walked to the kitchen getting the coffee and then handing him a cup.

"Slam". A door down the hall was closed roughly and jolted Jade out of her restless sleep. She sighed and rubbed her eyes, the events of the previous night running through her head. She grimaced when she remembered who she had encountered in the stables.

She got up and hastily made the bed and after scratching Grant behind the ears removed a small pouch from her belongings. She dumped out its contents of bills and coins and counted them quickly, her lips moving as she did. She winced. Three bucks. That would barely get her through the week.

She stuffed the money back into the sack and plopped down on the bed to ponder her next course of action. She decided that avoiding Matt was her first priority. He would make her pay up so that he wouldn't tell about...

A pang of regret shot through her. She wish she had never stolen that colonel's money. He had owed it to her for a while and she snagged it from him. Matt found out but blackmailed her, forcing her to pay him to keep quiet. She had continued to filch money from wherever she could, and the thefts piled up to put a sum of money on her head that would buy a herd of horses. She had stopped stealing after a while, choosing to make her way honestly, but the thefts and the bounty was still there. And now Matt was here too. Yes, she definitely had to avoid Matt.

She got up and whistled to Grant, heading downstairs to find something to eat. When she reached the final steps her heart leaped inside of her at the sight of the bounty hunter she had passed on the way in conversing with the bar tender. She turned her head and kept it low, quickly heading out the door.

She was immediately faced with a problem. How would she get her horse out of the stables without grabbing the attention of Matt. She stood contemplating the dilemma and decided to sneak in and feed Stonewall, then quietly take him out.

She opened the stable door quietly, wincing at the slight creak the door made. She took some hay from a stack and placed it in his stall, gently stroking his nozzle. She gasped when the door to the stable opened and the bounty hunter came in. She quickly hid behind a pile of stacked hay bails and tried to quiet her breathing. The bounty hunter took one look at Matt and raised her eyebrows and asked,
"Who the heck are you?"

Adriane

I yawned, opening my eyes to the sound of a rooster crowing and a horse nickering and a triangle ringing. I was partially disoriented; why was I still in the corral, under a saddle blanket? Something about sitting still, petting the seven or eight horses that had finally come up to me, then walking around and examining them...

Oh yeah. And then I went into the barn and grabbed a saddle blanket, not willing to leave the horses so soon. An overnight presence would certainly get them used to me.

And then I was asleep.

I sat up, stiffly at that after falling asleep leaning on the fence. I yawned again and stretched, my back and shoulder popping loudly. The horses were ignoring me, well, kind of. The stallion was watching me, sniffing my head.

I touched the grey muzzle with a finger. "Hello, you."

He nickered, backing away when I stood up and gingerly clambered over the fence rail. I could already smell breakfast cooking; bacon, eggs, buiscuts, hashbrowns, and gravy. A fine meal that would wake me completely.

I waved at Pippa and Tyrel, who were both on the porch, once I stepped out of the barn and into the front yard. "Guess I lost track of time," I yawned again, rotating my shoulders. "I fell asleep in the corral, but good thing." I stopped and stood near Tyrel, addressing him, now. "The stallion has accepted me. Your herd will be easier to handle now."

Tyrel:

Tyrel smiled and nodded. "Good, we'll work with them after we get some food in our stomachs." he pattted PIppa's back and she smiled and hten walked into the dining room after ringing the triangle.

"How old is she?" Adriane asked.

"Seventeen." He replied as he watched Pippa organize a few things while she waited for others.

Jade

Jade crouched behind the bail, her heart beating faster as the bounty hunter drew nearer. Jade moved her head slightly to the left and saw that Grant was still roaming the stables!
Stupid dog, she thought, he's gonna get both of us in trouble.

She motioned slightly with her left hand for him to come, then decided that it would be best if he stayed. She hadn't caught his eye anyway; the bounty hunter had.

He was cocking his head curiously and began trotting up to her. Jade gasped silently and winced and he came up and nudged the woman's hand with his muzzle.

Bethany looked down as she felt something cold against her hand and smiled. "Hey, puppy," she said, squatting down to his level. The dog sat as she scratched his ears. "And who do you belong to, huh?"

As if the dog understood her, he stood and trotted up to a bail of hay. Bethany followed warily, making sure to take her shotgun with her just in case. Cocking it, she peered around the bail and saw a woman try to make a run for it. She lifted her shotgun before the woman took another step.

"Stop, or I'll shoot!" Bethany bellowed. The woman didn't listen. She started up a ladder to the hayloft, and Bethany ran after, grabbing her by the collar of her shirt and yanking her down onto her back. She pointed the gun at the woman, who was now at her mercy. Bethany smiled. "I told you to stop," she said innocently. "Now, if you would've, I wouldn't have had to stop you by force. It was your choice." Her smile got wider as she recognized the woman. "Ah, Miss Jade. How nice to see you. I have your wanted poster; however, you're not worth much for me to turn you in. I already have the money I need for the time being." Bethany uncocked her gun and placed it on her shoulder, stepping over Jade and back to Phantom. "So, where you from?" she asked as she walked.

MATT

I heard teh crash but decided not to move. Best they think im still asleep, i thought, besides im probably the last person Jade wants to see right now...

That thought brought a pang, I really didnt like being the bad guy, but it just seemed to happen all the time. I wished it didnt but what could you do against fate?

I Strained my ears to figure out what was happening. Lets let the show play for a while and see what happens

Jade:
Jade propped herself up on her elbows, her back throbbing. She looked at the bounty hunter. She had just thrown her to the ground, held her at gunpoint, walked away, and asked her where she was from. Jade grinned. Maybe this bounty hunter wasn't so bad after all. Or maybe she was just waiting 'till she did need the money.

"I'm from New York," she said, deciding to answer her after all. "I joined up with the Civil War then came out here." She left out the part about her deserting. But the bounty hunter seemed to know a lot about her already.
"Yeah, you came out here," she said, "but not before racking up five hundred dollars of bounty on yer head." Jade grimaced. She hoped the woman wouldn't change her mind about not needing the bounty. She glanced over at Matt and saw his left eye twitch slightly, indicating that he wasn't in sleep as deep as he indicated. She dicided to get out of there before the pressure got any higher.

She walked past the bounty hunter and said over her shoulder
"Nice meeting you and all, but I gotta go." She saddled and bridled her horse then whistled to Grant, who was sniffing at Matt. "Let's go," she said, walking her horse out. But before she left, she heard the woman say,
"Keep yerself out of trouble, missy". Jade sighed. Her luck was just not getting any better.