Bad Gamble

Bad Gamble

Chapter 1

The last card thudded down on the table. The dealer, old Horst, was always dramatic. The thud was followed by an “Ah shit” from across the table. The grey-haired man to my left repeated the phrase “damn it all to hell” for the eleventh time tonight, as he threw his cards across the green felt covered wood. The men all glared at me as I pulled in my winnings, adding to the substantial heap I had already won.

Horst laughed at the third man who refused to fold, who was looking at an empty bottle in distress. Hosrt said in his gruff voice “Never seen a green cowboy before, I think you’ve had enough”. The man was looking a little rough, but no one could tell if that was from the money he just lost or from the many empty bottles that crowded his side of the table.

I grinned around my cigar, looking towards the bar. There was a girl there cleaning mugs, who smiled back at me with a wink. Poor thing thought I was looking at her. However, I was gazing into the mirror that lined the wall behind her. Which of course had nothing to do with how I knew what cards the man in front of me was holding during our last hand. Horst passed the deck to me, but before I could begin to deal them out a flicker of movement caught my eye.

A white ghost of a face pulled away from the window. I froze. I had a steady buzz going most of the night but no amount of whiskey could have dulled the chill running up my spine now. I passed the deck to the next man with a shrug. “Calling it a night boys, pleasure as always. Horst, stop betting on 2’s” The men chuckled as I gathered the chips to cash in.

As I was getting up, Horst asked the table who was staying in. He was staring at the man who just lost so miserably, trying to give him a merciful hint that it was time to call it a night. The man mumbled something about talking to his wife and stumbled a few tables over to her. The proceeding curses a moment later told me that her confidence in her husband's ability to win his money back had run dry. He had gone to her asking for the funds for another buy-in seven different times tonight. I couldn’t help but grin as I walked away towards the bar.

The young girl put away the mug she was working on and began counting the chips I dropped on the counter. She tried making eye contact, I avoided it, and she preceded to try friendly conversation instead. Asking me what I would do with the winnings, how long was I in town, but I paid her no mind, just nodding in response. She took it easily enough and began counting out the cash I had won. I didn’t want to be rude, but I needed to hold my composure until I got out the door. You don’t walk away from a poker table looking nervous.

“32 silvers and 5 coppers” she told me as she slid the two stacks of coins across the bar. I nodded again and tried to give her a smile. Must not have been a good one because she tilted her head looking puzzled, glancing back at the table as another “damn it all to hell” came from the table behind me.

I looked pointedly at a rack behind the bar. It took her a moment, but the girl got it. She turned and took down a black leather bandolier. She passed it over, using both hands. Leather was heavy, and the irons in those holsters were even heavier. I buckled it around my waist, running my fingers around the cold rounds that were tucked around the entire length of the bandolier. I always made sure none were missing. Rounds like a few of mine were not easy to come by.

The gear was a familiar, comforting weight that I didn’t like parting with. But it was the house rules, and I liked this little saloon. The rule was in place ever since a man got angry playing cards and attempted to pull his gun. The man tried to draw and well, it didn’t work out. The drunk idiot nearly fell out of his chair trying to draw and ended up being a bloody mess to clean up. After that, nobody could sit at that table armed and the shooter had to pay to replace the window behind the dead fool. Not how I wanted to spend my winnings that night, but it could have been worse.

As I was getting my belt and irons situated, Horst was suddenly at my side. “Hey. You still looking for that man?” He asked me, in a hushed voice.

“Yeah.” Was all I said. I was looking in the mirror again. I didn’t like my business being overheard.

“Man came through from Red Bark this morning. He met a foreigner who was asking questions, looking for someone as well. A man from Mountain Veil, whose been stirring some shit up out West. Sounds like you are not the only one after that bounty.” Horst was still speaking quietly.

Well, that was news to me. Out West and Red Bark. Red Bark is exponentially closer than wherever the hell out West is. Maybe I could find this guy, see what he knows. It's not a long ride. “Thank you, my friend, this is yours.” I told Horst, and slid a few coins his way. He nodded his appreciation, and used the money to order another drink.

“We are leaving tomorrow, driving some cattle that way if you want to join us. Can always use an extra hand. Especially one that can handle a gun.” Horst raised his new frothy mug to his lips as soon as it was handed to him.

“Tempting.” I told him, still looking over my gear. And it was. There was safety in numbers, and Horst was good people. But a cattle drive would be slow moving, and there was a good chance this stranger would be gone from Red Bark before I made it anyway. “I’ll have to pass though. Time may be important here. But the offer is appreciated as always.” The big man nodded, clapping me on the shoulder as he returned to the table, likely to lose the rest of the coins I gave him.

I took my duster off the stand next to the door and stepped out into the night. The cold hit me instantly, and snow crunched under my boots. I grimaced looking around. The light of the moon reflecting off the ice made the little town glow. “Yeah. Not good.” whispered a harsh, deep voice. I turned and saw the speaker peaking around the corner of the inn. He was taller than me, with long black hair and high, sharp cheek bones that you could cut thread on. He had skin nearly as pale as the snow and black eyes that resembled long dead coal.

“Do we have to do this now?” I asked him, but I already knew the answer. He knew his business; he wouldn’t be here fetching me if there would be a better time.

“Yes. Finally asleep. I know where it’s at. Best time is now. Walk quietly” He whispered back, as he turned and sauntered into the dark. I rolled my eyes and followed. It took a few moments but eventually my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I was following close behind him into the trees.

“Cheerful as always, Adriel.” He shrugged and kept walking, not looking back.

“It’s a long trek, about two miles to its cave. Big one. Don’t go light.” Was all he said. I rolled my eyes again thinking we could have at least brought the horses for the first mile and drew a revolver from my hip. The metal was cold in my hands, and moonlight gleamed off its surface.

One by one I popped the rounds out with the ejector rod, sliding the bullets into their designated loops around the bandolier. I then reached to the back of the belt and drew out six heavy, silver coated rounds. They were tipped as if another coat of metal was melted onto the end and drawn into a point, creating a thick spike made for stabbing through tough hide. A rune was engraved on the side of every one of these rounds. The design resembled an arrowhead stabbing through a solid line. The runes glowed as the rounds were slid into the cylinder, as if they were waking up when they contacted the metal. Visible condensation drifted off both guns when they were reloaded, like breath in the cold.

We walked. And walked. And walked until I thought my fingers would freeze off and my eyes would freeze open. I didn’t know how I was supposed to sneak up on anything the way my teeth were chattering together. The snow had picked up and was gathering around the brim of my hat, so much so that it slid off in front of my eyes whenever I looked down to check my footing. Suddenly, I walked straight into Adriel’s back and barely stifled a curse. He slowly turned towards me shaking his head and put a finger to his lips for quiet. He slowly, ever so slowly pointed a short way up the trail, as if the movement of his coat would be loud enough to give us away. He then silently drew the bow he had slung over his back. He already had it strung for the occasion.

Even in the dark I could tell how dark the wood of the bow was, with feathers hanging from both ends where the string was attached. He pulled an arrow from over his shoulder. The broad arrowhead had a glowing rune that seemed to be giving off steam in the dark. I drew both revolvers, the handles icy cold in my hands.

My thumbs slowly clicked back both hammers, and the cold steel suddenly kindled to life. Thin and intricate designs from the handles to the cylinders, all the way down the length of both barrels suddenly glowed with a teal light. The color matched the glow of the rune rounds the guns were loaded with. The light was not enough to read by, but bright enough that I slide the guns back into their holsters to hide some of the glow. Our prey had sharp eyes, that missed little.

Adriel’s cold eyes looked back to meet mine and we nodded our ready. We crept forward, around a short bend where we saw the gaping maul of a cave up the hill from us. The jagged rock around the entrance gave the place a menacing appearance in broad daylight. In the light of the moon, with sickles of ice hanging from the cave’s mouth like frozen teeth, the place looked downright horrifying. We always seem to visit the nicest places together.

As we slowly went forward, we heard a sound that stopped us both dead in our steps. It was a low, airy howl as a massive creature was drawing in a long-ragged breath and letting it back out in a low rumble. The thing took a few more breaths before we continued forward. We hesitated again at the mouth of the cave, before stepping into the complete, utter darkness. The lack of visibility only applied to me. Adriel wouldn’t have a problem, besides the fact that he had to make sure I kept up. We had done this dance before, and I placed my left hand on Adriel’s shoulder for guidance as my right hand gripped a revolver. If we get bamboozled, I didn’t want to be reaching around trying to find the handle in the dark. Adriel had long strides and walked with a predictable rhythm that made it easy to keep up without stepping on his heels. None the less, the fact that I couldn’t see and may miss a loose rock or crunch down on an old bone made sweat trickle down my face, despite our slow pace in the cold. The last thing we wanted was to wake the damn thing up.

It grew colder as we ventured further in, and I was sure the sweat would freeze over my skin. The deeper we went; it also grew louder. What was a low howl was now a near deafening roar of wind in the cave, like we were in the middle of a freezing hurricane. The smell also began to be a problem. The scent of rotting meat and marrow from an unknown number of old corpses was enough to choke on. That scent wafting around in a relatively small space was less than ideal. The distinct smell of a predator’s den is not something you easily forget. If this was my first rodeo, I would have been gagging my way back to the cave entrance but damn I wished I had something to cover my face with. I nearly stepped on the near frozen remains of something that had been dead for a while before Adriel caught my arm and pulled me in a different direction. He could see in the dark, whereas I couldn’t see my own feet.

We rounded a turn in the cave and froze. We could physically feel the air being pulled in around us and exhaled again into the room. I heard the wood of Adriel’s bow flex, as he slowly drew the string back towards his face. I could see the dim glow of an arrowhead, that intensified as the bow bent. I followed the little light and got an idea of where he was aiming. As the bow came to full draw, everything went to hell. The wood of the bow creaked. My heart stopped beating, and the air in the room suddenly became still and silent. From the back of the cave, only about 20 yards off, a pair of bright green eyes opened.

The eyes had slits like a snake’s. Even in the dark we could see them clearly as if they produced a light of their own. Adriel released the string, and a blue line streaked through the dark, the arrow landing somewhere under the eyes and impacting with the sound of breaking rock. The roar it emitted knocked me to one knee with its intensity, and I started coughing as I took in a gulp of that putrid breath. A split second later, bright white lights flashed into existence lighting the cave like a continuous bolt of lightning. Adriel had these neat little toys that worked like miniature suns for situations like this. Some weird material he got his hands on and never let me play with. The toughest part was forcing my eyes to stay open and adapt to the light, before, you know. Getting ripped to pieces by a monster.

After cowering behind Adriel for a few moments, like the badass I am, my eyes adjusted and showed us what we were dealing with. It was like a mountain lion grew to be about 3,000 pounds of muscle, around 15ft long, traded its fur in for reptile like armor. It had wide shoulders, and a deep chest that a horse could curl up in. The thing had some long official name that some scientist had given it- “Caimanous Feline” or something nobody I knew could spell. To keep things simple, we liked to give things like this a nickname.

This was the biggest Kitty-gator I had ever seen. In a single leap it was on us. We both dove out of the way, but Adriel who was in front of me, didn’t have as much time as I did. One of the beast’s arms clipped Adriel mid dive, and I heard the thud and gasp as he slammed into the wall of the cave somewhere to my right. I rose to one knee, drew both irons and let the bastard have it. Thunder bloomed from both barrels of my revolvers, and the creature jerked and hopped back fast enough that it was hard to track where it went. The rounds hit him hard enough that around the impact areas, the alligator-like spikes and ridges blew completely off it’s body in a burst of green mist. The cave rattled as the monster bounced off the far wall as it convulsed.

As the thing recovered and look in my direction, oh fuck, Adriel came back to the fight. The nimble lunatic suddenly was on top of the creature, and before it knew what was going on he had drawn back the bow and sent an arrow into the thing’s back. The blue streak was visible even through its body, and the arrow split its way all the way to the cave floor as Adriel bounced clear. The stone around them cracked and bounced chunks of rock about the cave, and I felt a few shards tear into my face and hands. There was no pain, I had too much adrenaline going on for much of that.

Adriel hopped away from the furious and flailing kitty-gator, as I pulled back both hammers. I tracked both guns to the thing’s screaming face and teal light exploded from both muzzles. One shot landed somewhere around where the thing’s ear would be, the other somewhere along it’s jawline. This caused another burst of green blood, but it didn’t seem to do much this time besides piss the thing off. It whirled on me, swiping wildly with a front paw. The beast was too fast, I wanted to move out of the way but the best I could do was flinch my arms up and duck my head in a defensive posture. I took the hit. It wasn’t fun. I bounced shoulder first against the cave wall and landed hard on the stone floor. I woke up with my head feeling fuzzy a second later, cold rocks under my head. My hair felt wet under me and that couldn’t be good. Where was I?

Then I noticed bright green eyes about a foot from mine. That’s right! I'm about to die. Reality slammed back into me as the thing opened its maul, long teeth dripping with saliva and blood that it must have coughed up from its wounds. It inhaled so much air that I couldn’t breathe any in. As it started to lean down to most likely tear my dizzy little head off, a streak of blue lightning connected with the thing’s left eye and exited through the right eye. After the impact the beast jerked its head towards Adriel, who was nocking another arrow. Its eyes were gone but it still seemed to know where the shot came from. It roared so hard I thought it was going to tear something in its chest, its jaw nearly unhinging.

With the last breath in my lungs, I screamed “HERE KITTY KITTY!” When the monster snapped its head back down to me, I brought both guns up, stabbed them against the roof of the beast’s mouth and fired every shot I had left, fanning both hammers with my thumbs as it jerked and twisted. The cave shook with the sound, the kitty-gator screamed and a waterfall of green blood flooded over me as it fell. I scrambled out of the way so as to not be crushed, as the cave continued to echo with thunder.

I slowly stood with questionable balance. I dropped one of my revolvers into a holster and wiped my eyes clear of the blood so I could take a look around. The kitty-gator was down, the top part of its head completely gone. The white powder lights Adriel had thrown into the corners of the cave were starting to die down. Then I heard one of the rarest sounds I had ever experienced in my life. I turned, and Adriel was pointing, and giggling at me. He spluttered “Green cowboy” before going into another fit of giggles. He carried on as he retrieved the arrowheads from the broken shafts about the cave, and I did my best to recover some dignity.