Enemy of The Gods

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

The fifth bullet slid into the chamber, and the cylinder closed into the centre of the revolver with a click. Crouching down on the beige, grassy hill, a man with a black cowboy hat inspected his firearm. Brushing aside his dark brown denim jacket, he holstered the revolver on his right hip.

His dark blue eyes stared down at his left wrist, where a pristine golden watch sat in contrast to his rugged wear.

"I'm coming to see you. I shouldn't have taken so long, I should have been there sooner, but I'm finally coming to see you."

Horse-drawn carriages were passing over the surrounding dunes, where the tip of the sun stretched above the horizon. The man stood up, then brushed the dust off his black jeans.

He looked down from his small hill. "You ready to go?" he shouted down towards the flattened valley at the back of a thin frame who was seated on top of a thin fur blanket. The figure turned his head to face the man, revealing a bony, pale face with dark brown eyes and wavy, unkempt black hair. He was younger than the other man, but only by a few years at most.

"Yeah, I guess so," the dark-eyed man replied, standing up. Leaning down, he folded the blanket in half and then rolled it up so he could carry it under his shoulder. The thin man waited at the bottom of the hill for the man with a cowboy hat to join him.

The two found themselves at a thin tree with two horses hitched to it, alongside a small gravel road. A pitch-black horse lay resting on the ground, and a smaller white one with brown spots stood grazing.

"Get up!" The man with the cowboy hat shouted as he approached the lying horse. Grunting, the horse hoisted itself up with the assistance of the man. "Good girl."

After untying the rope from the tree, the younger man lifted himself up on top of his horse. The man with the cowboy hat followed suit. Giving a slight nod, the two men slapped the reins and the horses began trotting forward. Once they had turned left onto the gravel road, the men whipped again and the horses advanced from a trot into a gallop.

For almost an hour, they traveled on the gravel road, passing a few other riders and carriages along the way. There wasn't much out here in terms of development or housing, as the land was not fertile and quite hilly, but they did pass a large steel factory, decorated with little silhouettes, probably guards and horses. It was most likely an ore processing plant, judging by how much smoke rose from the wide funnels on top, and the singular railroad connecting to the plant, which sat large mineral-carrying cars.

On the road in front of him, the man with the cowboy hat could see two figures standing in front of the gravel road. As they galloped closer, he could clearly see that they were holding long repeaters, and dressed in all black; Black cowboy hats, black leather jackets, black shotgun chaps, and black high boots.

The one on the left held out his hand, and the two riders came to a halt, the horses skidding to a stop a couple meters away from the two men dressed in black.

"Got a toll card?" The man on the left asked the rider with the cowboy hat, as the two men circled the riders, carefully inspecting the horses.

The man with the cowboy hat gestured to the hilly plains as he made his reply, "No, we're just riding 'long the plains here and it got too hilly, 'n the road ended up intersecting with our path."

The two men dressed in black reconvened at the centre of the road, each made a slight nod at each other, and then turned to the two riders. The one on the left, a portly man with a grey moustache, said, "C'mon now, this company property, gotta pay toll to use these roads."

The man in the cowboy hat rose his voice. "I said, we were just riding along these plains here and it got too hilly, and the road ended up intersecting with our path!"