Red Dead Reborn

xxii) Fishing And Fame

June 14th, 1899

For the grief brought onto Kieran for such a dedicated labourer around camp, there were a rare few who pitied him.

In the late hours of every morning, Kieran would wake up and clean every saddle to perfection - much to the lack of appreciation and gratitude of the gang. He would then take a break at noon for an hour before brushing every horse that permitted him to get close to it. Then, Kieran would haul bags of seed and move hay bales to where the horses rested. During the evenings, he would slouch about, also keeping in mind to steer clear of Bill Williamson or Sadie Adler.

Mary-Beth's headaches would come and go, but gradually, she was getting better. But that didn't mean that all of her symptoms were gone.

Currently, it was closing in on noon and there were barely any stories worth sharing to lighten the mood.

Dutch was doing his usual thing, which consisted of reading and motivating his disciples on the daily, while Molly regularly put on make-up to keep herself looking good and superior to the other girls who were incapable of affording such luxuries.

Uncle was lying about, sleeping or drinking.

Some of the foremost strongarms of the gang had taken the day off from robberies and murder of both fauna and folk; occasionally, arguments broke out but it was unwise for any others to get involved as any hostile outcome would be the last mistake made in camp.

Currently, Danny was in the middle of a lesson being taught by his father on how to properly create a medical remedy by using ginseng outside of camp. Admittedly, it would have been preferable if Hosea had some handy but he'd given his last ginseng to Arthur prior to their arrival in New Handover and setting up camp at Horseshoe Overlook.

Both father and son were minding their own business, kneeling on the grass while Danny crushed the green shrubs and berries in the mortar bowl while his other hand crushed and mixed them all together with the pestle.

"... now remember what I told you; crush it evenly until it's all into little bits and pieces and then add some of those wintergreen berries in and then mix that up altogether. Attaboy." Hosea instructed calmly. 

Danny smiled to himself upon hearing the praise.

Tired of sitting down, Hosea stood on both feet but groaned loudly from how sore his body was. Danny looked up immediately and stopped his task.

"Dad. You okay?" He asked concerningly.

The middle-aged man wheezed dryly as he put one hand on his lower back.

"Just time taking its toll on me." Hosea laughed dryly. "I'm gonna... I'm going to head back up to camp now. You comin'?"

"I'll follow up in a bit. Just gonna enjoy the scenery."

Taking his leave, Hosea mounted his horse and rode back up to camp.

Shortly thereafter, Danny returned to camp on foot as he could not be bothered to bring his horse with him. He exercised himself well making his way back up to Horseshoe Overlook where all was quiet in camp. Bird chirped and tweeted in the perimeter of the camp.

On his way up around the bend, Danny noticed two women seated on a large rock. Danny smiled at how Mary-Beth was on her feet again with Karen there to aid her should the brunette fall faint randomly.

Danny and she established eye contact as he walked past. He'd already greeted her just before he briefly left the camp, so he decided to leave her be, especially with how he'd been by her side ever since she'd been unwell - thankfully, the medicine she'd been taking was working very effectively on her, remedying most of her head and body aches.