The lost spark in your eyes //RDR2 // Arthur Morgan

Chapter 5

A lot has happened within the last couple of days in the Van der Linde Gang. They had to move camp after the shootout in Valentine. Not being able to move West, they moved further into the eastern parts of the country, entering the state of Lemoyne.

Arthur and Charles had been sent ahead to look for a place that would be hidden enough for their camp. The men had met a German family whose husband was taken captive by some bandits. They decided to save the man and bring him back to his family. The place where he was held captive was on a small clearing at the flat iron lake, surrounded by trees, near the town of Rhodes. They had freed the man and brought him back to his family, who barely spoke English. Deciding that the place would be perfect for the Gang, they had moved their camp to Clemens Point.

Within their first days at the new camp, Arthur, Dutch, and Hosea had decided to leave the camp for a while and to go fishing. On their way to a different spot of the lake, they had met Josiah Trelawny, who was held captive by the local Sheriff, alongside the Anderson Boys. The criminals had managed to escape from the Sheriff and his deputy, while Dutch was talking to them. Arthur had helped the deputy to bring the Anderson boys back to the Sheriff's office, where Dutch had managed to talk Trelawny out of the Sheriff's hold.
They had also managed to help the Sheriff to take down one of the Braithwaites distilleries, trying to play both of the feuding families to get their hands on the families money.

In the meantime, some bounty hunters had managed to find Trelawny and held him captive. Arthur and Charles had saved him and brought him back to Clemens Point. It was the first time that Trelawny lived with them in their camp, but it was safer for him to stay with the gang for a while.

The Gang celebrated the rescue of Trelawny and sat around the campfire. Most of them were already drunk as the night broke in. They listened to Hosea, who was telling the story of how Arthur and him went hunting to find the legendary bear. They knew that parts of it weren't true and made up by Hosea. Jack, who was sitting on Abigail's lap, was fascinated by the story that Hosea told them.
Arthur sat on the ground next to the older man, a bottle of beer in his hand and chuckling to himself as Hosea explained how the bear attacked both of them as they were checking on the bait. Of course, Hosea wasn't scared, hiding behind a rock, while Arthur fought off the animal.

Hosea got interrupted by his storytelling as one of the horses started to neigh. The gang looked towards where the horses were standing. The animals were usually calm, eating the grass that was growing near the camp. But now, one of them seemed to be nervous. Hosea, Arthur, and Dutch walked towards the horses to check up on them.
It was Silver Dollar, Hosea's horse, that had started to neigh and continued on. Confusion was written on the men faces, as Hosea walked towards his horse to calm him down. The horse was visibly tensed, prancing around. Dutch and Arthur checked the ground in case a snake had made its way towards the horse. They walked back to Hosea, as they didn't find a reason that could have caused the horses distress. Looking at the other horses that stood nearby, they noticed that only Hosea's horse was nervous.

Hosea had managed to calm down his horse and patted his neck as Arthur and Dutch walked back to him. The horse had stopped to neigh and prance, but it was visible that he was still tensed, looking at the path that led into camp.
The men were still confused by the horses behavior, Arthur opened his mouth to ask Hosea if he had found a reason for his horses distress. He wasn't able to say a word, as he got interrupted by a horses neigh that came from outside the camp.

The rest of the gang had been attracted by the tumult and was standing next to the three men, as they watched the entrance to the camp, guns ready in their hands.
Sadie, who was on guard duty, walked into the camp, looking over her shoulder to the path every once in a while.

"There is a horse rider coming in. Didn't say anything, " she explained while standing next to the rest of the gang.

"I say we shoot at first sight," Micah raised both of his revolver, pulling back the hammer, aiming at the entrance of the camp.