Strangers By Nature | Red Dead Redemption II |

Chapter Two | Stuck in the Snow

Well, I'm alone. Should've expected such from a stranger. But I was hoping a feller like himself would've been maybe a little bit more grateful I saved his life. Perhaps that was too much to ask.

Snow's getting bad, the walls here are starting to creak enough to make me nervous. Haven't heard anything from Mr. Morgan for three days. Not a peep. He's still in his shelter I'm in mine. But I'm getting scared that this old cabin's gonna fall apart under all this weight.

I went hunting. It was terribly cold, snow is still packed into my boots. But I did get three rabbits from it. Was thinking I'd bring one over to Arthur, maybe then we can actually be acquainted.

So, with a rabbit slung over my shoulder, I walk into the snow. It's up to my knees, the powder. I stumble slowly to his shelter, pausing for a moment. He might just take the damn thing and still tell me to scram. No matter, I still knock.

Three gentle knocks at the door. There's a pregnant pause. Not a sound until I heard footsteps approaching the door. Then as I'd hoped he opened the door.
"Boy, you best have a good reason to be here." I don't. I never do.
"Went huntin' figured I'd share some meat." Arthur paused for a moment, looking at the meat. Then looking at me.
"Fine. Get in here and keep quiet." He groaned.

He has a fire going. It's much warmer here than in my cabin. Not to mention the heat is keeping the snow from building up too much. He made himself a bed. There's an old tub in the corner of the room along with a bucket. The tub's half full of water. I imagine he's been melting snow in it for a bath.
"So...you made yerself cozy?" I attempted to start a conversation but unsurprisingly it went nowhere immediately.
"That I did."
"Yeah," I mumbled, looking at the floor as if I was somehow busy.

Arthur skinned the rabbit. Leaving the pelts on the counter as he separated the meat from the organs. I sat down and watched. It's all I could do if he wouldn't talk to me.

It wasn't until he placed the meat over the fire that he spoke to me.
"Hope you like it well done. I don't like my meat with any pink in it." He said he didn't ask. He told me how he was making the meat.
"Oh... yeah I don't like it pink either," I say, he doesn't respond once more.

The silence is killing me, I swear it's a physical attack. The suffocation of dead silence. It was too awkward to bear much longer, so after we sat down at the old table with two plates of plain rabbit I asked,
"What's your problem wit' me?"
"Pardon?" Arthur asks, immediately pausing his eating to look at me with an almost offended look.

"I mean I saved yer life the least you could do is thank me," I say, I killed for a complete stranger. Got him out of what was certainly gonna be a torturous life. And he tells me to get lost?
"I don't trust no O'Driscoll," Arthur says, crisply without issue like it was nothing but a matter of fact I should've been aware of.
"I ain't no O'Driscoll."
"You were livin' in their damn camp. I ain't a fool." Yes he is. I wouldn't have done any of that nonsense for any other reason than a want to help him. What would the bastards be getting from this?

"I didn't want to be there any more than you did," I reply, he doesn't budge in his judgment.
"Sure." He chews on a piece of rabbit, looking at his plate.
"I killed those folks. O'Driscoll's. If I was loyal to them bastards why would I do that?"

That one actually gained his full attention as he looked up at me. He didn't say anything, he just looked around the room in confusion. He's thinking of something, that much is clear. What I said must've gotten to him because he didn't seem to have a rebuttal to it.

"You might not be an O'Driscoll. But I still don't know you. I'm not gonna trust a stranger." Well, he doesn't think I'm an O'Driscoll but I guess I'm still a stranger.
"Then why let me in?"
"Had to see you eat the meat before I did."
"Alright."
"Listen I appreciate the food. But we ain't gonna be friends." He says. Standing up from the table as he finishes his meal. Turning away from me as he places his dish in what I think is a sink.