Charles Smith x Reader

Five

The bullet barely missed your neck. It grassed your shoulder instead.

Fabric was torn, skin curled and opened up. Blood splattered over your face as you swallowed a scream of surprise.

The feeling of a fire crept up your arm only to make your ears ring. With one eye squeezed shut you jumped from hiding and turned on your heel to run into the forest.

"Hey!", a deep voice thundered through the air. "Halt! Or I'll shoot again."

The horse turned around, its head tilted in refusal, to glue itself onto your heel.

Green leaves slapped you in the face as you fought your way back to the river. If you jumped into it maybe he'd loose track of you.

Cold water splashed up and made your jeans go get once more. Goosebumps grew all over your legs and arms while you fought your way through the cold stream to the other side.

Gasping, you crawled back on land and began to run down a path that led away from Aponi and the horses. This was your fault and it would have been a dick move to pull her into this.

While you held your shoulder with one hand to suppress the blood flow, you held your revolver clutched in the other. If you weren't mistaken there were still two bullets left in the chamber.

Enough for one man, so to say.

Your eyes darted through the thick veil of green and brown. There wasn't a single spot to hide. Nor a good place to shoot a man.

All of a sudden your legs froze.

Deep brown eyes dug into your flesh.

As if he had been born from the shadows the bison bull appeared right in front of you. Startled, you forced yourself to stop and stumbled over your own feet.

With a gasp you crashed to the ground. Dirt and leaves covered your clothes with stains. As you came to a stand your fingers let go of the revolver.

The shiny metal slid across the ground and disappeared between long strands of green grass.

"No!", you gasped, sweat dripping from your temple, and started to feel through the grass to see if you could find your gun. "No! No, no!"

The thundering of hooves pinched the back of your neck. A shot rang out. It was meant to be a warning.

Your eyes jumped over your shoulder.

Why was the bison here?!

How did he manage to find you so quickly?

And why?

Why would he risk his own life to meet you in the middle of the forest?

Maybe Aponi had been wrong and this animal wasn't as smart as she had said it to be.

"Fuck!", you breathed softly as your fingers finally found the cold metal of the revolver hidden beneath the green.

Your fingers flinched, ready to shoot a man once he was close enough.

"Not so fast.", the cold barrel of a rifle poked against the back of your head. "Drop it. And don't try to pull any tricks on me. I will pull the trigger."

Swallowing hard, you let go of the revolver and raised both hands so that he could see that you were unarmed. Slowly, your head turned just far enough to meet the man's face.

He gifted you a smug grin.

"Weird.", he muttered and let out a snort. "I expected one of em' savages."

You frowned.

"Savages?", you spit the word back into his face. "You mean the natives of this land?"

"Nah.", with a gesture of his head he told you to get on your feet. "I said what I said."

You did as he ordered you to do. Considering that there was a rifle pointed at you there wasn't really another option anyways.

If looks could have killed you would have murdered the man right on the spot.

He was in his mid-thirties, with a long, unwashed beard and the attire of a simple cowboy. Or maybe a lumberjack, judging by his plaited red shirt.

His gaze examined you from top to bottom before he spit into the grass before your feet.

"What's your business with the bisons?", he asked, eyebrows knitted together. "Did you want em' all to yourself?"

Displeasure made you form a sound that couldn't have been more disgusted.

"And if so?", you asked back with your chin raised.

He shrugged.

"If you would have just told us in a civil conversation without shootin' all ma boys first this would have been avoidable."

"And if you wouldn't have assumed the bisons are free to take you would be here all on your own now.", your eyes jumped up to catch a glimpse of a shadow that crossed the corner of your eyes.

A shiver crawled down your back. For a brief second you tried to whisper a silent warning.

But it was already too late.

"Alone?", the man huffed. "As far as I'm concerned you are the one gunless and-!"

He never ended his sentence. Instead, a knife dug into the side of his throat. The blade was so sharp that it cut through skin and muscles as if they were made of wax.

Blood poured from the cut as he tore his mouth open to scream. His lips and teeth were covered in red. With a shaky gasp he fell to his knees and fought for one last breath.

Fear painted his eyes. Never before had you seen someone this frightened.

With a soft gurgle he sunk into the grass.

Aponi wiped her knife clean on her dress.

"I should have killed him.", you whispered, both so indefinitely thankful that she had come to save you yet also frightened of the consequences.

A deep breath made her chest quiver. She sighed, her eyes fell shut.

"You have rules to set foot onto this land. My ancestors land.", as calm as nothing had happened she approached the bison to reach out a hand and caress his nose. "They too should have respected rules."

"This...", your eyes jumped to the corpse.

"Will have consequences. Yes.", she nodded and pointed towards the lower side of the bull. "But this... is a more pressing matter."

A huge flesh wound stretched across the bulls side. Blood dripped onto the grass and turned green into a deep crimson red.