B A N G

Baby Steps

Ah, you want to hear another story, huh? Well, I've got time.

Let's go back to when the so-called hero, Handsome Jack was attempting to take over Pandora, when our four train-wrecked vault hunters were barely getting their wings, when Sanctuary was finally established as a home to those willing to join the resistance, and when she arrived.

A shy child willing to grow in areas she never believed were possible; she learned the ways of becoming a vault hunter by the drunkard, Mordecai, and when she grew older, she became headstrong and idiotic. She longed to be a vault hunter, and despite the warnings she received, she went on dangerous missions.

Until one of those missions changed her life forever.

Now, get out of my face unless you want to buy something!

"Focus on your target. Don't let them scare you. Now, hold up the rifle—just like how I taught you."

Gripping the cold metal, I moved the rifle up into my right shoulder and peeked through the tiny scope with my hazel eyes. One blinked, cursing to myself as I lost sight of the disgusting skag a few yards away from my location. Moving the gun towards the left, I regained contact with the crawling creature. It snarled into the air at nothing, sniffing the soft breeze with its tiny nostrils and clamped its mouth closed with a satisfying snap.

"Good. Ease your finger on the trigger, but be careful; you don't want to shoot him just yet."

Biting my lip, I felt my hand move down to the lever, knowing that if I inched my pointer finger any further, I'd surely shoot the creature and Mordecai would scold me.

"Move your aim to the head, and take a deep breath. Relax your muscles."

I pushed the rifle farther up on my arm, ultimately moving the machine so it allowed me to aim directly at the head of the skag. I knew what he was trying to get me to do. Mordecai would distract the animal, and hopefully open its mouth. From studying, I understood the mouth of a skag was its weakness. I realized Mordecai was waiting for me to take a breath, and so I did.

Clank!

Mordecai had tossed a small pebble off the edge we sat on, in which it flew towards the skag and landed a foot from it. The creature eyed us, growling with all the rage in its body and opened its mouth—

Bang!

I didn't even think; I just acted. I remember seeing the gleam of the bullet, shining the rays from the sun on the backing as it dove neatly into the skag's gaping mouth. The skag sputtered a bit, its body rolling upon the dirty ground and eventually meeting its demise. Even from that spot, I could see it's crimson blood leak into the green grass below. A grin appeared on my face as Mordecai slapped me on the shoulder.

"That's my girl! Awesome job!" he commended me and removed the weapon from my arms. I pouted; I've always liked his rifle. I had my own, but it was old and over-used from my training. Luckily, I was coming up on one year of training with Mordecai, and usually meant I'd be free to go on missions with the others. My frown was then replaced with another grin as I hopped up.

"Thanks," I answered him and reached up to untie my blonde hair from the messy ponytail I put it in this morning. It raced down, reaching a little below my upper back and swung with the cold wind. I shuddered, despite my thin jacket and began to follow Mordecai, stepping over a few stones that blocked my walk-way.

"What a great day," Mordecai commented on the weather, glancing up at the sun. It had gotten to the part in the day were if you were in the sun, it would be extremely hot and in the shade, it would be extremely cold. There's never a happy medium, but I expected that from Pandora.