The story of a Lone Wanderer

Part 1 - The Stranger Arrives

It was an early afternoon, the sun was high, and people were sitting in any shade they could find.

Dry Vale was a small and quiet town, looking just like any other town in this part of the country. Town consisted of the usual buildings like houses, Merchants Hut, Doctors Practice, jail and in the middle of town, The Saloon.

From the north, appeared a figure, a man on his horse, a cowboy. As he rode further into the town, you could notice a few details about the cowboy. You could see his regular dry-wheat colored cowboy hat, his green poncho and the brown cowboy shoes. He has stopped in front of the Merchant's Hut, got of his horse and you could see, that on the back of the horse, there was a stack of coyote pelts. The cowboy tied the horse to the pole, took the pelts and walked into the hut.

"Howdy" the cowboy said to the merchant as he walked in. "Morning, Mister..." replied the merchant, not knowing the name of the cowboy in front of him, "Zylbrad" replied the cowboy.

"Morning Mister Zylbrad, my name is Bazza, a humble merchant but also a pelt and trophy collector" he said it while adjusting his glasses and suspenders, "I can see you have brought something for me".

"Nothing exciting, just a few pelts of coyotes which I happened to run into on my way here".

"What brings you here Sir, to our town of Dry Vale if I may ask?" the merchant asked "Business or pleasure?"

"A bit of both" the cowboy answered, showing a little grin on his face. "I plan on going to the Saloon next, but after that, who knows" he said, while taking money for the pelts from the counter.

"Stay safe Mister" said the merchant when cowboy opened to the door to walk outside to untie his horse and jump on his back again.

He rode the horse for a while, to stop again at the saloon, he got off and tied his horse to the pole again. Zylbrad made sure that his horse has enough water and went inside the saloon. As he walked in, few people looked at the cowboy, but after a second, they went back to what they were doing.
He noticed some people playing poker, few we're playing some game with dices and other just sitting there, drinking and talking with their companions. He walked up to the bar, where a bartender was currently cleaning the glass with a cloth.

"Welcome Sir, names Elliot, I'm the owner of this Saloon and also its only bartender"

"Names Zylbrad, but just call me Brad", "Well then Brad, what can I get you?" the bartender asked.

"A glass of your homemade whiskey" said Brad while placing the money on the counter.

"One whiskey coming right up." Elliot took the bottle of the shelf and poured a hefty amount to glass. While passing the glass to the cowboy he said "You're not from around here Sir, aren't you?"

"I'm not, I travelled here from Lawless Ridge" said the cowboy.

"That's quite a long travel, barely anyone would make such distance without a reason" Elliot replied with curious look on his face. Brad looked at the glass with an amber colored liquid inside, picked it up, drank some of it and placed the glass back down while saying "I'm looking for someone".

"Well, looks like someone has found their interest in you" Elliot said while nodding his head towards said person.

The cowboy turned around, lifted his hat to get a clearer look and in the corner, he noticed her sitting by herself.