Snow falls

Chapter 5: lead is heavier than tears

"I'm just a stranger they picked up, I assume I'm expendable" I said somehow with some left over courage. "Well I'm sorry to burst your bubble but these two are sitchers. They love each other, so you ain't gonna get anywhere with them" he said almost patronising me. "Yeah I know but I need some adventure in my life" "well your adventure ends here little man". I gulped as he finished his statement and stood mighty high. The two outlaws with me seemed to know him as they were paying close attention to him, every movement. "You ain't laying a finger on him... He's a gun smith and we need him" Shadow spoke up. The man looked to his right at the bearded man who nodded and started walking over to me, he grabbed my bag and started checking what was inside. "Yup, they ain't lying, it's. Full of tools and gun parts sir" the man said, his breath smelling of smoked meat and coal. The man looked me up and down and smirked "seems like you've caught a nice one, I'll let you pass through this time but remember the date 19D. I'll see you three in Cold Water" he said before turning on a dime and walking back into the carriage "but before I go, I'll have that pistol of yours... Dead or alive" he said before chuckling and fully being engulfed by the darkness of the carriage. The other two men walked in after him and the door slammed close, the man at the front put the rifle away and wiped the horses into action. Their shaggy fur covering their body's were a silky white and their extremely long legs reaching above the snow elegantly started up and galloped forward. The carriage with two large wooden planks slid forward now moving into the distance. The two behind me gave a large sigh like they had been holding their breath. "WHO THE HELL WAS THAT?!" I screamed at them. "He's banker and bounty hunter, he owns the biggest bank in new America and hunts anyone who steals from his banks, the names Deadlock Denland." Devil explained. I looked at her like she was crazy and thought about it for a second. The two just went back to walking in the direction they were before, trudging through the snow like this was all normal. "So did you guys steal from him? Or what?" "We don't need to explain ourselves, it's none of your business" Shadow sneered. Devil grave her a look and Shadow put her head down as we continued on our way. We didn't come across in the long path we took, there were a couple tall rock pillars that were made of some kind of orange rock but we're still snow capped, a couple small foxes with fur as white as the snow we walked on. The silence of the great expanse was soon cut off when some harsh winds from the north started pushing us hard, flicking snow hard into our faces. Both of the outlaws seemed to have no problem with it as I was struggling, my bandana not covering my eyes from the hash flakes. I had to close my eyes for a bit to protect them for a second and then I felt to hands grab my arms stopping me in place. I opened my eyes and there was nothing in front of me. The two had stopped in place both with goggles on their face looking down both with a hand grabbing each of my arms. I looked down into the huge gorge that lay before us, the scar in the earth was indefinitely deep looking and if I had stepped a foot further I would be dead. We stood for a second looking deep in the empty abyss this gorge was filled with before Shadow grabbed a stone beside her letting go of me and dropping it in. We waited for the sound of it hitting the bottom... It didn't.

Devil pulled me away from the edge as she took a step back herself. Shadow looked in and looked over to us, "what the fuck is this?" She said pointing into it. As she said this the stone she had thrown in flew up back up to her, she grabbed it out of mid air. "Uhhhhh... what?" The stone in her hand was exactly the same. She tried to throw it to the other side but it still fell in, hitting the other side making a clink against the other side before falling in. We waited a minute and saw it rise up again not in the same place but the opposite from where it had fallen in and dip back in again. I looked to my left and right to look for any way over this but the storms fog made it impossible to see too far in any direction. Devil pointed to our left "there's a bridge we can use" she shouted as she started to move in the direction of where she pointed. I wanted to ask how she knew but she would be able to hear me over the storm. We walked a great distance to reach the bridge, it was an extremely rickety old wooden bridge but it did the job. We eventually found a cave and set up a fire with some wood we chopped up from a stump nearby. I set out my sleeping bag and watched as they used their ponchos to make some kind of layer of cloth to lay on next to each other. I went outside to have a smoke as the storm had calmed down a bit. I looked back into the cave as I smoked from the edge of the entrance, the low whistling sound of the wind blowing past the cave was drowning out the silence. The warm glow of cave lit their faces as they stared into each other's eyes. Shadow was crying as Devil skilled at her, their hands holding each others heads as they stared longingly. Shadow broke the stair as she broke down into tears collapsing into Devils lap. They hugged each other and Shadow cried as Devil stroked her head "there there Ivy, we'll be safe one day" she said softly. I turned back around the corner and finished the cigarette I had started to let them have some time. The howling of the wind combined with the low visibility of the storm was off putting but slightly comforting. I snuffed the last bit of the cigarette in the snow and walked back in. Shadow was asleep in Devils lap "I saw you spying on us, it's rude you know" she said with a more serious tone not taking her eyes off Shadow. "Yes ma'am, I'm very sorry I just looked in to see how you were and saw more than I should have" I said with a soldier like attitude. "You might as well call us by our real names as you know them now but not in combat or around strangers, got it?" "Ma'am yes ma'am" she nodded and moved Ivy into their makeshift bed as she was already asleep. "She isn't as tough as she looks, she just has to put on a mask for the world. We have to be strong to stay alive" "it's a cruel world ain't it ma'am" "it Tis, and I ain't haven no more of it. Us as you call us 'sitchers' are sick of hiding in the shadows from the rest of the world... That's why we became who we are." I nodded and started toying with a chisel tool I had grabbed from my bag. "We're heading to Cold Water for a job someone asked us to do but having Denland meet us worries me, it could be him who's hiring us to rob an opposing bank or it could be on Denland but either way we're in some trouble, so get some rest" she finished and payed down next to Ivy.