Rango closed his eyes and shot. Several times.
Later, he didn't know why he had shot. It had been like a reflex.
A reflex, which he couldn't define.
At this moment, he thought nothing, neither the consequences nor the damage.
He just shot.
After some firing, he let free the trigger completely.
How many bullets did he fire?
Four? Five? Or all six?
He hadn't counted them.
He just knew how he trembled and didn't dare to breathe.
Something heavy fell to the ground.
After a few seconds, he dared to open his eyes again.
He did it! Jake lay motionless on the ground.
"You shot him!" Spoons cried, who stood beside the chameleon.
Rango was like frozen.
He never shot anyone in his life before.
Why the rattlesnake had come so close to the city?
He had warned him.
Jake came to the lake to drink some water. Rango allowed it if Jake never had almost killed someone. Jake wanted to cause troubles only. But why? Just to get a revenge?
He had taken out his gun. The outlaw had seen the killer in his eyes, but he didn't believe his words. There was a glimmer of hesitation. His finger had trembled on the trigger, but then he pulled it.
Again his glance wandered back to Jake's body, which didn't move.
In his mind, there was just emptiness. He recognized nothing. Neither the coming footsteps of the town people, nor their cheering callings. In front of him just the picture of the rattlesnake.
Only the tightly grips who gripped his arm of Elgin, Spoons and Buford on his shoulder brought him back to reality.
The crowd was gone. Gone into the saloon. But Rango didn't want to drink to celebrate his victory. He left the house, left the town, to go where the rattlesnake still lay.
Nobody cared. Nobody lost a tear for him.
He went to the snake and stopped in front of him. There were so many thoughts in his head.
He hadn't wanted it. But he did it.
"Why?" the chameleon sheriff asked himself. Since he met him, there were so many things happen in his life, which he never dared to see. Since their eyes met, the rattlesnake moved his life in a direction which he had never thought. He had banished him. And he left the town. He left the town to take his life. Instead he found out who he was. The same question which he had asked himself before he fell out of the car. The answer had been so close. So close. He found out who he was. He saved the town because that's who he was.
He looked with sad eyes at Jake's face. He looked so harmless. As if he never did anything bad.
Was this also him? To kill someone? But why him? Why you?
"Without you, I had never found out who I am."
He reached out his hand and touched the skin. He winced. A weak heart beat...
Rango looked into the wide landscape of the desert. It became dusky and coldness lay over the land. Rango had lighted a camp fire. Nobody would suspect him here in the wind saved niche in the mountains. Still deep in thoughts, he turned around.
Doc stood not far away from him. Jake lay on the ground. The snake's body trembled softly when Doc removed the bullets which had missed the snake's heart very close.
Deep in thoughts, Rango looked at him.
He saved the villain who made his life a living hell, but he also guided him on a new way. He had never dared to threat someone with a gun in real. But Jake gave him the chance to do it. And he won. And he got more.
"I tip my hat to ya, one legend to another."
Rango lowered his glance. He couldn't feed him to the hawks.
Under the pretext to bury him in the desert, Rango had pulled the rattlesnake with peccaries into the desert between the rocks. Nobody had said something. Just with effort he could persuade Doc to control the state of the snake. On the quiet. First time in Rango's life he was glad that there was the medical confidentiality.
He raised his head when he heard softly moaning.
The burning eyes were visible. The same eyes which he met the first time. The eyelids trembled a little.
His eyes looked around and stopped when they saw a familiar creature.
"You?"
Rango narrowed his eyes, his hand near of his gun on his belt. "Yes, it's me."
The snake looked at his hand. "You pulled the trigger."
"Yes, I pulled it."
"But I'm not dead."
Rango snorted. "Be glad, that I missed you very close, because I'm not a good shooter."
The snake body flinched a little before the gunslinger moved his lips to speak.
"You could give me a headshot easily."
Rango lowered his eyes silently and held his hands on his belt.
The snake narrowed her eyes. "Why you haven't done it?"
"Why?" Rango repeated Jake's question. He kept silent a few seconds, before he raised his head and looked into the eyes of the rattlesnake. "Because that's who I am not."
The snake looked at him with questions.
"You said to me, show me who you really are. Do you remember?" Rango smiled mockingly. "I have to say thanks to you. I found out who I am."
"And who are you?"
"Look at me. That's who I am."
He turned around. "Do me a favor and keep away from the town. I don't want to kill you again."
He listened to the silence. Only the breath of him and Jake was hearable. Doc said nothing. He respected the silence between the disparate reptiles.
"That's what I wanted to tell you," Rango spoke after a while. "I will leave you now. Doc will stay here a while until you are fit enough to come clear for yourself. I have to go to the city."
He moved his feet to leave the cave.
"Sheriff?"
He stopped.
"Where do you come from really?"
"Next time, maybe, I will tell you. But I came from somewhere. Take a rest."
"Next time?"
"I'm sure we will meet again."
"Why are you sure?"
"Legends cross their ways all the time."
The rattlesnake kept silent, but it was a thoughtful silence.
And Rango felt it. "I saw it in a movie."
After that, he left the rattlesnake, climbed on his roadrunner, which waited outside. He looked at the dark sky. He had to hurry up. The rain will come soon. He has to reach the city before the rain begins. He started his journey. Wind came. Wetness filled the air and cleaned his inner mind.
"I know who I am and I know who I am not."
- The End -
