The Test of Courage

1. The city theater

It wasn't a good idea to walk through the desert. Much less by day. And more much less by night. And more more much less if you are a child. And despite everything, five little shadows walked through the desert moon light over the dry landscape. In their hands they held little oil lamps.
In near of a group of rocks they stopped.
"Here we are."
Cletus the raccoon kid pointed ahead.
Another little figure, with big eyes and big hat, looked at the direction of his finger.
"Is it that?" a girl asked unsurely.
"Are you afraid?" another boy's voice asked mockingly, which belonged to the city boy Dutch, a little wolf looking animal.
"I'm not afraid!" the girl Priscilla defended herself.
"Then go inside!"
With that Dutch thrust a glass with a lighted candle inside into the girl's hands.
The Aye-Aye girl looked around, where the curious and serious eyes of Cletus, Dutch, and the other city boys Boo and Lucky watched her.
Priscilla sighed deeply. It had been so frustrating that she was the only girl in town and nobody of the city boys thought that she would be as good as a boy. But they said, there would be a chance to win the respect from the others. And this was the old test of courage that you make a walk through the old city theater.
The city theater didn't lay in town. It was built a few miles away from Dirt. Mayor John used to start a cultural step. But with the time it didn't give good returns because of less good actors. Now it lay alone and abandoned in the desert without a visitor in the last many years.
It wasn't a nice place by day, and less a nice place by night.
"What are you waiting for?" Dutch asked impatiently.
"Alright, alright," Priscilla said and went ahead.
It wasn't easy to find the way over stones with that little candle in the glass. Not even the moon gave much light tonight. It was new moon. Not quite the right time for a night walk. The little light was only enough to see obstacles on her way.
At last, she achieved the building. With anxious eyes, she eyed the dark in the shadow laying big house.
She turned around. In the distance she could see the oil lights of the others.
Carefully she pivoted the candle to give them a signal that she was ready to go inside.
With heavy heart, she took the first step. The old wood groaned under her foot.
Carefully, she went upstairs until she reached the entrance, which had nailed up with some wooden planks. But the distances between them was big enough for a child and climbed through a hole.
She held the candle over her head to get an overview.
Thick dust covered the wooden floor. Next to her was the sale of tickets.
She took a deep breath and continued.
No long and she reached the main door of the hall.
They weren't blocked and she opened it.
A field of spider webs and more dust on the chairs greeted her.
With disgust, she went along the chairs to the stage. If she reached the stage, she should bring a souvenir behind the curtains to prove that she had been here.
She had almost reached the aim when a voice let her wince.
"Hey, look at this!" a man's voice said excited.
Her heart stopped.
She wasn't alone.
"You look ugly," another man said.
Two men?
She stopped and extinguished the candle immediately.
Now she stood in complete darkness. But there was another light behind the curtains of the stage.
She was afraid, but otherwise she wanted to know who forced an entrance into that building.
With fast but quiet steps, she ran over to the curtains and peered through it.
There stood a lot of stage walls. The voices and the light came from behind them.
She made a few steps more and managed to look around one of the wooden stage walls.
Again her heart stopped for a second.
"How do I look now?" the desert rabbit Stump asked.
His boss Bad Bill covered his face with a hand. "Like an idiot!" he said annoyed.
"Idiota!" Chorizo chuckled next to him.
Stump wore a king costume and a fake crown, which he had found in a costume box in the theater.
Priscilla swallowed heavily. What was Bill and his gang doing here?
"Take it off," Bill ordered. "Before I get nightmares."
"Alright."
With disappointment, the rabbit took the crown and disappeared.
The big lizard leader seemed to be impatient and tapped his foot on the floor.
"He seems to be late," he muttered.
"He said a medianoche," Chorizo said in English and Spanish.
"I know by myself," Bill grunted and picked something from a box. It was a diamond necklet. And some more blinking diamonds.
"I want to get rid of that away very soon," the leader muttered and let the nice shining stones fall on the wood back.
The girl's eyes became bigger.
These were the stolen diamond collection of a rich married couple which was robbed on their way in their stagecoach. Rango had talked about it last week.
Rango.
The girl made one step back.
She had to inform Rango about that.
Suddenly a hand covered her mouth, another one grabbed her torso.

The city theater is part of the online game "Rango - The world", which doesn't exist anymore, but you can still find some pictures of it in the internet.