Chapter Text
Chapter 1
It was the summer of 1880, and the heat from the midday sun was brutal. Rin Matsuoka wiped a hand across his forehead attempting to keep the moisture from dripping into his eyes. Even hiding under the shade provided by the wide brim of his hat, sweat had already soaked through his bandana and was rolling down his back. His Appaloosa heaved beneath the saddle, snorting in disapproval, as they slowly patrolled the perilous range in search of a lost calf. His eyes were anchored on the horizon.
The west was nothing like the east. The terrain was rough and the air stale. There weren’t boundaries, fences, or a view that stretched as far as the eye could see. Strange, misshapen mountains towered toward the north and the barren elevation rose and fell much like the ocean waves from a life long ago. When exploring off the beaten trails and roads, unpacked, sandy earth shifted beneath his horse’s hooves. Dust swirled into the breezeless sky.
It wasn’t just the climate and landscape that was startlingly different, so were the people, the laws — or lack thereof — the wildlife, and the vegetation, which was becoming quite the pain in the ass as he still hadn’t figured out a way to defeat the goddamn overgrown cactus that chose to sprout in the middle of Crimson Point’s main, and only, road. Thankfully, that was his toughest adversary to date.
No one in their right mind would truly want this life, unless they were the lawless bunch of hooligans stealing everything necessary for a pretentious and luxurious way of life. However, the vast and wondrous tales called to Rin like a siren in the night, whispering soft melodies that drew him towards the rougher lifestyle and the freedom that came along with it.
Therefore, Rin had abandoned green pastures in search of a better home, one that would be more willing to accept him fully, leaving behind his widowed mother and sister because he was too afraid of what could happen to them if he brought them along to the new frontier. He’d heard the passing rumors, listened intently to the stories, and none of them helped him sleep any better at night than his choice to emigrate alone — well, almost alone.
His best friend, Sousuke Yamazaki, who had agreed to accompany him, had a few unexpected tag-alongs, namely, his personal and surprisingly dedicated wrangler, Aiichiro ‘Ai’ Nitori, and a strange set of brothers, Seijuro and Momotaro ‘Momo’ Mikoshiba, both of which Sousuke had known since he was a child. They were more than willing to join Rin, though Rin wasn’t entirely sure why. Arguably, however, saying they joined him willingly wouldn’t quite be the honest truth as they basically threw themselves into the train car and refused to take no for an answer. Rin didn’t have a choice. He either had to leave with them or stay with his family.
It wasn’t that difficult of a decision, sadly.
Besides, the extra hands had proven useful, especially when it came down to herding cattle to and from the range. With more people, starting up a new home in an unknown territory made the process that much easier and a lot less lonely; something Rin came to appreciate after the first few precarious and unsteady months had passed. It was undeniable.
He longed for the life he knew he’d never be able to have back east and was desperate enough to find it that he wouldn’t look back. So, Rin replaced his family with friends, the luscious fields for arid desert filled with hostile shrubs and strange grasses, and his heart with something disfigured and of questionable value. Still, being able to love the way he wanted to love made the sweltering heat and the aggravatingly dry soil that much more worthwhile. Even if he’d be alone for the rest of his life, this freedom was worth it in every sense of the word.
After all, that’s what this new revolutionary frontier was all about.
Winnie stumbled down a small, rocky dune, squealing from the sudden scare. It pulled Rin out of his thoughts, scattering them with intense focus as his stomach knotted with panic. His body moved on its own, somehow preventing him from slipping off her back. Thankfully, she collected herself without much trouble or much intervention from Rin.
“Steady, girl,” he cooed with a gruff voice as he leaned over to pat her on the neck, breathing out a sigh of relief. It might’ve been more for himself but he was still glad they were okay. If she happened to get injured out here, it could be over for them both.
Grabbing his waterskin on the way up, Rin tipped the opening against his lips for a quick drink. The water was an instant reprieve to his scratchy throat. It wasn’t enough, but he wanted to preserve some of it for later. Just in case he couldn’t find the lost calf. Just in case something happened to Winnie. Just in case he ran into trouble — be it the mountain lions, bears, wolves, snakes, gangs, bandits, outlaws, or otherwise.
He was at the very bottom of the food chain out here, at least when he was defenseless.
Once the waterskin was reattached, Rin brushed his spurred heels against Winnie’s flank, instructing her to continue forward. She obliged without complaint, unruffled by the small scare. He kept a close eye on her regardless. It wasn’t like her to stumble like that. She had been born and raised out west. It was all familiar territory. They’d completed the same patrol hundreds of times, and all of those times, she’d never so much as misstepped to that extent.
On the other hand, she was good about sensing danger, and maybe that’s what was truly worrying to Rin.
Before he could give his apprehension room to grow, he heard it — the softest, squeaky moo of a young cow. Eyes hitting the horizon, Rin eased Winnie to stop with a gentle pull of the reins. Swiveling around, Rin spotted the tan and speckled calf, entirely recumbent and exhausted to the point where it had stopped its struggle to get to its feet. Thankfully, it wasn’t too far away.
Immediately, he turned Winnie around and attempted to get her to move closer, but she roared in protest and backed away, ears plastered against her dark mane. The harsh sound filled the lifeless air with a hostile ambiance. Rin turned his gaze back to the calf and his heart started pounding against his ribcage. He hadn’t seen what she saw, not at first glance anyway.
Something much too large and much too furry to be anything good was lying alongside it — no — it had the poor cow’s hindquarters pinned. It’s tan fur had blended in with the foliage frighteningly well.
Cursing under his breath, Rin grabbed his shotgun from the saddlebag and pushed Winnie into a canter, approaching what could easily be a crisis situation in a very roundabout way. He had to be sure what he was seeing was a wild animal or a person or some strange looking bush before getting too close.
As his heart rate steadily ticked higher, Winnie nervously neighed. It was a battle just trying to get her to move closer as they circled around the calf and the weird looking mass of what Rin was beginning to fear was the distinctive fur of a mountain lion or an indiginous gray wolf. Whatever it was, though, it wasn’t moving, and Rin wasn’t entirely sure that was favorable. Cocking his gun, Rin gave up the fight trying to get Winnie any closer. He slowed her to a final stop a good few yards away and swung his leg over her back.
He dropped to the ground, dust billowing around his boots. The calf’s cries were becoming even more frantic now that he was closer. In all honesty, Rin was surprised it was even alive after all this. If he believed his eyes, and that really was a mountain lion or a wolf lying on the ground, then that calf should’ve been dead.
Warnings blared, but he approached regardless. He wasn’t about to let whatever massive animal that was get a jump on him. If it was playing ‘possum, then Rin would be in for a real treat when it decided to move. But the joke would only last as long as it took him to react. It would soon find itself victim to a hail of lethal pellets with one successive pull of the trigger.
Granted, this would be his first mountain lion spotting since Rin moved here. He’d seen way more wolves and rattlesnakes than he could count, but they always kept their distance. He even saw a bear once, just a few miles off, harassing some of his cattle. It ran off after Seijuro fired his gun — which came as a downright shock seeing as every person Rin had talked to who’d encountered a bear told him not to shoot at them unless you want to piss them off. Either Seijuro knew more than he let on or he was a complete dumbass. Though, he didn’t seem too frightened even after he decisively pulled the trigger, unlike Momo and Ai who nearly shit themselves the moment the piercing sound hit their ears.
If Rin had to wager, Seijuro resided in the former. Frankly, they got lucky the bear ran off. Sure, it was five to one, but taking down an animal that large would take teamwork, something they were still ironing out at that time. It would be different now that they had eight months to figure each other out and learn everyone’s distinct habits. It’s not that they’d want to pick a fight with a bear, but the odds of taking it out before it could take one of them out were astronomically higher.
However, this was an entirely different situation. Rin was alone. There would be no backup until Sousuke realized he hadn’t returned from the patrol that evening. Rin had to be smart. Mountain lions were typically solitary creatures but wolves were not. There was a good chance another one was out there. And even if it was a mountain lion, it didn’t seem like it was moving. It could very well be dead, which meant something had to have killed it.
Swallowing dryly, Rin readjusted his grip on the forearm of his gun. His hands were clammy but steady. Every step seemed like a mammoth undertaking. The earth felt unstable, the sun too hot, and despite the blistering temperature, Rin felt his skin turning cold. Nervous sweat collected on his brow before dripping down his temples.
The closer he got, the more certain he was that it was a mountain lion, mostly because it was too large to be a wolf. Be that as it may, it really wasn’t moving. At all. Pausing for a moment to steady his heart and verify his own perception of the strange happenstance, Rin exhaled a slow breath and studied the scene in front of him. It was definitely a mountain lion, and it was definitely dead. There were too many flies. Its chest was still. He couldn’t say for sure, but it looked like it had dried blood coming out of its nose.
Rin’s eyes scanned the area. He looked to be alone. Winnie hadn’t moved nor showed any further signs of paranoia. So, what took it out? A bear? Another animal? Possibly both? But then why wasn’t it half-eaten? Why was his calf still alive?
He’d taken a few more steps, still approaching cautiously, but it wasn’t until he was within a few yards of the two animals when he noticed an arm sticking out from under the fur, half-hidden by a prickly shrub. Freezing in his tracks, Rin felt a cold shiver run down his spine.
What the fuck?
His next few steps were unsteady and quick. He crossed the distance within seconds, curiosity taking hold. As his grasp of the situation broadened tremendously, Rin stopped mere pace away, his breath hitching. Too afraid to lower his gun, Rin tapped the mountain lion with the muzzle. Its body was already stiff. Flies scrambled from the unexpected movement, but finding it partially alive, or very much alive was the least of his worries.
It wasn’t just an arm.
There was an entire person underneath it.
And there was blood. Everywhere.
Rin lowered his shotgun, looped the strap over his shoulder, wiped his brow with his sleeve, and cursed under his breath. This was a whole ass mess. Was the person missing a limb? Did the mountain lion gut him? Maybe vice versa? Maybe they gutted each other? There was an obscene amount of blood and most of it was covering what he could see of the stranger. Much like the mountain lion, he wasn’t moving. There was no way he was still alive.
Honestly, it was heartbreaking that his calf was the only one to survive. It was unexpected, and it twisted Rin’s stomach into agonizing knots. At least from what he could tell, it seemed that the stranger was trying to save the calf from the mountain lion but succumbed to his injuries as he tried to kill the predator. It must’ve died right before or right after he did. However, with the gigantic animal sprawled across the majority of the stranger’s body and part of the calf’s too, it was hard to say for sure. Maybe that wasn’t what happened at all.
“Good grief,” Rin sighed, deliberating the best way to handle this situation. He took off his hat and ran a nervous hand through his hair, pushing the dampest maroon strands out of his face before securing it back on his head. He pulled the brim down for good measure, feeling it tighten around his forehead.
Should he bury the body or bring it back to town? It wasn’t like he had a shovel. Winnie could probably handle both the deadweight of a human body plus a baby calf. But then how long would it take for Rin to walk back to Crimson Point? As the sun settled in the west, more nightlife would appear and some of it could be threatening to a worn-down, laden horse. Rin wouldn’t be able to see that well in the pale moonlight and defend as well as he could during the day.
Perhaps he should’ve brought a lantern.
No. It wasn’t like he expected to find a body out here.
There wasn’t another town for miles. What was the stranger even doing out here alone? It wasn’t like the calf was so important that he’d risk his own life for it. Maybe it had nothing to do with the poor animal. Maybe he was hunting the mountain lion. Maybe he just happened to stumble upon it and thought it would help him catch his prey and then unexpectedly crossed paths with fate a moment too soon. Right place, right time? Or right place, wrong time depending on the perspective, of course.
Maybe Rin should just take the calf and go, leaving them both here for another animal to eat? It would be the easiest option.
That small thought alone sent a wave of nausea up his throat. Dead or alive, he couldn’t leave a person out here. It was a person. He’d have to bury him back in Crimson Point. He'd pile them both on Winnie’s back and walk if need be. And the possibility existed that the calf might be uninjured and could carry its own weight. It wasn’t like Rin could properly gauge anything — be it the calf’s condition or how the stranger and the mountain lion died — until he moved the wretched mountain lion off them both. There was a chance this could work out in his favor.
Rin whistled for his horse. To his surprise, Winnie approached slowly. She eventually stopped just out of reach, still a little too afraid of the mountain lion. Shaking his head with an exhausted smile, he stepped towards her, fetched his lasso from her saddle, and went for the calf. Bending down in front of it, he stroked its neck for a few seconds. It did little in calming it down. Despite its fatigue, it was desperately trying to get to its feet. Rin took that as a good sign.
Looping the rope around the calf’s neck, he walked back to Winnie and tied the other end to the saddle horn. Now, at least, if the calf could run, it wouldn’t make it too far. Winnie wouldn’t budge. She was too stubborn for her own good, making a perfect hitching post. Knowing the calf would likely be frightened, Rin wanted to take the necessary precautions just in case, or he might find himself chasing a calf halfway across the southwest, attempting, and likely failing, to herd it back to town.
Wiping his hands on his dusty pants, Rin circled the mountain lion once more, deciding which angle would be best for approach. Sure, he could’ve used Winnie to pull the mountain lion far enough to free both the calf and the body, but the chances of her getting spooked and taking off with it strung to her saddle was relatively high.
And that wouldn’t end well. For anyone.
So, his strength would have to do. For now, anyway. Depending on how heavy it was, he might try his luck and tempt fate.
Rin cleared his throat, and leaned his body against the mountain lion’s back. Knowing it couldn’t have been dead longer than six or seven hours, which meant it would be just as heavy as it was when it died since it couldn’t be rotting yet, he sucked in a large breath of air and pushed.
It skirted a few inches before catching on something that felt like a stone wall. Rin slid into the dirt, cursing. At once, the calf’s cries became worse, enough to urge Rin to hastily try again. Digging his heels into the soil, Rin gritted his teeth and leaned in once more, pushing with everything he had. Fortunately, the massive cat moved about a foot, freeing the last bit of the calf’s pinned leg. It readily jumped to its feet, tearing off with a light limp.
Rin watched it run the length of its rope and circle back around Winnie, stopping when it had discovered it couldn’t get any further. Its injuries didn’t look too bad from a distance. And if the calf was willing to get around that much, maybe there was a chance he could ride back to Crimson Point with it pulling its own weight.
That was, if he could free the body.
Taking a good look at it now, Rin was beginning to wonder if that was even a possibility. He’d moved the mountain lion enough that he could tell the stranger’s body was all there — two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head, all completely covered in blood — but whether they were attached or not was the question. That, and there was a massive wound in his lower abdomen. At least that’s where most of the dried and clotted blood was centralized. It was something that could have easily been a fatal bite wound.
Ultimately, Rin knew he couldn’t give up now. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he couldn’t just leave him here. A few more solid pushes like the last and he’d have his body almost entirely free. All it would take was a few, short tugs of the stranger’s legs and he’d be able to pull him out the rest of the way. Rin could do that. Probably. Taking a deep breath and lowering his center of gravity, he rammed his shoulder into the mountain lion’s back.
To his mortifying surprise, it moved so much he toppled over, straight onto the dead body. Registering it a second too late, Rin tried to scramble to his feet. His clothes wanted to stick to the stranger’s abdomen, the blood acting like an invisible tether holding him down. Sandy earth was kicked everywhere in the struggle, but for some reason, Rin couldn’t find his footing. Maybe it was the panic. Maybe it was the close proximity to a dead person, one who was mortally wounded, hauntingly covered in blood. It was gastly. Or maybe it was the gasping breath of the corpse—
Wait. Gasping breath…?
And, terrifyingly, Rin felt a hand tighten around his wrist.
Oh, God.
A scream erupted from Rin’s throat as he flailed. He tried everything in his power to get away, but he kept falling, unable to get enough traction to go anywhere.
This wasn’t a dead body at all.
“H—”
Rin almost missed the sound coming from the stranger’s lips over his own thrashing. As his breath caught painfully in his lungs, Rin’s entire body froze. He didn’t want to, everything in him was screaming at him to turn around and run, but he leaned forward, giving up on his attempt to flee.
“He—”
“Help?” Rin guessed. His voice cracked. So much for feigning courage. The stranger’s grip on Rin’s trembling arm tightened. The words were out of Rin’s mouth before he even realised he was saying them, “Yes. I’m here to help you. I’m going to get you a doctor.”
“He—” the stranger wheezed again.
“Yes, I’m here to help.”
The stranger shook his head, or at least that’s what it looked like to Rin. His initial gut-wrenching panic over the person being alive and not a corpse had violently turned into fretful anxiety that he needed to retrieve a medical professional. Immediately. There was a three hour ride back to Crimson Point and another hour ride to the closest town that had a doctor on hand. With a hurt calf, there wasn’t much Rin could do to cut that time down. Without it, he could make the entire trip in three, maybe even two hours.
“Her—”
Rin shook his head, his eyebrows pursing. “Her?”
“H—Her—e.” The stranger lifted his other hand, pressing it against Rin’s chest.
“Here? Yeah, I’m right here,” Rin reiterated, feeling a sudden, acute wave of sadness wash over his core. What if he couldn’t get help? What if he couldn’t make it in time to save the stranger’s life? What if this was the last thing the stranger ever said? His final wish, appearing as a half-begging, somber plea for someone to stay by his side in his final moments, was nothing short of devastating. He would’ve died out here, alone, if Rin hadn’t come along when he did. He couldn't leave now.
“H—Here,” he repeated, pushing his fist so hard into Rin’s chest, he temporarily knocked the breath from his lungs. Rin fell back, caught more by surprise than anything. As he unleashed a strangled breath, his eyes fell to the stranger’s hand. There was something tucked away against his palm noticeable only by a thin leather strap looped between his fingers.
Oh.
“Here, as in take this?” Rin surmised. The stranger nodded; again, at least Rin thought he did.
“M—M—Ma—p.”
Map?
Nearly prying open his fingers to acquire it, a pendant dropped into Rin’s palm. He glanced at it for a brief second, catching sight of what looked like a high-caliber bullet fashioned into a necklace, before the stranger’s arm slid out from Rin’s grip, his blue eyes rolling back into his head.
“No—!”