Wald, Gratian Frontier - Chapter 1 Excerpt

 The full length story will be available on my itchio page very soon. That page is christian-l-adams.itch.io 

Gratian Frontier is a western, as opposed to straight low fantasy. This story features returning characters from Wald, Blood Trail. Only read this if you've read Blood Trail, also available on my itchio page. 

Wald and the Gratian Frontier

Chapter 1: 

It was a somewhat quiet evening in the town of Loretta Dune. The wind had died down and the sun was following. I sighed and idly tapped the wooden table. 

"What's wrong, Devil?" Asked Marlon, my right hand man. 

"Nothing, nothing…" I replied. There was a moment before I spoke again. "You ever just feel pointless?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"Like that we're pointless. Everything we do is pointless." 

"No, not at all." He looked nervously at the rest of the gang. "You gotta be more careful with that talk." 

"Oh, they can shove off for all I care." 

There had been some scuttlebutt about a change in leadership, but I was too well respected for that. 

Across the saloon was a man that humbly went by the name Terry 'Badass Son of a Bitch' Billy. He was a son of a bitch alright. In fact he was the worst person I'd ever met. If there was true law in this land he'dve been hanged ten years ago. The sheriff of Loretta Dune did not care about anything. 

The doors swung open and in walked a man with brown hair. He wore some kind of padded jacket and had… wait. Was that a sword on his back? I tried to remember the last time I'd seen anyone with one of those. My aunt had one I believe. 

Right behind him was a woman. She wore a short dress and cotton looking pants. Her hair was black as pitch. Our eyes met and I could tell there was something very unpleasant about her. 

A knot formed in my gut. 

"Excuse me." The man walked right up to Terry and sat down across from him. "We're looking for someone." He showed him a photograph. I couldn't see what it was of. 

Terry roared with laughter before standing up and punching the man square in the face. His chair slid back about six feet and he toppled over a table. 

I eyed the woman who drew a shotgun with two barrels from her bag. No… no no no no no no… I had to get out of there. 

She dove over the table and clubbed Terry with the grip of the gun before she stuck it in his mouth. 

"You have five seconds." 

He laughed again, muffled by the gun barrel. When he tried to swing at her, she caught it with her left hand. 

He looked terrified. I'd never seen anyone physically overpower him before. 

"One." 

A deafening bang went off as Terry's head split down the middle like a melon. 

"Elizabeth…" the man got to his feet, leaning on the table for support. "Why did you go and do that again?" 

She sighed. "I'm sorry." 

"Do better." 

"I'm sorry." 

"Don't worry about it. His face was on that poster, remember?" 

"I remember." 

"Good." 

"Sorry, Wald." 

He walked over and helped her up. 

"Come on." 

They stood up and eyed the patrons in the saloon. 

"Terry's dead…" one said. "Is he really dead? I can't believe it," said another. 

I stood in disbelief. Terry being dead changed everything. Not only was our town now safe from him, we were no longer safe from his gang. 

I rushed over and pushed them out the door, where I followed closely. 

Once we were outside, I lectured them. 

"Do you know what you just did?" I asked. 

"Elizabeth killed a guy." The man said. 

"You killed the guy. You killed the worst bastard for 50 miles." 

"Oh, good," he said. 

"I mean, thank you and all. But his gang is absolutely going to slaughter us at sunrise." 

They gave each other a look, and then she nodded. "No, they won't." 

"What? Who're you to say?" 

"I mean we won't let them." 

"You two?" 

"Yeah, us two. That's it. That's all we need. I guess you could help too. Do you have a sword?" 

I laughed. "A sword? No! I have this." I drew the revolver from the back of my belt and gave it a few spins." 

"What the hell is that?" He asked. 

"A… a revolver? You've never seen one?"

"Is that like Elizabeth's scattergun?" 

"Yes, it's exactly like her scattergun." 

"Elizabeth, Sybil gave you that gun, didn't she?"

"Yeah, she did." 

"That's great! That supports our theory even more." 

"You're right, it does." 

"That's great and all," I interrupted. "But we're going to die tomorrow morning if we don't get this worked out." 

"You're right," he said. "The name's Wald. This here is Elizabeth." 

I shook their hands. "Molly. Though lots of folks tack a 'Devil' to the beginning of that." 

"Devil Molly? Why?" 

"Because I'm the daughter of the devil, clearly." 

…

"Molly! What the hell are you doing in my office!" 

"Hey there, Sheriff Marcus. Thought I'd say 'hi'." 

"No. No! You wanna be arrested again, Molly?" 

"No no no, that's not what I want." 

Sheriff Marcus was red in the face at this point. He hated me so much. 

"Why!? Why do you bother me like this!?" 

"Marcus! Calm the hell down!" 

"That son of a bitch Terry is dead! And we're next! How am I supposed to be calm!?" 

In a huff I drew my gun and pointed it at him. "If you don't calm down I'm… I'm really gonna do it this time!" 

"Okay! Okay…" he kicked an overturned chair back upright and slumped into it. Marcus and I went back a few years. He'd arrested me about half a dozen times and I, at one point, put a bullet in his shoulder. Far as I knew it was still in there. 

"Come on in!" I called outside. 

The man, Wald, he acted confident but I didn't know what the hell he was going to do with a sword. He leaned on a table off to the side. 

The woman, Elizabeth, was fucking creepy. I mean, she acted real friendly but there was darkness just radiating off her. It's the same feeling I got meeting dad's friends back in the day, of which he had a lot. Honestly there were days where I really missed auntie Dama. 

"Who're these two?" Marcus asked. 

"This is Elizabeth and Wald." 

The Sheriff eyed Wald. "What is that?" 

Wald slowly drew his sword. "My sword?" 

"Why do you need a knife that big?" 

"Knife? I have a knife." He drew a small, double edged blade from his boot. "This though is a sword. I fight with it." 

Marcus looked at me like I was supposed to help. 

"Sheriff, I don't think they're from around here." 

Elizabeth cut in. "No, we aren't." 

"Where are ya from? The coast? Or maybe the forest?" Marcus asked. 

"We're from Rahstora. I'm from Cape Burch although I spent most of my time in Bradsfield. Elizabeth is from an area on the north end of the coast." 

"I spent a good piece of my life in Portstell though." 

"I… have no clue what you're talking about." 

"Uh… what? You don't know there's an entire country to the north of you?" 

"Son, there's nothing to the north of us except sand." 

"What are you talking about? We came from there." 

A yell outside interrupted us. 

"Hey shitheads! We're here to collect on Terry's behalf!" 

"Oh no, they're here early," I said. "I have an idea. You two head to the far end of the street and wait there with your shotgun and… sword. Marcus and I will grab rifles and head to the opposite side and drive them toward you." 

"Got it." 

Marcus and I snuck outside and managed to catch the gang in a crossfire. They panicked and galloped toward the other two. I watched as Elizabeth blew two of them away with her shotgun. Wald… I watched Wald knock the gun out of someone's hand. Was he disarming them? 

The de facto leader, Rich Brian, drew his second pistol and blew about a dozen holes in the poor woman. 

I could only watch in horror as she stumbled into her partner before collapsing into him. 

I fired a single round and blew off Brian's head. As the dust cleared and the blood soaked into the ground, I rushed over to the pair. 

"We need to get you to a…" 

When she bit into his lip, it gave me butterflies. 

"Elizabeth, people are watching." Wald said without the use of a whole lip. 

"Mmm, I need your blood though, what can I say. Plus, yours tastes so good." 

"You're a damned fiend sometimes." 

She released him and managed to stand upright. "I need some new clothes." 

I was horrified. I drew my pistol and pointed it at her, and then at him, and then back. 

"You're a ghoul!" 

"What!? What the hell is a ghoul?" She asked. She looked at Wald who just shrugged. 

"Those walking corpses out in the desert!" 

"I'm no walking corpse, let me tell you." 

"Yeah," Wald corroborated. "She's much too warm for that." 

"You really think I'm warm?" She asked with a smile. 

"Knock it off," he said. "Yeah, I do." 

"Enough!" I shouted. 

"Hey! Stop pointing that thing at me," he said. 

"Just… thank you for your help, but, get out of Loretta Dune." 

"Okay! Okay. Elizabeth, get the horses."