{"sf1_id":618474,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Guns of Legend: Chapter Fourteen","author":"ThisAdamGuy","words":1691,"posted_at":"2013-11-26T18:49:00.000Z","tags":["Cowboys","Fantasy","Guns","Indians","Magic","Shotguns","Western","pistols","rifles"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/618474-guns-of-legend-chapter-fourteen","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/618474","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=618474\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"\nChapter Fourteen\n \nAdlis stumbled in the darkness as\nshe raced towards the bluff. She'd heard\nno signs that she was being pursued, but her paranoia got the best of her,\nconvincing her that a thief or cutthroat was hiding in every shadow. In the back of her mind, she scoffed at\nhaving felt alone in the church. At\nleast in there she was surrounded by the priests and acolytes, even if they\nwere separated by walls. Out here in the\ndark desert, she was truly alone. Not a\nsingle soul to be seen for miles, and only the sharp, cold wind to keep her\ncompany. Even now, it whipped her dress\nand her hair behind her, making her mad dash across the sand even more\ndifficult.\nIn the distance, she heard the\ntelltale buzz of a wastep, and she froze.\nThe massive stinging insects were notorious for picking off lost\ntravelers. If one were to find her out\nhere, she realized with a shudder, she would have no way to fend it off. After a minute of waiting, the sound did not\nreturn, so she kept running, the bluff slowly getting closer.\nFifteen minutes later, she arrived\nat the base of the massive rock. She\nbent over, trying to catch her breath.\nLooking back, the town was nothing more than a few small pinpricks of\nlight in the distance. The wind blew\nagain, and she shivered. Her dress had\nnot been made to withstand the weather, and the cold was quickly creeping\nthrough her fur. She needed to find\nBrother Dunma's friend.\nOnce she had gotten her breathing\nunder control, Adlis set off once again.\nPicking a direction at random, she began to walk, hoping she would not\nbe forced to circle the entire bluff before she found the cabin. She was in luck, and found it after only a\nfew minutes. It was small and plain, clearly\nconstructed for necessity and not for comfort, but the light shining through\nthe window and the smoke curling up from the chimney made it look like a\nmansion to the cold zik girl. She began\nto race towards it, but forced herself to slow to a calm walk. Dunma hadn't given her any indication that\nhis friend knew she was coming, and seeing a figure running straight towards\nhis house might lead a person to shoot them.\nShe slowly made her way to the\nfront door, her heart beating with anxiety.\nWhat if Dunma had been wrong?\nWhat if this mysterious person turned her away? The only place she had to go was back to the\ntown she'd just left- straight into the hands of the Embin priests. She raised a trembling hand to knock on the\ndoor, but before she could, a voice called to her.\n\"Hey, you,\" Adlis spun around, barely\ncontaining a startled scream. The black\nfurred zik she'd seen back at the church stood there, leaning on the side of\nthe cabin.\n\"A-are you the one Brother Dunma\nsent me to meet?\" she asked in a timid voice, desperately hoping that he wasn't.\n\"Don't play dumb with me,\" the zik\nspat. \"You know who I am.\"\nOnce again, Adlis saw the\noverly-long rifle hanging from the zik's back.\nSlowly, realization dawned on her.\n\"You're Luka,\" she said slowly, \"the\nSniper Marshal.\"\n\"At your service,\" Luka replied\ncurtly, touching the brim of his hat.\n\"Why are you here?\" the girl\nasked. \"I'm doing everything they asked\nme to do.\"\n\"Not everything,\" Luka\nsneered. \"You seem to have misplaced the\nmost important part.\"\nAdlis' ears turned white, \"I- I'm\ndoing the best I can. Just give me more\ntime!\"\n\"You're time,\" the black zik spat, \"is\nquickly running out. We gave you this\nchance to redeem yourself, but make no mistake: we are more than capable of\ndoing this ourselves.\"\n\"I'll try harder,\" Adlis promised.\n\"You'd better,\" Luka agreed. He stepped forward, and Adlis had to fight\nthe urge to back away in fear. \"It'd be\na shame if you had to live like this the rest of your life, wouldn't it? On the run from the church, stared at like a\nfreak every time you go into a town.\" He\nreached up and gently began to stroke one of her ears, which whitened even\nfurther, \"Stuck with these things until the day you die.\"\nAdlis' ears turned blue at the\nthought, and she fought to keep tears from running down her cheeks, \"I promise,\nI'll do what you want. Just give me a\nlittle more time!\"\nThe zik gave her a cruel smile, and\nwithdrew something from his breast pocket, \"All right, then. A little more time. But you're going to need this.\" With that, he tossed what he was holding to\nher. Adlis fumbled with it, but managed\nto catch it. A strange feeling crept\nacross her hands as she grasped it.\nOpening her hand, she what it was.\n\"This is Kulgan's Twisting pendant!\"\nshe exclaimed, but found that she was speaking to nobody. Luka had vanished as if he had never been\nthere. Adlis shivered, and forced\nherself to clutch the pendant tighter.\nIt felt weird in a way she couldn't describe. It was just... unnatural. Still, it was her only way of doing what Luka\nand the others had ordered her to do.\nNot knowing what else to do with it, she slipped it around her neck and\nhid the small stone inside her dress. It\nmade her fur stand on end, but what choice did she have?\nSteeling herself, she took a deep\nbreath and knocked on the cabin door.\nThere came a small noise on the other side, and a few moments later the\ndoor opened. A toola stood inside,\ntilting its head in confusion.\n\"Thought I heard voices, I did,\" he\nsaid, waving his claws in greeting. \"What\nbe you doing here?\"\n\"My name is Adlis,\" she\nanswered. \"Brother Dunma sent me here.\"\n\"Brother Dunma?\" the toola echoed\ncritically. \"Trouble with the church be\nyou in?\"\n\"Yes,\" the girl hung her head in\nwhat she hoped was an ashamed way. Her\nears, she was glad to note, were still blue with sorrow. \"He helped me escape, and told me you would\nhelp me.\"\n\"Help you he said, did he?\" After a moment's consideration, he stepped\naside and motioned for her to enter. \"Come\ninside, I suppose you should, then.\"\nAdlis thanked him and stepped\ngratefully inside the cabin. It was\nsmall, even smaller than she'd thought it would be, but there was room for two.\n\"Dinner I was about to eat,\" the\ntoola said, scuttling towards the fireplace where a pot full of sweet smelling\nsoup boiled. \"Want some, do you?\"\n\"Yes, thank you.\"\nAs the toola spooned some of his\ndinner into two bowls, Adlis spoke up again, \"Excuse me, but I don't believe\nyou told me your name.\"\n\"Footil my name be,\" the toola\nreplied, handing her a bowl. Without\nanother word, he began to eat. Adlis let\nhim be, and began to eat as well. She\nwas hungrier than she'd realized, and soon she was looking at the bottom of her\nbowl.\n\"Hungry be you still?\" Footil\nasked, and took her bowl back to the pot.\nHe filled it and handed it back to her.\nAdlis thanked him, but had barely raised her spoon to her mouth when\nanother knock came at the door.\n\"Again the door knocks?\" Footil\nasked. \"That can be who, I wonder?\"\nAdlis froze. What if it was the priests again? What if they'd tracked her here? She was about to tell Footil not to answer\nit, but he had already done so. She\nbreathed a sigh of relief when she saw that it was just Za and Kilo.\n\"Adlis!\" the simmk exclaimed, and\nran to embrace her before he had even been invited inside.\n\"Za!\" she returned the\ngreeting. \"I'm so glad you're okay!\"\n\"Me?\" he asked incredulously. \"I was more worried about you! That fuaro said that they were going to\nexecute you!\"\n\"Brother Dunma,\" Adlis\nconfirmed. \"He's the one who helped me\nescape.\"\nThere was a moment's silence before\nFootil looked back outside at Kilo, who still stood in his doorway.\n\"May as well you come in,\" he said.\n\"Everyone else has.\"\n\"Much obliged,\" the fuaro said\nflatly. She turned to Adlis, \"So, you\nmanaged to get out, huh?\"\n\"Yes, thanks to Brother Dunma.\"\n\"Good,\" Kilo paused to look around\nthe cabin. \"Let's get going, then.\"\n\"Going where?\" Adlis asked.\n\"To keep looking for that thing\nthat stole my child!\" Kilo snapped. \"Are\nyou stupid or something?\"\n\"Stealing children, I hear?\" Footil\nasked, closing the door. \"About what is\nthis?\"\n\"Something has been kidnapping\nchildren from Everdry,\" Adlis answered. \"Kilo\nwants to find whatever it was and kill it.\"\n\"And we're wasting time standing\naround here,\" Kilo concluded. \"Come on,\nwe're leaving.\"\n\"Not without Kulgan,\" Adlis said,\nstanding up.\nZa and Kilo both froze.\n\"Kulgan?\" the fuaro asked, raising\nher eyebrow.\n\"Yes, he's in the church,\" Adlis\nexplained. \"He was the one screaming\nabout getting his pendant back.\"\n\"You want us to go back there?\" Za\nexclaimed, taking a step back from her. \"Are\nyou crazy?\"\n\"No. It would be wrong of us to leave him there to\nbe executed.\"\n\"The simmk is right,\" Kilo\nsaid. \"I'm not risking my life to break\nthat worthless Twister out of prison.\"\n\"But he's a Ranger,\" Adlis\nargued. \"And let's face it, we were\nnever on that thing's trail in the first place.\nWithout him, there's no way we'll find it.\"\nKilo opened her mouth to argue\nback, but couldn't deny her logic.\n\"Besides,\" Adlis concluded, \"you\ndon't even have your gun anymore, do you?\nHow do you think you're going to fight it?\"\nKilo's face turned grim, and she\ncrossed her arms angrily, \"Fine, then.\nWe'll go save the stupid drunk.\"\n\"You're both crazy!\" Za shouted,\nalready quivering with fear. \"We'll get\ncaught- or worse!\"\n\"That's a risk we'll have to take,\"\nAdlis said. \"We won't get anywhere\nwithout him.\"\nAnd\nneither, she thought, lightly brushing her hand against the pendant under\nher dress, will I."}