She scanned the room looking for any immediate since of risk but couldn't see one. "Great" she thought. "It's never that easy." She muttered out loud barely above a whisper. She scoffs once more before taling in her surroundings again. This place was no stranger to nefarious acts. She had been here many times both for business and rest, there has been many times she had visited Tabitha here to get her wounds mended after a hunt. The Highwaymen has a very open door policy that allows anyone to enter as long as they leave their weapons at the door. However, thanks in part to the establishments more illegal activities, there has been more than a handful fights and murders, but Druth save you if ever get caught in the act by the thugs Garrett Thomas hires to keep his ship running smooth. She glanced over to his direction where he was laughing at the two men who are about to fight as he polished a beer glass in his hand with a dirty towel. Not a whole lot is known about the charming blonde businessman, not even to Winona, who has a history with Garrett. They have both saved each other's lives in some way in the past but they are definitely not great friends. Garett was as untrustworthy as they came, he would sooner sell out his mother than to lose a coin. They are very different people, Winona may be a tough as nails no nonsense woman but she has a heart, while Garrett is a bull of businessman. His heart is all show, much like how if you cross him he will cut your heart out and show you. Coin and favor go a long way in Horse Leg Creek, and the law doesn't seem to care about what Garett may or may not do during and after business hours as long as he helps keep the thriving mining town drunk and docile.
As she made her way to the bar she noticed a few patrons were sitting there, a younger guy twirling his hat around on his hand was pretty loaded as he sat at the bar talking to a man dressed in reverends clothes, and Tabitha sat in the center flirting with a patron as she flushed her curly blonde hair away from her face and away from her low cut bell shaped dress. Although the one who stood out the most was a short little mustached fellow who kept eyeing his surroundings nervously every few seconds, his hand was shaking nervously while holding his mug of alcohol in front of him. He ran his hand through his black and greying hair and looked at his hand before wiping it on his trousers. He looked around the room again as if expecting someone when he had seen that Winona had been looking at him so he quickly faced away from her and pretended to be drinking his mug nonchalantly.
As she stood directly in front of the bar she placed her hands ontop of the bar counter and playfully grinned from ear to ear to make her presence known "Garrett Thomas, if I didn't know any better I would say you enjoy drama, in fact you would have loved if them two good ol' boys started swinging fists." Garret now grinning and still chuckling to himself looks over at Winona and smiles even wider "ahhh my favorite monster hunter. I haven't seen you since that Skinwalker attack a few months ago. Never did get to thank you properly for saving my ass back there." Winona returned Garrett's smile and let out a short laugh herself "we saved each other back there Thomas and you know it. Now tell me, what was that all about?" Garrett Thomas nodded in her direction and escaped a small sigh "you know how it is in here. Some folks cant handle their spirits. " There was a moment of pause, Garrett finally took in that couldnt lie too much to her without her knowing.
"I take it you need more than a room tonight McCray?" He said more regrettingly than offering but didn't drop his smile. Winona made a fake hurt expression on her face "Aw, you don't want to make more small talk? Perhaps dance a little?" Garrett's smile faded and his shook his head "you don't seem the rhythmic type Winona. Alright, you know the drill." Garett held his palm open to her and motioned with his fingers like he wanted something. If it's anything Garrett is besides mysterious and treacherous, it's that he's greedy and won't give anything away for free. With an eye roll and a groan Winona lifted a brown sack of coins and placed it on the counter, instead of Garrett's open hand. Garett scoffed making notice of the smirk on Winonas face. He knew she was never one to suck up to anyone or to beg for anything. Garrett disappeared as he kneeled down to fetch something hidden from view under the counter and Winona looked back over at the mustached man she was watching earlier.
He was still pretty fidgety, but now she noticed he had a coughing spell and was talking to himself, and not very fondly. He kept whispering "calm down, calm down" to himself before pounding his fist on the counter. Garrett broke her concentration when he placed another small brown bag on the counter in front of Winona who cupped it quickly and slid it in to her waist pouch next to her silver Defenders Of The Veil badge that had a dragon with blue eyes on it. "You know" Garrett leaned over to talk more quietly to Winona. I wouldn't take a Defender Of The Veil as someone who uses this stuff." Winona wanted to dodge his accusatory tone so she playfully smiled back at Garrett "a lot you wouldn't know about us Garrett. Same can be said of a business owner who popped up out of nowhere and built a cozy little area to further fund himself with riches and secrets, or are they both the same?" Before Garrett could follow up she nodded her head over to the strange man she had been watching. "Is that the Blackfeather boy?" Garett looked in the direction she was motioning and nodded in response. "Been a minute since you seen him huh? Yeah, his pops ran the old Coal Mine that keeps us going until he and his misses went missing. Terrible shame." Garrett shook his head sadly before continuing.
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"That was a few years ago, and Colton there has inherited it. Doing a pretty good job too, town has seen nothing but gain with him running it. I think the stress is getting to him though. He's always so nervous." Winona kept her eyes locked on Colton Blackfeather as he started coughing even louder, the gem on Winonas chest growing and falling in flames with each cough, Colton looked over at her again and got up in a hurry and was making a bee line for the exit of the saloon when he brushed passed Winona, as he did The Voilatresta on Winonas neck rumbled and shined even brighter for a moment while Colton was in her proximity. Winona made a scowl while watching Colton and looked back at Garrett who noticed the gem get bright and had a concerned look of his own. "Sorry Garrett gotta run."She said as she hurried to her feet "be careful Winona. He's almost as known and powerful as me!" Garrett said with a cackle at his own joke about Colton possibly being dangerous.
She pushed open the double doors of The Highwaymen and stepped out in to the city and begin trailing behind Blackweather. Beneath a spectral shroud of fog, the frontier town of Horse Leg Creek lay draped in an eerie twilight. Once a humble hamlet, the discovery of coal and the allure of vice had transformed it into a burgeoning metropolis.
Gas lamps flickered dimly, casting an amber glow upon cobblestone streets. The outside of The Highwaymen gleamed with a garish opulence, its promise of illicit pleasures masked by a thin veneer of respectability. The air crackled with anticipation and a palpable sense of something sinister lurking beneath the surface of the city.
Grand Victorian mansions stood in stark contrast to the rough-hewn log cabins that dotted the outskirts of town, yet something about the place felt uncanny, as if it were trying too hard to conceal its true nature.
Through the swirling mist, the few town's residents out this late moved with purpose, their faces etched with a combination of greed and unease. Brawny miners with coal-dusted faces hobnobbed with tuxedo-clad gamblers, while painted ladies whispered secrets to well-heeled gentlemen.
The fog seemed to amplify every sound, creating an eerie soundtrack. The muffled laughter of Highwaymen patrons drifted through the streets, mixing with the creak of wagon wheels and the distant howling of coyotes. It was a town on the edge, where the pursuit of fortune and pleasure danced dangerously close to darkness.
Horseleg Creek, a place of glittering prosperity and hidden shadows, where the line between good and evil blurred with every passing fog-filled night.
Winona pressed her body against the general goods store outside hoping to make herself barely visible to the man she was tracking. Just ahead of her in the low light of the hanging lanterns around town Winona watched as Colton stood outside Blackfeather Mine. She watched as Colton
"Winona McCray of The Veil, I take it?" Winona turned around startled to put a face to the loud southern voice she heard and noticed The Horse Leg Creek sheriff stand there with his arms crossed over his rotund body and a smug look on his grey bearded face, He did not look happy with her. Winona had spent more than a few nights in her youth in his jail, and the two still didn't get along today. "Good Evening Lawman." She retorted with venom in her words. She hadn't forgotten the trouble it was to work with or be around Sheriff Barton. Keeping his arms crossed and his lips smirked he sounded excited "didn't notice you had come back to town since our last run in. Figured maybe you had learned your lesson. What are you doing here at night?" Winona looked away from the sheriff's eyes in the direction of the mine but didn't see Colton anywhere. He had vanished and The Voilatresta was no longer humming it's fire.
Winona brought her gaze back to the sherif angry that he distracted her from her task. "I don't believe I have to answer your questions. It isn't your business" she said as she spit on the ground. The sheriff moved his hands from his chest down to his waist and sneered "ohh but it is, Miss McCray. Your jurisdiction is to hunt demons and monsters. Mine is to make sure people are safe, that mine is off limits at night and you have no business there. So watch yourself McCray. If I see you hassling my nephew or his coal mine again, you're going to have to fighter harder to escape my cuffs." The sheriff turned on his weight and walked away from Winona before she could respond.