The sun creeps over the horizon, its ruddy red light stretching an impossibly tall shadow over the roof of the cabin. The shadow reaches skyward, its hands vanishing into the forest beyond, then comes back down to clasp fingers with Adelita’s hands.

It had been a long few months, but now, stretching in the brilliant dawn, Adelita feets like she could take on the world itself. She finishes her routine with a flourish and drives a determined fist into a nearby scarecrow. She had been fit before, but it came from hard work at sea. This was a different kind of strength, a focused, determined power that she’d cultivated with intention.

Despite this, a few months is not enough time to heal every wound. As she draws her fist back for another blow the cough returns, forcing her to her knees as a dark spatter appears in the dry dirt. She wipes her mouth and once again determines that she had time to worry about it later.

A pounding rhythm makes itself known, growing slowly more distinct from the shushing of shifting trees, as a pair of horses approach along the trail that circles the small ranch. Adelita eyes the rider of the lead horse, the second riderless, as she rights herself. Sure enough, Doroteo returns.

The early morning stillness shatters loudly as Adelita turns on her heel and dashes back into the ranch house. She scrambles, straightening the few meager items still left in the small cabin, and throwing the rest into a bag she had left hanging from the door.

“Little girl!” A voice roars from outside and Adelita quickly steps out, shutting the door behind her with all the serenity of a saint.

“Old man?” She returns. She begins to tie the familiar old bandana around her face as she steps closer.

“Watch it,” He smiles, then adds, “You ready?”

“Of course.” she replies, tying the bag to the saddle of the second horse.

“And you still want to do this?”

“Of course.”

“Is that my stuff?”

“Of course.” She replies, a smile briefly glinting in her eye as she carefully climbs into the saddle.

“And you know how to ride?”

Rather than respond, she takes off, turning the steed to cut across the overgrown field.

“Of course.” Teo grumbles, spurring his horse after her.

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Adelita holds tight as her mount jumps the fence to reach the road. She lets out a harsh cry as the shock rattles her wounds. Teo catches up, though he guides his horse further down the field towards a break in the fence.

“You alright?” Teo asks. Adelita nods and he takes the lead, “Hope you learned your lesson.”

“Is this the start of my training?” she asks cooly, a hand pressed to her chest, just above the heart.

“Yeah, sure. Lesson one! Don’t do stupid shit if you don’t have to.” Teo chuckles, then draws a revolver from his belt and tosses it to his new pupil. She lunges to catch it, barely managing, though not without a fresh wave of soreness.

Adelita inspects the gun while she resettles in her saddle. “A pistol? I’ve only ever shot a rifle.”

“Badly, I’ll bet.” he replies bluntly, earning himself a glare, then tosses a box of ammo after the gun. She lunges for it as well, but ends up missing, and the box goes tumbling into the underbrush. They bring their steeds to a stop and Adelita dismounts to search for it.

“Lesson two.” the man announces, casting about the area for something, “Shoot that uh… That tree there.”

Adelita glances in the direction he pointed, eyeing the trunk a twenty or so meters away. With a bit of trial and error, under the judgemental eye of her mentor, she manages to open the chamber and load the bullets while only dropping a couple in the process. She takes a dramatic pose, firing six times in rapid succession. Of the six, only two hit.

“Mm. Worse than I thought, neh?” He mutters, barely noticing as Adelita’s horse shies away from the noise. Teo casts a judgemental eye from horse to rider, then sighs. “Again.”

With brow set in determination, she reloads the gun - without dropping any this time - and takes aim.

“Both hands, mija, you can get fancy when you’re good. Both feet planted, works the same aiming and from the hip, yeah?”

Adelita relents, adjusting her arms awkwardly to find the right form. She fires again, this time taking care to aim between volleys. Four shots manage to score the trunk, earning her an approving nod from Doroteo.

“Alright, get back on. We can work on it.” He chuckles and she clambers back into the saddle. He glances up at the still-rising sun and unties a pair of wide sombreros from the side. He tosses one to her with a flick of the wrist. This time, though, she had seen it coming and manages to put herself in a position to catch the flying headwear. “After you learn to shoot we’ll get you shooting on horseback, neh? Plenty of time to learn till we get there.”

Adelita perked up, urging her horse forward to ride akimbo on the winding jungle trail. “You found them?”

“Ehh, found one, si. Like a needle in a haystack, looking for federales out here. There’s one around every corner and your descriptions weren’t the most distinct. Luckily, there’s only one big muscle man with a matching mustache, apparently.”

“It’s a start.”

“He’ll get us the rest, no?” Teo replies amiably. “He’s a talker from what I hear.”

“What else you hear?”

“He’s not in the army anymore.” Teo replies, “Got himself into bare-knuckle boxing at a hacienda near Ticul after he caught a bullet in his shoulder. Sort of matches you.”

Doroteo gestures to his right shoulder as an example.

“That all?”

“Not much. Hey, dismount and shoot that rock over there.”