"Poor thing," an old man croaked as he looked down at Nugget.

He knelt before the injured chicken and shook his head.

"Must've fought off a coyote. Brave little one." The old man sighed as he reached back and pulled a rifle from his shoulder. "The kindest thing I can do is put you out of your misery."

Nugget was wide awake. She had been eyeing the old man cautiously. But, when he grabbed the gun, she shook her head. Almost like she pitied his poor, uninformed decision.

Still, she waited. Nugget glared at the old man with an intense gaze. For a moment, he hesitated.

"Heh," the old man chuckled as he regained his composure and continued to unsling his rifle. "That's quite a look you've got there. I bet the ol' roosters certainly had trouble with you."

He pointed the gun right at her. She stood firm, and stared right down the barrel.

The old man smiled at her. "If only you weren't so badly hurt. You've got some real gumption but maybe..."

He paused a moment, and lowered his gun slightly as he tilted his gaze up to the sky. Then, he shook his head and returned the gun to her.

"No, wouldn't be right to put you through that." He said firmly. "You've earned your rest."

Nugget wasn't her normal calm self. Her intense gaze burned with a strange hatred. As the man pulled the trigger, she leaped into action. Nugget ducked forward and under the rifle's barrel. Then, she spun forward, and kicked up the gun with her one remaining talon.

The farmer didn't have time to look shocked as she did all this before the bullet could leave the barrel of the gun. But, as the gun was ripped from his hands, it spun around to face him as the bullet left the gun.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

It shot straight through his knee, and he began to fall before he finally realized he had been shot.

"Yeeeooowww!" The old man let out a pained shriek as he instinctively grabbed his injured knee.

Nugget hobbled up behind him, and using her beak like scissors, she cut open his bag.

As he rolled on the ground in pain, Nugget glared at the man. She seemed to be weighing something in her mind, but decided against whatever it was, and turned to leave.

She paused as she turned her head to look all around. She seemed dissatisfied.

Nugget turned back to the old man, who had calmed down enough that his shrieks were now just light whimpers. She hopped over to him, and looked down at his face.

The old man turned his face towards her, and immediately Nugget thrust her beak down and into his eye.

His whimpering stopped as the angry chicken pulled back. He had a look of disbelief on his face.

Nugget seemed satisfied, and cleaned the eye juices off of her beak by pecking at the dirt below her. Once she was clean, Nugget settled down and closed her eyes. She slowed her breathing, and as she did a strong wind seemed to pick up around her.

The old man seemed to try to cut his losses, and started to crawl away. Once he was a good twenty feet away, he scrambled to his feet and hobbled off as quietly as he could.

His rifle, and the strange octagonal fruit that fell out of his bag were left behind. He seemed too focused on escaping her wrath to worry about small things.

Nugget took in a deep breath.

In...

And out...

In...

And out...

Then, she was gone. Mist surrounded her now as the sound of bullets echoed in the distance. Nugget opened her eyes and looked around. The mist enveloped her completely, and she looked more irritated than anything else.

----------------------------------------

"You doing alright there boss?" Sentenza asked.

Ted's arm was draped over Sentenza's shoulders. The old cowboy was helping him walk, and because of that was down to using only pistol. But he still fired and reloaded the revolver almost seamlessly so the stream of bullets hardly stopped.

"I...yeah. I'm doing fine." Ted lied.

Sentenza snorted derisively. "Uh huh. Mind telling me the truth now?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Ted asked.

"Don't kid a kidder." Sentenza answered between the gun shots. "Especially when you're such a terrible liar."

Ted gulped. He was grateful Sentenza got him safely out of the floating room. But, he was clearly not doing well. He had a thick line lf blood that went from under his hat all the way down his face. He was also limping.

Ted felt more worn out than anything, but one look at Sentenza, and he knew that the wild west assassin had it much worse.

"Well, even if I'm bad at it, that doesn't mean I have to tell you anything." Ted grumbled.

Sentenza smirked. "Really? Trying to keep your lips sealed against me?"

Sentenza stopped firing for a moment and he let out an uproarious laugh.

"Give me a couple minutes, and you'll tell me everything about you, your parents, and even your distant cousins." He continued.

Ted knew he was right. Sentenza was ruthless, and he bet that he was probably pretty good at torture. Though Ted wasn't really a big fan of pain, so he knew it wouldn't take much at all.

"Look out!"

Sentenza called out to Ted as he pulled both of them down to the ground. A spear flew over their heads.

"Guess the breaks over," Sentenza grumbled as he looked around the thick fog around them.

"How'd you even see that coming?" Ted asked.

"See?" Sentenza scoffed. "No, it was the noise that tipped me off. Now come on, we have to move. Quick!"

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