[Summer – Shadow Valley Desert]

Jennings took a second to recollect himself, looking straight at Mattea’s giant corpse. He then dragged his impervious eyes to see which women, seconds earlier, gave him the upperhand.

“Thank ya' lil’ lady,” murmured Jennings to the girl while he clutched his raw throat, retrieving his cattleman hat from the dusty floor.

The woman dropped to the floor and began crying. Jennings looked on.

“S-sorry,” she says, whimpering into her closed palms. “Must be the blood-pumping… s-still.” she continued without a limit to her fear in sight.

He reached into his saddlebag hanging from Poni and grabbed a few gold coins. “Well... here. This is for your help.” He placed the gold pieces in her palm as she remained on the floor blinded by tears, Jennings began to get back onto Poni and prepared to hit the road again.

She looked up, teary-eyed, perplexed and still a bit overwhelmed. The woman shouted at Jennings.

“...Wait! Are you just going to leave me here?”

While whisking away her salty tears, a snarl emerges and she gains the power to lift herself up to stomp toward Jennings.

“...Yeah,” he responded without a hint of remorse in his voice, pointing at the payment sprawled across the dirt floor.

She stared at Jennings wondering if he was joking, with mouth agape, in awe. She stood inches away. After realizing that he wasn't jesting about her abandonment, she mellowed her tone before continuing.

“I'm Penny May! Pleasure to meet you.” She wiped the suppressed, remaining tears from her sockets. “Please take me back to Dew Fall City, I just want to go home and sleep til’ another Sun rises.”

“Well nice to meet ya’, but sorry ma'am. I can't take you home wit’ no wagon, and on account of us being a bit pressed with time ya’ see,” Jennings responded. “I have to get to Sureal befor’ something important to me. Time is a factor for ole’ J.J. here.”

“You just killed seven crazy, knife-swingin’-women in the blink of an eye without breaking a sweat! How in the world could I be safer out here by myself?” she improvised.

Jennings pondered the statement over a bit and locked eyes with Poni. He slowly came to the realization that she was correct. “Hmph,” he accidentally lets out. “That's a no can do lil' lady-,”

Penny began approaching Poni and climbing up onto his saddle.

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“What the-?” exclaimed Jennings.

“Can't take no for an answer. I just kicked her in the… vagina, to save you. You're taking me with you. I don't care if we stop in Sureal for your little errand, I'm coming too!” claimed Penny.

Poni commenced his rowdy neighing which interrupted Jennings’ rebuttal, beginning a sprint into the orange hued skyline before the former Shark gang-member could elaborate on any kind of refusal. Warm, exhausted gales ripped across Penny’s exposed face, garnering the outlaw’s attention. He ended his struggle.

As she found a temporary solution, by burying her face into his back, he shared his cowboy hat with her to finally have someone achieve comfort, the rustling stopped. They moved as a team, awaiting arrival to Jennings’ hometown.

***

Suns had now passed since Penny May forcibly added herself to Jennings’ group. They had been making good timing but weren’t actually expecting to arrive in the city by morning. An open clearing as wide as a herd of cattle in motion was enough to decide to call it a night. Resting for a bit before the final stretch of their journey was vital.

Jennings takes out the food wrapped in cloth from the knapsack hanging on Poni.

“Looks like we didn't pack enough food after all,” Poni said to Jennings.

“Well, we didn't exactly expect to have another passenger now did we?” he replied back to the horse.

Penny lowered her head and blushed in embarrassment. “I'm-really sorry,” she exclaimed. Jennings looked back with a devious smirk.

“It's alright, I stopped for ya'. Was my own damn fault.”

Jennings had a softer side of him that he had once liked to abandon, oftentimes going out of his way and risking his life for strangers that probably wouldn't return the favor. However something stuck out about this girl. They had only known each other for days and she had already paid her debt to Jennings by saving him, not at all what the general public would've done.

Over the makeshift campfire, Jennings portioned out the remaining seeds and rat meat in the sack to himself, Poni, and then to Penny.

Penny looked at the meat suspiciously asking, “What is this?” She then peeked up at Jennings face which now had transformed into a big grin as he was chewing on his first bite vigorously. “N-nevermind, I don't want to know.”

Jennings lets out a slight chortle as they continue eating their meal, sitting on the desert floor next to each other.

“So...I didn't want to intrude, but if I may ask. What's the rush? What’s in Sureal that’s needing your attention?” she inquired, breaking the silence that had prefixed her statement heavily.

Jennings stopped chewing for a brief moment before muttering out, “Well… we all got someone to protect. They are currently being targeted by some bad fuckin’ people, and I'm going to get in the way to stop ‘em. On account of my bad history, I can’t get there the easy way.”

“That's respectable,” Penny said. “Who's after… this person? I mean this person must be pretty important if a man with your skills is venturin’ through the Shadow Valley Desert for this while just to stop it.”

“He's my half brother, the only family I had.” Jennings snapped his face downward, a clear tell that talking about it seemed to make him the slightest bit uncomfortable. Poni’s clunky, weighted hooves pushed aside some dirt as he rested near his owner, almost as if to help with the comfortability.

“Oh,” silence filled the air once more as Penny believed she may have asked too much. “Well at least you're going, they should be glad to see ya’. We made good time, so I'm sure we'll make it for 'em.”

“I appreciate the good luck energy,” said Jennings. “That doesn't matter though, I just have to get him out of there, don't care who tries to stop me.”

Jennings lifted himself from his resting position, patted his dusty lap off with a few swipes. After retrieving an extra blanket, made from wool, and smelling of rotten sheep. He extended it into her possession, kindly.

“We’ll protect you Penny May. I figure here and now, that I ain’t good at much in this dirty life, but I am good at my job. My job of running.”

Penny smiles, before ruining it with a bite of her meat. J.J. leaned back, tapping his hat past his eyeline to rest.

***

Another day had arrived as Poni neighed in unison with the sunlight's appearance. Penny opened her eyes and yawned while simultaneously stretching and releasing a “eek” sound. Both Poni and Penny noticed that Jennings had already been awake. He stared into the vastness of the Shadow Valley Desert that lies before them.