<span style="color: #40BFFF"><div style="text-indent:1em;">The night was fairly quiet, save for the typical ruckus inside the saloon. Gentlemen of the working class socializing with the high class and all getting along at the end of the week. The bar tender kept their glasses full as they laughed along with them. Their women rolled their eyes and powdered their noses as they sipped their tonic water.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">In the stillness of the night, a new pair of hooves came up the street. The soft clopping stopped right in front of the light and noise of the saloon. The dark bay steed let out a nicker as he shook his withers, a pair of long legs sliding off his bare back. A tattered satchel slung over the shoulder sagged at the hip with an assortment of lumps inside. A feminine hand glided along his strong neck as he chewed at the bit before a deep voice mumbled.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Get out'ta here."</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">With a hard slap to his rear, he was off without hesitation. A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she pulled up the mended hood from her neck and continued through the doors. The sound was deafening compared to outside but she paid no attention. A few of the women noticed and began their whispers as she passed them right by to a table in the corner. Her long legs slumped into the wooden chair, splaying in front of her while her body sagged against the back, wrinkling the tan double breasted coat. The bar tenders looked at one another and shrugged as one took the initiative to find her poison. One last wipe of the glass and he put it on the pile, flipping the rag over his shoulder.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"What're you havin'?" he said kindly.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Absinthe." She said plainly.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">He chuckled a moment and rubbed his brow. "We only have one kind and it'll melt y'er nostrils."</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">A quick wave of the hand sent him off with a shoulder shrug as he told his partner what to get - needing to reach on the highest shelf they have of course. He laughed as he handed it off, the men just beginning to crack their jokes.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"What in the world?"</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"The customer over there asked for it."</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">They looked over and the slumped frame, hollering their tipsy slurs to the back of a hood.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Hey sonny, you might want to call your mum with that drink. Their ain't nothin' to chaise it with that'll help!"</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">A burst of laughter spilled as the glass thumped on her table. He began pouring their fullest bottle, looking up for the sight to stop. When he was just below the rim, he pulled it up and raised a brow again.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Leave the bottle." she muttered.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"What?" he gasped lightly, unable to focus on his surprised based more from the pitch of voice or the request. "You must be crazy."</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">Thin fingers reached over and pulled the glass by the rim.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"You know, we'd appreciate if you took away that hood-hat there. We don't like strange things goin' on in this town."</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">Her fingers slid across the glass, barely dipped in the green liquid as she tossed her hood back.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Well where am I supposed to go then?" she grinned.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Excuse me?"</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"I'm the strangest thing you'll ever see, so where am I supposed to go in this town?" she said looking up at him.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">He stepped back with a trip, sliding the chair behind him. His aghast expression was excess compared to everyone looking over. A quiet stirred the bar as she continued to stare at him, expecting an answer. No sound but the faintest whispers from those without a view. Her single ice-blue eye starred straight, lined with thick lashes. His eyes followed to where her other eye would have been. Instead, he looked up and down and the long strands of midnight hair that draped in a dense curtain over a tattered bandage that consumed the right half of her face. It crossed her brow down her cheek and was wrapped up in her hair between the strands that made the broad ponytail resting on her neck.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Typical." she scoffed, throwing back the glass.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">The bar gasped as she swallowed, simply pouring another one while they riled themselves up again.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"What in hell are you doin' girl?"</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">She refused to answer his brisk, deep question, especially with the emphasis on her gender. He stood quickly, knocking back the stood he sat on. His puffed up shoulders and 6'3" gruff marched over to her and leaned down. She ignored him as she downed her second glass and poured another. His bourbon breath engulfed her senses as he got close to her and demanded an answer. As she lifted the glass without so much as looking, he swatted it from her lips.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Jack, that ain't no way to behave." a man snapped.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">He refused to look away as a few drops of alcohol dripped from his beard.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"You spilled my drink you fucker." she hissed, still looking down where her drink should have been.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">She stood up and pulled her coat from her shoulder, depositing it on the seat of her chair, moving around him to the bar with a loud 'hey' behind her. Everyone seemed to stare now - intensely. She was oddly dressed for a woman. She had a fitted men's vest on that hugged the entirety of her curvy, yet muscular torso, down to her hips. At the v-neckline, a supple sight of cleavage pressed against the hem, revealing far more than the average lady there. Her baggy worker pants dragged a little, but didn't skid enough to make any extra noise. Murmurs continued, presumably due to the amount of scar tissue covering the entirety of her left arm up into her shoulder. The bartenders just stared looking back and forth from her, the crowd, and Jack.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"I don't want any trouble - can I just get another glass?" she grumbled with stretched, wiggling fingers.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">He simply handed her a matching cup to the one before and turned with Jacks fowl breath in her face.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Listen up girl-"</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"No, you listen ass-hat," she snapped, yet still calmly, "I just want to finish my drink and find a place to crash and if my presence bothers you so much, I'll be on my way tomorrow."</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">By now, the whole bar was staring at their conversation, waiting to watch what Jack would do. He was known for stirring trouble, but never like this, and not with a woman.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Jack, that ain't no way to treat a lady." the bartender interjected.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Look mister, I'm no lady, so if I don't get anything out of this situation, the least would be he treated me like anyone else."</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">His confusion followed down the bar as she stepped forward, Jacks broad hand pushing her back by her shoulder.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Jack!"</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Touch me again, and I'll break something." she growled.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">Another step and his hand repeated the same move. Before he could pull it back to his side, her grip twisted it out by his thumb as her opposing elbow came up to meet his nose, her glass shattering on the floor. He stumbled back mid cry as she stood there, his rage boiling. She watched him charge with his fist up lunging forward with her leg extended, turning and stabbing a narrow blade through the back of his hand in a clean, swift movement.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"You said you would try and break somethin'!" He howled.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"I did. I broke your skin." she said.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">His scream vibrated within the tavern as she simply walked away, paying no mind to his nose, which made contact with the edge of the bar. The men had fallen back away from the fuss, barely holding their drinks as she slung her coat on and slapped a few bills on the table, pulling the satchel across her chest again. His bumbling words gurgled with his hissing breaths through his teeth as his fingers began to flex and stiffen.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Stay out of trouble Jack." She said flatly, stopping only to rip her blade from him and slide it up her sleeve.</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">She pushed through the door and slipped away as muffled sounds swallowed the air, glass cracking under boots and chairs sliding out of place. A few buildings down and out of the light, she walked between two solid walls. She leaned back against the bricks and looked at her wrist. She took the small blade from her stained sleeve and pushed her fingers along. Wiping them on her pants, she turned and pulled at the pocket on her hip. Instead of putting it inside, she pulled at the inner fabric and tucked the knife beside her skin with a faint click, smoothing the layers back over. Firm fists arose and slammed their backs into the opposite building. She dropped her head between them, the pattern of the brick melding in her brow as she gritted her teeth and muttered,</div><div style="text-indent:1em;">"Dammit..."</div></span>