Whistling wind filled the air of an otherwise silent night some ways out of town. It was a mostly empty plain, dotted with thick grass and tall rocks. The wildlife barely even made a peep, as if all the world was hushed in tense anticipation of something. All at once that silence would be met with a bang, and then several more. Gunshots to the keen ear. Men screamed, shouting things to each other. They were trying to figure out where the shots game from. Soon they were returning fire, and the silence was replaced with the back and forth of gun salvos. The rate of fire slowly died down, one side thinning in numbers, until it came to a close.<br/><br/>A lone man stood, the bodies of his fallen comrades laying about him. Across from him stood but one figure; a stern-faced young woman dressed all in black. Her jet black hair fell around her face, her eyes boring into the remaining man. A lit cigarillo extended from one corner of her mouth. Her arm was raised extending a revolver outward, pointed right at the man, who likewise held a gun towards her. Their eyes were locked in an intense duel of their own, each searching for weakness or hesitation and finding none. Neither would back down. For the man, this fight meant life or death. For the woman, it meant answers. She hoped.<br/><br/>"Sauvage," said the woman, her the single word cutting in the severity she spoke it with.<br/><br/>"Not sure I follow," the man replied, not taking his eyes off of her.<br/><br/>She rolled the cigarillo from one side of her mouth to the other, clenching it in her teeth as she said, "I hear tell you know just about everything that goes on in these parts. You seem to fancy yourself quite the crimelord. So I'm going to say it again, and a damn thing comes to your mind, I want to know about it." She paused for just a moment before saying again, "Sauvage. Talk."<br/><br/>"Afraid you're at a dead end, lady. No idea what you're going on about," the man responded, his eyes shifting from hers, to her finger, watching for movement.<br/><br/>"Shame," came the woman's reply, "Bounty on you's dead or alive. Alive is a lot of hassle for someone with nothing to tell me."<br/><br/>"Shame indeed," was the man's retort.<br/><br/>The wind cut through their standoff, a high pitched screech of a gust of dusty air, blowing a tumbleweed between them. Her finger squeezed down. The man responded in kind. Two shots rang out, and both fell to the ground.<br/><br/>Some time later, the woman's eyes opened. A groan escaped her lips, the cigarillo long since turned to ash. She sat up. She reached up rubbing her forehead, which was covered in dry bloods. Her hair was similarly caked in the crimson muck. She had just taken a bath that morning too. "Seems they weren't exaggerating his aim," she muttered, pulling herself up to her feet and looking over at where the man stood before; now, where he lay dead on the ground. Unlike her, he didn't wake up again. She put her fingers in her mouth and blew loudly, a sharp whistle ringing through the air, followed by hoof-beats. Soon enough, a tall brown horse came galloping towards her. She crouched down to heft up the corpse, before carrying it over to the horse and tossing it over the beast's back. She secured him in place with some rope before hopping on. She looked around at the other corpses. Shame she didn't have the means to carry them all back. The rest were probably worth something too, but the boss was the big money, and she hadn't expected the company.<br/><br/>"Well, hopefully this bastard will be useful enough to pay for a room with a bath," she mumbled to herself as she spurred the horse on and headed towards the town to collect on her bounty.<br/>