//------------------------------// // A Mans Best Friend // Story: Braeburn The Outlaw // by King_Kurtis //------------------------------// ONE YEAR LATER Braeburn sat at the table awkwardly that night, he was probably the most hungry out of anyone. Hell ... after a full day of riding a horse around and trying to buy black market food, you'd suspect anyone would be hungry by 7:00PM. But he knew the safety of the little ones came first. "Eat up kiddies!" Braeburn's mom said while spoon feeding her children. Braeburn was the oldest and knew that it was his duty to look our for his brother and sister, but spoon feeding wasn't his kind of job. Braeburn had dedicated himself to buying food and medicine for his Mom and siblings, lack of food and med's were the reason his father died, and he didn't want a repeat of that... no matter what it took ... "Mom you should really ea-" He was cut off by a loud gunshot "Mom take the kids down to the basement!" he said as he grabbed a cleaver from the kitchen. He knew enough to never to bring a knife to a gun fight, but he wasn't afraid of death, just afraid for the death of others... He ran outside only to see a bandit (still standing) with a sack of food and a bunch of dead bodies. Braeburn started shuddering. The Bandit threw Braeburn a loaf of bread and said "You didn't see anything" in the most creepy voice possible "T-thanks" Braeburn said as he walked back inside. "So wait ..." Braeburn said to himself "He robbed a market of its food and murdered random men pointlessly." He thought really hard as the rest of the night went by, from feeding his mom and the kids, to bathing, to bed, he finally came up with a conclusion... He was going to do whatever it took to keep his family alive, he didn't like the idea but he made up his mind... He would become a bandit, but he didn't necessarily like the word "bandit" so he decided to call himself "Braeburn the Outlaw" The more tired Braeburn became, the more he though about it. "I wont rob anyone of their hard earned money, just their food and medicine. But I can't rob the poor, so I'll rob the rich. While I'm at it, I may as well share the supplies with anyone who need it. "Yea ..." he said to himself "This'll work..." As he woke up in the morning the first though that came to his mind was a gun, he's need one of those if he were to become a band- ... outlaw. So he put his vest on and set out without breakfast. He found it slightly sickening that he was going to rob people of their food and murder innocent people. So he came to the conclusion that he was only going to kill anyone who got in the way of him and his family ... like the damn Sherrif "It's hard to believe it was only a year ago when I broke his jaw, it feels like ages since then" he said with a smirk. He was so caught in his thoughts he almost passed the gun store. He got off his horse, tied him up in front of the store and walked inside. "Top of the morning to ya!" the man at the counter screamed. Braeburn was going to tell him to quite down, until he noticed that they were the only two there. "Hey" Braeburn said "I'm looking for a gun ... something ... threatening" he said almost evilly. After a minute of looking around, the man at the counter came back to the counter with three guns. Braeburn was familiar with one of them "An old double barreled shotgun... and a-" Braeburn stopped mid sentence, stunned. The man at the counter finished his sentence "and a chrome revolver... just came in this morning" Braeburn was still in awe, never had he seen such a gun "How much?" Braeburn said after gawking for quite a while "Well you could pay the 40,000 bits it's worth..." Braeburn moaned "or you could do something for me..." the man at the counter said with a smirk. Braeburn was intrigued in his offer "What do you want?" Braeburn asked cautiously... "I will give you the gun for free, IF you can prove your a better shot than me" the man behind the counter said. Braeburn had never held a gun before, let alone shot one, but he knew if he didn't do this he'd regret it for the rest of his life "And if I lose?" Braeburn asked "I double the price of the gun" the man at the counter said with a smirk. Braebrun pondered this, then finally spit in his hand "It's a deal" the man behind the counter did the same and they shook hands. The man lead Braeburn to a door at the back of the store. Inside was a small room with two crappy shot up targets. "Heads or Tails?" the man said "Tails" Braeburn said without thinking. The man tossed the coin up in the air with the flick of his thumb and caught it "Heads" the man said with a chuckle. He grabbed one bullet and shoved it in the cylinder of the gun, and he shot the gun without a word. As the smoke cleared Braeburn saw that the bullet penetrated the target just above the center circle "By the way, the shotgun was 200 bits incase your wondering" the man said with an even bigger smirk than before. Braeburn held the gun by the handle, shoved a bullet in the cylinder and held the gun in one hand, just as the man behind the counter did. He thought about how the man behind the counter shot "So if the bullet was curved up from the recoil, I should aim lower..." And he did just that. The man laughed "Boy, I think your aim is a ... little ... off" he said then burst out in laughter. And as Braeburn took the shot he was thrown across the room into the back wall, causing the man to laugh even louder. As the smoke cleared the mans laughing diminished, and as Braeburn looked at the target he saw a hole that wasn't there before ... A hole right in the center circle... The man didn't show any anger towards Braeburn, instead he congratulated him with a rough hand shake. "Great job bud" he said as he handed Braeburn the revolver "now you promise to take care of this now, sometimes in a battle, a gun is a mans best friend" He said with another smirk. "Now get out before I kick your ass farther than the gun did" Braeburn even started to laugh a little "will do sir" he said as he got on his horse and started to head back home "A mans best friend huh?" Braeburn said "This guy was way loonier than I though"