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((Let's see if I can concentrate... enough... to write something...))

"Hardly," Jack chuckled at the mention of the gun. "It'd not be too easy to blow anyone away with it. Wet guns dun' work too well." He scratched at his chin as he settled down on the ground, tugging his soggy hat off his head and slapping it against his knee to rid it of some of the water. "I reckon this'll last a while..." He seemed to be thinking about something, but mentioned nothing of it.

Snapping from his own little reverie, he turned his deep green gaze onto the woman they'd picked up and offered a cheery smile. "Just hop on down... The ground's not as far away as ya think. As fer the gun, here ya are..." He offered the now very soggy weapon back to the woman. "It'd do you well to take it apart 'n let it dry out, or it'll be firin' pretty badly when ya really need it."

It was an odd thing, having run into these two people. In all truth, he hadn't expected to meet ANYONE on his little plains-walk. They were just about smack between two towns, and the path he'd been traveling was about two miles north of any man-made roads. He'd been lying low, of course, so as to let things settle before he showed his face again.

However, it seemed that neither the Indian, or more importantly, the woman, recognized him, so he felt rather at ease. Of course, he was sure the woman wouldn't have been a problem even if she DID recognize him - and the Indian... Jack Callwater wasn't sure what to think of him yet. He seemed friendly enough, if not a bit strange. So, making small talk wasn't going to be too hard, and Jack was sure he could relax a bit.

Well, relax and take care of his own personal belongings. The rifle he kept with him was secured in a thick leather holster on his horse's saddle, and a quick check earlier on that assured him that it had stayed dry. His pistols, however, were another story. He pulled each of them from their holsters, and it was apparent that at the very least, the bullets inside were useless. Soaked through and through. With a sigh, he emptied the lead from the six-shooters and quietly took the weapons apart, setting them lightly on the ground before fishing a soft towel from a saddlebag and working on drying things out.

"So, Chetan I understand bein' out here in th'middle o' nowhere, but you, Miss Essie, I'm not so sure about. What's a woman doin' in the middle 'o th'plains, totin' along a rifle that's far too big for her, in a dress?" He gave a laugh and pointed a calloused finger at her, "Not huntin' I hope? There's not much ta shoot out here anyway."

"Though, I'm curious..." He said, turning his glance towards the red man sitting happily near him, "What're YOU doin' out here? Don't y'all travel in packs?"

((WOW THAT WAS A LOT OF NOTHING. Sorry. D: ))

Essie carefully took the gun from him and nodded. "Thanks. I guess your right. I should have kept it down...so at least the water didn't flood into it." She muttered the last part mostly to herself as she settled down onto the ground in a little flop. Her dress slapped against the ground like a lifeless fish. Her tongue flicked over her lips again as she fumbled with the gun, letting the ammunition fall out first before she felt safe trying to take it apart. There was no sense in shooting anyone, or yourself, for the sake of looking strong and knowledgeable in the ways of a man's weaponry.

She glanced up with gray eyes when Chetan laughed and she grinned back at him. The young man seemed like a happy guy, it was something she appreciated these days. "Cheet. On. Well...I guess you're right. But I do like Paulo too. I think it's Italian or Greek. But I wouldn't know, my family came from Ireland." She shrugged as she began trying to open up the gun, not really knowing which went first, but she doubted it was possible to break it. Again, she looked up and laughed with him. "How about this...if I let you call me Thunder Woman AND Essie, whichever, whenever, then I getta call you Paulo and Chetan the same." She nodded in her deal and then looked down at her dress.

"It's no joy ride." Finally she tore some of the gun open and allowed the water to drain from it, a grin of success on her face. "But if I walked around wearing the clothes of men, I'd look even stranger in their eyes. Sometimes I wear my brother's trousers...but when I do, NO ONE wants to talk to me, not even the guys. Woman never want to talk to me either way. Bunch a pricks is what those broads are." Her lips puckered in frustration as she laid the gun in a position that it'd air out faster. "And thanks, it comes from years of practice. I'd LOVE to see a man run in heels any day. And they say woman are the weaker sex." She gave a snort and looked back to Jack.

"Don't call me MISS. It makes me feel old or something. I'm only twenty. Anyways...I WAS out hunting. My brother said I'd find nothin'....but I was just hoping. I guess that's a woman's frame of mind for you, hoping for pretty much nothing." She trailed off when he changed his line of attack to Chetan and she took to trying to get more water out of her hair. When it dried she knew it'd look like a huge fluff ball. Running her hand under her eyes to get rid of any leaking make up she leaned back against the rock wall and watched the two men curiously.

((POSTIE TIME! Sorreh I didn't post this morning, Ala... I was all excited about the rain... D:... BUT YET I DIDN'T GET OFF AS EARLY AS EVERYONE ELSE.

I was SO pissed. SO PISSED.... Still am actually... $%$^%$%$$ *seethe*))

Chetan glanced once at Essie and grinned. "Deal." He said of her little bargain. "But only because Thunder Woman is too good of a name to put to waste."

"And hunting?" He let loose one of his wild laughs. "You really ARE crazy!" The way he said crazy somehow made it seem more like a compliment than an insult. There was admiration in his black eyes. "You're some kind of woman, Thunder Woman."

Chetan then returned his attention to the scruffy man known as Jack. "Not the same." He said quietly with a small smile. "Definitely not the same. If you don't know the difference than you certainly don't know people... or anything about MY people, Jack." He said the stranger's name with a certain tone of voice that suggested the sound was amusing to him.

"And living IS good! It's the best thing to spend your time doing." Chetan smiled broadly as if he did this "living" thing quite often. "Trust me. I've been living for YEARS." And he laughed.

When Jack brought up what he happened to be doing an eyebrow on Chetan's forehead made its way up. There was an amused quirk to his mouth and then just a laughing smile. "HA! I always knew there was red people stealing from white people, but now white people stealing from other white people? You white people are just having a real run of bad luck, aren't you?" He laughed at the irony in this, and then at the ridiculousness of his statement as if his own people weren't having a rough time of it. "Or maybe Jack isn't a white man. Maybe Jack is a red man in disguise?"

"All we need is a white man and a red man robbing all men and the battle field is equaled in the eyes of everything!" He joked. "Tell me Jack... do you have a spirit name? Do you wear pale woman's make up to hide that true colour of yours?" Jokingly he rubbed at Jack's hands as if to scrub off whatever was hiding this "true colour".

"Or maybe your as black as your black heart." He laughed again.

((hahahah, I like to be racist... cos when you're a minority... you're absolutely allowed to without burning in Hell for it later XD))

Essie watched the two men talk to each other and she raised a brow. They were rather boring, talking about stuff she didn't care about. Her eyes flickered to the rain. "Mmmhmmm." She nodded to herself and slowly stood up. She started to undo her dress, it wasn't like she was nude underneath it. After getting the ties and buckles undone she let it fall down, her slip the only thing covering her under garments.

With a wicked laugh she jumped towards the exit of the shelf and skipped out into the rain. She began to laugh wildly as the rain pelted against her exposed skin, drenching her head to toe. With a wild turn she started to dance around in the rain, doing some sort of jig mixed with a ball dance. There was no music of course, but the rain was enough.

((TA DAH. hahaha I dunno...you guys were getting BORING. XD ))

((OKAY NEW POST. READY GO.))

Chetan laughed wildly at Jack. He found him ridiculously hilarious as he found most things. He decided then and there that he liked Jack. "You should be my white man brother. I'll give you a spirit name and spirit animal and you can be the first white red man." He laughed wildly again, but found himself distracted by Essie who had removed most of her clothing.

Chetan gave a low whistle. "That's the most I've seen of YOUR women, Jack." He laughed at her brightly as she took off dancing into the rain. "I like her. She's fearless... not of you and not of me." He nudged Jack with an elbow. "And I guess not of the storm either."

With a little howl he took off after her into the rain and did a dance with her that frontier children often did to imitate Indians. He even tacked on the savage sound jokingly. George seemed to watch his rider for a moment, before tossing his head and instead nibbling at Jack's shoulder.

Chetan did a half cart wheel around her he ended up in front of her to take her hands awkwardly into his own and attempt whatever nonsense dance she was doing, realizing he had NO idea how to do any such dance, and instead did a sort of stomping and leaping dance along with her. He was grinning broadly. It was during this that the rain slowed. The horses grazing around them lifted their heads lazily. Chetan titled his head straight back and smiled.

"Ah ha." He said and looked back to Essie. "Does Thunder Woman need a ride back to her village?" He looked back towards Jack. "Do you know of any near by villages?"

((OKAY TA DAH THE END.))

((Okay, seriously guys...I dunno WHAT I should post. Cause...two days into school...and I'm already dead busy. I was pretty much doing homework from 3 till now and trying to study for an AP Gov quiz tomorrow while doing Trig homework and blah blah blah...and trying to make time for MYSELF amongst the academic chaos.

Sooo...just skip my turn and I may be able to post this weekend or something when I get a bit more time...

Otherwise, I'm REALLY busy this semester doing all that crazy senior stuff...along with classes...and SAT stuff...and everything else. So yeah...

Just a heads up if become dormant in posting.))

((GAH! I forgot I said I'd post... GO TIRED WRITINGS GO!))

"They're not all that interestin', to tell ya th'truth," Jack replied, rubbing at the back of his neck. He seemed disinclined to talk much about it. That, and he was more interested, it seemed, in looking at the wild horses than meeting the Indian's gaze. Maybe it was over the whole city thing... Or maybe he just wanted a new horse.

But the young man left little time for any sort of explanation, for he called to his horse and hopped on its bare back, whooping and hollering while running a wide circle around the herd of animals. Jack surprised a laugh out of himself at the antics, shoved his still-soggy hat on his head, and put his hands on his hips. He shook his head and tossed his hands into the air. "Awright..." The cowboy sucked thoughtfully on a tooth before decidedly stepping over towards his own horse and climbing into its saddle.

Trotting over to where Chetan had momentarily paused, he leaned forward, hands resting on the saddle horn, the leather it was made from creaking with the movement. Jack tilted his head slightly upwards so he could get a decent look at Chetan from under the brim of his hat. "You can come if ya really wanna, red man, but I'll tell ya now, it ain't my fault if you end up shot." At this, he flashed a wide smile and tugged on the reigns to turn his horse.

Soon enough, they were riding back towards the little town, the early evening sun that had appeared after the storm warm and red on their backs.

((Haha, Jack is excited too! XD))