Road to Prosperity
I was headed for Prosperity. No, that ain't no metaphor. It's a town. Rumor has it there's buried Yobanjin gold. Or was it a bandit's stolen treasure hidden under the floorboards? Or maybe it was a wealth of jewels in a dark tomb beneath the temple? Don't matter. I was gonna find it either way. Or so I thought.I had an hour to kill before my train arrived, so I decided to have a drink or three. On my fourth cup of cold sake, some toughs walked in. They didn't wear any clan colors, but I could tell from their tattered uniforms they used to belong to the glorious army of the Unified Northern Clans. Deserters.They strode up to me in a clump of malice and stared down at me. The leader, a tough looking woman spoke, "Ronin, Scum. Stand and face your betters.""Good day, samurai-sama," I replied, with all the false courtesy I could muster, "I'll be sure to do that, if they show up. In the meantime, have a seat. Y'all eaten rice today?""Rice, doesn't concern us, scum. We're after something much richer. Word is, you are headed to Prosperity Village. We want to...hire you to show us the way.""When you say it real sweet like that, how can I refuse? Lemme see here...how about, nope." The former Matsu frowned at this, nearly turning red before leaning in and whispering, "Then give us one good reason we shouldn't kick your ass and make you show us the way?""Can't think of one." The Matsu woman smiled murderously, but I continued, "However, my friend Kaiu Koto has thought of 5..." Questions formed on the faces of my assailants, but I didn't wait for realization to dawn. They hadn't noticed the fivegun at my side. I kicked the table forward and showed it to them, fanning the hammer until it clicked. Empty. Fanning looks fancy but is inaccurate as hell. Luckily my foes had done me a favor and stood in a tight group not five feet from me. They fell. Probably not dead, but unlikely to bother me for a long time.I stood up, but nearly tripped over my chair as I saw a flash of steel near the saloon door and a blast of thunder and smoke. I felt searing hot pain in my left arm, and turned to see the sixth enemy, the one I hadn't noticed, pointing a smoking large-bore black powder pistol at me. If I hadn't tripped it would gotten me in the heart. Thank the fortune of sake for that one. The woman at the door dropped her pistol and went into void stance. Lucky for me, northerners favored single shot pistols. Unlucky for me, I noticed a tiny Kakita family mon sewn into her kimono. Kakita were known to be the best duelists in the world. Shit. But I had no choice and settled into void stance as well. Then we stared at each other. I shifted once. She didn't move. The world was silent, save for the drip of sake from a broken bottle onto the wooden floor. The bell tolled noon. We struck...
That's some mighty admirable word wranglin' there, son. You have a way of ticklin' a tight turn of phrase into a scenario and dropping your audience right inside. So's how's about telling me how I can hear more?
ReplyDeleteWell, that there depends on whether or not you're a member of the Short Shots community already. And if not, would you like to sign up? I've had a lot of demand to start running games in this world, so I imagine I'll be doing a fair bit o' that. I'll also no doubt be posting more fiction as well.
DeleteI am not a member of a Shots community of any stature, short or tall, so I'm not aware of the gravity such a commitment might imply. I'd be happy to sign up to look in on your fiction. I apologize if I missed a place to subscribe to your blog.
DeleteWe have a google group where people post game they want to run and players who are interested/available sign up to play them. No commitment or obligations. We have members who have signed up for dozens of games, and members who just lurk and have never signed up for any.
ReplyDeleteAs for fiction, I will do my best to post some whenever I can! :)