Intermission: The Red Gunslinger

"Again!" The female gunslinger commanded YeeYee. 
She reloaded with spite, she took aim with frustration, and she barely hit her targets. 
"Wrong... Again!" The female gunslinger pulled a lever and six targets popped up again. 
YeeYee reloaded her revolver and shot. This time she was ever so slightly faster.
"That's enough. Clean up, and meet me at the dinning table." The female gunslinger turned to leave. Her red, leather coat waving as she turned. Her movement was elegant and calculated. 
YeeYee, sweating, panting and almost on the edge of tearing up, started to clean up the hundreds of revolver shells. She was frustrated and furious, but the heavy fatigue made it impossible to lash out in anger. 
Eventually she got all the shells together. She cleaned herself up and got dressed in her usual jeans and jacket. Afterwards she moved herself to meet with her mentor. 
Her mentor, the Red Gunslinger. 

Food had been served. YeeYee was starving, but she couldn't bring herself to enjoy it. Her mentor was a terrible cook, and would have made for a lousy wife. 
Sure, she was a beauty. Her blond hair was long and beautiful, but heavily neglected. Her face was decorated with scars and an eye-patch. She always wore the same, old red leather coat. She had a slender frame, but was developed in all the right places. But years of drifting had made her body worn out and rough.  
"Eat! You need to recover." She was never kind with her remarks; always demanding.
YeeYee, against her will, started to eat. Her stomach protested with every bit of food she swallowed, but throwing up would only cause another scolding.
"You're not improving. Isn't that why you're here." 
YeeYee didn't respond.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" And she slammed her fist on the table. The sheer strength of that punch caused the table to jump up towards YeeYee's chin. 
She skillfully dodged it by instinct, just as she was taught by her mentor.
"Good. At least there is still some spirit in that sad excuse of a body of yours."
Just kill me - is what YeeYee thought. She didn't want to be here. Eight years ago, when she was still only one year old, she was brought to this woman. All she ever heard was that she was brought here by a man who smelled like booze, brothels and babes.
YeeYee hasn't returned to her seat. "Why aren't you getting back to the table? You haven't finished eating." 
She could only stare at the ground.
"Forget it, I'm wasting my time on you. Leave, if that's what you want."
"Huh?"
"That's what you want, right? You don't want to put in the effort. You want to be sung a lullaby as you sleep with a belly full of food." Her mentor got up from her chair. "Well this isn't the old world. This is the wild west. If you don't want to put in the miles, then I'll find someone else to inherit Basilisk." And she left the room.
YeeYee watched in silence as her mentor disappeared from sight. 
She didn't want to inherit Basilisk, it was demanded of her. But she thought back at the words her mentor spoke to her a few years ago.
"Remember, a drifter is the coolest occupation you can have in the wild west. You make up your own rules, and everyone who needs you will sing your praises once you're there."
That's right. She didn't need this torturous regimen or Basilisk to be a drifter. 
That night she brought her plan in motion.

The forecaster, a magical trinket that can predict the weather, gave her a favorable forecast: clear skies and not too cold. 
She stocked up on some food from the pantry, some water from the well, and some bullets for her revolver. She looked at it once more. This revolver was supposedly the same revolver her mentor used when she got to the new world more than twenty years ago as part of the second expedition. 
That's all she knows about her. To YeeYee she's just mentor. She doesn't know her hobbies, her birthday, or even her favorite food. 
But that didn't matter anymore. She was getting out of this cottage in the mountains. Aemarich was calling her. 
She sneaked out of the cottage. The clear night's sky illuminated her path. A few minutes had passed when the cottage was no longer in sight.
"I knew you'd come." It was a familiar voice. The moonlight illuminated the shadowy figure a few dozen feet in front of her. She made extra sure to wait longer for her mentor to be in a deep sleep.
"I'm leaving like you told me to. I'm starting my journey as a drifter in Aemarich."
"So you tell me. But how do I know for sure that you keep your mouth shut?"
"I won't tell a soul. I promise!"
"I can't trust your promises. I live in exile for a reason!" And she quickly pulled Basilisk from her holster and took aim. 
Immediately YeeYee took cover behind a tall, jagged rock. She understood the dangers of Basilisk. She got out her own revolver and waited for the shot. 
But there was none. 
She saw a shadow cover her. A shadow? In the middle  of the night?
She looked up to see her mentor aiming her gun at YeeYee from only a few feet away. 
YeeYee let out a potshot before her mentor shot. Both shots missed. 
She quickly took cover behind another rock. She heard a gunshot and started to look left and right. On the right! A bullet curved around the rock to rush towards her. She also dodged that one. 
Two shots were fired. 
She looked for signs of her mentor. A stone was accidentally kicked and she peeked from behind the cover. Three shots were unloaded towards her mentor with deadly precision. 
But she dodged them all, and she shot back twice. 
YeeYee shot once at one of the bullets. Somehow it managed to stop it. The other bullet rushed towards her and graced her ponytail's binding. It had split the long strap into two smaller straps.
She unloaded her last two bullets at her mentor and ducked for cover. With her fast speed she got the gun reloaded before the empty shells hit the ground. 
Where? Above?
The rock she hid behind shattered. 
No! Behind!
Her mentor shot her final bullet. YeeYee unloaded with great speed and accuracy all six bullets into hers. 
She could see each bullet shatter on impact and afterwards felt a sharp cut on her leg. It had torn through her jeans, but just barely missed an artery. 
They were both out of bullets, but her mentor was still very scary. 
She tried to reload her revolver, but her mentor went for the physical approach. 
YeeYee got kicked in the stomach and was sent flying backwards into the wall. The air rushed out of her lungs. She tried to breath, but her mentor already had her hand around her throat and her fingers sinking into her skin.
She raised Basilisk in the air. And as if on cue the sunlight kissed the revolver. 
YeeYee could see the blue, starry light surround Basilisk and she knew it. Six-Shot just got its bullets back. 
Her mentor pressed the gun against YeeYee's chest, right in front of her heart, and shot. 

The deafening roar of a gun lingered in YeeYee's ears. But the pain in her ears was all there was. 
She looked down at the gun. It was there. But when her mentor removed the gun, the bullet was spinning in front of her chest. The bullet then disappeared in the same blue light it came from.
"This is why you cannot go easy on your training, YeeYee."
The sunlight illuminated her mentor's face. She was covered in sweat, and blood was running from her mouth. But she didn't hit her once.
"Basilisk will always hit its target, no matter how, if your intent is true. That's what makes it Six-Shot, True-Shot Basilisk." 
YeeYee looked down at her hands. Basilisk was now in her hands. 
When she looked up, she could see her mentor's clothes soaked in blood.
"I was running out of time. I needed a successor. And you were all I had." 
YeeYee met her eyes straight on.
"These are old wounds from my quarrel with a man who I once called my friend. His name is Don, and he is hellbent on ruling all of the wild west. Of course I tried to stop him, but I couldn't do it."
YeeYee continued to listen.
"Basilisk will not steer your bullet if you don't want to hit your target. It becomes a regular revolver then. In the worst case, well, this happens." She looked at the place she just tried to shoot. "I couldn't stop him, but I know you can."
"Are you...?" YeeYee couldn't grasp the words she needed. She may be young, but she understood.
"It's a big world out there. There are powerful gunslingers, crafty mages, and terrifying monsters." Her mentor patted YeeYee's now loose hair. "But at least I'll leave a worthy successor. And my legacy - you're now the legendary gunslinger."
The last thing she remembered was her crying and screaming incoherently, the inability to let go of her mentor despite the hell she was put through. And behind those tears the first, and last, smile she ever received. 

The crackle of the campfire woke her up. Her tent was already erect and the fire still bright. She must have dozed off for less than a few minutes.
She looked down at the old revolver. She closed her eyes and took a breath. Then she went through the motions. 
She unloaded the revolver, the shells fell out, and new shells were loaded back in. Before the ejected shells got any decent momentum, she already plucked them out of the air.
She took aim at the top of the fire, and then pulled the trigger.
Nothing.
Of course, this revolver has long been unable to fire rounds. Even though she took, or still takes, great care of it. 
YeeYee smiled. Behind her eyelids she could see her mentor smiling.
She was sure she would be proud of how skilled she had gotten by now.