Mudo, gunslinger of legend

The horse kicks the desert at top speed; a dust cloud lifts up as the gigantic creature runs through that great void of a place, but some people tell that it was the desert itself that wanted to fly away, not because of such a marvelous stallion, no, the horse was magnificent, but the aura that it expelled couldn’t hold a candle to such an imposing horseman. No one knew his name, nor the place where he came from, what he felt or maybe if he had an objective, the things that he could see in other people, everything about him was a complete mystery of an idea, the only thing that people knew about him was how interesting he was, a man attractive like few, his light hair mixed with the sand that flew around these two, while his skin, toasted by the sun, was like the sight of a torch in human form as the light rays reflected on this legendary gunslinger. This man didn’t need much, only a simple poncho and a common hat, nothing that looked out of the ordinary, always accompanied by a gun that didn’t have any remarkable and an imposing white horse, easily recognizable by his mane that looked like gold. No one knew anything about this enigma of a man, but everyone agreed on one thing, everyone called him ‘Mudo’, because no one ever managed to hear his voice, or at least no one lived to tell.

The sight of a person riding a horse through the desert wasn’t weird at the time, the conflicts between foreigners and natives were common, even between different tribes they used to fight for resources and control over the territories, sometimes even just because of their bad relationships, but most people actually tried to maintain it as a mostly peaceful place, even when it didn’t avoid the existence of bandits and rustlers that plagued the desert, these were generally a mix of varying origins, cultures and all kinds of traditions, their only reason to come together was love, but not love as an example of pure affection, no, they shared the love for young girls who had lost their village to the hands of these fiends, they also used to love the sight of a rich family that underrated the menace that the pitiless desert could be. This was an ‘easy job’, as most would call it, just shoot to anyone who dares to give you the wrong face, some good drinks, getting all the money that you need and, over all things, the liberty to do anything that you want to do.

The day was especially hot, the kind of day that would change every schedule to avoid going out. Marcus Smith, a wrathful alcoholic was directing a pair of horses while these pulled a carriage from the distant Longfall, a village further into the west of the country. Inside the elegant vehicle was its owner, Henry Johnson, a man who once was lucky enough to excavate on the exact spot that would make him rich, he was a good man who accidentally found what would become a fruitful oilfield, it was nothing to go crazy about, but it was more than enough to maintain a big family, and maybe even enjoying some crazy luxuries on a whim from time to time. As his side was Martin Salazar, a mysterious man who worked as his assistant, to be honest, only Mr. Johnson could leave his trust in a man like that, a man who clearly had hidden intentions when taking the job, the people from Longfall had theories about this weird person, but most of these came to one conclusion, Salazar was behind the money, but even then, a lot of people thought that this man’s real interest was none other than Johnson’s beautiful daughters. In front of these men were Sarah and Cora Johnson, twins of particular beauty, blonde hair, inherited from their father, that usually seemed like strands of gold that danced through the furious wind of the desert, while their pretty facial features only added to an already attractive figure that must have been a gift from their late mother, but what truly made these sisters shine above any other girl on the country was their personality, gentleness and natural charisma that made them desired and loved on equal terms.

That day the Johnson family was on a trip to Westernville, the mining city. Morgan de La Fayette, a dark-skinned man who came from Farisia, a country in the east, was waiting there for Henry, hoping to make some lucrative business with him. Mr. Johnson was incredibly overjoyed, excited like no one else, the simple idea of becoming richer than he has ever been gnawed the innocent man from inside, but his daughters knew that this was nothing more than Salazar’s manipulation on the poor naïve man, that day especially they knew that something was particularly weirder, they were more than sure that something was going wrong. Salazar, their father’s assistant, was already a rare example of a person, but that specific day he was desperate, at every second that passed he insisted to Henry about changing their path, according to him, the usual path to Westernville wouldn’t fast enough, but Henry Johnson wasn’t as innocent to accept such a stupid idea, he knew about the different dangers that existed through any other path, wild animals that could stop his ride, the problems between different villages and tribes on the way that would become nothing less than a hindrance, but over any other thing, Henry Johnson feared the people that he could find on his road, unscrupulous men that would kill him without a second thought, would take his daughters and make them prefer death over the suffering that they could bring, he couldn’t allow something like that to happen to them… But Salazar was one of the most dangerous kinds of persons that you can see, a viper that could deceive any person on his way just through his words, he was a cunning man… Johnson accepted, he yielded to such a preposterous idea, after giving some directions to his coachman, he took his seat as normally once again, this man wouldn’t believe the repentance that this would bring upon him…

Wild Bear was a giant man, he was strong and even good looking, anyone would say that he could be anything he wanted in his life, but anyone would tell you that he was no more than an asshole, a guy without any of the most basic concepts of piety or goodness. After months of planning and working on his biggest move. It was finally coming together, an old man, Henry Johnson, was falling on the trap that the leader of his group had prepared for this special moment. Bear was an imposing man, but he always followed the leader, his so-called ‘big brother’, Martin Salazar, a foreigner coming from one of the eastern continents who had to abandon any country where he used to live after being declared as guilty of many crimes, Ispania, Farisia, Fiorenna, almost every country had a bunch of this weasel’s victims between their people. Salazar deceived Johnson, he took him on another way leaving him in the hands of his group, the man driving the horses, Johnson himself, even his daughters, all of them were doomed…

A bullet flew from Bear’s revolver, the speed was such that no one noticed when it pierced through the coachman’s head, Marcus Smith fell down, he was lying dead on the sand, blood gushed from his temple, while his whole body was slowly losing color. The horses were rapidly captured; these were an important resource on this lawless land. Sarah was scared, frightened beyond understanding, she tried to open the door and wanted to run far and away as fast as the human body could allow her to do, but a strong punch on her stomach stopped her, Martin Salazar had done it, and now he had everything that he wanted, now Johnson should die and everything would be his, he took out his revolver and pointed to who he used to call ‘boss’, put his finger on the trigger and *bang*, a shot resonated through the place, but that wasn’t Salazar, none of his men should be shooting too, his plan, all he had worked for, suddenly felt like crumbling…

Far away a man adjusted his hat, his weapon’s cannon smoked, that man was only known as ‘Mudo’. His horse was running faster than anything the bandits had seen, and in a matter of seconds he was in front of the rustlers, he took out a second gun, an arm on both of his hands, a swift move and that was it, two of the thieves were dead, they didn’t even manage to understand what was happening before two more were lying on the floor, then the horse rushed to one astonished man, completely on his own the creature defeated one more. Bear was almost alone, only two men were standing with him, one on each side, he was already getting nervous, but then two bullets left him on his own, Mudo appeared in front of him through the sand that the wind lifted from the floor, and finally Bear could see him face-to-face.

“You killed my men! You’re no more than a bastard!”

Those were his last words, then he took out his weapon and pointed it directly to Mudo’s head, but his speed wasn’t a match to the man of myth, those were the last moments of a man that could have been more.

Mudo went to the vehicle, he opened the door and saw the scene, blood flooding the floor, Sarah was unconscious on the floor, tied in such a harsh manner that it was almost painful to see, while Salazar was pointing his gun at poor Cora’s head, but she couldn’t bring her to do anything else but cry, her father was there, lying on the floor with a hole on his chest, Johnson died to an unmerciful man that wouldn’t show any pity, even to the person that helped him in the past.

“Drop the gun! Let me go or I’ll kill both of these girls”

Salazar was a frightening person, his words were pure true when he said that he would kill someone, he wasn’t the kind to joke with that, but Mudo wasn’t one to be easily scared, no one could say why he was there nor why he was helping, why would he kill or travel through the world, even Salazar didn’t have any idea of who he was, why was he there of all places helping these people, but what scared him the most wasn’t that, not even near, he was frightened of why he was obeying him, why was he dropping his gun?

“Ha! Are you scared!? Yeah, that must be, you know that I’m entirely capable of killing whoever I want to if it means my survival, be it these two, this old man on the floor, not even you bastard”

He was a quick-mouthed man, he could insult you at such an astonishing speed that it resulted unbelievable, but even his mouth and the words that this could expel weren’t as far when compared to his hands, with all of his strength he held his gun, and in a matter of seconds he was pointing to Mudo, every part of the silent gunslinger would have been an easy point-blank shot for Salazar, he never even thought about letting anyone here living, he would kill him, have his fun with the daughters of the corpse that used to be his boss and then he would sell the carriage, the horses and the twins to the best bidder that he could find, then he would go on a journey to establish a new group, he would rise from his ashes once again, then he would make someone else fall on his stratagems and die by his hand, that was the usual path for Martin Salazar.

Mudo wasn’t a regular person, he was always there, in the desert, living under the mercy of the sun and the criminals that inhabited this place, he knew who deserved his trust and who didn’t, he only had to go by one principle.

“Believe only on your own instinct”

That was the only law that defined his life.

Salazar’s speed was impressive, there couldn’t be any doubt about it, but that wasn’t enough, Mudo was more than just impressive. In less than a few seconds Salazar was pointing his gun and ready to blow Mudo’s skull off, but that wasn’t enough, on a fraction of the time he took Mudo was ready, he took his weapon, pointed directly to his enemy’s face and shoot.

Forty-two years old, the last year and a half dedicated only to the work that he did for a man that he always wanted to kill, wasting twenty-five years of his life being no more than a vulgar thief, a criminal, a wrongdoer of the worst kind, Martin Salazar was shot directly through his eye, he died by the hand of an unknown man.

With Salazar dead everything was ready, Cora was crying inconsolably, while her sister was still unconscious. Mudo decided to take the sleeping girl on his horse, while the other was mounting on one of the horses that used to drive the carriage, the other was escorted by Mudo. After a long journey they were back on Longfall, Sarah was sleeping now, this has been too much for her, Mudo left both of the sisters with their horses and then took his leave giving them no more than a gesture representing a farewell.

“Thank you, from the depth of my heart, thank you! I don’t know what we’ll do without my dear father, but me and my sister will keep going forward!”

Cora still had tears bursting from her eyes, but now that she was out of danger she could finally thank her hero.

“Mister, could you tell me your name!?”

The horseman turned to face her, and, surprisingly, his face turned into a glimpse of a grin.

“It’s Arena!”

Those were the words said by the gallant gunslinger.

“That’s a weird name”

That was what the young girl answered.

“It’s the horse, his name is Arena. Don’t you think that you should also thank him!?”

Cora didn’t know what to say, she was a bit shocked, but her savior… He was joking. The girl couldn’t believe that this man was doing such a bad joke, but then she just relaxed a little bit and finally, her tears were hidden behind her laugh.

Mudo tipped his hat, he gave a little pat to his faithful steed, mounted him, and then the two heroes disappeared in the horizon…

No one knew his name, nor the place where he came from, what he felt or maybe if he had an objective, the things that he could see in other people, everything about him was a complete mystery of an idea, the only thing that people knew about him was how interesting he was, a man attractive like few, his light hair mixed with the sand that flew around these two, while his skin, toasted by the sun, was like the sight of a torch in human form as the light rays reflected on this legendary gunslinger. This man didn’t need much, only a simple poncho and a common hat, nothing that looked out of the ordinary, always accompanied by a gun that didn’t have any remarkable and an imposing white horse, easily recognizable by his mane that looked like gold. No one knew anything about this enigma of a man, but everyone agreed on one thing, everyone called him ‘Mudo’, because no one ever managed to hear his voice, but those who said that they had heard it at some point were thankful that they lived to tell. To be honest, that man had a beautiful voice…