Interlude
"Oh?"
With deliberate slowness the woman puts down the cards in her hand, spreading them over in an arch with an instinctual flick of her wrist. Pushing back the chair she stands up, the ruffled overskirt that flows in the back shifting around long and shapely legs. The heeled booths make a noticeable tapping sound every time they land on the leather-like floor as she approaches a shelf full of beautiful and curious items: a gun inlaid with nacre, a golden statuette of a dancing, naked woman, a theater mask painted in lively colors and much more. Her hands move with purpose, plucking two specific objects and holding them in front of her face: the two pocket-watches are almost identical, the fine engravings on their surfaces the only way to tell them apart.
Now, however, deep cracks mar the surface of those beautiful objects. Under the woman's eyes the cracks spread even more, pieces falling off and shattering into fine dust, until nothing remains of the two watches.
The woman sighs, her delicate features showing the patient annoyance of a mother faced with the last in a long line of pranks perpetrated by her unruly children. "So they got themselves beefed. I told them it was a bad decision, but did they listen? No, of course not. Stubborn until the dreadfully end."
Shaking her hands to remove the last of the dust the woman turns her back to the shelf and moves in front of a door, stopping a few seconds to pick up and don a hat decorated with silver coins and the stuffed head of an eagle, before opening it and stepping outside.
"Yeehaw!!" In the middle of the saloon a man is in the middle of shooting a coin tossed high in the air. He would take out his gun from the holster, spinning it with his index finger a few times before taking aim and firing at the falling coin, making it spin back up. Then he would spin the gun again, put it back into the holster and then take it out to repeat his performance.
"Kaeo is feeling daisy today?" The woman asks to the other customers seated at the tables after reaching the bottom of the spiral stairway. She raises a gloved hand and snaps her fingers. "Pekelo, pour me a drink. Joy Juice will do."
"Not the usual boose? Sure thin' Alyne." The bartender nods, arms and body leaning rhythmically back and forth while shaking a cocktail. Doing a pirouette she puts down the shaker, picks up a bottle and a clean glass from the shelf behind and then returns to his initial position, skillfully filling the glass with an amber-colored liquid before making it slide down the counter and towards the woman, who picks up and brings it to her lips.
"Yeah. Kaeo and his boys cracked a fat nut today. Now they're buying drinks for everyone." One of the customers leans back on his chair, booths resting on the table, and pulls back his hat to reveal a handsomely rugged face, lips split into a smile just a tad bit too wide that should be possible for facial muscles. "Want to join the shin-dig, Alyne?"
"Gef and Daryllyn are buzzard food." The woman says with a casual tone.
"Hot spit and monkey vomit! You serious?" The man shows a surprised expression. "I knew those two grub-line riders wouldn't last long on their own, but I wasn't expectin' such bad medicine."
"I have their Ring Graces, remember? They fell apart in front of my eyes." The woman sits next to the man. "They may have been barkin' at a knot, but they were fellow buckaroos."
"Do you know where?"
The woman shrugs. The glass, now empty, falls from her fingers: tiny hands catch it before the owner scuttles away. "Last I heard they were headin' west, to that place of hillybillies... Gopan? Nopan?"
"Japan." The man's smile widens. He puts down his feet from the table and straightens up, allowing his jet-black, raven-like wings to spread free. "Been there before, lovely place. Maybe it's time for a second visit...?"
On the outside the half-sea snake, half-train Behemoth continues its race above the sea floor on invisible tracks.
Interlude - End
