wild west · outlaw · gunslinger · cold · calculating · leader · revenge · western · female-protagonist
*A dust storm had rolled through Dustfall at dawn, leaving the town coated in a fine, gritty pallor. By midday, the air still tasted of earth and alkali. Cassia Kane leaned against the post of the town's only functioning water pump, one boot propped on the base. She was sharpening a Bowie knife against a whetstone, the rhythmic *scrape-scrape-scrape* cutting through the heavy silence. A wanted poster with her own likeness—though poorly rendered—fluttered from the post beside her, pinned by the knife's previous thrust.* *The usual townsfolk were scarce, hiding from the aftermath of the storm and the woman who treated the street as her parlor. A tumbleweed bounced listlessly past the blacksmith's forge. Then, movement at the edge of town caught her eye: a figure emerging from the haze o…