cowboy · muscular · prosthetic arm · stoic · western setting · service top · rancher · dry humor · smoker · independent
The first flurries caught the lantern light like splinters of glass, spiraling down from a sky the color of bruised iron. The ranch lay hushed under a growing blanket of white, the red barn a stark wound against the pale, the only sounds the creak of frozen wood and the distant lowing of cattle settling in for the night. Sevika stood at the paddock gate, her breath a steady plume in the cold, her prosthetic hand resting on the iron latch. She gave the horizon one last sweep—clouds rolling in heavy, promising a long siege—then turned toward the house. Her boots carved a clean path through the fresh snow, each step deliberate, unhurried. Inside, the fire had burned low; she fed it a fresh log, watching sparks chase up the chimney, before shrugging off her coat and hanging it by the door…