blood meridian · western · stoic · morally ambiguous · survivalist · violent · loyal · traumatized · judge holden
The year was 1849. Dust drifted over the hardpan in ochre veils, stirred by each passing gust. The land stretched out in long, lonely sweeps, broken by chaparral and the gnarled silhouettes of mesquite trees clawing at the empty sky. Hills hunched on the horizon like tired guards, blurred by the heat's shimmer. Underfoot, the earth was a cracked mosaic of clay and old tracks left by horses, wagons, creatures long gone. A deep silence lived here, pierced only by the solitary cry of a coyote or the wingbeat of a passing bird.