Taking the coin, he glanced at Randolph and studied his features. Spinning the coin deftly between his fingers, it soon after seemed to disappear in his hands, perhaps down his sleeve or into some other pocket.

"Shadow man, though you walk in the light. A pen and a paper, and a book. A cloud of smoke and soot. I see a woman in your future, a woman in your past - the same woman. A dangerous woman. Be wary of her. She can destroy you, or you her, though I hope you are the survivor for she is bad. I see you weaving a web, and drawing a net that consumes the shadows. Beware the knife, and soon careful that your fingers do not get burned."

As they approached the corner, he pointed down the street. "There is where you are bound. Eye of the Dog."

Having hesitated only a moment before gliding to her brother's offered arm, Korpi insisted on tasting the little statue's head just in case. Delicately gripping the stone with the end of her beak, she first tested with the tastebuds edging the soft lining of her mouth then turned her head sideways, pincering the idol to taste it with her tongue. "Korb." she concluded, letting go. "Yapansky bog!"

This set Sky Dog off again. Korpi edged up to his shoulder and nipped at the side of his hood to get him to pay attention. Sky Dog listened and murmured a regretful agreement. Finding himself a few paces ahead of the mule he turned back to Ming, his pale left hand raised like the spread wing of a bird. "We are well pleased, Grandfather. If this...knowing, it is a new thing, yes? A word from a man with a young, best-strong heart - avoid the corpses."

"This is how I find out as a child, that it is not usual to feel the echoes of the past in things: I asked dead flesh and bones I found in the forest, 'what happened to the man who wore you, that he has his head in pieces?' - Ha! It was a kossak sabre - I felt that, ha, in the head, it almost killed me. So." Sky Dog touched his forehead with the blade of his hand, pausing. "I would say to a man unused to the Long Branch not to look where a corpse will go, I fear it is tempting the ghosts to pull him over."

Advice rather obliquely given, Sky Dog wandered on down to the building pointed out. Korpi looked back, swaying with his movement, and watched Daniel, wondering what he was looking for.

Daniel's curiosity had been piqued by the elderly Chinese fellow, who seemed to have something unique to say about everyone. Certainly it was worth two bits for the entertainment value alone.

He flashed his own silver in the direction of Ming with a smile. "I'm intersted what you see as well, Min'."

Ming grinned as he took the coing, glad to be making out like one of the Righteous Bandits, but took on a serious expression when studying the boys face. "A young face, but ancient in other ways. I know very little about what these mean, though it has something to do with the Christian God I think. A cross, a temple, two knights on a horse, a sword, a chest, a cup, a shard of wood. You will climb a great tower, fight a great enemy. Travel far to the west. Slay the thieves of darkness. Fight wolves in clothed in sheep-skin. Much fighting for you, in your future - there is no avoiding it. Find strong allies."

Morgan listened intently as Chin spoke to Hawthorne, Darling, and d'Alex in turn. The old man's words gave him pause. With all of the strange things wandering the plains, was it so outlandish to believe that he could read the future? Morgan's hand went to his pocket, his fingers clasping a coin there.

And he stopped himself. However wise Chin was, Morgan didn't need the fortune teller to tell him what lay ahead. He already knew. The outcome was certain. Inevitable. The only thing Morgan didn't know was when.

And he was content not knowing.

Glancing at the rest of the group, he waited to see if anyone else wanted to hear Chin's insights before they sought out Dog Eye.

Darling extends his arm to Cora, smiling wryly, "I should have thought I'd at least rate the sobriquet 'Shadow Gentleman.' No matter. Do you fancy a sarsaparilla to cut the Dodge City dust from your throat, Miss Hawthorne?"

He looked expectantly at Caleb, and then winked, turning quickly to Gabby and moving again back to lead his mule. "Ming Chin must go on. Fortunes to tell. Chinese traditional medicines to sell. You look for me if you need help, Gabby-Clarke." Without further ado, the strange old Chinese man began leading his mule drawn cart of unknown wares off down the street.

Daniel gave the Chinese snake oil salesman a friendly wave goodbye. "Nice ta meetcha, Min'. And may, uh, fortune smile 'pon ya." He wasn't exactly sure why he said that, but it seemed appropriate for the situation.

He then turned to his uncle. "Interstin' fella that. Sounds like yer gonna strike it rich 'gain."

The Dog Eye Saloon was a solid frame building. It looked to be rough place, the sort that catered to the tough crowds that didn't want to party under the watchful eyes of the town deputies, like all the saloons out on Front Street. So early in the day, though, it was fairly empty except for a lone drunk sitting at the side of the bar.

Hank "Dog Eye" McNary stood behind the bar, polishing glasses that already looked clean. A chubby, balding man with a beard and a lazy eye, Hank had a friendly look on his face and beckoned them over to the bar as they entered. "Come on over. Y'all the folks Deputy Earp sent over? He told me I could expect a few new faces sometime today. Anyone want a beer? First one's on the house."

Korpi took and dropped the jade into Sky Dog's hood as he lowered it and sprang from his elbow into the air, sliding to a hopping halt on the counter in front of McNary.

"Corb," she announced, bowing, and pattered off along the bar to investigate the drunk's little forest of shiny glass.

"Yes," her brother affirmed, then frowned in the concentrated manner of one trying to navigate foreign idioms. "It is so - where is the fire?"

"Ain't no fire in here," he said, filling up a beer for Sky Dog at his affirmative response. "Maybe in the winter, when it gets cold. If you're feelin' cold now you should see the doc."

Sky Dog picked up the beer with interest and a nod of thanks but no sign of being about to drink it. "Haha, no - too hot!" Sky Dog smelled the beer, interested, then continued to the barkeep: "I am badly needing to find the hair-cutting man for the heat, it defeats us...but you have a cooking-place, yes? Maybe iron? Or a thing that makes light?"

"Oh, well we do got a kitchen. I suppose there's a fire in there when there's food on - didn't think about it like that. As for gettin' your hair cut, we can surely find us a barber without too much trouble." He looked at Sky Dog curiously, for indeed the man was a curious sight.

After a pause, he said, "You ain't from 'round here, are you?"
This message was last updated by the player at 05:50, Fri 17 May 2013.

"This way?" Sky Dog pointed at the nearest unexplored way out of the room that looked like it might head stovewards, moving a couple of steps in that direction.

"Ah, no, not me - this skin, it has no colour: my ears, my neck...without the hair, a few minutes the sun is coming so, into, through the hood - ha! I am more burnt than a red Irish. Igor, who came with me from the West, far west and across the ice, he needs...barber very badly. His blood is still thick! Myself, perhaps I will find the river or the Chinese launder-y woman will shout 'gwei!' and throw water at me again." He looked at the beer again, this time more as though looking after someone else's drink whilst thirsty.

At the other end of the bar, Korpi eyed up the drunk, trying to make out whether he was dead or not.

"That would be it, but you don't need to go in there. If you're looking to order some food, just say the word." As was to be expected, he didn't seem to make head or tail of most of what Sky Dog was talking about.

Korpi edged up very, very slowly until the slumped human's face was in beak range, angling the ebon spearpoint just right...and nipped the 'corpse' on the nose, springing away with a whoop. "Ko-wip!"

This having some rumbling effect, Korpi skittered away, watched a moment, then resolved not to be entirely disappointed and hijacked a shot glass.

Meanwhile, Sky Dog looked perplexed and held up the beer. "I do need to go there...I cannot accept hospitality in a new place without first greeting your hearth, the spirits would be offended."

Finding it too heavy and awkward to fly any distance with, Korpi herded the shot glass across the floor to eventual rest at Morgan's boot, nudging it against the same and looking up as if to say 'for you!' "Korp."

The drunk man gave a yelp at having been nipped on his nose, stumbling back, knocking over himself and the chair and clutching at his nose. He looked at Sky Dog, Hank, and the bird, and wandered up the stairs.

"Is that bird yours? Deputy or not, I can't have it biting my customers. Not that he's much of a customer, but it won't be good if it happens to somebody else."

"She is my sister, yes..." Sky Dog glanced down at what was a dark blur to him at this range and angle and shot her a 'behave' kind of frown. "But Korpi is gentle, gentle - the...customer, he is surprised, no injury." Restless, the shaman went and righted the abandoned stool. "She was only waking him up, to be sure his little eyes were not for pecking out and eating. It is a good thing, yes?" Still, whatever he said to the raven in his own language sounded stern enough to be a caution. Sky Dog turned back to the barkeep.

"Only the very wicked need to be afraid of Korpi...and perhaps the little rats, if they are juicy." Since McNary didn't seem bent on stopping him, Sky Dog started off to find that stove.

"On th' house?" Daniel repeated, though phrased it as a query due to his surprise. It sounded an awful lot like 'free'. "I'll take one."

He grabbed a seat and was about to respond to Sky Dog's need for a barber, but didn't feel right about interrupting his peculiar conversation with the local barkeep. He could mention it later. As Sky Dog and his pet sister proceeded to provide no shortage of amusement, Daniel quietly took occasional drinks of his beer.

Morgan nodded at McNary's offer of a beer. "Thank you kindly," he said, shaking his head as Korpi snapped at the drunkard's nose. Never a dull moment around the shaman and his sister.

Returning his attention to McNary, Morgan said, "If I could trouble you for some help, sir, I'm trying to find out more about the recent happenings in Hays. I understand that some survivors from the town might have fled here to Dodge. Is there any truth to that?"

In reply to Daniel d'Alex (msg # 88):

"Take care, Chin!" Gabby says as the old man wanders off, and follows Danial into the Saloon.

"I dunno about that." he says. "Sure, it's encouragin', hearin' about valuable jewels an' picks that draw money from the ground, but you know what they say...easy come, easy go. I had that in California, too, and Texas, and both times lost it. He also talked about a curse, don't forget. Findin' the color ain't never been my problem. Keepin' it..." he sighs. "Especially since I got an idea o' who the man in the black hat he was speakin' on is. I saw him just this mornin', afore that damn argument."

Gabby looked around the Dog Eye. "Yeah, I'd like a beer. A bit early for drinkin', but it's only a problem if you don't stop."

his ears perked up a bit at Sky Dog's mention of a 'hair-cutting man'. "Ya'll need a barber?" He asks. "Well, it just so happens my nephew's a barber. Where's this Igor fella?"

Hank poured out a beer for the three men, and then heaved a sigh and sat down behind the bar at a stool that he had for himself.

"Bad business, what happened at Hays. I believe there's two, maybe three survivors. I haven't talked to them myself, but you know, word gets around town. I believe there's some folks up at the Union Church that's puttin' em up. I think it may be a mother and her kids. I don't know much about what happened there. All I know is rumors. Can't put more'n a little stock in those. Most have at least a grain o' truth in 'em, some is all true, and some is all made up. Towns pretty tense, so folks are inclined to keep quiet on it, less they wanna find themselves in a fight."

---

Upon arriving in the small kitchen, Sky Dog finds everything arranged neatly, but a place that's not really cooking anything at the moment. There's a basin for washing dishes, a stove, a pantry and what one would usually expect there, but little else.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:50, Thu 31 Jan 2013.

Sky Dog made straight for the stove, crouching and stirring a little life into breakfast's embers. Abruptly serious, he unlatched the door and flicked the first mouthful of what his host had given onto the coals, murmuring a request to the local spirits to see him and allow him space. A renewal of the pact Dog Eye had surely made to pitch his building and take it from their wilderness.

Closing the stove, Sky Dog finally attended to his thirst. The liquid was cooling, light on the tongue and less bitter than coffee - all in all not unpleasant. Perhaps it was a cooled tea.

Sky Dog had got down half the glass and almost fallen over a bucket by the time he found himself facing the doorframe rather than the doorway and corrected his steps, leaning there. "My...sorry, Uncle, what did you say?"

The shaman's bleached-bone skin hid nothing: it was quite educational to watch the dawn pink rising in the space of two minutes as he stood listening. A little after McNary finished Sky Dog rubbed his nose and pointed at his beer. "This...it has alcohol in it? I think."

He broke into giggles. "Fir poles."

In reply to Sky Dog (msg # 103):

Gabby watches the strange man get a bit drunk. "I said, if your friend Igor needs his hair cut, my nephew Danial's an excellent barber." He points Danial out to Sky Dog.

"Oh come on, I knew he was an Injun. Can't hold his liquor for shit! Of course it has alcohol in it!" he said, wandering over to Sky Dog and taking the beer from him.

"You better come have a seat over here, Deputy. It's a good thing you've got some time before the evenin'. You'd not be able to do much lawin' in this state."