Chapter Text
“Hell of a view, huh?” Levi asks his horse, black among all the snow; his faithful companion who rode his way up the mountains just so that Levi could stand right here right now.
He was told that glaciers looked like big, white mountains but somehow everyone failed to mention what it’s like to be so close to them. A deep, low rumbling emerges from inside and it sounds like thunder but the skies are clear. The cold is creeping up his bones yet he can’t stop staring. Its centre is blue like nothing Levi’s ever seen before, not in ladies’ dresses or lakes. There’s a stream of water that falls from the ice, thin but loud and it crosses the mountains downward, making Levi wonder just how far it goes and if this glacier has been the one satisfying his thirst the past few days.
He takes a carrot from his saddle bag and feeds it to Pepper. He takes some salted rabbit for himself. They’ll need the energy to get back to camp but Levi doesn’t want to leave just yet. The wind might be cold but it’s mild and the cougar pelt covering Levi’s head and back keeps him warm enough. He wrapped some rabbit hide around his boots too and he doesn’t want to take the wolf pelt off Pepper’s back even if he doesn’t know whether the horse needs it or not.
Vultures roam the skies, eyeing Levi to examine whether he’ll be food for them in the next couple of days; Levi hopes not, unless either he or Pepper breaks an ankle and can never get back home. No other creatures seem to lurk around here but they’ll have to be wary on their way back.
For now, he’ll just caress Pepper's muzzle and stare into the big blue mountains made of ice, hoping his memory doesn’t fail him so that he will still remember this day in the future; thinking about his mamma and how happy she would’ve been to know Levi made it this far. He thinks of her silver eyes and graceful smile, the warmth of her goodnight kisses and her delicious tea.
The snow fades away the further north Levi rides and the sun begins to be a problem again, up all day and almost every night; he misses having a hat. He puts up a camp once it gets finally dark to brew some tea and have some dinner; he’ll sleep through the night and leave at first light, hopefully, he’ll make it to Shiganshina in a week and he’ll get to sleep on a bed. He doesn’t have a home anymore, not since he decided to move out of the place his mother left behind. There are too many memories there; he might just live like a roamer instead.
He sleeps staring at the stars and wakes up when the sun rises behind the mountains. Some playful red foxes are barking not far from him so Levi eyes his bag to make sure they haven’t been ravaging it. The fire is still cracking, and he adds a few sticks to make it grow again before putting a log. He heats water and fills up a cup when it's lukewarm to wash his face, then he brews some tea and eats more rabbit. He’s running out, so he should hunt something soon as well as harvest a few berries on his way north.
After he gulps everything down, it’s time to take his morning shit so he makes sure to put dirt over the fire to put it out and all the food is in the saddle bag. He walks behind some trees and rocks to avoid annoying the animals with his waste. He would rather do his things far from the stream of fresh water and in a hole, so he digs it himself.
The wind is cold against his bare skin but it’s still better than shitting in the snow. He stares at the green grass around him, at the dark clouds on the horizon. There’s a weird stain on his boot and he tries to brush it off; it looks like rotten fruit or guts, something he must’ve stepped on.
When he’s done he covers the hole he dug and returns to the camp, walking slowly across the prairie, listening to the birds flying above his head. There’s a deer in the distance feeding on grass, and it raises its head to stare at Levi before sprinting away.
He walks around the big tree where Pepper is tied on to find someone in his camp. A man is crouching over Levi’s spot eating off his saddlebag with his dirty hands and drinking his tea, spilling it all over his disgusting beard. It’s a nightmare. The man is so into it, humming and grunting as he chugs down Levi’s food that he doesn't even hear him coming.
Levi draws his revolver and aims, pulling back the hammer with a click. The stranger looks at him behind his long, blond bangs. He doesn’t seem scared.
“Step back,” Levi says.
The man obliges, slowly putting his hands up and standing up to walk backwards. His clothes are filthy but they seem expensive. His blue vest is tailored, his boots have been crafted with alligator leather; someone has stitched some delicate and intricate inlays on them.
“No need to waste bullets on me, partner,” the man says, still chewing Levi’s goddamn food.
“Why the fuck are you stealing my food?”
“I was just hungry,” he answers, shrugging.
“Get the fuck away before I waste a bullet blowing your fucking brains out.”
“I’m going that way,” the man says, keeping his hands in the air and walking around Levi’s camp. “The tea was delicious, thank you.”
“Get the fuck away!” Levi exclaims.
The stranger nods and caresses a hand across Pepper’s muzzle as he walks away.
“Don't touch my horse!”
“He’s a good boy,” the man says.
“Hey!” Levi exclaims, grumbling. He grabs a small stack of salted rabbit and throws it towards where the man is. “Learn to fucking hunt!”
“Thank you,” the man answers, crouching to pick up the meat without tearing his eyes from Levi. Glacier blue. “You’re too kind.”
“I ain’t so scram!”
Levi watches him move backwards for a while before he turns around to walk away. He knows Levi won’t shoot him in cold blood after giving him food but he shouldn't trust strangers so much. Levi surely will break camp as soon as this man is out of his sight.
“What the fuck, Pepper?” he mutters, looking at his horse. “You’ve got zero survival skills. Next guy you let into our camp will fucking grill you, you know?”
Pepper takes a shit right in the spot because he couldn’t care less, and they are back on the road half an hour later.
The stranger’s blue eyes come back to him as well as the tea dripping from his tangled beard. He must’ve been on the run for a while to show up on these lands; someone that hungry and hairy is either a hermit or an outlaw. His clothes on the other hand, still have Levi wondering where he comes from.
Laughter echoes through the forests, putting Levi on edge. He already misses the isolated lands of the south. All he found there were bison, deer, and rams, and all of them ran away from him. Even the wolves mind their own business in those cold lands. People, on the other hand, want nothing but trouble.
Five men appear uphill, trotting down the narrow road. They are smoking and drinking, grunting words and cracking up. Levi grips the reigns strongly and shudders as he guides Pepper out of the road to let the group walk past them.
“Morning, partner!” one of them says.
“Morning,” Levi answers, looking straight ahead.
“Hey, wait up!” another one exclaims. “We’re looking for somebody!”
“Good luck,” Levi says over his shoulder.
“Now, come on!” One of the drunkards trots in front of Levi, forcing him to stop. He pierces him with his eyes but the man is too drunk to care. “Ain’t many people wandering these lands.”
“Well, fuck my luck,” Levi answers.
The man laughs out loud and Levi can smell all the whiskey in his breath even from the distance.
“Robbie!” the man exclaims. “Show ‘im!”
Yet another drunk walks his horse next to Levi; he can see the guns attached to their waists, the rifles on their horses. The man pulls out a piece of paper and unfolds it, presenting it to Levi. The man with glacier blue eyes is drawn in it above a quite high bounty; weirdly enough, the drawing is new because the beard and long hair are there. Either that or he’s always been that filthy.
“Well?” the drunk asks.
“I haven’t seen bigfoot, no,” Levi answers, clicking his tongue to instruct Pepper to move.
“Hey, come on!” the man says, following Levi’s steps. “You wanna join and help? Got a nice repeater over there.”
“No, thanks.”
“Did you see how much it pays?”
“Split in what? Six?” Levi asks. “That one’s gonna shoot your brains out,” he tells the man, nodding at his friend. “The one up front might stab another in the stomach while you sleep.”
The men look at each other frowning, and Levi’s satisfied to have weirded them out enough.
“Giddy up,” he tells Pepper and trots away.
He doesn’t speed up much to avoid suspicion but he tries to get away as quickly as possible.
Bounty hunters are some of the most despicable people around the country; Levi will never understand what drives a man to work for the lawmen. The sheriff sits on his fat ass and sends people to kill each other for cash. It’s always money that makes people do the most despicable things.
Levi’s still uneasy and the feeling won’t fade away unless he’s kilometres away from those drunkards, away from that bearded stranger and away from his sparkling eyes. All he needs is to keep trotting, keep this speed and keep calm. All he needs is not to listen to any gunshot or any scream and he’ll be on his way home as soon as he hits the crossroads, as soon as he reaches the train tracks.
Shots are fired and screams are heard behind Levi and he grumbles, immediately tugging the reins on his horse to turn around and gallop that way.
He follows the neighing of horses and the laughs of the drunkards and finds two of them running farther away in the open fields. To his left, he sees the bearded man hiding behind a large rock, waiting for the right time to run away but he’s on foot; he’ll never make it. One of the drunkards rides in that direction slowly, keeping his rifle ready to shoot, looking around and unsure where his target is.
Levi draws his bow and nocks an arrow. “Steady, boy,” he tells Pepper who’s a bit agitated from all the ruckus. “Keep steady,” he whispers, taking a deep breath in. He hooks the string and pulls back, leaning with his cheek against it. He breaths out and aims, a bit high and a bit ahead, considering the speed of the drunk. He breathes in again and releases, watching the arrow fly through the air and, only a few seconds later, hitting the man in the neck, forcing him to fall off his horse.
Killing men is easier than hunting for game; they lack awareness.
Levi trots his way to the corpse, looking around him but his friends are gone for now. He checks the man’s pockets and gets some cigarettes, forty-three cents and a box of matches. Not even his belt is pretty; just another poor bastard doing a lawman’s job. He picks up the rifle from the ground and mounts his horse again.
“Hey, beardie!” he exclaims, staring right at the rock the man’s hiding. “You know how to shoot a gun?”
It takes a minute before the voice replies. “Yes!”
“There are four more drunkards after your ass!” Levi tells him, throwing the rifle closer to the rock. “Hope your aim is any good!”
Levi turns around, determined to leave, but the man screams back at him.
“You keep helping me!”
“You keep ruining my day!” Levi screams back but he can’t gallop away because the rest of the men are coming. “Fuck,” he mutters.
He takes his repeater to make sure it’s loaded and aims up the hill, waiting for someone to show up and shoots as soon as he finds one of the bounty hunter’s heads.
“Hiya!” he commands Pepper to move faster. Three men left and he has alcohol in his favour, so he hopes that from a distance, their aim isn’t any good.
He speeds up to go around them, trying to get another good shot before he’s seen. He fires his gun and another man goes down but it exposes his position so they start riding towards him. Levi can listen to the bullets fly around him and Pepper gallops faster. He shoots three times but misses. He’s got two more bullets before reloading so he wants to make sure they count.
He keeps galloping away to win some distance, running away from the bullets but they suddenly stop. He turns around to face the bounty hunters, but it’s only one of them. Levi aims, he breathes and he shoots; he doesn’t miss this time. The man falls off his horse while his friend’s corpse is dragged from his boot by his horse.
The bearded man does know how to use a gun after all.
Levi trots towards the last man he took down and searches his pockets. Just thirty-five cents and the wanted poster. He looks at it up close now. One thousand dollars for Erwin Smith, alive. Wanted for running illegal gambling operations. Levi huffs; that’s a lot of money for just gambling. Smith must’ve pissed off the wrong people.
He stares at the drunk’s hat lying next to him—black felt with a leather hatband, quite fancy for a fellow like that. He must’ve stolen it. Levi picks it up and dusts it off before putting it on. He’s immediately relieved from the sun; he truly needed this.
He holds Pepper’s reins and walks towards the closest horse. She’s agitated so Levi tries to calm her down until they are close enough to pet her; then he attaches their reins together.
Smith isn’t anywhere to be seen so Levi keeps looting corpses and gathering their horses. They’ll make good money if he takes them to the nearest stable; their guns are gonna be useful too. They seem in good shape; these men seem to ride across the country trying to catch some outlaws. Only one of them has over one dollar so they must spend everything on liquor, considering that’s all Levi could find in their saddle bags.
He hops back on his horse and trots, back to the rock Smith was hiding before and watches him walk from behind it. Hands up, rifle around his chest.
Levi isn't pointing any guns at him; he just loosens one of the reins and drops it. “Take one,” he says. “You don’t wanna ruin those fancy boots anymore.”
“You’re a good shot,” Smith tells him, finally lowering his hands.
“Yeah, I am,” Levi answers, unfolding the wanted poster. “You’ve got an expensive head.”
“Only if I'm alive,” he sneers.
Levi hums, unamused. “Take the damn horse,” he says. “I’ll escort you to a nearby town.”
“City Hall?”
“I ain’t no bounty hunter,” Levi spits out. “I’m not doing those peelers any favours. Now take a horse,” he insists. “Once we get there, you’re on your own, ya hear me?”
Smith nods and a creepy smirk rises from under all that ugly beard. “You’re a kind man,” he says.
“Nah, just fucking tired.”
“Still,” Smith grunts, hopping on the horse. He gives her a few palms before smiling back at Levi. “You gave me food and a gun; took down these men.”
“Five against one ain’t a fair fight,” Levi answers, gently nudging Pepper to move forward.
“So… where are we off to, partner?”
“The only place out of the grid for bounty hunters,” Levi says. “The Underground.”
There’s still a lot of way to go and the day is long. Levi’s now carrying with him five more horses and a damn stranger, nothing like he had planned. He isn’t going to Shiganshina anymore either and he’ll have to see his uncle before he anticipated. It’s been years but it might just be for the best; Levi knows he’s also mourning for Kuchel; he owes Kenny at least this.
The day is warm and Smith is quiet, he hopes it keeps up this way but his gun is ready for any other bounty hunter who might decide to cross them again.
art by @thegreatgayme
