“You guys gotta help!”
A man shouting, his feet beating the earth beneath him, ignoring the burn in his lungs and muscles.
“Fellas!! Dutch! Charles! John!”
Each name punctuated by a sharp huff of breath as he drew closer to the glow of the campfire, a murmur of concern rising to greet the man as he skidded to a stop, his own feet tripping him up in his panicked haste.
“Arthur, what is it?” A gravelly voice was the first clear one he heard, though he couldn’t at the time place if it was his friend or his mentor who had asked.
“They--someone--i don’t--someone got her,” the man huffed out, trying to catch his breath and maintain his composure. “They got Ruby.”
Arthur Morgan rubbed his eyes wearily as his horse continued ambling along the same path they had been trekking on and around for the past three days at this point. He felt like he had grit in his eyes and had swallowed sand for breakfast, knew that he should be drinking more often from his canteen in the New Austin heat, but he was too worried about his wife to worry about his own needs.
It felt like they had searched every canyon and cave, but he just knew that whoever had taken her wasn’t much further. They couldn’t be, not if the tracking he and Charles had done was accurate.
Under him, his grey dun mustang nickered softly as he slumped forward in the saddle again, having dozed off for the third time that morning. Arthur patted her affectionately on the neck.
“I’m sorry, girl, I’m jus’ real tired is all...” he murmured to her, leaning along the crest of her neck as she continued on the trail. “Yer mama’s missin’, but think yeh knew that. Got yer daddy real worried”--he scratched behind her ears gently--”but I think you got that figured out, too.”
“Arthur!” John’s voice from up ahead, approaching rapidly. “Arthur, one of the folks in town said they knew where Ruby is!”
Arthur sat up, adrenaline surging through him. “And?!”
“The cave, up towards the northern border where Ambarino just barely touches state lines, they s--”
John didn’t get to finish his sentence as Arthur took off with a shout over his shoulder to round up the others and meet him there.
