Megoon

A Soft Journey

Megoons’ eyes shot open, she clutched her chest out of breath, sweating profusely as she was awakened by the haunting memories of her past. Throwing the blanket off she slowly rolls over looking at the streets below. It was a 1800’s western style town with a Main Street full of necessary shops. She looks at her Dads old shop where she used to run around with her little brother as her Dad made the towns finest swords and weapons. Back then times were different, it wasn’t completely peaceful. However, something about those days always brings her joy. With the cold brisk wind dancing over her naked body, she snapped back into reality. The overwhelming guilt of losing her brother, settles in as she thinks to herself “I should have stayed with him.” She looks up at the clouds above her and they are pink, orange and bloodshot red. She says to herself “red in the morning sailers warning, red at night sailers delight.” A storm was coming. Looking back down at the town below her, with her head gently slumped over, her dark brown hair is a mess, but effortlessly flows into place as she runs her fingers through it. She, takes a deep breath in and stressfully exhales. You can hear the pain in her ‘labored breathing’. She grabs a pair of spandex leggings and her butt plops into it perfectly. Grabbing her boots she slides her left foot in, now the right. The right boot seems to be falling apart, just slightly more worn compared to the first boot. She tilts her foot by rolling it over at the ankle and looks at her damaged sole. “I need to fix this,” she thought to herself. “Ugh! I need to fix this feeling also!” Megoon said out loud. She jogged over to her bag and pulled out her fully charged iPod. Unraveling her headphones she looked over at her coffee pot as it beeped. With a sigh of relief, she thought, “thank God for automatic timers.” With islander trance music now blaring in her ears, she grabbed herself a cup of coffee and started swaying her hips to the beat. She danced over to the edge of the mountain, With steam rising up from the coffee cup she uses its warmth to embrace her soft sensitive hands. She hunches down and sips her coffee as she looks back out into the horizon. Her heart stops as she sees the truck from her nightmares, pulling into the town and stopping at a saloon. She finally found them. Megoon quickly turns to finish putting on her gear and put her bedroll away. She doesn’t want anyone to know someone was here. With a quick glance around she throws her bag over her bow shoulder and heads down the mountain in a full sprint. The mountains are her element. She never stopped training the way her father taught her.

Approaching the town as she walks through the apple orchard from her youth, she slows down seeing a blanket of white and was saddened by how dead and decrepit the orchard has become. “Erie”, she thought to herself. “This place used to be flourishing,” she said out loud. Walking into the light just at the end of the row trees. She stops and glanced down both directions of the once busy Main Street. Looking at the black top she longed for the warm kiss of the ocean breeze. She’s spent the last 20 years island hopping. Holding a small green coin purse full of Spanish gold, she unties the bag from her belt and clutches the bag full of ‘doubloons’ with a clinched fist. It wasn’t a complete waste of time she smirked. Briskly walking across the street with her other hand clutching her coat near her neck to prevent the draft from getting in. She walks straight up to the saloon door trying to pass a group of guys loitering out front. They all looked at her like a “future dead body”, they are certain she is scared and out of place. “Hey princess, what boat did you climb off of,” one of them calls out. She strained at rolling her eyes, smiled and slips by them walking inside. The wind from outside is blowing small flakes of snow into the saloon as she stood in the doorway for just a second longer than the door shut behind her. She scanned around the bar making eye contact with almost every person in the room. The light glistened across her bluish grey eyes with the smallest hint of green. This was the most beautiful woman these men had ever seen. The crowd of people were mesmerized by her beauty and gorgeous eyes, even the female workers there were also watching and silently judging. Everyone was quiet as she confidently walked up to the bar. Approaching the overwhelmed old bartender who was serving a group of thugs the only beer he had on tap. “Are y’all hiring?” She asked .The old man looked at her and said , “I can’t pay much, but you can have the extra room upstairs.”. She smiled and said “deal, I’ll start right now”. She hopped over the counter and started taking orders. She doesn’t recognize anyone from the group of men that were there. However, in her mind she knows, that soon, she will be able to take revenge for what happened to her Dad and brother. Just while she was thinking that to herself. A shadowy figure started to scoot out of the wrap around booth in the darkest corner of the room. He walked to the edge of the bar and said, “that room he said you can have, isn’t his to give.” She turned around to see a short yet slender man with light brown hair and beady eyes. She also noticed his chevrons he wore on his arm. He’s a Cpl she noted. She smiled and said, “well he’s the owner of the shop isn’t he?” He looked at her smile and back up at her eyes. “What’s your name pretty lady?” He said with a lisp. “I’ve never seen you around here.” “Names Alexis”, she lied, “I just sailed in from the Philippines and I need this job.” She said with a wink. Thrown off by her beauty he choked up and blushed as he didn’t know what else to say. He looked around and saw his junior enlisted guys there. “What are y’all smirking at? Huh? Just mind your own business!” He said. The sound of a monstrous engine slowly approaching the building comes to a halt. “It’s the same truck as the other one outside.” She thought to herself. “This is going to take a lot longer than I thought.” A group of men walked into the saloon accompanied by the smaller group that was loitering earlier. The Cpl started backing up and sat back down into the booth he came from. Noticing the red bands on their arms and the masks covering their faces, Megoon smiled and said, “what can I get for y’all?” The old bartender walked over quickly and opened the register. “we’ve had a slow week but the money should be all here,” he said. He handed over a handful of copper coins, looks to be about 12. “What about the money you owe from last month” the red band said, as he bagged up the coins. The old man stuttered, “iiiiiits it’s all I have.” The red band looked at the new bartender “What about the green leather pouch on your servers belt, it looks full.” Megoon pauses, looking down at her green purse, thinking about the extreme difference in the type of currency they are using here, “I should have listened to uncle frank.” She thought. Leaning on to the bar and sticking out her hips, she says, “this?” Then gave him a slight smile. Unfazed by her charm he insisted on having her bag of coins. “Everyone has to pay into the war effort,” he said. “No problem,” she interrupted, “it’s only 12 pieces of copper.” She tossesd the bag over to him, hoping he doesn’t notice the gold inside. He catches it with a heavy thud, groups the two bags together and hands them to the guy behind him. “Come on let’s go,” he said as he was turning around. Pausing and noticing her beauty and how quickly she gave him the coin purse, he looked back at her. The Cpl from the dark corner gets up and says, “Spike, she’s from the Philippines, she just got here.” Spike looks at the newly promoted Cpl and said, “look what the cat dragged in, the weasel.” “It’s Estal, actually,” looking around as people chuckled and scoffed, Estal lowered his head and sat back down. Spike put his finger up in the air and did a circling motion, then the red bands started walking out the door.