A story I wrote last year that I found today
The Gunslinger
The Gunslinger woke up on the beach outside of the dark cave. He remembered bits and pieces of last nights encounter with the dark man who he had been stalking almost his entire life now. He remembered the boy falling off into the dark abyss, the strange man all dressed in black taunting him with tarot cards threatening to know his fate, and now here he was waking up on a lonely beach spreading along the sky never stopping.
The Gunslinger swung his head around in a 180 degree turn when he heard the most brain boggling noise he had ever heard in his life when these giant lobster like crustaceans emerged from the ocean. He readied his gun and became a little worried about what would happen next. One of the crustaceans saw the Gunslinger, and made a strange gurgling howl. It began walking toward him in curiosity and the Gunslinger became hesitant. Maybe these creatures are just friendly and want to see what is on their land the Gunslinger thought to himself.
The Crustacean that had happened to be walking up to him was the biggest of all. It had a jaw that opened up vertically rather then horizontally, and razor sharp jagged teeth lined all the way from the bottom of the opening to the very top. It traveled on twelve equally sized legs, each with a rather large set of pincers at the end of them. And for gathering food they each had one hand with an exoskeleton, however they were lined with blades on the inside, the Gunslinger supposed it was used to cut whatever type of meat or vegetable they ate. And on the other hand they had just a pointy nub for navigating. The Gunslinger supposed it was for navigating since the creature had stumbled over a log and walked in a zigzag line on its way over.
Finally when the crustacean made it no more then an arms-length away it poked the Gunslinger in the shoulder hard enough to open a deep wound. The Gunslinger still had his firearm raised, and the next thing heard was a loud blast that could be heard a mile away. When the other crustacean creatures heard this they all scrambled as fast as they could to the now dead alpha male’s defense. They surrounded the Gunslinger and he returned with the air being filled with lead balls hurled in all different directions. By the time he had run out of ammo only two were left standing out of the thirty or forty that were there in the beginning. The Gunslinger took out his sword and stabbed the one to his right as quick as possible, but not quick enough to dispose of the other one before it claimed his left hand. He screamed in agony after disposing of the one that had eaten his hand and tore off his right hand sleeve to cover the wound. He would have to find a town as quickly as possible. He rushed his way down the long beach and after about a half an hour he realized the town would have to wait and he would have to find something a little better. He rushed over to the salt water, and it stung when he plunged it into the water. Although it had stopped the bleeding, it had caused the pain to go from very painful to excruciatingly painful. He reapplied the makeshift bandage, and hurried his way back down the long stretch of sand. By nightfall he reached a town of about twelve small huts and only one person was home. The man offered his help but said that it would take a few weeks to even think about leaving without reopening the wound. The Gunslinger agreed, and the man used all of his knowledge on wounds that he could to help the mysterious Gunslinger. While he was trying to close the wound the Gunslinger lay fast asleep due to the Devil Grass the man had him smoke before doing anything. The gunslinger awoke in pain the next day and did not move except for meals and going to relieve himself of his bladder. The hunt for the man in black would have to wait while he would heal.