Tex’s Quest: A Journey Home by Zaku Hyuga
Summary: The tale of Tex Walker. How he was forced to flee from his home when he was fifteen to escape an attack of bandits on his town, and put on a ship taking him to a strange new land. there he will be adopted by a family of ninja and taught the art of the shinobi. He is on his way home, but in what condition will he find it in?
Categories: Alternate Universe & Crossovers Characters: None
Genres: Action/Adventure
Warnings: Death
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 2 Completed: No Word count: 1733 Read: 4479 Published: 16/04/08 Updated: 28/04/08

1. Chapter 1: The Stranger by Zaku Hyuga

2. Chapter 2 Forced to Flee by Zaku Hyuga

Chapter 1: The Stranger by Zaku Hyuga
[A scene of the ocean and a seagull caws]

To think it’s been five years. But Finally, I’m going home. Tex Walker thought as he stood on the deck of the wooden ship that was sailing him and many other travelers and merchants to the land he knew as “The West”. He could still remember clearly how it all had begun.

[Five years earlier, Tex was fifteen]

Tex sat at the bar as his mother waitressed at the saloon. This was his normal routine. He went to the schoolhouse early in the morning and did his studies, and when he was finished he went to the saloon to wait for his mom to finish working. Tex sat watching his mother gathering empty glasses from the patrons and bringing them full ones. He was used to this as well. No one ever caused any trouble, they just sat around drinking their beer and playing cards. A scuffle would start on occasion, brought on by the alcohol , but his mother had the unique ability to quickly bring an end to any argument, he and his brothers rarely even fought because of this. Because she had this ability the owner never thought of hiring anyone else to replace her.

All was well in his life, until he showed up. As Tex sat watching his mother a stranger walked through the saloon doors. Tex hadn’t ever seen him before, but something just didn’t feel right. The stranger took a seat at the bar two stools away from Tex. Tex watched the man from the corner of his eye, and didn’t see anything wrong, but just couldn’t shake this erie feeling he was getting. The man ordered a drink and just sat for a while. Tex decided to go on about his business and watch his mom. About half an hour passed when the man the man paid for his drink and got up to leave. As he walked through the doors the stranger whipped around and pulled out two six-shooters and shouted, “Ok everybody! Stay calm and no one gets hurt. I’ll be taking all of the money and then I’ll be on my way.” Everyone began to scream and yell and try to run. The stranger fired a bullet into the air and said, “I believe I told you to stay calm. Now just lay down on the floor and keep quite while the gentleman at the bar gets me my money.” Tex was laying on the floor a five feet away from the stranger. He was frightened out of his mind, but tried to stay calm. As the man walked over to the bar he holstered one of his pistols and pulled out an empty sack. He stood there while the bartender filled it with money. As the bartender filled the bag the sheriff and depute burst through the swinging doors, Tex’s father and brother. Tex’s father had become the sheriff when Tex was about eight, his brother Samuel had become the depute about two years ago, and his last brother Eliot had become the jail guard the year before that.

Tex’s father bellowed loudly in his deep voice, “I suggest you put down that gun and money and come with us, nice and quitely.”

“Sure, I’ll leave. As soon as I have my money.” The stranger replied. Tex saw this as his chance to get away and darted for his father and brother at the doors. As Tex darted through he was caught by the stranger. “Aha, what’ve we got here.” Tex’s father and brother’s eyes grew large when the stranger got a hold of Tex. Tex squirmed to get free, but couldn’t break the stranger’s hold. The stranger looked held his pistol to Tex’s head and looked from Tex to Tex’s father and back again. “Looks like there’s quite a bit of a resemblance here, and also judging from the look on your face, I say this is your kid isn’t it? Tell you what let me outta here and your kid might live.” the stranger chuckled evilly. Tex did the only thing he could think of. He bit the hand the stranger was holding the gun with. The stranger yelped with pain and dropped Tex as he reached for his other pistol with his hand that hadn’t been bitten. Tex’s father drew his own pistol and quickly shot the man in the arm he was reaching with. The stranger screamed in pain and glared at Tex and his father with pure hatred in his eyes. “You two don’t know who you’ve messed with. I’m Lance Stawls!” Looks of terror passed over the faces of the people in the bar. “Bandit Extraordinare! Me and my boys are going to take over this little town of yours, but I’ll start by making a new cemetary and you and the kid will be the first to be put under!” Lance turned and ran out the back holding onto his shot arm. Tex’s father and brother shot at Lance as he fled but didn’t hit him.

“I want a party put together to hunt him down before he reaches his gang!” Tex’s father ordered. “Lord, Lance Stawls. This isn’t going to be good.” Tex’s father mumbled under his breathe.
Chapter 2 Forced to Flee by Zaku Hyuga
“Mom, what are you doing?” Tex asked as he watched his mother go around his room putting his things into a traveling sack. She stopped and looked at him.

“Honey, they weren’t able to find Lance. And your father is pretty sure that he’s with his gang. He thinks they’ll attack tomorrow.”

“So why are you packing my bags?” Tex asked with a quizzical look on his face.

His mom looked down. “It’s not safe here. Lance has a vendetta against you and your father. We can’t take any chances that he finds you. If he does he’ll kill you.” Tears began filling her eyes. “We’re sending you on the ship up North to your Aunt’s. Just tell her what has happened. I know she won’t have a problem with you showing up unannounced.” She began crying even harder.

“Mom, let me stay! I don’t won’t to go! Let me fight too!” Tex pleaded.

“No! We can’t risk it.”

“Then why don’t you all come too?”

“We can only afford to send you. And besides your father is the sheriff and your brothers are the depute and jailor, they can’t leave. Now help me finish packing.” She wiped her tears from her eyes and started putting more things into the sack. Tex slowly started to help.

[half an hour later]

Tex and his mother stood on the dock in front of the ship. “Mom, why do I have to go by ship?” Tex asked staring at her disappointedly.

“We don’t want him to be able to track you down if he manages to get away.” Tex’s eyes grew wide with fright. His mother quickly tried calming him.

“Don’t worry. Everything will be alright. Your father and brothers with the rest of the town will chase them all off and they won’t be coming back. Once it’s over with we’ll send for you okay.” She said looking into his eyes. She could see his fear. “It’ll be alright.” she said again as she hugged him. Tex began walking up the ramp to the ship. He turned and looked back at his mom. Tears filled her eyes again as she waved to him. She blew him a kiss and he waved back, and turned away. He felt tears coming into his eyes, but tried to force them back. He hadn’t cried since he was a small child.

Tex sat on the deck and watched the land start to grow smaller. Thoughts of going back against his families wishes kept racing through his mind until he couldn’t fight it anymore. Tex judged the distance to be about a mile from the shore. He’d swum that far before, nothing he couldn’t handle. He tied his sack to his back and jumped over the side of the ship. He hit the water pretty hard, but it wasn’t enough to slow him down. Tex began swimming then the cold hit him. He had swum a mile before, but not that far out from shore. It was too cold for him to handle, he tried with all he could to just stay afloat. Luckily a ship leaving the docks saw him jump over and headed towards him. Tex flailed in the water gasping for air.He tried to yell for help , but couldn’t get any words to come out. He could feel his body shutting down from the cold. Everything went black.

He saw his family and his home. They all began shrinking away. He was thrust awake coughing up water. He looked around, he was on the ship that had come after him. He was shivering violently, but looked up at the captain, who had fished him out of the water.

“What were you doing kid? You almost killed yourself.” The captain said staring at him, through his big bushy black eyebrows.

“Please take me back to the shore.” Tex choked out weakly.

“Oh, no kid. Were not heading back that way for a while. Besides your lucky if you don’t get sick from your little stunt. That water’s pretty cold. We’re going to put you in a room and wrap you up in some blankets. Just take it easy and rest kid. Your going to need it. Tex lay his head down, not able to support it anymore.

Tex eyes opened very weakly. He felt extremely ill. He couldn’t feel his body, and he felt like he was being carried. The only thing he remembered before falling back to unconsciousness was the captain’s voice saying, “I think he’s really ill. He jumped overboard, and I think he’s got something bad, he’s been out for four days. Will you take care of him.” someone else replied “Of Course.” and Tex was returned to unconsciousness.
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