Dredgen Yor. Shin Malphur. The showdown at Dwindler’s Ridge. Every Hunter knows the legend, and if they say they don’t, they’re lying. Two men go up the ridge to settle their differences. Day and night. Right and wrong. Dredgen Yor’s got the black gun, Thorn, which I ain’t of a mind to talk about, except for how that gun took everything from Shin. So Shin draws on Yor. Shin draws quicker and he gets the last word.
See? Shin Malphur got the first shot. It’s not the second or third or fourth that counts, it’s that first shot. Now I am a Hunter, and my heart’s more or less a cannon, and my purpose is to land that first shot. One shot. You take it and you don’t get a second.
-Nameless Hunter
Yor wasn’t faster than Jaren. And Jaren didn’t miss. Yor was just more than Jaren. The lessons I learned, the ability I honed to ignite my rage and direct it through my gun? Those were hard lessons learned on a hard, hot planet. Skill was not enough. Confidence was no weapon. Yor knew this. Yor counted on it.
So, when Jaren faced him down, Yor gave him the first shot. But Jaren’s lead wasn’t enough. And when Yor replied, his sickness consumed Jaren and left me, once again, an orphan. Once again, weighed down by sorrow and anger. Yor sought to gift me Jaren’s prize as a way to tempt me. And it did. When that gun finally met my hand again, it drove me to find a way to avenge all I had loved. It was a selfish pursuit.
But when Yor and I finally met on the flat, high ridge, I was ready, and, as I would come to find, so was he. Ready to offer his final lesson, his final gift. A final push toward my true destiny.
One that would put me at odds with heroes in order to ensure our worlds are filled with fewer monsters. It was a path I was sure to walk alone, until I found others, until I found trust.
Until I found hidden value in that which I had always feared.
Shadows.
—S.
Knew this day would come, and with it, one last lesson. There’s an end to all things, kid. Good and bad. Sure, the best times seem small, and the bad tend to linger, but the only permanent is eternity. I’m off to meet it.
If you’re lucky, someday you will too. For now, though, you’ve got road yet traveled and lives yet lived. I know you got hate in you. Most do. Trick is to use it, ‘stead of it usin’ you. But you know this. Vengeance is a motivator, not the motive.
Meant to—hoped to—say these words to you one last time in person, but writin’ ’em down seems the safe bet with the prey we’re trackin’. Worst part about bein’ a good guy? As much as you may want it, you can’t always win. But that truth don’t bother me. We do the right thing, ’cause the right thing needs doin’. So, when another does harm—casts their shadow upon you or your kin—you go ‘head and hunt for the justice needed to answer any sins inflicted.
Don’t hunt ’em ’cause you been wronged. Hunt ’em ’cause what they did was wrong. There’s a world of difference there, kid. One makes you selfish. The other makes you a hero. And I see a hero in you.
And with this last good lesson, a gift. I know it feels right in your hand—its weight easy, its trigger smooth. Use it as you will. I know you’ll use it right.
It’s yours now, ’til the last flame dies and all words have been spoken. ‘Til that time. Safe journeys. Straight aim. And good huntin’.
J.
—A letter to Shin Malphur from his third father, Jaren Ward, written before Ward’s showdown with Dredgen Yor
See? Shin Malphur got the first shot. It’s not the second or third or fourth that counts, it’s that first shot. Now I am a Hunter, and my heart’s more or less a cannon, and my purpose is to land that first shot. One shot. You take it and you don’t get a second.
-Nameless Hunter
Yor wasn’t faster than Jaren. And Jaren didn’t miss. Yor was just more than Jaren. The lessons I learned, the ability I honed to ignite my rage and direct it through my gun? Those were hard lessons learned on a hard, hot planet. Skill was not enough. Confidence was no weapon. Yor knew this. Yor counted on it.
So, when Jaren faced him down, Yor gave him the first shot. But Jaren’s lead wasn’t enough. And when Yor replied, his sickness consumed Jaren and left me, once again, an orphan. Once again, weighed down by sorrow and anger. Yor sought to gift me Jaren’s prize as a way to tempt me. And it did. When that gun finally met my hand again, it drove me to find a way to avenge all I had loved. It was a selfish pursuit.
But when Yor and I finally met on the flat, high ridge, I was ready, and, as I would come to find, so was he. Ready to offer his final lesson, his final gift. A final push toward my true destiny.
One that would put me at odds with heroes in order to ensure our worlds are filled with fewer monsters. It was a path I was sure to walk alone, until I found others, until I found trust.
Until I found hidden value in that which I had always feared.
Shadows.
—S.
Knew this day would come, and with it, one last lesson. There’s an end to all things, kid. Good and bad. Sure, the best times seem small, and the bad tend to linger, but the only permanent is eternity. I’m off to meet it.
If you’re lucky, someday you will too. For now, though, you’ve got road yet traveled and lives yet lived. I know you got hate in you. Most do. Trick is to use it, ‘stead of it usin’ you. But you know this. Vengeance is a motivator, not the motive.
Meant to—hoped to—say these words to you one last time in person, but writin’ ’em down seems the safe bet with the prey we’re trackin’. Worst part about bein’ a good guy? As much as you may want it, you can’t always win. But that truth don’t bother me. We do the right thing, ’cause the right thing needs doin’. So, when another does harm—casts their shadow upon you or your kin—you go ‘head and hunt for the justice needed to answer any sins inflicted.
Don’t hunt ’em ’cause you been wronged. Hunt ’em ’cause what they did was wrong. There’s a world of difference there, kid. One makes you selfish. The other makes you a hero. And I see a hero in you.
And with this last good lesson, a gift. I know it feels right in your hand—its weight easy, its trigger smooth. Use it as you will. I know you’ll use it right.
It’s yours now, ’til the last flame dies and all words have been spoken. ‘Til that time. Safe journeys. Straight aim. And good huntin’.
J.
—A letter to Shin Malphur from his third father, Jaren Ward, written before Ward’s showdown with Dredgen Yor
