Chase almost did so, but when she looked closer at the weapon that was pointed at her, she realized that being near the freshman was all that was protecting her. She recognized the shotgun's design and knew enough about guns to know what its deadly capabilities were.

“She not dead yet,” warned Chase.

Junie Grievance processed this information. She looked closer at her junior and saw her chest was indeed rising and falling. As long as Chase stood near her, Junie Grievance couldn't shoot, not with a shotgun.

“Step away from her,” she ordered impotently.

“No.”

They stared at each other for a moment, sizing each other up.

“Looks like we has ourselfs a standoff, then,” said Junie Grievance, steady as a rock. She glanced at Chase's bloody leg. “Only thing is, ah gots a feelin' ah'll be standin' a lot longer than you will.”

Chase winced. She knew this cowgirl was right. Already, she had lost most of the feeling in that leg. It was only through sheer willpower that she was standing, as it was. Chase had to make a move. But Junie Grievance knew Chase had to make a move, she was counting on it. Chase would have no element of surprise. All Chase could do was try to make a move Junie Grievance wouldn't expect.

She grabbed the tomahawk she'd used to wound Hepzibelle and flung it directly at her enemy's face. Junie Grievance knocked the projectile away quickly. Before it had even spun to the ground, smearing Hepzibelle's blood across the grass, she was aiming the shotgun again. Her instinct was that Chase would dash right.

Her instinct was wrong. Chase was coming right towards her.

It was an insane move, but it was the only one Chase could make. Although the shotgun's effectiveness would be reduced the further Chase was from it, at the distance they were dealing with it would still be powerful to kill or seriously maim, and there would be no avoiding the wide net of death it could cast. If she got close, the amount its pellets could spread would be reduced, and thus would be easier to dodge. She just had to get in there and hope her speed trumped her enemy's.

Junie Grievance's trigger finger tightened. Chase pounced left. The shotgun fired. The ground exploded where Chase had just been, sending thick clumps of grass and moist soil into the air. In one leap, Chase had closed the distance between the two of them by twenty feet.

Another shot. This time, Chase went right, and the earth was shredded again.

Almost there. A hit at this distance would cut Chase in half. Chase grabbed the spear on her back.

Junie Grievance was able to squeeze off a third shot before Chase was upon her, but by that point, Chase had already knocked the barrel aside with the spear. The spray of pellets harmlessly splintered the trunk a tall pine tree.

Chase brought up the blunt end of the spear and whacked Junie Grievance in the side of the head. She grabbed the barrel of the gun and kicked Junie Grievance in the stomach, successfully wrestling the weapon away from her.

Before the cowgirl could retaliate, Chase jumped back, detached the magazine, and flung it into the creek. Then, satisfied, she tossed the empty weapon back to Junie Grievance, who caught it gracelessly in the chest with an 'oof'.

The cowgirl growled, infuriated, hand tightening on the barrel. “You think you're real cute, don't you?” Then, she smiled, and dropped the gun. “That's fine. Ah don't need a gun to take care o' you.” She adjusted her hat, then unholstered her knife, and slashed it demonstratively through the air. “Ah once took down a ragin' grizzly with nothin' on me but this little baby. Reckon ah can handle some baby-faced brat with a penchant fer arts an' crafts. You wanna do close-combat? Fine. We'll do close combat!”

She leapt at Chase, slashing with a speed that caught the cannibal off guard. Chase gripped the spear's handle with both hands and blocked with the center of it. Junie Grievance wasted no time in pulling back and slashing again.

Ordinarily, with such a long-handled weapon, Chase would have had the advantage, but she soon realized Junie Grievance was an experienced fighter, and had the sense to get close early and continually press a fast, short-range assault so as not to allow Chase the chance to use her weapon's full reach. The most Chase could do was block (which the heavy stick she had selected for the spear's handle was well suited for) and dodge. Junie Grievance was too fast, too efficient, to allow openings for anything else.

She gouged at Chase's face, and Chase ducked to the right, milliseconds too slow to escape damage. A few strands of blonde hair fluttered to the grass, and a thin red line was drawn across her cheek.

However, the stab left Junie Grievance open. Chase slammed the blunt end of the spear into the cowgirl's ribs on her left side, then brought the blade end down at her head from the right.

As expected, Junie Grievance raised her right hand, her knife hand, to block. The handle collided with her forearm, rattling her entire arm. The girl grit her teeth in the effort to hold this force at bay. She clearly had not expected Chase to be so strong.

Chase put a foot into Junie Grievance's stomach and pushed her away, then aimed a slow slash at her with the spear's deadly tip.

Junie Grievance dodged backwards, clutching the knife in her teeth and doing a backwards handspring to get out of Chase's reach. When the cowgirl had righted herself, she expected a second attack, but to her surprise, Chase was gone.

A flash of movement caused her to look up. Chase was already halfway up a tree.

Junie Grievance took the knife out of her mouth and cursed. Of course, that last slash had been a bit slow. It wasn't intended to kill, it was intended to buy time for an escape. Junie Grievance felt like an idiot, and Lawman Creek girls were experienced in turning that feeling into a desire to hurt someone.

“Runnin' won't help ya none, sweetie!” she called, running over to the tree. “Ah don't give up th' hunt that easily!” She held her knife in her mouth again and started climbing up after her.

Chase reached a high branch and let go of the trunk, balancing carefully as she walked down the branch's length. Junie Grievance followed her, brandishing the knife with a grin. “Backin' yourself into a pretty deadly corner, here,” she commented. It was a long fall to the ground below.

But Chase didn't see it that way at all. To Junie Grievance's astonishment, Chase turned and gave a mighty leap off the branch, landing on another branch belonging to a neighboring tree. She kept running.

Junie Grievance looked at the gap in disbelief, then at the fleeing girl. This chick was fearless. Where the hell did Sunnycrest find her?

Then, she steeled herself. This was no time to be impressed. She glanced at the gap again, broke into a run. If that pampered city brat could make that jump, Junie Grievance could.

And she did. But by the time her feet touched down on the branch, Chase had leapt across to the next tree. What kind of Tarzan-ess was she?

Junie Grievance followed her to this next tree, then another, then another. The Sunnycrest girl's acrobatics were admirable, but this treetop pursuit did nothing to discourage Junie Grievance. On the contrary, it motivated her. The cowgirl would follow Chase wherever she went, now that she knew she had her on the run.

Just a little further. Chase stopped on the edge of a branch to catch her breath, woozy from her intense exertion. The blood loss was definitely getting to her now. But she was almost there. Just one more jump.

A thump shook the tree she was standing on. She looked over her shoulder, and saw that Junie Grievance had joined her on it. The cowgirl was all smiles. She looked like she was having the time of her life. Also, she barely even looked out of breath.

Chase turned to run. Junie Grievance threw the knife.

Shunk. The blade slotted itself to the hilt in Chase's back.

Pain rippled outwards from directly below her right shoulder, as though her body was a tranquil pond and the knife was a cinder block tossed into the middle of it. Her vision tunneled, but she stayed upright. She stayed awake. She forced herself to.

One more jump. That was all she needed. One more would be enough.

She jumped. Soared through the air. Landed on the branch.

Her bad leg failed her. Her knee buckled. Suddenly, she was falling. She grabbed for the branch and successfully wrapped her arms around it.

She could feel her cheek weeping blood. It felt extremely warm on her, and she realized she was freezing. Adrenaline pounding, she pulled herself up, but by the time she did, Junie Grievance was standing over her.

The girl bent down, and after wiggling the knife back and forth a little to loosen its hold, yanked it from Chase's back. Chase felt fractured bones drag against it, felt hot blood pour down from the gaping wound.

With a quick twirl, Junie Grievance changed her grip on the knife, from slashing to stabbing. She plummeted the knife down, aiming to finish Chase off.

Chase dodged the only way she could on the narrow plank of wood. She threw herself over the side, holding on tight with both arms and legs, so she was hanging beneath it. The knife buried itself deep in the tree's hardy flesh.

Chase clambered along the underside of the branch and swung herself up behind Junie Grievance. Junie Grievance wrenched the knife out of the tree, then whirled around to meet Chase's counterattack.

Chase met it head first. Wham! The handle of Chase's spear collided with Junie Grievance's temple.

The cowgirl saw stars. The same blow that had previously rattled her arm now rattled her brain. Her whole body pitched to the side from the force of the impact, and she almost fell off the branch. How could Chase still fight with such strength, after all the damage she'd taken? Neither of them knew.

Wham! Chase spun the spear around and rammed Junie Grievance in the stomach with the dull end, launching her backwards. Her back hit the trunk of the tree hard. Junie Grievance gasped for air, the wind knocked out of her.

Chase waited patiently and allowed the girl to rise to her feet. Junie Grievance scowled at this courtesy, taking it as a condescension. The knife was still clenched her opponent's hand, red and shining with Chase's blood.

She lunged at Chase, slashing the knife low and horizontal, already planning for her next strike after Chase blocked this one.

But Chase did not block. Instead, she jumped.

Chase leapt up over Junie Grievance, stamping a foot into the cowgirl's upper back, then twisting in midair and bringing the spear down like a club on the back of Junie Grievance's head.

Junie Grievance was swatted down, crashing onto the branch stomach first.

For a second, things went black. Then, Junie Grievance realized through a haze that she was trying to move, trying to get up.

She wasn't sure how long it took her to actually achieve this. She turned around. To her intense anger, Chase was not standing on the branch waiting for her. Instead, she was climbing rapidly down the tree, leaping lower and lower from branch to branch.

“You...” growled Junie Grievance. She raised her voice to a shout. “You yella bellied coward!” Blind with anger, she threw herself down after her, bouncing between branches with reckless fury at being made a fool of. “Stand an' fight me! You might be able ta hold yer own in a scrap, but you got as much spine as a pregnant prairie dog! You hear me?”