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Description
January 21, 1890; Hell Creek Formation, South Dakota

Evelyn stood overlooking the desert stones that stretched for miles in front of her. She looked down at the little quarry below, observing the small band of workers like a hawk eyeing its prey. It wasn't them she was after though. They were all innocents. They were just men given pickaxes and enough money to persuade them to use them. Ordinary men with an ordinary job.

No. The man she was after was their boss. The scoundrel that had been plaguing her thoughts for weeks now as he once again dragged the entire paleontological field into a stupid quarrel that no one wanted to deal with, especially Evelyn. She didn't even want to be here. Part of her wanted to just leave and hope to God everything would fizzle out. But she knew she couldn't do that. The whole issue would fizzle out, of that she was sure, but it was finding his previous employer that forced Evelyn to come to this quaint little excuse of a fossil excavation.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was now or never, she figured. She made her slow descent into the quarry. Some of the workers cast a glance her way as she came down and started walking amongst them, but they quickly returned their focus back to their work. They were focused on their pay, not her. Which was good for Evelyn, who was able to just slip on past them all and make her way towards a man that was digging on the edge of the quarry, away from his workers, breathe the shadowed cover of an overhanging rock. She silently approached him, her robes gently swaying behind her like the wings of an eagle, her hood covering her sharp, cold, golden eyes. She sauntered up to him, and before he could even sense her presence right behind him, she grabbed him hard by the shoulder, whipped him around, and pinned him to the wall with the strength of a demon. She held him there with one hand, and with the other she ejected her hidden blade, bringing it up so that it was only mere inches from his neck as they stared each other down.

“You!” he spat. “You mongrel! How dare you lay your hands on me like this?”

“I'm not fond of meeting like this either, Edward,” Evelyn coldly responded to Cope. “But I'm afraid it's a necessity.”

Cope frowned bitterly at her, though it didn't phase Evelyn at all as it did over a decade ago. This time, she simply frowned back.

“Have you come to kill me then, Assassin?” Cope asked, using the last word like a curse. “Is that what it's finally come to?”

“Don't flatter yourself, Edward,” she told him. “I'm not here for you. I'm here for Leidy.”

“Leidy? What the hell makes you think I'd know anything about him or his whereabouts?”

“You worked with him for years. You'd know more than anyone.”

“That arrogant muckworm banished me from the Order years ago you wench! I haven't spoken to him since then and I have no intention of doing so ever again. Hell, I want him dead as much as you do, so if I did know, I'd already have told you!”

Evelyn looked him over, and promptly scowled.

And then she tossed him hard onto the ground. She watched him wince in pain and drag himself up, dusting the dirt from his clothing as he did.

“What the hell happened to you, Edward?” Evelyn asked him, sounding more like a disappointed mother than a furious rival. “You used to be such an intellectual, a man of science, a gentleman of knowledge. And you just… pissed it all away.”

“Don't you patronize me,” Cope hissed. “I'm one of the greatest minds of our generation!”

“Really? Is that so?”

“Yes!”

Evelyn simply reached into her satchel and from it she withdrew a folded up newspaper. She held it up and let it unfold, displaying the front page content directly in his line of sight.

“Scientists Wage Bitter Warfare,” Evelyn read. “My my isn't that an eye-catching headline? Rather interesting read here. Goes on to talk about how Professor Cope of the University of Pennsylvania is up to feuding against his rival Professor Marsh again. Some rubbish squabble over some pathetic excuse just to start another fight. Pitiful, isn't it?”

“I'd much rather you kill me than stand here and mock me, Ms. Arlie,” Cope snarled.

“Well maybe if you stopped giving me such mockable scenarios such as this then I'd consider stopping.”

“Marsh and his cohorts are nothing but thieves and scoundrels! I've kept a journal of every rotten misdeed they've enacted! Once I take this to court-!”

“Really? You're that bloody desperate to start a fight? What Marsh and Powell are doing doesn't even affect you! Or anyone really!”

“Marsh is a greedy buffoon who can't let go of his undeserved position! And Powell is a greedy moron incapable of telling granite from sandstone!”

“And you're an arrogant arsehole who blows up other people's fossils just to make it so that you're the only one who has them.”

“You're not listening goddammit! Marsh is-!”

“I am listening, Edward. I just don't give a damn. Bloody hell man, look at yourself! You've made your entire existence defined by your rivalry with this man! I don't even know who you are anymore outside of ‘that bloke who hates Marsh’! You put so much of your energy into this unnecessary hatred and trying to ruin one man's life that you've driven away everyone in your own life because no one wants to be associated with men who bankrupt themselves by wasting their time trying to make life terrible for someone else!”

“If Marsh hadn't-!”

“No! No! Stop it now Edward! Stop it now because I do not care! I'm just as done with Marsh as I am with you! I'm done with this entire petty feud! Because unlike you, I realize how pointless it is!”

“Marsh-!”

“Stop! I don't want to hear a goddamned thing about Marsh anymore! I know he's a bastard! Both of you are! I don't even think you're trying to prove anything to anyone, Edward. You're not trying to prove it to Marsh, or to me, or hell even Leidy. I think the only person you're trying to prove anything to is yourself. And quite honestly, it's bloody pitiful.”

Cope simply scowled, his face red and his breathing heavy. Evelyn glared right back, her face an equal shade.

“It's bloody absurd, Edward,” she continued. “None of this needs to keep going but both of you are too stubborn to drop it. And it's destroying you. I mean how the hell did you even get the money to afford this little excavation here?”

“I had to sell my fossil collection to the highest bidders,” Cope admitted. “It's the only way I've managed to get by since all my resources have been going into making sure Marsh gets the newspaper slandering that he deserves.”

Evelyn rubbed her eyes in frustration. “You don't even care anymore,” she said.

“Excuse me?”

“You don't bloody care about the field anymore, Edward.”

“I am a scientist! Don't you dare try to insult me by-!”

“No you're not! You're no scientist! I am a scientist! The only thing you are is a petty shell of a man who deals in old bones. I put passion into my work. I do it for the betterment of mankind. I do what I do not to make a quick buck or to outdo any competitor, but to spread knowledge across the globe so that we don't all encounter whatever terrible smiting caused the dinosaurs to vanish from God's green earth! That is what a scientist does, Edward! And you do not do that! You are not a scientist. You never truly were.”

Cope was huffing and puffing, his ego unable to handle the assault of her lecture. “Fine then, you traitorous wench,” he hissed. “If that's how it is then just take that little wrist blade of yours and end my pitiful life right here in this quarry!”

Evelyn stared him down, her face unshifting. “No,” she told him. “I'm not like you, Edward. I don't kill just because I have beef with someone. I only kill when my target is a threat to the human race. And quite frankly, especially now that you've broken your ties with Leidy, you're no threat. Not even close.”

Cope scowled. Evelyn stood her ground. Her inner confidence cooled her blood down. She calmed while he continued to steam.

“I'm done, Edward. I'm done with all of this mess between you and Marsh. I'm done with him, and I'm done with you.” She paused. She looked at the ground, though she stared at nothing in particular. “I'm just done, Edward. And… I'm sorry that things turned out the way they did. I'm sorry we turned out the way we did. I truly wanted things to be different. And I know you probably don't believe me on that, but I did. And if you want to hold that against me for the rest of our days, then fine. You have every right to hold such hatred in your heart if that's how you want things to be. But me… I'm done.”

The two stood for another episode of the tensest of silence. Evelyn looked tired now, her body finally letting go of all that pent up tension and her mind finally getting the closure it needed. Cope was still red in the face, but Evelyn could've sworn that something him was softening, albeit only by a small percentage.

“So that's it then?” he said. “You're just going to walk away?”

Evelyn nodded. “Yes. That's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm not ever going to see you again, and you're not ever going to see me again. And I'm okay with that.”

“I'll come after you as well, Ms. Arlie. I'll lead a campaign against you as well if you're going to oppose me.”

“I'm not going to oppose you. I'm not even going to say your name after I leave this quarry. Yours or Marsh’s. And besides, you don't have the resources to fight me anyway.”

Another pause. Another silent moment of staring.

“Goodbye, Edward. I hope you find the closure your troubled mind desperately needs.”

And with that, she turned, and she walked away. She expected Cope to start shouting threats and profanities as she started to make her climb back up the rock walls that lead out of the quarry, but none such vulgarities came. All she heard was the rapping and clacking of pickaxes against stone.

She pulled herself out of the quarry, and after quickly dusting off her dress, she started walking back towards her horse. Chaytan was feeding it an apple as she approached. He looked up, smiling as he caught sight of his lover, though it quickly faded when he saw the tired look on her face. He stood as she walked up to him, and he hugged her gently. They stayed that way in that spot for what felt like hours. He looked at her, and she at him. He gave her a questioning look, to which she simply replied with a nod. He nodded back, and helped her onto the saddle of their horse. She wrapped her arms around him and leaned on his back as he took the reigns and kicked the animal into a trot across the desert.

“So, what is next then, Evelyn?” Chaytan asked her once they were on their way.

Evelyn thought about it, most of her brain just wanting to shrug him off and fall asleep for the ride. Only one answer was able to form in her mind.

“Only one thing to do now,” she yawned. “We hunt down Leidy, and we end his life.”

Description
January 21, 1890; Hell Creek Formation, South Dakota

Evelyn stood overlooking the desert stones that stretched for miles in front of her. She looked down at the little quarry below, observing the small band of workers like a hawk eyeing its prey. It wasn't them she was after though. They were all innocents. They were just men given pickaxes and enough money to persuade them to use them. Ordinary men with an ordinary job.

No. The man she was after was their boss. The scoundrel that had been plaguing her thoughts for weeks now as he once again dragged the entire paleontological field into a stupid quarrel that no one wanted to deal with, especially Evelyn. She didn't even want to be here. Part of her wanted to just leave and hope to God everything would fizzle out. But she knew she couldn't do that. The whole issue would fizzle out, of that she was sure, but it was finding his previous employer that forced Evelyn to come to this quaint little excuse of a fossil excavation.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was now or never, she figured. She made her slow descent into the quarry. Some of the workers cast a glance her way as she came down and started walking amongst them, but they quickly returned their focus back to their work. They were focused on their pay, not her. Which was good for Evelyn, who was able to just slip on past them all and make her way towards a man that was digging on the edge of the quarry, away from his workers, breathe the shadowed cover of an overhanging rock. She silently approached him, her robes gently swaying behind her like the wings of an eagle, her hood covering her sharp, cold, golden eyes. She sauntered up to him, and before he could even sense her presence right behind him, she grabbed him hard by the shoulder, whipped him around, and pinned him to the wall with the strength of a demon. She held him there with one hand, and with the other she ejected her hidden blade, bringing it up so that it was only mere inches from his neck as they stared each other down.

“You!” he spat. “You mongrel! How dare you lay your hands on me like this?”

“I'm not fond of meeting like this either, Edward,” Evelyn coldly responded to Cope. “But I'm afraid it's a necessity.”

Cope frowned bitterly at her, though it didn't phase Evelyn at all as it did over a decade ago. This time, she simply frowned back.

“Have you come to kill me then, Assassin?” Cope asked, using the last word like a curse. “Is that what it's finally come to?”

“Don't flatter yourself, Edward,” she told him. “I'm not here for you. I'm here for Leidy.”

“Leidy? What the hell makes you think I'd know anything about him or his whereabouts?”

“You worked with him for years. You'd know more than anyone.”

“That arrogant muckworm banished me from the Order years ago you wench! I haven't spoken to him since then and I have no intention of doing so ever again. Hell, I want him dead as much as you do, so if I did know, I'd already have told you!”

Evelyn looked him over, and promptly scowled.

And then she tossed him hard onto the ground. She watched him wince in pain and drag himself up, dusting the dirt from his clothing as he did.

“What the hell happened to you, Edward?” Evelyn asked him, sounding more like a disappointed mother than a furious rival. “You used to be such an intellectual, a man of science, a gentleman of knowledge. And you just… pissed it all away.”

“Don't you patronize me,” Cope hissed. “I'm one of the greatest minds of our generation!”

“Really? Is that so?”

“Yes!”

Evelyn simply reached into her satchel and from it she withdrew a folded up newspaper. She held it up and let it unfold, displaying the front page content directly in his line of sight.

“Scientists Wage Bitter Warfare,” Evelyn read. “My my isn't that an eye-catching headline? Rather interesting read here. Goes on to talk about how Professor Cope of the University of Pennsylvania is up to feuding against his rival Professor Marsh again. Some rubbish squabble over some pathetic excuse just to start another fight. Pitiful, isn't it?”

“I'd much rather you kill me than stand here and mock me, Ms. Arlie,” Cope snarled.

“Well maybe if you stopped giving me such mockable scenarios such as this then I'd consider stopping.”

“Marsh and his cohorts are nothing but thieves and scoundrels! I've kept a journal of every rotten misdeed they've enacted! Once I take this to court-!”

“Really? You're that bloody desperate to start a fight? What Marsh and Powell are doing doesn't even affect you! Or anyone really!”

“Marsh is a greedy buffoon who can't let go of his undeserved position! And Powell is a greedy moron incapable of telling granite from sandstone!”

“And you're an arrogant arsehole who blows up other people's fossils just to make it so that you're the only one who has them.”

“You're not listening goddammit! Marsh is-!”

“I am listening, Edward. I just don't give a damn. Bloody hell man, look at yourself! You've made your entire existence defined by your rivalry with this man! I don't even know who you are anymore outside of ‘that bloke who hates Marsh’! You put so much of your energy into this unnecessary hatred and trying to ruin one man's life that you've driven away everyone in your own life because no one wants to be associated with men who bankrupt themselves by wasting their time trying to make life terrible for someone else!”

“If Marsh hadn't-!”

“No! No! Stop it now Edward! Stop it now because I do not care! I'm just as done with Marsh as I am with you! I'm done with this entire petty feud! Because unlike you, I realize how pointless it is!”

“Marsh-!”

“Stop! I don't want to hear a goddamned thing about Marsh anymore! I know he's a bastard! Both of you are! I don't even think you're trying to prove anything to anyone, Edward. You're not trying to prove it to Marsh, or to me, or hell even Leidy. I think the only person you're trying to prove anything to is yourself. And quite honestly, it's bloody pitiful.”

Cope simply scowled, his face red and his breathing heavy. Evelyn glared right back, her face an equal shade.

“It's bloody absurd, Edward,” she continued. “None of this needs to keep going but both of you are too stubborn to drop it. And it's destroying you. I mean how the hell did you even get the money to afford this little excavation here?”

“I had to sell my fossil collection to the highest bidders,” Cope admitted. “It's the only way I've managed to get by since all my resources have been going into making sure Marsh gets the newspaper slandering that he deserves.”

Evelyn rubbed her eyes in frustration. “You don't even care anymore,” she said.

“Excuse me?”

“You don't bloody care about the field anymore, Edward.”

“I am a scientist! Don't you dare try to insult me by-!”

“No you're not! You're no scientist! I am a scientist! The only thing you are is a petty shell of a man who deals in old bones. I put passion into my work. I do it for the betterment of mankind. I do what I do not to make a quick buck or to outdo any competitor, but to spread knowledge across the globe so that we don't all encounter whatever terrible smiting caused the dinosaurs to vanish from God's green earth! That is what a scientist does, Edward! And you do not do that! You are not a scientist. You never truly were.”

Cope was huffing and puffing, his ego unable to handle the assault of her lecture. “Fine then, you traitorous wench,” he hissed. “If that's how it is then just take that little wrist blade of yours and end my pitiful life right here in this quarry!”

Evelyn stared him down, her face unshifting. “No,” she told him. “I'm not like you, Edward. I don't kill just because I have beef with someone. I only kill when my target is a threat to the human race. And quite frankly, especially now that you've broken your ties with Leidy, you're no threat. Not even close.”

Cope scowled. Evelyn stood her ground. Her inner confidence cooled her blood down. She calmed while he continued to steam.

“I'm done, Edward. I'm done with all of this mess between you and Marsh. I'm done with him, and I'm done with you.” She paused. She looked at the ground, though she stared at nothing in particular. “I'm just done, Edward. And… I'm sorry that things turned out the way they did. I'm sorry we turned out the way we did. I truly wanted things to be different. And I know you probably don't believe me on that, but I did. And if you want to hold that against me for the rest of our days, then fine. You have every right to hold such hatred in your heart if that's how you want things to be. But me… I'm done.”

The two stood for another episode of the tensest of silence. Evelyn looked tired now, her body finally letting go of all that pent up tension and her mind finally getting the closure it needed. Cope was still red in the face, but Evelyn could've sworn that something him was softening, albeit only by a small percentage.

“So that's it then?” he said. “You're just going to walk away?”

Evelyn nodded. “Yes. That's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm not ever going to see you again, and you're not ever going to see me again. And I'm okay with that.”

“I'll come after you as well, Ms. Arlie. I'll lead a campaign against you as well if you're going to oppose me.”

“I'm not going to oppose you. I'm not even going to say your name after I leave this quarry. Yours or Marsh’s. And besides, you don't have the resources to fight me anyway.”

Another pause. Another silent moment of staring.

“Goodbye, Edward. I hope you find the closure your troubled mind desperately needs.”

And with that, she turned, and she walked away. She expected Cope to start shouting threats and profanities as she started to make her climb back up the rock walls that lead out of the quarry, but none such vulgarities came. All she heard was the rapping and clacking of pickaxes against stone.

She pulled herself out of the quarry, and after quickly dusting off her dress, she started walking back towards her horse. Chaytan was feeding it an apple as she approached. He looked up, smiling as he caught sight of his lover, though it quickly faded when he saw the tired look on her face. He stood as she walked up to him, and he hugged her gently. They stayed that way in that spot for what felt like hours. He looked at her, and she at him. He gave her a questioning look, to which she simply replied with a nod. He nodded back, and helped her onto the saddle of their horse. She wrapped her arms around him and leaned on his back as he took the reigns and kicked the animal into a trot across the desert.

“So, what is next then, Evelyn?” Chaytan asked her once they were on their way.

Evelyn thought about it, most of her brain just wanting to shrug him off and fall asleep for the ride. Only one answer was able to form in her mind.

“Only one thing to do now,” she yawned. “We hunt down Leidy, and we end his life.”