Nate could fill a silent space if needed, but found it just as easy, if not easier, to let quiet take up space instead. He found it easy to be in companiable stillness with Samo, who seemed to speak so often not with words but in looks and gestures instead. Curious as Nate was about the man's origins, he didn't wish to pry too soon. Some compulsion made it seem better to let Samo set the pace.

Eventually the question came, and Nate grinned but laughed, Not by trade. I knew hunting, of course, but —

But they were shooting buffalo from the windows of trains. Killed all the wolves. Rivers no longer rippled from slaps of beaver tails.

I've been a lot of things, I guess. Mostly a drifter. He remembered soldiering. Solemnly, Nate shook his head slow. But before I came here, I was a, uh, Hired Hand. Lifting a foot, his frown scrunched, Paw.

Nate shrugged, Cattle Barons owned a lot of land, needed help to protect what was theirs. Mostly the herds. Lots of days it was just the horses keepin' me company. Closest thing to freedom you could find.

There was a simple, easy to digest answer. It didn't require him to explain soldiering, or the dirty looks he got crossing the street in every town, or dying at the hands of bunkmates. What about you?