crack_van | Brothers in Time - Old West series, by Arianna (G)

Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: Gen
Length: Long
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Starfox's Mansion
Why this must be read:

Arianna is one of the most dependable and prolific authors in The Sentinel fandom and, bless her, she's still delivering compelling stories. Her most recent is part of an Old West arc in her Brothers in Time series, in which Jim and Blair are linked souls who are fated to come together as they are reborn in different times.

Arianna's stories have a great sense of time and place as well as character. In 'Bitterwood Creek' Blair is a young doctor traveling West who stops at a town in desperate need of his skills. There he meets Jim, a disillusioned Army Captain who gets hired to be the town's sheriff. As their friendship develops and they become integrated into the fabric of the town, they discover their powers as Sentinel and Guide. The stories ramble, including exciting action as well as the quieter details of life in a frontier town. Both entertain the reader. The perils and problems they face are realistic and the resolutions aren't always simple or happy.

I hope Arianna will continue to write stories in the Old West series, and to develop new AU's in Brothers in Time (which currently include tales in the ancient world, the American Revolution, and the future in addition to the Old West).

Visit Bitterwood Creek

He was jerked back to hot, dusty reality by the jolt of the stagecoach coming to a sudden stop. Blinking, he looked around, wondering what had broken the journey and realizing they must be close to the noon stop at Bitterwood Creek, a small oasis in a sea of grass burned brown by the relentless sun of still early summer. But, when he leaned forward to look out of the window cut into the top half of the narrow door, he could see they were yet a good ways from town, its wooden structures rising brown and gray against the pale blue, cloudless sky. Above and forward, he could hear the driver muttering to himself as he climbed down from the wooden bench, "Poor, luckless bastards…"
Frowning, he pulled on the small, metal latch of the door and pushed it open to step down to the ground.
"What's going on, driver?" he asked, curious. "Why have we stopped?"
"Well, I was just a'comin' to tell ya'll," the sun-weathered, lean man sighed as he took off his broad-brimmed hat to wave toward the town, or perhaps more particularly toward the yellow bandanna hanging limply on a post pounded into the side of the trail. "Looks like they got some sickness yonder. Must be bad, for 'em to warn off travelers," he continued with a grimace of rough compassion as he mopped the runnels of sweat and dust from his brow with a faded and wrinkled handkerchief. "We'll have to water the horses at the river, and keep goin' 'til we hit the next stop."
The traveler could hear the other passengers mutter and groan, unhappy to know there'd be nothing to eat until suppertime, but he ignored them. Frowning thoughtfully as he gazed at the town, he asked, "They got a doctor in this town?"
"No, old Doc Wilcox died last winter," the driver replied sonorously, looking regretful. "He was a good man. Too bad, a tragedy really."
"What happened?" he asked, a hint of concern mingling with curiosity in his voice and eyes.
"Got caught in a sudden blizzard on his way back from attendin' a birthin'. Froze t'death," the driver sighed but then shrugged in resignation. Life could be hard on the prairie.
He winced and shivered, despite the heat of the mid-June, noonday sun. Gazing again at the yellow rag, his generous lips compressed in thought, and then he nodded to himself. It wasn't as if he was heading anywhere in particular. He'd thought he'd only be passing through Bitterwood Creek on his way to somewhere else, but this town was as good as any, and it seemed they needed him. "Better pull my bags down from the top," he said, sturdily determined in his posture and tone. "I'll be staying here."
"Are you loco?" the dust-covered driver demanded in astonishment, as he pointed again at the tattered flag of warning. "Son, people are dyin' in Bitterwood Creek!"
"I know, and that's why I'm staying," he said evenly, his clear blue gaze lifting to meet the startled gray eyes of the driver. "I'm a doctor."

Bitterwood Creek
Oak Creek Canyon
Under the Wide Prairie Sky

Brothers in Time - Old West series, by Arianna (G)

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