Defiance (Finn Shelby)

Part 3

Bunty sat in the front of the car with Nickel sat on her lap, who was wiggling her tail as she looked out of the window, her tongue lolling out of her mouth. Bunty had gone back to her house and quickly shouted to her parents that she was taking her on a really long walk, they sounded suspicious but didn't mention anything. Bunty was grateful that they didn't see her in the state she was in.

"What's your dog's name?" John asked from the back seat.

"Nickel" She replied. When she said the name, Nickel's ears pricked up and she turned towards her owner. Bunty scratched her behind her ears.

"Did you train her yourself?" Thomas added.

"Mostly, my siblings helped when I wasn't well or out of the house," she told them.

"Is she a retrieving dog?" John then questioned.

"Yes, well, she's meant to be. She's only young so she might not always do it" Bunty replied with a loving smile towards her dog.

"We'll put her to the test too, we're here" Thomas pulled up to a small field and parked the car.

Bunty opened her door, "out" she told her dog who jumped out and ran towards the nearest grass patch to pee. Bunty rolled her eyes before stepping out of the car. "Nickel, heel" Nickel stopped peeing and came over to trot next to her owner.

The Shelby brothers looked impressed at the girl as she walked on ahead into the field. She didn't see them unloading some shotguns and bullets. She had a tap on her shoulder, she turned and saw it was Finn, "Tommy says you'd need this" he handed her a shotgun and gave her a pouch with some bullets in. "You know how to shoot?" He asked. He didn't say it condescendingly like she thought he would, instead he asked it kindly and curiously.

"I do. My father and brothers taught me" she told him, "it's why I trained Nickel to retrieve, it's so much easier than walking backwards and forwards"

"Lazy" he murmured jokingly, Bunty gasped dramatically and shouldered him.

"Ass" she called him, they both smiled at each other when they realised that they were staring, they both looked away bashfully.

"Right, we're going to go to the next field," Thomas told the lot, his two other brothers following behind him as they walked to the location.

Thomas showed them a set of targets he had set up, they were bottles sat on a stone wall. "Bunty, stand here," Thomas asked, gesturing a patch of grass he patted down using his foot.

"Alright" she chirped as she made her way towards Thomas, Nickel sat next to her owner.

"Could you shoot the first two bottles?" He questioned, he then stood back away from her with his brothers.

She agreed once more and loaded up the gun and shot both bottles easily, bits of glass shattering and flying everywhere, thankfully Nickel didn't try and retrieve it. The sounds of the gun caused several birds to fly in the air, Thomas shot one and Bunty managed to load up her gun and shot another. "Go find," she told Nickel who darted in the direction of the birds. She turned to the men, "she'll come back once she finds both of them"

"Right, here" Thomas passed her a pistol, "shoot the others"

"I've never shot a pistol before" she admitted, holding the small firearm in her hand.

"Finn" Thomas gestured Bunty with his head as he lit up a cigarette.

Finn came over to her and held her arm out, "you just point and shoot" he told her simply.