//------------------------------//
// Bear 
// Story: Waters: An Equestrian Gangster 
// by King Genesis 
//------------------------------//



The Ursa



There's this bar in a street corner that has a certain smell even from outside of its ambience. The smell of alcohol, dirt... the smell of danger.

The name is the Ursa, and its entrance doors are opened revealing the sunlight to all of its customers, covered by the warmth the bar's dirty, dark windows cannot provide. Some of them cover their eyes and others stand up to look at the man who has just arrived, but suddenly sits down again when they find out he's recognizable.

A light-blue skinned man with short orange hair and a prominent moustache. He fixes his shirt collar and proceeds to move. "Hey, Abe," someone says from a table. The man salutes with his hand. 

"Blackie," he says. "How you doin?"

The man from the table raises his thumb and smiles, while another man, sitting at the counter while drinking a whole gin bottle shakes his hand with Abe. "Pal... Mister..." he exhales on the gangster's face.

"Oh, man..." Abe closes his eyes and covers his nose while laughing. "Don't you think you drank too much gin, J. J.? You smell like..."

J. J. looks at the bottle which is half empty, and then looks at Abe again, raising his shoulders. "...Maybe?"

Suddenly, a door from behind the counter is opened and a tall, skinny, blonde man with green eyes with a bat in his hands. He crouches and slowly leaves it on the floor and stands up again. Abe looks at him and his eyes flash. "I still think you don't have the face to act as the main guy here, kid."

The bartender's eyes look at Abe and he smiles. "Oh, Mr Flanks!" His accent and manner of speaking are so unique. "So long without seeing ya. Would you like a drink?"

Abe shakes his head. "It's OK... it's OK, I didn't come here to have a drink, I have some work to do... Listen." He sits on the counter and puts his hands over the wooden bar. "There's this guy that spends most of his time drinking shit in here. A big, fat guy. Red skin, hoary hair, sometimes he shaves his beard, sometimes not... do you know if he will come?"

The bartender raises an eyebrow and takes a look behind Abe. He observes the counter, the tables, the darkness around the bar infected by the smell of alcohol, only to turn his head to the right and point at a narrow, dark hall. "A guy like that entered the bathroom some minutes ago but..." He scratches his hair. "Uh... he hasn't left the bathroom since."

Abe makes a small grin. "Huh... maybe he's taking a wild shit so... you don't mind if I ask you for a whisky shot?"

"Of course not," replies the bartender. "I'd be glad... for the man in the zone."

Abe laughs. "Uh, boy, don't call me like that... you know I'm just a man."

The boy grabs a small glass. "... in the zone, aren't you?"

He shakes his head while smiling. "In this zone? There's only one, and it's not me, kid."

Now the bartender grabs the whisky bottle in silence and clears his throat. "Uh..." he says. "You mean..."

Abe closes one eye when a guy comes out of the bathroom. It's not fat, it's not red but comes out laughing. "Man, Ragga was your name, dude?..." 

The bartender raises his eyebrows after giving Abe a small glass of whisky. He's talking to him. "Uh... Ragamuffin is my name."

The man from the bathroom blinks twice. "Ragawhat? Uh... there's a big fat guy in the bathroom kicking somebody's ass."

At that moment, Abe grabbed the whisky glass, drank it and stood up. 





"No! NO!"

"What did you say to me?"

There's a guy trapped between the bathroom wall and a big, fat, red-skinned man with hoary hair and a three-day, almost invisible beard. "Nothing, man... it was just a joke, dude..." The red man grabs his head and crashes it against the bathroom wall. "OH, MAN! OH! DUDE! IT WAS JUST A JOKE, DUDE! FOR REAL, MAN!"

"I dare you to repeat that shit one more time... huh? What did you call me, you shit? What did you just say to me?"

"Sorry, man! Sorry... sorry, man!"

"You said I was fat? I was ugly? You said my mom what?"

"No, no, man... I was just joking, man... it was just a plain joke, nothing else... man..."

Suddenly, somebody opens the door. Abe scratches an eyebrow before asking for presence: "Dosh?"

The fat guy slowly turns his head around, still grabbing the douchebag by his neck, and recognizes the man. "What? You?" He makes a small grin. "Mr Moustache?"

"I have a name, you know?" he says, putting his hands in his pants' pockets. "And from what I know, you are now in the territory of the man I work for..."

Silence between the two men. The scared third man is looking everywhere, feeling his neck being let go, slowly. "Uh, yeah... I know you work for Eye Patch."

"Yes," he nods his head. "And right here, I'm Abe Flanks."

Dosh slowly raises his eyebrows and nods his head. "So..." he says. "Mr Flanks... I was in the middle of a situation here, what's going on?"

"I was looking for help, I need to do something out there and my boys aren't here now."

Dosh now raises an eyebrow while letting the other man go. He turns around completely while Abe takes a step for the man to run away. "Me? What about your boys? Aren't they here?" he says. "What about all of those guys from outside this... shitty bathroom?"

Abe turns around. The man opens the door with his bleeding head and gets out of there. Then he looks at Dosh again... "Well, turns out this job is not dangerous, but I need some security guy just in case... and what would you do if you need security? Take the thin guy... or take the biggest guy in the place?"

Dosh laughs while scratching his hoary hair. He burps. "You know... I may be big but... well, I don't judge a book by its cover..."

However, Abe shakes his head. "No. I'm not judging you, Dosh. I'm telling you what I know. Your cover is exactly the book."

He didn't like that... he felt insulted. Dosh clenches his fists while looking at Abe with despair. However, the moustache man does not say anything nor make a move. "You said?"

"I know who you are... Born in the barracks of Bloodswan and sent to Fillydelphia to become Sabretooth's personal hitman. Then, your nickname... the sum of dodge and hush... and now hanging out in Eye Patch's territory to drink his favourite glass of something, maybe hiding from his boss..." Dosh snorts but doesn't clench his fists anymore. "May I say something else?"

He frowns. "Not hiding from Sabretooth, actually... he's a friend of mine, but this last time things went... desperate."

Abe raises an eyebrow, getting his hands out of his pockets. "Desperate?"

Dosh nods his head and sighs. The smell of alcohol coming from his breath is horrible. "He spent last week closed in his house, talking to several guys by phone... I've heard from Sharp Baton they want to control the harbour for a short time."

The moustache man stays in silence for a second. He bites his lip and grabs his head. "Damn..." he says. "That is... concerning."

"Yeah, I've got to admit..." he says grabbing his face and about to cry. "I haven't even seen money flying around the place because of this shit, and if the swans start getting too noisy... I don't know where that will go..." He touches one of his eyes. "At least Sabretooth is finally coming to terms with that but... I'd be concerned too if I was in that position." He scratches his neck. "And what is that job you were talking about? Security? What do you have to do?"

Abe makes a small smile. "Short thing but... I have to send gifts for Christmas. My most reliable partners are now busy..." he turns around and looks at the door, he remembers the guys from the bar. "And others are not in their best situation, I mean... besides, you've spent so much time in here... you are eventually turning into another Maretreal worker."

Another silence appears after Abe said that until both of them let a chuckle go out of their mouths at the same time. "Maybe," replies Dosh. "This place is not only a backdoor for my territory but also gives me free alcohol in order to not cause any trouble... tell me if that's not a paradise."

Abe approaches the big man. "Well, if you include the smell, the drunk men messing around the bar and the innocent little kid with a strange accent who acts as the bartender in that..." he nods his head. "And look... this job has money in the middle. We give the gift, we get money. You may have an idea about what is our main thing on Maretreal..."

Dosh squints. "Yeah, I know... guns... it sounds cool but... I'm not sure about the job."

Abe raises an eyebrow while someone enters the bathroom. Both men look at the one who enters and find out it's Ragamuffin holding his bat. "Uh... did I interrupt...?"

Abe shakes his head. "We're about to leave..." he points at the bat. "Why are you holding that in the bathroom?"

"Uh... just in case," he replies. "Silver Shill is now at the counter if ya want to ask for something else."

"Nah, it's OK." Abe grabs a $10 bill and gives it to Ragamuffin, who passes by him and stops when looking at the magical paper. "Your tip."

The young bartender smiles and grabs the bill. "Thanks, Mr Flanks." He waves his hand to Dosh. "Hey, mate."

Dosh nods once while Ragamuffin enters the bathroom and Abe starts leaving. "I'll call Eye Patch for you," he says to the big man while holding the door handle. "I think there will be ten stacks on those hands... what about half a stack for you?" He opens the door.

The big man frowns. "Half?" he asks. "But... we are talking about how much? How much is that stack?"

Abe bites his lips while Ragamuffin starts peeing. They hear the noise and get out of the room. Dosh is at the entrance, about to come out. "Um..." Abe whispers to his new partner, approaching his head. "This guy, the client, is a pretty big boy... he's wealthy. Each stack is 10K worth... or even more. Patch told me he's kinda humble and wanted to give us a tip."

Dosh's eyes widen. "A tip?" he says, chuckling and now walking out of the place. Nobody looks at him. "You are kidding me... where is this guy from?"

"He didn't say anything," Abe keeps whispering. "I think... you know, I met him with Eye Patch, and just by taking a look at his face... I know he's from Canterlot." Dosh and Abe laugh and head to the door. The moustache man waves his hand to the bartender and a couple of partners. "So... you in?"

Abe opens the entrance door of the Ursa, revealing the sun's warmth to everybody inside. "Canterlot, huh?" he says. "And are you sure each... you know... is about ten?"

He chuckles. "You know..." says Abe. "I'll tell you something. This man, this client... is the definition of a man that wants what we offer to do something important... Firstly, this tip thing... Nobody does that, even Eye Patch rejected the offer but said he wanted to. I don't know if that's good or bad, though..." he takes a look at the bar. "Well, I'll explain this to you if you get in the car with me... you in?"

Abe gets out of the Ursa, and once he is about to let the door go, Dosh grabs the handle and closes it. "I haven't seen a bill since last week because of the harbour shit. The money that Sabretooth gives me... has not appeared this week. I'm not joking, Flanks, if those five grand do not appear on my table, I swear--"

"They will." Abe only replies with a big smile. A smile that shuts Dosh up. "They will, Dosh. We the guys from Maretreal never fail. You know that."

Suddenly, someone is starting to get convinced.