Rick stopped his hiking for a moment, straying from the overgrown backpacking trail a few meters before stopping, lowering down a long brown case with an attached shoulder strap. He knelt by the case and unlatched it, swinging open the lid to reveal a sniper riffle. The man admired the beauty before picking it up. "Been a long time since I seen you, old girl." He muttered as he ran his hand along the barrel of the rifle, holding it up in the shooting position for no good reason before lowering it again. It had been a long time since he accepted a job, enough that the poor riffle started to gather dust before just last week.

It was during his time setting up the riffle, attaching the scope, securing the laser, and loading, before he heard a noise. He spun around, gun pointed toward where he heard. When he saw nothing, he lowered his weapon a little and observed the area. It was when he turned back around that he was met with someone standing there with a stoic expression on their face. He stumbled backwards with a soft yelp, tripping over his own foot and falling onto his back, raising his gun quickly to point at the stranger.

The stranger didn't budge, they didn't blink, and for the longest time they didn't speak. An awkward silence fell between them as they remained as still as a painted portrait. It was after a minute that Rick slowly started to get up, moving his feet back below him and easily lifting himself as his eyes never moved from the stranger. The stranger wore a long red cloak, under it, warm white clothing that was barely covering them. Coursing their skin was a tattoo that ran from their neck to the tops of their feet, from what he could tell. Just as he got to his feet a voice came from the strange person, "Karma always comes for those who deserve it." It said in a calm voice before the stranger started to move to get closer, which Sniper mirrored to move further away from.

"You whose soul is dyed black by family bonds, redemption awaits should you prove yourself." The sharp shooter stood there, golden brown eyes staring from behind his gold tinted aviators. Was this person being serious? He nodded, brushing off the mumbo jumbo, he had a job to do and it was closing in fast.
"Leave me be." He said simply before feeling a hand on his shoulder, he went to slap it off but when he did the person was gone. Now it was just getting weird, was he only imagining this? When he turned back around the person was there…again. His face was painted with bewilderment for a moment before it changed to frustration. "Stop that!" He yelled, grabbing his gun and slinging it over his shoulder, hiding the brown case so he could find it later.
"Do you not wish for redemption? Continue your cruel and heartless ways and nothing good will befall you." He turned to glare at the person, turning and coming up close to them.
"I only do what I have to in order to survive, you come threatening me and I might just have to cut your bloody head off." He said with a warning tone. The person seemed unfazed before stepping back, Rick feeling a sense of victory as he turned around.

"To those raised by evil, it is not evil. It is purely life. For you, I feel sympathy. You have not learned the true way of living. May you learn through another perspective." Rick sighed, about to turn around and ask what they were talking about had he not been struck by a sudden feeling of being sick and dizzy at the same time. He took deep breaths as he reached out for a nearby tree, missing it. He lost his footing and came crashing down onto the leaf covered earth, still damp from the morning dew, his gun sliding from his shoulder and clacking to the ground next to him.

He rose his head, seeing the person turn and walk away speaking some sort of language he couldn't understand, the cloak they wore flailed in the crisp morning air. He narrowed his eyes in a glare as he watched the enemy retreat. They must have stuck him with something, something that was starting to make it hurt to breathe. He pulled himself up using the nearby tree, leaning his back against it as waves of pain washed over him. He gritted his teeth as it gradually became worse and the waves grew closer together.

He stood up, double vision making him wobble as he did so. His back hunched as another wave of pain hit him nausea assisting in making him feel miserable, it almost felt like his insides were shifting around. He only managed to take a few steps before another wave hit him, this time a sickening crack could be heard. He tripped, falling to the ground again as he realised that was the sound of his leg bone snapping. Not a moment later another one broke, a roar of a cry came from Rick as the pain intensified. Not even for a moment did the pain subside as more snaps could be heard, his laboured breath and pained yells filling the air as he was put through this agony.

He gripped his fist, eyes shutting tightly as he endured what was happening. He couldn't stand, he could only struggle on the ground, clawing at the ground as though it would help. Everything seemed to slow as Rick reached the maximum pain tolerance, his mind shutting down as he passed out.

When he awoke he felt sore, his first thoughts wondering if it had been a dream or reality. Though seeing as he woke up on the ground sore it could have been a dream, it could easily explain the soreness he felt. His eyes remained closed as he groaned, only after another few moments of silence did he slowly raise himself up, raising his arm to grab the tree…but the branch was too high. He opened his eyes finally, looking toward the branch expecting to see his hand. What he saw was definitely not a hand. The drowsiness immediately drained from him as he saw a paw rather than a hand.

"Crikey!" He yelled out but instead of words he heard a bark. He backed up in a panic, trying to get a good look at himself before his back legs hit a rock, his front coming into the air as he fell backwards over the rock. A yelp coming from him as he fell over the small drop off and landed on a pile of wood and leaves below. He growled as he now found himself stuck in the wood. He dug his paws into the ground and tugged, soon feeling the wood start to loosen before he was freed, landing on his bum with dirt and grime sprinkled into his fur.

Rick sat there for a few minutes; he calmed down and inspected himself. It was deduced that he was a species of wolf, from the looks of it possibly a red wolf due to the reddish-brown fur that he could see on his legs. "Alright, this has gotta be a dream." He muttered to himself as he stood up. Spotting something in the corner of his eye, he turned and growled. Once he turned it fled to follow his rear, remaining in his peripheral vision. He turned to growl again, this went on for a minute before Rick just stopped. He let his head droop as he put a paw on his snout "Wonder if that is why dogs chase their tails..." After feeling stupid for another few minutes, he decided to check on his riffle.

He slowly walked to the drop off, walking a bit wonky as he placed his front paws on the top and trying to pull himself up. His hind leg kept trying to get a grip but when it could not he jumped down and walked a bit of a distance away. If he couldn't just walk up it, he would jump it. He started to run toward the short wall of dirt, though didn't quite make it as he started to trip over his own feet, leaning back on his hind legs so he would slide to a stop rather than face plant into the dirt. "Come on, Rick, get it together!" he yelled at himself, though it came out as a growl. He headed back to where he begun and tried again, this time succeeding in running and damn near failing in jumping up it though he made it.

Once up on the ledge he tried to use his paws to pick up the weapon but with a lack of opposable thumbs and the ability to twist his wrist very far that idea was quickly thrown out the window. Instead he grabbed the strap with his teeth and started to drag it to where he hid the case, placing the gun down as he uncovered the brown case, managing to open it with maximum struggling and biting, and placing the gun gently within the protected interior.

Once done he covered the case once more before heading for his clothes. He took a moment to stare at them before he bunched them up in his teeth and pushed them under a bush, the black fabric would be difficult for anyone to see so it should be fine. When it came to his aviators though he was hesitant with leaving them behind, taking them gently in his mouth as he trotted off, jumping back down the small drop off to figure out exactly what he should be doing.

"Alright, if I was a tattoo covered, barefoot, witch where would I be?" he muttered to himself with a growl. His ears perked up when he heard something. It was soft, like little feet running. Wait, he was a wolf, he can probably catch a scent or something. He sniffed the ground before moving his head to the air, he wasn't getting much. Maybe it was because the wind was blowing in the direction he was hearing it. "God, I feel stupid." He stopped moving his head around in the air, it was probably just a rabbit…somewhere.

Once again in his peripheral vision caught sight of his tail which swished in the wind. He chose to ignore it as he started to walk forward, this should be the way toward the trail since he had nowhere to start when it came to the odd witch in the woods. His head started to droop, how the hell was he going to get out of this situation? He couldn't even go home like this, how was he supposed to care for himself? There were so many questions, he was a wolf so he could just hunt but what worried him more than his basic needs was his employer and the people he had surrounded himself with. What would they think of his disappearance? Betrayal or kidnap? His ears flattened as he thought about the pressing problem, it could get him into serious trouble with his new employer. As he wandered through the trees, aviators in jaw, he came across a smell. It was strong and it smelled…good, his nose twitched as he continued to smell it. Pursuing the smell was his number one priority, mostly because he was a canine now and nothing else really mattered at the moment.

He looked up the hill and started to sprint, occasionally not lifting his foot high enough and nearly crashing into the ground. For anyone watching it was the oddest sight to behold, for Rick did not know how to run in his dog form and looked like a somewhat handicapped wolf with oddly timed strides. As he reached the top of the hill his eyes caught sight of a cat in front of him at the last moment. The cat turned in time to freeze as Rick jumped over it only to smack into something else.