October Novel Prep Challenge

Just a few minor things I can't seem to work out, you know, like the name of my MC and the sex of his mentor/spiritual being character. I've tried doing What If for these things, but that didn't really help. lol

I have a fantasy western with a cowboy who is asked to deliver a message to a dying man's wife as the man's last request in his last breath. The cowboy agrees as he assumes the wife is local, but she's very far away and it's a long and dangerous journey to get there. I'd pondered the name Distan because he travels a great distance both physically and metaphorically. But I've also pondered the name Leo as someone had suggested. He's a bit cowardly, though it's often simply more a lack of desire to stick his nose into a dangerous situation for someone he doesn't know. But Leo is a bit back to the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz. Oh, or maybe Luke? Nice cowboy name, probably because of the movie, "Cool Hand Luke." Or Moses because he wanders much of the book in a desert?

And my cowboy's mentor/spiritual guide is a kid--maybe 8-ish? The cowboy (I'd use his name, but you know, refer to the previous paragraph ) doesn't know, but the kid is the spirit of the unborn baby of the woman he's supposed to find. In the end, the kid is hurrying him up because the woman is in early labor. The cowboy doesn't even know she's pregnant. I'm not sure if the kid knows everything or knows everything from the beginning or knows everything by the end, but not in the beginning or what. Maybe he figures it out along the way or maybe he's just working on instinct. To me, this isn't super important to know...or at least I don't think it is.

Anyway, if the kid is a girl, then the message the cowboy is delivering could be "Nickel" or "It was nickel" or something, but he misunderstood the dying man who was saying Nicole and it's supposed to be the name he wanted for the kid. But the cowboy, so as not to ruin the surprise at the end, is told that her name is Nicki, but everyone calls her Baby Bean or Bean because I think that's a thing pregnant people call their kid. But if it's a boy, then that can echo back to the cowboy's history where his dad left him and his mom, then the cowboy left his wife and baby (though he didn't know about the baby) and in the end, he's able to make some sort of change in his life and he decides to stay with her and raise the boy instead of leaving him, too, after all the time he's spent with the kid. What to do? What to do?

Yes, I've tried to What If these things, but it didn't help.