Disclaimer:
Found in Part one.
Authors Note:
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The riding in
that part of the country through the backwoods terrain she was forced to ride
through could only be described in one way, hard. The trip so far had been
nothing but long and hard, most of it being spent trying to stay away from
civilization as much as possible. However, Kaiyana
was keenly aware of the fact that it wouldn’t always be easy to stay clear of
civilization and eventually she would have to pass through a town. As it was
she had ridden around the outskirts of more dangerous town then she cared to
count. Riding for a week in the hot conditions from before
dawn until long after dusk was beginning to take its tole.
Her greatest hope was that perhaps she might be able to pass through a town
without a fight. For someone as good as fighting, and even at intimidation as
she was, she had grown to hate having to fight constantly for everything and
anything she needed or desired.
She cast these
thoughts out of her mind, though. They would do her no good. She had to go
home, to where Star was and where Vin
was. Nothing would stop her; she would get home to them. All she had to do to
feel the drive to succeed at that task was to think of those people waiting for
her and she felt completely rejuvenated.
"Hey,
there she is!" Kaiyana heard the voice clearly
despite the fact that it was somewhat faint, telling her that those that were
hunting her were still some distance away. Her mind raced frantically trying to
come up with what she could do to get out of this latest mess she found herself
in.
"Where? I ain’t seein’ nothin’,"
Another man said skeptically, the voices were getting closer and Kaiyana’s thinking was becoming more frantic with that
action.
"Oh, you
dummy, cain’t ya see her
through them trees, she’s got them two horses she stole," They continued
speaking unaware that their pray could hear their every word. However being
able to hear her would-be-captors was doing Kaiyana
no good. There was really no place to hide with these two Neanderthals able to
see her. Every hiding scheme she knew was racing through her head but none
seemed applicable and she was nearing hysteria with rapid speed as her
assailants drew closer to her.
~*~
"What’s
that?"
"What’s
what?" Vin asked back
at Star as they walked down the street side-by-side looking more like two
friends, two equals, then a little girl with her father.
Star looked at
him as if he’d suddenly grown two heads, "That wagon with the women in
it," Star gestured toward the structure with big hand motions. Vin turned and immediately saw the
wagon. The wagon full of scantily clad prostitutes calling
out to men walking in and out of the saloon.
Thinking
quickly, Vin went with
avoidance, "Well, it’s just what you said, honey, a wagon with women in
it."
"Why are
they dressed like that?"
"I don’t
know?" Vin tried but
had the distinct feeling that Star would probably see through him. He was
right.
"Yes, you
do. You just do not want to tell me. Why?"
"Why
don’t I want to tell you?"
"Yes."
"Because it’s kinda hard to
explain."
"Like the
Daddy thing?"
"Just
like that," Vin nodded,
happy Star understood he couldn’t explain and hoping from there she would let
it go.
"Maybe
you should get Mrs. Travis to explain this to me too," Star suggested
innocently.
Vin remembered the look of pure homicide Mary had given him when he
stuck her with explaining fatherhood to Star, he could only imagine what Mary
would do if he stuck her with this too. "I don’t think that would be a
good idea, darlin’."
"Then you
will explain this to me."
~*~
Kaiyana found herself in an entirely different situation then Vin. However while Vin’s was extremely difficult, Kaiyana’s life was in the balance as far as hers went.
Somewhere in the span of about thirty seconds she had managed to find a place
to hide, leaving the horses as they were, hoping to make it look like she been
thrown and fallen down the steep incline only fifteen feet away. Her biggest worry
now was making sure that those that chased her fell for this little ruse. She
was so close to
But first she
had to escape these two. She wasn’t exactly sure what would happen when she
reached
It was then
that her attention focused back her current predicament. She watched closely as
the men guided their horses carefully threw the bush all to
aware of the steep ledge so near by. The area was infested with snakes making
it very easy for your horse to get spooked and throw you right over the edge.
It was with this knowledge that Kaiyana hoped they
would assume she had been thrown, that she had never been aware of their
presence. That they therefore would assume the obvious.
"Look,
Mike, there’s them horses!" One of the men, named Brett, cried, sounding
excited and confused all at once.
"Yeah,
but where’s the Indian?" Mike answered with a sarcastic and frustrated
voice. He’d been looking for this woman for months. Yet he’d never laid eyes on
her, she always seemed to outsmart them and, or evade their attempts to capture
her. He hated being made to look foolish by anyone. And as with the basic ideas
of the time, he hated even more to be outsmarted by an Indian or a woman but
especially an Indian woman.
"How the
hell am I supposed to know, I’s
jus’ pointin’ out them horses to ya,
hoss," Brett commented in an easygoing manner.
Brett wasn’t exactly what one would call bright. In fact he was just plain
dumb. To dumb to actually care.
"I know
that, Brett, but where did that wench disappear to? Tell me that," Mike
spoke raising his voice a little.
"Well,"
Brett thought, using brainpower no one would have thought he possessed, spoke, "Are them horses tethered?"
Catching on
the Brett’s line of thought Mike arched in the saddle to see, "No, they ain’t."
"Well,
then, maybe she got throwed…"
"Maybe,"
Mike spoke a little skeptically. Nudging his horse closer to the cliff, he
dismounted and peered over the edge, "Don’t see no body, can’t no one
survive a fall like that," He spoke a little absently, lost in the height
and the prospect of falling.
Brett appeared
next to him and took a look for himself. "Well,
there’s a river down there, maybe the body got washed away."
"I don’t
know," Mike was skeptical, without a body they couldn’t be sure of
anything and he wouldn’t be taken for a fool again. "Maybe, somehow, she
figured out we was followin’ her and she faked fallin’ over the edge, maybe she’s really up here, hidin’, waitin’ ta git away…" Even after he
stopped speaking Mike’s mind continued to ponder his conspiracy theory.
"Well,
then iffin’ ya want ta, we can take a look see ‘round. Make sure she ain’t hidin in the brush waitin’ ta make us look the fool,
‘gain."
"Yeah, I
think we ought ta do
that," Mike affirmed.
Without
another word the two spread out and began to search.
~*~
Kiayana watched and listened
in absolute horror as she realized her plan hadn’t worked. She knew that their
finding her was probably inevitable, her hiding place was just behind some
brush, she’d had no time. What could she do? She didn’t even think that she
could fight her way out because the men were spread out and both were well
armed. If she got one there was a very good chance the other would shoot or capture, or worst of all shoot and capture her. However the
more she thought about and the more she watched them the more she came to the
clear realization that her discovery was inevitable and she had to formulate
some plan, or she was as good as dead. After all the months of near hits and
misses, of narrow escape, of fooling and making fools out of these white men
she was sure that only death would come out of capture, and that death, she was
even more sure, would be the worst she could imagine. Further, if she were
captured she would never see Vin
or her little girl again. She had to find some way out.
Before Kaiyana even realized what she was doing, she was sprinting
towards the men’s horses. They immediately saw her and Mike took a shot. As Kaiyana reached Mike’s horse the bullet hit it’s mark and lodged itself deep inside Kaiyana’s
shoulder. The Kiowa had always said that Kaiyana had
a warrior spirit, tough, strong and unbeatable, so as the bullet tore through
her flesh she bit back the pain, hardly flinching, and climbed onto the horse
taking off at full gallop before the men had anymore time to cause her harm.
That was, at least in the immediate future.
~*~
Vin had to approach this
like a warrior. And he was. In his mind he was preparing for what he knew was
going to be a great war of wills. His would have to be stronger and that would
be quite a task. He pondered all possible approaches to this complex and
difficult issue. Before finally taking a stand against his five year old
daughter, "Darlin’, I really cain’t
explain this to ya."
"Why not?" Star pouted.
"Because I can’t."
"Why not?"
"I just
can’t."
"Why not?"
Vin paused; this was going
to be more difficult then he had first anticipated. After leaving the
confrontation in silence for a few moments while he thought he returned with an
answer that he was sure would drive Star as crazy as she was currently driving
him, "Because I don’t want to."
"Okay,"
Star answered without a trace of frustration or anger. Before turning to her
father, taking his hands, looking sweetly into his eyes and saying, "It’s
okay that you don’t know what they’re doing either."
~*~
Kaiyana could feel the wind rushing past her and blowing harshly
into her open wound. The pain was stinging. She knew it wasn’t a cold day, yet
to her it felt freezing. However, she couldn’t slow down. Her pursuers were close
behind her and gaining with every passing second. She couldn’t slow down. But
she also knew that simply keeping up the pace wasn’t going to be enough either.
She had to find some way to slow them down or lose them. Because if she didn’t
do something soon, she was getting the distinct feeling that she would never to
anything again, ever.
Kaiyana turned slightly in the saddle, in order to see how far
away the men that chased her were. They were only about 30 yards behind her,
way to close for comfort. Also to close for her to try to lose them, they would
see wherever she went. She could also tell that they were moving faster then
she was and therefor gaining on her rapidly.
She tried
desperately to think of something she could do to escape them. But she could
not think. It was as if a smog of pain had settled
over her, debilitating her mind. She felt as if she was out of her body, or
perhaps disconnected from herself and her situation. As hard as she tried she
couldn’t pull herself back to the reality. Her mind floated in some nameless,
faceless, thoughtless chasm, and the worst part was she couldn’t bring it back.
Time seemed to be slowing as she continued to ride. The steady beat of the
horses’ hooves pounding the hard dirt floor lulling her further into a state of
mindless drift. Her conscious thoughts now seemed to be out of body things that
would every once in a while trigger her interest enough to listen but not to
actually act on these thoughts. It was as if nothing could pull her back into
life.
Suddenly, Kaiyana felt her world starting to shake slightly. Now it
was beginning to slide. What’s happening? Something somewhere inside her
screamed. However by the time she realized she was falling from her horse it
was too late.
~*~
Mary Travis
awoke abruptly with a start. She looked around a little aimlessly in the dark
trying to figure out what had caused her to wake up. Thinking for a moment she
remembered hearing someone scream in her sleep…Star!
Mary got up
the minute that name flashed in her mind. She could have sworn she heard Star
scream in her sleep. Mary moved quickly through the upstairs hallway into the
room that Star occupied.
When she
entered the room, through the dark, she saw the little girl sitting up in her
bed. Star was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, and as a result her dark hair
clung to her forehead and her nightclothes clung to her body. She was also
shaking uncontrollably.
Mary moved
quickly to the little girl’s bed and started cooing softly to her, "It’s okay, everything is all right."
However Star
looked up at Mary and said quietly in haunting sort of voice, "No,
everything is not all right. They are gonna kill my
mama."
"Who?" Mary found herself asking even though in the
back of her mind she knew that probably wasn’t the best response she could have
given.
"Those
men," Star said sounding like the scared little girl she was.
"Honey,"
Mary soothed, "How do you know men are trying to kill your mama?"
"I see it
in a dream," Star said trying desperately to make Mary understand. It seemed
to Star that no one here in this place understood the truth her dreams usually
carried.
"Honey,
dreams aren’t real. They’re just make believe things
that come while we sleep. I’m sure your mama is just fine," Mary tried to
make the little girl feel better however looking at her face Mary got the
distinct impression that she had just added fuel to the fire.
"No!"
Star shouted, "That’s not true, not with my dreams. Sometime my dreams
are true. Sometime they come to give me warning," She was crying now,
"Why doesn’t anyone believe me? First my daddy and now
you? Why?"
Mary honestly
had no idea what to do. She couldn’t say that she honestly believed that Star
dreams were really premonitions or warnings or anything like that. However she
also couldn’t go on telling the little girl that her mother was fine, after
all, she was being hunted by bloodthirsty men (at least to the best of Vin’s knowledge). So the only
thing Mary could think to do was wrap Star in a hug and then go talk to Vin.
~*~
"Vin!" About ten minutes
later, Mary called leaning slightly into the tracker’s wagon. "Vin!" Mary hissed once
more.
She watched as
Vin tossed and mumbled
slightly before settling back into peaceful sleep. "Vin!" Mary tried one more time, this time a
little louder.
With that Vin bolted up, promptly hitting
his head, cursing, then realizing Mary was the one who had awoken him, he
blushing slightly before addressing her, "Somethin’
wrong, Mary?" After a moment of getting oriented his expression changed,
"Star’s all right, ain’t she?" The worry in
his voice was evident.
"Oh,
well, don’t worry," Mary said to put to rest his immediate worries.
"It’s just that Star woke up after having a dream. She insists that her
mother is in trouble and when I tried to tell her that dreams weren’t real, she
started crying and asked me why everyone thought she was lying."
"Oh,"
Vin said quietly,
remembering that he had just done that with her himself. "She dreamed
about Kaiyana agin," Vin spoke more to himself then to
Mary. After a moment he faced Mary once more saying, "What do you
think?"
"About Star’s dreams?" When Vin nodded his head, Mary
continued, "Well, I myself believe that dreams are simply a figment of
one’s imagination. However, it has been said that some people can dream premonitions…"
Mary spoke sounding somewhat distant, lost in thought.
"Mary, yore as bad as Ezra. Couldn’t ya just talk in english?" Vin spoke, hating to look foolish
do to his lack of vocabulary but what Mary had just said had been pretty much
over his head and on subject matter this important he was more then willing to
compromise his pride a little bit.
"Oh,
well, some people believe that it is possible to see the future or the present
or even the past through their dreams," She amended.
"Oh,"
Vin spoke. "What should
I do?"
"Well, Vin, that is entirely up to you. But, Star is still pretty
upset and the reason I came down here was to ask you to go up and talk to her.
What you do after that is something you’re going to have to figure out."
"Okay,
Mary, give me a second. And I’ll come over to yore place…"
~*~
"You have
to go save her!"
"I
can’t," Vin pleaded
hopelessly with his young daughter.
"Why not? You said you loved her, why aren’t you
helping her!"
"I do
love her!" Vin shouted,
then feeling a little sorry for exploding lowered his voice and tired to
explain, "I can’t go after her because I don’t know where she is. I don’t
know what she’s up against. I don’t know if she’s safe or healthy or anything
like that. How can I help her when I don’t even know where to look for
her?"
"Is that
the only reason you won’t go find mama?" Star asked in conspiratorial way.
"Yes,"
Vin answered slowly but
resolutely.
"She’s a
couple hours from here, to the northwest. She fell off her horse and some men
are gonna get her and hurt her bad. They are at the
foot of a mountain."
"You saw
all that in a dream?" Vin
asked sounding suspicious.
"Yes,"
Star answered him in such a way that he couldn’t help but believe.
"Okay,"
Then he got up and started to walk away.
"Where
are you going?"
"To go
find your mama," Vin
answered simply.
~*~
"Are you
sure about this endeavor, Mr. Tanner?" Ezra Standish found himself asking as the seven were now departing to go search
for a missing woman on the basis of a five years old’s
dreams.
"Yeah, Ez, I’m sure," Vin
spoke resolutely.
"Alright,"
Chris Larabee commanded, "Let’s ride."
~*~
The seven men
rode wordlessly following Vin
throughout the landscape. Despite the fact that he only vaguely knew where he
was going he rode through the land expertly, as if he had the exact location
they were headed to pin pointed. So far two hours had passed and the men knew
that they were fast approaching the basic search area. However, none of them
really had any idea what to expect, and that included Vin. So far they had been following what Star’s dream
had said, which also said that men had been chasing her. With that in mind,
they kept themselves mentally prepared for anything.
"Where in
tarnation did she git
to?!!" The seven heard a voice, not far in the distance, shout. They were
immediately on even greater alert. Wordlessly they all prepared for facing this
man and whatever number of comrades he might have with him.
They
approached slowly and cautiously, until they heard the scream. It was utterly
gut- wrenching and heart stopping. The absolute horror the seven men heard in
that scream was enough to spur them all into action, Vin especially.
As the men
came into sight Vin
automatically called, "Kaiyana!"
"Vin!" Came
out a strangled cry that was stopped short by the brute force of another.
"Who the
hell are you?" Asked what seemed to be the ringleader of the men.
"Well,
Mister," Chris spoke, "That ain’t really
important. All you have to know is that we’ve come for that woman and we ain’t leavin’ without her, and
trust me, you don’t want us to stay and take her from ya,"
As Chris spoke his hand subtly sent down to his gun, implying the rest to the
rather odious men before him.
"I ain’t scared of y’all," The man said, puffing out his
chest just a little.
"Well,
maybe you should be," Vin
commented, his voice colder and more deadly then any of the seven had ever
heard it before. As he said this he reached down and took hold of his sawed-off
"Or I
could…" But before the man could finish he saw that the rest of the rather
accomplished looking group of gunslingers pull their weapons and aim them in
the direction of him and his single man. The odds were no good, and the bitch
just wasn’t worth it. Besides he really didn’t like the looks of the one in
black, he was a man Mike could go the rest of his life without crossing.
"C’mon," Mike voiced to his companion, "Let’s git."
"But…"
"Shut up,
we’re goin’," Mike finalized.
"Them’s gonna be mad…"
"We’re goin’."
"Fine,"
The man said unhappily before mounting his horse.
Before they
left Chris issued one last warning, "If you ever go after her again, me
and my friends are gonna hunt you down and tear you
to pieces, understand," As much as his words and glare of his eyes and the
menace in his voice had been enough to scare the two men shitless. They both
nodded that they understood and quickly mounted their horses and took off for
the horizon.
The minute the
two men were a distance away Vin
was off his horse and at Kaiyana’s side. As he lifted
her into his arms he got a mischievous glint in his eye, "Been a while, Kaiyana, I never thought I’d be comin’
to yore rescue."
If looks could
kill Vin would have dropped
dead on the spot, "Who said I needed to be rescued?" Kaiyana challenged in a weak and horse voice.
"Oh, come
on, who do you think you’re kiddin’, girl?" Then
in a distinctly girly voice Vin
mocked her, "Vin! Vin! Come save me!!"
"Funny, I
do not remember saying anything like that. I do remember you and your sorry
hide sounding all choked up crying, Kaiyana,
Kaiyana!"
Vin laughed. He smiled
down at her. Then looked at her still bleeding wounds and got scared again.
"Nathan!"
"I’m
right here, Vin. Why don’t
you set her down, so’s I kin take a look at
her?"
"Oh,
okay," Vin spoke a
little sheepishly.
"Howdy,
Ma’am," Nathan greeted.
"Hello,
Mr.?"
"
"Alright
Nathan, then you can call me Kaiyana."
"Sounds good. Now, let me take a
look at that shoulder of yourn," Nathan said. He
was surprised at how calm and happy she seemed. It seemed as if she was feeling
almost no pain at all, and as Nathan studied her wound, that was hard to
believe. The wound certainly wasn’t life threatening, but, frankly, judging by
what she’d been through the past few weeks, hell, according to Vin, what she’d been through the
last few years, she should feel like hell. Her wound was dirty which concerned him, however he decided the best thing for all concerned
would be to quickly clean the wound wrap it and do the rest back in
"Mama…
Mama… Mama…Mama…Mama…Mama…Mama…Mama…Mama…Mama…Mama."
"Star,
stop that, yore Mama needs her rest," Vin chided his little girl quietly. For all of Kaiyana’s grit when they first found her, not only was she
shot but she just wasn’t very healthy. Nathan said she was pretty sick, mostly
from bad nutrition and lack of sleep. He said that when you put that together
with Kaiyana’s gunshot wound and bumps and bruises
and emotional stress, they could expect her to sleep for quite awhile.
Stars voice
interrupted Vin’s thoughts, "But I have already
waited a very long time and Mama has slept for a very long time and I mama to
hug me and tell me good stories," In the short time they’d had together Vin had learned that when Star wanted something or was very
upset she had a strong tendency to whine and talk in long run-on sentences.
"I’m real
sorry, Darlin’ an’ I know Mama’s bin sleepin’ a long time but she’s real tired. Now I know you
want Mama to git all better, right?"
"Yes,"
Star said guiltily.
"Then
we’ve got to let her git her rest, alright Darlin’?"
"Alright,"
Star conceded. After thinking a moment Star spoke again, "But can I stay
here and wait for her to wake up?"
"Yeah, I’spose ya could," Vin gave in.
"YAAAAAY!" Star yelled.
"But only
if you’re nice ‘n quiet so Mama kin rest some, okay?"
"Okay,"
She said a little sadly. With that Star laid down
beside her mother, held her hand, and quietly started humming a pretty little
song.
Vin’s curiosity peaked, he
had to ask, "What’s that…?" However, his words were interrupted when
he saw Kaiyana’s eyelids flutter and her hand squeeze
Star’s.
"Mama?" Star said hopefully and softly.
With that soft-spoken word Kaiyana’s eyes
shot open and she spoke, "Hello, my angel."
With that Star
started crying and threw herself at her mother in a big hug which Kaiyana gladly returned. With her head buried in her
mothers good shoulder and through steady tears Star spoke, "Oh, Mama, I
missed you so much and I was so scared and I was…oh, Mama, I love you,"
she gushed.
"It’s
okay Baby, it’s okay," Kaiyana
soothed. "I love you so much," Kaiyana
paused a moment and looked at Vin,
there eyes met and somehow she new everything really would be even better then
okay, "Yes, angel, everything is going to be just fine, we are finally
home."
The
End-of the story but if you liked it, perhaps the beginning of many more
Hope you liked
it! Actually I don’t even know if anyone is still reading it, it took me so
long to finish, sorry!!!! PLEASE REVIEW!!! jesfrealo@yahoo.com