1. Resisting Fate - Part One of Three


    Date: 8/6/2015, Categories: Historical, Author: Poppet, Rating: 49, Source: LushStories

    track my path. Bullets whistled by and tore at the ground, but these warriors relied more on the magic of the Whites than on their own skill and their shots failed to find me. One after another, I rose and let my arrows fly until the four lay fallen on the ground. My heart pounded from the rush of battle and my blood ran hot with the joy of being alive. I should have been proud of my victory, and even then my songs of it should have been forming on my lips. But in saving this woman, I realized now that I would be responsible for her care and safety. It was a sobering thought. After killing four brave men in front of her, how could I convince this woman I meant her no harm? I rode within a few feet from where she knelt on the ground and offered my hand in friendship. "Come," I said. "I am Red Elk and I will take you to safety." Of course, she did not understand my tongue, and she spoke in words that were never before heard by my ears. She was frantic and backed away as I approached. When I dismounted my pony, she began to run. "Where are you going?" I called and I resolved not to chase her. I could only offer my help but I would not force her to take it. I could only hope she would realize that staying here would mean her death. White women wear far too many clothes, and within a few steps, she tripped over her own skirts and tumbled to the ground. She was a mass of torn blue cloth and long golden hair and I could see how very beautiful she was. Despite her fear and anger, ...
    she appeared comical to me and I could not suppress my laugh. She sputtered on in her tongue, saying words I thought sure must pain her lips to form. Rather than frighten her more, I resolved to prepare for our journey by gathering the ponies that once belonged to the fallen Arapaho. She would choose with to stay with the dead or come with me to the forests of my people. I would not force her hand. *** Scared and frighten were, to say the least, how I felt. With all I had been through I'd come too far to let some savage man-beast take me away. He was jabbering on in a language I didn't understand and kept trying to help me up. I was in a state of shock. He came out of nowhere and killed four men who were going to do God knows what to me, for what? Did he think that meant he owned me? Who did he think he was? Watching four lunatics kill my husband, a man I hardly knew, in a country that wasn't my own, was not where I thought my life would lead me. My mother told me “Elsie, he's a good man, a man who will give you a better life, a safer life than you can get here. The world is changing and you need to change with it. You're young and pretty and educated, take this chance.” She said that as if I had a choice in the matter. She and my father had pre-arranged this marriage with this man, without my consent. I knew it was going to happen eventually, as it did with my older sisters, who were married off quickly. Seven of us in total, not including my five brothers. They kept the boys. ...
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