Disclaimer: I do not own the Young Riders nor any of the characters. I really wished I owned Buck though ;)

A/N: This one is for mssilenthorse. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 1 - Ike's POV

Life had been perfect. I had a loving Pa and Ma and a little sister that I loved to tease. Even after I lost my hair to the Scarlet Fever, I never felt like I was a freak because of my appearance because my family loved me. We were dirt poor framers, barely had two cents to rub together most times but we always had plenty to eat. Our clothes may have been worn but they were always clean. During the summer we would go barefooted but Pa would somehow manage to get us shoes for the winter. We always had love.

And then it all changed. We had all been outside enjoying a wonderful spring day. I was only around nine at the time. My sister Ellie was playing house with her dolls. Pa was getting his fishing gear together. I was flying my kite, that is until I heard Ma calling me, and she didn't sound happy. I looked over and saw our family bible in her hand and knew she had found the family picture I had colored on the front page.

I knew I was most likely fixing to get a whipping so I hid in Pa's work shed hoping she would cool down before she found me. I had just ducked inside when I heard the sounds of hoof beats approaching. I peeked out one of the windows and saw several men I didn't know ride in. They were shouting at Pa, demanding he hand over the money. I don't know what money they were talking about, we didn't have any. I guess Pa owed the wrong people money and these men had come to collect because when Pa told them he didn't have it, they shot him.

I was too scared to even cry out as my mother and sister ran from the men. They were shot in the back before they made it twenty feet. All I could do was hide. I wanted to scream, to cry out, but I couldn't I was too scared. The leader of the group told one of the other men to search the place, to find me. I hid in the corner as the man opened the work shed door and stepped in. He looked around, I could have sworn he looked right at me but he shouted out that there was no one there and he left. The murderers rode away. But I was too scared to leave the shed.

The daylight faded and night came but I still could not leave the shed. What if they came back for me? The sun rose and I still could not leave the shed. About midday I heard horses coming and knew they were coming back for me. I cowered in my corner to scared to even look. Then the door opened and in walked our neighbor Mr. Simmons. He called out to the sheriff saying he had found the boy and that I was alive.

The sheriff tried to get me to tell him what happened but when I opened my mouth to speak no sound came out. No matter how I tried no sound came out. The sheriff sent for the doctor. After the doctor examined me he said there was nothing wrong with my vocal chords that my voice may come back one day or not at all. He said I had been traumatized by what I had seen and that is why I could no longer talk. I heard Mr. Simmons say 'it's bad enough that the kid lost his hair now he's lost his family and his voice. He can't even tell us if he has any family anywhere else."

Even if I could talk it would have been useless, I had no other family that I knew of. My parents had never mentioned any relatives that were living. I had no one. Mr. Simmons took me to his home for the night. I was to stay with them until after the funerals and then the sheriff was going to delivery me to a mission school that was also an orphanage. I knew I would be in there for the rest of my childhood; no one was going to want a bald boy who could not speak.

After I had been delivered to the mission, I found that not all people were like my family. The nuns for the most part thought I was a dummy because I could not speak. Some knew I wasn't, they knew I had just had a very traumatic experience, those few tried to protect me from the others. But it was the way the other children acted that hurt the most.

They called me a freak and a dummy. They were scared of me. I didn't understand, I had never thought I was a mean kid. When I accidently brushed up against a young girl's arm one day, she started screaming and crying saying that her hair and tongue was going to fall out since I had touched her. Some of the older boys beat me up for it. After that day I never touched any of them again.

In order to protect myself I started making faces and drooling whenever any of the children would come near me. It worked on the younger ones but the older children still beat me, I learned how to fight and I learned well, but when three or four preteen boys gang up on a nine year old, it never fails for the nine year old to get their butt kicked.

I had been at the mission for about three years when I first saw him. I was just standing in the yard watching the other children play in the snow, wishing that they weren't scared of me. Wishing that I had a friend, wishing that I had a voice at least, that's when I saw him. At the time I did not know my wish had just been granted, all I knew was there was an Indian boy who looked to be about my age, standing at the gate watching the children and then he looked at me. His eyes had just focused on my face when he collapsed to the ground; I thought I had literally scared him to death.

I ran to get Mother Superior and led her to the boy crumpled at the gate. With the help of some of the other sisters they got the boy inside and into the hospital wing. He wasn't dead but had just passed out. I heard one of the sisters say that he was just about frozen solid, he hardly had a stitch of clothing on and it didn't look like he had been eating very well. I wanted to stay and make sure he was going to be alright but Mother Superior sent me back to my classes. I wouldn't see the boy again until a few days later.

Buck's POV

Gone, they were gone. Mother was dead along with most the women and children. My mother lived long enough to tell me that Camille had been taken by the white trappers who had attacked our village. I had to find her. She had begged me to stay with her instead of going on the hunt. She knew something was going to happen, she had thought I was the one in danger. I should never have left her.

My brother Red Bear begged me to stay but without mother and Camille life in the village would be terrible. It was already hard enough being treated as an outsider among my own tribe just because of the way I had come to be. A white man who thought he could take whatever he wanted had wanted my mother, I was the result. My mother could have easily killed me when I was born but instead she kept me and loved me, but the others in the tribe did not. They did not trust me, they thought because my father had been such an evil man, I had to be tainted as well.

And then Camille came to live among my people. Her own family had been killed by Comanche. Red Bear and his father, my mother's husband, found her and brought her to live with the Kiowa. I was given the task to teach her our ways and our language. She in return taught me the white man's language. I fell in love with her at a very tender age, and had finally proven myself worthy of being promised to her so we could marry when we came of age. Now she is gone and I must find her.

I left our village with just the clothes on my back, my knife and my bow. I was foolish, I should have been better prepared, but I thought I could find her and bring her back quickly. It's been over a month and winter is here and I'm no closer to finding her. I need food and shelter if I'm to survive the winter. I'll never make it back to the village and without Camille it's not worth returning. I know I have lost her now.

I see a building in the distance. It's a strange structure surrounded by walls. There are many children playing inside the walls and lots of women dressed in long black dresses and some strange looking head coverings. I don't see any men in this village, just women and children. How can a village survive without men? I move closer to get a better look but I'm so weak. I've not eaten in days and it's so cold. I know I made it to the gate, I remember seeing a bald headed boy looking at me and then nothing.