Winikiya ● Savior
Chapter 1:
I walked around to the back of the house toward the coral, where my Appaloosa, Mapiya, was held. As I walked toward her, she cantered over from the other side of the pen. I greeted her, then jumped over the small fence. I stood before her and placed my hands on her back and hoisted myself up, swinging my other leg over her back, bareback just felt natural. We rode over to the fence marking the boundary between our small reservation and the outside world. We weren't allowed out of the rez. without permission, but I really didn't care. I guided Mapiya over to the fence and we jumped, a single entity. I knew I would get in trouble later, but I just didn't care. I had no doubt we would be seen, out in the rolling plains I called my home there was really no place to hide. But I just didn't care. We just ran and ran and ran. I didn't know where we were going, but Mapiya did. She took us to the creek, a special creek where not many people went anymore. Our people weren't really, "into" nature as much as our ancestors were. It was sad; I felt we were loosing ourselves. Trading in our heritage for the technology and accessibility the modern world offered us. I dismounted and she went over to drink from the clear creek that bubbled out of a sloping hill and meandered through the Plains. I sat down and leaned my back against the hill, staring at the cloudless blue sky. I gazed around and allowed the tears to fall freely down my face. I cried for so many things. For my people, who were loosing themselves. I cried for my Mom, who had to support me by herself. For my father, who was killed by a wolf pack. I also cried for the wolves, who I felt were wrongly accused, because I knew they didn't kill him. The wolves were friends of our people, and I believe with all my heart that they would never do such a thing. I cried for myself and the scars that curled around my side by my ribs and meandered to my back. I had seen them in the mirror, and I thought they looked like the wandering flow of a river. The wolves had been blamed again, but only my mother and I knew the truth. We didn't tell anyone for fear of being called (Sioux word for crazy), crazy. Lastly, I also felt lonely. I wanted someone to love me, for who I am. I had had suitors before, but they all had fled once they discovered how traditional I was. I embraced my Sioux heritage, instead of trying to trade it for an American one. I sighed, still sad, but feeling like a load had lifted off my chest and floated away into the sky. I leaned back against the hill, covering my eyes from the searing sun.
All of a sudden, I sensed something, a presence. A menacing one, one that did not belong here. I had felt it twice before, when I was attacked by the wolves (cough Jareth cough cough), and when they had found my father's body. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and goosebumps made their way down my arms. Mapiya also sensed something, and swished her tail back and forth nervously on the opposite bank of the creek.
Then, it came. A single rose petal, blood red, that fluttered down in the breeze. It could have come from anywhere, carried on the wind from the reservation. But I knew better. It alerted me to his presence. Him. Jareth. Another fluttered down, then another, and another. Soon, it was raining rose petals. I shut my eyes and breathed deeply through my nose, trying to calm down. I knew my racing heart wouldn't make the situation any better, so I focused on getting my pulse in control. The normally golden grassy slope of the hill was obscured in a thick layer of rose petals. Then, as whole roses started falling, I quickly shut my eyes again, still seeing red. I could see them when I closed my eyes. Feel them beneath my fingers and on my shoulders and lap. When I opened my eyes again, I blanched and tightly squeezed them shut again, trying desperately to erase the image burned into my eyes.
Then, his voice. I had been dreaming about it for a whole year, but not the romantic type dreaming. Dreams that were more like nightmares, that ended when I woke up, twisted in my sheets with tears streaming down my face and small sobs escaping my throat.
"Hello, my beautiful Kiya. I told you I'd come back for you. I just hope you haven't missed me too much." He said with his voice that could make any girl swoon and a confident smirk on his face. He pronounced my name like it was spelled, K-I-Y-A, instead of K-E-E-Y-A, the native pronunciation of it. I was paralyzed in fear, and despite my efforts, my heart sped up again. As he smirked and leaned in, I pressed myself back as far as I could go into the hillside, but he still touched the hollow of my throat with his nose and inhaled deeply. "Ahhh, you still smell soo delicious, my beautiful Kiya." His stone hand traced my face, and I flinched away from his cold touch. "Now Kiya, don't tell me you're afraid of your future husband" he said, smiling at my obvious shock. Husband? I would never marry him. He would have to force me to, which were probably his intentions anyway. At this point, I found my voice.
"I'll never marry something as disgusting as you, Jareth." I said, sneering his name. I sounded a lot more confident than I felt as I looked into his ruby eyes and watched them turn a shade darker with anger. I glared defiantly back into his face, but all of a sudden it wasn't his face; it was someone else's. Time seemed to stop as I gazed into this stranger's face. He had dark russet skin, a bit darker than my own people's, and short black hair that was cropped short. His eyes were this deep, chocolaty brown, and I felt I could gaze into them forever. His cheekbones were a bit lower than my own, but still indicated he was a Native. I imagined tracing my finger down his nose, then down to his lips. His lips were perfect, and I wanted to kiss him without abandon, which was strange. I didn't even know this man, didn't even know if he existed. As I contemplated that thought, my heart ached. He had to exist, he just had to! Why else would the Great Spirit give me this vision? I had to find him, find this strange, beautiful man. My heart pined for him, and I knew why. I was in love with him. I had to find him, and tell him…what? That I was in love with him because the Great Spirit showed him to me? A word came to me then, in our language. Winikiya. Oh, he was my saviour.
Then, the vision ended when Jareth hissed in a dangerous voice, "Is that anyway to talk to your beloved?" he said, standing up. I stood up too, and he turned to face me. I stepped in, inclining my head so my face was close to his. To an outsider, it would have looked as if I was going to kiss him. Apparently he thought so too, because just as I parted my lips to say the words that would probably end my life, he grabbed me by the back and faster than I could blink, I was on the mattress of rose petals, back pressed up against the hill, him leaning close to me. He captured my hands in one of his and held them above my head. He planted small kisses with stone lips below my ear, going down across my jaw and down my neck to the top of my chest, before going back and repeating. My skin prickled where his cold lips touched my flesh, and my lip curled up and my nostrils flared in disgust. "Where was my Winikiya?" I thought silently to myself.
"Now, what were you going to say, my darling?" Jareth said, turning to look at me. My eyes held his gaze steady as I said, "I could never love you, Jareth." He growled and in a flash disappeared. I stood up too, but with none of the grace or speed. I looked around, and spotted him standing by Mapiya with an evil grin on his face. Mapiya skittered and whinnied nervously, showing the whites of her eyes. She was scared, her flank was heaving and I could see the sweat on her sides. She didn't run though, she probably knew somehow that he would catch her. Too late I realized what Jareth was planning.
"NO!" I screamed as I launched myself toward them. I crashed into the creek to get to them, but it was too late. I was the fastest runner in the reservation, faster than even some of the men, but not fast enough, for his iron hands were closing around her neck. She let out a hoarse warning neigh and attempted to kick him and run, but he leapt over it and held on. I finally reached the other side and was about to charge into him when he said, "Stop Kiya, or I kill the horse." I immediately stopped and stood still, hands limply at my sides. Tears were forming in my eyes. "Please." I begged him. "Please, please, please let her go, please please let her go. I'll do whatever you want, ju-just let her go." I said, not regretting my rash promise at all.
"Hmm," he said. "Whatever I want?"
"Yes, yes, I'll do anything, just please let her go." I said.
"Ok. Tell me that you love me. But you have to mean it, Kiya, or the horse is gone."
"Jareth," I begun, working to put as much sincerity as I could into my lie. "Jareth, I love you. I love you with all my heart and soul. I will never leave you and be only yours, forever. I love you Jareth." I said. But my heart betrayed me and clenched in pain as I said these words, thinking of the mystery man who was my Winikiya. My eyes betrayed my pain.
"Beautiful. Very well spoken. Those would make nice wedding vows, Kiya. But," He said as his fingers tightened around Mapiya's throat. She snorted in fear. "I know you're lying. I can see it in your eyes. Now say goodbye to your pretty pony, Kiya."
"NOO!" I screamed and ran toward them again. I could see the light fading from her eyes as he dropped her and she fell to the ground. She let out one last nicker as she looked at me. I cradled her big head in my lap as I murmured, "No, no, Mapiya, please don't die, Mapiya, no, please, Mapiya I need you, please, no, no, no." And just like that, she left me.