Returning Home:

The Cave:

Thunder Dancer moved backwards towards Snow Maiden and Colleen as he made ready to throw his spear (just in case). Sully, Matthew and Brian entered carefully and it was Sully who spoke up first.

"We ain't here to hurt you. We just need a place to stay for the night, if that is okay with you. My name is Sully; I'm the Indian Agent for the Colorado Springs Reservation. These boys here are my sons Matthew and Brian. We're looking for my daughter Colleen. She was taken nearly a week ago, we think by Dog Soldiers. Can you understand me?"

"We understand. Your search stops here. My name is Thunder Dancer, this is Snow Maiden. I married a Pawnee woman some years back. Snow Maiden survived Washita. And your daughter is safe. She became ill in the Dog Soldiers Camp and when she told us that her mother was a doctor we knew that we had to get her back to her white family. If she had stayed in the camp, she would have died for sure. She is here with us. Snow Maiden protects her like she is her sister. Come see for yourself."

"Colleen!" Matthew and Brian said at the same time, pushing past Sully and Thunder Dancer and moving next to Snow Maiden who had laid her bow and arrows on the ground and sat next to her friend, who was still shivering with fever.

"Will she be alright?"

"Once we get her back to the white doctor she will. She has not responded to the Willow Bark Tea and this is the second night that I have given it to her. We decided to stop here for the next few days and allow her to rest. She needs to rest; we have been going non-stop for two days since we got out of Indian Territory. Once she is home safely, Snow Maiden and I will leave to go back to Indian Territory where we can live in peace for however much longer we are allowed. Neither of us wanted the life we lived. I took Snow Maiden in as my own daughter when the Dog Soldiers brought her to the camp after Washita. They treated her like she was their slave, but I made sure she always had a roof over her head, or so to say."

"Colleen will want Snow Maiden to stay awhile with her. They are friends aren't they?"

"Yes, if it hadn't been for Snow Maiden, then Colleen would have had it rougher than she did. Snow Maiden and her became fast friends over the course of the week Colleen was with us."

"Alright, we leave in the morning. We can be back in Colorado Springs by midday tomorrow. And Dr. Mike can help Colleen with the help of Cloud Dancing." Sully said.

"Who is Cloud Dancing?" Snow Maiden asked.

"Didn't you know him when you were on the Cheyenne Reservation?" Brian asked.

"No, I was never on the Reservation. My tribe came down from the North to go to the treaty and we met up with the other Cheyenne tribes headed for the treaty as well at Washita. I never knew no Cloud Dancing."

"You were not the only child to survive Washita. A boy, Live In Hopes, survived and was taken west into Indian Territory towards the Yellowstone Area. Cloud Dancing came back and the townspeople accept him as a friend. He lives on the Reservation now."

"And if we didn't want to live on the Reservation and didn't want to go back to Indian Territory? What would happen to us then?"

"We will figure that out once Colleen is better. But for now, we must rest as the two of you look like you could use some rest after the journey you have had."

"Yes, rest is what we need. Snow Maiden, though she is a girl, does wonders with a bow and arrow. I taught her once she was in the camp with us how to survive if I were not around. She seemed to like the fact that she could shoot farther than any of the boys in camp. We do not know if any of the Pawnee Dog Soldiers follow us so we have kept the horses in here with us. It is best that you do the same."

"Sully and I will get them now. Stay with Colleen Brian."

"Okay Matthew."

Heading Home:

A night in the cave with Sully and Matthew keeping watch so that Snow Maiden and Thunder Dancer could sleep did wonders on the two weary Indians. The girl, though she slept fitfully, slept near Colleen and only did so with Colleen's head in her lap and she herself sitting against the cave wall. It was amazing the bond one could make in only a week. By morning, the two Indians were awake and moving about the cave getting everything ready to leave. They packed up their belongings and put them on their horses. Colleen was still wrapped in the buffalo hide that Thunder Dancer had wrapped around her when they had fled the Dog Soldier Camp.

Thunder Dancer picked Colleen up once all the horses were outside and ready to go. Sully got up on his horse and Thunder Dancer handed Colleen to him. Matthew and Brian both got on their horses and then Snow Maiden and Thunder Dancer got on their horses after making sure that there was no trace that the group had ever been in the cave system the past few nights. When they rode into town, the townspeople would most likely want to kill them and who knew if there were any soldiers in town now. But maybe Sully, Matthew and Brian could stop them from being killed since they had risked everything to save Colleen's life.

They headed out shortly after sunup, moving towards the town, through the woods at first and then through open fields. It was amazing to see how close to the town that they had actually been. They hadn't realized how close until midday when they moved through some woods and into an open field with buildings surrounding it. The buildings looked like a church and a school house. They would have to go over a small bridge to get to the town and from what Sully had said to get to Dr. Mike, Colleen's mother who could look at her.

Town:

The group moved across the bridge with Sully in front and Matthew and Brian in back. Thunder Dancer was in the middle behind Snow Maiden who wanted to be near Colleen, whom she had learned to love like the sister she had lost at Washita. The town was in full swing. An alert had gone out once the group was spotted at the edge of the meadow near the church. Dr. Mike, Cloud Dancing, Grace & Robert E. all walked out of the clinic after Hank had gone in and told them what was going on. They all waited for the group to come to a stop.

Snow Maiden still had the bow and arrows with her, but the arrows were away. She'd been holding the bow just in case she needed to use it. She turned her head and looked back at Thunder Dancer who nodded his head. She put her bow in a bag on her horse before dismounting. Matthew and Brian had already dismounted and even though they were worried about Colleen, they knew that the townspeople would want to hurt the Indians that had saved Colleen's life, so they stayed near Thunder Dancer and Snow Maiden.

Once Thunder Dancer had dismounted, he walked up to Sully's horse and took Colleen from Sully so that he could dismount. Once Sully was dismounted, he took Colleen back from Thunder Dancer and entered the clinic with Dr. Mike and Cloud Dancing behind him. Snow Maiden went to follow, but was held back by Thunder Dancer. He spoke to her in Pawnee and told her that they had done what they had come to do. That it was time for them to move on. That he knew she wanted to see if her friend lived, but that it was best to leave the town, just for now. They would leave word with one of the white boys they had ridden with where they were headed.

It really wasn't safe for them to stay in town that night. So after Thunder Dancer told Matthew where they would be staying, Snow Maiden reluctantly left Colleen with her white family. She mounted her horse and turned it towards the bridge they had crossed, and stopped dead in her tracks. There, near the edge of the woods were Pawnee Dog Soldiers, having followed them even though they had left Indian Territory. Thunder Dancer looked to where she was looking and before he could grab her off her horse, an arrow hit her in her shoulder and the horse reared. Snow Maiden fell from her horse, though she didn't hit the ground as Thunder Dancer caught her before she could.

Suddenly the townspeople were all shooting at the Dog Soldiers, Matthew and Brian helped Thunder Dancer get Snow Maiden into the clinic and Robert E. and Grace took charge of the horses and put them all in the paddock at the Livery. So now, not only did they have Colleen to worry about, Snow Maiden now needed to have surgery to remove the arrow from her shoulder.

The Clinic:

Thunder Dancer helped Cloud Dancing and Dr. Mike the best he could. And he knew that neither he nor Snow Maiden would be able to return to Indian Country without being hunted for what they had done. Returning a white child to her white family after said white child was taken from said white family to replace an Indian child was the worst sin that could be committed, especially if it were Indians that were returning the white child take from the white family. They would have to go to the reservation whether they wanted to or not.

After the arrow was taken out, Thunder Dancer took Snow Maiden to one of the rooms he was shown and laid her in one of the beds. They would have to make sure that infection didn't set in which would be better if they stayed in town while Snow Maiden recovered, but she would live. Brian came in shortly after with some food for Thunder Dancer who thanked him. Brian smiled before moving to Snow Maiden. He bent down to whisper in her ear a thank you for taking care of his sister then he turned and left.

When morning came, Snow Maiden was awake and eating the food that Grace had brought her. She smiled when Brian came in with some candy from Mr. Bray's store. He gave her some and though it was the first time she'd ever had candy, she seemed to like it. Brian stayed while Thunder Dancer went downstairs to see about the horses. Sully took him the Livery so he could check on the horses and get their belongings off. The horses hadn't been touched so everything was still where it had been put.

"How long do you think Snow Maiden will have to stay at the Clinic?"

"Dr. Mike will most likely want her to stay a few days. I can get you set up at the Reservation if you'd like."

"Snow Maiden has never lived on a Reservation before; I do not know how she will take to it." They had walked back to the clinic with the belongings from the two Indian horses. They were sitting on the bench, well Sully was sitting but Thunder Dancer was standing. Other townspeople had come to see what they were talking about.

"Snow Maiden mentioned that she joined the other Cheyenne's headed to the treaty from the North. Do you know anything about her lineage?"

"She said that she came from a tribe that held the ancestors in great esteem. That every now and then the spirits would claim the human soul and change them into animals, to teach the human how to respect the world around them. From what I know of her childhood, this happened only once. And at that, she said she was not born a human."

"Then what was she born as? And why would an Indian tribe take her in?" Mr. Bray asked.

"She was born a bear and the Cheyenne tribe that took her in had just lost a child to the white man's sickness Smallpox. The spirits turned her human so that she could replace the lost child and so that a white child would not have to be taken to replace the child. According to Snow Maiden, the spirits have the right to take back her human life and change her back into a bear whenever they feel the need. But I think the spirits are happy with the life she has lived so far. If her bear family shows up, she says that she will always be able to understand what they are saying, but that it will be her mother's choice whether to have the spirits turn her back into a bear or not."

"You actually believe in that stuff?" Hank asked.

"I believe in the spirits and I believe that Snow Maiden believes what she has lived. Her life was full of wonders and then Washita happened. Her entire tribe was killed at Washita. I was surprised that the Dog Soldiers were even down that far."

"Don't be too surprised, they shot the girl didn't they?" Dorothy asked.

"They shot her because we brought Colleen back to her white family. We can never go back to Indian Country for fear that we will be hunted down and killed for returning a white child to her white family. I need to go see how Snow Maiden is doing, excuse me."

With that, Thunder Dancer went back into the Clinic with all of their belongings and headed to Snow Maiden's room. She wasn't in the room, but had moved over to Colleen's room where Brian and Matthew were, waiting for their sister to wake up. He stood outside the door and listened as the three talked about what they did for fun. He smiled as Brian asked her if she could teach him how to shoot a bow and arrow and almost laughed when Snow Maiden answered yes. Maybe they didn't have to live on the Reservation. What would the Army say if they asked to live off the Reservation like a white family? Would they be allowed to live in a cabin?

More to come in the next chapter…

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