Guest 1: Unfortunately, that won't work. I'm a university student and as such, I am quite busy. You're lucky I wrote this story beforehand. Otherwise, I might have had to rely on bi-weekly updates for this story, as I'm doing for "Tales of Earth-X". Anyway, thanks for reviewing!
PickachuFan18: I know you didn't mean it like that. I'm just glad I can keep putting out chapters every week. And yes, I can totally relate to that feeling! Especially when those brand new ideas are so shiny that they distract from the ones you're currently working on. Thanks for the review!
Jess Maximoff: I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for reviewing!
The next morning, Nate couldn't wait to get up as soon as possible to go to the meeting point. He and Amaya hadn't exactly decided at what time of day they were going to meet, but if it were up to Nate, he would go there and spend the entire day waiting for her.
Amaya… Nate still could not believe it. Amaya Jiwe, alive, in some strange alternate dimension, as a Native American. She even had her necklace in this world! It was too good to be true. Nate even briefly believed he had made her up, that somehow he had hit his head and that he imagined the remainder of the day.
But the glares Merlyn shot him when he had forced Nate to help dig for a little while and the way Thomas tried to keep him in the camp was more than enough proof that yesterday's events were real. Amaya lived, and Nate could not wait to see her.
He found a chance to sneak off during his lunch break. Nobody was paying attention to him because of some rowdy men on the other side of the campfire. He ate his soup – even though it tasted awful – and snuck out of the camp, retracing his steps from the previous.
Whether it was his speed or an adrenaline rush, he believed he had found their meeting point sooner than he had expected. It was a remote place, where the river was calmer and the landscape a bit flatter. A large rock stood in the water near the shore, and a majestic willow tree looked over this idyllic place. Nate could not help but wonder whether this spot had survived into the 21st century and, if it hadn't, what it had been substituted with. So much of these woods had been felled for the sake of expansion and infrastructure for immigrants. National parks did not and could never compare to this untouched piece of beauty…
"Amaya?" He whisper-shouted, looking around as if in a hurry. "Amaya?" Doubt arose and did not disappear. Was she here and hiding? Had she been here already and had she already left? Did she still need to arrive? Was she coming in five minutes or in the evening? What would and could he do if something had happened to her? The questions bothered him more than they usually would.
"I'm here." Amaya arrived about two minutes after Nate had arrived. He had to resist the urge to hug her and take her in his arm. That was weird for only a second date between strangers who only had an emotional bond.
Nate took a deep breath. Their topic of discussion wasn't an easy one. Seriously, how do you bring peace between two peoples who couldn't be more different? It is a complicated issue, but he was willing to solve this with Amaya and the others. It was the least he could do for her before trying to find a way back home.
"Alright," he began, "Okay, er, it might be a good idea to introduce me to your people first. You've been living here and I guess they probably want to know how friendly I am before inviting the others." The others, who have been told to kill any indigenous people on sight. Not all of them were cold-blooded killers, luckily, such as Thomas. Such a sweet boy wouldn't hurt anyone.
Amaya nodded and moved closer to him. "When will we meet the rest of your tribe?" Nate had already explained to her that they weren't exactly a tribe, but for simplicity's sake, he never corrected her when she used that word.
"Slowly, over time." Depending on how long I can keep it going. "We're going to be here for a while. I could introduce you to some of the more tolerant guys. I admit I don't know them as well as I should, but I do know some of them are not big fans of people of color."
Amaya frowned. "What do you mean by 'fans'?"
Damn it! they did not use that word in pre-colonial times. "It's likely some of those men will want to kill you because your skin color is different than ours."
Amaya briefly glanced at her arm and then looked up at Nate's white face, a confident and perhaps stubborn look in her eyes.
"We're both human," she responded. "We are equals." Unfortunately, people from Nate's present would still argue in favor of the 'whites' and might be inclined to tell the surviving indigenous people to go back to their own countries. The men from Merlyn's company are probably eager to do something interesting, for one can only dig for gold for so long without finding anything.
"Yeah, that's not going to stop them from thinking they're better than you."
If Amaya wanted to say something in response, she was immediately silenced by four men from her tribe, coming out of the bushes. They were all carrying spears, and two faces were painted with red lines. The buffest man had handprints on his chest. He and two others had muscles and a six pack to show off, and the fourth looked exactly like Wally. Having met Merlyn and Amaya, Nate didn't even try to approach him and assumed he was, like the other two, another cruel trick from this strange dimension. He would not be surprised if another familiar just showed up out of nowhere.
"Cocoum." Amaya sighed deeply and turned away from Nate. He had no idea what was going on but suspected that she and Cocoum either have been in a relationship before or that they were in a relationship and that his coming caused some issues. Either way, Nate did not like it, and he disliked that pointy spear even less.
Cocoum and Amaya talked and, unfortunately, Nate could only understand what Amaya was saying, effectively missing half of the ongoing conversation. Watching the men from Amaya's tribe did not help either. Cocoum and his two buff friends glared at him occasionally. Wally glanced from Amaya to Nate and back to Amaya, unsure where to look. He acted anxiously and to an extent, Nate could understand that. Even if there was a language barrier between them, he and Wally both felt the tension rise and had no idea what could happen next.
Nate, for one thing, was glad he left the gun at the camp. Who knows what Cocoum would've done had he seen the settler carrying a weapon. If he knew it was a weapon.
"Amaya?" Nate eventually asked. "What's going on?"
She only glanced at him from the corner of her eye – possibly to keep an eye on Cocoum. "They want you and your tribe to leave and never return."
Nate sighed defeatedly. "That's gonna be an issue." The company was set on living here and making the Jamestown settlement a success. They won't abandon this project. They also wouldn't allow the indigenous people to live so closely to the settlement. At least, not until the issue is resolved peacefully and Merlyn is taken away.
Behind him, the bushes were rustling as if someone moved through them; Thomas appeared in Nate's view, his gun pointed at the four native Americans, his eyes filled with fear and not looking away. His body and gun trembled visibly.
Nate instinctively stepped in the gun's path and put his hands forward defensively. At the same time, Cocoum started shouting and arguing with Amaya about something, often pointing at Thomas.
"It's okay, Thomas," Nate said, "Put the gun down."
Thomas glanced at Nate, then looked at Cocoum again. Nate took a step closer towards him.
"Stop this, kid," Nate pressed on, "You don't want to do this."
Thomas glanced at Nate again, his eyes looking on with despair. He didn't lower the gun, but at least Nate got the kid to consider the weight of his future actions.
"But the Governor said—"
Nate waved the idea away. "Forget him. This is about you, me and them. these people are friendly." He looked over his shoulder. Cocoum glared at him with a threatening gaze. Nate turned back at Thomas. "Most of them are. Hey, you gotta trust me on this."
For a moment, Thomas hesitated. He slowly lowered his gun, and Nate nodded. "Yeah, that's good."
There was a splash. Nate turned his head to Cocoum again. The buff tribal man took his second step into the water, his spear in his hand and glaring at Thomas now. Amaya tried to hold him back but failed.
A gunshot rang out before Nate could have prevented it. Blood trickled out of Cocoum's chest. The man fell over, the blood colored the water red and the river carried his body away.
Then there was silence. All eyes turned to Thomas, and Nate watched him, a shocked expression on his face.
"You killed him," Nate said, still not really believing that this really did happen.
"I-I didn't mean to," Thomas said. He dropped the gun, shaking from head to toe. "H-He was…"
Cocoum's friends recovered from their initial shock. As soon as they laid their eyes on him, Thomas turned and fled the scene.
"Wait, Thomas!" Nate yelled at him. "Don't – you'll make it worse!" But Thomas was long gone. It was just him now, and he was the only one around to take the blame for Cocoum's death.
Nate did not struggle when Cocoum's two friends roughly grabbed his arms and dragged him off. Amaya did not stay at the waterfront and she did not just silently walk behind them, like Wally did, but shouted all kinds of things at them, most of which cannot be reiterated here. Nate often raised his eyebrows hearing these foul words coming out of her mouth. Wally did a poor job calming her down, by the way.
For the most part, Nate let it happen, only wondering about what could happen to him once they reached the village where Cocoum's tribe lived, what his punishment would be, and when it would be executed.
