A/N realised I made a pretty serious blunder so just a quick edit. Hopefully nobody got it. I all but gave away the ending.

I dragged Benjamin's body out of the water, bones aching, skin wrinkled from cold, snivelling as water dripped from out my nose. In between some unholy land of twisted calm and losing my head.

I layed him upon the river banks with his feet still in the water for I'd lost heart and strength.

I waited for the harsh sounds of a warring people to find me but they never did, even after so many moments of waiting.

At this stage, as I lay myself down amongst the rock, debris and sand of the river bank, the thundering falls calling out to the wilderness relentlessly, I was livid. I knew this because I was calmer than I thought I should be.

I was lying next to a dead man and for multiple reasons, none of which made sense, I blamed Uncas. Alice didn't need protecting day in and day out. She was merely a typical woman – a tendency to startle easily but myself as a witness, she'd be more than capable of surviving alone. For the most part.

But Uncas was unwilling to see this and thus he had myself and the two soldiers pay the price.

However this feeling waned and was followed by a harrowing emptiness which was further replaced by a feeling I'd never even thought to think about; a deep longing for the comfort of my mother. There had never been enough time to discover how hollow that feeling was. The want of something you can no longer grasp. The want of that steadfast presence. One's mother is their entire world. That was gone now. The world had dropped from beneath my feet.

"Traveller!"

I didn't look up but Chingachgook's face appeared above mine all the same, like a vision, distorted by the evening hue and numbness.

"I thought you dead!" I could hear the relief in his voice but anxiety falsified it, denied him the moment of happiness that normally accompanied it, "Come now, we have to go."

He hoisted me up and squared my shoulders so that I looked at him. He saw something, perhaps my crack in my armour but he didn't address it. Instead he shied away from it with suspicion in his eyes before taking hold of my hand and racing over the rocks with me in tow. All the while muttering things under his breath, looking back at me with relief. I, however, would have slumped were he to let go.

The cave was damp and uncomfortable but the twilight of the evening leant itself to a mesmerising glassy sheath that was the supposed back of the waterfall, if you would. Places like these belonged in dreams but here we were in a nightmare.

Once in, I collapsed in the middle of the cave – everyone made a brief fuss of me but only until they realised I wasn't responding particularly well, then they left me alone. Hayward settled with his back to the wall, head between his knees and attempted to sleep. Cora and Nathaniel spoke in small tones, side by side, silhouetted by the silvery water.

Alice, however, sat in a daze where she floated high above any normal human emotion. Not devoid of it but rather overwhelmed by it. The opposite of me.

"Marie?"

I turned my attention to the deep voice that filtered in from the nowhere lands, calling my name and met a gaze that maintained its stoicism but let the guilt show.

But I was not about to let him finish.

"Don't."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't."

Uncas just looked at me with unfaltering determination. He was going to force me to hear him out but were he to do so, I'm pretty sure I might have let loose all my rage.

Chingachgook came to my aid in the nick of time, shoeing him away, saying something sternly to him in their mother tongue.

Uncas slunk away, leaving his musket beside Alice and making for the entrance of the cave where I imagined him to settle in the shadows.

Chingachgook replaced Uncas, scrutinising me before seating himself beside my person with a grunt. He gave me a sympathetic nudge with a tired smile.

"Don't blame him forever."

I didn't respond immediately which lead to the Mohican's thick, sturdy arm being wrapped around my shoulders.

"What are we going to do?" I asked eventually, aware of our sodden situation all inclusive of wet gun powder and muskets.

"I don't know..." He answered gently, gazing absently into the shadows. I slumped,

"It can't get any worse can it...?" I glanced towards the entrance where Uncas had gone, "It really...really can't."

Chingachgook caught my distasteful look and ran his hand over my face as if to wipe it clean. I jerked back, perplexed, blinking at him for answers,

"Oh dear, Traveller. It has been difficult. I know this. But I think it is important to make room for a love that dares to blossom in ashes. Even," He sighed heavily, letting go of something that drifted off into the water, letting his hand drop back onto my shoulder, "If it was not what I had hoped for."

I looked at him, sure to convey my surprise. I was met by a knowing ghost of a smile that looked heavy on his face. The melancholy I had experienced when I first discovered the very real feelings Uncas and Alice had for each other, was now on Chingachgook's face. I looked at it a long while, recalling my same reaction,

"How long have you known?"

"A father knows his son better than his friends. You all think I don't see, that my eyes are drawn only to the Spirits and their Council Fire. No..." He tapped his temple, "No. I've known it since before you."

He took note of my confusion. He was courteous enough to agree to entertain my curiosity.

"My blood son, he doesn't waver easily from his path. He puts his mind to something and he does it, just so. Ever since young Miss Munro came into his life, his soul has been disturbed. He is never still. Always," He gestured to his eyes and emphasised a man looking around him frantically, "Looking for something. He meant to tell me things but he can never quite say it...I have never known him to be so. Once when he was a boy he was the same until at last he confessed his desire to marry a young woman he had met in one of the camps we stayed in. I looked at him and all I saw was lust. I told him 'no'. But I believe he took what he wanted anyway..."

Chingachgook shrugged and chuckled to himself,

"But his desire changed with the wind and when we blew away, so did it. But now, when he looks at me to tell me whatever he means to tell me, his eyes are steady. Like a beating drum.* My son, if he asks me now, my answer would be different to the one I gave him then. I can't stand in the way of them now. War is a tough time to tackle but here they are. What can I do but wait for him to tell me? And," He glanced at Alice with a small smile, "I could have been graced with worse..."

"I didn't think you'd approve. We didn't think you'd approve. We didn't think anyone would have," I mused.

"I didn't. I can't talk for the Yengeese soldier or the girl's sister but my white son will come around. As for me, I've seen things that have made me change my mind. In the end, Uncas' life is not mine but his own. I don't believe Alice is a mistake…hmm..Not anymore."

I nodded,

"She's strong."

"Stronger than she thinks, I know this too. I know it as sure as I know that you won't stay."

I froze, stiffening in his embrace but Chingachgook didn't seem to notice.

"You might come back, you might not. This, I don't know. So, go. Make your peace. I will have a plan by the time you return. My children must rest as best they can now however brief it might be."

I managed to heave myself up and blink down at my elder, the rawness of my core seeming to fade. Chingachgook's words shone a light upon me,

"All my children," He added, "The old and the new,"

I turned to leave but was halted,

"One more thing, there is something else that has his soul twisted in the storm. If you can find out what it might be. This, he won't tell me," he added sadly. It wrenched at my heart strings. We were all suffering in one way or another. Chingachgook suffered as much if not more than us. We were children.

I nodded. How wrapped up in my own circumstance must I have been to completely underestimate Chingachgook and his knowledge of youth. I was and am nothing special.

I waded towards the entrance, brushing past Alice as I went; so, so far away. We had been told not to tell her of her father's death. But she knew.

I found Uncas leaning against the rocks, his eyes trained on small opening through which we had come. He didn't look at me,

"I'm sorry," He said again. He meant it, 'this I know'.

"So am I, I guess," I shrugged, coming no closer than I needed to, "I don't blame you, you know? I did...but your father's got a way of changing things around."

Uncas snorted softly, flashing me a smile,

"Every time I've ever said 'I hate' he says, 'Learn'," Uncas bobbed his head, "'Learn, Uncas, then you will understand and perhaps you will love.' Every time I challenged it, every time he was right."

"He knows, you know," I said softly, staying still, seeing him go rigid as I changed the course of our conversation – I was never a subtle person, "He's alright. He knew before I did, I was surprised."

"We shouldn't have been," He let out a sigh, with it went a piece of an all too heavy load, "I'm relieved!"

"Ah!" I waved away our stupidity, "There goes one problem-"

"Shsh," He silenced me with a finger to his lips, listening. Moments passed, then...

Nothing.

"Carry on," He urged me, giving me no explanation.

I blinked at him but continued not. Instead I studied him; his broad shoulders and lean frame. I had a brief envy of Alice. Uncas was quite the specimen.

He wasn't muscular. Not the typical type of man that women typically fell for – a man with a barrelling chest and arms of steel. They lacked Grace. An agility which Uncas made up for even as he leant against the wall.

Graceful but...

He slipped slightly as he shouldered the wall and knocked his head. He cursed it and leaned away from it irritably. It wasn't necessarily noticeable, only because I was watching did it come to life.

…but youthful.

"I won't survive this."

I stumbled in my thoughts. Gaping at his sudden, very morbid revelation. But as dramatic as it might have been, it sounded genuine.

When he glanced back I saw that fleeting expression. I didn't respond.

"My decisions haven't been..." He looked awkward, struggling for words that evidently didn't come naturally.

"Stupid?"

It wasn't a fair option but Uncas' stupidity on the river still stung. Forgive and forget don't go in the same sentence, no matter what they say.

He shut his eyes briefly, but answered amiably,

"Yes."

I covered my tracks quickly,

"Don't talk like that. You're the surest of foot out of us all."

"I don't think so."

I didn't know what to say or do. His revelation came from a deep, dark place but he gave no reason. I had to think. To pry it from his core.

"What makes you think like this?"

"I haven't been sure. I've acted on impulse rather than instinct."

"That's what people do during these times..."

He turned on me abruptly,

"I left you die in that river because, suddenly, she was the most important thing in the world. More than you. More than my father," his words fell out aggressively as he chastised himself but once out, he regained his calm, "That is not the way."

"Yes but we're past that now," we weren't, I agreed with him whole heartedly, he was an idiot but I daren't pour salt on the wound, "Besides, she would have done the same."

"I hope not."

"Uncas? What's in your head?" My impatience began to mount. It was impossible to get him or his father to speak their feelings with clarity. At least Alice looked a certain way when addressing certain things that made it easy to discern what exactly was happening inside.

"One stupid decision after another," he rubbed the ridge of his nose, "I'm going to die. I can feel it. I've dreamed it. After all of this, only my death awaits me."

I gaped at him, stunned into a stupor. It was not the answer I was expecting.

"Dreams...don't tell the future..." I stammered out with a lack of any better comfort.

His head drooped and his shoulders sagged. Too young, he was, to be looking like his father,

"Even when they are in your bones?"

This was not something I could take on. Not then. My soul still ached from the river, I was still able to get upset. Uncas' foreboding dreams were too much. I left him. Scared.

I hurried into the body of the cave, back to the others.

"Alice?" I dropped down beside her, Uncas' words dancing around my head.

She looked at me wistfully and without focus,

"mmmm?"

"You need pull yourself together. Uncas..." I tried to find the words, aware that it wasn't fair of me to ask Alice to get her head on straight just then but this was an emergency. Even so, words weren't easy to come by to explain it. What could be fitting for someone who was silently falling apart stitch by stitch at the seams? "...needs you."

She looked at me, her eyes clearing into the quizzical blue that was the norm. That strength Chingachgook and I spoke about, cascading in from all corners of her being,

"Alright," she stood up, casting a weary glance over at our Chief, who didn't notice. I don't think. She looked uncertain, worried, fearful of what she was walking into. I could sympathise, life isn't worth the effort when one has to walk out of their own pain into someone else'.

"Alright," she said again, reassuring herself, "What must I do?"

I just looked at her,

"I have a feeling you'll have a clearer idea about what to do than I. Alice?"

She stalled, looking back at me. She looked like a child, frightened senseless. Numbed. Whatever words I had were lost to me. Realising this, she continued on her way.

A few moments later, as I sat wondering about our precarious situation and Uncas and Alice's obscure place and importance in it, Chingachgook sat beside me once more,

"Where's the girl?"

"Which one?"

"Alice..." He hmm'd to himself, "She will need another name if she is to live with our people..."

"Why's that?"

"As her new father, I think it is better."

"Alright."

"Where is she?"

I shrugged and flinched when he stood up to go and seek her out but then he stopped. He thought a moment then sat back down,

"Perhaps not."

"Perhaps not," I concurred.

He raised his head up with his eyes closed,

"Spirits, do not bless me with a grandchild just yet."

I gazed incredulously at him,

"You don't think...Surely!"

"Woman, I know what times of death and decay do to living things," He fired back. He sounded so much like...a grandfather with his tone of voice and stern manner.

"Yes but she's...Alice…" for lack of a better word.

"And that changes anything?"

"Well yes because –" I broke off, Uncas' confession coming back to me.

"Because...?" He searched my face for answers, "He has told you his troubles. What are they?"

"He..." I rubbed my face, trying to clear my thoughts, "He believes he'll die for Alice whether he like it or not, it sounds like. He says he's dreamed it."

Chingachgook nodded solemnly then put his head between his knees,

"Death and decay. First times and fear wont serve as a barrier. Oh…my son. Hawkeye is adamant on life, Uncas is sure of death. Who is wiser? Who is stronger?" He looked at his white son, taking in the very different demeanour of Nathaniel; charismatic and loudly determined.

"I'm old now. I still can't decide," He let slip a bitter chuckle but Uncas' fear was in his father's bones as it was in mine, as it was in his own.

"What are we going to do?" I asked again. Chingachgook returned his gaze to me.

"We jump."

Just then, Uncas, tugging Alice along with him, came into view. All the answers on his face without saying anything. We were mere moments away from being discovered.

Alice's braid had not been removed this time. A powerful gesture, I thought.

Chingachgook got to his feet abruptly, calling out to Nathaniel and announcing to all,

"The time is now."

Nathaniel was ready. From the wall came Hayward, dishevelled and groggy.

"What are we to do? We have no fire arms, no knives...we have nothing," He said ardently, keeping his shoulders straight but he was frightened.

"We jump," Chingachgook answered much to Hayward's dismay,

"You're insane, old man, we can't possibly survive the fall!"

"Someone did. Besides, better that than capture, Sir," Nathaniel squared up to the soldier coolly, "But you can stay if you want. Find out."

"But the women-" Hayward pressed, ignoring Nathaniel but Chingachgook silenced,

"They stay."

"By God, man, you are mad!"

"The Huron war Chief won't want them dead here. He'll take them back to the Lenape camp," Uncas cut in, "Their fate will ultimately be decided by their chief. The journey there will buy us time to reach them."

Hayward looked around at a loss, his breathing heavy,

"Then I shall stay with them,"

"Not a lot of good that'll do, Sir," Nathaniel retorted.

"It is my duty," Hayward straightened again, holding true to himself admirably.

"Decided," Chingachgook affirmed before Nathaniel could have the last word, "Time to go, my Children."

At that, Nathaniel hastily dragged Cora away to confess one thing or another. It broke my heart to see that Alice and Uncas made no notion of goodbye. Not even a word of good luck and they stood an arms length apart.

Chingachgook waited for Uncas to take a running leap, his form disappearing into the curtain of water, then gone. Nathaniel and Cora gazed longingly at each other before he, too, soared passed her into the falls.

Chingachgook shook Hayward's hand and placed another upon the soldier's shoulder,

"You are good man," Then he turned to the Munro daughters, "Come here."

They gathered to him hesitantly, Cora more awkward than Alice ironically enough,

"Stay strong. By the grace of the Spirits, we will meet again soon, I am proud to have you as my family," He looked straight at Alice who went a deep crimson and tried to step away but was held steady by the Great Chief, "I don't know why I have not been told but keep your strength. You have more of it than you know."

Leaving Alice wide-eyed and fearful, Cora gaping at her, Chingachgook turned to me.

"Any last words for me?" I asked humourlessly. He shook his head,

"If you are to make it to Illinois, you jump with me," He grabbed my hand suddenly and pulled me to the water's edge, "Ready?"

"What? Never," I protested, staring into the living thunder.

I dared a glance back at the Munro's and Hayward's tragic circumstance but couldn't say anything for I was lurched forward abruptly and then we were falling.

Back in the same water I dragged myself out of earlier the same day, I half expected to be pulled out upon the same bank too, alongside a familiar dead and bloated body. But, as it were, Chingachgook held relentlessly onto my hand and we jolted to a halt amidst the rolling river, just short of the rocks and still water that would have us drift off towards the sea.

Uncas was holding out a musket to which Chingachgook clutched. Nathaniel was holding onto Uncas to ensure he didn't fall in when he caught us.

We were each hauled out of the water, breathless, leaning against each other in our exhaustion. A brief pause in a fairly eventful day. I say 'fairly'

lightly.

I stood up slowly and looked up at the waterfall a few 200 yards away. It was beautiful. Just as beautiful then as it was a month before hand.

Funny to realise that whatever happens to you or I in whatever land, no mater how joyful or devastating, the beauty of your surroundings don't change. Life out in the wilderness doesn't care about us.

If we die, we'll get swallowed up in the dirt. Things will eat us. We'll disappear.

"I didn't let go this time," Uncas said softly to me as I stared dreamily, into the water.

I glanced at him, granting him a small smile.

Then Nathaniel stood abruptly,

"Let's go." And he started marching on without us but Uncas didn't move, neither did Chingachgook as he held out his hand to his blood son,

"Wait, Hawkeye," He grunted as he was helped to his feet, "Be patient. There is something that must be addressed first."

"There's no time," the man countered, "We must go now if we're to catch them!"

Chingachgook didn't let go of Uncas' hand all the while. The young man was casting glances up at the falls continually, bringing Chingachgook's words regarding Uncas' state of being to life.

"There is still time. Be calm. Marie, I believe this is where we part ways, Traveller."

Everyone looked stunned. I wilted under their scrutiny, discomfort prickling up my spine.

"You're leaving..." Nathaniel said bluntly. It sounded harsh and hostile, his expression was not impressed.

"We've dragged her to hell and back," Chingachgook came to my defence, "If she doesn't go now, she'll never reach Illinois. Have I not told you, my sons, time and time again? Where the heart is, there you must go. No one must get in the way of that."

He turned to me with a sad smile and added softly,

"Not even friends. Not even family. You have been good to us. You may go."

What could I say?

Nathaniel marched forward and for a moment I thought I was going to be berated. Instead, he gave me a one armed embrace,

"Travel safe."

"Thank you..." I stammered.

Uncas said nothing. He just looked at me with an expressionless face. After a while he nodded as if finally giving me his consent,

"Don't get lost," he nodded for emphasis, "I'll see you when I see you again."

Chingachgook then pointed me in the right direction,

"Don't waver, traveller. Perhaps we will meet again…but on a different road."

"Chingachgook," I looked him in the eye, looking for some form of hurt but I could only find understanding. What had we done to disserve him?

"I'm sorry," was all I managed. I wanted to explain how this was best for me. That I needed to go. That I was not running from them. That I felt that if I went charging off to find the women, I'd never return. That I was the third choice of any situation and that, despite that not having been a problem, it would be and this plan of theirs, it would be the death of me. Uncas felt in it in his bones. I felt it in mine.

But the words wouldn't come out.

I watched them disappear into the forest like shadows then, like memories, faded.

I sat back down and looked down my road. It was easier but no less dangerous. I sat for what felt like hours. Moments stretched on and on until I forced myself to take a step towards Illinois. Then stopped, sighing heavily.

My bones be damned.

I was never going to take more steps than the one. I turned back and knelt down to spy the way back to them.

I felt a small tug of a smile. Why? Because for the first time, their tracks were as clear as day. Finding them would be easy.

A/N So there's the proverbial big reveal. We're on the last leg of the story, team. Thanks for the continuing support. It means a lot.
Chingachook's quite the guy, aint he?

My sort of person. Bless!

*I drew inspiration from Pocahantas. :)

A review, as per, is always welcome. In fact, leave 5! Cheers ma dears.