Disclaimer: Found in part one.
Before Kaiyana even realized what she was doing, she was sprinting towards the men's horses. They immediately saw her and Mike took a shot. As Kaiyana reached Mike's horse the bullet hit it's mark and lodged itself deep inside Kaiyana's shoulder. The Kiowa had always said that Kaiyana had a warrior spirit, tough, strong and unbeatable, so as the bullet tore through her flesh she bit back the pain, hardly flinching, and climbed onto the horse taking off at full gallop before the men had anymore time to cause her harm. That was, at least in the immediate future.
~*~
Vin had to approach this like a warrior. And he was. In his mind he was preparing for what he knew was going to be a great war of wills. His would have to be stronger and that would be quite a task. He pondered all possible approaches to this complex and difficult issue. Before finally taking a stand against his five year old daughter, "Darlin', I really cain't explain this to ya."
"Why not?" Star pouted.
"Because I can't."
"Why not?"
"I just can't."
"Why not?"
Vin paused; this was going to be more difficult then he had first anticipated. After leaving the confrontation in silence for a few moments while he thought he returned with an answer that he was sure would drive Star as crazy as she was currently driving him, "Because I don't want to."
"Okay," Star answered without a trace of frustration or anger. Before turning to her father, taking his hands, looking sweetly into his eyes and saying, "It's okay that you don't know what they're doing either."
~*~
Kaiyana could feel the wind rushing past her and blowing harshly into her open wound. The pain was stinging. She knew it wasn't a cold day, yet to her it felt freezing. However, she couldn't slow down. Her pursuers were close behind her and gaining with every passing second. She couldn't slow down. But she also knew that simply keeping up the pace wasn't going to be enough either. She had to find some way to slow them down or lose them. Because if she didn't do something soon, she was getting the distinct feeling that she would never to anything again, ever.
Kaiyana turned slightly in the saddle, in order to see how far away the men that chased her were. They were only about 30 yards behind her, way to close for comfort. Also to close for her to try to lose them, they would see wherever she went. She could also tell that they were moving faster then she was and therefor gaining on her rapidly.
She tried desperately to think of something she could do to escape them. But she could not think. It was as if a smog of pain had settled over her, debilitating her mind. She felt as if she was out of her body, or perhaps disconnected from herself and her situation. As hard as she tried she couldn't pull herself back to the reality. Her mind floated in some nameless, faceless, thoughtless chasm, and the worst part was she couldn't bring it back. Time seemed to be slowing as she continued to ride. The steady beat of the horses' hooves pounding the hard dirt floor lulling her further into a state of mindless drift. Her conscious thoughts now seemed to be out of body things that would every once in a while trigger her interest enough to listen but not to actually act on these thoughts. It was as if nothing could pull her back into life.
Suddenly, Kaiyana felt her world starting to shake slightly. Now it was beginning to slide. What's happening? Something somewhere inside her screamed. However by the time she realized she was falling from her horse it was too late.
~*~
Mary Travis awoke abruptly with a start. She looked around a little aimlessly in the dark trying to figure out what had caused her to wake up. Thinking for a moment she remembered hearing someone scream in her sleep…Star!
Mary got up the minute that name flashed in her mind. She could have sworn she heard Star scream in her sleep. Mary moved quickly through the upstairs hallway into the room that Star occupied.
When she entered the room, through the dark, she saw the little girl sitting up in her bed. Star was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, and as a result her dark hair clung to her forehead and her nightclothes clung to her body. She was also shaking uncontrollably.
Mary moved quickly to the little girl's bed and started cooing softly to her, "It's okay, everything is all right."
However Star looked up at Mary and said quietly in haunting sort of voice, "No, everything is not all right. They are gonna kill my mama."
"Who?" Mary found herself asking even though in the back of her mind she knew that probably wasn't the best response she could have given.
"Those men," Star said sounding like the scared little girl she was.
"Honey," Mary soothed, "How do you know men are trying to kill your mama?"
"I see it in a dream," Star said trying desperately to make Mary understand. It seemed to Star that no one here in this place understood the truth her dreams usually carried.
"Honey, dreams aren't real. They're just make believe things that come while we sleep. I'm sure your mama is just fine," Mary tried to make the little girl feel better however looking at her face Mary got the distinct impression that she had just added fuel to the fire.
"No!" Star shouted, "That's not true, not with my dreams. Sometime my dreams are true. Sometime they come to give me warning," She was crying now, "Why doesn't anyone believe me? First my daddy and now you? Why?"
Mary honestly had no idea what to do. She couldn't say that she honestly believed that Star dreams were really premonitions or warnings or anything like that. However she also couldn't go on telling the little girl that her mother was fine, after all, she was being hunted by bloodthirsty men (at least to the best of Vin's knowledge). So the only thing Mary could think to do was wrap Star in a hug and then go talk to Vin.
~*~
"Vin!" About ten minutes later, Mary called leaning slightly into the tracker's wagon. "Vin!" Mary hissed once more.
She watched as Vin tossed and mumbled slightly before settling back into peaceful sleep. "Vin!" Mary tried one more time, this time a little louder.
With that Vin bolted up, promptly hitting his head, cursing, then realizing Mary was the one who had awoken him, he blushing slightly before addressing her, "Somethin' wrong, Mary?" After a moment of getting oriented his expression changed, "Star's all right, ain't she?" The worry in his voice was evident.
"Oh, well, don't worry," Mary said to put to rest his immediate worries. "It's just that Star woke up after having a dream. She insists that her mother is in trouble and when I tried to tell her that dreams weren't real, she started crying and asked me why everyone thought she was lying."
"Oh," Vin said quietly, remembering that he had just done that with her himself. "She dreamed about Kaiyana agin," Vin spoke more to himself then to Mary. After a moment he faced Mary once more saying, "What do you think?"
"About Star's dreams?" When Vin nodded his head, Mary continued, "Well, I myself believe that dreams are simply a figment of one's imagination. However, it has been said that some people can dream premonitions…" Mary spoke sounding somewhat distant, lost in thought.
"Mary, yore as bad as Ezra. Couldn't ya just talk in english?" Vin spoke, hating to look foolish do to his lack of vocabulary but what Mary had just said had been pretty much over his head and on subject matter this important he was more then willing to compromise his pride a little bit.
"Oh, well, some people believe that it is possible to see the future or the present or even the past through their dreams," She amended.
"Oh," Vin spoke. "What should I do?"
"Well, Vin, that is entirely up to you. But, Star is still pretty upset and the reason I came down here was to ask you to go up and talk to her. What you do after that is something you're going to have to figure out."
"Okay, Mary, give me a second. And I'll come over to yore place…"
~*~
"You have to go save her!"
"I can't," Vin pleaded hopelessly with his young daughter.
"Why not? You said you loved her, why aren't you helping her!"
"I do love her!" Vin shouted, then feeling a little sorry for exploding lowered his voice and tired to explain, "I can't go after her because I don't know where she is. I don't know what she's up against. I don't know if she's safe or healthy or anything like that. How can I help her when I don't even know where to look for her?"
"Is that the only reason you won't go find mama?" Star asked in conspiratorial way.
"Yes," Vin answered slowly but resolutely.
"She's a couple hours from here, to the northwest. She fell off her horse and some men are gonna get her and hurt her bad. They are at the foot of a mountain."
"You saw all that in a dream?" Vin asked sounding suspicious.
"Yes," Star answered him in such a way that he couldn't help but believe.
"Okay," Then he got up and started to walk away.
"Where are you going?"
"To go find your mama," Vin answered simply.
~*~
"Are you sure about this endeavor, Mr. Tanner?" Ezra Standish found himself asking as the seven were now departing to go search for a missing woman on the basis of a five years old's dreams.
"Yeah, Ez, I'm sure," Vin spoke resolutely.
"Alright," Chris Larabee commanded, "Let's ride."
~*~
The seven men rode wordlessly following Vin throughout the landscape. Despite the fact that he only vaguely knew where he was going he rode through the land expertly, as if he had the exact location they were headed to pin pointed. So far two hours had passed and the men knew that they were fast approaching the basic search area. However, none of them really had any idea what to expect, and that included Vin. So far they had been following what Star's dream had said, which also said that men had been chasing her. With that in mind, they kept themselves mentally prepared for anything.
"Where in tarnation did she git to?!!" The seven heard a voice, not far in the distance, shout. They were immediately on even greater alert. Wordlessly they all prepared for facing this man and whatever number of comrades he might have with him.
They approached slowly and cautiously, until they heard the scream. It was utterly gut- wrenching and heart stopping. The absolute horror the seven men heard in that scream was enough to spur them all into action, Vin especially.
As the men came into sight Vin automatically called, "Kaiyana!"
"Vin!" Came out a strangled cry that was stopped short by the brute force of another.
"Who the hell are you?" Asked what seemed to be the ringleader of the men.
"Well, Mister," Chris spoke, "That ain't really important. All you have to know is that we've come for that woman and we ain't leavin' without her, and trust me, you don't want us to stay and take her from ya," As Chris spoke his hand subtly sent down to his gun, implying the rest to the rather odious men before him.
"I ain't scared of y'all," The man said, puffing out his chest just a little.
"Well, maybe you should be," Vin commented, his voice colder and more deadly then any of the seven had ever heard it before. As he said this he reached down and took hold of his sawed-off Winchester rifle. Within seconds the rifle was braced against his shoulder and his aim had been taken. "Mister, you don't give her to us now, I'm gonna splatter yer brains all over."
"Or I could…" But before the man could finish he saw that the rest of the rather accomplished looking group of gunslingers pull their weapons and aim them in the direction of him and his single man. The odds were no good, and the bitch just wasn't worth it. Besides he really didn't like the looks of the one in black, he was a man Mike could go the rest of his life without crossing. "C'mon," Mike voiced to his companion, "Let's git."
"But…"
"Shut up, we're goin'," Mike finalized.
"Them's gonna be mad…"
"We're goin'."
"Fine," The man said unhappily before mounting his horse.
Before they left Chris issued one last warning, "If you ever go after her again, me and my friends are gonna hunt you down and tear you to pieces, understand," As much as his words and glare of his eyes and the menace in his voice had been enough to scare the two men shitless. They both nodded that they understood and quickly mounted their horses and took off for the horizon.
The minute the two men were a distance away Vin was off his horse and at Kaiyana's side. As he lifted her into his arms he got a mischievous glint in his eye, "Been a while, Kaiyana, I never thought I'd be comin' to yore rescue."
If looks could kill Vin would have dropped dead on the spot, "Who said I needed to be rescued?" Kaiyana challenged in a weak and horse voice.
"Oh, come on, who do you think you're kiddin', girl?" Then in a distinctly girly voice Vin mocked her, "Vin! Vin! Come save me!!"
"Funny, I do not remember saying anything like that. I do remember you and your sorry hide sounding all choked up crying, Kaiyana, Kaiyana!"
Vin laughed. He smiled down at her. Then looked at her still bleeding wounds and got scared again. "Nathan!"
"I'm right here, Vin. Why don't you set her down, so's I kin take a look at her?"
"Oh, okay," Vin spoke a little sheepishly.
"Howdy, Ma'am," Nathan greeted.
"Hello, Mr.?"
"Jackson, but why don't you call me Nathan?"
"Alright Nathan, then you can call me Kaiyana."
"Sounds good. Now, let me take a look at that shoulder of yourn," Nathan said. He was surprised at how calm and happy she seemed. It seemed as if she was feeling almost no pain at all, and as Nathan studied her wound, that was hard to believe. The wound certainly wasn't life threatening, but, frankly, judging by what she'd been through the past few weeks, hell, according to Vin, what she'd been through the last few years, she should feel like hell. Her wound was dirty which concerned him, however he decided the best thing for all concerned would be to quickly clean the wound wrap it and do the rest back in Four Corners.
TBC