A Plan To Flee:
The Village: Mid-Day:
Snow Maiden was working out with the horses when word came from a rider that news of the girl's kidnapping had spread through the white territories. The white men were looking for the girl and they were looking everywhere for her. Turns out, that grabbing the daughter of Indian Agent Sully was really a bad idea, cause it wasn't just Sully and the townspeople that were looking for her. They had been able to get Cloud Dancing from the Reservation and he was helping look for Colleen as well. Snow Maiden continued to work, moving horses through the camp and securing them to different tents. She was securing two horses near her tepee when a hand was placed on her shoulder.
The older Indian looked at what she was doing, looked over at the white child known as Colleen who knew Cloud Dancing and then at Snow Maiden again. He nodded his head as if he had been talking to her and ignored the fact that the young Cheyenne girl was trying to flee the camp of dog soldiers and their families. He too had thought about going to the reservation and living there for a while until all the fighting died down. He too was Cheyenne, though he had been in Indian Territory when Washita had happened. He was the one that had taken in Snow Maiden and raised her like a daughter. They would leave together, at midnight, when no one else was around. He bade her to go see Colleen, who had taken sick after nearly a week of being with them.
The old Indian, whose name was Thunder Dancer, was a medicine man. He had married into the Pawnee, though his wife was dead now from the sickness that now held the white child Colleen. He had taken the two into his tepee and was helping her get better. If they could leave the camp peacefully and without any retaliation from the Dog Soldiers, then they could get the white child Colleen back to her own people and to a white doctor. Colleen had told Snow Maiden that her ma was Medicine Woman, a name given to her by Chief Black Kettle himself after she'd saved his life. She was respected among the Cheyenne and would help them with medicine as much as possible when Cloud Dancing's medicine was not enough. Snow Maiden nodded to thunder Dancer and went to Colleen, who was asleep in the tepee.
The Village: Midnight:
Thunder Dancer and Snow Maiden had readied the horses that evening, with some of the others watching them carefully. None said anything because they knew the two wouldn't be stupid enough to take the sick white child Colleen with them. So they all went to sleep and left the old medicine man and his adoptive daughter alone to do what they wanted. Though most of the Indians picked on Snow Maiden and pushed her around, they knew better than to do so when she was in the presence of Thunder Dancer. Snow Maiden got Colleen as bundled up as possible and then helped her out to Thunder Dancer's horse. Thunder Dancer picked Colleen up and placed her on his horse before getting up behind her to make sure she did not fall off.
When Snow Maiden had the last bag secured to her own horse, she got on her horse and the three of them headed out of the camp, headed back to the white man's territory. When the camp woke the next morning and discovered that they had taken Colleen with them, they needed to be back in the white man's territory so that the others could not follow them. They would hide in caves with the horses during the day and move out during the night so to make sure none of the Dog Soldiers or others were following them. And to make sure that Colleen was okay during the day.
They knew that there would be retaliation for taking Colleen out of the camp without permission, but if they didn't get her to her Doctor mother, Colleen wouldn't make it into the weekend. The sickness was unlike any they had seen to date and they wanted to make sure she was okay. And the only way to do that was to get her to her mother and to get her back to the whites. They had a long few days ahead of them that was for sure.
