Missing:

Colorado Springs:

Dr. Mike and the rest of the family were at the homestead when Sully rode back up. He had gone out looking for Colleen after she had failed to show up at the house after storming out of Dr. Mike's clinic nearly four hours ago. When Sully walked through the door and told them that he hadn't been able to find her and that he was going to talk to Daniel in the morning about getting a search party going, Dr. Mike and the rest of the family just sat in their chairs feeling numb. If Colleen could disappear while walking home from town, then nobody was safe. The family packed some things and said that they would be staying at the clinic until Colleen was home safe and sound. And that way if Colleen was injured somewhere and when she was found, Dr. Mike could look at her immediately.

So the next morning, the family grabbed their belongings and headed into town. The town was already stirring and Daniel met them at the clinic asking what was wrong. Sully got down and helped Dr. Mike down, who was pregnant with their second child. Katie was with Matthew and Ingrid who had gotten married a few months ago. Brian had gone over there as well to tell Matthew where they would be staying so that the family could be there for Colleen as well when she was found. After everything was in the rooms in the clinic, Sully went over to where Daniel was, near the Saloon, and told them what had happened. Both hank and Jake, along with Robert E, Daniel and even Matthew said that they would leave as soon as possible to start looking for her. Sully would head over to the Reservation to get Cloud Dancing to have him help in the search as well.

If Colleen wasn't found within the first day or two of her being taken, they didn't know if they would ever see her again, and the whole of the town wanted her back, no matter what it took to get her back. They started out almost immediately. Cloud Dancing was aloud off the Reservation to help look for Colleen and aloud to stay in town while the search was under way. Though the townspeople didn't really like the fact that Cloud Dancing would be in town during the search, they understood why he was. With Dr. Mike pregnant, Andrew out of town and Colleen missing, Cloud Dancing was the next best thing to a doctor that they could trust, and everyone knew that. If it hadn't been for Cloud Dancing's medicinal herbs, then some of the townsfolk would definitely be dead from the epidemic that had swept through their town.

Cloud Dancing stayed with Dr. Mike while the townsfolk went out in search for Colleen, but after nearly a week, they were starting to give up hope of even finding her. Sully and a few others had thought about going into Indian Territory to see if she had been taken there, but there was no telling which camp she would have been taken to (if she was even in Indian Territory to begin with) . Dog Soldiers had been spotted in the area around the time Colleen had been missing and knowing from personal experience, Dr. Mike knew that they wouldn't give Colleen back without a fight. So, when a week had passed, smaller and smaller groups of searchers had been sent out to find her, though Sully, Matthew and Brian went out daily to see if they could find her.

The Trail:

Snow Maiden, Thunder Dancer and Colleen were in the cave that they had stopped at during the morning hours of their second day in flight from the Dog Soldiers camp. They knew that the absence of Colleen in the tepee when the others woke the next morning had alerted the Indians as to what had really happened. And they knew that they weren't being followed since they had crossed into the white man's territory on their first night (slightly into the morning hours of course). They were being weary of even the white man because if Colleen was seen with them before they were able to get her back to her home, then both Thunder Dancer and Snow Maiden would be killed on the spot (for the kidnapping of Colleen, even though they were returning her to her home). Thunder Dancer had just made some Willow Bark Tea when the sounds of horse hooves could be heard approaching the cave from the south face.

Thunder Dancer grabbed his spear and gave the bow and arrows to Snow Maiden who positioned herself in front of Colleen, who was shivering from fever next to her. Thunder Dancer doused the flames with dirt so there would be no smoke and then positioned himself near the entrance of the cave. It was growing dark and though he wanted to be out of the cave that night, he knew that Colleen needed her rest so they were planning on leaving the next night. The horses were in the back of the cave, near a small pool of water which they lapped at happily. And apparently they weren't the only riders that wanted to use the cave that night, nor were they the only ones that knew about the cave.

Snow Maiden made sure that whoever was about to come through the entrance of the cave couldn't see Colleen's face or hair for fear that she and Thunder Dancer would be shot on site. Snow Maiden had come to cherish Colleen like a sister and would do anything to protect her, no matter what the cost was. The sounds of men's voices filled the air as they tied their horses to the nearest tree and grabbed their belongings. They started to enter the cave when the older man stopped. He saw Thunder Dancer and then Snow Maiden. He thought he saw someone lying behind Snow Maiden, but couldn't be sure who it was. The other two men, both much younger than the one in front of Thunder Dancer stopped as well. And all three looked in awe at what they saw. There was no way they hadn't checked this cave since it was the first thing they checked when Colleen had first gone missing.