As Duncan sat in the cave, drowning mentally in his sorrow, mentally in his grief, all he could think of, were the last moments that he saw Natalia alive, her smile, her bright, beautiful, glowing face, her laugh. God, the pain of losing her was killing him, physically killing him. As he saw Hawkeye tell Cora that he would find her in the most strongest, bravest way - it just made him long for death even more. Here he was, once again alone. Hawkeye walked over to Duncan but Duncan didn't even seem to notice. His eyes were fixated on the streaming waterfall, or what was beyond it.
"You stay with her Major." Hawkeye said. "She's going to need you."
Duncan didn't respond. He was physically there but mentally and emotionally, he wasn't. Mentally and emotionally, he was gone.
"Major?" Hawkeye said.
Uncas walked over to Hawkeye and touched his arm.
"Leave him be." Uncas whispered to Hawkeye. Let's just go."
Hawkeye continued to stand there, staring, trying to get through to Duncan's mental block, trying to understand it but failing.
With a slight shake of his head, Hawkeye turned away.
Duncan watched with sorrow as Hawkeye, Uncas and Chingachook jumped from out of the cave into the wildly streaming waterfall. God he wanted to do the same, he wanted to jump out into death, he wanted to jump out into the afterlife and reunite with Natalia. It wasn't long after Hawkeye, Uncas and Chingachook had left Duncan, Cora and Alice that Magua and his men arrived. Like brave and fierce warriors, Magua walked over to Cora and observed her with a dirty, filthy lustful observation. He then stepped over in front of Alice, lightly taking between his fingers a lock of Alice's long, brown hair before she moved her head away from him.
As Magua spoke a few words in his native language, his men stepped up and grabbed both Alice and Cora. As one of Magua's men grabbed Duncan's arm, Duncan angrily yanked away from the man.
"No!" Duncan yelled angrily.
Magua's man looked at Duncan with rage and took the stick in his hand and struck Duncan hard across the face, almost sending Duncan to his knees. the force of the strike was enough to make Alice gasp loudly.
As Magua's man grabbed Duncan's arm once more, Duncan pushed Magua's man once more and punched Magua's man in the face, knocking him out cold, Duncan quickly rushed over to to the tip of the edge of the cave. He leaned over, looking down at the large body of wild rushing water that was below him.
The other men with Magua were about to rush over to not only retrieve Duncan but attack him, but oddly, at that moment, Magua motioned for them to hold their stances for the moment. Magua stood there, staring observantly and curiously waiting to see what Duncan would do.
As Duncan stared over into the wild rushing water, he knew, That was it, that was all he needed to do, to have it to all be over, to - reunite with Natalia. As he closed his eyes with tears streaming, he looked back at Cora and Alice with his brown eyes clouded with tears, his facial expression visually apologizing to them for what he was about to do and more so, visually explaining to them how it was much too painful for him to go on yet another moment. As Magua sent two of his other men over to retrieve Duncan, Duncan quickly leaped off the edge of the cave, into the wild rushing waters and into his death.
"No Duncan!" Cora cried out with tearful eyes as Alice gasped with heartbreaking shock. As Cora tried to rush over to the edge of the cliff, one of Magua's men fiercely held her back, keeping her held tight in his grasp.
As Magua walked over to the edge of the cave and looked over, he could see nothing that resembled Duncan. All he saw was the intermixing of wave over wave of the wild rushing waters.
As Duncan dived head first into the waters, the water rushed into his lungs like a fast pacing bullet, piercing every inch of him with unbearable pain. With his instant first instincts, he began holding his breath, afraid to let go and let the water over take him, afraid to let the water drown him, but at that moment, as visions of Natalia began to flash through his mind, slowly his fear left him, he opened up himself and let go. He released himself to the death that at that moment was begging to overtake him in the wildness of the waters...He released and let go.
As Magua turned and looked back at his men with a careless shrug, Cora looked down and broke into light sobs. As Magua and men left the cave with Cora and Alice in their tight grasp, tears streamed from Alice's eyes. First she had lost her father, now Duncan. Who was next? Who would be the next person whom she loved and cared for that she would lose?