Hey everybody! Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron was one of my favourite movies growing up, and I've always wanted to write about it, and I think that now's a good time. I've done my best to make my OC flawed and three-dimensional, and she's going to go through her own journey of growth and self-discovery.

Now, for a serious disclaimer: This story contains violence, racism and sexism that was typical of the 19th century, along with all the ugliness and suffering that came from that. My OC is a woman of colour, which means a lot of that unpleasantness is directed at her. I'm letting you know right now, if that is something you're not comfortable reading, this might not be the story for you.

With all that out of the way, please enjoy the first chapter!


August 4th, sometime after midnight (probably?)

~ It's finally quiet now.

All the men have fallen asleep, and the guard towers are switching rotation, so they're bound to be lightly manned.

It's dark, calm, and I've got all my belongings with me.

Jonah went on another one of his stupid little speeches today, the usual garbage about the "Naysayers in Washington," and "Manifest Destiny," like the self-important prick he is. But it's fine, he can talk out his ass all he wants. By the time the sun rises tomorrow, none of that's gonna matter.

Tonight's the night; I'm getting out of here once and for all. ~

Penny quickly closed her journal, stuffing both it and her pencil into her leather satchel. She needed to keep the entry short that night; time was a factor, and she needed to get moving as soon as possible. With all her important belongings in hand, she slipped out of her sleeping quarters – a small, shabby structure right next to the horse stables – and into the night air. She suppressed a shiver as a gust of wind blew past her. Despite how blisteringly hot it was during the day, the nights were surprisingly cold, even during the summer.

Whatever, she dismissed the thought. The odd weather was just another thing she wouldn't have to deal with after tonight.

As she moved across the fort, she made sure to stay in the shadows, hiding behind buildings and weaving around fences. There were eyes everywhere, even in the dead of night, honed sharp over countless months of watching for storms, dangerous animals, and hostile natives. Keeping out of sight as much as possible was vital for her to have even a prayer at escape.

At about the halfway point, Penny stopped against the wall of one of the barracks to take a quick breath and assess her surroundings. She was doing well so far, she noted with a building sense of optimism; she's managed to go undetected and she was making good time. She was aiming to be miles away from the fort by the time anyone (Jonah or Murphy, more likely than not) noticed she was gone. Of course, since she couldn't steal one of the horses without making enough noise to wake the dead - a lesson she had unfortunately learned the hard way during her 2nd escape attempt - she resolved to making her journey across the desert on foot.

She would be fine, she reassured herself. She had food and two flasks full of water, so at least she wouldn't immediately die, right?

Right?

"I got a letter from Maggie yesterday."

The sound of a man's voice startled Penny out of her thoughts, whipping her head around towards the source. Just her damn luck, she wanted to groan, as she spotted two soldiers on night patrol, each holding an oil lamp and coming right her way. She quickly ducked out of sight behind the barrack wall while trying to keep her breathing steady. As the soldiers walked past, she found herself overhearing their conversation.

"Oh yeah? How is she?"

"Good, good. My mother moved in with her to help prepare for the baby."

"That's real nice. You hoping for a boy or a girl?"

"A boy, of course. Whole family is. Christ, it's starting to feel like me and the missus are only able to make girls. And don't get the wrong idea, I love Mabel and Sadie. But come on, I deserve at least one son, don't I? Someone to pass on life experience to, help grow into a real man?"

"Ha, amen to that, my friend."

As the sound of their voices began to grow fainter, Penny took a chance to peek around the corner, seeing the two men walk away in the opposite direction, the light of their lanterns becoming dim. Breathing a sigh of relief, she crept out of hiding and continued on her way.

She caught a glimpse of the front gates, easily one of the most heavily guarded areas in the whole fort, second only to the armory. Flanked by two watchtowers with armed guards standing by 24/7, she had never even attempted to escape through there. Honestly, not even she was desperate enough to try and just waltz right out the door. Thankfully for her that night, the front gates were not her final destination. She was, in fact, headed down to the right of the north wall, where a loose, marked log stood. She had discovered it only two days earlier, when she noticed a lizard try to force its way through into the fort. It was then that she realized that if she pushed it hard enough, it created an opening that was just big enough for her to shimmy through, out into the desert. Of course, this meant that once she was out, she'd have to make a mad dash in order to create enough distance between herself and the fort, but after months of living at this godforsaken post in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of pompous, leering soldier boys, that was a risk she was more than willing to take.

Penny began to feel her heartbeat quicken as she got closer to her way out. It had taken almost a dozen attempts and months of excruciating trial and error, but she now found herself closer to true freedom than she'd had in the last four years of her life. For a moment, she allowed herself to think about what she would do after she was free. She wasn't sure of what laid beyond the desert, so maybe she could make a go of living off the land for a while. Loathe as she was to admit it, living at the fort taught her a surprising amount about hard survival in hostile conditions.

Either option was ultimately just a means to an end, anyway. To get up north, maybe even find the Foleys again. To go back what was left of ho-

CLANK!

Penny's felt her heart sink into her stomach at the obnoxiously loud sound of glass hitting the side of her boot seemed to reverberate across the entire fort. Her eyes having adjusted to the dark, she looked down in disbelief at the ground to find an empty bottle of whiskey laying discarded at her feet. She grit her teeth. How the hell hadn't she noticed-

"Hey, what was that?"

"Shit!" She hissed. Before she could sprint towards the loose log or even think of what to do, the light of the oil lamps seemed to shine so brightly in the night she had to cover her eyes.

"It's Penelope! She's making a run for it!"

"Aw, hell! Not again!"

Her hands curled into fists, beyond angry with herself that she had been spotted, but her eyes still burned with determination. Okay, she had been spotted, but she still wasn't going to go down without a fight, damn it.

Taking a deep breath, she bolted towards the loose log, running faster than she probably ever had in her life. She could hear soldier's voices behind her, telling her to stop running and surrender immediately. Yeah, sure. She was totally going to give up on her shot at freedom because they asked nicely.

"You get back here, you good-for-nothing little rat!"

Or not so nicely.

Despite their persuasive arguments, she didn't feel inclined to slow down, and before she knew it, she was face to face with her ticket out of here. Knowing the soldiers would be closing in on her in less than a minute, she wasted no time and began to push the log aside in order to create her opening out into the desert. The damn thing felt heavy as a boulder to her in that moment, definitely not helped by the sounds of heavy, military-issued leather boots rapidly headed her way. Still, she couldn't stop now, not when there was even the slightest chance of her still being able to get away.

She doubled her efforts, putting every ounce of strength she could muster into pushing the log aside. The cocktail of panic and adrenaline running through her veins seemed to give her a slight boost, and after what felt like forever (but was actually only about 10 seconds), the stubborn piece of wood finally gave way, creating an opening just large enough for her to crawl through on her knees.

'Did… did I do it?' she thought, a small smile spreading across her face, 'Oh Lord, am I really getting out of here? It is over?' She quickly crouched down, readying herself to crawl through the hole…

… And felt what little hope she had allowed to build within her shatter as she felt a hand roughly grab the back of her shirt and throw her backwards on to the ground. She landed right on her back, knocking the wind right out of her. As she desperately gasped for breath, those same hands grabbed hold of both her shoulders and flipped her onto her stomach.

"Getting real tired of this, girl." A gruff voice said from right above her, as she felt her hands being tied behind her back with rope, "Waking us up at this hour, all to deal with your nonsense."

Penny groaned, partly from the pain, but mostly because she recognized the voice of her captor.

Christ, it just had to be Corporal Buchanan who caught her, didn't it?

From the ground, she didn't even bother to look up and face him. "Wouldn't have to if you'd just let me leave. Seems like you're all just wasting your own time." She shot back.

He pulled the rope especially tight against her skin, making her gasp at the sudden burning pain. "You sure do love that damn mouth of yours, don't ya? Guess we'll go see how much the Colonel likes it." He threatened, as if he thought that would actually scare her. He hoisted her to her feet and roughly pushed her in the direction of the barracks. She still refused to look at him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing the obvious disappointment on her face, but she couldn't help but turned her head towards her would-be escape. She saw two soldiers examining it, one of the pushing the large log back into place.

She looked away, shutting her eyes tight as she felt them sting.

She had been so, so close this time…


At this point, Penny was sure she had been inside the Colonel's personal living quarters more than any of the soldiers on this fort, and that was honestly not a good thing. She had been sat down on a chair in the Colonel's office with her hands still tied behind her back, with Corporal Buchanan and another solider standing guard so that she didn't try to run off again.

"You've done it now," Buchanan taunted as he paced the floor behind her, looked ever so smug, "There's gonna be hell to pay once the Colonel gets here. Gonna wish you'd never been born."

She couldn't resist rolling her eyes at the man's poor attempts at intimidation. She had been at the post for months at this point, and this fool still thought that beating his chest and hiding behind his superior officer was enough to browbeat her? She would laugh if it wasn't all so sad.

"Oh, I'm sure..." She drawled. This incensed the corporal, whose smirk twisted into a scowl.

"You making fun of me, girl?"

"No, I'm actually terrified, really. Look," she locked eyes with the man, her expression thoroughly unimpressed and almost bored, "Look how scared I am. I'm shaking in my boots. Made peace with the Lord and everything."

Buchanan's face flushed with rage, gritting his brown, tobacco-stained teeth so tightly she wondered if they might break. The other solider, noticing his fellow officer's building fury, attempted to defuse the situation.

"Hey, John, take it easy. Don't let her rile-"

His words were promptly ignored as the corporal grabbed a fistful of Penny's curly black hair and pulled hard, bringing her face so close to his that she could smell the remnants of cheap booze on his breath. She groaned in pain, which brought a glint of satisfaction to the man's grey eyes.

"You know what your problem is? You've got no respect, girl. No respect for your betters. And let me tell you," He tightened his grip on her hair, "It'll be a cold day in hell before I'm talked back to by an uppity little nig-"

The door in front of them loudly swung open, catching the attention of Penny and the two soldiers. Stepping into the room was a tall man in his mid-thirties, his impeccably neat military uniform instantly showing him to be of higher rank than the two men before him. With his broad shoulders, unwavering confidence, and harsh gaze, he was someone that commanded the attention and obedience of everyone around him. And now, his light brown eyes -looking as cold as death- were locked on the three people in front of him.

"C-Colonel!" the other soldier hastily greeted his commanding officer before saluting. Buchanan, now looking like he was about to sweat bullets, let go of Penny's hair as if it had tried to bite him, before giving the colonel a salute of his own. She still glared daggers at the man next to her, not paying the highest-ranked officer in the entire fort any mind.

"Gentlemen," the Colonel finally deigned to speak to them, "What's seems to be the problem?"

Penny resisted the urge to scoff. As if he didn't already know.

"It's Penelope, sir," Buchanan found his voice again, gesturing to the girl tied up in the chair in front of him, "She tried to escape again. This time through a loose pillar along the north wall."

"A loose pillar? I see," The Colonel said, his attention now solely on Penny. "In that case, assign some men to repair the wall in the morning. We can't afford to have any flaws in our defenses."

"Yes, sir." The soldiers dutifully replied. Still, the man's focus on Penny, who looked up at him, visibly agitated. If her openly hostile demeanour bothered him at all, he didn't let it show.

"Good. With that taken care of, if one of you would be so kind as to untie her, you can be on your way."

The two lower officers looked at each other with uncertainty.

"Are you sure about that, sir?" the solider whose name Penny couldn't quite remember voiced his concern, "You don't think she'll try-"

"There's no reason to worry, Corporal Ledford," the Colonel cut him off, "Even she knows how pointless it would be to try and run again, given how she's already failed." He confidently declared. His gaze turned arrogant as his lip curled into a small smirk, "You've learned your lesson tonight, haven't you?"

She didn't dignify him with a response as she glared at him, which once again failed to phase him. Buchanan, to her mild surprise, crouched down behind her and undid her restraints, the rope falling limply to the floor. With her hands now free, she brought them to her head to message her sore scalp, which still hurt from Buchanan's rough handling of her hair. Nasty son of a bitch.

Satisfied, the Colonel regarded the two officers. "That'll be all, gentlemen. You're dismissed."

Ledford couldn't leave fast enough, almost forgetting to salute before he did so. Buchanan lingered for just a second, sending one last hateful glare towards Penny that she knew the Colonel also noticed, before turning and following his fellow officer back outside.

For a few moments, the two of them simply looked at each other, the air filled with tension so thick one could cut through it with a knife. Eventually, it was the Colonel that broke the silence.

"Penelope."

"Jonah."

Col. Jonah F. Comstock simply chuckled at her unfettered use of his first name. Penny had long since lost count of how many times he had ordered her to refer to him by his rank while at the fort, her refusing to do so every time. She wasn't one of his solider boys, she'd always remind him. Given that she was stuck here against her will, she'd call him whatever she damn well liked.

"You know, I have to wonder, Penelope. Do you know how long you've been here, at this military post?" he asked, beginning to pace the floor in front of her.

"Not really, but I'm sure you're about to tell me." She deadpanned, crossing her arms.

"It has been exactly six months, two weeks, and three days since your arrival."

Penny rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Of course you know it down to the fucking day…" she muttered under her breath. Again, if he had heard her, it didn't phase him.

She was starting to think that nothing did.

"And in that time," he continued, "counting tonight, you've made eleven different attempts to run away. Now, in most other circumstances, I would admire the sheer amount of tenacity you've displayed, really. I would say that, if every single one of your efforts didn't end in utter failure."

"If you're trying to make a point, Jonah, just go ahead and make it. Don't waste both our time."

His eyebrow twitched ever so slightly, and his smirk disappeared. "Very well." He casually strolled over to a nearby window, looking out into the night, "I suppose I'm simply trying to figure out why you haven't realized how foolish you're being."

Before Penny could protest, Jonah silenced her by holding his hand up before she could utter a word.

"Penelope, beyond the walls of this fort are miles of harsh, unforgiving desert. Scorpions, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, no reliable sources of food or water. The heat will kill you during the day and the cold will kill you at night. And even if you somehow manage to survive through it all, which you won't, and make it out of this barren wasteland, you are still days away from the smallest speck of civilization." He turned his head back to look at her, his gaze severe, "Here, there is food, water, shelter, and protection from the dangers outside. And yet you seem determined to leave all of this behind in exchange for a long, grueling death. I want you to be honest with me, Penelope," He walked towards her, hands clasped behind his back, stopping right in front of her and leaning forwards to meet her closer to eye level, "After you managed to crawl your way out through that little hole, what exactly was your plan?"

Penny opened her mouth to answer, but what little words there were died in her throat. She scoured her brain to come up with an answer for him. What was he trying to say? That she didn't have a plan? Of course she did! She'd brought food and water flasks for her journey through the desert…

… Though thinking about it, she definitely hadn't brought enough to last her several days…

… Plus, she didn't know the layout of the surrounding area, having arrived here by cart…

… And she didn't know where she could get a map, or more supplies if she ran out, or first aid…

Christ, she really didn't have a plan, did she?

Above her, Jonah seemed satisfied. Her silence was all the answer he needed.

"That's what I thought." Standing up straight, he stared down at the girl in front of him as a teacher would to a misbehaving child. "You're better off here, Penelope, but you can never seem to realize that."

"I'm not, Jonah."

"What?"

"I'm not better off here."

"Oh?" he raised on eyebrow, "And where would you be better off, then?"

She raised her head to look him directly in the eye, meeting his piercing gaze with one of her own. "That's just it, though. I don't really know where I'd be better off, where I should be. But what I do know is that it should be my choice, Jonah. Not yours, or anyone else's."

A few moments of silence followed her words, neither saying anything. Penny had already said her piece, and Jonah, for once, didn't seem to have a rebuttal, looking at her growing frustration, and possibly disappointment.

"Does that mean we're done here?" Penny asked. She didn't wait for him to reply before she got to her feet and turned to leave, "Good. I'm going to sleep, then. Night."

"Actually, you are not."

"Wait, what?" she whipped her head back, watching him make his way behind his desk. He grinned at her knowingly.

"Well, seeing as you clearly have so much energy to burn, I've decided that your workday will begin right now," a drawer opened, and Jonah placed an oil lamp on the surface of the desk, "You will report to the stables and clean it from top to bottom until sunrise, after which you will perform your regular duties."

"But-"

"Of course," he interrupted her, "if sleep is really that important to you, you're more than welcome to go and get some rest… in the stockades."

Penny pursed her lips in anger as she clenched her hands into fists, all the while Jonah looked back at her and continued to smirk, looking far too pleased with himself for her liking. Because they both knew that tonight, things would only be going his way.

Stubborn as she could be, even Penny knew when she was licked.

"Fine." She grumbled, grabbing the handle of the lantern off the desk before marching out of the building, making sure to slam the door behind her.

Standing alone with the door to her back, surrounded by the darkness of the night, she gave a ragged sigh, the rage already drained from her face and replaced with grim resignation. This was certainly not how she thought this night would go, she thought bitterly. If only things hadn't gone to shit, if only she had seen that goddamn whiskey bottle, she could have been long gone and on her way through the desert to freedom.

Or dead, as Jonah had been happy to point out.

… Sometimes she wondered if there was any point to this. Three years had gone by since that day, and ever since it felt like her life had become nothing but a long, brutal struggle. Maybe… wouldn't it just be easier if she…

No. No, she couldn't let herself think that. She couldn't stop fighting, she wouldn't stop fighting. To do so would be spitting on the memory of her parents.

By God, she'd be free, or die trying.

Still tired, but also strangely invigorated, she began her trek to the other side of the fort, the lit oil lamp leading the way. She had a dark, dirty stable to clean.


Alright, that was the first chapter! I hope you like Penny so far. I've spent over a year developing her character, and she's only at the beginning of her arc, so I would love to hear your feedback. Constructive criticism is always welcome, and I'll see you all again in the next chapter!

MA