They stayed wrapped in each others comfort for what felt like many hours, but was in reality only a small amount of time.
Finally Erin shifted, barely able to see him now, the moonlight had become shrouded by thin wisps of cloud. She wanted to tell him that everything was going to be alright, the Huron would come soon, they would be found, but it would all be alright. He just had to survive it.
Instead her hand reached for him, her palm resting gently upon his cheek, thumb casually wiping away a smudge of dirt. Eyes connected and she smiled. "You have to remember... no playing the hero, no knight in shining armour."
Uncas smiled too, a whisper of a movement that didn't reach his eyes. "For my people, honour means everything. I cannot do nothing while others need me."
"I'm not asking you to do nothing-" Erin felt the bubble of more harsh protesting words in her throat, but knew from his expression he had more to say, and so stilled herself, giving him a nod of encouragement that she would listen.
"I worry for her, for Miss Munro, not because of..." His words trailed off, eyes drawn for a moment to the overcast sky. "But for her naïve kindness, her innocence. I was fascinated, you were right," he confessed, without any hint in his tone of contempt for the idea. "She doesn't deserve what has happened and she doesn't deserve to die on those cliffs."
"No, she doesn't," Erin said with a soft sigh.
"I feel I could have cared for her... I feel it would have been easy..." He sounded confused and almost disconcerted by his own words. "She was so lost and I could have reached out and found her if-"
"If I hadn't distracted you?" Erin was surprised to find his words didn't make her feel any element of jealousy, just a bone deep regret that things couldn't be changed.
Uncas laughed softly, and it was a warm sound in the chill semi-darkness. "Yes, you fascinated me too with your foolish boldness."
"Foolish?" Erin tried to sound comically insulted but the humour wouldn't push through the barrier of disquiet she currently felt. "Yes, you may have a point." She paused, wondering if she should chance saying more, and took the small leap of faith that he would listen and perhaps try and understand. "I think, maybe you feel those things because it would have been easy." She felt him shift slightly, a little tense of unease creeping into his muscles. "Not because of any destiny," she added quickly, "I don't really know if destiny is even a real thing... but Alice, she truly is a remarkable person. She doesn't often get to shine very brightly, but maybe in the wilderness she felt that freedom you love too. I think you saw her light."
"Perhaps," he whispered, eyes drawn back to her from the rushing water.
She looked up at him, suddenly serious. "I am sorry. I know you can't really understand what I mean, that it makes no sense to you, but for my own sake let me say it?"
He nodded, allowing her the self pity. "You will also be in danger, if you go with them. Tell me again what will happen?"
"At the Huron village, Nathaniel must come alone and give the Sachem council."
Uncas nodded in understanding. "Alone my brother stands a chance of being heard, his bravery will grant him passage to powerful ears."
"Yes, exactly. The Sachem will listen and try and be fair. He cannot free everyone or ransom them to the French or English without it being a great insult to Magua, but he also respects your brother, so he will try and be fair to everyone."
Uncas grimaced a little, understanding there really was no fairness in the situation, only hard choices.
"He'll condemn Cora to the fires, but Duncan will offer his life instead, he'll save her," Erin said lowly, her mind once again going back to Duncan Heywood and his selfless sacrifice.
"Heywood will die?" Uncas asked, a small frown upon his brow.
"Yes, in the story I know, he does." She looked up into his eyes. "I want to help him, but I don't know if I can." Erin hesitated, knowing her next words may sound heartless and callous. "But if it means Cora's life and a chance to save Alice, it has to be done."
Slowly, Uncas nodded in grim agreement.
"Your brother and Cora will be given freedom to leave together. Alice will be given to Magua as a wife-"
"He will not honour that," he interrupted with a note of foreboding, "not if he has made a blood oath to kill them for his family's suffering." Uncas shook his head, knowing what was to come was as thorny as a briar patch.
"No, he won't," Erin agreed. "He has no intention of taking her as his wife. He will want to take her to the Huron of the Lakes."
Uncas nodded again, confirming what she had already told him at Fort William Henry. "He wants his justice witnessed, you said?"
"Yes. That is where he is going, when you meet them upon the cliffs." Erin squirmed a little with the mere thought that any of this could come to pass, that this man before her would die in the way she had read hundreds of times.
"He may kill her up there, if he knows Colonel Munro has survived. Better one oath kept than all lost," Uncas said, fingers absently pushing away a stray hair from Erin's cheek.
"I don't know." Erin let out another sigh. "He must know Munro lives unless he found him and killed him. We don't really know what happened to the Colonel after we fled onto the lake. I hope he made it."
"As do I." He paused, once again watching the still sky behind the constant flow of water.
A thought came to her and she blurted it out without thinking. "Do you think he will send soldiers to find his daughters?!" She hadn't really considered what would happen if Colonel Munro made it to Fort Edward, but if he had, surely that would be his next move.
Uncas considered the words a moment. "If he lives, I think all his intentions will be set on it."
Erin felt a little patter of excitement flutter against her chest. "Then he could-"
Uncas was shaking his head, eyes solemn. "Even if he can gather able bodied men from his injured forces, he will not know where we are, where we are going, where even to look. He will have to petition the leader of Fort Edward for aid."
The flutter turned into a stone, Erin knew he was right. "From what I know about General Webb, I get the feeling he'll be just as eager to help Munro's personal efforts as he was to save the entirety of Fort William Henry!" Erin huffed out a breath of frustration and he reached out a palm, smoothing it against her shoulder in an act of consolatory agreement. "I should have told the Colonel about what would happen, the lake, the river, the caves, the Huron village. Maybe then we'd have a chance of someone coming to help!"
"You did what was best. He would not have listened to such a far fetched story, you were already asking him to believe much," Uncas soothed.
"Then we really are alone." Erin felt her optimism sink and glanced up at him, his face a mix of lines and shadows in the darkness, but his eyes were alight with faith and she rallied her own will. "Okay, so I guess we'll have to do this all ourselves." She took in a deep intake of breath, steadying her nerves. "I will try and stay with Cora and Alice. I won't let Alice despair. I will try and save her, stop her going up those cliffs at all if I can. Remember I am there, I won't let her fall while I have any fight left in me!" Erin felt bolstered by her own words while at the same time fully comprehending she could not compare physically to Magua or any of his men, and Alice, would Alice even accept any help Erin offered now?
"It is because you are there willing to fight that it will be hard to wait," Uncas said, bringing her back into the moment.
"No, you must wait! Don't go alone, no matter what happens. Your father and brother must understand this too and plan something else, anything else, that means you will be together!"
He nodded, but a frown creased his brow.
"What is it?" Erin felt a streak of cold unease glance across her spine. He was suddenly unsure and seemed about to dismiss her question as folly, but this time she caught his gaze in her own, holding her to him in a gentle request for honesty.
"I fear..." he began, and touched his chest as if his hands could somehow explain the way he was feeling. "I..." he tried, but faltered again.
"Tell me," Erin urged, "no matter how it sounds, tell me."
He looked away, up to the night sky once again, a bright star had escaped the shadow of cloud and now sparkled like a crystal caught in sunlight.
"Knowing what you say will come," his voice was low and uncertain, "I want to protect her, I want to protect you, it is such a strong pull... I don't know if it's because I know what you foresee, or it was always there... but sometimes I begin to fear you may be right." He looked at her, a distressed gleam to his normally calm dark eyes. "That fate will catch me." His fingers spasmed a little in the shadow of defeat to come and Erin felt the hope dwindling within him, like a candle left out in a growing breeze.
Erin grasped his hand, pulling it away from his chest to her own, pressing his warm palm to her chilled skin, willing him to sense her own conviction. "Do you feel it?"
He froze a moment, eyes widening at her strange immodest actions, then his body relaxed into the moment, his eyes intent on hers, narrowing slightly as he tried to understand. Slowly he nodded as the steady pulse reached his touch. "Your heart."
"Yes," Erin said, still holding him in place, "my heart, my blood... I'm not meant to be here helping you, but I am, you can feel I am real, right?"
His mouth twitched just a little, unsure a moment if she was teasing him, given how highly inappropriate and forward the intimate contact was. "I can."
"Then all you have to do is remember this moment, when you feel you can't wait, remember right now, here... me... us. It's the one promise to me you aren't ever allowed to break, okay? You just have to live, that's all, just live."
His eyes travelled to hers, holding for a second.
"Promise?" Erin repeated the request.
He didn't reply but pulled her to him, they hovered between want and will a moment in a tense silence. Erin felt his hands upon her shoulders, gentle yet firm, holding her in place so the connection could not be broken. She could sense his gaze upon her as if a light caress glanced across her skin, sending all the tiny fine hairs across her body on end. Then his mouth dipped to hers, a soft, deep wanting meeting of lips his only answer. Warmth blossomed in her chest, like sparking tendrils flowing through her entire body, chasing away all the chill of the cave, leaving her blanketed in his embrace as he pulled her closer, his own breath hitching as he deepened the kiss, until everything else fell away. The worries, the fear, all meant nothing, and she reached for him, arms around his neck, kissing him back.
When they parted all Erin could hear was her own rapid brazen breathing for a moment as her senses pulled everything back into the present, overwhelming her with what was to come. All she wanted was to be back in his arms again, for everything else to disappear and for it to just be him and her. Erin knew this couldn't be, whether they willed it or not, time was moving and they would have to be ready.
"You believe me then? That I feel this... pull?" Uncas asked, placing his forehead gently to hers, expression concerned and sincere.
Erin laughed faintly, a tear once again rushing down her cheek, caused by a strange combination of distress and elation. "Of course I do! I asked you to believe so much more of me and you did, you saved me when I thought I could not be saved."
"Now you are trying to save me." He gave a sage nod and let her go from his embrace, turning back to give a cursory glance to their surroundings.
"No," Erin said, bringing his eyes back to her face, "I believe you can save yourself, you don't need me."
He smiled, that smug gallant satisfied thing she had grown to like so very much. "I need you," he said, eyes glittering with gentle merriment, and he tenderly pulled her to him, a brief kiss exchanged. She huddled her body to him, her cheek pressed against his chest, his arm casually around her frame, hand resting at the crook of her waist, lips briefly brushing the nape of her neck, sending equal parts comfort and craving racing through her body. They stayed that way for what seemed a long while, Uncas soon turning his attention back upon his watch as Erin let herself be soothed within his embrace.
"I won't ask anything more of you than that." She reached out her fingers, curling around his arm in a fraught gesture at what this meant, looking out towards the water, knowing if she looked at him now she'd want to cry again. She felt his arm tighten just a little around her body in encouragement. "To live."
He made a low noise of agreement. "I promise. If Miss Munro is taken I will wait."
"That's not what I asked," Erin said a little indignantly.
"I can't give you what I don't know. Life is unknown."
Erin tried to smile, the edges of her mouth trembling as she tried to gather any warm emotion, but the threat of the future lay like ice within her limbs and she was left breathless, blinking back tears once more.
He pulled her to him, hushing her distress with gentle reassurances in his own tongue.
She had so much more she wanted to say but the words never found her lips, and time marched unrelentingly forward until suddenly, there in the distance was a light, a blinding orange flame from a torch. They had been discovered. There was no more time.
Uncas had seen it before she had, his body stiffening. Erin placed what she hoped was a reassuring hand onto his shoulder. Silently they rose and made their way quickly down to the others, knowing the hourglass had finally run out.
In the cave below it seemed Duncan had not left Alice's side, his hand upon her arm in a gesture of comfort. His leg had indeed been tended and he looked a little more comfortable. The soldiers still sat huddled together, wounds bound as best as could be managed. One of them looked worse, a sickly pale pallor to his skin, his face running with sweat. All looked grim, obviously discussions had been had, their dire situation already clear to most.
"They are coming," Uncas announced, and all eyes flew to him.
Nathaniel's arms were around Cora, reluctant to let her go, but knowing there was no other way. There was a sudden palpable electric energy that all felt, a choice to be made.
Duncan glanced between them, looking thoroughly confused at what this all meant.
"You have to jump." Erin gestured to the waterfall and she saw Chingachgook nod, this set of events had been pre-discussed between son, father and brother it seemed.
"Yes, go ahead, go!" Cora said, pushing Nathaniel away.
"What the bloody hell plan is this?" Duncan was up on his feet, his expression thunderous.
"If we go there's a chance there won't be a fight. If we stay they may kill us all," Nathaniel said, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself, his eyes intent on Cora. "Alone, they may take you captive. If I live, I can try and free you. If we don't go, there is no powder, there are too many of them. Though my heart would keep me here, in that there is no chance. None. I can do nothing. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I want you to go," Cora said, fear battling with her bravery.
"Coward!" Duncan threw out the word with an angry scowl.
Cora ignored him, her hands grasping Nathaniel's shoulders, desperate that he understand her. "You've done everything you can do, save yourselves!" She was guiding him towards the water, her actions telling him he had to accept there was only one choice. "If the worst happens, and only one of us survives, something of the other does too." Cora was near tears and Erin felt a jolt of guilt, she wanted to rush to them and tell everyone here it would be alright, no one was going to die, not here, not now, not ever if she got her way.
"You're strong!" Nathaniel was just as desperate as Cora to make himself heard, his voice gruff. "If they don't kill you, they'll take you North, up to Huron lands. Submit do you hear?" He shook her gently knowing Cora's fierce spirit would want to fight back. "You're strong, you survive! You stay alive no matter what occurs!" From these words it was obvious Nathaniel knew their fates hung like flower petals in a heavy downpour, they could be battered to the ground or prevail, untouched, it was a gamble that had to be taken. "I will find you, no matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you!"
Cora looked stunned by his words, her mouth a little agape and Erin knew from the book this was the moment Cora truly understood this man would live and die for her and her alone.
Nathaniel pulled Cora gently away, talking to her lowly, his head bent to Cora's ear and Erin knew they were proclaiming their love. Erin watched after them for a brief moment her heart tugging in equal parts adoration and melancholy for their suffering.
Somewhere up above them a glow of light was growing, the Huron had reached the cave.
"You have to go, now." Erin's voice addressed everyone but her eyes sought only Uncas. "We will be fine, I promise. But you have to go."
Uncas gave a firm nod, placing his musket over his shoulder, he glanced to his father and an understanding was met.
Uncas pulled Erin quickly to him, his lips finding her temple in a brief soft kiss, a promise that they would meet again. In a flash of movement he had brought out his knife and with a tender, careful flick, cut a lock of Erin's hair, folding it into a pouch at his belt. His palm lingered on her cheek for a fleeting moment, a whisper of comfort falling from his lips in his own tongue.
"I am with you."
"And I with you," she replied, using his words in return.
The light grew further, the echoing of approaching footfalls and the sound of voices, they were nearly upon them.
Erin let go of Uncas' form, her hand falling away from him, and she stepped back, giving him a clear path to the sheet of water.
Chingachgook went first, no fear or reluctance, just a surety of what must be done, he burst through the roaring water and was gone. Uncas turned, hesitation upon his brow in a thin line. Erin smiled, her eyes telling him it was all alright and then he turned, sprinted and disappeared, swallowed by the torrent.
Nathaniel was the last, his eyes lingering over Cora's face, seemingly memorizing everything about her before he too ran, jumped and was gone. The cave was silent in their loss for a moment before the sharp sound of men's voices came into hearing, echoing off the walls, alerting everyone that this was the end of the road.
Erin backed up, coming to stand beside where Cora had been joined by Alice, Duncan taking up a defensive position before them, his sword already drawn.
Cora's hand was clutching Alice's and Erin reached for her other hand, a small look passing between the two women.
"He will survive," Erin murmured, and relief rippled across Cora's face. "We all will."
In truth Erin couldn't believe her own words anymore, in the book all three men survived, but in the book Colonel Munro was dead. If she had indeed changed things, if Munro lived, perhaps Magua would have different plans for them. Perhaps they would not in fact make it out of this cave.
All she could do was wait and see what was to come. She grasped Cora's hand tighter.
/
A/N
Another Friday, another cliff-hanger again! Return next week to see if Magua takes one look at Erin and pushes her off into the waterfall! :)))
When I first wrote this story, this chapter was so difficult to get right and I kept refusing to move forward in the story until I felt I had said all I really wanted to say between these characters. In the end I abandoned it for the sake of not driving myself crazy, and only came back to it after I began to upload here, I think I tweaked it enough to satisfy me. But are you satisfied dear reader?
Personally I really loved the aspect I was aiming for (and hopefully hit) that there didn't have to be any grand love story of giving up everything for each other upon their confronting both their feelings. I think accepting someone for who they are and what they are willing to comfortably give is really lovely. I hope I captured that whole idea I had in my mind onto the page.
I made the whole run up to them being discovered a little less frantic, otherwise just as MohawkWoman said, Magua may have got an eye full! I too always thought if A/U had their little love scene, that would really be risky! lol But I always soothed this point in my head in Spark by thinking they all got away a little sooner than in the movie, due to Magua being so fixed on Munro's escape. So there was more time to chat and have a nice cup of tea.
Most of you will have devoured the script as greedily as I did, and will know I did steal this cutting of hair moment from Nathaniel and Cora. I don't think this made it into the movie (although Mandela effect swears I saw it! I think I imagined it being there after reading the script, unless it's in one of the other editions I haven't seen for many years. Readers, any ideas?) and I always thought it was strange to omit because why does Magua seem so curious about Cora's hair in the next scene? Continuity is hard.
When I rewatch it now (to make it make sense), I think he is just gloatingly inspecting his prizes like they are objects, but of course, I assume originally Nat was meant to take some of Cora's hair, and Magua is doing the twirly moustache villain thing of 'what is this!'
I decided as soon I knew this story would have a form of romance between Uncas and an OC that there would be no braid given by Uncas, that is sacred to me in this fandom and I wanted that to always be only Alice' and Uncas'. I know that won't make this any better for some out there, but I promise by the end of this story Alice's and Uncas' story will not be destroyed...Ooooo what do I mean by that? *cackles like a wicked witch* I'm teasing again, sorry ;)
Flowangelic, MohawkWoman, again my heart felt thanks for your insightful and kind reviews and for keeping me going.