Title: Mystery of the Oxbow
By: greygoose70
Summary: "Why are you being so god damn stubborn!" Castle yelled.
"Because I'm god damn good at it!" Kate yelled right back.
DISCLAIMER: Own nothing associated with the show, AWM, or ABC.
Chapter 4
Day 8
By twelve noon the next day they arrived at the location where the fugitives had disappeared. Castle showed Kate where he found the bloody shotgun shell, the arrow, the shirt fabric, and lastly the unshod hoof prints. Castle explained to her that there was a light fog that morning and that his vision was obstructed by the trees, but he swore he envisioned riders.
Kate listened intently to Castles narration without comment. She tried visualize in her mind what happened and Castle's reaction, not only to what he found but to what he believed he saw.
Following a snack of beef jerky and some fruit, they hit the trail again. They dismounted their horses when they came to the area commonly known as Stone Creek, no water just large stones, hazardous for the horses. From there it was up a hillside an onto a cliffside trail of shale. Again they dismounted.
They were halfway across when it happened. Kate's foot slipped on some loose shale and she fell, began sliding down the hillside toward the steep drop off. Luckily, she managed to latch onto a protruding log and stop herself but there was no way she could right herself.
Castle immediately retrieved his rope, looped one end around the saddle horn, then proceeded down the slope toward Kate. But as luck would have it his own foot slipped on the shale and he went sliding down also. In a desperate attempt to keep from going over the cliff he rolled left and managed to grab one of Kate's legs, losing the rope in the process. As Castle lay there getting himself under control, he then called out to Kate, "Kate, can you see the rope?"
"Yes!" She shouted back.
"Can you reach it?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay. Let go with both hands and grab it."
"What about you?" she yelled.
"Don't worry about me, just do it!"
Kate wasn't sure this was a good idea, but she didn't see any other option, so taking a deep breath she let go of the log and lunged for the rope which she managed grab securely. "Okay, now what?"
"Trip!" Castle shouted. The dog instantly perked up at the sound of his masters voice. "Lead the horse!" Castle ordered. Trip took Astra's reins between her teeth, began leading her up the mountain, pulling Kate and Castle along. When they reached a level surface, Kate released her hold on the rope, Castle letting go of her leg. Trip ran over to where Castle lay and carrying his hat. Castle took the hat, rubbed the dogs forehead briskly and telling her "good girl, you did good."
They managed to traverse the remainder of the trail without any further problems, however, when they got to a solid surface and went to mount up Kate noticed Flicka (her horse) was favoring one of her front legs. Castle came over to take a look. "Her shoe came loose," he said. He then wandered over to the pack mule and pulled out a leather tool pouch and returned, began resecuring the mares shoe.
"Watching him work Kate couldn't help but comment, "You really are a cowboy, aren't you? Totally in your own environment."
Castle looked up at Kate and replied, "Kate, if I was born a century too late; you were definitely born a century too early." Castle finished dressing Flicka's hoof and put his tools away. "We better get moving, only have a couple of hours of daylight left."
They set up camp by a large stream. Castle was able to catch two fresh water trout for dinner. Then it was another night of interesting conversation before crawling into their bedrolls for sleep.
Day 9
It was their third day of their journey, and it was a slow one with Castle spending most of it on foot. When Kate asked "why", he told her because if they were tracking Indians, which he believe they were, then they would be very good at covering their trail. But there would still be signs, it just took him longer to find them.
That evening after a supper of Castles vegetable soup and hard tack bread, they sat around the fire. Kate was unusually quiet, she had something on her mind but wasn't sure how to bring it up, or if she even should. But Castle beat her to the punch saying, "I was married once, but she died."
"Oh, I'm sorry. What happen, if you don't mind my asking."
"Me, Kyra and her father were out for our usual Sunday, after church ride. We were on one of the river trails when her horse spooked. Kyra was thrown and ended up in the river. I immediately jumped in after her but the rapids were stronger than normal that day and carried her out and away before I could catch up to her. I watched her flailing her arms until she disappeared over the falls. We found her three miles downstream, her body battered and bloodied from the river boulders. Her father still blames me for her death."
"It sounds like you did everything humanly possible to save her. What else does her father think you could have done."
"According to him, died also."
"That's asinine, who is this father of hers?"
"Sheriff Kurkwood Blaine."
Day 10
Castle was busy loading up the pack mule. Kate was off in the bushes. As she appeared she asked, "how much deeper into this god forsaken area are we going to go?"
"Not much further. We're already deeper than I've ever been. Think we'll keep going until noon, if I don't pick up a solid lead by then we'll head back."
"Damn!" Kate suddenly spouted, "something chewed a hole in my sleeping bag."
"How many toes?" Castle asked.
"What?" Kate responded quite vocally.
"On the ground, how many toes do you see?"
Kate knelt down, staring at the ground. "Four," she said.
"Probably something small, maybe a chipmunk. They have four in front, five in back, something bigger, like a raccoon have five and five."
"Good to know," she answered then went on into another topic. But suddenly Castle wasn't paying her any attention. He sensed something, like they weren't alone, there was somebody or, maybe even somebodies out there. "And where's my canteen!" He heard Kate yell, interrupting him from his train of thought."
Castle saw her canteen lying on the ground three feet from where he was standing. He stepped over to where it lay, knelt down to pick it up, while slowly drawing his pistol at the same time. "Castle, have you heard a word I've said?"
"Yeah," he replied as he began to stand when suddenly whoosh an arrow penetrated the air, going right through the canteen Castle was holding, causing him to fall to his knees. He quickly righted himself, his gun out in front of him ready to shoot, but as he looked around he saw he was slowly being surrounded by Indians.
Kate was suddenly by his side, her hand on his pistols hand, gently pushing it down, getting him to lower it as she continued speaking to the Indians in what he was sure is Cheyenne. Another Indian suddenly came riding up, this one had the look of authority, Kate began speaking directly to him.
"What'd you say," Castle asked her in a low voice.
"I told him we come in a good way, that we mean them no harm. And that you are a great warrior, that you wouldn't have any trouble taking them all on in battle."
Castle turned his head toward Kate, gave her a shocked look, and again in a low voice said, "you've got to be kidding."
"The Cheyenne respect great warriors. But to show them we are friendly put your gun on the ground."
At Kate's request Castle laid his pistol on the ground, the leader then barked out an order. One Cheyenne brave leapt from hos pony and came forward. Trip moved toward the brave, started barking, the Cheyenne leader instantly shot Trip with one of his arrows. Castle immediately dropped down, yanked the arrow out and covered the wound with his hand, he then turned his head and gave the leader a menacing glare. The Cheyenne brave continued toward where the gun laid and picked it up, he then did a quick search of Castle and upon finding a knife relieved it from Castle also.
The Cheyenne leader gave another order, two more braves jumped down and secured Kate's and Castle's hands along with long lead lines. Castle squatted, picked up Trip and cradled the dog in his arms. The Cheyenne leader then heeled his mount and rode off, the other braves, along with Kate, Castle and their horses in tow, leading them deeper into the Oxbow.
They had been on the move for slightly more than hour when they came upon a shallow rocky bottom creek. Kate had been jabbering constantly on how she couldn't believe the situation they were in, not paying attention to where she was stepping, she stumbled. Castle ran over to her to help her; she kept apologizing to him for being so clumsy. Castle could tell she was too tired to walk any further, so he yelled for those in front to stop, but they didn't appear to be listening. Frustrated Castle grabbed Kate's lead line and yanked pulling the brave she was tied to from his horse.
The brave got up and came rushing at Castle. Castle waited until the brave was nearly upon him, he did a quick sidestep, then stuck out a foot tripping the brave, sending him face first into the creek. The brave quickly righted himself, turned to face Castle while pulling out a knife. Castle got into a defensive stance and waited. The brave moved in toward Castle swinging his knife back and forth, Castle just stood his ground.
When the brave got close enough he took an aggressive swing at Castle. Instead of backing away Castle stepped right into the swing and latched onto the braves wrist, twisted it then flipped the brave to the ground. Castle then placed his boot on the braves throat while maintaining hold of his wrist.
By now the Cheyenne leader had come back to see what the ruckus was about. Castle eyed him and instantly began shouting at him. "She's too tired to walk any further, she needs a horse!" Kate was protesting this entire time, but Castle continued with his tirade. "She gets a horse or he (nodding at the brave lying in the creek) dies."
The Cheyenne leader took a hard look at Castle then at his fallen soldier, he barked out an order and a brave brought Kate's horse forward. Castle yanked the knife from the braves hand and tossed it away, then removed his boot from his throat, dropped his wrist and went to help Kate into Flicka's saddle.
Another half hour and they came upon a river trail that led to a rocky trail up the side of a mountain with a giant waterfall that dumped into the river.. They were ordered to dismount, then followed the Cheyenne leader up the rocky terrain and into a tunnel located behind the waterfall leading to the other side.
As Kate exited the cave she was taken aback by the view that unexpectedly awaited her. She saw a lush green mountain valley with an abundant growth of pine trees on the mountain slopes, it was absolutely beautiful and momentarily took her breath away. Even the temperature seemed warmer, so she removed her coat and placed it over the saddles seat in front of her. She turned to face Castle who had come up beside her ad said, "can you believe this?"
Castle appeared to be in as much of a surprise as Kate replied, "Not really. I guess the Oxbow has more surprises in it than anyone realized."
Kate mounted her horse when seeing others do the same. She then told Castle to hand Trip over to her, that he looked tired from having to carry the dog. Castle lifted the dog up, Kate took Trip and laid her across her coat for the remainder of the trip.
It wasn't much further before they arrived to an open area where Kate observed a trio of boys running along parallel with them, their heads turned gazing at the two white persons among the Indian troop, which, of course, caused the boys to get tangled up with each other causing them to fall. Kate laughed at their antics then shifted her look forward again where she saw an entire Cheyenne village. It appeared that many of the women had also came out to observe the goings on.
Castle and Kate were taken and secured to a nearby tree. "what do you think is going to happen to us now?" Castle asked.
"Well they could kill us," Kate replied.
"That's not really a comforting thought," Castle responded.
"No it isn't, but these are Cheyenne and sometimes they treat their captives so well that they get incorporated into the tribe."
"Seriously," an astonished Castle said.
"Yeah, seriously."
"Well, we can only hope."
Castle observed a young girl heading toward them, she walked up to where the dog lay and knelt down to next it. "Her name is Trip," Castle told her, watching as she gently petted the dog. She then began inspecting the dogs wound. Castle watched as the girl took some leaves from a pouch and poked them into the dogs wound. Trip whined briefly at the insertion, the girl petted the dog to calm her. The girl then wrapped a cloth over the wound and secured it. She then got up to leave. "How do you say thanks, Kate?"
"Takish," she answered.
"Takish!" Castle yelled. The girl stopped, turned and gave Castle a small smile then turned and walked away.
End of Chapter