Whispered half conversations were exchanged in the semi darkness, planning and re-planning, until they felt no more could be said on the matter.

Erin had gone over every step she could think of, the lead up to the ambush, to the escape on the lake. Then the waterfall...

That had been a eggshell laden subject. Erin had tried to skirt around the whole emotive detail of Alice and Uncas being propelled into a steamy entanglement behind the falls in the novel she knew. She had done her best to skim over it by only stating it was a romantic part of the book, a pivotal moment between the would be lovers that was the catalyst to what came next. Even if none of this would happen now, not if their plan worked, she still felt a duty to tell him – at least some part of it.

Erin could feel Uncas' curious eyes burning into her, wanting to ask more, but she refused to even acknowledge his inquisitiveness, and this seemed enough to deter him for the moment. She quickly moved on to the Huron village and then the cliffs, repeating some things she had already told him and some she had not, and leaving out what she did not feel the want or need to explain.

When she finally looked at him he was wearing that same questioning look, but not about what he had been told, but what she had withheld.

She quickly glanced away, unwilling to go into anything personal, she didn't have time, they didn't have time!

"So, you understand what will happen, right, and what the plan is?" she pushed, forcing him to focus only on the tasks at hand.

He gave one certain nod. "I understand. I will tell Cora as much as I can without causing panic. Tomorrow, after this parley, I will explain more of our plan to her and my brother, when there is time."

They had both agreed that trying to fill Nathaniel and Cora in on everything would be a confusing and time wasting task, if they waited long enough for the situation to be certain, they could convince both without the added need of long explanations. Later they would tell them all the truth, but for now, basic and simple felt like the better path.

He looked down at her, eyes serious. "Colonel Munro will call for you."

"Yes." She paused, knowing they would all be working against a short interval, once the parley was over they would have a very limited window of time to put any plan into action. "If I can get Colonel Munro to agree, we can all escape. Like I said, it might be a bit harder for you to catch up and then... then onward to safety." Erin grinned. It really wasn't the most amazing plan, but it seemed to be the only one that had any chance of working. They just had to avoid ending up on Lake George, cut off from the main road. If they could do that, they had a chance.

He again nodded.

"You look tired," Erin said, being honest, and selfishly not wanting to continue any further awkward discussions, she needed time to think. "You should... you know... go and try and get some rest, we'll all need it for tomorrow."

"Yes." He studied her face for a short moment and then his long fingers reached for her and very delicately brushed aside a rogue tousle of hair, tucking it with gentle care behind her ear, a fingertip lingering across skin for a moment too long. Their eyes met and Erin felt an electric shot of panic bolt through her skin, she briskly pushed his hand away, attending to her own messy hair with an overly impatient rough enthusiasm.

"Well..." She cleared her throat lowly trying to mask her discomfort. "Well, tomorrow then."

"Yes," he repeated, a brief flicker of uncertainty touching his brow.

No more words were exchanged and he went to Cora, telling her silently that they must prepare.

Cora did go, but with many backward glances to Nathaniel. As they reached the door Uncas looked back too, a small hint of an unsettled smile upon his lips, in what Erin assumed was meant as reassurance, and then they were gone.

The lantern sputtered as it consumed the oil fuelling it and the silence of the cells was only interrupted by those rising early from their beds outside. Erin let the quiet wash over her for many long minutes. After a little time had passed she moved to the iron bar door, eyes lingering over the cells. The guard that had been stood near the stairway was now slumped upon the table, an array of snores just loud enough to reach her hearing.

Erin's head swam, this really wasn't how everything was meant to be. Whatever this was between her and Uncas, it couldn't continue, or at least she couldn't allow it to... could she? His words flowed through her leaving a ambivalent shiver in their wake:

'Help change my story.'

Why did Erin suddenly have an uneasy feeling that he wasn't just asking her to let go of this whole tragic love story he may or may not be involved in?

'You knew,' her mind unhelpfully piped up.

But then, she had known that from the moment he had kissed her again, the look in his eyes tonight... she had known what he was asking... hadn't she?

'No, this is all completely absurd!' she argued with herself.

Denial clutched its clammy fingers around her, trying to twist and turn advice and explanations into misinformation and outright rebuttal.

She glanced out of the window. Stars flickered down from the lofty heights in a dark expanse of sky and seemed to mock her with their gentle winking.

"Seems my brother has taken a liking to you." Nathaniel's voice cut across the room even though his tone was low.

"And Miss Munro to you," Erin replied without a beat, deflecting the question.

He laughed, reading her easily. "And I for Miss Munro." A stillness, then he pushed on. "What of you?" His question was layered but Erin didn't want to linger upon it, somehow she knew this conversation wasn't going to leave her feeling happy.

"I care about your brother deeply," she replied without hesitation, it was the truth.

"What about your home? Don't you want to go back?"

"I do." Her answer was quick, as if she feared him gaining the upper hand.

"Will you stay here then... or do you plan to return?"

Erin hesitated a moment too long and Nathaniel gave a noise of understanding, and she saw the flaws he was poking at.

"Well, when you decide to go on back to that cosy life, tell him straight and make it before he gets any true liking for you." The words were like a physical slap, he was so frank as to be verging upon being outright impolite.

Erin felt herself becoming deflated and prickly at all his logic.

"You can't have both your home and him, he won't be welcomed by your family, or your town. If you have any sense you'll know that already. If you don't... figures it might be time to speak up."

She felt a bubbling of protest, not only that neither she nor Uncas had even decided or even really spoken of anything at all yet, but that Uncas would be welcomed by all she knew, her parents and family would adore him because that was the way of things for her... but that was in her time.

Not now.

She understood what Nathaniel was getting at and his point was valid, but Erin knew there was a deeper chasm preventing whatever this was between them becoming anything more than a fleeting attraction. She didn't belong here in 1757, she belonged in her own time, and one day soon, she would have to go back.

If she was viciously honest with herself Erin didn't want to stay here, a life of uncertainty and violence, toil and disease. A life that was rough and all too brief. The knowledge that there was better, that she had known better, made her staying here seem like a wish for misery and resentment. She wanted bitterly to be like Cora, who knew with certainty that Nathaniel was her soul mate, but Erin wasn't Cora. She couldn't base her whole future life on a man she'd known less than a week! She missed her family, she missed Ada, she missed Bandit and she missed indoor plumbing!

"I don't belong here," she said, only barely loud enough for Nathaniel to hear. "Just as much as Uncas doesn't belong in some big city."

Nathaniel let out a grunt of agreement. "My brother is a great man. But he's also a man that sometimes desires more than this life can offer him, his spirit is always restless."

"My home," Erin said, swallowing, "he would be welcomed. But I don't know if... I don't think he would want to." She felt that statement like a jolt to her brain and it buzzed in between her teeth like the after effects of a foil candy wrapper. Why was she even going down this road at all? It was all ridiculous! "I don't know if it's possible," she said breathlessly. If it was so ridiculous, why was her heart beating faster with the mere thought of whatever this was between them... becoming something more?

"I thought you were from Russia?" There was a tone that edged his voice that said he too knew she had been lying.

"I'm not from Russia," Erin said, confirming his silent accusation. "I'm from... somewhere very far away."

"Hmm," was the only reply he gave.

"Even if he could... even if... he wanted to," Erin continued, allowing the small daydream, "he might have to give up everything, his family, his life. I don't know if he could even come back to... my home. We barely know each other, that's a big ask of anyone. Something I would never want to ask, even if I did... feel that way. I've known him only a few days... I would never ask... I mean we might not even... like each other. It's not like in the fairy tales." She sighed tiredly, her words a deep jumble of her own conscious mind. "I don't even really understand how I came here, or why I'm here, but I know I can go home..." Her heart gave a fast paced thump of agreement.

She did want to go home.

"I figure..." Nathaniel said slowly, "this is the strangest conversation I've had with anyone - and I've had a few strange ones."

Erin laughed through her need to cry, once again pushing it back down. "Yes, it's very strange."

"I don't understand anything you're saying," he said, as if unconcerned by the whole thing.

"No, it's probably best that way."

Nathaniel gave another grunt of approval.

A hush fell once again, more noise from outside invading the musty air as the first strained hues of the slowly approaching dawn crept into the sky.

Erin wondered if Nathaniel would have had the same thoughts about Alice if she had been who his brother's eye had fallen upon. Would he have admonished Miss Munro for the fact that she may have left him too, culture and differences wrenching them apart in the end? Erin didn't know.

There was one thing she did know. Everything that would have made the young fair haired English woman baulk at a life with Uncas, were things Erin baulked at too. The fear of something so different to what she was used to, the hardness of a life lived from one moment to the next. In other ways she and Alice were worlds apart, Erin would never be shamed by others because of who Uncas was, she had that luxury because of where she was from, Alice did not. It saddened her more than she could explain, that such mindsets prevailed in this time.

"My brother," Nathaniel's voice was lower now and Erin had to concentrate to listen, "I've not seen him..." He paused as if the words failed him. "He's a usually a man of few words to outsiders, but with you, he finds his voice. Like when he was a boy."

Erin stayed silent, waiting for him to continue, eager to learn all she could about Uncas, despite the ongoing situation. His past was never explored in the books, so little was known about him.

"When he was a boy, he enjoyed talking. My father said he never could be quiet. Everything was an adventure, a curiosity. But then my father sent us to school to learn the ways of the English, and he had that curiosity shaken out of him. Though I figure that boy still lives in him, trusting and seeking, but as a man he knows what the world does to curious boys." He let out a small sigh.

"He loved to learn, he could do it in silence. Sometimes the old preacher would read us stories from the old world. Tales that sounded old, beyond your bible. He loved those stories. They sounded like our peoples' stories. The old man used to say he was a hopeless romantic."

Erin laughed, it sounded so charmingly ridiculous to think anyone could be a romantic in these lands.

"You don't think he was?" she asked.

"I guess he was, Miss. But our kind aren't allowed much of that either."

Erin was stilled, understanding the weight of these words.

"Our father wanted us to exist in two worlds. When we were young that seemed possible. Now..." He paused again. "My father wants him to find a woman and settle in to the old ways of our people." Nathaniel paused, a clatter from outside distracting him. "But my brother enjoys his freedom and the old ways are dying, soon there won't be any of my father's people left. The world is changing."

Erin made a small noise of agreement, it was a sad truth.

"He and I... are more alike than people figure us."

"I don't understand," Erin said.

We are both outsiders. Me for who my folks were, and he for his." Nathaniel tried to explain, "One foot in different worlds." He paused. "Never accepted in either."

Erin made a low noise of understanding but didn't reply.

"He's the last of his kind. Even with our Delaware cousins, we're different. We've no people, no home, only what's left, what we carry with us and inside us." Nathaniel let out a small heavyhearted sigh. "My father's ways will go with him, when his life is done. There's no place for us here... war, the French, the English, greed... all destroy what was and what is."

"This world is brutal." The word seemed to be one Erin returned to over and over. There was nothing soft or kind here. Not in these lands, not in this time.

Nathaniel didn't seem to have heard her. "My brother sees that, he sees the horizon beyond and a new way." He shook his head very slightly. "Maybe his way is the way we all must go."

"He wants freedom?" Erin said, understanding there was more buried in Nathaniel's words that she couldn't really begin to comprehend.

"Hmm. Maybe on some land far south from here we can find that life." From the softness of his tone Erin could guess he was thinking about Cora too.

"I think you will," she said, knowing that they would, if Nathaniel and Cora's story still followed the book. "I don't have the stomach for any of this," Erin admitted, knowing he would think no better of her with this admission. "All the war and death and... my home isn't like this. It's peaceful... mostly... and... I don't think I'd be happy here." If wishes were horses in this moment, Erin would be galloping, but she was shackled to reality.

"We all have our own paths to take," Nathaniel said. Erin couldn't read his tone.

"I hope his leads to happiness," she said, knowing now, it could not lead him to her.

Nathaniel grunted in approval and then they said no more for a long time, until Erin had assumed the conversation was done with.

"I'm glad to hear you say it," he said, in his usual frank way.

"Say what?"

"That you won't stay."

"Thanks!" She chuckled, and he laughed too, understanding her wry attempt at humour.

"I know my brother well. If he wanted you as his, he'd stand by you even if the very sky crashed down around his ears, damned be the consequences."

"I'm sure you'd do the same for Cora," Erin deflected, uncomfortable with where this topic was going.

"I would." She could hear the smile in his voice. "But I don't have English laws hanging over me that mean my life, or her safety, if I'm with her. I am my father's son, but I am not my father's kin. I can look like a white man if I choose, even if my spirit will never be."

Erin felt a chill run up her arms, causing goose flesh to prickle in its wake. She stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.

"The war, it makes people eager to deal out judgment. If my brother walks into any town with a woman like you, and it isn't friendly to our kind, he'd like be whipped or hanged, depending on the mood of the menfolk. And you... they'd lock you away, or send you away, or hang you too if they were inclined and you fought back hard enough. There are some good people that might not mind you, but there are those that wouldn't just let you be, you understand me? Once the notions of such people get round, nowhere is safe. Even with my father's kin it would be a life of hiding away in fear of some Yengeese officer getting wind of it and deciding to take you on back to your 'own' people." His voice was tinged with anger.

Erin hadn't considered this at all in anything but a fleeting romantic imagining of Alice and Uncas' tragic love and the many daydreams of 'what if' they had somehow survived. In her fantasies they always found a way, but real life was never as easy as a story. This way of life was hoping for kindness and acceptance from a world that had so little of either to offer to any it deemed as an outsider.

"But... even if I... the woman I mean... said she was happy?"

He laughed, it wasn't unkind but spoke of her clear naivety. "Never believe you. Only think of you as a captive. Drag you back." He nodded with a frightening certainty.

He took in a breath and paused, but Erin knew he wasn't done. "If the man is a white and the woman not... they'd let you alone, but not my brother with a woman not his own kind... To them, the Yengeese, Les Français, even the Colonists... some'd like to think it akin to stealing."

"That's... awful to think about," she finally said, the words sticking in her throat.

"But it happens, I saw it when I was a boy, notions and beliefs ending lives. Sure you seen it too, if you've travelled half as much as you say you have." He paused, as if reining himself back from more angry words. "But my brother." His tone held deep remorse and admiration. "He'd take it head on even if life'd be harder with that weight round his neck at every trading post and village. Even if he had to live out in the middle of the wilds and near starve... he'd do it all the same."

Erin nodded, finding a terrible understanding to what Nathaniel had been getting at. "It'd be his new cage." She breathed out the words, her mind flashing back to her previous conversation with Uncas at the fireside.

"Cage?" Nathaniel said, not understanding her meaning.

"It'd take away his freedom in a different way and maybe... even his life." Erin could barely get the words out as reality brought all her flights of fancy down to the hard, unforgiving ground.

Nathaniel grunted again in approval. "Glad to see you got a good head on your shoulders, even if you do blow in like a storm."

She wasn't sure if he'd meant that kindly or not, so just gave a soft noise of agreement.

The sounds from outside distracted the conversation and no more was said. Erin's mind wandered, after some time she could hear Nathaniel's soft snores. At least one of them would find some rest, it had been a very long night.

Her eyes felt gritty from lack of sleep but Erin knew she would find no peace, not with so many thoughts swirling around her head. She pulled out her phone and with a glance and a stillness, she waited to hear Nathaniel's heavy breaths of sleep, and when she did, her thumb brought the screen to life.

30%.

She scrolled through her photos again, the warmth of home reaching out to her, urging her to come back, and she wept just a little, feeling herself pulled in two ways that left her feeling breathless and hurt. She placed her ear buds in, retreating into music to hold all her feelings together and stop them becoming an overwhelming mess. As the music's soft breathless laments washed over Erin's mind she pushed the phone back into her pocket and took out her small sketch pad and pen. She flicked through her work.

Ada, in all her finery, the field with its softly swaying grasses, and then the next page, the triple falls, glinting in the sunlight. She traced with her fingertip the outline of the rocks, where she had fallen.

The Camerons; brisk wisps of shading creating outlines of the family she had saved.

Then more pages and more subjects. Alice was her first solo portrait of this time, her hair escaping her tightly wound braid as she looked up into the sky, she had seen a large bird of prey that day and wondered at its magnificence. Her face a picture perfect portrayal of naïve beauty.

Cora next, hand on hip as she brought water back to their camp, a small smile of uncertainty upon her lips as Nathaniel reached out to help her, the bond already so strong between them.

The two brothers sharing a carefree moment around the fire, passing food to each other, both seeing the other was well fed while their father looked on, a proud knowing in his eyes.

An unformed sketch of Alice and Uncas together, he was looking towards the young woman while she seemed completely oblivious. Erin had even drawn an imaginary butterfly distracting her from the warrior's heavy gaze.

Duncan's face of horror around the campfire after her story, his expression somewhere between aghast and thoroughly annoyed.

Erin smiled.

Uncas and his father, a rough study in quick strokes as they discussed strategies, Uncas was crouching, investigating some tracks.

Cora, tending to the sick, a gentle calm smile upon her face as her hand consoled those in need with a gentle clasp, a damp cloth poised to wipe away the perspiration of pain gathered upon a man's brow.

The last one, a closer study that was from the waist up. Uncas looking directly at the viewer, tantalizingly confronting in its frankness. His face relaxed, eyes magnetic and serious. The silver earring sat against a background of black long hair, a glint from the metal frozen in time on the page. Erin thought he had been wearing his red shirt but charcoal held its true secrets of colour wrapped in greys and blacks. His shirt was open just enough to see the many dots and dashes of his chest tattoo, the lines forming a diamond shape at the centre of his breastbone. He'd told her all of his tattoos had similar meanings of having a good life and finding a place in whatever came after. Life was as brief and chaotic as a candle flame in a rainstorm here, death just another part of what would come sooner rather than later, not a far flung imagining of a future yet to see.

Erin studied her portrait of him for a long time. The sounds outside were getting louder, day was approaching. The fort was awakening despite the early hour, soon they would all be pulled into the next part of this story, wherever that now led.

In the growing light she took out her pen and began to work on a new page. Her strokes confident and sure, she wanted to draw what was in her mind so very badly. Within a short time she had formed the concept, faces came into view, hair blew carelessly in a warm breeze, smiles and a hazy mellow ambiance all strayed onto the page from her imagination.

When the last shading was done she slowly forced herself to stop, knowing if she continued she would spoil it with too much detail and muddy the harmony with nit picking. She sighed heavily, her eyes grazing over the drawing, wishing it was real, that they were real, those happy people. Slowly she closed the book, and placed it and her pen back into her pocket.

She stopped the music, and knowing she had very little time, she curled up onto the straw floor, pulling her knees to her chest and tried to sleep.

/

A/N

Another Friday, hello all. I'm feeling a bit robotic today as I'm so tired this week, I've hardly had a moment to myself so forgive my ramblings if they make no sense.

I will try not to rabbit on too much here. Once again feel free to skip.

The idea, of Uncas and Alice struggling because of their differences, was an often discussed theory on old LOTM fan forums and it had a lot of (often strong) opinions of what the truth would be. Up until I heard these arguments, I admit, I hadn't given the matter much deep thought. Over many years I have pondered many outcomes and many options and done my own study into history and haven't made my mind up one way or the other.

I heard a lot of good history based reasons why it would never work (laws, society on both sides, class, living a different life, etc) and some opinions that made it seem possible (living in a remote area, hiding among those who are friends, love overcoming hardships, etc...) I don't really want to lean on either side myself because I feel real history has a lot of nuances and any that were involved in these types of relationships in that time seem to have kept pretty quiet about it and I believe that is why we have little to no historical documents in this time period. But, big risks tend to deter people from these kinds of choices... so who knows. I like to sit on the fence on most things so that's where I am on this. I believe both points of view are valid and hold truth.

It felt like Erin was a good character to see this idea through, with her modern understanding of the situation. Not only is she seeing she could not easily be with Uncas in this time, but Alice's own barriers are bigger and more complex. It's another blow to the idyllic day dream of what she thought this story was. I think Nathaniel is also in a unique position to see this through too, he understands both sides (I wanted to explore a little of that duality here too) and I think would want to protect his brother by making the situation clear to Erin.

Plus I wanted to explore a little of the whole time traveller not really wanting to stay in a past time because, I think, the past is often a pretty grim place to the modern mindset. I have no idea if I personally would be willing to stay there, but I think my instinct would be to not want to stay for many reasons.

Again, this is just my take on characters and how I think they would see things in this story, it doesn't affect how you see them or your own opinions.

I was listening to a lot of Meg Myers when I wrote this story so I imagined Erin listening to her music in this scene, but it felt clunky to just keep inserting song names every few chapters so, to those that wish for a soundtrack, the song 'Break My Back' (not the remix) was what Erin is listening to as she tried to deal with all this information and emotions through her art.

I hope you enjoyed. Thank you once again to those reading and reviewing!