BANNER BY FRENCHDREAMER
Title: The Legend of Daring Elk and Horse Dreamer
Author: Shadowlynxbehr
Pairing: M/L and others
Rating: ADULT
Disclaimer: I do not own Roswell or anything to do with it. I also do not own anyone or anything from the FICTIONAL Udeyona nation. Nor do I claim to know exactly what went on in Native American tribes in the past except what I have read or watched on TV. This story is made purely from imagination and is in NO WAY a reflection of the Native American tribes that once existed or still exist today.
Summary: Max is a Native American warrior whose tribe has always valued strength of character in both genders. Liz is a white girl who was captured in a raid when she was a child. Now a young woman, she is a slave who is mistreated by her owners. Max has grown to know this woman who always has the strength to stand up for her rights and those of the other slaves.
Author's Note: Instead of using a real Native American tribe and running the risk of writing something that won't do that tribe justice, I've decided to create a fictional tribe as the show once did. However, let it be known that each tribe had their own social systems and way of life, some were even more sophisticated than most. Some tribes even raided other tribes or the dwellings of white settlers and took the people as captives whom they either kept as slaves or traded to others for goods. That being said, my knowledge for this story mostly comes from what I've read in Historical Fictional Novels, Romance Novels, and from my own personal reading of shamanism, animal worship, and tribes such as Cherokee, Sioux, Apache, Creek, Navajo, Aztecs, and most of the other commonly known tribes of the U.S. and Mexico. I do not claim in any way to know exactly what went on in tribal life since I was not alive at the time.
Prologue
Elizabeth Parker had just laid her head down to take a nap when she heard the shouts. Her little sister, Serena stirred next to her as the wagon jerked to a halt. Liz sat up and cocked her head in curiosity.
Serena rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and mumbled, “Lizzie? What’s going on?”
Liz shrugged. “I dunno Sere. Wait here while I go see.”
Her sister frowned. “But momma and poppa said not to get out of the wagon!”
Liz waved her little sister back as she crawled to the wagon flap. Only a year older than Serena at the age of twelve, Liz Parker was nearly the exact opposite of her younger sister. Her father had always joked that they were two sides of the same coin.
After all, Liz was the outspoken, curious one while Serena was the quiet, docile one. Dark haired Liz was always right there with her older brother Kyle getting into all kinds of scrapes and messes while light haired Serena tended to hang around her mother’s skirts. In fact, it was obvious that Liz took after their father and Serena took after their mother.
Despite the fact that Liz was a little rough around the edges, neither her father nor fourteen year old Kyle chastised Liz for not being a proper little girl. Even her mother didn’t seem to mind that Liz was more of a tomboy than anything else.
As Liz reached the wagon flap, Kyle scrambled into the back and pushed Liz back into the wagon. The girls saw the worried look on his face.
“Kyle? What’s going on?” asked Liz.
Kyle’s eyes went wide as he whispered to his sister. “Injuns!”
Liz’s eyes mirrored his own. “Really?” she whispered back.
Kyle nodded as he glanced at Serena. “Mom and pop say for us to stay here until they’re gone.”
Serena frowned at their whispering. “What’s going on?”
Liz shook her head. “Nothing Sere, let’s go back to sleep okay?”
She made her way back to her blankets to settle in again, hoping her little sister would follow. However, Serena looked from Liz to Kyle and back again before putting her hands on her hips.
“Nuh uh! Something’s going on and you are gonna tell me or I’m gonna scream!”
Kyle shook his head as he moved to his sister’s side. “No Sere, no. You can’t okay? Mom and pop said to get some sleep. We’re not to make any noise at all or we’re gonna be whipped. Please Serena, let’s try to go back to sleep.”
Luckily for him, an unconscious part of his little sister seemed to understand the urgency in his voice. With a hesitant nod, she lay back down in her blankets and closed her eyes. However, the moment Liz and Kyle tried to join her, they all heard the ruckus coming from outside of the wagon.
All three of them sat up instantly and looked around the wagon as the sounds increased. Suddenly a gunshot rang out making all three of them jump.
“Kyle? I want momma! Where’s momma?” squealed Serena.
Liz moved to her side and wrapped her arms around her. “It’s okay Ser. Everything’s going to be okay.”
As she rocked her little sister in her arms, Kyle crawled to the flaps and peeked out. His eyes went wide as he stared at the chaos around them. All of the wagons in the caravan they’d been traveling West with had all been arranged in a circle, while all the adults who knew how were positioned places between the wagons shooting at the Indians who circled the wagons.
Kyle could see his mother’s feet sticking out from underneath the wagon where she was shooting her rifle at the Indians. Nancy was almost as good at using a rifle as their father Jeffery was. Jeff crouched not too far from his wife, using a wheel as cover while he shot his own rifle at the raiders.
Still while the adults tried to keep the Indians from breeching the circle of wagons, it seemed as if they weren’t that strong. Kyle watched as the Indians, some of which were on horseback, notched arrow after arrow and let them fly at the adults. Some hit their targets as bodies began to fall to the ground, others lodged themselves in wood or canvas.
Then an arrow covered in flames flew through the air and lodged itself into a canvas covered wagon. Screams instantly started as those inside desperately scrambled out of the wagon that was rapidly being consumed by flames.
Jeff turned to look when the screaming started and immediately yelled at his wife. “Nancy! Get the children out of the wagon! Now!”
Nancy didn’t hesitate to scramble out from under the wagon to the flap where Kyle was still looking out of. As she grabbed him, she spoke to her children in a hurried voice.
“Kyle get under the wagon. Liz, Serena come quickly.”
Serena didn’t hesitate to launch herself into her mother’s arms while Liz followed at a more sedate pace. Still, Nancy quickly got all three of them huddled under the wagon before she and Jeff positioned themselves around them.
“Put your heads down and cover your faces,” ordered their father as he continued to follow the raiders with his rifle.
The three of them obeyed his order, ducking their heads down to the ground and covering their faces with their arms. All they could hear were the strange shouts and yells of the Indians and sound of guns and screams from the people they traveled with.
“Jeff, we can’t stay here,” came Nancy’s frightened voice.
“I know that, but where can we go? There’s no cover around as far as I can see.”
Just then more screams rent the air. Only this time the screams sounded younger. Nancy and Jeff turned to see what was going on.
“Oh my God! Jeff the children! They’re taking the children!”
“Nancy! Don’t frighten ours!”
Kyle lifted his head to see that the Indians had breeched several other areas and were now snatching up several of the unguarded children before riding off with them. He watched in horror as another Indian with an axe leaped on one of the already injured men and buried the axe in the back of his neck.
Just then, he heard his mother cry out and turned to see her on her knees with an arrow buried in her chest. Blood bubbled out of her open mouth as a look of surprise covered her face. She stared at Jeff as he looked at her in horror.
“Nancy!” he yelled before moving closer to her while trying to keep an eye on the Indians.
“Mom!” cried Kyle as he scrambled towards her.
Just before he reached her, she fell onto her side. Her wide, unseeing eyes stared at nothing at all.
“No! No mom! No!” screamed Kyle as he shook his mother’s dead body.
Jeff grabbed Kyle and pushed him towards the girls. “Go make sure they don’t look!”
As Kyle scrambled back to his sisters, Jeff bent over Nancy and gently closed her eyes. Lowering his head until his forehead touched hers, he whispered to her.
“May God keep you until we meet again my love.”
He pressed a tender kiss against her lips before turning away from her, determined to protect their children. As he moved closer to the edge of the wagon, he could hear the girls sniffling in fear while Kyle tried to calm them down.
Gritting his teeth, he refilled his rifle and took aim. Two Indians went down one after another. Ignoring the burning wagons and screams of the children who had been taken, Jeff continued to shoot any Indian who dared to come close to his wagon and family.
Unfortunately, they began coming at him from all sides since they were able to sneak through the destroyed wagons too. He was in the process of reloading his rifle when an arrow lodged itself into the back of his shoulder. Dropping his gun, he whirled around only to have another arrow lodge itself in his right side.
When the third arrow whizzed through the air, Kyle looked up in time to see it lodge itself in his father’s arm.
“Oh my God! Pop!” Kyle left the girls to scramble to his father. Grabbing his father’s rifle, he finished loading it and began shooting at the Indians who tried to come closer.
As Kyle shot at the Indians, Liz crawled to her father who was now laying on his back staring at the sky. Liz leaned over him trying to hold back her sobs.
“Daddy? Daddy please don’t die! Please!”
Jeff turned his head slightly to look up at his daughter. He smiled through his pain. “My Lizzie…”
Liz turned to Kyle. “He’s still alive! What do I do?”
Kyle shifted until he was next to his father. “Pop, tell Liz how to help you. I’ll keep the Indians away.”
Jeff slowly shook his head once. “It’s too late for me, Kyle. Promise me you’ll take care of your sisters, my son. It’s up to you to protect them now.”
“No daddy!” Liz whined as she shook her father.
Jeff lifted a hand to cup her cheek. “Help Kyle, Lizzie. Help him with Serena, she’s going to need the both of you.”
Liz sniffled as she covered his hand with hers. “Oh daddy…”
“My Lizzie, I love…” Liz watched as his eyes closed just before his hand slid limply from hers to plop against the ground.
Her eyes filled with tears as she stared through her blurry vision at her father. “Kyle,” she whispered through her tears. “Kyle, he’s gone.”
Kyle stopped shooting long enough to look down at his father. He could see that Liz wasn’t kidding. Jeff had lost too much blood, dying from the arrow wounds on his body. Realizing it was just him and his two sisters now, he lifted the rifle and began shooting wildly.
Tears ran down his face as he took his fear and frustration out on whatever got in the way of the rifle. Unfortunately the bullets ran out and he had to reload again. This time he didn’t have enough time before the Indians reached them.
Several of them reached in and began dragging the children out from under the wagon. Liz began kicking and struggling, trying to get away from her captors. Just as Kyle was about to launch himself at Liz’s captors, he heard Serena’s bloodcurdling scream.
Turning around, he saw her being carried away from them. She had been thrown over one of their shoulders and was reaching out her little arms towards Kyle. A look of terror gripped her face as tears ran down her cheeks.
“Kyle! Help me, Kyle! Big brother help!”
Kyle scrambled out from under the wagon, running to Serena since he was certain she needed him more than Liz did. Just as he got to his feet, a horse came charging towards him and the Indian bent over and scooped him up before draping him over the front of the saddle.
As Kyle tried to get up, he was hit on the back of his head. The last thing he saw was the complete and utter decimation of every single wagon in the caravan and the bloody, blackened bodies that littered the area around them.
*************************************************************
Liz glanced at her sister who sat next to her trembling and staring at nothing at all. For the last two days Serena had been in that state of shock, only coming out of it long enough to scream when an Indian got too close to her. All the Indian had been trying to do was give her some food and water, but Serena wouldn’t stop screaming.
So the Indian would hand Liz the food and water, making gestures that he wanted Liz to feed it to Serena. Liz would take care of her sister before taking her own nourishment, then she was allowed to see to Kyle who was still unconscious.
Moving closer to her sister, Liz tried to talk to her. “Ser? Can you hear me Ser?”
Serena continued to tremble and look blankly at nothing.
Liz sighed. “Come on Serena, you have to talk to me. It’s Lizzie. I miss you!”
A moan from the other side of her, made her turn in time to see Kyle clutching the back of his head while trying to sit up.
She reached over and helped him to a sitting position. “Careful. You have a lump.”
Kyle groaned as he squinted and looked around the camp. “Where are we?”
Liz shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ve been traveling for two days.”
His eyes widened. “I’ve been out two days?”
“Almost.”
“I wonder where they’re taking us?”
“Kyle? I can’t talk to Serena. Something’s wrong with her.”
He rubbed his head once more as he glanced over at Serena and frowned. “Ser? What’s wrong?”
When she still didn’t respond, Kyle tried to move closer to her, but his bonds prevented him from moving too much. With a helpless sigh, he sat back down and looked around the camp once more.
Most of the other children who’d been traveling with them were huddled in groups around the campsite just like the three of them were. Kyle also noticed that some the Indians were walking from group to group. But that wasn’t what really stood out. What Kyle really noticed was that there seemed to be many more Indians than there had been the day of the raid.
He frowned. “Something’s going on.”
Liz gave him a curious stare. “What do you mean?”
Before he could answer, a group of Indians approached them. Liz and Kyle stared up at them as two of the Indians began gesturing towards them while the others appeared to be looking at them closely. They began to murmur among themselves for a while before one of the men nodded.
The two Indians who had been gesturing approached Kyle and undid his bonds from the spike in the ground. Using the bonds to lead him, they jerked him towards the group. Kyle began to struggle, trying to get back to his sisters.
“Let go of me, you heathen! Let go!” he roared.
His yells caught Serena’s attention and when she realized her brother was being taken away from her, she began to cry hysterically. Liz immediately wrapped her arms around her sister trying to quiet her.
“Let go!” Kyle yelled as he continued to struggle. But he knew he was losing because he was getting farther and farther away from his sisters. Looking back at them, he caught Liz’s eyes. “Take care of Serena, Liz. Remember what our father said!”
Liz nodded as she held Serena tighter and watched her brother disappear into the crowd. She knew that was the last time they would ever see each other again.
*************************************************************
She could hear voices coming closer. Opening her eyes she glanced up to see a group of Indians walking towards her and her sister. Quickly sitting up, she glared at them. Daring them to separate her and Serena. One of them came to stand in front of her, kneeling down he held out a hand to her.
“Come,” he said. “You come.”
Liz shook her head. “I’m not leaving my sister!”
The Indian looked at the still sleeping Serena lying next to Liz. He turned back to her and gave her a sad smile before speaking in broken English. “You come.”
She looked away from him to the others there. One of them leaned over to whisper into the ear of the one who was kneeling. His English was perfect, but heavily accented. “The Taganila were here first.”
The one kneeling frowned and spoke to him in their language. When he finished, the one who had spoken perfect English looked at Liz.
“What is your name?”
Liz stared at him.
“We will not harm you little one. Tell us your name.”
“Eliz…Elizabeth.”
The Indian nodded. “You will come with us.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“To our home.”
“And my sister too?”
He shook his head. “No, she will stay with the Danasga. You belong with the Udeyona now.”
Liz shook her head as she tried to scramble away from them. “No! I will not leave my little sister! I promised my daddy! I won’t leave her!”
The Indian sighed. “I am sorry little one, but it is done.”
The Indian that had been kneeling stood up, then bent over to swoop Liz up into his arms. As the other one unfastened her bonds from the ground, Liz struggled to get away.
“No! You can’t take me! You can’t!”
Her demands woke up Serena who realized what was happening. As the Indians walked away with a struggling Liz, Serena began to scream and wail loudly.
Liz looked back at her little sister and raised her voice so she could hear. “Serena! Don’t cry! It’s going to be okay! You just have to be brave okay? Be brave, Serena!”
“Lizzie!”
Liz would remember the look of hopelessness in her sister’s eyes and her desperate screams for years afterwards. She was still dreaming of those things four days later when she had finally arrived at the Udeyona tribe, her new home. There she was to become a slave for the Indian who had spoken to her in broken English, his wife, their two sons, and infant daughter.
TBC...
