Smoke On The Water | 18+

Chapter 21

Word Count: 2,295

After telling the tribe about the intentions of the government, a few riders were immediately sent to warn the other bands of the tribe.

Nobody really knew what the documents meant for us as a community, but we all knew that it was serious and that the tribe had to unite again. If not in numbers, then in information.

Mangas told me that the seers predict that the tribe will never be fully united again in numbers, so information and a few helping hands will have to do the trick.

This morning, Mangas informed me that another chief, a friend of the family- Cochise- was captured and accused by caucasian settlers of kidnapping a young boy. The others that attended the raid with him were also accused and captured.

Cochise got away, took a few people hostage, and is on the way here now. Apparently, a few members from his band were also taken hostage- as retribution. Despite Mangas's high hopes of getting them out alive- I know better. I know the pale faces.

They will not return those people alive.

And right on time, I hear the unmistakable sound of horses approaching. I can only hope it's Cochise and whoever else he brought with him.

I finish peeling the potatoes for the stew and head to the center of the village. Everyone is gathered around the fire, listening to whom I can only assume is Cochise. He sits up on a large stallion, bleeding from the leg. I'm not fluent in their native tongue, but I can make out a few things.

He speaks of slashing through a tent to escape the pale face that trapped him. As he fled- hostages in tow- he was shot. Luckily for him, the bullet went in one side and out the other- so we don't have to dig around in there to find it or worry about serious infection.

As long as we stop the bleeding.

The members of the village cry out in gratefulness- that he was able to survive, at all.

Mangas catches my eye, and he gestures for me to approach. I do, trying to hide the anxiety building in my gut. But if I'm to lead beside Mangas, I must be strong.

Or, at least, put on a strong front.

"Cochise. This is my beloved, Evelyn. She is to be seen as an extension of myself- anything you can say to me you can say to her." He introduces us. Cochise looks less than pleased as he gives me a once over.

"While we are at war with the pale faces, you are here bedding one." He says. My breath flees my body as I feel Mangas tense beside me. He grips Cochise by the uninjured leg and yanks him off of his horse.

He stands over him, his chest heaving.

"Mind your tongue or I will cut it from your head. Evelyn is to thank for every bit of information we have gathered in the last moon cycle. You should be thanking her." Mangas tells him angrily. Cochise snorts from the ground, his eyes hard on my own, but he doesn't say anything else.

I turn to walk away, and it's a while before Mangas finds me again.

When he does, I'm sat by Ela, weaving a basket.

"We need to speak. Privately." He says. I pat Ela on the knee, and follow Mangas to our tent. He wastes no time when we enter the tent- immediately beginning to speak rapidly.

He explains that tonight I am to host a gathering in the village center. While the tribe celebrates the return of a beloved member, Mangas and a few of his men will be executing a portion of our plan.

With the dynamite we stole, him and his men will be hiding boxes of it around Boulder. When the time is right, they will be detonated, and Boulder will be destroyed. Along with all of the filth within the town borders.