Native Outlaw

Chapter XII

"Here, take this." Chavez holds out his hand. It contains three pieces of dried meat from an earlier hunt. I grab the meat and take a small bite. The flavor spreads rapidly over my tongue, soothing me immediately.

"We will eat the rest of this until we make it to Indian territory. Then they will feed us for the time we are there. Before we leave them though, we need to hunt and dry some meat for the long travel north." Chavez explains the plan while we eat the meat and take drink from the water pouches. I nod my head.

"Will they welcome us?" I ask softly, my hair flailing in the nice wind. The horse neighs in response.

"I still have some old family friends there that knew my father. I  am sure I have some family to that made it..." He says. "They will welcome us." He makes eye contact with me for a short moment before taking another bite.

"Where is your family?" I ask smoothing out my horrid dress. It has been through so much, and frankly, I would much rather be wearing the buckskin pants my grandfather wears all the time.

Chavez doesn't answer for a minute. I wait patiently as he forms his response.

"I can always tell you later, we have plenty of time ahead of us." Chavez chuckles and winks at me. I swear I feel my face go red as I stare at the beauty that is him. His surprisingly white teeth contrast tremendously against his brown skin, he dark long hair sways loosely in the wind. His smile becomes more prominent as he notices me looking at him like this. I quickly look down.   

"Yeah, I guess we do." I say with a nervous laugh. He chuckles again, and I hear him take another bite of the dried meat. I look at my dress again and try to rub some of the dirt off of it, its no use. I sigh.

"You need some clothes?" He asks me, eyeing my tattered dress.

"I'm fine." I answer standing up and stretching my stiff arms and legs. Chavez stands up with me and walks to the horse. In one of the bags, he digs inside until he pulls out some brown garments very similar to his own. He tosses them to me.

"They will be entirely too big, but at least they are clean. When we get to Navajo country, I will have some of the women make you or lend you some clothes. Us Indians don't look good in White people clothes anyway." He says. I laugh.

"Oh, so you're saying I don't look good in this?" I narrow my eyes at him. He looks me over for a long minute.

"No, I'm not saying that at all." He licks his lips as he continues to look me over. I smack him hard in the chest and he pretends that he's hurt. I roll my eyes as I walk over behind the horse with the clothes.

"Turn around please, and walk over there." I say with an annoyed tone. He hides a smile, but he turns around and takes a few steps forward.

First I remove the outer layer of the dress. I fold it carefully, draping it over the horses back who is standing politely still for me. I smile as I remove the slip that goes under the real dress. I fold it the same way and place it on top of the other dress. That leaves me in my undergarments and and straps that hold my weapons to my legs, and my shoes. My long dark hair flies out around me as I take a look at the clothes. They are nicely made, but of course they are mans wear. I take the shirt and make it to where I can easily slide it on. I am almost about to put it over my head when I feel the horse move beside me. The clothes on it's back fly off and the animal takes off, leaving me almost completely naked in front of the dreamy man I had become to have a crush on. I cover myself frantically with the clothes in my hands, but it's too late. His laughter fills the air around us. I scowl at him and that just makes him laugh harder.

"You..you... should have seen your face." He says tumbling to the ground. I throw the over-sized shirt over my head and pull the even larger pants over my legs. Chavez is still laughing so I  bend over and take a fistful of dirt. I form it into a ball and then I charge. I run to him and hit him right in the face with the dirt ball. He abruptly stops laughing and his eyes enlarge in shock. I burst out laughing now, proud of the response I received. From the ground he grabs my hand and pulls me down to him. I lose my balance and fall right on top of him. His huge arms encase me and flip me over to where he is on top of me, but he holds his body up with his arms so he is not crushing me.