Katelyn 'Kit' "The Wildcat" Lancaster

I Guess We Keep Her

Arthur and Charles had just made it to where the road started to angle down into the valley when it happened. The thief's horse suddenly spooked. It threw its rider hard and ran off in a panic. As they slowed their horses, Arthur and Charles kept a close eye on the still figure. The person was in an uncomfortable looking heap on the side of the road but didn't move.
"You think that throw killed him?" Asked Arthur as they neared the prone figure.
"Well, there's only one way to find out" replied Charles, his voice slow and full of caution.

They both dismounted their horses and walked up to the thief.
"What the... well let me rephrase that. Is She dead?" Arthur said incredulously. He was not expecting it to have been a girl who had stole from them.
Both Charles and Arthur crouched beside her to take a better look.
"Well, she's breathing, but she fell hard. Let me check something real quick." Charles said as he gently rolled her from her side to her back. He started to press and feel around her rib cage. When he pressed on the girl's right side she let out a pained gasp and moan. Charles gently felt around the area, eliciting a few more pained sounds from the girl.
"That's what I thought." said Charles, his face wrinkled with worry.
"And what was it that you were thinking?" Asked Arthur, a bit of his sass shining through.
"At least one, if not more of her ribs are at best cracked or possibly broken. I think she also messed up her shoulder in the fall. I hate to think of all the bruising she'll have from this. She most likely has a concussion too, and I don't know when she'll wake up from it." He listed off grimly in his slower fashion.
"She also seems to have older bruises that are a few days old, look at her eye." He added, gesturing to her face.
Sure enough Arthur noticed the fading purple around her eye and the tell-tale sign of a split lip.

They sat there for a moment in thought.
"Well we can't just leave her here, now can we." stated Arthur, chewing his bottom lip in thought.
"No, even if she did steal from us, she's barely grown." Charles replied.
"What'd she even steal?" Arthur wondered aloud as he got up to look about the area.
"Over there, that's the sack she took." Charles was pointing a short distance away from them. Arthur let Charles look after the girl as he went to go examine the sack. He picked it up and looked inside. When he saw what it was he let out a small scoff. It was just two cans of food. One was corn and the other was peaches. He swung around and faced Charles.
"It's just food." Arthur said, indicating the sack by raising it a bit.
"She must have been real desperate if that was the only thing she tried to steal from a big gang camp in broad daylight" Charles commented as Arthur walked back.

"Well what should we do?" Asked Arthur, standing over Charles and the girl.
"We take her back to camp." Charles replied resolutely. "I don't want to put her on the back of a horse, it could easily do more damage to her ribs and even her internal organs riding like that." Charles' forehead was once again wrinkled in worry. They both sat there for a moment, silent in thought.
"Here, how 'bout I hold her upright in the saddle with me. That should prevent her from getting hurt more." Arthur offered.
"That would help" Charles replied thoughtfully.

At that Arthur retrieved his horse, led it closer, and swung up into the saddle with ease. He helped Charles maneuver the girl onto the horse in front of him, the moments causing the girl to gasp in pain. He gently situated her so she wouldn't slip off the horse when they started moving.
"It's kinda strange isn't it?"
"What's strange, Arthur?"
"Well one minute we're chasing after this girl and the next we're helping her, and bringing her back to camp on top of that."
"Well the way I see it Arthur, I'm not going to leave a young, unconscious girl on the side of the road. That's just heartless in my eyes" Charles said, a little indignantly.
"Don't get me wrong Charles" Arthur quickly put in "I understand that, I wouldn't have left her either if it was just me, I just think this is an unexpected turn of events."
Charles let out a short huff of laughter, "Yeah, you got that right. Let's get going back to camp. Is she ok to be moved?"
"Yup, let's go."

At that they slowly made their way back to camp, hardly ever going faster than a walk. The girl's head would loll with the movement of Arthur's horse. Every now and then she would let out a low groan of pain that would surprisingly send twinge of pained sympathy to Arthur's gut.

"I hope she wasn't too attached to her horse" Arthur spoke up after a few minutes of silence. "With it throwing her like that, I'm sure she'll get over it just fine" Charles replied.
"We don't even know her name" realized Arthur suddenly.
"Once she wakes up we'll be sure to ask her for it, and plenty of other questions, I'm sure." Assured Charles.
They rode on the rest of the way in silence, the birds' twittering making up for their lack of conversation.

Soon enough they reached the cool shade of the trees surrounding Horseshoe Overlook. When they neared camp Arthur and Charles noticed that much of the gang was idling around, most likely waiting for them to return. When they saw that Arthur was carrying a girl, Ms. Grimshaw, Tilly, and Mary Beth rushed to meet him.
"Arthur, what is the meaning of this." questioned Ms. Grimshaw. Her hard face a mixture of confusion and concern.
Arthur, for some reason scared she would scold him, quickly replied, "This was the same person we chased down for sneaking into camp. Turns out it was just a young woman."
"Something spooked her horse and she was thrown and got hurt. I think she needs help." Charles put in. Ms. Grimshaw's featured softened a little.
"Well here, give her to me and I'll tend to her. Tilly, Mary Beth, could you two please help me with her. We'll set her down on a cot by our wagon. Go get some bandages and some water."
"Yes Ms. Grimshaw" the girls replied. And just like that the women sprang to action. No one dared disobey Ms. Grimshaw when she began barking out commands.

Just as it seemed like Ms. Grimshaw was going to take the girl from Arthur's arms herself, a cocky Irish voice spoke up.
"Aye, Ms. Grimshaw, you can't carry this lass by yourself. Let me help. I'll take her and you tell me where to set her down. Hey?" Sean offered, walking up to the group.
"Well thank you Mr. McGuire." Ms. Grimshaw sounded surprised that the Irish boy was offering to do some work.
Sean walked over to Arthur and reached up to take the girl from him.
"You better not drop her, boy" growled Arthur threateningly. Strangely, he felt sort of protective of the girl.
"I won't" promised Sean "I'm stronger than you t'ink, old man."
Arthur gently lowered the girl into Sean's waiting arms. He made sure that he had a good hold on her before fully letting go.
"Right this way Mr. McGuire" instructed Ms. Grimshaw.
Arthur dismounted and hitched his horse, watching as Sean walked away with the mysterious girl. This was definitely shaping up to be an interesting day.