The prairie has always been simple-hard work, quiet evenings, and the certainty that tomorrow will look much like today. At eighteen, Laura has become the heart of her family. With her father away working on the railroad, an injured mother confined to bed, and a younger sister relying on her, duty leaves little room for anything else. Everything changes the evening she finds a wounded stranger beneath an old oak tree. His face is covered in crimson war paint. His body burns with fever. Mistaking her for another pale-faced enemy, he whispers a single word before losing consciousness. Laura should leave him behind. Instead, she hides him in her family's barn. As the young Osage warrior known as Little Puma slowly recovers, a fragile secret begins to grow between them. Bound by fear, silence, and deeply rooted prejudice, they must learn whether mercy can overcome hatred-and whether two hearts from different worlds can ever find a place to belong. Notes: This is an aged-up AU based on Netflix's Little House on the Prairie. Laura is 18, Little Puma is 22, and this story takes place in an alternate timeline where Charles is away working on the railroad. With her mother bedridden and her younger sister to look after, Laura has taken on the responsibility of running the household. From this point on, the story follows its own original path.

"Stay away from his kind." Those were the words Priscilla Astor's father always taught her. As the pastor's daughter, seventeen-year-old Cillia is expected to follow the rules, look after her younger brother, and fit in with her settler friends. But when a chance meeting at the river brings her face-to-face with Little Puma, a forbidden spark ignites between them. Caught between her strict family, her true friendship with an Osage girl named Niabi, and a love her community forbids, Cillia must choose between expectations and her heart.