A Mountain Man's Tale, Part Iv
IV.
It was two years later, at age nineteen,
Reid was out checking new traps in a pond,
just his routine, when he heard a loud shout,
ran for his rifle, what was going on?
He raced through the woods, heard a horse running,
came to a clearing and saw a woman,
an Arikara brave rode around her,
he taunted her, clearly having his fun.
Reid knew that this was none of his business,
he knew neither, but a voice spoke inside.
he lifted the gun, took aim on the brave,
and with a single shot the young man died.
The woman glanced at him, still looked alarmed,
limped on an ankle quite swollen and read,
she kept her distance when Reid walked forwards,
in anger and fear the woman did seethe.
He spoke in Crow, but she knew not his words,
then said in English, “Woman, are you hurt?”
The woman replied, “I speak white man’s words,
like him you just seek what’s under my skirt!”
Reid frowned and said, “I once lived with the whites,
I heard their holy men speak of such things,
the Great Spirit would punish for such crimes...
I have food, that ankle must be aching.”
At this the woman cocked her head strangely,
said, “You’re the white child raised by the Crow?”
When he nodded she just relaxed a bit,
accepted his arm, slowly they did go.
They made their way back to his trapping camp,
just a small tent and dug-out fire pit,
skins were drying on racks that he had built,
there wasn’t all that much comfort to it.
But to the woman it seemed a refuge,
she lay down slowly inside of the tent,
Reid waited outside, feeling quite nervous,
he wasn’t sure just what he should do then.
Like any man he noticed the girl’s look,
she was a beauty, that much was quite plain,
some had teased him that he still had no wife
at nineteen, but to think that now brought shame.
This woman was hurting, lost in the hills,
had not his first pa said men protect girls?
He was no where near home, help was far off,
right now he was her one chance in the world.
He said, “I’m Gray Fox, son of Eagle Vision,
I’ve been trapping here since the cold set in.”
She said, “I am Mink, born of the Cheyenne.
Enemies have our people always been.”
He nodded at that, but could not feel hate
for a woman lost and injured out here.
She said, “They took me when raiding our band.
I escaped, they hit my leg with a spear.”
Reid knelt down and looked at her bloody ankle,
a spear had grazed it, the wound was quite large,
he said, “You’ll heal here, it’s the safest place,
if you try to go you won’t get that far.”
Copyright © David Welch | Year Posted 2022
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