Robyn Sheva||The Crimson Lady's Story

It was finally time.

Robyn and Jack watched as the train approached. Steam pluming up, visible even in the dark of night. Their horses getting a little antsy at the rumbling beneath their feet.

Robyn abandoned all thoughts of Cole, Casey, she thought of nothing but how she was going to board the speeding steam train. It blew past them.

Time to go.

"Ready, Cap?"

"Naturally."

They kicked their horses forward and soon then they were chasing down the train as fast as the horses would carry them. Once they reached the caboose , Robyn let go of the reins. Jack behind her looked bewildered, clearly worried for her safety, his hands firmed attached to his reins. Robyn's powerful thighs kept her steady as they rode up next to the train. She scanned for the open window, Casey promised he'd leave open for them, but in the dark it was hard to see, steam , the bouncing horse and the glimmering moonlight made this difficult.

She blinked a few times before she saw it and smirked. She pointed to the window and Jack nodded. She guided her horse as close as she could to the train, she was almost close enough for a hand hold.

She reached out, the only thing keeping her steady where her thighs. She turned her body, reaching out for a hand hold near the open window and her fingers missed, leaving her twisting to keep from falling to her demise. Her hair brushed the speeding tracks. "Shit! Robyn!" Jack called but she ignored him as she reset and tried again. This time, her fingers found a grip, followed by its twin and soon she was a bridge between the train and her horse. Jack rode up beside her horse, grabbing it's reins to keep it from running off, and dragging Robyn with it.

All the while, Robyn was breathing, holding on white knuckled to the handholds she found near the window. The window was barely open, but she could fit through it. The thing was, timing.

She looked up, taking a deep breath, steading her heart before she relaxed her legs and transferred the strength to her arms. She then gripped hard and pulled herself through the window, sailing through like a bullet.

She hit the carpeted floor of the train with a hard thud, rolling until she crashed into the other side of the train. "Fucking hell." she groaned, holding her head a moment, shaking the stars from her eyes. Once she was more surefooted, she moved to the window and opened it wider for Jack. He was wide eyes. He mouthed 'Are you alright."

She nodded, and jerked her head back, telling him to come on. He found the same hand holds but didn't bother trying to sail through it. Instead, he climbed through with more grace then she had. He even had the nerve to adjust his clothes. She rolled her eyes before looking around. The car was empty, it seemed like it was a passenger train once but it hadn't been used for a while. "Look for a safe." She told Jack, and they began to search.

She heard the door to the car open, and she already had her knives free, prime to strike before she was able to see a familiar fair haired giant holding up his hands. "Easy, I'm on break, I'll be able to hide you but it won't be comfortable, we've miles to go before the water station."

Robyn slide her knives back in their hiding place. "Good to see you too." She told him and he smirked. She gave him a once over, he was covered in coal dust, soot, and was only in a thin shirt that showed off the lines of his muscular form.

She couldn't deny how attractive he looked then, which made things all more confusing when she felt strange for it. She'd always been attracted to him, but with Cole, and all that, that was, she felt guilty for feeling so.

She inwardly groaned. "Let's go then." She said and gestured ahead of him so he could hid them until the water station.

"Um," Casey started, after he lead them to a storage car. Robyn looked around. There were cases and chests and she already knew what he was proposing. "You have got to be kidding me?"

Jack rubbed the back of his head. "Billy...?" He said. "I know, but this is the best place for you two to hide."
"You know....I don’t...." Robyn stopped herself. "I know, I'm sorry, but there's nowhere else." he told her and she groaned and chose the largest chest. It stood upright so she was able stand at least but she had to let her mind drift to some place happier once he closed the chest, the darkness swallowing her.

She took a few breathes before her mind drifted to Cole, pretending that the enclosed place was his arms, and that she was safe. She then prayed to whatever god, spirits, ancestor that was listening that he kept his promise.

Cole heard the train almost before he saw it, the tall plume of smoke heralding its arrival. He smiled as he brought the stock of the sharps to his shoulder taking sight down the barrel he trained his eye on where he knew the dynamite to be. Taking a deep breath he gently squeezed the trigger as he exhaled. The resounding crack of the sharps distracted him momentarily from the fact that there wasn't a corresponding explosion. With a muttered curse, he racked the slide back and jammed another round in as quick as he could and took aim once again. He snapped off the second shot and smiled in satisfaction as the dynamite was set off.

He grinned and slung the rifle over his shoulder as he started running. Gliding through the underbrush and jumping over debris he quickly made his way to where he'd set the line by the telegraph wire. As he got there he could hear the faint sound of the cavalry bugle, the sound at the same time made him grin and shudder in memory. He tossed the line over the wire and pulled it as hard as he could, with a few minutes of constant heaving the wire finally snapped, the suddenness of it sending him falling onto his ass.

He repressed letting out a whoop as he brushed himself off and started towards his next part of the plan. The tree was the next, and the most dicey part of the plan as far as he was concerned. It took him about fifteen minutes to get to the tree and the hidden supplies. He was running slightly behind schedule, and in this endeavor that could mean the life of Robyn... and the others. Huh, that was interesting how he'd thought of that order of priorities.

He would just have to chop down the tree faster. Going as fast as he could he chopped the tree down, sending it crashing over the tracks, just getting him back on schedule. He wiped the sweat from his brow and started to spread the gunpowder around the base of the tree, lighting it as he walked away towards the telegraph line to send the message to the town. As he was climbing the pole he heard the whistle blow as the train pulled into the station, just in time. He tapped out the message then slid down the pole and disappeared into the forest. He had a spot picked out where he could watch over the town and be close enough to act should something go wrong. He prayed it didn't but he had to account for everything that could happen.

As he watched he saw someone run from the telegraph office to the train, conversing animatedly with the guards. One of them leaned into the car and yelled something, six other guards exiting and following him. They and a small crew of the towns laborers started down the line carrying axes and saws. They didn't look too happy and the guards on the train were fidgeting with their guns nervously, pacing back and forth. He unslung the sharps rifle from his shoulder and loaded another cartridge, sighting on the guards. If anything happened or they turned towards the interior, they were dead men. And he would have to move fast to get to the stables and start the distraction. He glanced down under the tree he was currently halfway up to look at his horse patiently waiting below. Slung on her saddle, in addition to his winchester, was a pair of sawed off shotguns and the pearl handled pistols he'd taken from Quinto. He'd need every bullet if things went to shit, and he prayed for Robyns sake that they didn't.

There was a simple three knock rap on the case of her truck before Casey opened it and Robyn couldn't deny herself the breath of fresh air. She hated enclosed places, she really did.

It was made easier by thinking of Cole, replaying the way he held her those few nights ago, her fingers having found the feather he'd given her. By then end of it, she was more anxious to see him then she was to acquire the amount of wealth she was about to receive.

Strange....

"Captain, We have a problem." Casey said, calling her from her thoughts. "What problem?" She asked, noticing he was whispering despite the loud noise the train was already making. "There are a few crewmen on break. "

Robyn blinked as Jack approached them, after stretching a bit. "Alright, so what?"

"We didn't account for them?"

"I did." She said and it was true, she overcompensated during these heists, that way if something went wrong, she could adjust more easily. She figured not all of the crew men would be in the back, and it was late. She began eyeing the cases and chests they were surrounded by. "Jack, check the cases," She said, side stepping Casey with a pat to his shoulder, Noting how unsettled he looked about this new development. "Don't worry, Casey, That just means there is more to tell our story." She said with a grin, moving to a crate and cracking it open herself. She rummaged through it, and only found a few watches. "Oh look at this." She beamed, freeing the watch from the case. "Gold." She said and Jack grinned. "Oo Wee! " He cheered but his tone was hushed. "Do you have the bags, Will?" Robyn said, Casey nodded, before disappearing and reappearing with a leather sack. He handed one to her and another to Jack and kept one for himself. He looked nervous.

"Will, We've done this a million times, only difference is we're on a train." She told him and he nodded. She'd talk to him later, for now they had to become very rich.


They finished with the cases and crates, they mostly found jewelry and not all of it was very valuable. Casey held on to the bags while Jack and Robyn made their way toward the front car, where the crew men were lounging and drinking.

Jack kicked open the car door, guns drawn while Robyn sauntered in, dramatically.

She was always one for theatrics. She wished Cole could see it.

"Hello boys." She said. "This...is a robbery." She said, as if it was an opening to a play. There were about four men in the room, all very large, covered in coal and soot, much like Casey was. Fighting them would prove difficult, but she was prepared for that.

"What's this?" one called. It was a fairly larger man, shorter then both Casey and Cole, but large enough to prove to be a threat. Casey walked in behind her and they looked at him oddly. "Billy, Boy what is this?" The same one asked

Robyn sighed dramatically. "I said already, didn't you hear me?" Robyn looked at Jack, she walked over, pouting, placing her hand on his shoulder and her chin atop her hand. "They weren't listening to me, That's rude." She said and Jack played along, shaking his head shamefully, never dropping his guns. "Hey...I know you. You're--" The same one said, recognition in his eyes. They were green she noticed.

"The Crimson Lady, yes, I am." Robyn nodded with a smile, sitting up. "Then that means." The green eyed man said looking at Casey. "You're Billy Bones...The injun lover. You're a traitor! Shacking up with this colored bitch now too. " Fury burned in his eyes then. Casey's was eerily unaffected for someone who had been working with this man for the better part of a forenight. He was just quiet. Robyn stomped her feet like a child, . "You're not listening to me!" She pouted and walked over to Casey, and hugged him around the chest. None of them could see him pull a small dagger from the back of her corset. "Billy, they aren't listening to me, make them listen." She said with a dark smile, and Casey wasted no time, moving across the cabinet and grabbing the green eyed man. "I remember what you said, how you liked to make the dark ones scream." Casey's voice was dark and low. "I should let her do it, She likes to hear men like you scream." He said before sending her blade through up his chin, it wasn't long enough to kill him, so Casey ripped the blade free causing him to drop to the floor, trembling. The other three were quiet, clearly none of them were fighters.

"Now, that we have your attention." Robyn clapped. "This -pay attention this is important- a robbery." She said, like a teacher to a young child. "Say it with me now. 'Robbery'" She said and the scared three repeated. "Good, now, That means, me and my friend here are going to still all of your shit." She said with a smile. "So, I would suggest not pissing me, or my friends off, because, well, Jack here. Is a helluva shot, you wouldn't make it far, and Billy, well." She paused for dramatic effect. "you've see what that's like." She said gesturing to the fool would was bleeding out near Casey's feet. She heard what he said to him and she was going to let him bleed slowly.

Casey leaned down to her and whispered. "I don't know where the safe is." She nodded.

"Now, Where is the main safe?" She asked the three and they all looked from one another before looking at her. "I'm getting annoyed." She told them, and they looked panicked. "We don't know," spoke one, he had dark hair and blue eyes. He was thinner then the rest. He was scared, not of her but of Casey. He could be manipulated.
"Ma'am." Jack corrected.
"We don't know, Ma'am." said the dark haired one.
"Well, someone knows, and someone better tell me." Robyn warned and they all looked panicked. They truly didn't know.

"Alright, Well, This coming from the mint, right?" They nodded. "Well, that means their is money, newly minted money, around here somewhere." She said and they were quiet before the dark haired one looked up at her. "It would be in the express car, hidden, in a safe, but it's on a timer, it won't open until the train stops." He said and she smiled at him before walking up to him. She knelled down to him, bending at the waist, face to face with him. Jack moved his guns to the other two. "Do you think I'm pretty?" She asked. He did not know how to answer that. "Don't worry, It's a question."
He frowned, still not sure what to do. If he said no, he might offend her, if he said yes, he might offend her.
"Say yes." She said softly. It was her usually flirtation tactic.
"Yes." He said, he was still very tense. " I think you're handsome." she said, and it wasn't a lie. He seemed to try not to response to that but his lips tugged a bit. "That was very nice of you, Handsome." She said, reaching up and kissed him, like one might a lover. She pulled back and he was completely bewildered, her red lip stick smeared over his lips. A soft smile on them "You, Handsome, get to live." She said with a wink and with that Jack shot the other two, clean head shots. Her 'Toy' jumped hard, blanching at the two bodies beside him.

"Anything else you want to tell me." Robyn asked him, sitting on his lap. He was as stiff as a board. he shook his head. "You sure? I really don't wanna hurt you, I like you, Handsome."

"I swear, Ma'am, I swear." He told her and she sighed. "Alright, I believe you." She said, before her hand came up quick and slamming her palm into his chin, rendering him unconscious.

"Alright, Ideas." She called, all business now, even though she was still sitting on the unconscious man's lap. "We take the safe." Jack said and Robyn shook her head. "We don't have the time, and we couldn't carry it even if we did." She said, her mind going a mile a minute, too bad so was the damn train.

"Let's just find it, see if we can blow the thing open." Casey said and Robyn nodded, before looking over at his victim, who was still alive, he was looking at her. "You go on ahead." She smiled, got up, and sauntered over to him. "You have something to say?" She asked, turning her head. He spat blood at her. Blood and spit splashing on to her cheek. She turned up her nose before backhanded him hard across the face. His hand snapped the other direction, blood spraying from his mouth. "You are very lucky I don't have time for you....Otherwise, I'd make a hobby out of you." She said darkly, taking a sleeve and wiping of what he spat at her.

She stood up, and kicked him over, and pressed her boot to his throat and leaning her weight onto it. He thrashed and tried to gasp but it couldn't and soon, he lay motionless.

She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his cheek, her lipstick -what was left of it-leaving her mark on him.

She quickly found Will and Jack, they found the safe, and it was attached to the wall, bolted in. They didn't have the tools to remove and like she said, not even Will could carry it the whole way. They would have to beat a hasty retreat.

"Shit." She sighed, running her hands through her hair. Her eyes darting around the room looking for an solution. All she saw was a plain old train car, seats for passengers, luggage and crates.
Her mind searched and searched only for it to keep lingering on the crates. It was then she thought she saw a fox's tail brush against the side. She blinked and it was gone. Must have been a trick of the light.

Even still she approached the crates, thinking maybe it had tools inside it. She grabbed the edges and pulled hard. Snapping the wood and her eyes went wide. "Boys!" She cried, they were at her side in a hurry. "Holy shit." Jack gasped "Damn." Casey breathed. Robyn beamed, Inside were huge pieces of gold bars. Glimmering in the moonlight. She could have cried. "C'mon, Let's get this in the bags, It's almost our stop." Robyn said, and they quickly bagged the gold.

They rode the train out to the water station, and it was clear that Cole's plan worked, as it was a ghost town, the rain was the only noise. This disembarked quickly, before the rest of the crew made it through the cars and they ducked through into the forest. The rain made it hard to listen for the stream but they found it, and they found the old trapper's hut, just as he said there'd be, beside it. They ducked inside, finding the cellar, and hiding inside that. Casey and Jack carrying the bags of gold bars. Jack struggled a bit and set down the bags. Casey looked as if they weigh nothing at all.


"How where we suppose to know it was him?" Jack asked, his tone hushed.

"A hawk's screech?" Casey asked and Robyn chuckled, her hand slipping into her coat, to them it would have looked like she was nursing an old wound and neither would ask her about it now, truthfully, she was rubbing her fingers over the feather. "No, Not a hawk's screech." And left it at that.

Cole let out a sigh of relief as he watched Robyn and the rest made their way to the treeline unseen. "Fuck me, they did it." The smile that had grown on his face faded quickly as he noticed something wrong. From the car came stumbling a man talking animatedly and gesturing wildly, the guards immediately started to move. Bringing the sharps to his shoulder quickly he sighted on the guard nearest handsome.

"Fuuuuck," he breathed out as he squeezed the trigger. As soon as the bullet left the barrel he racked the bolt back and rammed home another round, sighting and firing it at the second guard. They were dead before anyone heard the shots that killed them. He slung the rifle around his shoulders and jumped down and landed in the saddle of his horse. With a sharp cry he tapped his heels against the flanks of Chenoa driving her towards the town, rain whipping past his face and against his chest.

"What the fuck am I doing," he muttered to himself with a chuckle as he drew his Winchester, racking the lever chambering the first round. Giving a loud Apache war cry he tore into the town firing into the air and at any guards that dared to poke their heads out of the saloon. He was covered in muddy camouflage so he wasn't worried about anyone in the town recognizing him, what he was worried about was the thirty or so guards pouring out of the train car ahead of the one that the dazed man had come out of. Sliding the rifle back in its sheathe, he drew the sawed offs. Wheeling Chenoa around he fired off three blasts from the shotguns at the mass of guards, sending most of them scattering.

Sporadic fire started coming his way from the rapidly recovering guards. There were a lot more than he'd expected there to be, just what in the fuck were they transporting. This wasn't a contingent for just simply newly minted cash. His thoughts were interrupted by a bullet grazing over his shoulder, digging a shallow channel in the meat of it. He turned his upper body training the barrel of the shotgun on the offender, pulling the trigger and blowing him back filled with buckshot, shredding the poor bastards chest. He dropped the shotguns to either side and drew Quintos pistols, thumbing the hammers back. Bringing his right leg up he spun in the saddle so he was sitting backwards in it, trusting Chenoa to lead him out true, he needed his eyes on the men in front of him... behind him. He brought the dead mans pistols to bear on the men running after him.

Hammer struck primer igniting powder and sending the lead slug spinning down the barrel, its deadly velocity sending it through the throat of the man unfortunate enough to be at the lead of the pack. The process repeated until the hammers clicked on empty chambers, leaving behind it at least six men fated to never see the sunset. He swung around again dropping the spent pistols into the holsters hanging from the saddle. He had no time to reload the pistols, so he grasped the tomahawk as he guided Chenoa to the stables. Entering with a war cry he struck the stable hand on the head with the flat of the blade and slid off of Chenoa. Using tomahawk and voice he whipped the horses in the stable into a frenzy and set them loose as quickly as he could before launching himself bodily onto his own saddle, hanging from the side in the middle of the small herd of horses.

He hid in the herd as he heard the shouts of the men trying to catch a horse, any horse, until he heard one of them exclaim "he's hanging from the side of one of them, get him!" So much for that, he thought as he threw a leg over Chenoa and spurred her to the head of the herd and bolted into the forest. In the opposite direction of where Robyn and the others had went.

He lead them on a merry chase for the better part of three hours, finally convinced he'd lost them he started to carefully make his way to the trappers hut. He was almost there before he heard something that made his heart sink in his chest.

"You sure they went in there?" The voice was low and hushed.

"Fucking only place they could have, and we havn't found them in this fucking forest yet have we." A tougher yet equally hushed voice.

"I know but... isn't that place supposed to be haunted." A third voice, younger and slightly fearful, perhaps something he could work with.

"Shut the fuck up all of you, ya yellow bellied sons of whores," snapped a fourth voice, obviously the leader by the tone of his hushed voice. "You three fan out, we're going to light the place up then sift through the ashes to see if that black bitch and her friends were there. Maybe we'll get that Red bastard as well."

Cole drew his tomahawk and slid through the underbrush noiselessly as he approached the source of the voices. They had just entered the clearing the hut resided in as he hit the edge of the woods. True enough there were just three of them, the man who had run out of the car and three guards from the train. He had to warn his companions in the cellar somehow, otherwise it could be a bloodbath that they wouldn't survive.

"No, not a Hawks screech." He smiled as her words flitted through her head, he knew exactly what would warn them. Opening his mouth he cupped his hand around it and gave a loud long hawks shriek, the sound ringing above, through, and all around the clearing.

"The fuck was that," handsome said, looking about fearfully.

"A fucking bird, what did it sound like, now clam up and come here with that torch," said the biggest of the gathered men. He produced a book of matches and started trying to light some for the gathered torches. Drawing his knife Cole took a deep breath, and charged soundlessly across the damp glade.

Handsome was the first to notice the charging devil, but was unable to open his mouth to warn the man across from before the blade of a tomahawk split the mans skull down the middle. Leaving the blade where it was Cole threw a foot against the man, sending him crashing on top of handsome. The second man turned just in time to see the flash of Coles knife as it crossed his throat. The big man was faster on the draw and brought his torch down on Coles back. Taking the blow he rolled to the side and crouched in a fighters stance the knife dancing back and forth as he swayed. Lunging forward the big man made to swing the makeshift club at Coles head. Cole caught the torch with his elbow and wrapped his arm around it, clamping his hand on the mans wrist, locking the torch under his armpit. He brought his knife up towards the mans side, the big man blocking the blow with his forearm. Unrelenting Cole kept stabbing faster and faster, keeping the mans hand occupied trying to keep the knife away from his soft belly. While his hand stabbed he threw a leg behind one of the big mans, sweeping them out from under him and sending them both crashing to the ground. Cole never stopped stabbing the entire way down, and the man was dead as they hit the ground.

Cole sat back on his haunches for a breath before he remembered the fourth man. Rocking back he stood up and walked over to where he'd left the man, pinned under the dead soldier. Wrenching his tomahawk out of the mans skull he looked at handsome, noticing that there were traces of Robyns red lipstick on the mans lips. He didn't know why but that fact inflamed him a little, he knew it was part of the facade of the Crimson Lady, but it flashed by nonetheless. "Sorry son, no hard feelings," he said bringing the tomahawk up over his head.

A single shot rang out, piercing the air. He staggered back, swaying slightly he brought a hand to his gut, his fingers coming back covered in crimson. "Ok, now hard feelings," he said unsteadily before bringing the blade crashing down on the mans throat, cutting him down to the spine. Cole staggered back until his back was against the wall of the hut. Slumping down he rested the hands that were still clutching his blades against his knees limply. Wetting his lips he tried to whistle, faltering at first, no sound coming out. Coughing up and spitting blood he tried again, managing to get a clear robins call whistle to float through the now still air.

As he rested against the wall he looked up, a single hawk circling overhead. As Robyn and the others came out of the hut he turned to her with his slow easy smile sullied by the crimson dribbling down his chin, "I came back."

Robyn was getting restless. He should have been here by now. Three hours. Three hours and there was nothing.

"He should be here by now." She whispered to the others. Casey looked as if he wanted to comfort her but decided against it. Jack chewed on his lower lip. "He'll be here." He said, but it was as if he was trying to convince himself.

Robyn began to pace, an arm wrapped around her waist, her fingers twisting her bottom lip. She went over it in her mind, wht if they did something wrong. Should she have killed them all? Where they followed? Did Cole get---

Suddenly, a shrill hawk's screech rang out and they stiffened. Robyn looked at the two of them horrified. "What was that?" Jack asked, Casey looking just as confused.

"A hawk's screech." She whispered. Casey frowned. "But you said..."

"Something's wrong, he's here but he-Fuck this, I have to help him." She said, her heart pounding so loud she could feel it in her throat. She made a beeline for the opening of the cellar but Casey grabbed her. "Fuck, Casey, get off me." She hissed like a snake, as she thrashed about. Jack didn't know what to do, looking at the two of them.
"That was a warning, the guards must be close, too close for us to do anything." He said, and Robyn hated that he was right but that wouldn't stop her. "I don't care, He needs my help." She said, nearly panicked. Something was wrong, and she felt fear, true fear for the first time in a long time. She had to find him. She had to see him. Now.

"Robyn!." Casey hissed, now struggling to keep a hold on her. She was always rather slippery. "Let me go, William Casey or so help me-" A shot rang out and they all went still. Robyn's eyes were wide. She didn't know how but she knew that was not good. She broke from Casey's grip and dashed up the stairs and was making her way through the hut before a robin's call rang out. Robyn's heart sank. It was weak.

She ran as fast as she could toward the sound, and found it's source slumped against the side of the hut, bodies around him. 'Handsome' with a gun in his hand but still as dead as the rest. Cole looked up at her, pale, hands still gripping his blades. He tried to pull on of his easy grins but it was marred by the blood that trickled down his chin. "I came back."

He could read her eyes.

Robyn bridge that gap between them, on her knees beside him in an instant. She surveyed him, a bullet wound right through his stomach, blood gushed from the hole. "Shit...Cole, I told you not to die." She spat, pulling her coat from her body, and tossing it aside, she grabbed the sleeve of her shirt and ripped it at the seams. She tore it into two strips just as the boys found them.

"Holy shit."Jack gasped, Casey was silent. She began to wrap the cloth around him, her mind trying to find a solution. Her hands pressed against the wound, keeping pressure on it, but they were shaking. She couldn't stitch him up, she didn't have anything to do that with, and it was a days' ride to the cave. Longer on foot and Cole was in no condition to move let alone walk.

"You said you were going to live long enough to spend your share." She said, her voice wasn't as strong as she would have liked. "I'm going to hold you to that, We've got it, we've got all of it." She told him before looking back and Casey and Jack. "Find something to help me with this." She said and they both took off the opposite directions, looking for some form of first aid.

Robyn turned back to Cole, fear and guilt glossing her amber eyes. "Don't you dare leave me, Cole Black-Thorn" Her eyes said. "You promised." She told him, trembling,

"Rob, Here." Jack said, appearing beside her, with a small bottle of whiskey in his hand, pillaged from the dead men. Robyn snatched it and pulled the cork with her teeth. She spat it out and used one of the clean strips to sop up the liquid. She would have offered it to him to drink but she knew now why he didn't and wouldn't bother. Even if it would help with the pain.

"This is going to hurt but it's all I can do for now." She said, her voice was tender, and apologetic as she was about to clean his wound with it. Jack moved from them for some reason. She couldn't think about why as her full attention was on Cole and trying to staunch the bleeding.

Meanwhile,Casey beat the forest, looking for a camp, while Jack scavenged from the dead. He searched and searched but because of the rain he couldn't smell for fire, or listen for people.
Suddenly, a twig snapped behind him and Casey pulled free his bone daggers, the ones Cole fashioned for him. He stayed quiet, slowed his breathing just before he whirled around on his attacker as they approached. What he saw froze him in place.

"It's you." He breathed, dropping his guard. A beautiful native girl stared at him, with wide eyes. Her black hair falling over her shoulders like shroud, clinging to her skin from the rain. She looked afraid at first but then she smiled.

"Equi Dalonige Atsilvquodi" She breathed and he nodded, now knowing what that meant.

Cole. Shit.

That thought broke him from his stupor and he looked at her. He couldn't speak a word of her language and hoped at least by now she knew a little bit of his.

"I need help...a friend, He's hurt." He told her, with a frown. She looked at him, her face unreadable. God she was as beautiful now as she was then. Older, but still just as lovely.

"Bang." She said softly and it took him a moment to realize what she meant. That's what she was out here, she heard the shot.

"Is your tribe close, he is...like you." He said, unsure of how to tell her he was native without sounding like an ass. She looked at him, pausing a moment before nodded. "He's this way. I have other friends, another man, and a girl, " He didn't really know how to warn her of Robyn, Jack would be fine, Robyn- he knew how she reacted to surprises...and that was not well, especially with how she reacted to Cole being down. There was something there, but he didn't- wouldn't dwell on it.

The native girl reached for him, touching his arm before shaking her head. She wouldn't go with him, he was to go with her. "I can't, I have to help him and my friends." He said and she looked at him, her eyes narrowed a moment.

"I will bring help" She said and he blinked. So she did speak English but the way she spoke, it was strange, like she couldn't quite hear.

She turned to run off but stopped to look at him, a soft smile touching her lips. Casey looked at her too. "Your name? I don't know your name." He told her and she narrowed her eyes again, she seemed to be watching his lips as he spoke.

"Nidawi" She said with a smile before dashing off again. Casey rubbed his face before turning back hurrying to the others.

The edges of his vision was fading, blackened tendrils sporadically spiraling at the limit of his sight. The only thing he could focus on with any clarity was Robyns face before him. She was speaking to him, but it was fading, he was barely able to hang on. But something brought him back. "You promised." Her words came into sharp focus, bringing him back from where he had been headed, the darkness receding slightly.

He reached up and cupped her cheek slightly, though from the outside it would look like he'd just reached out. "I'm still here," he coughed, spitting blood to the side, "aren't I?" He tried to laugh but found himself quite unable to because of the blood that was coming up.

"This is going to hurt but it's all I can do for now." She started to daub at his wound.

He hissed inwards through his teeth as she daubed at his wound with the alcohol soaked rag. "You were right. Feels like a 1890 rotgut, not a good year." His eyes rolled back in his head as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

As Casey came running back into the glade Robyn was finished with trying to clean his wound. The rain had finished, letting him see the extent of Coles wound. Deep crimson had blossomed across the sleeve bandages and was threatening to soak clean through. "I... helps on its way. I met uh..." he paused unsure how to say just who he'd met in the forest.

Cole cracked open an eye and trained it on the blurry form of Casey, from what he could hear of the man and his posture he could guess. It looked as if he'd seen a ghost. "You saw her huh," he said weakly, coughing up more blood. He turned his head to the side and spat it onto the ever growing puddle of the selfsame blood. "Funny how things work out eh?" He tried to laugh again and pull himself up farther against the wall, unable to do either.

Casey looked at the man who was so close to death. He didn't seem scared, in fact he seemed completely at ease. "Yeah, actually."

Cole smiled, his bloody lips curling into a knowing smile. The minutes between ticked by like hours until finally he gathered the strength and looked over at Jack, who was loitering on the steps of the huts porch. "Hey Jack, I got you a present if you ever find Chenoa," he said just before a particularily violent fit of coughing racked his body. They ripped through his body, sending him in small yet violent convulsions, blood starting to pour from his wound and from between his lips.

"What do you mean find? Did you really think she'd leave your side ciye cetan," came a voice unfamiliar to everyone but Cole.



Casey's hands went to his knives and Jacks pistols were in his hands in a flash. The older native man paid neither of them any heed as he walked into the glade. Cole weakly held up a hand calming the other two, signaling the man was known to him. "Leksi shunkaha" he said weakly confirming the fact. "Thought you were up north," he said spitting a wad of blood to the side.

"I was son, but now I'm not. Good thing too it seems." The man had a deep soothing voice that retained a thick native accent for how well he spoke english. His weathered face was deeply lined, telling the story of a life longed lived through good times and bad. His long pitch black hair matched Coles in hue yet his was a full head as opposed to Coles half shaven. Unlike Cole however he was dressed like a white man, though he retained symbols of his people everywhere. To his right trotted Chenoa, to his left a large grey wolf, its head sweeping back and forth sniffing the air, its intelligent eyes scanning the clearing.

Behind him were four horses that were being led by Nidawi. Caseys eyes immediately went to hers and she flashed him a smile before leading the horses to the side. Timberwolf crouched down next to Cole, even in cowboy boots his footfalls were as quiet as his namesakes. Cole weakly tried to sit up, Timberwolf laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You got old," Cole said smiling at the man.

"And you've lost a lot of blood," Timberwolf replied, his eyes focused on the gaping hole in Coles gut. Reaching into his bag he withdrew a wad of bandaging cloth. Looking at Robyn he handed her the wad as he drew a small knife hanging from a leather strip around his neck. He carefully cut the bandages free. Then taking the wad back he quickly exchanged the bandages, a renewed stream of blood pouring out before he could get the bandage on. "Hold this tight against him miss," he told Robyn as he placed her hands on the wad. Standing he motioned to Casey and Jack, "two long strong limbs, bring them here." He turned to Chenoa as Casey and Jack went to find two suitable limbs. By the time they had Timberwolf had spread Coles blankets out on the ground, then taking the limbs from the boys he laid them on the edges of the blanket making a stretcher like structure that was wider at the bottom than it was at the top. "Lift him carefully onto this," he said as he secured the blanket to the limbs.

Casey, doing as he was told went over to Cole and very gently and carefully lifted the bleeding man, transferring him to the blanket structure. "Great, its like my nightmares come to life," Cole said, suppressing a laugh. None of the others would understand quite what he meant, but Robyn undoubtedly would. Timberwolf led Chenoa in between the narrow end of the structure, her saddle between the ends of the sticks. Reaching onto the saddle he took the sharps off from where it was slung on the saddle horn and tossed it to Jack. "I believe this is yours, but first, you two lift the sides up," he said indicating the two limbs. Jack looked at Casey with a raised dubious eyebrow, Casey simply shrugged and nodded. Standing on either side of Chenoa they carefully lifted the contraption and Cole as Timberwolf attached a length of rope to both limbs over the saddle ahead of the horn. He signaled for them to lower it and they did, the contraption now securely hung on Chenoa, the sled was complete.

Timberwolf nodded to the other horses, "alright, follow us. The village is about an hour to the south." He made his way to Cole, who had passed out just after he'd been laid in the stretcher. He took a length of cloth and tied it around Coles middle to hold the bandages in place. As his skillful gnarled hands worked he noticed that something of Coles was missing, his feather. He looked over and noticed the coat in a heap by where Cole had been. Peeking out from under the flap, visible only from the angle he was at, was the feather. He looked up at Robyn with an amused smile and a raised eyebrow. Casey and Jack were getting the horses so the look was shared purely between the two of them.

As soon as the rest of them were saddled up Timberwolf started to lead Chenoa and the unconscious Cole off towards the woods on foot. The wolf running off ahead of them, a hawk gliding overhead.

"You were right. Feels like a 1890 rotgut, not a good year." Robyn flinched pulling back the cloth as Cole's eyes rolled back into his head. "Cole." she called but he couldn't hear her. She was glad he was breathing, however ragged.

It was then Casey returned, white as a sheet, the raining had stopped, but the steady stream of blood did not.

"I... helps on its way. I met uh..." Will stammered and Robyn was about to tell him to spit it out only for Cole's eye to open, calling her attention back to him. "You saw her huh," Cole said coughing. "Shut up, Cole," Robyn pleaded, but her voice was meek. He spat out blood but her hand never left his wound. "Funny how things work out eh?" He try to joke, pulling himself up. "Cole, stop." She gasped, using two hands to keep the cloth there.

Casey looked watched Cole, concern itched on his features.. "Yeah, actually." Cole gave him a grin like he knew something she didn't.
Robyn had no idea what the two of them were going on about but she just wished they would stop. Panic thundered in her head, pounding in her ears, making it impossible to think. Cole was going to die, and there was not a damn thing she could do about it.

Jack, who was pacing, chewing his nail down to the quick, was startled by Cole's sudden call.
"Hey Jack, I got you a present if you ever find Chenoa," Cole then began a fit of cough that Robyn could do nothing about. She was completely out of her element here. A gut wound was usually death, something she reserved for very specific men, she didn't know the first thing about treating one. Tears threatened her eyes as she just held the now soaked rag to his open wound She closed her eyes, biting her lips, praying to whatever god that was listening for help. He told her once his ancestors looked out for him in battle, so where the fuck where they?

"What do you mean find? Did you really think she'd leave your side ciye cetan,"

A deep voice caused her to whip her head around, getting to a crouch position protectively around Cole. Her hands still never leaving his wound, even though blood pooled from it, seeping through her shaking fingers.

Casey and Jack were prepared to defend them but Cole waved them down. Speaking to the man. Robyn eyed him as he approached, he had the same warm skin that Cole wore, long hair, black as pitch. There was something familiar about this man. Behind him, trotted Chenoa, Cole's horse, and a massive grey wolf with an intelligent look about it. Robyn couldn't even begin to fathom what was going on right now. Behind them was a spritely girl, no older then herself, with four horses. She gave Casey a smile that he returned in kind. There was a strange twinge of jealousy but it vanished just as quickly as it appeared as he attention moved back Cole and the older man as he crouched down beside him. Cole has more shit to talk as did the man.

She knew him? Who, why?

He pulled proper bandaging from his satchel and handed it to her. "Hold this tight against him miss," He instructed and where Robyn would have typically shot back with some remark about just handing it to her, she was too drained to bother, she snatched it quickly, the first time pulling her hand from Cole's body. She clenched her fists a moment to steady her fingers before wrapping the bandage around him, all the while Casey and Jack were instructed to create a stretcher.

Before long the stretcher was completed, and Casey moved to lifted Cole on to it. "Great, its like my nightmares come to life,"Cole said and Robyn wanted to laugh, she really did, but she could barely crack a smirk because shortly there after, Cole was unconscious again. Robyn could barely pull herself away from him, she didn't care about what they thought, who saw what, Cole was dying, and she was scared.

The older man handed Jack something but Robyn was too busy looking at Cole, laid out on the stretcher strapped to Chenoa's saddle. "alright, follow us. The village is about an hour to the south." The old man told them and she turned to get her coat.

In her peripheral, she spotted that fox tail again, so she turned to see the old man looking at her, a smile on his lips and amusement in his eyes. She followed his gaze and she saw the feather. It struck her like a ton of bricks.

Timberwolf, the man that took Cole when he was a drunken mess. He was to him like Blackjack was to her. Now he knew what Robyn may or may not meant to Cole. She grabbed her coat and spun it on, tucking the feather back inside the pocket, letting him know what Cole may or may not meant to her. before getting on to the horse given to her by the native girl, who smiled at her.

Robyn didn't have the strength to question anything at the moment, she mounted her horse and trotted behind the rest, keeping an eye on Cole the entire way.

It was an hour ride as promised and almost immediately Cole was taken by an older woman and a slew of other women to be treated, they tried to block Robyn's path but one sharp look from her told them she'd feed them their teeth.

Mercifully, and more for their sake, Casey managed to pull her back and keep from from attacking the people they were trying to help.

"Robyn, let them work." he said, his voice was annoyingly soft. Robyn just shoved him from her shoulders and paced. She didn't taken in the village, she saw it, she saw everything, but she didn't take it in. The tension Cole worked out was back in full effect, she was ridged, her fists clenching and unclenching, she cracked her neck a few times. She wanted to fight, she wanted to hit something, make someone else bleed for her uselessness...and guilt. The one she let live, was the one who nearly killed Cole. That was her fault. Her foolish pride did that. She should have just killed him and been done with it but no, she wanted to leave one alive so they would know it was her. So her name could go down in infamy, but it nearly cost Cole his life, which...as hard as it was for he to believe, was more important to her then her own damn fame. She looked down at herself, covered in his blood and felt sick. It wasn't the first time she was covered in a man's blood, nor was it the firs time it was someone she--

She abandoned that thought quickly, turning her head, her eyes found Timberwolf, and she walked up to him. Taking a breath. before she spoke, knowing her mask slipped, fell and broke long before she even wore if in front of this man. He saw the feather, Cole's feather, a feather he'd snatched form her hands once, even when she offered herself up to him on a silver platter, the feather was more important, a feather he'd given back to her, a feather she kept close to her heart.. Casey and Jack might not know what that meant, but this man would. "You're Timberwolf, yes?" She asked, and didn't know why. "Cole, he spoke of you, fondly." She said, swallowing. Unsure of how to proceed, seeing as none of the others knew of him, and it was a conversation that was held in secret. "Tell me, He's going to come out of this." She said, trying bite back the fear in her voice, but failing miserably.
"He's been through worse?" She offered and regretted it immediately. That conversation was between her and Cole and she felt like she was revealing too much but letting this man know that she knew it, even though he had been through worse, a spike through his body should have killed him. A bullet doing the same he should survive too.

"You're Timberwolf, yes? Cole, he spoke of you, fondly. Tell me, He's going to come out of this, he's been through worse?"

Timberwolf turned from Chenoa to face the woman darker than he was. He took off his wide brimmed hat and ran a gnarled hand through his hair. She would notice, now they were closer and the light was better that he and the rest of the natives in the small village were much closer to her skin color than they were to Coles. Against the rest of his mothers people, his fathers blood running in his veins screamed that he was an outsider.

Timberwolf waved her to follow him, not saying a word until they were both seated by the nearby fire. Placing the weathered hat on the dirt next to him he looked at Robyn. "I am, and he should have, he rarely speaks ill of anyone," he said with a matter of factness that Cole had to have learned from him. He ran a hand over his scalp once more before reaching into his bag and passing her a canteen of cool water. "And judging by the part of him you possess, I imagine he'd speak... fondly of you as well," he said with a knowing smile.

The smile quickly faded though as the old man looked into the fire. "As to your second, I am in no position of knowing whether he will or not. Wounds like that are, well tricky to say the best." He spoke slow and deliberately, each word in english seeming to fight against his thick accent. "His spirit is strong, the strongest I've seen of anyone in his... position. He is a man of two worlds, accepted by neither and cast out by both. Most would have faltered and succumbed, but not him." He reached over and added another thick log to the fire, beating off the encroaching chill. They were out of earshot of most everyone, and anyone that was near didn't speak english, Casey and jack having been led to a tepee by Nidawi that had been set slightly apart from the rest of the camp. "Knowing Cole, as long as he feels he has something in this world to come back to, nothing would stop him." He looked at her, his aged eyes going from hers, to where the feather was, and back to her.

He looked over at the tepee next to them and gestured to it. "This one is yours, its close to your friends." He shook his head sadly as he held his hands over the flames, warming his old bones. "I'm sorry we could get you no closer to the camp, but many here are afraid of the men. Many here have the white man to thank for them being here instead of their ancestral home. You on the other hand, they fear less, though you are still an outsider." He chuckled humorlessly.

The wolf meanwhile had padded up beside Robyn giving her a once around as he sniffed her. Eventually it ended up sitting next to her and laid its head on her lap, more like a dog than the wild animal it was. Timberwolf raised an eyebrow at the beast as it did so, looking from it to her. "Seems you have his approval," he said with a chuckle. "First time he met Cole even he nipped at him some. You must be special." He stood and dusted off his pants, "well, I'm going into the village, someone will be by with food soon."

He made to leave before turning his head to her. "Cole will pull through as long as he has a lifeline, and I believe you are his." With that he left, the wolf gave no sign it intended to.



Cole meanwhile had been brought to the medicine woman and a young mexican doctor that was traveling with the Natives. Through the night they worked on getting the bullet out of Coles gut and staunching the bleeding. In the end they got the bullet out but the best they could do afterwards was sew him up and put a poultice on it. Someone was always watching him, changing the bandages once they became too bloodied while the medicine woman chanted almost ceaselessly, imploring the spirits to intervene. In the night Cole developed a fever that was running rampant through his body, making it so he was almost too hot to touch. It then became the job of the watcher to cool his brow in an attempt to abate the fever. Apart from the Doctor and a couple young tribe members no one was allowed in.

The older man removed his hat, gentlemanly dark hair spilling down his back, before he addressed her, waving her over. She was hesitant, but she followed until they were sitting by a fire. Robyn a comfortable distance from him, old wounds and recent panic making her rigid and distant. Her usual bravado gone. "I am, and he should have, he rarely speaks ill of anyone," Timberwolf said in a way the reminded her of Cole. She also noted how much darker then him he was. He was nearer her complexion then Cole's but then again, Cole was only half. He told her as much. He was as much as a misfit as she was.
Timberwolf offered her his canteen and while she wished it was something stronger, she was grateful for the water she didn't realize how parched she was. She rose it to her lips as he spoke. "And judging by the part of him you possess, I imagine he'd speak... fondly of you as well," Robyn almost choked, but she managed to swallow it down as he smiled softly at her.The feather suddenly felt weighted in her breast pocket, that or her heart was beating faster, she couldn't tell.

His wizen smile faded while Robyn remained silent. . "As to your second, I am in no position of knowing whether he will or not. Wounds like that are, well tricky to say the best. He said and she clenched her teeth, her gaze on the fire. It was a hard truth, but a truth nonetheless, she would have appreciated that, had it not been Cole fighting for his life. She needed-wanted hope. His spirit is strong, the strongest I've seen of anyone in his... position. He is a man of two worlds, accepted by neither and cast out by both. Most would have faltered and succumbed, but not him." He told her and she looked at him, hope bloomed in her chest. He was strong, she knew that, but to hear it from someone else made her feel better.

"Knowing Cole, as long as he feels he has something in this world to come back to, nothing would stop him." He said, his old eyes falling to her chest then back to her. Had that been anyone else she would have thought that lewd, but he wasn't looking at her breasts but her breast pocket, through it rather, at the feather hidden beneath. Timberwolf then gestured to the tepees besides them, it was then that she noticed anything else. ""This one is yours, its close to your friends." She nodded turning back to the first. The distance from the rest of the village wasn't lost on her, but honestly, she wanted to be in the tepee with Cole, she didn't want her own.

"I'm sorry we could get you no closer to the camp, but many here are afraid of the men. Many here have the white man to thank for them being here instead of their ancestral home. You on the other hand, they fear less, though you are still an outsider." He said, and she shrugged. "We're all misfits, They are used to it, This is nothing new." She said and was honestly unphased by it. She didn't fit in either world, her people, didn't know her, not here, and in her homeland, they barely acknowledged her existence unless she stole something, on top of her skin, she was a woman.She didn't stand a chance in the New World, or any other. Jack was more of the same, he was French, they hated him from his people trying to occupied land that didn't belong to them in the first place and Will, they hated him for doing what was right.

It struck Robyn then who that girl was. She was under the impression that the girl had been a child, but then again, at that time she would have been and so was Casey, it didn't register due to the fact that he was older than her. She was no older then 17 at the time, and he was already in his twenties.

It was then that Robyn felt eyes on her, and turned to find not a man but an animal appraising her. She wasn't afraid, she was oddly comforted by the scrutiny of the animal. The Wolf padded up to her, and after a sniff or two, he kneeled and rested his massive head on her lap. Robyn didn't flinch, she merely rested her hand atop his head, brushing back his surprisingly soft fur. This was not a dog, she knew, but a wolf, but she was comforted just the same.

"Seems you have his approval," Timberwolf said, watching the two of them, and Robyn cracked a small smile, as she brushed the fur of the resting beat. Timberwolf chuckled. "First time he met Cole even he nipped at him some. You must be special." He told her and she smiled a little bigger then, though tears touched her eyes. She wanted Cole. Right now, she wanted him up, standing, smiling that easy smile of his. Robyn focused on the wolf, as Timberwolf stood up. She barely looked at him, to hid her tears. "well, I'm going into the village, someone will be by with food soon." He told her and she nodded, lifting her arm to let the wolf up but he made no move to leave her side and she appreciated it.

"Cole will pull through as long as he has a lifeline, and I believe you are his." He said asd Robyn just watched after the old man as he disappeared from view, her eyes then going to the tepee where Cole was ushered.

"Cole you have to pull through....because you're mine...."

Robyn turned to her new companion, salty tears dripping on to his fur. The beast looked up, she could almost see sympathy in it's
eyes. "He has to make it...He promised." She told it. "He promised."

Cole was being torn in two directions. Thick ropes wrapped around his arms holding him suspended above a brown river. One one side of the river was a barren, desolate plains that radiated a kind of peace despite its appearance. The other was a lush forest with a hut in the middle of a clearing. He couldn't see where the ropes that were tethered to him were attached, but he could feel their pull, veritably tearing him asunder in their contest for him. Cole looked down, a gaping bloodless hole in his stomach the tepid wind blowing through him making a whistling sound that was eerily familiar. It was almost like... a robins call.

He didn't know why but the sound gave him the strength to strain against the ropes that bound him. Grasping them he pulled inwards until with a resounding crack they snapped, sending him plummeting into the brown river below him. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion as he hit the surface of the water with his back, sinking below the surface, deeper and deeper. The ropes dangling from his arms having turned into chains wrapped around rocks that were dragging him under. He didn't fight fight against the pull, he lacked the strength to. It felt like his body was on fire, burning up despite the water cocooning him.

Figures danced and swam around him as he sunk, getting close but never touching him. Like ghosts of his past they flitted and pranced around him taunting him with their freedom, inviting him to let go and join them in their caprice. One figure however, seemed to have a different plan for him. It floated nearer him, his fevered eyes focusing on the form of a woman darker than the other spirits around him. She extended a hand towards his cheek, hovering millimeters from his burning skin. She leaned her head in her lips brushing his with the lightest ethereal touch, cooling his skin where her lips touched his. "You promised, remember, you promised," she said as she drifted away from him, a hand outstretched to him, pleading for him to follow her.

Slowly, ever so slowly he raised his arms, fighting against the weight of his sins dragging him down. One dragging hand after the other he pulled himself back towards the light of the surface. Eventually his head breached the surface, his lungs filling with air and the chains falling from his arms as he swam for shore and the figure sitting there beckoning him with a crooked finger and familiar smile.



Cole was never allowed the embrace of sleep, the fever and pain always lulling him to the brink then taking it away from him. So for three days he hung in the balance between the world of the living, and the plains of the dead. On the third day his fever broke, the medicine woman and those assembled to watch him finally breathing a sigh of relief. He had completed his journey and had chosen the path back to them. Nidawi was sent to get Robyn, ushering her to the tepee without a word. Eventually he opened his eyes slowly, light filtering in and stabbing eyes unaccustomed to light. The first thing to come into focus was Robyns face, the light creating an ethereal halo around her form. "I came back," he said weakly. He would have raised his hand to her cheek had he the strength to do so.

Three Days. Three days and Robyn wasn't even allowed in his general direction. Her ire grew worse with each passing day, to the point where she threatened to break the jaw of a teenaged boy who thought himself man enough to approach her. Things that would have amused her didn't. Things that she wouldn't have otherwise cared for, pissed her right off.

Like Casey and the native girl that found them, Nidawi as she was called. She felt jealous that Casey got to have his connection with the girl that changed his life, while the man that changed hers was fighting for his life. Those two spent a lot of time together in those three days, Casey seeming to be happier with every passing moment while Robyn's storm brewed and twisted.

All of this was becoming too much to the point where Robyn had to remove herself from the village, not far but she found herself in the forest behind it. She wasn't completely alone thought, the hulking mass of muscle that was the wolf that had befriended her before, kept her company now. She never got its name from Timberwolf, so in secret, he was Grey Wind. It was the name that came to mind when she looked at the beast, he was calm, but she knew it was capable of a violent storm should the need arise.

He kept sentry as she practiced her knives. She was honing her aim, and quickness. Throwing them to in seven trees at different lengths. She'd just through her last blade, it sinking in to the heart of the furthest tree with a deep 'thunk' before she turned at the presence of Nidawi.

The girl waved to her and Robyn looked over at Grey Wind. He rose, standing beside her, not protectively but as if to say, they should go. Robyn didn't move.

"What?" She asked and the girl narrowed her eyes before smiling, waving again. Now, Robyn knew the girl was deaf, as it had turned out. She didn't hear the gunshot that struck Cole, she felt it, literally. The shot was vibrated in her chest and her curiosity got the better of her. That's was Casey told her, though Robyn barely had the patience to listen.
Nidawi could speak, it was just hard for her. She knew only a few words in English, and mostly spoke Cherokee with touches of Apache here and there.

Robyn only wanted to her two words in Apache, neither of which from her.

Nidwai pursed her lips, with a frown as if contemplating what to say. The girl was adorable, Robyn would have admitted if she was in a better mood. She had a childlike freshness about her as well as a curiousness, that if -again- Robyn was in a better mood she would recognize that that very thing may have saved Cole's life.

Nidawi frowned sadly, not having the words so she approached Robyn, something not even Casey or Jack had done, knowing her wrath, and took her hand, Robyn snatched back. "Don't." She hissed but Nidawi wouldn't have been able to hear the venom in that word.

The girl pleaded with her eyes and Grey Wind beside her, pressed his nose to the back of her leg, ushering her to follow. Robyn sighed and started walking.

She didn't know what she was about to see, but she stiffened when she saw the tepee that Cole had been in and a lump formed in her throat. Was she about to have to say goodbye? Was she seeing Cole's body before they buried it... Grey Wind nudged her on, making her realize she'd stopped walking. Nidwai gave her a small nod of reassurance before Robyn ducked inside.

Robyn's stomach lurched to see Cole laying there, paler then she'd ever seen, sweat dotting his brow, black hair spilling down like ink over his shoulders and clinging to hot skin, she couldn't even see the shaved part of his head.
His eyes opened and her heart leapt.

"I came back."

Robyn was frozen. She wanted to run to him, hug him, scream at him, hit him for taking a bullet for her pride but all she could do was look at him, lip quivering.

"You did." She said her voice no more than a peep. She took a step forward, then another, then another and before she knew it she was clear across the tepee, on her knees, wrapping herself around him. His skin was hot, too hot. She closed her eyes hard, squeezing the lids so the tears wouldn't come but they did. Not a loud cry of pain, but a silent weeping of anxiety, guilt and...relief.

"Don’t you ever scare me like that again," She said, her forehead buried into his shoulder, mindful of his wound. "Ever, Cole Black-Thorn, You know I don't handle grief well, you know that." She told him, her voice trailing off at the end. He knew that, he knew her and was the only person in the world that did, not only that, he accepted this, and her damned pride nearly taken him from her.

"I should have killed him...This...You being here....It's my fault, I just should have killed him and been done with it." She gripped a little tighter but not too hard. "I'm sorry..." She said, and that was honestly the first time in years she spoke those words and meant them. She rarely did anything that she regretted, but this...she regretted this wholly.

"Don’t you ever scare me like that again, ever, Cole Black-Thorn, You know I don't handle grief well, you know that." He smiled weakly and, with great effort, raised his hand to pat her hair. "I should have killed him...This...You being here....It's my fault, I just should have killed him and been done with it. I'm sorry..."

He slowly moved his finger to her lips. "Shh [i]litu dloo[/b] shh, I'm alive, I'm here, and I'm in your arms. Thats all that matters love," he said his voice faint yet containing a strength that seemed to be the essence of his character. His hand slowly cupped her cheek, his thumb making a slow pass across it. "You called me back, I had a promise to keep, you... called me... back," he said, his voice slowing and his breath evening out as he finally slipped blissfully into real, healing slumber.

Minutes passed in silence as all those around watched, their heads bowed, all but one. Timberwolf was standing in the doorway of the tepee. "I believe the term is, I told you so," the old man said with a chuckle and a wide smile as he turned away from the tepee. He would wait a time before he told the others, let the two of them share their moment uninterrupted.

Robyn looked up as his hand rose, and by god that did that look hard for him, only for a finger to touch her lips, causing her eyes to flutter closed. "Shh, litu dloo, shh, I'm alive, I'm here, and I'm in your arms. That's all that matters, love." He told her and she squeezed her eyes tight. They sprang back open when realization dawned on her. He called her Love? What was she supposed to do with that?

His hand moved to her cheek, brushing against it as he'd done so often. "You called me back, I had a promise to keep, you...called me...back," He told her and Robyn leaned up in a panic. "Cole?" She peeped, grabbing his hand that hand gone limp on her cheek, only to realize after that he was only sleeping. She rested her head on his chest, she hadn't slept in three days, even time she tried she saw Cole bleeding out in her arms, and she'd shoot back up, with him speaking to her, that was enough to bring the exhaustion on.

"I believe the term is, I told you so," said an old voice, that called Robyn back to the room. It was only then that she noticed how many people where in the room with them. Robyn wasn't someone who embarrassed easily but she was then, shedding her mask, allowing these people to whom she did not know, she barely trusted- given that they did bring Cole back to her- to see her cry, hear her guilt. She didn't not like this at all.

She barely turned to Timberwolf, only her head, if she had the strength she would have flipped him off. He was right, of course, he told her she was Cole's life line, but he didn't have to be an ass about it. She probably wouldn't feel that way later...probably.

Once everyone else was gone and they were finally alone, Robyn allowed herself to curl up beside, careful not to disturb him, resting her head against his chest, his steady heartbeat grew stronger which each moment and lulled her gently to sleep, even though every stir he made, caused her eyes to open before she drifted back to sleep. .

Cole slept peacefully, dreamlessly, for the first time in days. He awoke the next morning feeling mentally clearer, yet physically he was still very very weak. And on top of that his mouth was as dry as a bone. Luckily the medicine woman was there with a bowl of rainwater and a cloth. She gently squeezed some water into his parched mouth and he drank it thankfully. "Thank you little mother," he said quietly in Cherokee, so as not to disturb Robyn.

Wait, Robyn? Slowly he moved his head to a position where he could see her curled up against him, her head on his chest. His eyes moved from her to the medicine woman with a raised eyebrow. "Shes been there since you awoke, dead man who lives," the old woman said dipping the cloth back in the water and holding it over his mouth again. He drank the drops greedily, realizing just how thirsty he was. He nodded his thanks at the old wise woman and she nodded back, returning to preparing some sort of salve.

With great effort he moved the arm that was pinned under Robyn. She stirred and her eyes fluttered briefly but closed as he rested the arm around her shoulders his fingers aimlessly playing with her hair as he drifted back into the gentle arms of slumber.

Meanwhile, outside the shamans tepee Jack was getting another dose of hunting lessons from Timberwolf. As the lessons continued it became more and more apparent that much, if not all, of what Cole knew he had learned from this old man. And as such more often than not he came back to the village covered in mud and muck.

When Robyn finally woke, she found herself wrapped in Cole's arms, his fingers tangled in her hair, limp from sleep. She blinked away her sleepiness, before she sat up slowly, her hair spilling over her shoulder, his fingers looking like his was combing through it as it felt limply to the bedroll as she looked down at him. His face was peaceful and while she wanted him to wake up, she wanted to talk to him, kiss him...more than that, something that told her he'd be alright. That she didn't have to worry anymore.

She leaned over, pressed a kiss to his forehead softly, her lips lingering against his skin. His temperature was lower, a good sign.

She stood up slowly, stretching, her muscles popping and cracking from the way she slept. She took a last look at him before walking out of the tepee, and was greeted by the sun, she held a hand over her eyes, adjusting to the light. She noticed Jack, walking back with Timberwolf, his arms held out as he waddled through the village and into his tepee, it wasn't until after he disappeared inside that she realized he was covered in mud...again.

"Why do you and Cole both enjoy tormenting Jack by covering him in mud, muck and whatever else you can find?" She said, clearly in a better mood then she was before.

Timberwolf raised a slow eyebrow at her, a slight smile playing at the edge of his lips. "Its the way I taught Cole, its the way I assume he taught Jack. Why change it." The wolf made a beeline to Robyn, pushing its massive head into her hand, essentially saying "PET ME." Timberwolf smiled and waved her over to a nearby tepee, specifically the fire in front of it.

He sat on a thick log by the fire and took off his hat, running a gnarled hand through his hair. Taking the small clutch of rabbits he started to skin them, a small crowd of very young children gathering around him as he did so. He spoke to them in Cherokee and Apache, seeming to repeat what he said each time he switched languages. The village was a mixed bag of dispossessed peoples of different tribes of the area. He seemed to be teaching them the parts of the rabbit and how to clean it properly. When he was finished each of the children got a half a rabbit to take back to their families. The smile he wore never left his face.

As he was cleaning the hides he turned his attention back to Robyn, the wolf having resumed its habit of sitting next to her with its head on her lap. "He really seems to be taken with you miss, Robyn is it? One of your friends mentioned the name," he said with a small nod at the tepee that Jack and Casey were living in. "The village is warming to them, especially with Nidawi vouching for you all. The elders have agreed to allow you to stay as long as it takes Cole to return to strength. Which, knowing him for as long as I have, shouldn't take all that long," he said with a chuckle as he thought about the past.

"Its the way I taught Cole, its the way I assume he taught Jack. Why change it." He said just as Grey Wind came at her, pressing his head into her hand. "Oh, Hello you." She gave a soft smile, kneeling down to her new friend, scratching him behind his ears in the way he seemed to really enjoy. She stood again, following Timberwolf to the fire. She wasn't as cold as she was before but it still felt nice.

She took a seat, Grey Wind resting on her lap again, her hand brushing his fur still, all the while Timberwolf took to teaching a group of children in different languages how to skin and kill a rabbit. She noted that there seemed to be a motley crew within the village, much like her gang. Souls brought together by the darkness of the world.

"He really seems to be taken with you, Miss...Robyn, is it? One of your friends mentioned the name." He said and her mind when to Cole, and how she made him guess her name, and he did so successfully. She then realized he was talking about Grey Wind, not Cole. She merely nodded as he toss a nod toward the tepee that Jack disappeared into. "The village is warming to them, especially with Nidawi vouching for you all. The elders have agreed to allow you to stay as long as it takes Cole to return to strength. Which, knowing him for as long as I have, shouldn't take all that long," He told her and she nodded, before looking at him, narrowing her eyes.

"How long was that?" She asked. "He told me much of a life before you, and a little after, but not much, he did speak of you fondly, what he did say." She said softly. She was curious, she wanted to know more about Cole, from a different stand point. It would be like seeing herself through Blackjack's eyes. She always wondered what he saw.

Timberwolf looked off into the distance as he ran a hand through his hair gathering the memories. "Well, I've known him since before he could remember. I was a friend of his mother, Etka White-feather, after she had been traded to Thomas senior and they settled in the town. You could say I watched the boy grow up." He finished cleaning the hides and laid a rabbit haunch over the fire.

"He was always was an impetuous youth, strong and hard headed. I remember one day he got home with a bloodied lip and a black eye. Some white kid had called him a 'fucking injun bastard'. While technically accurate, still hurtful. So Cole kicked the kids ass six ways to Sunday." He chuckled as he remembered that conversation with Etka. She had scolded and gotten after him outwardly but she had secretly been proud of him.

He took the cooked meat off the fire and handed her a chunk of it. A small child, no more than three or four came walking slowly up clutching a stuffed toy of some sort. She was dead quiet, her large brown eyes flitting about with a scared curiosity as she came closer to the smell of the cooking meat. Timberwolf tore off a generous hunk from his piece of the rabbit and held it out to her. She slowly walked up and snatched it out of his hand, never dropping her toy, and started munching it hungrily. Timberwolf leaned over and tousled her hair and said something in Apache to her, pointing off towards a small group of children and a couple older women tending to them. He watched her as she made her way to the group, silently finishing her piece of rabbit by the time she got there. There was a slightly forlorn smile on Timberwolfs face, as if the little girl reminded him of one of his own perhaps.

"He was always strong. But I was run out of the town when he was eleven or so," he said somewhat abruptly continuing the conversation. "The next time I saw him he was going through heavy withdrawal from alcohol addiction and trying to recover from the saber in his side and the numerous bullet wounds he'd taken. I dried him out and taught him much of what he knows." He took a thoughtful bite of what was left of his rabbit, throwing the rest to Grey Wind. "I wonder if that bullet in his knee ever healed."

"Not properly, but it hasn't affected him so far." She said, though her look was far off. Cole no different then she had been, broken, angry, ready to burn the world down. Lucky for him, Timberwolf was a more positive influence then Blackjack had been. He gave her a way to channel her anger, with sex, alcohol and violence. Timberwolf gave him a way to deal with his rage, a way to focus and control it. She wondered who she would have been if she'd found someone like Timberwolf. She thought she liked who she was, but now she wasn't so sure.

It was at that moment that another small child came up, this time more curious then the last, a young boy, with a missing tooth. He looked at her as if she was a puzzle he couldn't quite piece together.

"Hello." She said. Not knowing any Apache, or any native languages, though she knew a fair amount, French, French-Creole (her native tongue) and Spanish. Though she did know a few Gaelic curses.

The boy looked at her and smiled, and she graced him one herself, gesturing to the food he seemed to be originally after. The boy watched her with a pleasant look as Timberwolf helped him with the rabbit, and she realized then what the look was. She had herself a little admirer. She chuckled to herself, still petting Grey Wind until the boy ran off.

"He's lucky to have had you...." She said, looking back at Timberwolf, "better than what I had, I--" She paused but then continued. Why not? Most people knew that story anyway, that was her legend. "I was in a similar place before, someone found me, helped me became what I am today....He wasn't a great man, and there's a whole lot less room in Hell because of what he taught me, but it was better than what I had before." She said and looked at him. "Cole...he showed me things, your magic but of course he doesn't call it magic, I'm Haitian everything's magic to me, but he showed it to me. I assume you should it to him, so I guess, i should be thanking you?" She said and smirked. "What he showed me help me, and made whatever we are...what we are." She said, looking back at the tepee where Cole was, hopefully he was still resting. If he bothered to move, she'd tie him down herself.

Timberwolf gave Robyn a warm smile and wiped his fingers off on his pants, returning to the rabbit pelts to soften them. "Well, you're right I did teach him the ways of our people. Though its really from himself that any "power" lies. No amount of teaching could prepare a man to be a guide." He was taking a flat stone to the back of the hide, stretching out the hide to make it more supple.

"But I'm glad to hear he's found the way to guide and help others." He sighed and paused in his work to rub his hands. "I'm getting old," he said with a humorless chuckle. "There used to be a time where I could have ran with the best of them. But I guess father time catches up to each of us sooner or later and sends us back to mother earth." He smiled and shook his head, "listen to me, complaining like a forgotten old man." He looked Robyn in the eyes. "Though I don't know what the two of you 'are'," the air quotes implied, "but I would imagine its something quite close to each others hearts, wouldn't you?" His wise old eyes said what was unsaid, what they both knew the feeling to be deep down inside. The feeling that both Cole and Robyn were too scared to admit to.