Background
Lucas Cole not sure what he's to do about his discovering a runaway Indian maiden, and he's not sure if she stays how his mail order bride might feel.
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Come daybreak in the foothills a mist consumed the pair of riders. Luke had placed Aiyana on his pack mule loaded with pelts and salted deer meat. He led with his brown mare ahead, until enough sun had burned off the mist and made the trail less treacherous.
On a ridge, Aiyana caught her first glimpse of town where she would reveal herself to the world and telegraph an uncle back east that his sister was alive and lived among the Mountain Crow people. Luke needed to exchange his pelts with the mercantile store in town. He also needed the telegraph office to find out for sure for sure if there was any word on his traveling bride to be who should be headed to Julesburg.
The pair waded through a shallow creek. Then shafts of light penetrated the trail flanked by Ponderosa Pine. The golden meadows opened toward town as if it made for a postcard. Luke looked over at Aiyana. She was one tough Indian maiden on a mission, and not just a survivor. He secretly pondered how their arrival would play out. She was free to do as she pleased, and he aimed to keep it that way.
Aiyana wore a hat that covered her dark hair. She looked a bit boyish, wearing pants and a shirt of his that made her look consumed by the attire. Truth was, Luke didn't mind her beauty being hidden from prying eyes in town.
As the pair rode into the edge of town folk filed outside. No doubt word spread like a wildfire that Luke had himself an Indian girl keeping him company. Aiyana played the part of a sheepish boy, causing Luke's constrained look to crack a smile on his weathered face.
Passing the livery and the blacksmith shop, one of the church ladies who held a broom sweeping the dust into the air, stopped long enough for the cloud to settle and give her a good gaze at the pair. Luke tipped his hat as they traded looks.
Luke looked sidelong at Aiyana whose eyes showed wonder at seeing a modern town for the first time. "Well now, it looks like they've been expecting us," Luke said. "News here travels faster than the wire."
The pair strode in toward the mercantile shop which doubled as a butcher shop too. Luke tethered the mule and then his brown mare to the hitching post. Aiyana dismounted after him. She helped him with the pack of pelts to take inside while Luke slung deer leg quarters over each shoulder and stepped toward the door. Aiyana followed but then stopped and gazed at the flowery calico dress fitted over a life-sized mannequin.
Luke halted at the door and turned. "Don't fret about her none." He looked at the mannequin. "She's not real. Just a dummy."
A bell on a door announced their arrival. Bethany Williams stepped around the corner and greeted Luke. "Great to see our mountain man has made his way down. And who might be your friend, Luke?"
Luke cleared his throat. "She's Aiyana. I...I found her..."
"So, I've heard." Beth swiped her hands over her white apron. "Pleased to meet you Aiyana. I'm Beth, and my husband, Travis is in the back butchering a cow. Please head straight away to him with those hind quarters there, Lucas. He'll be glad to see you. And here, let me have those pelts Miss...Aiyana. And don't fret here none. We don't all bite our visitors in this town."
Luke headed toward the back but turned almost ashamed for how Aiyana appeared to look, as if swallowed whole by those raggedy clothes. "Beth, it was all I had to give her."
"Well, we're going to have to fix that." Beth set the pelts down on an open table and hugged Aiyana, who didn't know how to react. "Welcome to our sleepy town."
After embracing Aiyana, her hat flipped, and her raven hair slipped to her shoulders.
"My goodness," said Beth, "It's true! The beauty of a woman is in her hair, and those eyes that shine a pearly blue."
Luke's fears were eased, as he made his way out into the back toward his butcher friend. Beth was a Godsend.
Bethany waltzed Aiyana around the shop where she stood and gazed at all the rolls of fabric. True to a woman of the day she pinched the differing fabrics, and Aiyana must have imagined what she could make with all the colors of a rainbow.
Bethany pulled a piece of hard candy from one of her jars on the counter and handed it to Aiyana. "Here, try this. To show her what to do with it, she herself put a piece of hard candy in her mouth.
At first Aiyana spat it out into her hand, then took it in her mouth, rolling it around on her tongue. That burst of flavor must have shocked her senses.
Bethany smiled and asked, "Can you tell me what your name means, dear?"
Aiyana spit the candy out and spoke for the first time. "It means Little Bird."
It was then Aiyana's eyes focused on a parrot in a cage who seemed to be studying Aiyana from the corner. The bird flapped its wings on the pole and spoke. "Little bird...Little bird."
Aiyana laughed. She stalked over to the bird in a cage and spoke. "Free Little Bird. I'm a free Little Bird."
"Free bird...Free bird...Fly away...Fly away..."
Author Notes
When I go back and polish, I will be using a different name for the Indian maiden. If one looks up Aiyana, they may find it doesn't mean "Little Bird." But I have another name from the Crow era that will fit that I need to fetch.
Also, as you may have guessed, this is not just a western, it's a love story.
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