Looking back on that day I will never forget

Page 13.

Looking back on that day I will never forget Star Raven's words even though I always believed I had just a little something to with the outcome of the fight but in fact she did save my skin? “Just saying”. Anyway I followed Star Raven closely as we walked deeper and deeper into a cavern that twisted and turned like a sidewinder caught in a grass fire with everything around us as black as hell. Along the way I fell a couple of times causing Star Raven to take me hand after she said something like, “You seem to fall a lot don't you”? My experience with Women was limited except for my Mother and Mrs. Thompson but Star Raven was very different from them and I was beginning to feel as if I knew more about her with every step. About a hundred yards ahead of us I could see sunlight flickering while Star Raven pulled me faster as Willow popped her head out from under my shirt and yawned. I leaned to her and said,”were almost there little one”, now stepping into the sunlight and finding ourselves standing at the base of the cliff dwellings were I had found the child’s skull.

Far off into the distance we could see large drifts of dust circling low to the ground but moving swiftly toward us. Star Raven pointed toward them and said to me, “That's the soldiers from the fort, William”. Well if I wasn't confused then I sure was now but how does an Apache girl that I never met before who speaks better English than I do and, “alright I'll admit it fights better than me”, know my name? I stood there feeling somewhat foolish when Star Raven asked me if I knew how to use Mrs. Thompson's Bowie knife and if I wanted to trade for the Apaches blade? I was starting to get mad at someone other than my deceased father when she laughed like no one I had ever heard before and asked me if she could hold Willow. At that instant I had almost forgotten about the war party of drunken Apache's armed with Winchesters who couldn't be more than just minutes away and Fremont who I borrowed from the Captain and the trade with Willow for Star Raven. Time seem to come to a stand still as I finally had a real chance to look at Bacho's granddaughter.

Star Raven told me after her parents were killed by a waring band of Comanche's and her grandfather took her as a child to live in mission run by nuns. It was there that she learned English and to read and write but her soul and her spirit were Mescalero Apache and one day she left the mission and rejoined her grandfather to live in the ways of her people. But time was running out now for us with the Apache's closing in I was beginning to wonder if this was a place to stand and fight or a death trap to be tortured and killed. Star Raven was now carrying Willow as we again moved across, over and within the cliff dwelling until we reached a small room almost hidden from sight. Star Raven began to removed several adobe bricks that were loose against one of the adjoining walls only to reveal a pool of clear cool running water. She scooped out some water with her hand and offered it to Willow who drank rapidly and cried for more making Star Raven smile. Nearby I picked up a broken water jug and filled it handing it to Star Raven, it was the first time our eye's met and it wouldn't be the last.