Sit down, shut up, don't touch anythin'
As defiant as Addy was in her soul, she knew that there was a time to wait and a time to act, and this was most assuredly the former. Her head was swimming, and even so, she closed her eyes and turned away as the poor, grieving mother was butchered, knowing there was nothing she could do, and dwelling on that would hamper her own chances of survival.
For now, she was compliant, not that there was much choice. They were far out-numbered, and her head was still aching, although she was a little annoyed that she had been tossed across the back of a horse like a sack of grain...she would have readily agreed to behaving if they would let her sit properly. As it was, the blood was rushing to her already-unhappy head, and the constant pummeling on her stomach with each step the horse took had her fighting nausea.
She knew that Caroline was there, too, and wanted to say something, or at least catch her eye, but any attempt just made her want to puke all the more, so for now, Addy concentrated on breathing and surviving.
Storyteller / Shared NPC
The women had no idea how long the ride was, Caroline was so sick of being jostled continually in this frustrating position she eventually just stopped thinking and endured. The war party were in a jovial mood having ambushed the waischus twice already without suffering any losses. Oh the strange white woman who dressed like a white man had wounded one of them but it was a graze and had been quickly bound up. It would take much more than that to stop an Arapaho warrior. The war party had pulled away from the white man's dirt road trail and headed into the oft forested mountains. It was time to celebrate their victories and settle down to relax for the night then.
As for their women captives, there was much to discuss and decisions to be made. It would be simplest to just kill them. There would be some in the war party who would want to rape them but Teestou was not one of them. His war against the waischus was more than a simple one day of raiding then head back to their village to boast. He had gotten some revenge this day for his lost squaw and child. But he wanted so much more. The Sioux and their Cheyenne allies had done much more - they had destroyed a whole army of blue coats. More of that was needed to drive the waischu from their lands. And so he was not done yet, he had barely started even. He also had a plan for the captives.
They came upon a fine place to camp for the night. It had a creek bubbling right next to small patch of open ground yet was hidden away from any long distance view by being within a fold of land between ridges. The horses would be able to graze and water then they could tether them to trees. A fire could be built. Ni 'itou declared he would hunt and kill a deer for their supper, he had a bow in addition to his rifle. The boy, Houusoo, here on his first raid had also wanted to go help hunt for he was armed also with a bow (but no gun) but Teestou said 'no' as he had need of the young man. For it was Houusoo who spoke the waischu tongue. In fact, that was the main reason Teestou had even agreed to bring him along. For this was no hunting trip or horse stealing raid, from the start this was about killing their hated enemies.
***
The first the two women realized they were stopping to camp was when they were both harshly pushed off the horses to land on the ground. Teestou nodded over to the boy who then spoke in halting English.
"You get up now. You stand."
Caroline coughed then groaned as she looked up from the ground, their hands were still bound and she wasn't quite sure how steady she was going to be trying to rise but at least he got to her knees.
"Addy, you alright?" she turned to her companion in this disaster.
Apparently the Indians were not pleased with her attempt to talk to the other woman and one of them stepped up to slap her aside the head, fortunately with an open hand while he shouted something angrily.
The boy repeated his earlier command, "He say you get up now. Or he beat you."
Sit down, shut up, don't touch anythin'
Just stopping seemed to be a bit of mercy to Addy's bruised abdomen, but the shock of being yanked to the ground and tumbled into the dirt caused anger to flare in her, and had it not been for Caroline trying to talk to her, she likely would have gotten herself killed right then!
As it was, seeing the treatment the other young woman got cautioned her against doing anything besides what they were told, and she wanted to stay alive as long as she could so as not to leave Caroline alone.
Giving Caroline a quick nod, she managed to struggle to her hands and knees, knowing if she took too long there was likely to be an unpleasant price, so she took a shallow breath and stood, wobbling a bit, beside Caroline.
Storyteller / Shared NPC
Well that boy might know English but it was quite obvious he was not in charge. Caroline was trying to figure out just who was the leader of this bunch. She didn't know much about Indians but she did realize they weren't organized like say....the Army with a clear chain of command and such. As far as she knew, the bossiest most forceful warrior would be the one in charge and the one to most worry about.
Well, it didn't take long to figure that out -
***
Teestou smirked once both white women were up on their feet, he did not understand these waischus. One was wearing the clothes of a man, was she trying to disguise herself. If so it did not work. The other wore this bright long dress down to her ankles but with revealed shoulders, it looked bulky heavy to wear such a thing. An Arapaho woman or girl would never wear such foolishness. After a moment of observation while the other warriors gathered around in a rough circle, he made his decisions.
He started talking loudly and with a firmness. It was obvious all the other Indians were listening to him, a few nodding, one frowning. Then he turned to the boy and spoke rapidly to him. The boy nodded then stepped closer to the women.
"Teestou say you take off ....boots...stockings off too. You do not try and run off then. Hurt your feet very much," the boy grinned.
Caroline wasn't wearing boots, she had a nice pair of shoes on but Addy's boots were far more obvious. She figured correcting the young buck on his footwear terms might just bring her another slap to the head, not worth it.
She glanced at Addy, wanting to say something...maybe like 'what choice we got?' but really what could either Addy or her do about this? Backtalk? Or even outright refuse? She had a feeling if they did that, the Indians would just knock 'em down hard and take the damn shoes and boots anyways. And it might involve a beating?
With a sigh, Caroline plopped back down on her butt and started untying her shoe laces. Damn, they probably would throw these expensive shoes away too now? Bastards....
Sit down, shut up, don't touch anythin'
"Like our feet ain't gonna hurt noways," Addy grumbled as she plopped into the dirt beside Caroline, as opposed to giving up her boots as the other woman was her shoes. They may not be new and fancy, but they were broke in and comfortable, and that was not easy to accomplish.
Not only that, but she kept a skein dubh -- a small knife -- in her boot, and she'd have to give that up. Sighing, she pulled the weapon from her boot and tossed it into the dirt in front of them, let the men fight over it!
Sighing, she glanced at Caroline again and shrugged. Right now, all they could do was follow orders and not show weakness, and from what she knew of the saloon singer, she had backbone and moxie...if anyone was going to make it through this, it was Caroline.
And Addy planned to make it, it was just a matter of biding her time.
Storyteller / Shared NPC
"Like our feet ain't gonna hurt noways," grumbled Addy even as she complied.
The boy didn't let that go though, "No talk. Just do what we say!"
Caroline glared up at the speaker but used all the self control within her not to say anything much as she wanted to curse out the whole bunch of 'em. She glanced then at what her fellow prisoner was now doing?
Sighing, Addy pulled the weapon from her boot and tossed it into the dirt in front of them.
That brought a reaction from the watching warriors, some of them saying...well, whatever the hell they saying. It was a mix of anger and even some laughter.
Teestou grunted and pointed to the blade, Houusoo stooped to pick it up and hand it to the older man who examined it with a half-grin. Caroline held her breath, would they do something awful to Addy for her revelation? God, she hoped not!
Teestou held it up for all to see then went on a bit, there were more laughs this time. Something apparently was amusing. But Caroline figured that was better than rage at least.
Teestou then spoke directly to the lad who nodded and grinned before handing the blade over to the youth.
Houusoo turned to look down at Addy, "Knife belong to me now. You not need it."
Sit down, shut up, don't touch anythin'
Well, Addy figured it was better to just give the knife up, she wasn't going to be able to hide it anyway, and chances were better that they'd find it before she had a chance to use it. Pity, it was a nice little blade.
"Knife belong to me now. You not need it."
Nodding, Addy scrambled to her feet. "That's a right nice knife ya got there...real Damascus steel, all th' way from Scotland." Not that he'd know what those were, but it sounded important, and maybe would help boost his ego. As for speaking to him, she was expecting some sort of punishment, but then, he'd talked to her first.
Turning, she held her hand out to Caroline, as much to help her stand as to have the human contact.
Nodding, Addy scrambled to her feet. "That's a right nice knife ya got there...real Damascus steel, all th' way from Scotland."
Houusoo understood the basic words of course but as the woman figured, Damascus and Scotland were meaningless. No matter, it seemed to him the woman was accepting that what was once hers was now his. The young Indian now slipped the blade under the buffalo hide strap on the side of his hip, holding up his breech clout.
Turning, she held her hand out to Caroline, as much to help her stand as to have the human contact. Caroline too half expected the Indians to object to Addy attempting actual conversation, though why that should bother them she did not get. They let her get away with it though.
Caroline risked just a real quick smile in Addy's direction but seems their captors were still not finished about all this. The same man who did most of the speaking and whose tone made the words sound like orders now started up again. The boy nodded then addressed her this time.
"You wear too much dress, you do not need so much. You take off dress," Houusoo now directed.
"No, I'll be fine, I'm used ta..." Caroline didn't even get to finish when their 'chief' snapped something else and another warrior put his one foot forward and slapped her along side of the head. She was getting real tired of getting knocked around like this but trying to fight back would probably mean death. Anything to stay alive, maybe they'd get a chance later to get out of this mess.
"You take dress off or we take it off for you," the boy now threatened.
The damn thing buttoned down in the back, Caroline was going to need help but she sure didn't want the Indians to 'assist'. She glanced at Addy.
"I better do what they say. It's an expensive dress too," she sighed, turning her back to Addy, "Can you help me?"
Sit down, shut up, don't touch anythin'
Danged savages," Addy grumbled under her breath when they hit poor Caroline yet again. It was unnecessary, but that was her opinion, and she knew that the Indians demanded compliance from women, particularly women.
"Don't fret none on it," she whispered as she started undoing all the tiny buttons down the back, "ain't like they gonna be oglin' ya, just don't understand all th' fluff." At least she still had her bloomers, petticoat and camisole, so she wasn't going to be stark naked.
"Just bide yer time." That was all they could do right now, bide and survive...
Don't fret none on it," she whispered as she started undoing all the tiny buttons down the back, "ain't like they gonna be oglin' ya, just don't understand all th' fluff."
Caroline wanted to reply it wasn't the ogling she was worried about, she'd been ogled at plenty in the saloon. But well, she would rather not think about the worst possibility. Make that second worst, death would be the worst.
"Just bide yer time," was Addy's whispered advice.
It was good advice too.
Once she had wiggled out of the dress, there was another consequence from it though. Her hidden derringer fell to the ground. One of the sharp eyed Indians noticed it amongst the piled dress and reached down. Some of the Indians made remarks, though exactly what was being said of course neither woman had a clue.
Caroline decided to risk another swatting, "Tell'em I don't have it for fightin' you folk. It fires one shot, not much use fighting a war party, right?"
The boy passed on her words (least she hoped so) to what appeared to be their chief or big dog of the bunch. He didn't seem to care much either way. It was true the Arapahoes were hoping to improve their armament and ammo supply too as one hopeful result of this raid but such a useless thing did not fit into their plans. Rifles, they wanted rifles.
But there was something else, slightly bigger, flatter, and shinier down amongst the dress too, Caroline bent down to retrieve it before they could. She held up her flask. She always carried on whatever trips she went on. An occasional slug of good Irish whisky was a balm for her.
"Tell your chief this is just something to drink, " she explained.
Now the Indians were curious about the flask. Teestou reached out and yanked it from her grasp, unscrewed the cap and tossed it away then too. He sniffed it then took a sip, his face lit up in a smile. His second sip was more of a gulp and the great warrior made a face, it was strong firewater alright. He shouted something to accompanied laughter.
Caroline looked on glumly as one by one the warriors took turns only to have it empty before it got halfway around the dozen plus. The boy was one of those who never got his chance and looked disappointed. As for the flask, it was tossed away then also.
Truth was Caroline was going to miss that flask far more than the damn gun. She did not like going without a drink for any long period of time.