In Love and Sacrifice by Hayden Rexelle

Author:Hayden Rexelle [Rexelle, Hayden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Published: 2022-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

The ride to the village was a pleasant one, the sun shining through the trees, the leaves of which were turning amber and gold, and beginning to drop for the fall. Grady chatted with me about his life before The War. He had already been in the military, special forces, and with that information I knew how skilled, and lucky he must have been to survive all three waves and the plague that followed. I tried to learn more about the captain, but she seemed distracted for some reason. Though you never really could read what she was thinking. I did manage to glean that she’d been in little league and did a lot of camping with her family.

After a couple hours or so, as my legs and buttocks were starting to complain, we came over a small rise and there, nestled in the valley was Sioux Lookout. A couple dozen teepees, most with curling smoke, dotted the valley below. They were camped near a river and it flowed lazily as a couple of young people watered several horses in the shallows. As we rode down the hill, we were surrounded by barking dogs and screaming children, several of which jumped and clapped with glee as they shared exchanges with both the captain and Grady, who were very comfortable with the Sioux language.

One small child, who could have been no more than two, reached their arms to the captain, who leaned down and lifted the cooing child into the saddle. There the child remained, blowing raspberries and repeating the word sunkawakhan, giggling and pulling on Midnight’s mane.

We arrived at the outskirts of the first few teepees where a crowd had gathered. The wave of people parted for a tall, distinguished looking old gentleman with gray braids and a single eagle feather laced in his hair. At his side was an extremely beautiful young woman with fierce brown eyes, her black hair free and flowing, a pair of guns very similar to the captain’s strapped to her hips. The captain addressed the man as one would an old friend.

I had never seen her so animated, she seemed almost carefree. She handed the child down to a young woman before flinging her leg over the saddle and gracefully sliding off her horse. The beautiful young woman with the black hair stepped forward, grasped the captain by both arms, and kissed her squarely on the mouth. My jaw dropped as my stomach churned with jealousy. I must have given a start as Grady glanced at me strangely. I hoped I hadn’t made some sort of undignified sound. I just smiled at him, choosing to focus my attention on the children rolling about in the dirt, fat and happy, with the dogs.

The chief, the gorgeous warrior woman, and the captain chatted for a while in that language that rolled like water over rocks. After some time, the chief gestured to me and whatever he said made the captain blush crimson, and the dark-haired woman throw back her head and laugh.

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