In the heat of battle

A very young Indian was moving swiftly like a snake, placing forward one limb after another to get further. He was sneaking across the wet ground, which was overgrown with many small bushes without leaves, quietly and without any obvious difficulties. In comparison with him, Jin felt as a clumsy bear, following one member of their small group, which was approaching the Sioux´s camp.

He was really envious about how quietly the Indian warriors could move, while he just cursed under his nose every time some stupid twig or small stone made the unwanted noise under his palms or feet. It was not because of his incomplete recovery and still aching stomach. He was just not trained in something like this so well.

Moreover, he had to deal with the very interesting view on his right, where Kazuya was glued to the ground, moving just as quietly as the Indians from Blackfeet Tribe. The young man´s muscles were stretching the fabric of his clothes during their crawling, and particularly his bottom was quite a distractive element for Jin.

The black-haired gunman was upset at himself, because of his inability to control his thoughts. But it would have been really stupid to use it as an excuse for being noisy. How would it look like if he said that he couldn´t focus, because one damn hot guy was distracting him?

Yeah, incredibly stupid... Jin kept scolding himself. But only in case I would have said it aloud...

So at least, he could use it to comfort his inner proud self and not to consider himself incredibly clumsy.

The Indian in the lead, who wasn´t older than nineteen years, raised his hand a little and stopped at the edge of the cliff, remaining attached to the ground with his whole body. That was the sign that they could see the camp from that spot already. Liwan and the other Indian, who accompanied them on that crazy mission, settled in a row with their companion, while Kame with Jin were the last ones to reach the place, so that they could see the scenery under the short cliff.

The group of Indians with black stripes painted around their eyes was sitting around a small fireplace, which was letting out almost no smoke, but it still couldn´t escape the attention of the sharp eyes of the Blackfeet Indians. It seemed that the Sioux men had a break, as they were just finishing their meals.

It had been only two days since they had left the pueblo and they already managed to track the rebels down from the place, where they had probably met with Manipi and the others. They didn´t even bother to cover their tracks, as they didn´t expect anyone would come after them.

Well, they should have reconsidered it more carefully, Jin thought.

Liwan hissed something quietly and then he pointed at the opposite side of the small glade. After a while, Jin spotted the patrolling Indian among the trees. They had to be careful, because the Sioux definitely had more guards around.

Jin counted sixteen Indians down there and he also recognized the muscular figure of Manipi among them. There was also one Indian, who didn´t seem so strong, but he was tall and sinewy like a wolf and the others treated him with obvious respect. From that, and also according to the colorful headband, Jin assumed that he was looking at the leader of Sioux rebels.

Their small group observed the surroundings carefully before retreating, further into the woods and out of reach of the Sioux´s ears. They settled down under the half-fallen tree, to discuss their possibilities.

"There are more of them than we expected," Liwan started with the gloomy expression.

"We should separate them," Kame suggested. "We need some distraction."

"It won´t be so difficult to figure something out, the question is if that will work," Jin joined the conversation. "We need just the leader, right? I doubt they will leave him alone, without any guards."

"It is risky," Liwan said, nodding in agreement. "Even if we distracted them, there would be still too many Sioux."

"Ambush?" the youngest member of their company, called Hawk Eye, came with his idea, speaking in slow, but understandable, English. "We have surprise."

"That´s not enough in this case," Kame shook his head. "They have big advantage, outnumbering us heavily. And we don´t want to kill anyone."

"Sounds like an impossible mission," Jin grunted. "They´re armed to the teeth."

"Another killing will not solve this," the younger one frowned at him.

"You can try to talk them out of it," Jin proposed caustically. "But you´ll end up dead before finishing the first sentence and I won´t let that happen."

The two men stared at each other and didn´t notice the confused looks between the young Indians. Only Liwan didn´t seem to be surprised by their sudden argument.

"We need to catch the leader out alone," the young shaman said, thinking out aloud.

Jin retreated from the eye-match with Kame, and looked at the Indian.

"Good idea, what about when he´s going to relieve himself?"

Liwan grimaced in disgust at that idea: "That is stupid even from you, Akanishi," he stated strictly.

"Liwan, wait," Kame cut in, before offended Jin could burst out. "Actually, Jin has the point. There is no other occasion for him being alone."

The Indian didn´t object anything on that, but he still seemed to disagree with such a plan.

"We just need to eliminate any possible guards around and grab him before they notice something," Jin himself was surprised that his ´stupid´ idea might work, but he would have never admitted it.

"We wait for dark?" Hawk Eye asked.

"It depends if they stay here..." Liwan assumed.

"We watch over them," the youngster suggested willingly, pointing at his companion.

"All right, but be…" Kame stopped in the middle of the sentence.

His mare, standing not far from their current position, hidden behind the bushes, snorted and right after that they could also hear Kuro neighing a short warning. Jin stiffened with his hand on the gun-stock of his revolver, while Kame was eyeing their close surroundings. Liwan´s face was showing some concern too.

"What is it?" the younger Indian asked, as he didn´t notice anything strange. He was warned by two significant glances and Liwan´s finger on the lips to be quiet.

They all listened to the sounds in the woods around motionless. It was deadly quiet. Too quiet, for Jin´s taste... Ukushi snorted again and shook with her white head.

"We are not alone," Kame stated inaudibly.

As a dreadful confirmation of his words, a long arrow appeared out of nowhere and stuck into the tree´s trunk, just two centimeters from Jin´s head. Kazuya´s heart skipped a beat at the sight; Jin flinched in surprise.

At the next moment, all five companions jumped up from the place of their martial meeting, which could become a trap very quickly, and they retreated into the protection of the nearest trees, away from the dangerous side.

Jin started to check his revolvers as soon as he found himself and Kame behind the wide trunk safely. But Kazuya grabbed the older one´s arm, shaking his head in disagreement.

"What? We have to protect ourselves!" Jin reacted whispering.

"It´s better to think first, and shoot later," Kame hissed back, releasing the grip on Jin´s hand and checked the situation carefully.

"Not always," the older one snapped and also looked out from behind the tree on the other side. He spotted at least two unknown figures moving in a circle around their poor hideout.

"If you fire, you will warn the others. Perhaps, they don´t know about us yet," Kame continued quickly, talking Jin out of his intention.

Liwan, Hawk Eye and the third young Indian, whose name Jin didn´t remember yet, already had their bows in hands, as they were waiting patiently for the enemy to appear.

"What do you want to do then?" Jin asked frowning in discontent.

The young gunman felt his veins filled with tense expectation of a battle and kept checking the slim figures in the shadows. No more arrows appeared yet.

"We may try talking first," Kame murmured.

"But, Kame, you can´t…" Jin took a breath for the flood of objections.

"Ssh!" the younger one silenced him with an impatient gesture and turned toward Liwan, who was hiding behind another tree, talking in Indian language to him. They discussed something quickly, while Jin – with the guns still in his hands – kept his eyes on the obviously approaching danger.

Kame is too soft in this, Jin pondered the other´s intention gloomily. He cannot talk out of everything, damn it! I will defend him even against his will and that´s it...

The threatening silence around was interrupted by the loud voice of Liwan.

So, our dear Indian friend lost the argument, that´s just great, Jin thought. But the truth is that I lost it too, didn´t I?

Liwan called something out into the woods, waited for a while and then he tried again. Jin spotted an even greater number of the suspicious movements in the shadows than before. There had to be at least four Indians. They could still overrun them, as they had advantage in numbers, but they couldn´t wait any longer with their move.

Finally, there was some short response from the depths of the forest. Kame frowned and Liwan shouted something again. There was another quite quick reaction, after that Liwan murmured something angrily and then Jin noticed that even Kazuya pulled out the revolver from its sheath.

"Not good, huh?" Jin assumed.

"You surprise me with your quick conclusion," Kame snorted, taking more comfortable position behind the big root.

The hail of arrows falling very close to the Indian part of their group created very impressive dot behind Kazuya´s statement. At least their horses were out of reach, hidden inside the thick bush on their left side.

"I guess I´m right with my conclusion," the older one remarked.

"Don´t kill them unless it´s necessary," Kame asked Jin quietly, ignoring his words.

Jin intended to react with some very ironical comment, but before he could reply anything at all, there was a quiet sound of the twig´s cracking, which made both of them look around. And then Jin could observe those impressive Indian bows from the much smaller distance, than he ever wished to.

Crap, crap, crap...

They were so focused on what was happening in front of them that they totally forgot about watching their backs, too.

By one fast glance, Jin spotted approximately ten red men, who were standing motionless only three steps behind their hideouts and all of them were aiming the lethal arrows on them. Blackfeet´s Indians, as well as Kame and himself froze on the spot, well aware of the dangerous situation.

One of the black-strapped Indians, who sneaked up to them so quietly, spoke.

"One wrong move and we are dead," Kazuya translated slowly. "Drop the guns, Jin."

"Damn it all…" he swore quietly. "Are you sure?"

"If they wanted to kill us, we would be dead already," the younger informed him shortly.

The red spokesman obviously didn´t like Kame´s talking and he snapped something at him. Liwan and other two Indians had already put their bows aside. Then they were forced to stand up and the attackers took their other weapons - the daggers and one spear.

Kame put his revolver on the ground and very slowly he turned around, still sitting with his hands up. Not very willingly Jin followed his example. He was upset as hell that they let their guard down and fell right into another pile of shit.

While the others kept aiming with their bows at them, four Indians came closer and forced them to stand up on their feet roughly. Stubborn Kame tried to talk to them in that strange language of theirs, but the Indians didn´t pay any attention to it. And when he tried one more time, the tallest Indian, who spoke to them before, approached him and without any warning hit him over the face harshly. That made Kame give up on another negotiation attempt and the blood in Jin´s veins to boil in anger.

The red men tied their hands behind their backs, collected their weapons and horses, and headed to the woods, where the other part of the group awaited them already. Altogether, there were roughly fourteen Indians, who obviously belonged to the Sioux, according to the black stripes around their eyes. As far as Jin could tell, judging from the full bags and a few carrions hanging from their shoulders, they had just returned from the supplies gathering and hunting. They had to come across their small discussing group by chance. Damn bad luck…

Kame was silent and seemed quite worried, as well as Liwan. Other two Blackfeet´s Indians were surprisingly brave and calm, or they tried to look like that at least. As for Jin, he was already pondering, just how to get out of that new trouble, when they were outnumbered so heavily. For the moment, it didn´t seem there was anything they could do. So, all five of them kept quiet and waited for anything what might have come.

After a short and fiery discussion, the Sioux pushed them to continue walking among the trees. Not surprisingly, in a mere ten minutes they arrived to the camp, which they observed from above a while ago. Their arrival was welcomed by loud and surprised shouts from the mouths of the Indians, who gathered around them.

They were directed right in front of the Indian, who as the only one from the whole camp remained sitting on the high stump, stabbing the incomers with his eyes. They were forced to kneel down so roughly, that Jin´s stomach protested against such a cruel treatment. And here he thought that his wound had finally given it up...

From this close, the Sioux leader looked even more like a wolf. He was thirty, or maybe thirty-five-year old tall man, with the firm muscles shaped by tough training. He kept his head straight on the long neck and he seemed to be a principled person with the narrow face and sharp features. His eyes were very dark and inaccessible.

Just one short gesture of his hand was enough to silence all excitedly chatting Indians. The most important Sioux rebel looked at each member of their small fellowship, his eyes remaining on the Indians only for a very short moment and for quite long on Kame, who repaid his stare without any hesitation. When the Indian´s inspection reached Jin, those eyes pierced him with the cold cruelty, but he didn´t dodge them. Jin had a very unpleasant feeling that the red man would be even more difficult to handle than General Ord.

And as an expected surprise for the end, the menacing crowd behind the leader´s back stepped aside to let the muscular and very familiar figure through. It was Manipi, the Blackfeet Tribe Chief´s son, who stared at them with undisguised hatred.

Jin´s not exactly favorite Indian moved with his long hand pointing at Kame in a rude manner and started to spit some words out. The Sioux leader let him speak for a while, before he cut in it sharply. Manipi´s face went red, but he kept his mouth shut and stepped back a little, folding his hands across his chest. The wolf-like leader focused on them again, especially on the younger white man, who was still repaying his look unshaken.

"Who are you and why are you here?" the Sioux asked the short question and Jin´s jaw dropped on that. He definitely didn´t expect to hear English language from the red man´s mouth.

Kame seemed surprised too, but he got himself together quickly: "I assume Manipi told you that."

The leader´s expression turned very cold.

"I want to hear it from you," the Indian stated and then pointed at Liwan and other two. "They are Blackfeet, I know. But who are you and him?" he asked again, pointing at Jin this time. "And what do you want?"

Kame took a breath, before he came up with the most convenient response he could figure out.

"My name is Kamenashi, he is my friend Akanishi. I´ve lived with the Blackfeet Tribe for more than ten years. And I´m here because I want to help them."

"Help them?" the Sioux repeated mockingly. "How?"

Kame didn´t feel comfortable with the hard ground under his knees and the killing stare, which Manipi was sending toward him, didn´t make it any better. But he forced himself to stay still and calm. Kame was sure that the Chief´s son had already informed the Sioux rebels about what had happened, but their leader still wanted to hear it again. Why? To test him? To find out if he was able to lie?

"There is a certain General and a whole battalion of his soldiers. They got to know that Manipi is involved with your group and they were heading to Blackfeet Tribe´s village to punish them for that. I negotiated with them on the way and they returned to the city for now. If you stop the attacks, they will not blame the tribe for anything and they will leave them in peace."

The Sioux was totally unreadable, only Manipi was snorting something under his nose scornfully, obviously doubting Kame´s words.

"You came here with your friends to stop us then?" the Sioux leader asked quietly.

"Yes," Kame confirmed slowly.

The hostile looks around directed to the stubborn young man doubled their numbers, but he tried not to perceive them and focused only at the Sioux man right in front of him.

"And how you want to do that?" the leader asked the second question, still absolutely calm.

Kame kept silent. There wasn´t anything wise what he could reply on that question, not in their situation. Not without revealing their true intentions...

The serious Sioux leant a little forward, looking into Kame´s eyes.

"You are foolish, Kamenashi…" he stated in an ice-cold voice. "You don´t know us, you don´t know our reasons, and you still came. Why? Just because of Blackfeet Tribe?"

"Of course," Kame confirmed his assumption firmly. "They are my family."

His statement surprised not only the leader, but other Indians too. Jin also noticed that some of the men were fidgeting nervously, and stared to the ground, not able to look directly at the talking youngster. There was something about those rebels, what made them different from Sioux. It was easy to figure out that they were from the Blackfeet Tribe; those who ran off with Manipi.

The Sioux leader stood up, placing his skeptical look at Kame: "You cannot stop us," he said slowly.

"Yet I have to try," Kame insisted. "There was more than enough blood spilled already, Sharp Fang."

The Indian blinked hearing the name. Even Jin was surprised that Kame bothered to find it out. But the young man didn´t stop on that and kept talking, when he had a chance.

"I believe you are aware of that, too. I cannot stop you by myself, but you should stop from your own will. You cannot fight against White Faces anymore. But you still have your lands, your families, you can continue…"

"You do not understand," the Sioux´s interruption was sharp as a dagger hanging from his waist. "We have nothing left but our pride. I would not be able to stand in front of my ancestors with my head straight, if I gave up on that too. White Man is thief; he has no right on these lands. If I should die, then I die fighting against this greedy nation and my warriors will go with me."

"I´m against what they do to this country just as you are," Kame assured him. "But don´t you think, that the survival of the children, whom you and your warriors abandoned at home, is more important than pride now?"

Kame was really good at persuading someone, Jin already knew that. His arguments were simple, but still fell hard on the other person. But unfortunately, it didn´t seem it would work out this time too.

Sharp Fang´s face turned very dark and serious, when he replied: "If we give up now, there will be no home for our children, Kamenashi."

Now it was clear, that Kame couldn´t persuade the man, who probably lived through too many of the white nation´s atrocities to sit on his ass and do nothing against it anymore.

After everything what he had heard, Jin somewhat sympathized with the rebels. But that was only before he remembered that they almost shot Kame down, when he searched for them with Captain Walker in the woods.

When Sharp Fang finished his final statement, Jin looked at the younger one´s face and caught a slight hint of defeat on it. Kame knew that he should have given up already, but it was not so easy…

"You are leading your men to defeat and useless death," he stated, repaying the Indian´s stare.

"Enough!" the angry voice of Manipi snapped at him. "Enough, you coward!"

Kazuya didn´t react on that and neither Sharp Fang did. He was just looking at them for a while, before he turned to his men.

"You two stay here with Blackfeet´s," Sharp Fang decided about the two young Indians and Liwan. "But these two," he looked at Kame and Jin again. "They go with us."

"But why?!" Manipi burst out. "We should put them to torture stake! Now!"

Sharp Fang placed a cold look at the upset Indian and that made Manipi shut up.

"As I said. I want them to see true power of our spirits… And they will be help to us. Believe in our fight, Manipi."

The Indian was huffing for a while, before he nodded obediently and as the first one he went to drag already silent Kame up on his feet.

***

The group of thirty Sioux and Blackfeet rebels with Sharp Fang in their lead, and with two involuntary companions, forced their horses to the fast gallop despite the difficult terrain. They kept riding forward for the second day already. It didn´t take long for Kame to realize, which place they were heading to. After they descended to the lowlands, they avoided Bozeman City completely and headed to the east. It was the direction, where the current last camp of the railway workers was located.

As far as Kame knew, some final clean-up works were taking place there. The ongoing construction was planned to be stopped for the winter season. Great Northern was supposed to postpone the works till the next spring, when they planned to continue further toward Bozeman.

It was hard to guess Sharp Fang´s exact intentions, but he probably wanted to scare off, or maybe even kill all the workers, to keep them away from the return and continuation of their job in the spring.

Though, Kame didn´t understand the reason for dragging himself and Jin along, but it seemed quite important for Sharp Fang. He wanted to talk to Jin, but when he tried, he was prevented from it by the very clear order to remain quiet.

Liwan, Hawk Eye and Weassa were not a part of their expedition, as they were left in the Sioux camp. Kame was not worried about his Indian friends; he was quite sure that all three of them might manage to escape the imprisonment. He even had a suspicion that Sharp Fang somehow counted with that outcome too, as he left only two guards with them. The Sioux leader had no interest in useless killing. He was a very stubborn and hard-bitten man, but clever and honest.

In any case, it would be too late for Liwan and the others to prevent the approaching attack. And with the each passed mile, Kame was more worried, what task would be assigned to him and Jin in that. Not only they were forced to commit a crime, he had his doubts about the whole Sioux plan too. He had a hunch it was not going to end up well. He tried to approach and talk with Sharp Fang a few times before the ride, but the Indian was persuaded about his truth and didn´t want to listen.

So, now he and Jin were riding with them, on their faithful animals, and their destination, the busy railway construction, was closer with each minute. There was no space for them to resist and escape - all the time, there were two Sioux behind their backs; more than ready to send them away to the Eternal Grounds if they even tried.

*

Jin was bothered by their involuntary participation in the whole situation even more. He had to admit that Sharp Fang was not any dumb, hot-blooded Indian, but a clever, decisive leader. Thanks to his abilities the Sioux rebels were able to escape the justice of white soldiers for so long. That was a misfortune for him and Kame, though, as it brought them into the most inconvenient position, which he could have imagined.

With absolutely no weapons at hand, they were riding side by side along the road for the future rail tracks, right toward the workers´ camp. Their two Sioux guards were just behind them, disguised as white men, dressed in coats and their long hair hidden under the scarves. Jin had absolutely no reason to doubt Sharp Fang´s words, according to which the Indians would kill them both at the slightest sign of betrayal.

It was smart to send only four of them first, so that they could act as some white riders approaching the camp. They served as a good distraction, while other Sioux warriors surrounded the whole place and prepared for the attack. But Jin had a bad feeling that the whole thing wouldn´t work out as they had planned. Unfortunately, there was not much time left for more thinking.

They approached the camp´s entrance, from where the sloppy guards were watching their arrival. Both men were standing there with their rifles hanging from their shoulders freely and just waited for them to get closer, without any sign of suspicion.

"Hey! Who are you, guys? That backup from the city?" one of the guarding men asked, as soon as they were within their reach.

"Yeah, you wish we were…" Jin murmured inaudibly.

Kame kept quiet, frowning deeply, wondering if it was better to reply or not.

"Come on!" the guardian sounded a little upset this time. "Who are you?"

At that moment, another man appeared, coming out from behind a small shed nearby, where he probably went to pee or something and he got a better view on their disguised companions than the guards had.

"Hey!!" the man´s eyes went wide in shock and fear. "They are not whites! These are Indians!!"

The guards grabbed their guns immediately after hearing that. Kame and Jin exchanged one short glance and both at the very same moment spurred their horses to move.

As if Ukushi and Kuro knew their masters were in danger, they stormed away so fast, that all three guardian men gasped in surprise and almost knocked each other down, as they rushed to avoid the animals.

Despite their quick reaction, two gunshots were heard behind them and if both animals, the black stallion and white mare, didn´t split up changing their way at that moment, the bullets coming from the Indians´ rifles would have definitely found their goals.

The guards started to fire back and the loud bangs thrilled through the air. The workers in the campsite realized something was going on and somebody rang a bell to alarm the whole camp. Right after that the high warlike cry could be heard from all sides, as the Sioux rebels launched the attack.

When Jin and Kame reunited in the shadow of a huge pile of wooden logs, the incredible chaos was already taking over their surroundings.

"Are you all right?" Kame breathed out shakily, more than aware of the danger, which they had barely escaped.

The older one nodded, also obviously relieved seeing Kame unhurt. Then both youngsters checked the camp hopelessly. It looked like all the hell broke loose. The yelling of Indians was mixed with the shouting of workers, and the whistling of many gunshots and the screams of pain cut through the cold air.

"Damn it... We need guns," Jin stated. "I feel pretty unprotected like this."

"I cannot agree more this time," Kame reacted, quite unhappy from the happenings.

In the common mess, suddenly one new sound joined in. Kame incited Ukushi a little, moving forward to see on the driveway and remained staring there motionless. A wide wave of blue on horses was dashing toward the camp.

"Oh, no..."

That blue color meant another big complication.

Sharp Fang´s plan was not that bad. The rebels´ attack obviously surprised the workers and the Indians were in advantage, as they caught the white men unprepared. It would have probably turned out into the bloody slaughter of the workers within minutes, if the construction site was not heavily guarded by soldiers. It seemed that General Ord left quite a few of his men to patrol over the cleaning up jobs. Moreover, there was a whole unit of soldiers approaching the camp.

After everything Kame had done to prevent that, to stop the useless killing, and after his unspoken promise to bring the Chief´s son back, he failed miserably. Indians and White Faces were killing each other in the merciless blind rage. Again. Just one proper look around crushed all his efforts and hopes into pieces.

Jin was watching the surprising backup too, but he was not as distracted as Kame was. So, his ears caught a strange sound, which he didn´t like, and he looked away from the driveway to check what it was.

It felt as if the time tripped over and slowed down, before rushing forward again.

Jin didn´t think; there was no time. He just made his body react as fast as possible on what he saw – one of the camp guardians, who suddenly appeared behind the logs. He was raising the heavy rifle and aiming it at Kame, who still stared in shock at the arriving soldiers.

Jin pulled his feet up off the stirrups, bounced from the saddle and jumped forward grabbing Kame´s body. He pushed him down from the mare´s back by his own weight. They both fell on the ground with a heavy thud exactly when a loud gunshot sent the lethal bullet into the air, a little above Ukushi´s head.

The mare neighed upset, reared up to her back legs and with the fast movement, she kicked the rifle out of the shocked man´s hands. Meanwhile, Kuro ran around and covered both lying men from the other side. The pale shooter stepped back. Both horses kept kicking up, not letting him take his rifle back and making the man retreat even more.

Jin just made sure that the shooter stepped away to the safe distance and didn´t care about him anymore. The time went back to normal again only when he heard Kazuya coughing and wheezing in some air, which he missed with the fall.

"Are you... all right?" Jin almost choked on the words, observing Kame worriedly.

The younger one nodded and let Jin help him to stand up, while Kuro eventually made the unarmed worker, who was swearing some vulgarisms, to run off. Only then, Jin realized that he probably did something not so good to his stomach, as the sharp pain almost made him lie down on the ground again.

"It´s just… breath…" Kame hissed out with the great effort, leaning over Jin´s shoulder.

Jin still supported the younger one, while he placed the other palm over his stomach gently, trying to ignore the unpleasant feeling.

"I think there was... enough of close escapes for one day," he stated.

"Jin?" Kame looked at him, probably hearing something strange in his voice. "Are you...?"

"I´m fine," Jin assured the other one. "Or I will be, whatever."

The loud shooting and shouting took them back to the reality; there was no place or time for teary scenes.

"That rifle is useless unloaded; we really need guns or something…" Jin repeated, still holding Kame firmly. "Or I have just torn my trousers for nothing."

"Thanks," Kame said, still a little out of breath.

"You can show me your appreciation later, when we survive this," Jin assumed.

Kame just nodded in serious agreement.

The attacker from before was nowhere close to be seen, so they both grabbed the reins of their nervous horses and ran to hide behind the nearest building to avoid the open space and direct line of soldiers´ guns, which just joined the whole bloody mess...

*

It didn´t take long and yet it was like a never-ending nightmare.

In the end, they had to remain hidden, until almost everything was over. If they have stuck out even a nose from their provisional hideout, they would have risked being killed by either Indians, or soldiers or camp workers. There was nobody on their side; they couldn´t be sure about if even one of the parties would consider them harmless.

Kazuya wanted to jump right into the middle of battle, when they noticed lonely Manipi fighting in the distance against three railway workers, but Jin didn´t allow him to go. There was nothing what they could do about it...

They both heard a sharp scream coming out of Manipi´s mouth, as he raised his hand with the tomahawk. Then there were two gunshots, followed by two blood stains at the Indian´s chest, which seemed so tiny from their position. The son of Blackfeet´s Tribal Chief looked down on himself, as if he couldn´t believe it. Then he staggered, remaining standing for a while, before he fell down on his knees and then on his face...

Manipi was not the first one to fall like that on that day, and not even the last.

Kame was shaking in Jin´s hold not being able to stop the flood of pity. He knew Manipi for a long time and despite many bad characteristics, there was nothing what he would hate about the young Indian. And his father – the Chief – loved him more than anything...

Little by little, the amount of shots and screams was coming down slowly. The soldiers were establishing some order in the camp again. There were too many of them and they were armed better than rebels.

Anticipating the defeat, a few Indians escaped to the woods, four, maybe five of them. The rest was either dead, lying between the rails along with white workers, or under arrest of the army.

From the crazy start to the bitter end, the whole battle was something unbearable to watch for Kame. He was torn apart by the fact, that he was not able to do anything. He could not help to anyone, not even to a single Indian. Not even to the last one standing...

The number of motionless bodies already indicated the end of Sioux rebellion, when they spotted one Indian sneaking on the ground not far from their hideout. He was leaving bloody track behind his body, as he was desperately trying to reach a revolver, which rested in one dead man´s hand.

"That´s Sharp Fang..." Kame gasped and tried to escape Jin´s grip again.

"No, Kame, don´t go there," the older one urged him. "You cannot help him anymore..."

Kazuya knew Jin was right, but still... To do nothing at all...

The fate solved his dilemma instead. Before either of them could think out what to do, Sharp Fang let out his last breath, stopped moving and his eyes turned blank. They stared at his body in disbelief. They don´t know the Indian for long, but still it was somehow unacceptable that somebody so strong disappeared from this world so quickly...

"Hands up!"

The sharp order behind their backs startled them. Seemed, they were finally exposed behind one of the workers´ sheds. They obeyed and turned to face the blue uniforms slowly.

Where all the good luck went, damn it? We just keep falling from one trouble to...

Jin´s pessimistic thoughts were interrupted by another soldier on the scene, who appeared behind his subordinates.

"Well, this is quite a surprise… I´m just not sure if it´s a nice one or not."

"Captain Walker!" Kame recognized the man first.

"Kamenashi... Akanishi... Good afternoon..."