Finding a Home

1 Benjamin and his family lived in a little cabin, in a valley, on the prairie, for as long as he could remember, Benjamin and his parents had tended the land, his mother, Jane, kept a garden, and kept them all clothed. Benjamin's dad had built their cabin with his two hands when they first moved out here, and trained wild horses for pulling the logs not only for the cabin, but also for firewood. Beings as how there were no towns or even villages in close proximity, people often had to deal with what they had, while living off of the land, and also, more times than not, they had to depend on traveling salesman for what they could not do without. His father would often trade furs, or rifles, and his mom would trade canned goods for money. Benjamin was never without something to eat, or shoes on his feet. On the day that Benjamin turned seventeen, his father gave him his first horse of his own. He was black as night, with only one white hock. His father, Ben, whom Benjamin was named after, told him that Benjamin would have to tame the animal himself. Benjamin had often watched his dad tame horses, so he was confident that he could tame this horse. Benjamin loved the animal, and he often would just stand close by him and talk. Benjamin even named him Midight, every day, Benjamin would go outside and spend some time in the corral with the horse, and, eventually the horse let Benjamin touch him. It took a couple of weeks, but Benjamin tamed the horse enough to ride, without hardly any tantrums from Midnight. Ben was pleased with his son's progress in this land, and he was a fast learner. He knew one day that this land would go to his son, and that, barring any problems from the weather, and the Indians, his son would make it just fine. Ben also taught Benjamin how to make furniture and other wood crafting skills that would help him in the future without him, also how to make a cool spot for meats and veggies. On the tragic day, Benjamin's parents went out to get flowers and another horse for his dad, because one of their other horses had busted his leg, and they had to put him out of his misery. Benjamin decided to stay behind to finish staining his mother's new rocking chair that his dad had just built. He did not worry when his parents did not get back that day, he just did his chores, and spent time riding his horse. The next day, he still didn't worry, until it was past dinner time, and they still didn't show up. Benjamin knew that his parents would be bringing the horse back wild, but he also knew that the flower gathering and bringing the horse back would only take, at least two days at the most, so he made a decision. Since it was too dangerous to ride at night, Benjamin waited till morning to go looking for them. He found an area that looked pretty burned, but then, that wasn't the only thing that he noticed, it's what he saw that was burned that was concerning to him. Benjamin looked at what seemed to be two people who had been burned on a stake, when he rode a little closer, he noticed what looked like his mother's dress, hanging on her scorched body, he shook his head, trying to deny it, but then he looked to what seemed to be the man, and the remnant of his clothing matched what his father had been wearing when he had left. Benjamin no longer could deny what he was seeing, Benjamin fell to his knees and started to cry, he wept for a good long while, then, when he wiped his eyes, he noticed something shining in the dirt. It was his father's watch. Benjamin grabbed it and put it in his pocket, and then he got up to leave, but then he looked at his mother one last time, and he noticed that his mother no longer had her locket around her neck, and so he looked around, and sure enough, it lay a few feet away in the prairie dirt. It must have fallen off in a struggle to get away, he put that in his pocket as well, then headed back home to get a shovel to bury his parents. Benjamin carved out head stones for them from some Granet rocks he had found, then said his goodbye s and left. (Anna's POV) Anna looked around her as she made her way to the field of wild flowers that grew a few feet away from her and her parents cabin, and she smiled. There was a slight breeze, and Anna enjoyed the cool of the evening, and the calming silence that came with it. Anna and her parents had just moved into the little cabin that had been constructed by the settlers that had been here before them, they had been told by the prospector that had sold this land to her parents, that the older people who had lived here before them had died. Anna took a big breath of the fresh air, and kneeling down, started to gather the wild flowers, soon, she had a good hand full, and she took a minute to just look around and take in the vast amount of prairie land around her. She did not notice at first, the smell of smoke, and the sound of rifle fire, but when she did, she noticed that it came from the direction of her home. Anna quickly got up and ran the short distance back in the direction she came. She was not prepared for the sight that she was greeted with, she saw a couple of bodies on the ground already, and warriors circling the cabin. The cabin itself was on fire, and her dad was firing at the Indians from inside, that was until the smoke was too much for her mom and dad, and so they had to leave the building. Anna watched as her mom took refuge behind a water barrel that was at the side of the house, and her father covered her with a volley of g*n fire at the Indians. Anna couldn't seem to make herself move from her spot as she watched her dad try his best to protect himself and her mother. It was over soon enough, because her dad got shot squarely in the chest, and he went down, Anna let out a startled cry, and she watched as her mother went to her dad and started to cry. The Indians, noticing that the threat was over, let out a whoop, and got down from their horses, heading towards Anna's mom and dad. Anna still could not make herself move from her spot, and did not even notice that she had dropped the flowers that she had been holding. She watched as one of the warriors, that looked to be the leader, grasped ahold of her mother's arm, and d**g her up, but Anna's mom fought the Indian. Quickly the warrior tired of her struggling, and pulled his knife out of its sheath. Still she struggled, not afraid of the knife at her throat. Unfortunately, she should have, Anna watched as if in slow motion as the warrior drew the knife across her mother's throat, and then just let her body slump to the ground. Anna let out another cry, and tears started to cascade down both of her cheeks. She watched as a couple of warriors took the bodies of her parents and tossed them into the cabin that was starting to get into a full fledged inferno, and then the Indians took the two horses that she and her parents had come here with, and they left in the direction that they had come from. Anna did not know what to do, or where to go, she had no home to go to, and both of her parents were now dead. Anna fell to the earth, and she cried her eyes out, she only came around because she was getting cold. Anna knew that she needed to get out of there and start a fire to get warm. She could not bare to be near where her parents had died, even to be warm, the only thing that she was thankful for was that her parents hadn't suffered when they died. Anna was worried though, she did not know how to fend for herself out here, her dad was to show her, and her mother, at that thought, Anna began to cry again. After a time she shook her head and thought," it won't do me any good to linger in the loss of my parents, I need to figure out a way to survive". She figured that she needed to get some kind of shelter made, so Anna looked about for something to make a makeshift shelter. Anna found a hill that had a outcropping of a clay rock shelf, with just enough space for her to fit in. She took off a couple of her petticoats, and layed them out on the ground for her bed, another thing that she was glad for, was that she had decided to wear her brown dress today, it was dark enough not to show stains, but still was stylish enough to look good for this area. Anna did not get a good night's sleep that night, not only because her dreams were riddled with nightmares, but also because it rained her out of her shelter, and she coul not stop the water that was escaping her own body. She felt helpless, alone, and hungry, she was not sure how she was to make it, and she wasn't entirely sure if she would. Anna sat in the dirt, next to her dying fire, waiting for morning to come, longing to get moving, and possibly get dried out by the sun that she was sure to come out in the morning. Morning came, and the rain still came down, Anna decided just to keep moving anyway, she wanted to get as far away from this place as she could, and never look back. She traveled most of that day, and into the night, it finally stopped raining, and Anna was glad. As a seventeen year old girl, Anna never thought that something like this would have ever happened to her, and that she would ever have to go without her parents to guide her through her life, until she got married. That was another thing that Anna cried for, her father would never give her away, and her mother would never give Anna her hope chest, not only because it got burned up in the fire, but because her mother was gone too. Anna just tried to make as many miles as she could, for as long as she could, and thankfully she came across a Cherokee tribe who took her in for a few days, and fed her, and a woman gave her a deer skin dress that she had made for her daughter, but had died before she could even ware it. Anna was sad for the woman, and she told the woman about her own family, and the woman hugged her, it only reminded her of her mother, and she cried into the woman's shoulder. The woman, whose name was Running Fawn, and her husband, the chief, she could not say his name, but it meant running horse, let her stay as long as she liked, even offered for her to stay with them, but when the tribe was about to leave the area, Anna decided to leave her own way. She knew that the older woman was saddened by her leaving, but she did not try to stop her. Anna traveled on for many more miles, for many days, not stopping, but not knowing where she was heading to, or where she would be ready to finally settle. 2 (Benjamin POV) Benjamin knelt in the prairie dirt, behind a pretty big hill, he had been tracking a herd of antelope most of the morning, and now that he found them, he first made sure that the wind was in his favor, then he waited for a good shot at a young one. The younger the animal, the tenderer the meat, that was one of the lessons that his father had taught him before he had died. Ben still could hardly believe that it had been a year since his parents death, Ben shook his head to clear it, and just concentrated on the young buck that was separating himself from his herd. Ben notched an arrow, and he waited for the buck to lean down to get a bite of prairie grass, then Ben slowly got up on his knees and took aim.The bucks right front shoulder was facing his way, so Ben aimed right behind it, and shot. When the herd saw that one of their own was running off, they also took off, Ben went to go get his horse, then mounting, he went hunting down where the buck had fallen. A good thing about the prairie, is the vast open land, where you can see for miles around. Ben found the buck, dismounting, he went over to the animal, and making sure that it was dead, he began to gut it, then dress it out. He picked up the newly dressed buck, and layed it across Midnights back with its skin covering the exposed meat, Ben put the buck behind the saddle, then he got on saying," easy boy", even though Midnight was used to this kind of thing by now, he was still kind of skittish about the smell of an animals blood. Ben got home shortly after, and he took the buck inside the house, he took it into the very back of the house, where the cooling room was, and he hung the meat there. Then he took salt and water, and he first rubbed the meat down with the water, then he rubbed the salt into the meat. Then he took the hide outside, and he stretched it out across the tanning rack that he had helped his dad to make. Ben sat in front of it, and began to get all the bits of fat and meat off of it, then just let it dry out a little bit, after applying lard to the freshly cleaned hide. He finally washed up and cooked himself some dinner, then he went to relax in the rocking chair, and he fell asleep. Ben drempt about the day that he had found his parents and he jerked awake. Ben decided to go for a walk, he checked on Midnight, and fed him, then he just wandered around a little bit, hesitant to go back into the cabin just yet. When he finally decided to go back in, it was getting dark, and so he got undressed for bed, leaving his long johns on, because the nights tended to get cold, and he didn't want to have to get up in the middle of the night to put them back on. The next morning, he checked the hide, and fed Midnight, then he cooked himself some breakfast. Then Ben decided to go for a ride afterwards, and he enjoyed just giving the stallion his head and letting him run. After a time though, they had to return, and Ben took the hide inside with him, and he threw it over the back of his mother's rocking chair, not knowing exactly what he would fashion it into yet. (Anna's POV) Anna was no longer sure where the homestead was, because she had gotten so far away, and she was still not sure how far she wanted to go, but she was getting hungry again, and thirsty. Her brown dress was getting faded and worn from the traveling and the sun, but she did not want to give up on it just yet, even though she still had the buckskin dress that Running Faun had given her, she did not want to have to put that one on just yet, so she just patted the small buckskin bag that it was in that she had been given along with it, and she traveled on. Almost at the brink of exhaustion, and thirsting to death, Anna hears a little spring in the distance, and with what little strength she has left, she layes down next to the spring, and she started to drink. Then, with no strength left, she closes her eyes, just thinking that she would just sleep a little, and let's the darkness take her. (Ben's POV) Ben wakes up one day and notices that his meat supply is getting low, and he knows at this time of year, the herds of game are further away from where he was at, and so he would have to travel further for his hunting. So, he took his coat, that he had made out of the last antelope skin that he had taken, and put it on, then he packed a cloth that would be big enough to put on a makeshift shelter, and tied it with leather, then he saddled Midnight, and loaded him down with food and water, and a small bale of hay. He then mounted up and set of in a northern direction at first, in hopes of finding at least a small herd of antelope. He had no luck for a whole week, and Ben was running low on supplies, so he went back towards his homestead, and went more into a western direction instead. He found a herd finally, and got a pretty big buck, making camp there, he found a tree, and hung the buck there, then rested that night. He ate some of the fresh meat the next day, but then he also had to go in search of more water, so he went in search of a stream for him and his horse. Ben found a stream, not a day away from his camping spot, and so he let his horse drink his fill, and as he did, Ben filled his canteens with water. As he drank from one, he looked around, his dad had also taught him this, to be aware of your surroundings, because you never know when or where you might get attacked by something, or someone. As Ben was about to bring the canteen back up to his lips, he thought that he saw something on the other side of the spring. He looked again, but not being able to see quite clearly what it was, because it was a ways down stream from him, he decided to investigate. He put the lid back on his canteen, and mounted up, he had Midnight cross the stream, and as Ben got closer, he could start to define certain things about what he was about to find. As he got down, he could tell that it was a body, and by the looks of it, it was a woman. Ben bent down and pushed the long brown hair out of the woman's face, and gently rolled her over. He could tell that she was young, probably barely eighteen years old. He was surprised to hear a groan escape her chapped lips, so he quickly got one of his canteens, and he lifted her a little into his arms and put the canteen to her lips. Tilting it so that the water dribbled into her mouth, some came out and would have dribbled down her neck, but Ben reached back into his back pocket and grabbed his hanky and wiped it away, and then wiped her face with some of the fresh water. It was then that he noticed that he had been right about her being on the young side and he could tell that she was exhausted, if the purple and blue under her eyes were not signs enough, she was almost skin and bones, an her dress was worn and hung loosely on her. Ben picked her up and took her to his horse, and he gently lay her across Midnight s saddle. The horse looked back and sniffed the woman's hair, then looked back at Ben, and Ben smiled, he said, " she needs help buddy, we need to take her back home and take care f her, OK buddy", and the horse nodded his head like he understood. Ben got on behind the girl and gently lifted her so that she was sitting in his lap, and he took the reins in one hand, and her in the other, and he said," OK Midnight, let's get to camp, then in the morning we can head home". It was as if Midnight knew that they needed to go slower than they usually would have been if it was just the two of them, because he did nothing but walk all the way back to camp. Ben smiled at his friends head as they traveled back to camp, and patted his neck, Midnight nickered quietly and nodded his head once. They reached camp, and Ben got down, then he reached up and gently lowered the girl into his arms. Ben lowered the girl to the ground inside the shelter, and then got the canteen again to give her a drink, then he unsaddled Midnight, and put the blanket inside the shelter, and layed the young woman down on it. Afterwards Midnight approached the shelter and sniffed the girls hair again, and Ben said," don't worry bud, she will be alright". Midnight just snuffed, and then walked off, and Ben laughed while saying," well, alright then" and shook his head. When it started to get dark, Ben took a small pot out of his saddlebags, and got to cooking a stew for dinner. he took some broth out to cool for the girl to drink, antelope meat was filling, so he figured that it's broth would be too. When it was cool enough, Ben held the girl as he gave her the broth to drink in little sips, she still had yet to wake up, but the fact that she was drinking the water, and now the soup, it gave Ben hope that the girl would be okay. Once the girl emptied the cup of broth, Ben covered the girl with his coat and left her to rest throughout the rest of the night. He himself lay in the soft prairie grass that was only starting to turn in preparation for the coming fall season, and tried to get some rest himself. He woke to a nice sunny day, and smiled as he stretched, then he checked on Midnight, and then the girl, it was still early, but he knew that she probably would be hungry, so he stoked the fire, added some more wood, and waited for the soup to heat up. What he did not expect was to hear rustling from inside the shelter, then to hear footsteps, and then to see the young woman coming out of the shelter, albeit stumbling a little bit. (Anna's POV) Anna woke up confused and startled, she felt better than she had felt in this last year, which to her, seemed a little odd. Another thing she noticed that was odd to her, that she could not fathom, was why she was in a shelter out on the prairie, when she last remembered being by a stream, and getting extremely tired, then extremely cold. She looked about her, and took in her surroundings, it was a makeshift shelter/ teepee, it's dark green canvas neatly stretched over the tree branches that made up the shelters bones, and she also noticed that she had been sleeping on what seemed to be a horses blanket. She kind of smiled at that, but then grimaced, because her lips were so dry that they split, she chose to ignore that for the time being, and she wrapped the thing that had been covering her more snuggly about her. Which she noticed was actually a coat, made out of what looked like a tanned Antelope hide. It was too big to be a woman's coat, so she guessed that her savior was a man, and a big man at that, if the size of the coat was any gage. Anna decided to brave what might be on the other side of the shelters walls, and see who the person might be, friend, or foe, she did not know, but she was willing to be brave enough to find out, because she had had survived this long, and so she figured that what ever might happen next, she could, and would survive. The first thing that Anna noticed about the man, was that he was tall, over six feet, she would have guesses six foot six at the most, like her papa. But unlike her papa's brown hair, this man had blonde hair, that had been bleached by the sun. He was also slightly more muscular than her daddy had been, the sleeves of his long sleeved shirt fit him perfectly, like the shirt was made for him. His eyes, she noticed were a nice shade of light blue, and his lips were nicely shaped to. Anna had to shake her head of those thoughts, and concentrate on something different. Then she heard his voice, and she couldn't help the shiver that went down her spine. He had a slightly deep, but gentle voice for such a big man, and she quite enjoyed the sound of his voice. After a time, she finally had remembered that he had asked her a question, and she tried to remember what he had asked her. Thankfully he asked again," are you alright miss?". Anna nodded her head not being able to control another shiver, and pulled the coat closer to herself, which the man seemed to notice, because he then asked," are you cold miss?", and again Anna only answered with a shake of her head. (Ben's POV) As Ben watched the young woman, he couldn't help but admire her facial features, it wouldn't surprise him if she had some Indian heritage in her, or oriental at least. He could tell that the girl was a little scared at first of him, because he saw her shiver, but then, when she did not answer him when he asked if she was alright, he wondered if that wasn't all that there was to it. So Ben asked again," are you alright miss?", and when she finally answered him by nodding her head, he sighed in relief, but then she pulled his coat closer to her, and he was worried about her again. So he asked her, "are you cold?", again she answered by just shaking her head.So he asked, " would you care for a drink of water?", as she nodded her head, he got his canteen of water, and he gave it to her. She drank from the canteen, and then went to give it back to him, but he declined saying, " keep it, you need to stay hydrated out here, also, are you hungry?". He watched her nod her head, and he smile saying," good, I heated up some broth for you, please, sit". When she did, Ben got his cup, and he filled it with the broth, and some meat and veggies, thinking that since she was up and walking around, that she would be able to handle something of substance. He watched as she drank, and intermittently shewed her stew, and he was pleased that she was eating he knew that she needed the nourishment. When she handed him the cup back, he asked," would you like more?", and the girl asked," well, what about you?". Ben smiled and said," don't you worry about me, I will eat later, besides, there's more than enough", the girl just nodded at that, then reluctantly she said," I could eat a little more". Ben just smiled and got another cup full and gave it to her. Once that was all gone, she said," I don't want any more, thank you", and Ben said," it's probably best, you look like you haven't had a decent meal in a while, and you probably shouldn't eat too much". The girl just nodded, then sighed as she leaned back, and seemingly getting warm enough by the fires heat, she took his coat off, and he reached out his hand for it, and he took it from her, and layed it in the grass beside him. Ben couldn't help but wonder though, how a girl of her size, and composure had survived in the conditions that she did for so long. (Anna's POV) Anna was glad to find that the man seemed to be a good man, she had been prepared to run if she had needed to. So she just stretched out and relaxed as she let the sun soak into her, and she let her head fall back and let herself smile. Neither one of them spoke for a long time, just enjoying the silence, and the sunshine. Finally Ben said," I'm sorry miss, but I will have to get going soon, I have a homestead to tend to, only a week away from here, but, if it's okay, I would like to offer you shelter for as long as you need it, if you would like to accompany me". Anna had to think about that for a good long while, because she had not lived with a one single man, ever, and she did not even know what direction she was going, at the moment.