Katie Jones had been the haughtiest, prettiest girl in the county and she knew it. All the boys, and even the menfolk, fluttered around her most of her teenaged life, trying to curry her favor.

Naturally, Katie let this get to her head, she became very choosy, thinking she was too good for anyone in the county. Her fame would surely bring some rich city men to court her and to whisk her away in a fancy carriage.

The foolish girl had miscalculated, and the day of her new fate had arrived in last spring's Lakota raids. It was the tradition of the Black Hill peoples, that any paleface woman captured in a raid would meet another kind of fate.

Over the summer, fall and winter, she was trained in this Lakota way, mercilessly.

This spring's raids have now come and gone. Surprisingly, the former Katie Jones had proved to be the best War Pony of the campaign.



© SirJeff, Oct. 2006