Carries-Her-Water led his pony over the ridge, heart glad with homecoming.
His spirits sank when he looked down at the camp.
Normally the morning would be full of laughter and playful banter as the women worked outside the lodges and the men prepared for hunting or war parties.
Today there was nobody. The lodges seemed to stand vacant.
He reached back and took up his lance, holding at the ready as he approached.
“Hey!” he called out. “It is I, Carries-Her-Water. I have an elk! Come get it and we’ll eat!”
From inside the Medicine Lodge he heard only moaning.
Oh, dear… how scary! Great write this week.
Oh no. What an awful home coming.
I wasn’t thinking the moaning was something bad… quite the contrary, lol
Perhaps the strongest, most potent weapon of the white man, his Diseases, have come to visit?
Something ominous is happening in the camp. Why so much quiet?
Eerie… Makes you wonder what it could be
Tragic. I love his name – and the drama of his loud greeting and successful hunting contrasted with the dismal scene he finds at home – powerful.
A powerful write.
There is really nothing that can be added or changed here–to do so would only gild the lily, so to speak. Very well done.
A haunting story – what an awful homecoming.
I wonder who or what was there?