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She closed her eyes as she fell. The aches, pains, and heartbreak that had been plaguing her were swept up into the wind.
Nothing mattered to her now: Nevermore. Her safety, her freedom, her love gone with his blood dripping down on the rocks and into the water below. He had always come for her so now when he could not, she would follow him.
With one last glance at the dark and twisted man that had taken everything from her, Alice stepped off the cliff and into the arms of the only person who had ever chosen her.
The rushing wind welcomed her with thousands of voices swirled past her in a song that bore her to their young warrior. She closed her eyes for the last time and-
Striking pain shot up her spine, her bottom connected with unforgiving ground. She cried out, utterly disconcerted by the pain. The voices with many songs that had thundered inside her breast quieted into a silence that hung for precious sacred seconds before the screams of men burst into being all around Alice. Blurs of color appear before her. She must have opened her eyes at some point, but nothing was coming into focus, the familiar sounds of dying men and vague shapes flitted around before her. These terrible sounds she knows for they had followed her around this last week since coming to this new land-- or she knew now that the land wasn’t new it was old, old with a vibrant and complicated history and filled with a people that were beyond the fathom of a young naive Englishwoman.
She didn’t think dying would be like this. It felt like chaos.
She curled in a ball squeezing her eyes shut against the bombarding noise.
Suddenly strong arms were around her. Pulling her up to settle in someone’s lap… Uncas… Her heart leaped for a moment before realizing that it felt... wrong. The arms were thin and lacked Uncas’ wild strength. She opened her eyes only to see the soft blue muslin and lace of a gown. She levered herself back against the arms that held her, and her sister’s profile and dark curls came in to focus. Cora… What was Cora doing here? A wave of grief washed over her as she gazed at her elder sister's face. She had never wanted Cora to follow her here, especially if death was like this; Like life.
Alice let Cora hide her away from the world by clinging Alice's head against her breast. Alice sobbed in grief, overwhelmed; there was no peace in this. She felt like she had been robbed of the hope and certainty that had so steadily guided her as she had followed after Uncas through this wild land, it draining like water through her fingers. Leaving her empty and afraid.
She grieved heartily for herself and yet could feel anger growing in her, fore she couldn't help but feel that she had dragged Cora into the tumultuous uncertainty that was death, alongside herself.
Her ears finally tuned into Cora's soft murmurs and away from the gunfire and war cries that heralded violence, pain and death.
“We will be alright. We’ll be alright.” Cora hushed her sobs, but nothing was right. Where was the peace? She had been so certain of her path when she stepped off after him. Everything was jarring now, unexpected and bewildering. Where was the peace? The freedom? Where was Uncas?
She stayed silent as tears of desolation rolled down her cheeks.
“We will get through this as always.” Cora’s breathless voice whispered, and like it was an order the world around them fell silent.
Cora pulled them both to their feet, although Alice didn’t know why. What was the point? Where were they to go now? She felt cold and despondent. Was she supposed to know where to go now?
“Duncan, No!” Cora cried and of course, Duncan was here as well.
She began to draw away from Cora. She ought to greet her old friend after everything he had done for them. She could still hear his screams echoing across the rocks and trees from the Promontory, but she found she did not have the will to look upon him, for he was not who she wished to see and she did not want to look at him in resentment.
“In case your aim is any better than your sense.” Mr. Poe's voice drifted over to her.
Oh, but did anyone survive Magua’s vengeance?
But... no, Alice jerked her head up and looked around, where Nathaniel went so did…
She jerked her head this way, then the other. She noticed for the first time that they were on The George Road. This was the place where she first experienced the violence of this new world, the first of Magua’s ambushes. but still she didn’t see…
There. Uncas emerged from the tree’s just over Mr. Poe’s shoulder. His dark copper skin glinting in the sunlight that managed to penetrate through the green canopy above. He moved with the agile strength and grace she had come to associate with the Natives of this land. His hair swayed over his shoulders and down his back. His red tunic was in one peace and clean. Overall he looked healthy and alive and she was overcome with emotions.
She must have made a noise because his dark eyes turned towards her and connected with hers. She didn’t know when she decided to move but the next thing she knew she was flinging herself into his arms.
“Uncas.” She breathed quietly, like a prayer, overcome with relief, as she clung to him. Hands fisting in the cloth of his tunic around his neck. She buried her face in his chest, breathing in his earthen pine scent, gunpowder and sweat as she thought she never would again.
She pulled back enough to see his face, ran her fingers lightly along his cheekbone towards his nose. Trying her best to absorb every impression of him, to wipe out the span of time that he had been lost to her. When she connected with his dark eyes she froze. He looked confused, he looked… startled. There was no tender affection she had come to know in their depths. No admiration… no love.
She released him and stumbled back in shock. She mouthed his name silently, unable to give strength to her desperate plea.
She was grabbed on the shoulder and pulled around to face Cora whose look of bewilderment didn’t do anything to subside the tidal wave of unease that was building and threatening to consume her.
“Alice, what has gotten into you? How do you know this man?”
Alice turned back to look at Uncas. She was suddenly aware of the faces around them.
Nathaniel’s surprise, Chingook’s reserve and general unreadableness, and Duncan’s tense and horrified eyes as he stared between them; None of them friendly.
She looked back towards Uncas, unsure. He stared back at her unwavering, calm and curious, but something still missing.
She stepped towards him. Halted by Cora’s grip on her arms. She reached out her shaking hand towards him, eyes pleading with him to help her understand.
“Uncas.” She breathed.
He stepped towards her, hesitant but closed the distance nonetheless. The outstretched hand closed around the leather straps of his pack. She gripped tightly for a moment before reaching past to press her hand flat against his abdomen.
“Alice!”
She ignored the twin cries of rebuke from her sister and Duncan. Her eyes never leave his face.
“Are you hurt?” She asked him intently. She didn’t know what was going on, where she was or what had happened. But if he was here, if he was well… then she could make it. She had found her direction and she would follow him.
His calloused hand closed over hers pressing in more firmly into his stomach. He shook his head in the negative. In his eyes flamed new emotions. Some stirrings of things to come. She smiled brightly at him and felt tears fill her eyes as the tension she had been holding bled from her.
“That's good. That's so good.” She wanted to touch his face again, but a jerk from Cora pulled her backward and away. Alice couldn’t look away from his eyes that had softened and look back at her with emotions and questions pressing out towards her.
Cora, giving up on trying to turn her around, strode in front of Alice and pulled her head so that their eyes met.
“Alice?” There were so many questions in that one word, judgment, and uncertainty wavering in Cora’s strong voice. Alice shook her head not knowing how to answer even one of them.
“What is happening?”
“Alice. I don’t-” Cora looked up and around at the carnage strewn about them. She clutched at Alice’s arms and looked up towards Duncan.
“We need to leave. We-” She glanced around again unsure.
“You best be heading back to Albany.” Nathaniel’s voice cut in and Cora and Duncan turned to him. Alice barely spared him a glance before turning her eyes to Uncas over Cora’s shoulder.
He was staring back at her intently. His sweeping gaze trying to figure out the answers to his questions just by looking. As she looked at him looking at her she was once again taken with the desire to put her hands upon him. To feel the warmth of his copper skin under her fingers. Listen to the beating of his heart.
When she had made her decision to go over the cliff, when she had decided to follow him into death something had shifted and solidified with her breast: a bond so real she could almost see it and feel its tug when she looked at him. He had come for her at the last, and he had died for her. She had decided to go to him and fight for death at his side. None could break it and she could never go back to just being Alice, a naive girl from England. She was Alice to Uncas. She could not be without him. He had given himself to her and she: him, in the most ultimate way, she could never go back, to even think of it would break something vital in her new understanding of the world.
While Cora was strong, fierce, and courageous of the two of them. Alice had discovered, here in the wilds of a new world, in the arms of a red skinned man that she had her own type of strength and her own type of courage.
She heard whispers that seemed to come from the breeze on the leaves as if the very tree’s were speaking to her.
“Ngutte ntah” Alice repeats the word on the wind, knowing without knowing exactly how, what she knows that she knows exactly what she is saying.
“Ngutte ntah, Uncas.”
The strangled noise that comes from Nathaniel off to her left interrupting their conversation, lets her know that the others heard.
This time it is Uncas who closes the distance between them. He is stopped short by Duncan, who stands hand outstretched, impending Uncas from getting any closer. He stops there but his eyes sweep over her there is a tinge of something, maybe awe, touching his gaze. She remembers this expression.
“Where did you learn these words?” He asks, looking at her, like there are not two people between them. Cora who had opened her mouth to protest, froze at his question to look at Alice.
“I was given them.” She answered. She knew now whose voices were in the wind. Just as she now knew that she was alive, breathing back on The George road at the beginning of her adventure that had led her to grow with him.
Chingahook and Nathaniel enter into her line of sight as they come to flank Uncas. His father rested a hand upon his youngest son's shoulder.
She looks at him, his face so neutral and hard to read. She looks down, wavering briefly before returning her eyes to Uncas’.
“I think it’s time for us to depart. In separate ways. We are headed to Fort William and the girls father, so many thanks for your assistance gentlemen but I do believe that it is high time we take our leave.” Duncan says as he steps away and ushers them back down the road and away from the Mohicans.
“No.” Alice cries. Pulling against Duncan and Cora’s arms. They hold her as good as Magua did racing out of the promontory. She goes breathless and panicked at the thought of being separated once more.
“You will never make it there on your own Major.” Nathaniel's voice breaks in through her panic allowing her to calm slightly, enough to take a deeper breath.
The look Duncan throws at Nathaniel is full of disdain, and Alice is reminded of her childhood friend's prejudice. She had almost forgotten his harsh treatment of the Mohicans and even Magua before they had discovered his treachery.
“He’s right Duncan.” The support surprisingly comes from Cora. Who turns to Duncan, he looks back at her in betrayal.
“Cora, you can’t be serious. There is something wrong here. Can you not see?” He demands.
“I understand that I do not understand all that is happening here,” She squeezes Alice’s shoulders, “but I also know that we will not survive another ambush like that. We know what awaits us if we travel along the road once more, and neither of us has the knowledge to travel without the roads. We have no choice but to trust them.”
Cora then turns to Nathaniel.
“Lead the way, sir.”
And so they set out into the wilderness once more. Cora keeps her arm securely around Alice and Duncan stays between them and Uncas who has fallen behind to watch over their backs. Alice is only allowed sparing glances at him before Cora or Duncan forces her attention upon themselves once more. It is enough though to know that he is near. She closes her eyes and comes to the realization that she knows where he is left or right, behind or in front she can feel him.
She stumbles through the forest and for the first time she allows herself to think of the things to come: the horrible, awful moments that are ahead of them and she freezes where she was about to take a step. Did she want to go to her father again, was there a point in going to the fort. It would fall and then they would be at the hands of Magua once more. She slowed her steps in thought.
They could return to Albany, it was the quickest route to England and safety, but nothing awaited Alice there. She turned her eyes back and met Uncas' gaze. She stopped and stared at him. Nothing for her in Albany but only death at the fort. She had watched her father die once, she knew Cora hadn’t realized at the time, but she did not wish to watch it again.
“Alice,” Cora was there tugging lightly on her arm, “we must continue, we can rest later.”
“No.” Alice said, turning to face her sister fully.
“What do you mean?” Cora almost spluttered. Alice felt bad, she could tell that her behavior was causing Cora more stress and strain on an already harrowing day.
“I’m sorry Cora.”
“What-”
“We cannot go to the fort. I do not want to walk into another battlefield.”
They were all looking at her again. She closed her eyes and searched for the singing in the wind.
“Miss Alice, I understand this has been an ordeal. Once we reach the fort and your father you will find safety and comfort once more and all will be well.” Duncan said coming in close to where his shoulders brushed her sisters.
“No, it will not. Magua’s plots are far-reaching. Do you think his only treachery was a simple ambush?”
“Miss Alice-” Ducan started but was interrupted by Mr. Poe.
“You know the Huron?”
She met his light eyes over Duncan’s shoulder, and thought about his question, remembering Magua’s dark hate-filled eyes, his impatient cruelty and ruthless joy as he held her father's heart in his hands.
“Yes.” She whispered, nearly drowning in the violence of her memories.
“What reason does he have to go after you and your sister?”
She heard Duncans splutter of protest but she looked down and away in shame, in fear. To voice this truth was to unleash a host of others she didn’t know if she had the strength to face.
Warm hands came around her waist and turned her into a solid warmth. Uncas held her in his embrace for a moment before with soft hands tilted her face upwards till their eyes met.
His were warm, soft, and inviting but also curious probing; intent. He wanted answers, he knew as did Mr. Poe the implications of the Munroe girls being hunted by this foe. He was worried for her, she could see it shining planning in his eyes.
She took a breath and placed one of her hands above his heart, letting the beating under her fingers soothe some of her fears.
“Magua-” her voice was strangled and dry. She swallowed, Uncas curled one of his hands around hers which was pressed into his heart. His other brushed softly against her cheek. I’ve got you. His eyes said. You are already precious to me. Said his hands and gentle touches.
She found her strength.
“Magua is an important War chief for the Huron, allied with the french. He has sworn vengeance against my father, and all who share his blood, for the death of his children and the loss of his wife. His heart is a black ugly thing that thinks of nothing but the death of my family. He will not stop. He will not compromise, he will not be reasoned with.”
Silence hung in the air after she had finished speaking. Tears filled her eyes. She didn’t know if she had explained properly but she didn’t think she could speak of it again. She felt the rope biting into her hands as she stood in the middle of the Huron camp listening to the leader degree her fate in the guttural french, saw Uncas’s blood dripping down his arm onto the knife and into the rocks.
There was a pressure against her forehead and she opened her eyes to see Uncas had leaned down until their brows met and their breath mingled.
He whispered something softly in his native tongue. He drew her hand against his chest up until her figer were pressed into his neck and the strong beat of blood flow.
“There you are ntah. Stay here with me.”
Alice let her breathing slow to match his and felt calm and peace settle over her. Tears of humbling relief and happiness filled her eyes and flowed slowly down her face. He was here, she had made it. This peace and hope are what she had been looking for when she had stepped off that rock.
She brought her other hand that had been clutching his tunic up to his face, cupping his cheek. She stretched up just a little and pressed her lips softly against his. A promise.
She heard a shrill voice and someone tugging on her arm and was momentarily afraid that they would pull her away again. Uncas arm wrapped around her waist and lifted her, pulling her away from Cora’s arm and taking a couple of steps back, putting space between them.
Alice turned in the circle of his arms to look at Cora, whose face was a mix of frustrated anger, bewilderment, and fear. Alice smiled reassuringly at her older sister, but Cora’s face just pinched down further.
Duncan held his pistol out and leveled at Uncas. Who straightened up behind her and pulled her to the side and out of the line of fire.
She heard the click of metal and then Mr’ Poe’s rifle was pressed into Duncan's back.
“Might want to think for a second as you go around pointing guns at people. You are outnumbered here, Major.”
Alice stared at Duncan as he glared at Uncas with angry small eyes, but with a side glance in Cora’s direction, who was looking back at him startled. He slowly lowered the pistole.
“Alice, come over here at once.” He commanded, his eyes locked on Uncas, not even sparing her a glance, because when it came down to it, this was not about her or her safety, this was about a man of color, a red man, touching a white woman. It was about preconception and control.
Duncan did not know that Alice had found freedom in the wild, in the wind.
“I will not.”She said. Finally, his eyes turned to her startled, then growing angry, frustrated by her lack of obedience.
“I insist Miss Alice.” He said voice tight.
“No, my place is here.” Her voice is firm and sure. Uncas’ hands tightened around her waist and shoulder briefly, like he wanted to pull her back against him before regaining control of himself and held her there.
“Cora, talk her out of this madness.” Duncan Demanded.
Alice looked at Cora, curious about what she would do. She felt bad that she had robbed her sister of the bonding that had taken place between her and Mr. Poe.. The sureness and strength of their relationship, but not enough to go through it all again.
Cora looked back at her uncertain.
“Alice-,” her voice unusually contained and unsure, Cora eyes glanced briefly up at Uncas before fixing on Alice, “I do not understand what is going on, how you know this man, or why you speak of the man who attacked us.” She paused there. Alice knew Cora wanted her to contribute something, to make her understand the confusing events around her. Had it been anyone else, Alice would have just walked away, but as it was Cora was her sister, beloved and kind. So Alice attempted to explain what could not be.
“I will not walk the same steps twice, for I did not like the outcome the first time and therefore have no designs to recreate it. I am not the same girl that woke up this morning, not the same sister who sat with you yesterday. I am changed and I can no longer follow the path I once did. My future lies in another direction. It lies here,” she reached and pressed her hand softly against Uncas' chest.
Cora didn’t look like she understood any more than she did a moment ago. Cora looked back at Uncas, which seemed to confuse her more. She then turned to look at Mr. Poe.
“Do you understand what is going on?” She beseeches him.
“Nope.” but he sounded and looked entertained.
Cora’s face flashed furiously up at Mr. Poe.
“I’m glad you find this so amusing.” vitriol dripped from Cora’s words. Which offended Mr. Poe not at all.
He grinned down at her.
“Thanks.”
“That was not-. Oh nevermind.” Cora sighs in defeat, deciding she was done looking for an ally in Mr. Poe, turned back to Alice and Uncas.
“What does that mean Alice?” Cora asked, probably hoping for a better answer.
“We need to go back to Albany.” Alice answered.
At the straightforward answer Cora looked relieved and nodded as her gaze became distant with thoughts and plans. This was something she could do and Cora always felt better working towards a goal.
“Then,” Alice continued and her sister’s, and everyone else’s gaze shot back to her, she smiled enjoying the certainty of the moment. “I will go West with Uncas and his family. To Can-tuck- kee.”
“Alice, you can be serious.” Cora breathed in shock.
“Of course she is not serious. Look Miss Alice, this... savage,” Duncan waves his hand in disgust in Uncas’ general direction, “Can give you nothing. No promises he made to you, that he can follow through with. Consorting with his kind will only bring pain, disappointment, and dishonor.” Duncan Ranted, anger fueling every word.
Alice lost the little amount of affection and patience she had for the man who had once been their close childhood friend. She could see no resemblance between the kind, soft-spoken boy to this hard angry man. Was it the war or just military service that turned men into hard harsh creatures?
She turned to Cora. Whose gaze while apologetic for Duncan’s harshness seemed to agree with the general sentiment spoken.
She might one day be able to forgive Cora for her reticence that came from a place of fear and worry for Alice. She did not, could not know the steps Alice went through to come to this decision, how she had come to a place where her heart beat in another's breast.
“I do not make my decisions lightly.” She turned her eyes to Mr. Poe. “I have chosen to follow Uncas.” She looked into the penetrating gaze of Uncas’ father. “I have fought and will fight to stay by his side, and while I know not the exact nature of the toils and troubles that are ahead of us. I will not be browbeaten and made ashamed of him. And while no English person will recognize our union and may spit upon me for my choice, and your people may not accept me for the sins of my countryman against yours. I will still know a life of happiness, what it means to be cherished, to have peace, and hope, to be free.”
Alice’s speech seemed to silence everyone. So Alice turned to look at Uncas.
“Will you lead us to Albany?”
Emotions burned bright and strong in his eyes. He brought up her hand and placed a kiss to her open palm.
A promise.
Then he tuned, with her hand still captured in his, began walking them onto a different path than before.
The trees around her moved and danced in the wind which carried the songs of the Mohican people who had gone on before and awaited, with the everlasting patience of the dead, the Last of the Mohican warriors.