Another Tribe

Part 6 Pursuit

Robert drove his big, strong horse to the edge of exhaustion. Julii could feel its powerful haunches fading underneath her naked flesh.

Robert was no fool. He was clever. He must know that his horse is at its end, and yet he keeps pushing it faster and further away from that place he called Shiloh. Did Robert mean to kill his horse? He murdered the blue man. Killing a horse would be nothing by comparison.

Who was this shiny white-man that fate had sent her? Who was he really? Was he going to kill her too?

Julii cast her mind back to the blood on his sword on the day she found him by the waterhole. How much blood was on his sword that day? One man's blood? Two men's blood? Ten? How many men had Robert murdered on the day she found him? Or even, in his whole life?

Robert had been alive for at least twenty years. If he killed one man a day since the age of, let's say, fifteen... Is fifteen the age when white men start murdering? Could he have started even younger?

Her shiny pink-white man had never spoken about what happened to him on the day they met. She asked him but he became sad and said nothing. Now she knew why he said nothing.

She also knew that he loved his big strong horse. He had never said so but she could see it in the way Robert treated him. Even so, he was killing him. Robert had never said that he loved her either, and even worse, he had never treated her with the love he treated his horse. Was she about to die too?

Robert slowed then stopped the horse. He said nothing and Julii's mind became a turmoil of fear and panic and sadness and loss. Is this the end? Am I going to die now? Will the big shiny sword hurt?

Julii thought briefly about running away as Robert dismounted and led the horse into a concentrated thicket of trees. This was a good place to kill someone. This is where she would choose to kill someone if she could choose to kill someone.

So dense were the bushes among the trees Robert had to force his way through. Julii felt as though she were being led to somewhere bad, somewhere evil. Was he going to all this trouble and effort because he wanted no-one to witness her murder?

After tethering the horse to a branch, he turned, looked up at Julii on top of his loved and exhausted horse, and held out his hand.

Julii simply stared at it. Should she kick the horse and ride away to save her life? Would those hide things called reins come free from the branch? Would life without her shiny pink-white man be worth living? She could take the horse and ride for home, but then what? A life within her old boundary would seem so small now and Robert would not be there.

No, she must be with Robert whatever the consequence. Taking her chances, she took his hand, looped her leg over the top of the saddle and slid to the ground next to him.

Julii stood silent and still and watched Roberts's hands for telltale signs of movement. She wanted to be ready for the moment he reached for his sword or did something that was intended to hurt her. She braced herself, but he simply walked back to the edge of the thicket to look in the direction they had come from.

Was she going to live? What was Robert looking for? Was he making sure that there were no witnesses to see what he was about to do to her? He had not smiled or shown any sign of warmth while lowering her from the horse.

Then it dawned on Julii. Robert was looking for the blue men from the place he called Shiloh? He wanted to know if the blue men were following.