The Red Canyons

Episode one: Native Bandits and Mendez Ranch

Estrella awoke to the sounds of horses screeching and the wild howls of the nativos or natives. They had had several raids this year but most had been filled with stealth and none had ever been this loud. Still Estrella jumped out of bed and made a mad sprint down the hall. Even in the dark she navigated stealthily through the cold hall and down the large stair case and into her Papi's old study. The air smelled of sharp spices and stale air. However these smell did nothing to comfort her. There on the old wall hung proudly above the fire place was her great great great something grandfather's gun. It was very old but Estrella knew how to load it and in this situation the only other gun they had. She yanked it off the wall and paused at the large front door.
If she walked out that door she would be throwing herself into the fray with the natives and chaos. Yet if she stayed and didn't do anything she would practically be letting them steal and hurt Papi. She could hear the nativos outside and up the stairs she could hear the crying and sobbing of her mother and two sisters cowering. Estrella was not a coward. She gripped the gun and shoved the door open.
Outside the night was light with angry red torches. The nativos road on their horses. Some Estrella recognized as their own and others she did not. They howled and shouted to one another not even noticing Estrella amidst the chaos. So Estrella raised the gun to the sky and pulled the trigger. BANG!BANG!BANG! Three warning shoots. That made the nativos freeze all of them. Estrella let out a shaky breathe but scowled at them none the less. Probably have never seen of thought a women could use a gun, she thought deeply satisfied at their astonishment. She walked down the step and they parted for her as if her madness were contagious. Still Estrella clutched the gun tightly.
She found her papi lying on the ground and at the mercy of an older man. One whom Estrella assumed was the leader. He was much older than papi and in their crude lighting he looked rather ghostly. It was odd to see such a large group of nativos but even odder that they make so much damned racket. Normally they only stole in silence and the damage was only realized in the early hours of morning. She and papi were well acquainted with as many a mornings they normally awoke to have some crop stolen or a whole horse in most cases but never this much.
"Let him go and get the hell off our property," Estrella threatened and cocked the gun. It squealed in protest but she ignored it. Too much adrenaline was pumping through her veins taking over fear fueling her rage.
The nativos were surely shocked as well. This mad women clad in a flimsy nightgown holding a loaded gun well outnumbered. Still she scowled fierlessly and had a steady hand. That's when the leader of the nativos said something in an old tongue and Estrella was yanked to the side or would have been had she not pulled the trigger. The gun whined as the bullet released and went off into the shoulder of another nativo or in particular the shoulder of leaders oldest son. That is when the gates of hell really opened wide.
The leader stabbed Estrella's beloved papi in the gut and the others angrily howled and stormed off into the waning night. Almost as an after thought one of the Nativos threw a torch into the barn and the fire greedily devoured it all. Estrella was left in the chaos clinging to her dying father.
"I love you peidra Rosa. Please avenge me," whispered Papi with his last dying breathe. Estrella held her head to the faint tendrils of dawn and screamed. It was raw and angry.
Estrella brushed her tears aside and knew what needed to be done. She left her papi on the ground and began to run.