No Longer A Stranger

No Longer A Stranger

1

Laramie Mountains--April 1865

Kagome Higurashi kneed her bay mare, Brandy, and when the aniimal grunted, she tightened the cinch on the saddle one more notch. She led her horse out of the barn and hitched her to the rail in front of the log ranch house. One of the few things Kagome enjoyed about being a rancher's daughter was owning her own cowhorse. She gave the horse's silky jowls a comforting pat and darted inside. Brandy snorted twice at being left standing in the cold, the foggy air billowing from her nostrils like smoke from some mythical dragon.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Kagome closed the door behind her and stood, feet apart, facing her father. Matt Higurashi leaned against the heavy pine trestle table that dominated the room. Steam rose from the mug of coffee cupped in his hands. Behind him Kagome could see her younger sister, Dillion, working on some flapjacks at the iron stove and and trying not to appear to be eavesdropping.

"Where I go every spring at this time ---- to take supplies to Blue in the mountains," Kagome replied.

"I can't spare your brother to go with you this year. Spotted Tail's Brule Sioux tribe is under gaurd at fort Laramie on their way tom a reservation they don't want any part of, and Naraku's band of Brule renegades are raising hell. I have to get the roundup finished before that powder keg blows up," her father said.

Kagome raised her chin an inch and crossed her arms under her breasts. "Fine, then. Miroku can stay here and help you. I'll go by myself."

"No, Kagome. It's too dangerous. You saw what happened to the Morgan family."

Kagome's face paled. One of the many groups of settlers that passed by on their way to the promised land, the Morgan family had stayed overnight at the ranch before continuing their trip north to the Oregon trail.After dinner Kagome had held the little blond girl in her lap, and the towheaded boy had played with her younger brother, Sota. Even now, the picture of what had been left of the mutilated couple and their two children when she and Miroku had discovered them an hour north of the house made her sick. Kagome swallowed back her nausea at the memory of those bloody, hairless heads.

"That was March. This is April, almost May. I'll be careful," she managed to say.

Her father rose to his feet. Tall and lean, the golden--haired man hardly seemed old enough to have five children, the eldest of whom was 22. But there was no question he was the final authority in the house and expected obedience.

"Kagome Higurashi, don't argue with me. I said no."

Calling her by her full name was a sure sign of his distemper, a reminder that she was a 17 year old girl, and there was limits to what she could do. The setdown was not surprising, just frustrating.

Kagome had been prepared for her father's attempt to keep her from making the journey. In the past he'd found other excuses. One year it had been a threatening blizzard. Another, she'd just gotten over a bad cold. Every year she had seemed to overcome his objections and made the trip.

"Jacks coming up,"Dillion announced. She handed the plate of flapjacks to her father and joined the rest of the family at the table, where they joined hands in the traditional short grace.

"I've got the mules packed," Miroku said, pouring honey on his pancakes.

"Well, you can unpack them," her father snapped, he threw Kagome an aggrieved stare.

"What's going on?" Miroku asked, looking from Kagome to Matt and back again. "i thought you said Dad was letting us go."

"He didn't say anything about not going until just now,' Kagome said.

I hate that man was what Matt wanted to say. Instead he growled, "I am trying to keep you from ending up with your scalp hanging from some Sioux lodgepole. Naraku and his braves are on the prowl, and there is no reason for you to expose yourself to that danger just to deliver some supplies to Blue."

"I'm not afraid of some Nark Man---"

"Naraku," her father and Miroku said together.

"Naraku," Kagome replied irritably."I am going and you can't stop me."

Matt sighed and turned to Miroku. "Your brothers and Iare going to start the roundup. You can help me when you get back. Go, but keep your eyes open and get back here as soon as you can.

"Come on, boys," he called to Sota and Shippo. "We'll see you at dinner, Dillion."