Chapter 14: Where The Buffalo Roam
She wasn’t entirely sure where she was going, she just knew that it had to be somewhere far away. Her hooves pounded the ground with the speed of her namesake, catapulting her away from her guilt. The grassy plains made a perfect racing environment. The grassy plains made a perfect racing environment, the kind that earth ponies had adapted to run on for generations. In a terrible lonely sort of way, she was right at home…
Lightning finally brought herself to a halt, gliding a little as the momentum kept carrying her on the loose dirt, and looked back the way she had come. The snakelike stream was still visible in the distance, providing another jolt of loneliness. Going in a completely different direction from Shadow and Iris may not have been the best course of action, but it wasn’t really her fault was it?
The grass welcomed her with a soft embrace as she fell onto her side. Who was she kidding? She had been a complete jerk back there. If she was going to be totally honest with herself she had to admit her and Iris’ differences. It wasn’t easy to do, well… yes it was. Harder was to accept them. After some careful thought she decided to save that for later and for now just isolate what they were.
Above all it was Iris’ kindness that stuck in her mind and chafed like sand. No matter what the situation was she did her very best to help. She was a sucker, an annoying little pushover who followed strangers to the darker parts of the forest on the idea of helpfulness. She was such a pitiful…little…
If the problem wasn’t staring her in the face now it never would. Lightning couldn’t entirely process the obvious answer right in front of her, but who can blame her? The fact was that she was very stubborn pony who always liked to have things just her way. Iris, on the other hoof, let the world float by at its own uncaring pace. The different moral standard could be, and was being, interpreted as an insult. Lightning just wasn’t able to understand that just yet.
Really though, it was about time she stopped wallowing in self pity and get off her flank. That was a job for a certain pitiful little zebra. She looked around to get an idea of her surroundings, a little disappointed that it was nothing but grass, but she was willing to ignore that for now. The mountain still loomed ominously, the single outlier from the distant range, which gave her some idea of where she was relative to Shadow. He had walked along the river toward the mountain at a constant pace, so with a few quick assumptions she would be able to get a general idea of where he was.
Well that was something, but did she really have any desire to go find Shadow? He was mostly the reason she was out here after all… Unfortunately the river was the only immediately available water source. While the thick grass suggested frequent rainfall the sky didn’t have a trace of white against the blue. She could either keep going or pray to Celestia she stumbled on something, or turn around and apologize for being a jerk…
While she lay there in quiet contemplation of her predicament a quiet rustling came from somewhere to her left. At first she was able to ignore it, but it quickly became apparent that there was an animal of some sort in the grass with her. She stood up, looking around for the source of the rustling but finding absolutely nothing. Her ears fell flat in careful contemplation, knowing that just because she couldn’t see it that didn’t mean it wasn’t there…
One, two, three more sharp, shifting sounds. Whatever was following her was quick to say the least. Lightning brought herself to pounce toward the sound, grumbling slightly as she came up with nothing. The shuffling sound came again, behind her this time. She promptly attempted to launch herself backwards at the creature, but ended up landing on her face. A snicker came from her left, alerting her to the presence of something sentient.
“Oh you are not going to be laughing long…” Lightning growled, ears swiveling now. That stupid zebra may have been right about the whole blind thing if it made hearing better. She wasn’t quite able to figure out where it was until…
A flash of brown fur caught her attention and she lunged again, very nearly catching hold of this mystery person. She snorted angrily, watching a pair of similarly colored ears appear above the grass. They had abandoned their crouch, probably to run away, but Lightning wouldn’t give them the pleasure.
They dove together, Lightning and the mystery pony, forward in the same direction. This guy must have been fairly confident in his ability to outrun Lightning as he never swerved to try and throw her off. What he didn’t expect was for Lightning to not only keep pace, but actually start pulling toward him. He panicked, picking up the pace, the sound of the hoof beat seeming to confirm his species. Lightning smirked, this chase was hers…
In a bright red strike Lightning hit the stranger with all of her might. Her temporary jolt of exuberance was quickly snuffed as she realized she had struck the brown fur and stopped. The full force of an earth pony, even a small one, should’ve bowled over something that size several times over. An icy chill gripped her, just what was this thing?
“Alright, alright, you’ve got me,” a male voice came from the brown form beneath her “You’re one heck of a runner you know that? I haven’t had a race that good in like forever!”
Lightning backed off a bit to get a good look at the new pony. The only problem was he apparently wasn’t a pony. He looked kind of like one she supposed, but he had thinner legs and very different hooves. His head also seemed a little weirdly shaped and he had no mane or tail to speak of.
“What are you?” asked Lightning.
“Name’s Mesa, Black Mesa,” said the strange creature, clearly having heard her wrong “So what the heck are you anyway?”
“Never seen a pony before?” asked Lightning huffily “I just asked you the same question.”
“And I suppose you’ve never seen a buffalo before,” said Mesa with a smirk “You really are kind of an interesting alien.”
“Alien?” Lightning exclaimed “Excuse me mister, I’m as much a citizen of Equestria as you are.”
“What’s Equestria?” asked Mesa, genuinely curious “Is that your tribe? Sounds kind of silly if you ask me, of course the thunder trail tribe sounds a bit silly too. I never did get your name stranger!”
“I don’t see why I should tell you my name…” Lightning grumbled “At least it sounds like you’re from around here, could you tell me where I am?”
Mesa tilted his head, seeming to not understand the question “You’re right here I suppose.” He said with a shrug.
“No you idiot,” said Lightning angrily “What do you call this spot? What’s it labeled as on the map?”
“What’s a map?” asked Mesa, ignoring the question.
Lightning brought a hoof to her face “Never mind,” she said angrily “I don’t need your help…”
“Are you lost?” asked Mesa curiously “I can take you back to the tribe if that would help.” He muttered the word “Probably…”
“I don’t know…” said Lightning ponderously. One thought immediately coming to mind “Do you have food?”
“Lots of food!” said Mesa with a grin “Come on! It’s this way!”
Lightning wondered how he could keep his sense of direction in this sea of grass, but didn’t argue. Maybe he had the same sort of freaky hearing as Iris or something. She did feel a dull rumbling though she wasn’t sure if she was sensing it with her ears or her hooves. It was faint so she wasn’t too worried, but following a stranger through a huge grassy field to the beat of an earthquake was kind of stupid.
“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” she asked.
“You don’t have any choice,” Mesa pointed out “You’re lost in the plains, unless you have the help of someone who knows their way around, you’re totally screwed.”
A vein pulsed in Lightning’s forehead, this score was starting to become annoyingly repetitive. At least this time the destination seemed obvious enough. She could see the conical tents now that she was angled toward them. It was interesting how they were built, but she had heard of them before. Maybe this guy wasn’t lying about being a buffalo. He still didn’t look fuzzy enough for it though…
“So where are you from?” asked Mesa “Equestria or whatever, where is that?”
“In my experience Equestria is the whole world,” said Lightning snootily “I’m from Ponyville for your information.”
“Never heard of it,” said Mesa “Doesn’t sound very original to me, didn’t you say you were a pony?”
“Yes I am a pony,” said Lightning “Not that you should talk. How can you be a buffalo without the huge shoulders, fur and horns?”
Mesa let out a laugh “You clearly don’t know a darn thing about us,” he said, not put off in the slightest “I guess that means you are really lost. Well since you’re so weird I guess I should explain it to you…”
“Please do…” said Lightning icily.
“We don’t start growing thick fur till eight years,” he explained “And horns aren’t for a year after that. I’d say we start getting to look like adults around ten.”
“Huh…” said Lightning “That’s really weird…”
“When do ponies get horns then?” asked Mesa.
“We don’t, I mean, some do. The unicorns, but they’re born with it,” said Lightning “I’m an earth pony, so of course I’m not gonna get a horn.”
“Bizarre…” said Mesa in awe.
“Not really,” said Lightning “I mean come on, there are lots of different kinds of buffalo aren’t there?”
“No…” said mesa, raising an eyebrow “What, are there different kinds of ponies?”
“Of course there are different kinds of ponies,” said Lightning, not quite used to the buffalo’s ignorance, but certainly excited to explain it “There’s the unicorns with the horns, like I said, and they do magic…”
“Like the oracle?” asked Mesa.
“Sure,” said Lightning “Then there’s the pegasi, they have wings…”
“Wings?” said Mesa “That sounds ridiculous.”
“They do look really silly,” said Lightning “And they’re all really stupid too. A good friend of mine is a pegasus and he wouldn’t be able to tell the different between a cow and a hedgehog!”
“What kind of pony are you then?” asked Mesa “You don’t have horns or wings, nothing funny looking about you really.”
“Thanks,” said Lightning, feeling the awkwardness fall away like scales “That’s because I’m an earth pony. We’re the best because we’re the strongest, smartest, and the fastest ponies!”
“Is that why you don’t have horns or wings?”
Lightning smirked “That’s exactly right,” she said, deciding to invent something or another from science class “It would be a biological and evolutionary disadvantage to the others if we did. The only ponies with wings, horns, and earth pony strength are the princesses. And they’re goddesses!”
“Okay, now you’re pulling my leg,” said Mesa, narrowing his eyes “Are you gonna tell me that you guys can be gods?”
“Yep!” said Lightning “Princess Luna and Celestia! They make the sun and moon rise and set every day!”
“Huh…” said Mesa “I guess I can believe that. It’s not like anyone knows how that happens. So you pony people are responsible, that’s really interesting…”
“Isn’t it?” said Lightning excitedly “It makes me proud to… what’s that sound…?” she trailed away toward the end of this sentence as the sound of rolling thunder steadily started to sound closer.
Mesa had already turned toward the sound, where a huge could of billowing dust was coming toward them. Lightning squinted, though it was hard to tell with the same colored coats, she could make out the forms of buffalo, real buffalo, stampeding towards them in the dust. Mesa seemed somehow pleased at the sight of them.
“It’s the stampede squad,” he explained to the bewildered Lightning “We grow a lot of our own food but a lot of guys still go out and gather edible plants. Hey guys! It’s me!”
To Lightning’s terror the buffalo split off from their initial formation as they approached, circling around them several times. Mesa merely smiled up at them as Lightning tried to make out individual aspects of any of them. The wild rush stopped very suddenly, the buffalo forming a tight circle around them. Huge flat heads, block shaped noses, and masses of brown fur closed in like a wall around them.
“Good to see you again!” said Mesa with a smirk “Been a long time hasn’t it? Tornado, you’re looking well. A little undernourished though guys, have you been getting enough to…?”
“Shut up runt,” one of the buffalo snorted “You had better have a damn good reason for stepping back on to our land.”
“This isn’t your tribe?” Lightning exclaimed.
“Chill…” said Mesa “Come on guys we’re all friends here. Mom told me I couldn’t come back until I did something to contribute to the tribe, and look! I found this weird thing on the plain, captured it all by myself!”
“And how exactly…” said one of the buffalo “Does this thing benefit the tribe?”
“Well there could be more of them out there!” he said animatedly, waving his hooves around “She runs faster than any buffalo! I had to be incredibly clever to catch her as my prisoner!”
“I swear I will buck that attitude right out of your sorry skull…” Lightning growled.
“It does seem to have energy said another one of the buffalo “For all we know there could be more out there…”
“Indeed…” said another, surveying Mesa and Lightning carefully “This is troubling indeed…”
“Awesome! So let’s go!” Mesa exclaimed, walking casually forward “We can interrogate her when we get back to the camp!” When the circle remained unbroken he looked up at the nearest buffalo “Um… Stone head? Camp is this way…”
“Yes it is…” said Stone head, looking around at the evil grins of the rest of the circle and nodding “And we’re going to have to bring this creature we caught back to camp…”
“Hey, for the record, I caught that,” said Mesa, trying to push forward again “Come on, let’s go! Chief should see this as soon as possible…”
“You didn’t catch this thing…” said Stone head again “We did…”
“What are you…?” Mesa started, before the breath was knocked out of him by a hoof smashing squarely into his stomach. There was a resounding laugh from the circle as they started kicking Mesa back and forth between them, every blow inciting a yelp until he didn’t have the strength to form sounds.
“Come on gang!” Stone head called “We’ll leave this runt for the vultures. Chief will be glad to see this thing, let’s go!”
Lightning was suddenly lifted up and thrown bodily on to the back of one of the buffalo. She could hear one last groan from Mesa as the group stampeded back toward the teepees.
Mesa groaned and forced himself to his hooves. His whole body felt like it was on fire, but he muscled through it. Leave him to the vultures indeed. As if they had the right, or heck, even the ability to kill him. He looked toward the gray mountain, an idea slowly starting to hatch in his mind.
The herd at the camp had long since learned to make way for returning stampedes as they returned. It took some time for them to calm down usually, and once in a while even longer to actually slow to a stop. It was disappointing to see that they had no food in tow, but curiosity overwhelmed this as they saw the mysterious red creature holding for dear life on the back of Sun stomp. By the time the stampede finally slowed to a stop at the center of camp a small crowd had gathered to see the strange creature.
Chief Nature Song, of course, was the first to approach. She was a very tall female buffalo, with determined green eyes. She watched the stampede bow to her with a look of disdain.
“I send you out to collect food and you bring me back this?” she asked angrily “Our tribe is on the brink of starvation, what do you have to say for yourself?”
Stone head moved to the front of the group “Chief,” he said respectfully “We discovered this strange creature on our plains. We believe it may be a scout of an enemy force. We would like permission to scout for the attacking army.”
Song examined Lightning carefully, receiving nothing but a scowl from the trapped pony. “I see…” she said measuring her with her eyes “No, you may not send out a party just yet. We need you in the corn fields.”
“But…” Stone head started to say.
“None of that, now relinquish that creature to me and get to work.” Song glared hard at Stone head, then immediately to Stomp, who placed Lightning gently on the ground before they started off again.
“About time…” Lightning grumbled “They smelled like dirt and fleas…”
“So you can talk…” said Song curiously “You are quite an interesting thing aren’t you? Some strange buffalo with coloring of rust…”
“I’m not a buffalo…” said Lightning “And I’m not an alien or a creature either…”
“Well we will know what you are soon enough,” said Song, pushing her toward one of the tents “I’m taking you to see the oracle.”
“Hey let go of me!” Lightning shouted, struggling in vain to try and escape “You don’t have any right to do this! Let me go!”
Despite her violent struggles Song was able to push her into the dark teepee with almost no effort. Lightning got an upside down look at a plume of psychedelic smoke before she was forced to her hooves again to see what looked like a pile of rags behind a table with a crystal ball on it. Two strangely colored candles on either side were giving off the weird vapor trails.
“Mystic Vision…” Song said, and then to Lightning’s surprise, bowed toward the table “I beseech you for your assistance…”
Lightning gave the chief a quizzical look as she turned upward again “Oracle please… we require your aid…”
A dull snore suddenly came from the pile of rags, causing Lightning to spring into the air in utter shock. There was something alive in there! Song sighed and moved over to touch the bundle, “Oracle… please wake up…”
The moment Song’s hoof touched the rags the whole pile shifted violently upward to reveal a very old looking buffalo with pale white fur. “What’s that lady?” it asked, clearly having been very deeply asleep “Is there something I can do for you?”
Lightning was staring in awe at the oracle’s pale coat, the white being somewhat easier on the eyes after the constant boring brown. The oracle shifted grumpily toward the table as Song moved back in front of it.
“As you can see…” Song said, as the oracle stared blankly into the glass sphere “We have a visitor whom we cannot identify…”
“Her name’s Lightnin’” the oracle said angrily “Lightnin’ Strike, anything else?”
“Um…yes,” said Song, ignoring the shocked gasp from Lightning “We also…”
“Wanna know what she is,” said the oracle “She’s a pony, one outta Celestia’s charge. Time traveler too by the look of her… Now that does explain a lot doesn’t it now?”
“Time traveler?” Lightning and Song said simultaneously in a tone of complete surprise. The oracle let out a laugh.
“Why yes, why else do you think I found this gadget?” the oracle said, placing a familiar looking gold cylinder on the table “I know a good time jumper when I see one, and hoo boy does it have a big number on that dial!”
“What does that mean…?” Lightning stammered.
“It means you ain’t in Ponyville no more girly,” said the oracle with a laugh “And song, there’s some more of these pony folk on the yonder side of the mountain. I think you should send out a little peace party to meet ‘em. And bring LIghtnin’ with you.”
“Oh my… um… of course…” said Song “I’ll organize a party and then come back for her…”
“Yes, you will,” said the oracle “Now why don’t you go grab a guitar LIghtnin’? I’d love to hear ya play. I should have… aha! Right here!”
A little frightened by the extent to which this old buffalo knew her, she took the battered old guitar that was thrust in her general direction, not wanted to upset. “Thank you ma’am…” she said in her best imitation of a civil tone.
“I’m a man you idiot!” said the oracle, his accent seeming to slip away from him “Now get out of here! The troops need music!”
Lightning blushed furiously and quickly excused herself, bumping into another buffalo on the way out. She mumbled an apology as she walked to the edge of the tent circle with the guitar. She took a closer look at it, noticing that it looked interestingly modern. Yeah, that time travel bit had to be fake, there was no such thing. Well, there were those short term spells in the storybooks but nothing that could trap her in a foreign time period right?
Right… just keep telling yourself that. Maybe you’ll start to believe it… She considered running away, but there wasn’t really anywhere to go. She supposed she could follow the oracle’s advice and try to get to the ponies apparently on the other side of the mountain, but she was already tired and thirsty, no need to make it worse. These buffalo were her only hope at this point.
“Lightning Strike?” a voice jerked her out of her reverie and she looked up to see another one of the buffalo “The chief asked me to bring you this.” He pushed a bowl of what Lightning recognized as corn meal over as well as some kind of pouch that made a liquid sound as it fell.
“Um…thank you…” said Lightning. In all the excitement she had completely forgotten just how hungry she was.
“And one more thing,” said the buffalo “The oracle has also determined for you to receive this, but I don’t know what it is.” Lightning let out a gasp as the buffalo deposited the golden cylinder on the ground in front of her. “I suppose you know what to do with it then.”
“Yes… thanks…again…” said Lightning.
“No trouble of mine,” said the buffalo “They call me Stone Bolt, I welcome you to the thunder trail tribe.”
“Lightning Strike,” said Lightning with a nod “I guess it’s nice to be here.” A sudden conk echoed around as a blunt force rammed into the center of her forehead.
“Alright, see you then!” said Bolt, apparently completely unaware that he had caused Lightning any pain at all with the sudden headbut. Apparently this was the usual greeting among the buffalo…
Now wasn’t the time to worry about that though. The oracle had said he had found the cylinder, which explained where it had gone when they landed… sort of… but now she had it again it was incredibly tempting to just go home. It didn’t take a genius to figure out how this thing worked. Green button makes it go one way, red makes it go the other, and the numbers were however much time you wanted to go further or backward. She wasn’t sure if that was in days, weeks, years, whatever, but she had it on the maximum setting when she had been launched into this time, so to go home it would be best to just set it back to maximum and press the green button. Home was literally right there in her hooves…
No it wasn’t… no matter how mad she was at Shadow, he was a part of home too. There was no way she would be able to live with herself if she were to leave him stranded. As tempting as it was to leave the idiot there, she merely sat the cylinder back on the grass. A quick peek around revealed what looked vaguely like a saddlebag leaning against one of the tents. She emptied its original contents out and replaced them with her stuff. Whoever the saddlebag originally belonged to surely wouldn’t miss it.
The best course of action, for now, was apparently to wait for the stampede to gallop over the mountain. If there were other ponies there it wouldn’t be a bad idea to meet them like that, and then food and water wouldn’t be a desperate item. Of course the mountain might not be that far around, but the help would still be nice.
Fortunately her idle hooves had been provided with boundless potential for activity, a guitar was all she ever really needed to stay sane. She picked up the battered old instrument off the ground and gave the strings a pluck. They were badly out of tune, but she quickly fixed that. She smiled out at the grassy plains and distant mountains. If there was anything this place had in abundance it was sources of inspiration.
Before she had consciously begun to form the melody in her mind her hooves began to strum on the strings. It was a different melody than what she was taught, sadder than rock, and not nearly as lively as blues. It was soft, like music played in deep caverns as if every sound was expected to be echoed ten-fold what it was worth. Out here in the open it had a different, more enchanting effect that drew the idle attention of several of the buffalo, but none of them really cared to step over and watch. To them she may as well have been a performing animal.
But Lightning didn’t care, after all what did they know? She had her music and that was more than enough. Almost as if to further prove her resilience, words began to flow into the music creating a quiet song.
Blue sky above me, Green grass below
I’m lost among strangers in a land I don’t know
The mountains are tall, the prairies are pretty
Yet I stand alone, tired and weary
Lost alone in this land, can’t find my way home
Next time I’ll think twice about journeys alone
When the land takes its course then maybe I’ll see
My friends near the horizon, comforting me
If life is a blessing then time is a curse
For once I believe things cannot get worse
Alone, here I am, as sad as can be
The grass rolling onward is all I can see
Though enemies are close and my friends are far
Bravery is a lost virtue, my patience is marred
Hope, none I have left, the world’s flying by
Were I a weak pony, perhaps I may cry
Run if you may, bout trees or the hills
Through Ponyville’s pastures or Manehatten’s mills
But run for your life? Now that’s something new…
This sort of thing you think wouldn’t happen to you
I watch the green fields as the wind passes by
Perhaps growing weak… A tear touched my eye…
Shadow, I miss you… I’m sorry… Forgive me…
I was stubborn…and stupid…just really…me…
The usual feeling of her soul being visible had a slightly different effect this time. She usually grew embarrassed after a song, maybe a little prideful if she had done really well. It reflected the emotions she was feeling and amplified it over many times. After awhile she started to prepare herself for the embarrassment after her performances, but this was totally new to her.
Lightning Strike was feeling guilty, and she was completely unprepared for it. The crushing feeling of being utterly alone was crushing her, and she had no shield to hide behind. The fears flowed freely, her stubbornness vanishing into mist.
Lightning didn’t even realize she was still playing until she put the guitar down and started sobbing. It was terrifying being out in the middle of no pony’s land with no one you know within miles of you. Heck if the oracle was right she was in a whole different time! Thank Luna that she’d seen a lot of science fiction or she would’ve had one of those “Can’t even comprehend it” moments.
That was off topic though, her iron ego hadn’t been broken by the shock of travel. It had been utterly shattered by the blank fear that she may never return to her friends and family. Even during the Canterlot incident she hadn’t actually thought of that as a possibility, albeit that was probably because she had been hypnotized for most of that time. If she had, her opinion of herself which was already dropping by the second, would not be so strong.
Priority one, when she found Shadow, she needed to apologize… To Iris too… for the first time (not so strange of course, remember she was pretty young) she could hear the voice of a conscious, and it was terrifying her. She wanted that tinny little voice to go away and stop making her feel sorry for herself…
A pressure on her shoulder made her look up. The sharp eyes of Nature Song were looking down at her. “Dry your tears,” she said in an attempted tone of comfort “We cross the mountain in twenty stamps. You would do well to be prepared.”
“I’m not crying…” Lightning grumbled “It’s been a hard day… I’m sweating out my eyes…”
“Whatever you’re doing, stop,” said Song “I don’t care what your emotional state is, you must appear ordinary to the rest of your group. Otherwise we will force the emotion upon you, do you understand?”
Lightning glared and stood up, slipping the guitar into the newly acquired saddlebag. “I’ll be plenty happy assuming there are other ponies there,” she said “For now you can shove it up your…”
“That’s the attitude I like to hear,” said Song “Confident and strong, but still honorable. You can follow orders and yet your pride is left untouched. I wish we had buffalo like you Lightning Strike…” she paused for a moment, seeming to taste the air “You remind me of myself…”
“But…how…?” said Lightning, more than a little suspicious that this buffalo was just trying to get her to behave.
“You’re stubborn,” said Song, smirking at her “To a fault certainly. But that isn’t saying it isn’t a virtue. Buffalo are very like-minded, if one begins to run many fall into a stampede, like many droplets of water becoming a single river. Those of us who become rocks in this river have to be stubborn and defiant. That’s why I like you. You’re not okay with things that go against your ideals, but you can move with it. You wouldn’t even respect someone in charge of an army where every individual is three times your size. I can read the stubbornness in your eyes.”
“I still don’t get how that makes us similar,” said Lightning “I don’t even know who you are…”
“I’m sorry for not introducing myself,” said Song “I am Nature Song, chief of the thunder trail tribe.”
“And…what does that mean?” asked Lightning.
“The chief is responsible for the tribe,” said Song, looking over the camp “I lead these buffalo through the four seasons, through wars and through peace. The weight of their safety is on my shoulders.”
“I see…” said Lightning, tilting her head “Still, you’re the leader, how is that…?”
“Stubborn?” finished Song, “I had the guts to go against the tradition. For generations the chief has always been a man, as were those who worked in the stampedes. The women were to work in the corn fields, and we always did.”
“What?” exclaimed Lightning, forgetting her inner turmoil for a moment “That’s insane!”
“That’s what I thought,” said Song, with a smile “I was the first woman to join the stampedes. The oppression was greater than you can imagine, and it was years before I finally earned their respect. I fought like a devil to earn my proper place in the tribe, and it paid off in the end.”
“How stupid,” said Lightning, pawing the ground with a hoof “If the colts at my school were anything like that I’d kick their flanks inside out…”
“Violence is never the answer,” said Song “Had I ever lashed out against the men I would never have gained their respect. When they opened their eyes to see who I really was they revered me for all they had put me through. I did turn out to be the first female chief in our tribe’s history.”
“So you’re telling me to curb my emotion?” Lightning simplified, put off a little by Song’s warm smile.
“Something like that,” she said “Come along now, I’ll be travelling with your group around the mountain. I would like to meet with them on even ground… And I don’t trust our stampede to return you safely…” She looked to the small group of rowdy buffalo with a sigh “If only they had your attitude…”
Lightning’s tear stained face lit up with a smile. Hey, so what if she didn’t know much about this chief? She was an important person and she admired her. That was reason enough to return the same respect.
“Hey…” said Lightning, feeling a little embarrassed “Is there any way you can get me a feather headband…?”
“I think I can arrange that,” said Song with a smile.
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