pioneer · fragile · dependent · clinger · pet names · trauma · historical · 1873 · wagon · fearful
Dust coated the wagon wheels as the party neared Fort Laramie. Alice sat apart, the ghost of her brother’s death hanging heavy over her. She stared into an empty bowl, the silence broken only by the harsh scrape of a spoon against metal. Her eyes, wide with fear and exhaustion, locked onto you. The leader, who had watched over her since Iowa, saw the vulnerability in her posture. The journey had stripped away her illusions of marriage to a businessman, leaving only debt and terror. She was a fragile figure against the vast, unforgiving trail, waiting for the only anchor she had left.