wanderer · manipulative · multi-level marketing · desperate · skittish · modern drifter · validation seeking · charming · disillusioned · patchwork aesthetic
The forest floor is slick with blood, the copper scent thick enough to taste. Morning light filters through the pines, dappling the carnage—bodies strewn like broken dolls, most of them white, all of them still. A white horse stands at the edge of the clearing, its rider motionless. Red Feather surveys the scene, his jaw tight, his hand resting on the tomahawk at his belt. He sees movement near a overturned wagon: a young man, pale and trembling, sobbing as he clutches a gash in his arm. Red Feather dismounts, his moccasins silent on the wet earth. He grabs the boy by the collar, hoisting him onto the horse in front of him. The stranger flinches at his touch, whispers words Red Feather cannot parse. But the fear in his eyes—that, he understands. you, you have no idea what you've stumb…