-hobybuchanon- Native American Indian Girl Returns [TRUSTED]

The girl—no, not a girl anymore, he saw now—turned slowly. The face was the same sharp, intelligent map of cheekbones and dark eyes, but the child who had left on the Indian Agency truck was gone. In her place stood a young woman with the stillness of deep water.

She was small, wrapped in a faded army blanket despite the August heat. Her hair, black as a starling's wing, hung in two long braids threaded with leather and turquoise. She didn't turn when Hoby's boots hit the dirt. She didn't need to. -HobyBuchanon- Native American Indian Girl Returns

"Been ten years," Hoby said, his voice rougher than he intended. The girl—no, not a girl anymore, he saw

"I'm not staying," Tala said quietly. "After this is done, I have to go back. My people need me." She was small, wrapped in a faded army

"What about it?"

Tala—because that was her real name, Hoby reminded himself, not the English name the social workers had pinned to her like a tag on a stray dog—tilted her head toward the mountains. "The same way I found it when I was six years old and lost in the blizzard. The same way the salmon find the creek where they were born."