Wildfire

Poe Dameron can't wait to marry his beloved Rey, but when a spring blizzard hits the Nebraska Sandhills, it's Rey's magical horse that determines their future.

Written in response to the Folklore and Fairytales Zine that I would have loved to write for. Rated Teen. Story includes talk of death and Native American folklore. Based on the song Wildfire by Michael Martin Murphey.

Dedicated to my own beloved Wildfire aka Chester.

She comes down from Yellow Mountain

On a dark, flat land she rides

On a pony she named Wildfire

With a whirlwind by her side

On a cold Nebraska night

Oh, they say she died one winter

When there came a killing frost

And the pony she named Wildfire

Busted down its stall

In a blizzard he was lost

She ran calling Wildfire [x3]

By the dark of the moon I planted

But there came an early snow

There's been a hoot-owl howling by my window now

For six nights in a row

She's coming for me, I know

And on Wildfire we're both gonna go

We'll be riding Wildfire [x3]

On Wildfire we're gonna ride

Gonna leave sodbustin' behind

Get these hard times right on out of our minds

Riding Wildfire

March 1891

Poe Dameron brought up his gloved hand and patted the shoulder of the spotted steer he was standing next to. Dust puffed up off of the animal’s thick winter coat, was picked up by the ever-present wind, and flew away. It was an unusually warm day for March in the Sandhills of Nebraska, the sun shining bright in a cloudless sky, but the wind still had a bite to it. It was a reminder that winter wasn’t quite done with them yet.

He reached for the yoke sitting on the rail of the hitching post both of his steers were tied to, intent on harnessing them up and putting them to work for the first time this spring. A distant laugh caught his attention and he turned immediately, recognizing the beloved voice. He spotted the dark shape moving swiftly over the flat, tan prairie: a horse and rider racing the wind.

Poe set the yoke back down and turned to face the woman and horse as they sped across the ground. The small horse’s dark red coat was in stark contrast to the pale winter grass, and his chocolate mane and tail matched the dark hair of his rider, which was loose and blowing crazily in the wind. She would have tangles in it again, he thought to himself. The horse turned toward him and he could see the smile on the rider’s face get bigger as she saw him watching. They slowed as they got closer. Poe could see that the horse’s chest was wet with sweat and his nostrils were flared as he breathed in large amounts of air; he still had a winter coat just like the steers did, and running in the warm spring sunshine had made him hot.

Rey Skywalker pulled gently on the rope around the horse’s neck, the only tack she had on the animal, and he stopped in front of Poe. She used no saddle, and Poe was pretty sure the horse’s shedding winter coat was all over Rey’s skirt and stockings. At eighteen years of age and engaged to be married, you’d think she’d start acting like the mature woman she was, he thought. But then again, it was her wild and carefree soul that Poe had fallen in love with; he didn’t want her to change.

“What are you doing?” she asked, breathing as hard as her horse. “You can’t be thinking about starting to plow this early?”

Poe leaned back against the hitching post, folding his arms across his chest. “It’s a nice day. I thought I’d get to it before the grass took root.”

She shook her head. “It will take root anyway and you’ll have to plow all over again before you plant. You know how stubborn the prairie grass is.”

“Not as stubborn as me,” Poe said, raising an eyebrow.

Rey snorted. “Apparently.” She shifted on the horse, giving him a pleading look. “Come ride with me, Poe. Once the planting season starts, we won’t have much time to spend just having fun together. Even after we marry, we won’t have much time to ourselves until after harvest.”

Rey and Poe had known each other for years, with their parents settling on neighboring farms over ten years previously. While she was several years younger than him, Poe had fallen head over heels for the smart and wily girl when he was a teen and she still a child, and he had waited patiently for her to turn eighteen so he could ask her father for her hand in marriage. Tragedy had struck two years ago, with smallpox hitting the small farming community of Niima late in the summer. Everyone got sick to some extent, but both of Poe’s parents and Rey’s mother and older brother did not survive. Rey herself almost didn’t make it, and even when the sickness left her, she had little will to keep going.

Until Wildfire came along.

The little red horse had shown up just before the first snow of the season, standing outside the Skywalker’s barn. Skinny, with a matted mane and tail, Luke was positive the horse was someone’s lost mount and not a wild mustang. He was too refined and didn’t have the heavy bone that the feral horses had. But no one came to claim him and Rey, who was the only one the horse allowed near him, took it upon herself to make him well again. By springtime, both were healthy and happy and bonded to each other so strong that Poe was almost jealous. “He’s magic,” Rey claimed. “I was meant to die with my mother, but Wildfire came to me instead.”

This past Christmas, Rey had talked Poe into riding out with her, and the little horse had carried them both over to Jakku Creek where Poe had finally proposed. “It’s about time,” she had laughed, kissing him as if she had been waiting for this moment for as long as he had. “Yes!” They decided to wait until summer, as the winter had been harsh and they were living on the bare minimum until spring when the trains could get through again. June 14th had been set, when planting was done and they could relax a bit. That day was the last time Poe had ridden with Rey, though she continually asked him to come with her.

“I’m sorry, Rey,” he said with a sigh. “I really need to at least work on that back acre, the area that floods all the time. It’s already got weeds starting up. If I plow it now, it will be easier to get through when it’s time for planting.”

Rey’s expression fell, her huge eyes filled with disappointment, but she nodded in understanding. “But you’ll come to dinner tonight?” she asked softly. Poe ate meals with Luke and Rey several times a week. With the next closest farm over two miles away toward town, the three of them had become a family even before Poe had asked for Luke for Rey’s hand.

“Absolutely!” Poe nodded, suddenly needing to make Rey smile again. “And the next nice day we get before planting, I’ll ride with you.”

“Promise?”

“I promise,” he said firmly. “The next time you ask me to ride Wildfire with you, I promise I will say yes.”

As he hoped, she smiled, then she gave him a quick nod. “I’ll see you tonight.” She picked up the neck rope and brought her right heel and calf up to touch Wildfire’s side. The little horse began to turn away from Poe.

Without knowing why, Poe felt his heart clench. “Rey!”

The horse stopped and she looked back over her should at him, one eyebrow raised in question.

“I love you!”

Her smile appeared again, even bigger than before. “I know,” she said, her voice bright. “I love you, too, Poe Dameron.” Still smiling, she turned away, touching Wildfire softly with her heels. The little horse took off, Rey leaning over his neck. Her joyous laughter echoed on the wind as the two raced across the prairie once more.

******

The wind changed direction just as Poe finished with the area he was determined to plow, and while he was walking to the Skywalker’s for supper, clouds rolled in, dark and ominous. After the meal, Rey walked Poe outside to the corral next to the barn where Wildfire stood. While the horse had only allowed Rey to handle him in the early days, he had since come to trust both Poe and Luke as well, but today the animal chose to ignore his presence, staring off to the west, the wind blowing his dark chocolate mane about wildly.

Snowflakes began to swirl in the air and Poe turned to his love. “I better go before I can’t see to find my way home.” He said it lightly, but they both knew how serious that statement was. One could easily get lost and freeze to death during a winter storm out here on the prairie. The blowing snow and cold could disorient you so much you could die literally feet from shelter, never knowing how close you were to safety.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Rey said softly, then leaned in to kiss him. While there had been no real talk of the subject, both he and Rey were both determined to wait until marriage to become intimate, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t had a few moments of intense loving since their engagement. When Poe pulled away from his fiancé, breathless, Rey smiled her gorgeous, bright smile at him.

“I can’t wait until I’m going home with you after sharing dinner with Papa,” she said softly. Her hair, which she had tamed back into a bun for the meal, had several wild tendrils blowing about her face in the wind, and there were snowflakes on her eyelashes.

“I can’t wait, either,” he agreed. “Get inside out of this,” he told her before releasing her from his embrace.

“I will after I put Wildfire in for the night,” she told him, heading for the gate of the corral. “Goodnight, Poe.”

“Goodnight, my love,” Poe breathed. "I'll see you tomorrow." She stopped and turned, her smile serene. Almost sad. She turned back to her horse. Slightly unsettled, he turned toward his own house, a half-mile away, a fairly worn dirt track leading him there. He turned once more to watch Rey coax her horse into the barn, and once he saw her close the door and start skipping across the yard to the safety of her house, he started walking quickly toward his own safe place. The snow was becoming thick and the wind frigid and strong. This wasn’t going to be a simple snowfall, Poe thought. It already had the makings of yet another blizzard.

By the time Poe reached his own farm, the snow was already drifting against his house and barn. He brought the steers in out of the wind and made sure they had food and water, then headed inside the house to stoke up the fire and make sure he had plenty of wood for at least three or four days. This wasn’t the first blizzard of the season, and most had been done within a few hours, but sometimes the drifts were so bad it took a few days to shovel out. Hopefully, with spring right around the corner, this snow would melt quickly.

He fell into a restless sleep, dreaming unsettling dreams, constantly aware of the howling wind and the sound of icy snow beating on the window. He dreamt of Wildfire, still staring out toward the west, this time with his coat covered in ice and snow. Then he heard Rey calling her horse.

“Wildfire! Wildfire! Wildfire!”

He jerked awake, absolutely convinced he had actually heard Rey, but as he lay there, his ears straining to hear anything other than the storm, he began to believe it had just been the wind playing tricks on him. No one would be out in this storm, he thought. Everyone that lived out here knew better than to leave shelter during a blizzard.

He couldn’t get back to sleep, and eventually the wind lessened just as dawn broke. Poe got up and stoked the fire once more, then dressed. He was about to put the coffee on when there was a pounding on his door. More than a little startled, his heart racing, he rushed to open it.

Luke Skywalker stood there, his coat plastered with snow and his beard sporting icicles. One of his two draft horses stood in the yard, also coated with ice. The sun was just trying to break through the clouds now, and the snow-covered yard was so bright Poe had to shield his eyes.

“Luke?!” he gasped, his eyes immediately searching for Rey.

“Rey’s gone,” Luke gasped.

Poe focused on him, his heart stuttering. “What?”

“Wildfire went crazy during the storm,” Luke said, his voice rough. “He broke the barn door and ran off. Rey went after him.”

“In the storm?” Poe was incredulous.

“I tried going after her,” Luke continued. “I tried following her voice. But I lost them. I lost my own way for a while. It was sheer luck I literally ran into the corral fence. As soon as the wind went down and the snow quit, I went back out, but there’s no sign of her.

“She’s gone.”

******

They searched for five long days.

Though the snow has quit that first day, the wind was still strong and stiff. The March sun beat down on the glistening white prairie, and already the snow was melting in spots, but there were still drifts six feet high and the blowing snow combined with the blinding white to create very difficult conditions.

The Antilles lived almost three miles from Luke, and when Wedge came out to check on them, he found Poe saddling up Luke’s other big horse. Upon learning why, he raced back to town, and by noon there were a dozen men out searching. The second day was warmer, and the snow started melting quickly, creating mud, but still they all searched. A few men left the team on the third day, the needs of their own families taking precedence. But the others carried on.

There was nothing. No tracks. No scat. No hair. No clothing. Nothing to indicate which direction Wildfire had run or which direction Rey had gone in search of him. It was determined that she couldn’t have gotten far as bad as the storm was, but there were very few places to shelter out here in the open, and no body was found. If she had caught Wildfire and managed to get on him, and they had gotten lost in the storm together, they could be farther out, but the searchers circled far and wide only to find nothing. Word was sent out to neighboring towns, and some of the Sioux Indians from the Dakota Reservation that worked on one of the larger farms up north even came down to help in the search. They had worked in town a few years previously and Rey had befriended them. They also found nothing, but one of the men, Jeramiah Yellow Horse, asked Luke if Rey had talked about seeing an owl before the storm.

“Not that she said,” Luke had frowned. “Why?”

“Your daughter faced death before, is that true?” Yellow Horse asked.

“Yes,” Luke confirmed. “She almost died of smallpox.”

The man nodded. “I remember. The owl spirit animal, the Hinjhàn, acts as a guide through the afterlife and is often seen by people just before they pass on,” the man explained. “Your daughter told me once that she had seen one the morning her mother passed away.”

Poe was struck dumb. She had never told him that.

“Her pony,” Yellow Horse continued. “He arrived afterward. I believe he was sent to prepare her for her turn and to guide her when the time came.”

“What do you mean?” Poe asked before Luke could.

The Indian looked at him. “Rey was not meant to live this long,” he said softly.

******

Luke left that summer. He still had family in Saint Paul, he said. He was going back to city living and leaving sod busting behind. He asked Poe to come with him.

“I can’t,” Poe told him, shaking his head. “I can’t leave. Not yet.”

“She’s not coming back, Poe.”

Poe didn’t reply. He couldn’t. How could he explain that every morning after the sun rose, he looked off to the west, hoping upon hope of seeing Wildfire with Rey on his back. That every evening as the sun set, he prayed for the same miracle.

He should have ridden with her that last day, he thought. He should have ridden with her every time she asked him to.

His crops did poorly that summer. He had planted late, still confused and troubled by Rey’s disappearance. There was little rain and what they had was usually in the form of torrential downpours from violent thunderstorms. His friends in town tried to help him, but one by one they left him to himself, pushed away by his moodiness and obsession with learning all he could about the afterlife. Wedge and his wife continued to check on him, but they rarely stayed long. Because he planted late, the little corn and wheat that had survived could not be harvested on time, and before he could bring any of it in a hard frost hit. The next night, frigid winds brought in heavy snowfall, burying his frozen livelihood.

He sold the steers, using the money to buy as many provisions as he could; he couldn’t stomach the thought of butchering them himself. Then he hid away in his little house, the house he had hoped once upon a time to enlarge. The house he once hoped to fill with children. Children with his hair and Rey’s eyes.

By Christmas, all his food was gone. The constant cold and snow outside had kept him homebound for days, and he had no money to buy food should he ever make it to town. Wedge had stopped visiting once the weather got so frigidly cold. Poe’s firewood was also dangerously low. Poe briefly though about just setting the house on fire and letting himself burn up with it, but he didn’t even have the energy to do that.

It was while he was huddled in front of the small fire one night that he heard the owl. He realized belatedly that he had heard the bird the last few nights, but it has always been a faint sound. Tonight, it was right outside his window.

He stood and moved to look outside. The giant horned bird was sitting on the hitching post by the barn, the Cold Moon shining down and making the while land almost as bright as day. It was watching him.

Feeling a shiver run up his spine, Poe moved slowly back to his seat in front of the fire. He closed his eyes and felt peace encompass him.

“Poe?”

The beloved voice made him smile, and he opened his eyes to Rey astride Wildfire in front of him. He was outside in that bright moonlight, but he did not feel cold.

She reached out her hand toward him. “Ride with me?”

“Yes,” he smiled, and moved toward his love and her horse.

When Wedge Antilles was finally able to visit the Dameron homestead shortly after the New Year, he found it abandoned, with no sign of Poe anywhere.

THE END