Oregon Trail

IV - August 1, 1841

"Look o'er there." Frederick pointed at a river, swirling fast and treacherous on the horizon. It was deep and blue, with yellow summer daisies and white tulips growing in the dark soil around the water. "It's called Snake River."

"Beautiful," I curtly replied. I tried to make it sound as if it wasn't a lie. If Tara had told me to appreciate nature, then I would have to. I was the Leader of Angels, and my destiny was to stop us from moving westward. But I couldn't figure out, truly, how to do it. And neither did I want to. Even if Chae did kill himself because of this, we had already walked so far and so long that it hardly seemed important at all if we turned tail and ran back. All we would see would be the same sights, and then we would be back where we were before.

"It's more than 1,000 miles long," Frederick continued, who had seemed to become our mountain man of sorts after we paid him a hefty sum. "It drains into the Pacific Ocean."

Now I was interested. The Pacific Ocean was west, the way I didn't want us to go. The river was flowing towards my left, so that way must have been west. I thought for a moment about which direction we should head. East would be towards Georgia, which was where I used to live, but I hardly wanted to go back there. I was a new person now, the Leader of Angels. If I went east on the river, exited at a certain point, then went northeast until I reached Pennsylvania, maybe perhaps I could start a new life there. From Wyoming, Pennsylvania was almost exactly east. We would have to cross the river against its current, and I would have to convince us all to do it as well.

"We should cross the river east." I pointed at the opposite direction of where the river was flowing.

Frederick gave me a quizzical look. "Oregon is west, where the river flows."

I would have to fabricate an excuse. "If we head west, we may run into the other travelers. They'll be tired and hungry and the others'll only lag up our traveling. If we head east, we can take a detour around the tip of Idaho and avoid the other travelers entirely."

"The other travelers are days ahead of us. We likely won't run into them, and if we do, then we'll be close enough to Oregon that it'll make no matter how fast we are in getting there."
My anger flared up. "Am I not the leader here? Do I not risk my life to stay in the front line, see what's coming ahead of us, make plans for us, hoping that we do not all die in the process? I am a Traveler of the Oregon Trail, the Leader of Angels--"

"Oh, please shut up with your 'Leader of Angels' shit." Reed spat a glob of phlegm onto the ground in front of him where he rested in his wagon. "You claim you're the Leader of Angels, yet you don't even have wings. And you're a boy of fourteen to boot. I would've thought God's advisors would've thought of someone more experienced to lead them."

"I didn't choose to be the Leader of Angels."
"It appears you did." Reed pursed his lips. "There's no one on this trail that can talk to God so clearly. You must be creating things from your own imagination."

"Yes, there is," I blurted out. "Tara."

"Who in God's name is that?" PIxie snorted. "And a woman. The boy must be crazy to believe that a woman is telling him that he's the Leader of Angels. Likely the woman, whoever she is, just wants to swindle the boy of some money."

"It's not anything like that! It's the truth!" I clenched my fists and hissed. Tara is nature! She is always right! And she says that I'm the Leader of Angels! "When I gain my wings, I will command all of you! And you will all grovel at my feet!"

"Like I'll grovel below them, due to my height," Pixie yawned.

"We're going east," I brusquely commanded.