Arkansas Territory Circa 1800…Four 8 to 9 year old boys are playing cowboys and indians on settled farmland; Sawyer and Cody and brothers, Levi and Billy. They have already disobeyed their parents, who are busily tending to the livestock, by wandering inside nearby woodland.
Cody and Billy are the indians and Sawyer and Levi the cowboys. They all have crudely carved wooden weapons including guns, knives, bows and arrows and tomahawks. The cowboys have pursued the indians into the woods and are calling out, “The only good injun is a dead injun…come and git it injuns!” Every now and then the indians would start whooping and making whoosh sounds for pretend arrows with the cowboys responding “Blam! Blam!” for gun fire.
Cody tells the younger Billy to run further into the woods where they hide in readiness to ambush the cowboys. After a short wait they both hear a rustling from behind. Thinking it is Sawyer and Levi they run, whooping, towards the noise with their wooden tomahawks raised. That is when they run straight into a scouting party of four Choctaw warriors who grab them before they can run away. Both boys are tightly held to prevent them getting free and from yelling out. Unaware, Sawyer and Levi are crawling through underbrush on their bellies towards where they think Cody and Billy are hiding but…suddenly… two real arrows bury themselves in the ground inches from the two boys. “SHIT!…how’d they git themselves real arrows?” Sawyer exclaims but then they see the Choctaw indians with the two boys struggling in their arms. All Sawyer and Levi can do now is run away and tell their parents who immediately organise an armed search for the two boys. However, despite further search parties and cavalry assistance no trace of the two boys was ever found.
Forward 15 years… Sawyer is a fine figure of a man; a frontiersman, a trapper and a trader. Levi is a broken man having never gotten over the loss of his brother Billy and full of guilt for running away. He’s a drifter, a drunk and… indian killer! Having not seen each other for the last ten years fate has now placed them on the frontier between settled and unsettled territory… more commonly known as Indian country.
A Choctaw warrior is out in the wilderness teaching his 9 summers son to hunt deer. They wear only breechclouts and are stalking the deer with bows and arrows. The sound of a breaking twig causes the deer to bolt but the indian knows it was neither he or his son that was responsible. Before the father can react he hears another sound…the sound that his people have come to fear…the sound of a flintlock rifle being primed. The ball hits him just below his navel causing him to clutch at his belly and fall to his knees. He sees a lone figure coming out from behind a tree when an arrow, fired by his son, embeds itself in the tree next to the attacker. The attacker casually raises a flintlock pistol towards the boy and fires hitting the young native in the chest, killing him instantly. The father cries out in anguish and draws his knife slashing wildly from side to side but the pale skin attacker keeps his distance and starts laughing. Then the Choctaw drops his knife and pushes his chest out with arms outstretched as if pleading for the pale skin to finish him. Levi now steps closer to the indian and says, “You gut shot so why waste powder on yers!” Not caring the Choctaw couldn’t understand him Levi settles down against a nearby tree to witness the long and painful death of the indian.
After a gruelling hunt Sawyer and his friend, fellow trapper Pierre, have set up camp next to a river. Pierre is in his mid thirties and, like most frontiersmen, in good physical condition. After tending to the horses Sawyer starts to take his clothes off in readiness for a well deserved soak in the cooling waters. Pierre cautions, “Before we dip we must wear our knives and prime our weapons in case of indian attack mon ami!” Sawyer laughs and replies, “Ah, what would I do without my sensible friend. Very well but when we’re all done being sensible you strip down to yer hide… I’m done being down wind of ya!” “Oui mon ami!” replies a smiling Pierre.
However before the two, now naked, friends enter the water they hear a noise coming from their tent. They each draw their hunting knives from their waist belts and signal to split up, one to the front and the other to the rear of the tent. As Pierre pulls back the tent flap he sees a pair of legs disappearing under the rear of the tent. A naked Sawyer grabs the clothed figure and wrestles him into a pin hold. The very scruffy intruder still has hold of their bottle of whiskey taken from the tent. Then, Sawyer takes a long look at him and exclaims, “Levi!…is it you?! Why didn’t ya make yourself known old friend…Ya only had to ask for whiskey. I hardly recognised yer…ya look and smell like a raccoon’s ass! Before we reminisce over some vittles yer gonna bathe, clothes an all.” Pierre comes rushing to the rear of the tent with his knife at the ready but soon sees that Sawyer knows the intruder. Sawyer explains to Pierre and the two pick Levi up off the ground and haul him to the river to unceremoniously throw him in and dunk him a number of times before he is allowed to return to the river bank where he strips off his wet clothes while watching both Sawyer and Pierre enjoying dunking each other.
Just then there is a loud whooping as five loincloth clad Choctaw warriors get up off their bellies and break their cover to run at the unsuspecting trio. Each warrior wields a tomahawk, two enter the river cutting off Sawyer and Pierre from their firearms while the others make for an unarmed Levi. Levi just manages to run to where two primed flintlock pistols, dry powder, balls and a rifle were left in case of indian attack. Levi picks up the two pistols and fires one hitting a warrior in his left breast, halting his forward motion as he stiffens upright in a spasm of pain before falling down. Discharging the second pistol into the upper abdominals of another causing him to tumble to the ground. Levi sees the third Choctaw, tomahawk raised, bearing down on him as he struggles to load the flintlock rifle. But before he can remove the wooden ramrod the indian is too close so Levi fires… The Choctaw, his body stretched up in readiness to deliver a killing tomahawk blow, suddenly drops the tomahawk to clutch at the ramrod just blasted deep through his bellybutton. He falls back into the shallow river thrashing and clawing at the rod. Levi quickly grabs the fallen tomahawk and prepares to finish the warrior off but he pauses when he notices that not only blood is staining the water… He sees a coppery powder dissolving off the Choctaw’s body leaving a tanned but clearly paler skin. Looking closer at the pain filled face he sees blue eyes that are now starring back at him when the Choctaw, in sudden recognition, says, “Le…Levi…broth…brother…my brother… I’m dying Levi.” Levi is transfixed but soon says, “Billy…Billy…oh what have I done…BILLY! I’ll help yer brother, I’ll…AAARRRGGGHHH!” Just then a tomahawk wielded by an unseen sixth warrior is buried deep between his shoulder blades causing him to fall forwards onto his brother, his belly now also punctured by the rod like a wooden umbilical joining the two dying brothers.
Meanwhile, both Sawyer and Pierre have drawn their knives to take on the two warriors in the river. First contact is with Pierre who tries to stop the tomahawk descending into him but the momentum of the warrior overwhelms him as the tomahawk is buried deep into his right breast. But before the warrior can pull it out to strike again Pierre thrusts his knife into the lower belly of the indian and before death takes him Pierre agitates the blade deep into the warrior’s guts before they both collapse into the water. The other warrior attempts to cleave his tomahawk into Sawyer’s head but Sawyer is as strong as his enemy and just manages to hold off the indian’s hatchet arm. But before the warrior can hold off Sawyer’s knife it enters and splits his outie navel continuing its motion through his abdominals and into his intestines. The warrior has a look of pained surprise as Sawyer pulls his blade out and stabs again into his stomach and again into the lower abdominals… With blood gushing from these wounds the warrior doubles over to float face down in the water.
After killing this warrior Sawyer sees the Choctaw burying the tomahawk into Levi’s back. This Choctaw is powerfully built and soon sees Sawyer holding a knife at him. The warrior discards his tomahawk and pulls his own knife and runs through the water towards Sawyer. As he does Sawyer notices the water washing away the appearance of the indian to reveal… a white man. Sawyer instinctively feels that this is either Billy or Cody and says, “Billy…Cody it’s me ya old friend Sawyer!” On hearing this the Choctaw, Pale Wolf, stops in the water and carefully studies Sawyer before saying, “I no longer Co_dee…I Pale Wolf now…I Choctaw…you Saw_yer enemy of Choctaw and will die at Pale Wolf’s hand. Before Sawyer can answer Pale Wolf springs forward, his almost naked body glistening as it slaps against Sawyer’s wet nakedness… They slide against each other, each holding off their adversary’s knife. Their momentum takes them into deeper water and they soon find themselves underwater, locked in a deadly embrace. Although Pale Wolf is stronger, Sawyer is more used to swimming and soon manoeuvres himself to deliver a stab to Pale Wolf’s left side… Sawyer feels him jerk and a warmth flowing over his knife hand as he sees a billowing of blood in the water. Even though their lungs are bursting for air Sawyer knows that Pale Wolf is still a danger to him and is about to stab him again when Pale Wolf manages to free his knife hand from Sawyer’s defensive grip… Before Sawyer can react he feels a burning deep in his guts coming in hard spasms and his vision can only see a crimson bloom surrounding him…a billowing of his own blood. Pale Wolf has stabbed him three times in the lower belly and is now slicing open his abdominal muscles to the navel until not just blood but entrails ooze out into the water and Sawyer releases his knife and becomes still in the water.
The wounded Choctaw warrior, Pale Wolf, hauls himself from the water, the lone survivor of this skirmish of loyalty and family.
