12/27/2025
Chief: "Marry my ugly daughter or leave." The cowboy agreed. When the veil was removed, he was shocked.
The desert had a strange way of silencing the world. It wasn't an empty silence, but one that forced you to listen to your own breathing, the rustling of the wind on the sand, the stubborn beating of your heart when you realized you were far from everything familiar.
Maverick arrived in Apache territory with that mixture of weariness and hope known only to men who have lived too long without a place of their own. His horse was covered in dust, as were his boots, as was his spirit. He had ridden for three days following the murmur of a river hidden among red mountains, a band of life amidst so much aridity. In the village, they had told him not to try, that these lands were not for outsiders. "The Apaches don't sell. And if you cross their border, you might not come back." But Maverick had been hearing warnings for five years and surviving anyway.
Five years of working on other people's ranches, sleeping under a sky that seemed endless, counting coins that were never enough to buy anything important. Five years wondering if a man like him was condemned to always be a passenger in other people's lives.
That's why, when they led him to the camp and placed him before the chief, Maverick didn't expect kind treatment, but neither did he expect… this.
Black Wolf was an imposing man. You didn't need an introduction to understand who was in charge there. His silver hair was patiently braided, and the scars on his face seemed like words written by time. His dark eyes didn't move; they held you as if they were measuring your soul.
"Are you going to marry my daughter or leave here forever?" he said, bluntly. Maverick felt the world stop. He took off his hat with a slowness that wasn't politeness, but disbelief.
"I don't understand… I came here to do business. I'm looking to buy land by the river." “The lands aren’t for sale to outsiders,” the chief replied, crossing his arms. “But if you join our family, if you become one of us, then the lands will be yours.” Maverick looked around. Skin tents decorated with ancient symbols, smoke from campfires rising into the sky, children running among the rocks as if life were simple. This wasn’t a market; it was a home. And he was an intruder.
“Can I meet her first?” he asked, choosing each word carefully. Black Wolf shook his head.
“She doesn’t speak to outsiders. She always wears a veil. She hides her face.”
“Why?” The answer fell like a stone.
“Because she’s ugly. The ugliest in the whole tribe. Nobody likes her.” In the circle of warriors, some lowered their gaze. At one end of the camp, some women whispered, as if the subject was painful to even mention. Maverick felt a knot in his stomach. He had come for a piece of land, not for a marriage. Much less an arranged one, with a woman he couldn't even look at.
"With all due respect, Chief… I only came to buy. I'm not looking to marry." Black Wolf didn't blink.
"Then leave now. And don't come back. My warriors will make sure you keep your distance." It wasn't a shout, not a theatrical threat. It was a certainty. Maverick looked at the spears gleaming in the sun, the resolute bodies, the discipline of a people who knew how to defend their own. He was in no position to negotiate.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked, trying to understand. "Why are you offering this to me?"
For the first time, the chief sighed. And in that small gesture, Maverick saw something he hadn't expected: weariness. Pain. Something unspoken.
"Because my daughter deserves a chance," Black Wolf said. She's lived five years hidden away, rejected, singled out by people who don't even know her. And because you… you're the first man in years to come here without fear, with honesty in your eyes.
Maverick clutched his hat in his hands. He thought of his cold nights, his life moving from place to place, the weariness of belonging nowhere. He thought of the river, of the dream of building a house, of planting crops, of having a name tied to the land.
And, without knowing the exact moment he surrendered to his own fate, he heard his voice say:
"When will the ceremony be?"
👉 Continued in the comments.