Freya scoffed aloud at the thought. Why should they care? They already didn't like her anyway, so why would it matter to them who she married? In truth, it wouldn't. They'd care less that she married an Apache than that an Apache married a white woman. That's all they'd focus on! What would happen if they had kids? Where would they go to school? What beliefs would they be raised with? How would other people treat them? What kind of life could they have?

Freya really didn't think that what she wanted or what Nantan wanted would matter in the grand scheme of things. She had trouble seeing a happy future with him, and it hurt, because it didn't have anything to do with him, or herself. The problem was other people. And that was a problem neither of them could solve.

Freya was lost in her musings and completely lost track of time. She just kept following the creek downstream without even actually looking for the pocket watch.

Something red caught Freya's eye in the creek bed. She blinked and looked again. It wasn't actually red. It was just the reflection of the setting sun on something shiny in the creek. Freya glanced up at the setting sun and grimaced. She hadn't realized it had gotten so late! She wasn't sure she'd make it home before dark this time even if she turned back right now. She couldn't do that though.
Freya jumped down into the creek bed and picked up the shiny object. It was, indeed, her brother's missing pocket watch. She could see water under the face, and it wasn't ticking. She sighed deeply. That wasn't going to be cheap to fix.

She looked up to the top of the embankment where she'd come from and froze. A hulking brown shape crouched up there, looking down at her. It looked like a bear, but kind of wrong. She was almost positive it was some kind of bear-like vaesen. She backed up towards the other side of the river. She glanced behind her to check for rocks and gauge the distance to the edge of the creek. Luckily, the other side of the creek bank was pretty flat, and she made it onto dry land without much trouble. The bear-like creature stood. It had a very human-like stance and posture, but with the size and bulk of a bear. Its face and features were mostly bear-like, but it had eerily human eyes.

Freya gulped. She'd heard rumors of a man-like bear creature who controlled other bears and had a habit of kidnapping women. The explanation for why it did so ranged from the sordid to the gruesome, and neither would surprise Freya. She kept backing up slowly, and pulled her knife from her pocket. The vaesen watched her movement and she swore it grinned.
It crouched, then leapt across the creek! Freya yelped and turned and ran. It was between her and the homestead! She had to loop it around so she could try and get home.