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Title: Challenges (Flutterverse)
Fandom: Last of the Mohicans
Claim: 1sentence; Uncas/Alice, epsilon
Status: Complete
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A look at the challenges for Uncas and Alice.
Warnings: Mild war violence


#01 – Motion
Alice never enjoyed the feel of riding, with its stiff riding habits and unpredictable horses – she would much rather walk.

#02 – Cool
The water refreshes her in a way that sleep could not; the crisp taste brings her a clarity of mind that she had lost in her fear.

#03 – Young
Cora thinks she is far too young to understand war, Alice knows, but there is no sense in keeping their father’s fate from her.

#04 – Last
Alice was used to falling behind and trying to keep up, which made it all the more touching when Uncas showed no impatience with her pace up the rocky terrain.

#05 – Wrong
Alice knows it is silly to fight over the price of flour, but the words stick in her throat when she goes to apologize to Uncas – she hates to admit she is wrong.

#06 – Gentle
His hands are always gentle, guiding her, rather than pulling; Alice admires his patience.

#07 – One
Nadie is their only child, but Alice thinks one is a perfect number when Cora makes five with the birth of her twins.

#08 – Thousand
There are thousands of steps from Albany to the fort, thousands of steps between chaos and safety; Alice thinks, at the edge of the cliffs, that she only needs to take one.

#09 – King
Alice knows that when Cora and Nathaniel start to argue bitterly about the King, it is easier to leave than try to moderate.

#10 – Learn
Nadie learns to take her first steps while Uncas is away; Alice can hardly contain her excitement when she sees him returning with Chingachgook, laden with pelts.

#11 – Blur
She was so overwhelemed by the war and the violence of men that their hasty retreat from the fort is all a blur to Alice.

#12 – Wait
Following Magua away from the village, Alice agonized with every step – the wait for rescue was unbearable.

#13 – Change
Things were different here, in America; the people were more independent, free spirited, Alice noted.

#14 – Command
Nathaniel commanded her attention in a way that Duncan never could; it was a sign that Alice could not ignore in Cora’s countenance.

#15 – Hold
Behind the waterfall, hidden by darkness, Uncas’ arms around her made Alice feel almost as if she were safe.

#16 – Need
She needed to feel as if there were more to the world than violence and hate – it was a sin to lie with a man, but Alice had forgotten what it felt to love.

#17 – Vision
They are old when Uncas’ vision begins to fade, but he still speaks vividly of Alice’s once-golden hair.

#18 – Attention
She would be quite bashful had she known the amount of attention Uncas paid to a passing expression or pause for breath.

#19 – Soul
When Chingachgook passes, Alice prays hard over her worn bible – he does have a soul, believer or not.

#20 – Picture
Her room in London had lithographs on the walls, pictures of landscapes and kings; her first purchase with some extra pocket money is a vivid print of an English garden – it is small, but it is a start at making Albany home.

#21 – Fool
They were fools to follow him, to trust a savage; Alice was not sure why the second savages were any more trustworthy than the first.

#22 – Mad
Cora’s temper was a fearful thing to behold – if she were not so angry with Duncan herself, Alice would have pitied him for his lies.

#23 – Child
She was not a child, despite Cora’s attempts to treat her so; Alice knew she was not an invalid schoolgirl.

#24 – Now
They were buried under a long dead maple tree, the stone markers worn smooth by years of rain.

#25 – Shadow
Nadie was Uncas’ shadow when she began to walk, happy to totter along behind him for hours.

#26 – Goodbye
Alice hated to say goodbye – whenever Uncas left, she would worry that each goodbye was their last.

#27 – Hide
It took years for Alice to lose her urge to hide, to feel exposed even indoors.

#28 – Fortune
She’d had her fortune told once at a fair, by a gypsy – Alice had thought her foolish when she had been warned to distrust a messenger; now, she knows exactly what the gypsy meant.

#29 – Safe
They took shelter in an abandoned cabin built by trappers, needing time for Uncas to rest and heal his wounds; Even with Nathaniel and Chingachgook taking turns on watch, Alice did not feel safe enough to sleep.

#30 – Ghost
The night after Nadie is born, Alice awakens from sleep, swearing she heard her father’s voice singing the lullabye he used to sing her to sleep.

#31 – Book
Alice knew that Uncas could read, but it was still a surprise to find a worn copy of poems by John Donne in his pocket.

#32 – Eye
Alice has seen brown eyes before, but there is something captivating about Uncas’ eyes that make them seem different from all the others.

#33 – Never
Even though Magua is dead, Alice will never fully shake the feeling that he could reappear and tear her world apart.

#34 – Sing
Alice likes to sing, but only when no one else can hear – she still has not gotten over her cousin Mary’s comment that she was awfully flat that Christmas when she turned seven.

#35 – Sudden
Her feelings for Uncas seemed sudden, until she articulated the growing respect and ardor their flight had cultivated.

#36 – Stop
They sheltered not far from the cliffs, in desperate need of rest; No matter how long she sat, Alice could not stop the frantic beating of her heart or the tremors in her body.

#37 – Time
Time seemed to pass quickly, despite the adage that it only flew when you were having fun.

#38 – Wash
Alice hated the hot, heavy task of laundry – no matter how ill-behaved the twins were, she would rather it be her week to mind the children than do the laundry.

#39 – Torn
It was a hard task between what was right and what she wanted, and Alice found herself like a moth to flame when Uncas was near.

#40 – History
The British army had a history of victory, of conquest, and Alice knew, no matter how bleak the war appeared, the Redcoats would win once more.

#41 – Power
It scared her, how little power the colonists had over their fate, subject to warring parties of savages and waves of typhoid and cholera; for some reason, America had sounded much more civilized in Papa’s letters.

#42 – Bother
Alice knew she was underfoot and in the way; it did not take her long to find a nook to hide, where Cora could not snap at her for being a bother.

#43 – God
Alice still believes in God, although it is a test of faith, that day at the cliffs.

#44 – Wall
She has her back against the rough-hewn wall of the cabin, eyes on the door, when she drifts off to sleep – it is only a few minutes, however, until she jolts back to awareness, panicking at an unknown sound.

#45 – Naked
His body is covered in scars, a testament to courage; Alice cannot help but be awed by the sinews in his arms and the sleek plane of his torso – Uncas is a beautiful man.

#46 – Drive
He is driven to find her, to protect her; Uncas will follow her path to the ends of the earth.

#47 – Harm
He is bleeding and wounded, but Alice is unharmed – even if he dies, he has won.

#48 – Precious
She is so innocent and frail, Uncas wonders if she realizes how precious a rarity she is in the frontier.

#49 – Hunger
Alice is too nervous to realize her hunger until she awakens, two mornings after that day at the cliffs, ravenous.

#50 – Believe
Uncas believes that everything will happen for a reason – from their first meeting, he knows his future is entwined with Alice Munro.

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June 2012

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