Every step John’s buffalo took put more weight on John's shoulders. Every step the buffalo took brought him closer to his wife. Every step took him closer to breaking his wife's heart. John had one question on his mind. How do you tell your wife that her boy was killed?

Day after day, the buffalo riders rode, mile after mile went by; time passed, but John was grieving and didn’t notice. He didn’t notice when most of the captives they took died from complications associated with their castration. Once they crossed Copper River, he didn’t notice that the closer he came to home, the smaller his posse got, as the buffalo riders left in different directions to head home. He didn’t even notice all the gold and and jewelry the buffalo riders bragged about stealing or how those who did not go on the rescue coveted the jewelry. John was mostly dead to the world.

As John drew closer to home, the scenery grew more and more familiar. But for the first time in his life, home brought dread instead of joy. He wished he could run and hide, but his wife needed to know what happened. He wished he would not have to be the one to destroy his wife's hope and world, but he refused to send someone else ahead to tell her. When her world came crashing down, he needed to be there to comfort her.

John did not just have a responsibility to his wife but his son's fiancée. Ajei was faithfully waiting for her love, who would never return. She was a good girl, a hard worker with a good head on her shoulders and a sweet spirit. She would have made an excellent wife for Quincy, but what could have been is now gone forever.

When they finally made the last leg of the trip home, only a few dozen riders were still with John. All of them were from Texas; all of them rode behind their chief because they did not have the heart to tell Onawa or Ajei about Quincy’s death.

When John reached Texas, he reached the fields surrounding the village first. It was May, all the crops were in the ground, and they were growing, but none of them were high enough to cover the buffalo riders. As the riders started crossing the fields, they were spotted. Wives and children across the fields stopped what they were doing, shouted, and began running to their men. People in the village heard the commotion, came out, and joined the joyous run to see their men.

Two women, in particular, left everything they were doing and sprinted to the riders. They longed to see Quincy. Although coming from different places, their paths met, and they ran together, hopeful smiles on their faces.

As John saw their faces in the distance, his heart broke, and he began to cry.

They were running, and they couldn’t clearly see John until they stopped, but despite John’s worry about what to say, it turned out he didn’t need to say anything. One good look at John’s face, and they knew what happened.

Onawa was the first to speak, and she cried out, “NOOOO! NOT MY BABY!” She wept loudly.

Ajei was stunned and stood still as tears began to come down her face. She couldn’t move as the life she imagined crumbled. After a few moments, she began to sob loudly, and she grabbed ahold of Onawa, and they held onto each other and wept.

John got off his buffalo and came to the women and wept with them.

For the family, there was nothing to do but grieve.

Walker was very late in hearing about the return because he was in refuge teaching the boys how to ride buffalo. But when he heard the buffalo riders were back, he immediately ended class and rode back toward his father.

Walker made his buffalo gallop back to Texas, and in the distance, he could see the riders. He felt delighted. He was going to see his father and brother again. He quickly spotted his father, mother, and Quincy’s fiancée. He rode his buffalo beside them and finally noticed they were crying. He was still a little boy; without perception, he noticed that Quincy wasn’t there but couldn’t connect the dots, so he asked, “Where’s Quincy?”

Onawa and Ajei wailed when they heard the question. They were too deep in their grief to answer, but John steeled his heart and said, “Quincy died.”

Walker screamed, “QUINCY NO!” And buried his face into his father's chest. John held him.

None of them could remember how long they were out there, nor do they remember walking to their house, but the other villagers showed them kindness and brought food over.

Over the next few days, John told the story of what happened and how he avenged Quincy. That Quincy died because he was the first one to meet those evil people. It didn’t matter who met them first, they would die. Quincy just happened to be the unlucky person.

To John’s dismay, he had missed Bobby, who left as soon as he had his weaned bison. John would have enjoyed meeting his new grandson, although it did not sound like he would like his new daughter-in-law. Besides, the situation meant that Bobby would get news of his brother's death from a third party, and so John won't be there to comfort his son. John hoped Bobby’s wife would do the job.

After some time, John felt the need to do something to get his mind off of his grief. He went to the surviving Totonac captives his people brought back and asked, “How did your warriors survive our arrows?”

The captives said, “No, understand.”

John shook his head. The captives were still learning their language. So John grabbed an arrow, which scared the captives, and mimicked it going through the air, getting stuck in cloth, and not hurting him. It took a little while, but eventually, one of the men figured it out, and he began showing John how to make cloth armor.

And so John began preparing defenses for Walker and the Texas Rangers.