Warpath #2

When a Navajo raid orphans young Willow Lance, he's taken captive and enslaved by Lasceola, whose warrior son Strong Claw becomes the boy's unlikely mentor—teaching him the ways of the Navajo despite his mother's contempt. Years pass as Willow Lance grows from despised slave to respected hunter, earning the horses and skills he needs for escape, but when tragedy strikes the family he's come to know, he must reckon with a debt that goes deeper than survival.

When Red Cloud is cast out by his tribe to prove himself a man, he meets Strong Eagle, a Sioux warrior from an enemy tribe who takes pity on the boy and offers to teach him the ways of a warrior in the forest. Over months of training, Strong Eagle imparts the skills Red Cloud needs, culminating in a final test: hunting and killing a great grizzly bear to earn his place among the Comanche. Red Cloud must draw on everything he's learned to survive the hunt and return home transformed.

A doubting Comanche chief, Noca, watches his medicine man try to inspire faith in the Great Spirit among the tribe's young warriors—but when a brave named Grey Hawk falters before battle, consumed by the same disbelief that plagues the chief himself, Noca takes matters into his own hands. As Grey Hawk prepares to ride into a raid against an enemy war party, Noca must decide whether his conviction—or the lack of it—will determine his warrior's fate.

Little Cloud's jealousy over losing both the chieftain's position and his beloved to Spotted Horse drives him to murder—but when his victim's death is witnessed, he's forced to flee his tribe. Desperate to escape his pursuers, he stampedes a buffalo herd as a distraction, only to find himself trapped in a box canyon with the very animals he set loose. His attempt to disguise himself and slip past the herd takes a tragic turn when the other braves, hunting buffalo, mistake him for their quarry.