"You cannot possibly understand what it means to watch your ancestors' soil be swallowed by the greed of an oppressor, to see your people treated like vermin — scourged, moved, and broken until we are nothing but ghosts in our own home!"

Eagle Flies’ voice cracked, sharp and jagged with a rage that had been simmering since his first breath. This wasn't merely anger; it was a righteous, blinding fire. It wasn't fair—none of it was. His people had been systematically uprooted, their expansive world suffocated and shrivelled into a reservation so pitifully small it felt like a cage designed for a dying breed. The stories of the 'civilizing' schools — the forced haircuts, the forbidden languages, the systematic theft of identity from women and children—haunted his waking hours like a recurring fever dream. It was a cruelty born of a bottomless, oily greed, a hatred that sought not just to conquer, but to erase.

He loved his father, but looking at Rain Falls now felt like looking at a ghost. To Eagle Flies, his father’s wisdom had curdled into a humiliating surrender. The Chief had shrunk himself, bending his spine until he was small enough for the oppressors to step over without tripping. The mere thought of that quiet compliance made Eagle Flies’ blood boil. They were being erased, and his father was handing them the eraser.

Charles and Arthur had tried to pull him back from the ledge, their voices heavy with the weariness of men who had seen too many graves. But Dutch... Dutch spoke of fire. Dutch spoke of justice. The scouts were back, the plans for the nearby fort were laid, and the momentum was a physical weight in his chest. This wasn't just a raid but a reclamation of dignity that was ripped away from them.

When you approached him, adding yet another voice to the chorus of "caution" and "impossible odds," the dam finally broke. All the years of bottled-up grief and generational trauma erupted in a jagged, trembling shout.

"Don't you ever dare dictate the limits of my defiance! You speak of 'winning' as if this is a game of cards, while my people are suffocating under the boot of your civilization! I will not spend my final days negotiating the terms of our extinction. I will fight for my people until the earth takes me back, and if I must burn the world down to be heard, then let it fetch a flame!"