The Story of Tala: The Girl Who Saved Two Lives

Long ago as she laid in her bed, and all was quiet there,
Tala listened fearful, for she knew the roads weren’t bare.
The moon shone bright like a lightning bolt, and quivering on the lake,
The vision of a wolf rung in her head,
    The dreams of the wolf in her head.
Not a soul dared to move; she laid there wide awake.

A woman no more than seventeen, she was afraid for her kin,
For she knew the French were coming, and they would have them skinned.
The Cherokee village was silent, knowing what came near.
But Tala was more fearful,
    For her love she was fearful.
She loved a man but was fearful that he’d betray her like wolf and deer.

In a hearbeat she heard the yelling; the French were at the door.
And she knew just what would become of her; she knew they wanted more.
She rose up out of her small bed, and prepared for what would come.
She ran out the back of the hut,
    Out the door of the hut.
She ran into the woods, and into the night of autumn.

The French man whom she loved, caught her by the hand,
And with a kiss he told her, that from her he was banned.
A tear ran down her cheek, and she looked into his eyes.
She ran away with her kin,
    Crying hard with her kin,
And as a wolf she knew to be strong, but instead ran with the allies.

As she looked to her right she saw it, her brother was not at her side,
But instead she saw the French men, holding him with a look of pride.
She stopped in her tracks like a black horse, but by then it was too late,
To save her brother from the French men,
    The doomed scene from the French men.
The man she loved was a French man, but he would determine her fate.

Tala cried out to the soldiers, “Please let my brother go!”
She was a flightless bird, her eyes were those of a doe.
She was caught by the familiar hands, and the last she heard him say,
“I love you my dear, my Tala,
    My dear sweetheart Tala.”
And as she breathed in the night air, she became a thing of prey.

For she felt the blade on her back, she knew what was next,
And she did not try to fight it, she felt her muscles flex.
She heard her brother shrieking, and Tala turned like a snap.
She knew she had to save a life,
    Her very own life.
She escaped the hold of the French man, and with her brother fled the trap.

As she ran from the man who threatened her, the very man she loved,
Tala and her brother flew. They flew like a pair of doves.
As she ran in the center spotlight, she threw her head to the sky,
She gazed up at the moon,
    Like a wolf at the moon.
She’d saved two lives that very night; her inner wolf gave a howl in reply.