The Last Ember of Talon Ridge

By Unsprouted Bean

Elena Marsh—the youngest thoracic surgery prodigy in modern medical history—possesses hands hailed as "blessed by God." Yet after three catastrophic fatalities on her operating table, her fierce pride shatters. Fleeing the suffocating helplessness of human mortality, a mysterious traffic accident inside an electromagnetic storm drags her through a fold in time, dropping her onto the wild Great Plains of 1880. There, she is captured by the Talon Ridge tribe—a clan of fierce warriors locked in a bloody struggle against the U.S. Federal Army. Falling into the hands of Grey Elk, a ruthless chieftain with cold amber eyes who wields absolute authority and views all white invaders as mortal enemies, Elena is branded a spy and condemned to death. But armed with modern medical knowledge and hands capable of snatching lives back from the Grim Reaper, she performs a daring thoracic procedure right inside the sacred ceremonial tipi—saving the tribe's finest warrior and forcing the arrogant chieftain to lower his blade. Burdened by her "God's-Eye View"—knowing all too well that in just a few short years, the white army's cannons and Gatling guns will burn this village to ash—Elena is torn apart. Should she remain silent to preserve the timeline, or intervene to save the wild souls who granted her refuge? As the first thunder of artillery rattles the Bighorn Valley, the battle is fought not only on blood-soaked fields with guns and steel, but beneath the scalpels of an outsider surgeon—the last flickering ember lighting up the ashes of Talon Ridge. Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and events in this story are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or places is purely coincidental. Genre: Time Travel, Alternate History, Medical, Western Gothic, Romance, 1880s North American Setting.