Wanting to be a plainsman, Charley Reynolds was only eighteen when he left home for the West. Now, sixteen years later, in 1876, as George Custer's unassuming scout, Charley finds himself on a high butte looking out over the Little Big Horn Valley. An enormous pony herd and a huge smoke cloud marks the distant Indian village. Reynolds knows from the trail their 7th Calvary has followed that he is looking at the largest gathering of Indians ever assembled. He has a gut feeling that he is on the brink of the biggest Indian battle on the continent. He had awakened that morning plagued by a recurring dream of the mythical Thunderbird. His Arapahoe sweetheart, Running Creek Woman, had told him that something great would happen. Reynolds was puzzled at her belief, wondering what it all meant. He was about to find out. This is the story of courage, adventure and romance of two cultures-one determined to remain free, the other determined to tame it. Here too, Charley Reynolds' camaraderie with George Custer and the 7th Cavalry is genuine. Never before has the debacle at the Little Big Horn been told in such a way. LESTER STANLEY ORESTAD has had a lifelong passion for history, especially that of the Old West. The son of a Montana cowboy and a Dakota woman, Orestad heard stories about Montana and the Dakota territories from his parents and read every book on Indian lore and cowboys he could get his hands on. In 1988 he began to pursue his real love, researching and writing about the Old West. During this period, Orestad portrayed a White Scout in the ABC miniseries "Son of the Morning Star," based on the bestseller of the same name.