Emma Sullivan smoothed down the front of her gathered skirts, causing a cloud of dust to unsurprisingly puff up from the fabric. Dust seemed to cover everything here in the Arizona Territory desert, settling into even the most well protected crevices and folds. Scrubbing a hand over her face to rub the sand from here it blew into her eyes, she attempted to maintain a sense of ladylike decorum, she adjusted the black felt equestrian hat that sat nestled atop her mass of auburn curls. Next to her, the large roan-coloured mare stomped her hooves, kicking up cloud of the ever present sand. Covering her mouth from a cough, Emma cast an admonishing gaze to the animal, who, is she didn't know better, Emma would have sworn looked apologetic. If she had been in a less somber mood, she might have found it in herself to laugh, as it was she simply hoisted herself back into the saddle and clicked the horse's flanks with her boots, spurning the beast forward. 

The U.S. Marshall's who had ridden through earlier had left a wide trail of hoof prints in their wake, obscured only slightly by the winds that swept through and turned the dust over. Luckily, Emma had some skill in tracking earned from being raised in the Montana wilderness before her parents had drug her out to Arizona Territory along with her two younger sisters. It had been for change and progress, the railroad had presented an undeniable opportunity to find wealth, though all her father had ended up finding was an early grave. And now Emma was more or less alone, save for one younger sister who had disappeared sometime in the early hours of the morning nearly a week ago. Oh, of course the Marshall's had given her the usual excuses, excuses every family got fed anytime anyone went missing. Except that Emma wasn't likely to buy it, and when the Marshall's had procrastinated their job, she had taken matters into her own hands and set out into the Arizona wild to seek out her sister and the abductors. 

The trail had gone cold at some point about ten miles outside of Santa Fe, but Emma wasn't the sort to be dissuaded so easily. As soon as her mare lurched forward, Emma coaxed her into a run, rushing a trail out behind them a mile wide. Come hell or high water, she would find Polly.