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Sky Bird flipped off the gifted sleeping robe another woman had given her, and stepped from the borrowed lodge. Songs from people singing their thanks to the Great Mystery for a new sunrise, a new beginning, lifted her heart. About half the lodges remained closed as people slept off the firewater, or groaned from hurting heads.
As her people’s healer, she made poultices for bruises and wrapped bloody wounds from fights over the drink. She turned no one away, even if their breath smelled of the poisoned water. Whenever wounds ran too deep to heal, she soothed the person and stayed at their side until they breathed no more. Too many people already had been sung the songs to prepare them for their final journey, so they would find the right path, hopefully to Eagle Woman, who would guide them to the campfires of their relations... if they would have them—if Eagle Woman even found them worthy to reach out to. Many might walk the in-between land, where no one would remember them or pray for their release into the Spirit Land.
It had been three sunrises since Yellow Moon threw the carry-alls of poisoned water to the ground. For those nights, many of the people had danced until they fell to the ground, spewing stinking puddles of poisoned water from their mouths. Some had staggered to their lodges, where loud arguments had broken the quiet of darkness. Perhaps, the poisoned water had all been drunk up now.
Sky Bird would pray it was so.
When she repeated what Golden Fox had said about Yellow Moon sneaking away, some packed up lodges and left, while others only stared, dazed.
Her father refused to leave until the hunters returned, so sure that the Holy Man would throw away Yellow Moon.
Whenever she was not healing or making medicine, she helped Golden Fox care for the children of the young women who had gone on the hunt with the men. As was the way of the people, the women had left their small children to be cared for by the elders, and some of the children had been struck by men with drink-angered fists. Golden Fox and the elders who had refused to drink the poisoned water had moved the children to a safe lodge, away from those who drank.
After Yellow Moon left camp, Eagle Thunder had sent Sun Rising to the hunters’ camp to speak with the Holy Man.
The Holy Man had left with the hunters to bless the hunt. If the hunt went well, some of the hunters would return for fresh mustangs to carry more of the meat back to camp.
Eagle Thunder kept guard with his longtime friends, lead scout Stands His Ground, and warrior woman Blazing Fire, to watch for Yellow Moon. No one had seen her since she burnt the lodges and Golden Fox saw her leaving.
Weariness weighed on Sky Bird’s shoulders. Hoping Sun Rising would return soon with the Holy Man, she climbed a stone rise next to the slow moving waters not far from camp to sing and search for the men. She strained her eyes against the bright azure sky and Father Sun, in order to see movement.
With no one in sight, not even faraway dust, she turned and slowly walked back to camp.
Golden Fox met her on the path. “Mother, you are needed in camp.”
“I head there now.”
As they neared a copse of trees at the edge of the camp, Sky Bird flung out a hand to stop her daughter. “Lower yourself!”
She peered at the trees and, upon seeing the person ahead, dropped a hand to the knife sheathed at her side. “Yellow Moon, what is this you do? Sneak back into camp?”
Yellow Moon jerked her hand behind her back.
Sky Bird’s gaze narrowed as she demanded, “What are you hiding?”
With brows raised, Yellow Moon stammered, “Nothing... I... hide nothing.”
“I see the lie in your eyes.” Golden Fox stood ready to shake off her mother’s protective stance. “You lie!”
Anger colored Yellow Moon’s cheeks red. “I am hiding nothing. I... I came to return, uh, your father’s knife. I... I found it in the bushes.” She tentatively held the sheathed knife out, offering it to Sky Bird.
Sky Bird snatched the knife out of her aunt’s hand. “You come to steal what little we have, what little that did not burn in the fire you set!” Her shout brought several people to where they stood. “You do not belong here! How did you pass my father and the others unseen?”
Chin lifted, Yellow Moon glared at Sky Bird. “I know many paths. I go where I please. That old man cannot stop me. And you, where are your manners? I am your elder and your relation. You have no right to speak to me in such a harsh voice. You are only a half-blood with ugly grey eyes and hair the color of mud.” Head held high, she stepped around Sky Bird.
Sky Bird spun to keep Yellow Moon in sight. “My father told you to leave and to not return.”
“Your father,” Yellow Moon spit out as she pivoted to face Sky Bird. “Your father has no power to throw me away. Only the Holy Man can throw me away.” Hatred shone in her narrow eyes. “Your father is nothing but a weak old man.” She turned away from camp and took a few steps before she twisted her head around to look over her shoulder. “Your daughter is more shameful to look at than you! Hair the color of dead grass in red dirt, and her eyes! Green as your white man’s eyes.”
Sky Bird cocked her head to one side and glared toward Yellow Moon. “How do you know the color of my daughter’s father’s eyes?”
Golden Fox reached a gentle hand toward her. “Mother, it matters not how she knows. He is not part of our lives. Maybe another pale one has spoken of him. She speaks their words better than most. Come, Mother, there is much for us to do.”
Yellow Moon half smiled, her lip curled in contempt. “It is not the fire water that brings harm to our people. Fire water opens our Spirits to the ancestors, to Creator. Listen to your worthless daughter. Return to camp, gather your belongings, and you leave. Go to your man. Leave before your presence brings more harm.” She spat on the ground and walked away.
Sky Bird shook with rage and shouted, “You know why I do not go back to him. Go sing, aunt-born-of-my-second-mother. Sing to the Great Mystery. Speak of your dark heart before your Soul dies of the poison inside you.”
Yellow Moon waved a hand over her shoulder, but did not turn back.
“Come, Mother, we must go.” Golden Fox tugged at her arm.
Sky Bird allowed her daughter to lead the way toward the center of camp. As they walked, her voice became sharp with worry. “Why are you not with the children? What if a person filled with crazy water—”
Golden Fox squeezed her hand, silencing her. “Do not be so concerned, Mother. Three elders are with them. I sought you only because one of the little ones has a belly pain. I gave her some peppermint leaves in hot tea, so she will be fine. You check on her, and I will get Swift Arrow and one of his mares for us to ride. We need to leave for a while, check on the elder woman’s sore throat from the band who travels through our land. We are only a little ways from them. I did see Grandfather returning, so the camp will be safe.”
“You are right. I will go to see the child, and then we leave.
***
Father Sun still gave some light as Golden Fox and her mother returned. Campfires burned low as people sat by their fires speaking. Some places where people should have sat were empty, and flasks lay about. After letting the mustangs go, they hurried to where Eagle Thunder sat next to Sun Rising at the nearest campfire, their heads close together as they spoke in low voices.
Sun Rising stretched and rose. “I must go. My woman waits for me. She has started to pack our belongings. I hope you will do the same. Even if you do not, the lodge is yours, as we cannot carry so much. Our Holy Man drinks when he can, and you know of this. I should have not brought him back with me.”
Eagle Thunder added sticks to wake the fire. “I see my daughter and granddaughter have returned from where they had gone. No one in camp knew where my family vanished to.”
Sky Bird knelt beside him. “Father, your granddaughter and I had to... needed to go see the sick elder woman in the traveling band before they left.”
“Ah, I now understand why you both hurried away as I came into camp.”
“Father, my blood ran hot after finding Yellow Moon in our belongings. Your granddaughter thought maybe a ride would cool my blood, and we really did need to see the elder woman.”
She cleared her throat, grabbed a small branch, and stirred the low fire. She stared into the small flames as they fought for life. “When did Sun Rising return? Why would his woman be packing all their belongings? They are safe at the small camp just beyond us. The season is many moons from changing to the time that we must travel.” She handed the knife and sheath to her father. “Your knife—”
“Sun Rising returned after you left.” Eagle Thunder added sticks to wake the fire. “Come, sit, Daughter and Granddaughter. Eat while I speak.” He felt where his knife should be.
“Yellow Moon spoke of finding it in the shrubs.”
“Never does it leave my side, even if I carry my longer skinning knife!” He glanced around. “We will force her to leave. The Holy Man rushed to return with his son. His eyes brightened when Sun Rising spoke of the fire water. The hunters’ mustangs and dogs are heavy with meat and cannot be rushed. We are on our own for maybe four days.”
Sky Bird gazed around as she dipped meat from the pot, and Golden Fox followed her gaze.
Few sat long at the other campfires. They ate hurriedly, and then went to their lodges. Within a breath, some of them began moving packed belongings out of their lodges.
“What happens, Father?” Sky Bird sat legs at her side on the ground next to him.
Eagle Thunder’s jaw muscles flexed and he looked away. He waited until Golden Fox served herself and sat on the ground next to him. “Blazing Fire caught her trying to leave only a short span ago, with more belongings that were not hers. When Blazing Fire took the belongings to the right owners, not all were happy with Blazing Fire. Some had given their beads and hides to Yellow Moon to trade for poisoned water.”
Sky Bird gave a quick nod as she chewed and swallowed. “We know there are many who become sick without the poisoned water. This will never stop.”
Golden Fox leaned on his shoulder, allowing her long, loose golden-red hair to fall across his chest.
He reached out and ran his fingers through her hair. “After I ate, I went to Yellow Moon’s lodge. She had tied the flap closed and yelled at me to leave... told me the Holy Man would ban me soon.”
Chills crawled over Golden Fox’s arms like tiny spiders. “No one glances our way. They must be filled with the drink Yellow Moon brought again. Do you not wonder why no one looks our way, Grandfather?”
“The Holy Man—”He pulled his shoulders back and met her eyes. “By the time the Holy Man returned, Yellow Moon quickly offered him the fire water. After drinking a flask, he shouted that Yellow Moon belonged with the Sun People, that it was Eagle Thunder and his family who did not belong. In front of the band, the Holy Man threw us away.”
His breathing came out slow and even. “Do not worry, children. Sun Rising spoke of five hunters who are to return sooner, maybe two days. When they come, I will join a few of our hunters and warriors, and we will speak to him then. We will build a sweat lodge and chase the angry Spirits from him. Once he is healed, we can help the others to become well.”
He turned his face towards Sky Bird. “While Golden Fox cares for the children, you are to gather the plants you use for those sick from the poisoned water. I fear we will need many of the helper plants to cure our people. We are not thrown away if we can do this.”
A loud scuffling, followed by Yellow Moon’s slurred voice, came from just beyond the lodges. Blazing Fire and Stands His Ground, the lead scout, dragged Yellow Moon toward her lodge, tossed her inside, and quickly tied the flap closed.
Blazing Fire guarded the lodge as Stands His Ground walked over to Golden Fox’s family. He squatted by the fire and dipped meat from the pot into a bowl sitting on a rock. “Eagle Thunder, I do not believe we will be able to chase the sick Spirits from the Holy Man, if they hold as tight to him as they hold to Yellow Moon.”
Eagle Thunder picked up a small branch and flipped an orange ember back into the circle of stones around the campfire. “We will pray to the Spirits to guide us and to give us strength.”
Stands His Ground grunted and swallowed. “There are times the Great Mystery must let us follow a broken path, one that will bring us much sorrow, to find a better way. I will pack everything I need.” He glanced sideways at Sky Bird. “Several of us will do this. Perhaps, it is time to move away from the sickness that comes from the poisoned water.”
Golden Fox rubbed her arms. “What about the children?”
Eagle Thunder shook his head. “Do not worry about the storm that has not yet come.”
“But what if it does, Grandfather?”
He heaved a deep breath and let it ease out. “We have no right to take a child from its mother, Golden Fox. It is not the way of our people.”
Sky Bird leapt up and hurried toward the borrowed lodge. When she trotted back toward them, she carried her ‘memory pouch’—a leather pouch that held precious things passed down to her.
“Father!” She held the memory pouch up and shook it, then threw herself down next to her father. “The necklace and the carved beads my first mother gave me are gone! Yellow Moon stole them!” She jumped to her feet. “I will go to her lodge and tear everything apart until I find the necklace and beads!”
Before she could leave, Eagle Thunder sprung to his feet and grabbed her arm. “Daughter, you are still filled with too much fire. You will stay here. I will ask Blazing Fire and Stands His Ground to search Yellow Moon’s lodge.”
She pulled loose. “I do not need them to do what I must do! Yellow Moon needs to know I am no longer a child that she can treat poorly.”
Eagle Thunder crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “You wear your anger as you do your dress—on the outside. Anger causes our bodies to become sick. Yes, it can feel like Power, make you think you are strong and that no one can defeat you.
“Slow as a small creature, it makes a path to the inside of your body, and ever so slowly, it eats at all the parts inside you. You do not feel your insides come apart until it has already happened. By then, you are sick and nothing can make you well. Your head pains you, your belly pains you, and the air you breathe smells as rotten meat and offers nothing except more pain.
“The heat of anger is a silent killer. When you understand this, it is too late. Anger consumes you, Daughter. Sit, breathe slow with me and your daughter. Long ago, these words were passed down by the Great Holy Man, Shining Light, who now lives in the—”
Sky Bird whirled and rushed from the camp.
Golden Fox stood and brushed a tear away. “Mother has much sadness. I could feel it. I feel sadness all around camp, Grandfather, and... I feel people who spin in circles inside their lodges, as if their minds are dizzy. Why is this so? Sometimes, I wish I did not have the gift of knowing another’s emotions.”
Eagle Thunder gripped her shoulders. “Never wish a gift to go away. Some lose their gift, and feel so empty they walk away from the band and never return. One day, this gift might save your life... or the band’s life.”
He dropped his hand and stared in the direction Sky Bird had fled. “I must go to your mother. We will pick plants together and, perhaps, this will help her heal. Do not worry if we do not return until Father Sun rises again. Go be with the children.”
***
Head lowered, Sky Bird sat next to the boulders her daughter liked to climb. Long, dark brown-red hair hung past her waist, almost to the ground. When her father sat next to her, she held her head high, shoved her hair out of her face, and chased away tears. “Why do young ones always climb as high as they can go, and spend long spans up here?”
“Do you not remember a little Sky Bird sitting up high in the trees not so long ago? They see better what they cannot see down here. Just as a person searches in their mind for answers, the young ones find answers when they climb as high as they can, away from others.” He waved one hand. “Why has my daughter come here, away from others?”
She picked up a handful of small stones and let them trickle through her fingers. “What if Blazing Fire cannot find the necklace and the beads from my first mother? What if Yellow Moon has already traded them for the poisoned water? Father, she stole that which meant much to me. I can never find another necklace or other beads that will mean what those meant. That small piece of my first mother is gone. Nothing could hurt me more. I hold my anger in now, but I do not know what I will do when I see Yellow Moon.”
Her father scooted closer and took both her hands into his. “Daughter, what if Golden Fox was stolen by the hairy-faces? Would you give them your necklace and your beads to have her back?”
She jerked her hands away. “Why would you think I would not?”
“You would give them up, then?”
When she nodded, he took her hands again and gave a gentle squeeze. “This loss has hurt, but has not hurt so badly that you will not laugh again. The necklace was something you could hold. You could feel the love your mother had for you in the beads. It was important, as all such things are important, yet we have these things only for a short span—maybe as long as our lives, maybe longer, maybe shorter. Perhaps, what we think of as losing them is but them traveling away from us. Perhaps they have done their work here. The necklace and the beads are gone, but are the stories I told you about your mother gone as well? Has the love in your heart disappeared, too?”
He let her think about that for a short span. “What is in our hearts, no thief can ever steal.”
Ashamed, she dropped her head. “I am a grown woman, yet my father still teaches me.”
He laid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “I will teach you until I breathe no more, and you will teach me until I take my journey to the Spirit Land. We will gather plants, and then sleep here. Your daughter always leaves a sleeping robe in this place.”