The small campfire burned low as Sky Bird shifted on the scratchy grass. Restless, she picked up tiny stones and tossed them into the darker shadows away from the fire. A shiver raced over her.

The night is still cold for it being so warm after sunrise. She rubbed her arms and leaned closer to the fire, but it did little to chase the chill away. Instead of letting the men take almost all the hides left behind when the others departed, I should have kept more than just the two needed for sleeping.

She pulled the deerskin hide more tightly around her. Unable to sit still, she got up and paced the length of crushed grass where the people had made camp.

Four sunrises! Daughter, what do you do for such a long time? Dances In Storms should have allowed me to sit close to the sweat lodge. I would not have disturbed Golden Fox.

With a wry twist of her lips, she shook her head at such a thought. She was Golden Fox’s mother and, as such, her Energy would have reached out to her daughter. Dances In Storms was right to make her stay at the camp, but it did not make the waiting easier.

Snores drifted from where Stands His Ground lay wrapped in his sleeping robes. With a sigh, she moved away from him.

Why can that not be me? He sleeps the sleep of a person with no worries, as he should. He is a good man.

A part of her wanted to go to him and wake him, so she could lie within his arms. She fought the feeling as she hurried farther from him.

Why do I run from Stands His Ground? He is nothing like Golden Fox’s father. I have struggled to feel only as a friend toward him, yet... I cannot forget how he looked many cycles of seasons ago when he rode back into camp after traveling for a long span.

As always happened when she let herself think of Stands His Ground, warmth blossomed in her chest, driving out the chill of so many lonely nights.

He sat at my mother’s cooking fire and I could not stop staring at him. I hoped he thought I stared at the sky beads braided into the sides of his hair. When he caught me, I mumbled that I did not know how these beads came to be. He cocked his head and a little smile played around his full lips, as if he knew it was not the sky beads at which I stared. Yet, he pretended to believe my words and told the story of how the sky beads were created.

His voice lives in my mind whenever I think of how he said the pale Sky envied the blue waters and wished to be as beautiful. The wish was granted. Before Sky could get used to the new heaviness of the blue, pieces of Sky fell to the Mother. The hills had not yet hardened when the pieces hit, and so those bits of Sky sank into the land. The dirt hardened around them. Sometimes, if the Mother believes you are worthy, she will push sky beads above the dirt, so they may be found.

Her feet shuffled across the brittle grass as she headed toward a spot beneath a tree whose head soared high above the Mother.

All the time Stands His Ground spoke, my heart pounded so hard I thought everyone would hear! My eyes would not leave his face. Instead of scolding me for having no manners, at the end of his story he held out his hand. In the palm lay sky beads.

Shaking her head at the foolishness of her younger self, she found a place that called to her and gazed toward the sky.

“I have brought these for you, Sky Bird,” he said. Wanting to touch him, I stumbled over my father in my haste to reach Stands His Ground, as if I were still a child greedy for a gift. Oh, how the heat burned my cheeks when I fell into his lap! Without a word, he stood and helped me to my feet. His finger under my chin tilted my face up, so I had to look into his dark eyes. Instead of mockery, I saw desire in his eyes. A tingling feeling spread through my body, a feeling I had never felt with Golden Fox’s father. Confused, I scrambled away from him, not even taking the beads he offered. With a knowing smile, Mother gave them to me as we prepared our robes for sleeping.

The soft clink of the sky beads around her neck pulled her hand to them. As she rolled the silky beads between her fingers, she wondered what it would feel like to have a man’s arms wrapped around her at night. How would it feel to have Stands His Ground’s sweet voice speak of love as they lay together?

She had never known any, except the touch of a drunk hairy-face—a man who felt only contempt for her and her daughter, a man who took what he wanted no matter the pain she felt. Her stomach clenched hard at the bitter memories, and she hastily chased them from her mind.

It is best to remain friends. I cannot risk the love we have between us by being so greedy that I demand more. Stands His Ground is young and will one day find a woman to warm his sleeping robes—a woman without bad memories to stand between them.

Gold light spread across the horizon as Father Sun began to rise, and grey-blue clouds turned bright pink. Crickets quieted, and bats called to each other as they flew to seek the cool dark of a cave or a crevice in which to sleep. In the distance, deer moved with their young fawns to the thickets near the water.

Sunrise creatures woke as night creatures sought their dens. A pair of Eagles took flight across the sky that lightened from black to grey to lighter and lighter blue. Two rabbits peered from beneath a shrub heavy with ripening, red berries. Tall grasses rustled with tiny animals as they hunted seeds dropped by the grasses. Birds sang from branches of trees hugging the edge of the nearby stream. Some of the winged ones dove through the air after the tiny, flying ones.

A song filled her heart and she lifted her hands to Father Sun. From somewhere near, the deeper sound of Stands His Ground’s singing reached her, wrapped around her. Even as her song raised to the Great Mystery, a thought flitted through her mind.

Do I fill his thoughts as often as he fills mine?

As the last of her song wafted to the Great Mystery, Sky Bird’s eyes focused on a shape riding toward her. “Golden Fox!”

When she started to run toward her daughter, a firm hand clasped her shoulder.

She twisted her head and looked into Stands His Ground’s face. “She has been gone longer than I thought. I must go greet her.”

With a stern look, he shook his head. “Allow your daughter to come to you. She has changed, can you not see? Look how straight she sits on her animal. She is a woman, and deserves to be greeted as one woman by another.”

Blue Spirit Dog sped toward Sky Bird, puffs of dust flying up behind her.

The dog jumped into her arms, and Sky Bird fell backward, landing hard on the ground. She hid her face in the dog’s thick fur. “I know better, but I am happy to see my daughter.”

Though she tried to stand, Dog would not allow it. Her tongue soaked Sky Bird’s face. “Dog, pthh... allow me to get up to greet my daughter.” She shoved Dog to one side and rolled to her feet.

Dog leapt up and down in front of her, tongue darting and licking any part of her within reach.

Sky Bird turned her face as she laughed. “Dog, please! I am happy to see you, too.”

Stands His Ground chuckled and pulled the dog away from her. “Never before have I seen a dog so happy to see someone! Heh... her belly is fat. Either you feed her too much or soon she will bring pups to us.”

“Smart man,” she teased. “I have known for a moon. Four pups, I think. Maybe five.”

Splash, Golden Fox’s mustang, headed toward Sky Bird. When Golden Fox leapt to the ground, arms wide, Sky Bird ran to greet her daughter.

After they embraced, she pulled back and stared at her daughter’s eyes. “What blessings you have been given, Daughter. Some people go on many Vision Quests for such blessings, of which the brightness in your eyes speak. Can you say why you were gone so long?”

Golden Fox squeezed her mother’s hand. “Because of the shame I felt, I have never told you that I have tasted the poisoned water, Mother.” When Sky Bird’s mouth dropped open, Golden Fox hurried on. “In the sweat lodge, I fought the bad Spirits of the poisoned water, and with the help of my Spirit Guides, I won the battle. I know that having tasted the poisoned water, I must be ever on guard against the whispers of the poisoned water Spirits. But, I know now they hold no power over me.”

Tears leaked from Sky Bird’s eyes as pride filled her chest. “Daughter, you have grown much.”

“I have much yet to learn, Mother.”

She looped an arm around her daughter’s shoulders as they walked toward the cooking fire. “Your words make my heart glad, for if one believes they have learned all they need, they cannot grow.” With the shrug of one shoulder, she dismissed the subject. “Many things seen during a Vision Quest may only be shared with a Holy Person, but share with me what you can. I hunger to know this new woman who is my daughter.” Her arm tightened in a short hug.

“I have much to share, Mother, but only a little for now. My quest was not for me alone.” She leaned her head on Sky Bird’s shoulder as they shuffled through the grasses. “I can feel you, Mother. Not just the outside of you, but who you are.” Head tipped so she could see her mother’s face, she said, “You have never been on a Vision Quest.”

A quick kiss to Golden Fox’s forehead gave Sky Bird a moment to think. “No, I have never been on one. Some people never feel the call. But, tell me what you mean when you say you know who I am.”

“I do not hear your words, but I feel your Energy. There are Spirits around me, around us, and I can feel them. They whisper in my mind the secrets in the hearts of others.” She caught her lower lip between her teeth.

Sky Bird’s heart stuttered as she waited to hear what her daughter said. What secrets might come from the mouth of her child? “Spirits are around all of us. It is the way of life. The Spirit Land is woven into the threads of our Mother, into all things living. They never leave us. There have been times I have felt them, but they have never whispered to me. Can you share the secrets they have told you?”

Golden Fox stopped and whirled to step in front of her, and grasped her hands. “I hear the song of your heart, Mother. It is a beautiful song, but there is much sadness and loneliness in it. In here—” She tapped her chest with one hand. “—the Spirits tell me that this need not be so. There is one who loves you, and whom you love. Do not let fear keep you from love.”

Sky Bird pulled away from her daughter. When she turned back, she had hidden her feelings once more. “I see you wear the sky beads White Elk gave you. They look as if they were made for you. When we once more have deer and elk hides to make new clothes, I will search for plants that will make colors that bring out the colors in your beads.” Brows lifted, she asked, “Perhaps, a joining dress?”

“Mother, I do not wish to speak of this.”

“You have accepted sky beads from this man, and I see how he looks at you. Do you believe me blind? You have walked together on this journey of ours, and I have heard the whispers as you bend your heads close. Am I deaf as well?”

Shame flooded Golden Fox’s face, reddening her cheeks and neck. “I... I am sorry I spoke in disrespect, Mother. It is... it is just that my heart runs faster than Swift Arrow when White Elk looks my way, yet my mind tells me not to be a fool. My belly twists in knots whenever I... I see a certain person sit close to White Elk. Perhaps, I should follow the way of Blazing Fire and become a warrior woman.”

Sky Bird embraced Golden Fox, pulled her tight, and closed her eyes as she laid her cheek against her daughter’s. “I am not one who knows much about love, Daughter, but this I do know—if you do not listen to your heart, you will regret it much as the cycles of seasons pass.”

Do I speak to Golden Fox or to myself?