Every morning Anung headed East to the first sun. It was getting colder every day and now Turtle was asleep for the winter, wrapped in a fox fur nestled in the bottom of Anung’s pouch.
The first snow dusted the ground. Anung was sad he did not have the coat with the full beaver vest and the buffalo robe. He had very little food left, and he was finding less and less each day. His hunger was growing again.
He traveled through forests thick with branches and brush. When the snow fell so hard he could not see, he found a place protected from the worst of the wind and waited so he would not lose his course. When the snow stopped he put on his snowshoes to walk over the drifts that were half as tall as he.
To stay his true course he crawled through a thicket of thorn bushes he could not see his way around. The thicket was so deep it took him two days to crawl through it and he had to make a bed in the middle of it where he slept very little.
The thorns tore his skin in many places. When he finally crawled out he built a fire and did not travel for two days so he could rest and his wounds would heal. He rubbed Bashkodejibik and Giizhikaandagoons to clean his wounds. The Wyandot had given him this sage and cedar for healing.
The snow fell hard while Anung rested.
As the sun was going down the second day, a shadow shape walked between the trees through the windblown snow. It was approaching the clearing where Anung was sitting next to his fire. This shape was big. Not tall enough to be Windigo, but very big. Anung wondered who this man might be.
He saw it was not a man. It was Old Makwa, the black bear, and he was looking for a dry cave for his long winter sleep for it was Biboon’s time now. Makwa disappeared into the forests ahead.
Anung slept huddled at his fire. He woke many times to add more wood to keep the flame strong to keep him warm.
The next morning he entered the forests again, headed on his true course East, looking for the greatest chief to tell him of his village.
It snowed every day.
Sun was so ashamed he could not bring more heat to the world and so he came later every morning and left earlier each day. It was always cold and it was dark much of the time. The snow was deep.
Anung had no food. It was hard work staying warm at night. He was tired from his long journey and he was sleeping very little. It was hard work to lift his snowshoes through the heavy snow. He was afraid he was not strong enough to make his path through the snow.
He very cold and he grew weaker all the time.
When all he could think about was the gnawing pain in his stomach and the cold that froze his body, that was the moment Windigo chose to jump from behind a tree to try to snatch up Anung. When Anung saw Windigo coming he turned and gathered all of the energy he had left to run through the snow. Because Windigo was a monster of great size he was slowed by the many trees it had to run around, but because Windigo was as fast as the wind and as powerful as a storm, he could run very fast and he could break through the branches and smaller trees. So Windigo came closer and closer as Anung struggled to run.
Windigo ran so fast the blood splattered from his huge clawed feet and with each step he stained the snow red.
Anung’s fear gave him new strength and drove him to run as fast as he could, but Windigo was faster and soon the terrible cannibal was just behind Anung, reaching out his long arms with his massive claws to grab him. Anung could smell his horrible breath and was so afraid.
That is when Anung saw a hole under a ledge at the bottom of a ridge. With his last burst of energy he dove into the hole just as a snow covered branch blocked Windigo’s view of Anung’s escape and he rushed past, and then howled his anger when he realized he had lost Anung.
Anung found it was dry under the ledge, and the hole led deep into the ground under the ridge. Anung waited until he was sure Windigo had passed, then called down into the hole to tell anyone inside that Anung, an Anishinaabe on a long journey, was coming in and that he promised peace to all he might find. Then he crawled down into the hole.
His body was shivering from the cold so he pulled the pine boughs he had found at the mouth of the hole over on top of him. He had never been so hungry. He had never been so tired. And soon he fell into a deep sleep.
Anung slept a long time.
He had many dreams.
His first dream was of Windigo, chasing him through the snow, coming closer and closer until Anung was snatched away, rescued by his Mother.
In his next dream his Mother had the kind touch of White Cloud, one of the women of Anung’s village.
Then he dreamed his Mother had the long soft black hair of Tall Woman, another woman of his village who had cared for Anung.
In another dream his Mother had the warmth of the kind old Nokomis.
In one of his dreams his Mother touched his face. When she did she discovered Anung was hungry and she picked him up and put him to her breast. Anung was very hungry so he drank deeply.
Anung was weak so he drank often.
The milk Anung drank tasted of fully ripened blueberries.
The milk tasted of eggs from the partridge nest. He tasted the freshness of the young trout trapped in the cool headwaters of a stream.
He licked his lips when he tasted the golden sweetness of honey in his Mother’s milk.
In his dreams his Mother never left him. She kept Anung sleeping next to her day after day, night after night.
Her body was warm and soft.
Whenever he was hungry she fed him.
He slept to the beat of her heart that soon became the only sound he knew. But then there was another heartbeat and Anung dreamt a child was born. This child wanted his share from his Mother. Anung had never lain next to his Mother so he pushed this baby aside.
His Mother cuffed Anung, then brought him to one breast and the baby to the other and Anung understood this baby was his brother and dreamt they slept side by side in this way for many nights.
In his next dream Anung was traveling through the heavens. There was no land to be seen, just stars all around him. One star was calling out to him but Anung thought this was his home now, here next to his Mother, so he did not answer the call.
In his last dream the long cold winter nights had passed and he was stronger and again he was traveling through the forests with Turtle to find the greatest chief of all the people.
When Anung awoke from his final dream he was not hungry anymore. He was not tired. He felt his strength had returned, and he was ready to continue his journey.
He crawled up to the mouth of the cave. It was dark outside. He sat just inside the mouth of the cave until the sun rose in the East so he could mark his true course.
He stood to look out at the new world of Zigwaan. The snow was melted where Sun was brightest. New green and yellow and purple buds were shooting from branches and soil.
The first birds began to sing.
Then there was a noise from behind him, deep down in the hole. It was coming closer, and Anung could see something moving up from the darkness. He stood aside as Mother Bear crawled from the cave, followed by a newborn cub. As Mother Bear shuffled past, Anung bowed to her and he gave her his thanks.
Mother Bear told him to travel carefully.
The bear cub called Anung Big Brother. Anung called the bear cub Little Brother. Mother Bear led Little Brother into the forest.
Anung pinched some Asemaa from his pouch and sprinkled it at the mouth of the cave as he thanked Gitche Manitou for keeping him safe through the harshest days of the winter.
Then he thanked Memekwesiw, Spirit Boss of the Bears, for feeding him.
