Okay, class time readers. Here are a few words you should know for this chapter. Don't worry I'm not gonna' spring a pop quiz on you.

Lakota language Vocab.

Onsila - poor thing

Oyate - Nation

Áte – father

Tunwicu- Aunt

Cinsi – son

wiyan wakan – holy woman

Okay now lets meet a dad who has an important lesson to learn about the pitfalls of absentee parenting.

Father Nation

Oyate was a proud nation; a child of the land that watched over his people for as long as he could remember. Generation after generation, for over 10,000 years before something miraculous happened. He heard rumors that another child of the land had been born, at first Oyate was curious. The chance to have another like himself by his side was an interesting idea, nothing like this had ever happened before. He mulled over the idea, a child born of the land, Oyate's land, he couldn't help but wonder what this meant for him and his people.

Oyate set out to see this child for himself and when first laid eyes on America, he was horrified. The child had hair like the wild winter grasslands and eyes the color of the deep blue sky. He looked like them, the strangers settling on the eastern shore. Oyate knew that the child was a sign of things to come; it was a future he did not accept.

He decided the child must be killed before he got to big. Oyate knew that nations like himself did not die like humans did, so he took the child to the Wiyan Wakan to see if she knew of a way to kill the child. She assured Oyate that she there was a way to do so, but the magic was very old and she would have to travel to find all the pieces of the spell. Oyate, wanting nothing to do with the child, left America with her. The Wiyan Wakan was not a very old woman and she had no children of her own, when she looked at the baby and took pity on him. She knew she could not bring herself to carry out the cruel sentence. She took the child she called Onsila and traveled with him, hoping to hide the lie that she was not looking for a way to kill America for as long as she could.

Together America and the Wiyan Wakan traveled throughout the land. They wandered the valleys and mountains, they followed the animals and the rivers and listened to the deep forests at night and the sun bleached shores and grasslands. The Wiyan Wakan taught America everything she could about the old magic and the ways of the land. America grew slowly traveling by her side and loved every minute of it, only growing restless when they stayed in one spot for too long. He called the Wiyan Wakan, Tunwicu but America loved her like a mother. She was always gentle and encouraging to the young nation, so he did what he could to learn everything she taught him.

It was decades later, as they were camped beside the banks of the Rio Grand River one day, when Oyate finally caught up with them. Oyate demanded to know why America was still alive. Tunwicu knew she could not lie to her nation any longer and admitted that she had come to love the child like her own. America was playing near the river when he heard the scream. He rushed into the camp to find Tinwicu lying dead and Oyate standing over her with a bloody hatchet in his hand. America rushed to her side and tried to wake her up.

Oyate was terrified at how much the child had grown. America looked up at Oyate, who swung his hatchet in an attempt to slay the child, but America caught it with his ridiculous strength, stopping the blade with his tiny hands. Oyate backed away startled by the child's strength.

"Why did you kill her?" America cried angrily, they were the first words the boy ever said to his father. Oyate did not answer, he just stood staring at the the boy before him tiny fists clenched tight and trembling with rage. "WHY!" Alfred demanded with tears streaming down his face.

"You morn the death of one person, when you are supposed to be a nation of many? If it is for the greater good of the nation, killing is necessary; you will never be a nation if you don't learn that."

"You're wrong!", the child roared as the tears continued to run unheeded down his face.

"That is the way…."

"NO!" America yelled his eyes burning with defiance, "That's not true!"

"It is true child. Like it or not."

Oyate stepped forward menacingly, but the child held his ground and yelled as loud as he could, "It doesn't have to be that way! I will change it! I will be strong and I will protect everybody, I will make a place where everybody is safe. I will be, I will be…" America struggled to find the right word

"What will you be child?" Oyate challenged.

Oyate looked into those fierce blue eyes that seemed to look right through him as the boy covered in the blood of his guardian, pulled himself up to his full height, "A hero."

Oyate said nothing, he turned and left the camp without another word, leaving behind America to live and grow on his own. It was a decision he came to regret terribly.

The child did grow and he was strong and father and son met, again and again, on the battlefield. Neither one cared to remember just how many years of bitter battles and bloodshed they waged against each other. Each time Oyate was beaten back a little further by the son he never loved, until the day there was nowhere left to go. By that time Oyate was a ragged old man. He looked into the face of the child he'd abandoned and saw the same look of anger America bore as a blood stained child from so long ago, he was ready for Alfred ot strike the final blow, but it never came. Alfred walked away leaving his father to pick up the pieces, just as he had done to Alfred so many years ago.

It was over, Oyate had been defeated. He should have just faded into obscurity, but that didn't happen. Father and son grudgingly came to a truce. Alfred helped his father form his own government and set aside some of the wild places for him to continue on as a Nation. He was still nothing more than a ghost of his former empire, but Alfred that made sure the old man didn't disappear completely.

As the years passed, the two of them had spent a long time healing the old wounds. The old man and the son he never loved, came to understand and respect each other slowly over the years.

Alfred finally awoke with a start. His eyes wide, as he gasped for breath. He looked around at the dim surroundings and listened to the baleful cry of the wind, the howling seemed much louder much more like the wolves in his dreams. Alfred remembered wolves, and rattle snakes, and wildcats. Alfred remembered a lot of things. He got up and began to pace like a caged animal. His mind was buzzing with a million new pieces of information and everything felt like it was on fire.

Alfred needs some fatherly advice and he's about to get it in the next chapter thanks to a visit by the old man himself. Send Ivan some aspirin because he's going to have a headache roughly the size of North America soon.