Sully watched the two Indians meet and talk in the clearing. Their native language was so strange sounding to him that he could not help but listen. Try as he might, he could not understand a word they said to each other, but he could sense the affection they had for each other by the way they spoke. It was clear that the medicine man's wife was concerned by the tone she used. It hurt Sully to watch her take a step back from Cloud Dancing before he could touch her. It meant she was afraid he was infected with a white man's disease and she didn't want the sickness to spread.

Other than the pains in his stomach as Cloud Dancing kept handing him bread to eat, his foot had really been the only other physical pain Sully had. And with the salve that he had applied the night before, even that was starting to ache less. The concoction had stunk, and some was still stuck to his skin, but it no longer throbbed. Whatever Cloud Dancing had put together, it definitely had worked. More than these physical pains, however, the pain in his heart grew. Watching the two Indians have their marriage interrupted by him made him feel very guilty.

He decided he couldn't stay any longer. Being so close to Colorado Springs yet still being so far from Abigail's grave was like torture to his soul. He tried to imagine seeing the stone, seeing both stones, touching them…but it was too much to bear at the moment. He pushed thoughts of Hannah from his mind.

Snow Bird departed, leaving another pack for them. Her retreat was soundless, and after only a few steps, her clothes helped her all but blend into the woods completely. Sully marveled at them both, that they were willing to take risks for him, a stranger who had hurt so many others.

"She can see you are heart sick." Cloud Dancing said, sitting back down in the circle. Sully turned to the medicine man.

"She wouldn't touch you." He said as he watched Cloud Dancing look in the pack that she had brought both of them.

"Black Kettle allows no contact until we are sure you do not infect the camp." He said quietly. He could tell that Black Wolf had been watching them closely the entire time.

"You know that if I was sick, you sat close enough to me that you'd probably already be sick too." Sully said, thinking back to some of the men in his regiment that had come down with measles right after he had enlisted. Even before that, in his mining days, he had seen whole camps of men wiped out by fevers. How it was possible, he did not understand, but somehow, just being near enough a sick man without touching him was enough. Cloud Dancing was quiet while Sully's thoughts wandered.

"Spirits say I am strong. I trust their signs." He looked over at Black Wolf, who was simply amazed. Sully hadn't had such a faith in his own God in so long that it was almost unbelievable that someone else could trust so strongly in some unseen force to protect him. He shook his head.

"I can't believe you wanna help me." Sully pointed to the trees where Snow Bird had walked away. "I've taken you away from your family. They may never let you go back home! Believe me, I know what that's like. Your people have been constantly attacked by white men like me…yet you keep trying to help me. All I want is to get to town and find my wife's grave so I can—" Sully stopped himself, his impassioned words rising as his frustration mounted. He took a deep breath. "So I can lie next to her…one last time." His last words came out deflated, sounding as hollow and broken as he felt inside. Sully rubbed his face before the Indian could see the tear that had threatened to fall.

Cloud Dancing had to agree with Black Wolf. All white men that his tribe had ever come across were out to take everything in sight. They had tried to avoid the settlers as much as they could, but there had been a few times that they had resorted to fighting to protect what was sacred to them. He knew the risk of following the Great Spirit's sign. It could very well mean that his time with his tribe was over and he was to start a new journey. It would be sad for him to leave his family, but there were paths that the spirits made that could not immediately be seen. It did not mean that what the spirits wanted was wrong.

Black Wolf stood suddenly on shaky legs as Cloud Dancing sat and thought over all he had said. This brought the medicine man to his feet suddenly in silent reply. Where the white man's strength had come from, he did not know, but he was fearful that it would not last. Speaking of his wife had clearly upset him.

"Go back to your people." Sully said, reaching out for the staff he had used a few days before. Cloud Dancing had left it leaning against the tree. As for the rest, Sully had decided he would leave it behind. He was sure he wasn't strong enough to carry the army pack anymore, anyway. Standing made him dizzy, and he leaned hard on the branch in his shaky hand.

"You are not strong enough yet." Cloud Dancing said. He could tell Black Wolf was still favoring his foot from his fall. Without proper coverings, his feet would not carry him all the way to the white man's town from where they were.

"You've done enough." Sully took a step back to test himself. He limped a bit but managed to step to the edge of the circle of stones that the medicine man had made around him. "I can't stand ta keep you away from your family." Cloud Dancing came around the edge of the circle, speaking excitedly in his native tongue as he pointed to the stones. They stood face to face now, one inside the circle, one outside.

"The spirits say I must help you!" Cloud Dancing's voice was insistent, speaking again in English.

"I don't believe in your spirits." Sully warned him in a low tone. His heart was pounding, the beat pulsing behind his eyes, making his legs shake, but he had to go. He truly felt the Indian wouldn't stop him if he wanted to leave, spirits or no. Besides, he had asked him wash off his foot earlier and tried to get him to leave the circle. As Sully took a final step forward to exit the circle, Cloud Dancing's hands came up to Sully's shoulders and held him fast where he was.

"Black Wolf, no!" He shouted. Sully regained his balance inside the circle and the two men stood there, touching hand to shoulder a moment, their eyes locked on each other.

"Black…wolf?" He asked, confused.

"The circle." Cloud Dancing said in a quiet voice. "It is protecting you."

"Did you just call me a black wolf?" Sully asked again. Cloud Dancing stopped pushing against Sully's shoulders and the two men stood there; one on the outside had everything to loose and one on the inside had everything to gain. Neither fully understood how their physical stances and their mental stances were being tested by the Great Spirit. Neither could be aware of how their paths were starting from that moment to merge and follow a new direction together. A hawk, circling high above them, shrieked, it's voice piercing the silence of the moment.

Cloud Dancing knew now that it was too late to turn back.

"Great Spirit sends me visions of you as a black wolf, two arrows in your side, searching for my tribe…looking for…me. I dreamed of this place. The black wolf laid down there and cried for death that would not come." Cloud Dancing had pointed to the spot by the sapling where Sully had fallen, which was right where he'd seen the black wolf lay down and cry in his dreams. Sully stared at the ground where the army pack still lay. Somehow, the medicine man was telling him that, although hundreds of miles had separated them months ago, he had known Sully was coming, what he was wearing, and why he was coming back here. It was almost too much to believe.

"What are you sayin'?" Sully said, studying Cloud Dancing's eyes. The Indian seemed steady, his eyes clear, but Sully had to wonder if some sickness had, indeed, addled his brain. The dream was so odd sounding, yet so cryptically close to real life, that he could hardly believe what he was hearing.

"Wolves roam these hills, white and black. We hear the pack call to each other. They are powerful. Cunning. Some bands see a wolf as good luck. My father and his people respect them, but we see them as bad luck. When I had the dream of the black wolf, I saw it as a bad sign. I pray to the spirits to protect my people."

"When I saw you, I thought I was right. A white man and a black wolf was two bad omens. But you were able to shed your coat." At this, Cloud Dancing dared remove his hands from Sully's shoulders and trusted that he would stay inside the circle to hear him out. He walked over to Sully's black coat that Mini had given to him and picked it up. Sully was rooted to the spot where he stood.

"Wolf cannot change his color, but you did." Cloud Dancing held up the coat. "You tell me you want to die, but just like this coat, you can change your path. You can choose to live." He tossed down the coat and returned to his side of the circle. "You thought that this circle was to keep you safe from my brothers. I would not let them harm you. An evil spirit haunts you. That is why I build the circle, burn herbs. Evil has covered you in darkness your heart cannot heal from. If you will stay inside the circle one more night, the full moon will complete my prayers. The evil spirit will be gone. Then you can leave and I take you to town."

The two men stood on either side of the circle, the sun climbing high into the sky above them. The spring leaves danced overhead, dappling the men with shade. Sully leaned on his branch staff heavily, his head spinning with all that Cloud Dancing had told him. He had never had someone speak so openly to him about such things. He didn't know how to respond. The words 'Cried for death that would not come.' echoed in his mind, reminding him of a Christmas night in Ezra's barn. Without saying the words, Cloud Dancing knew that all Sully wanted to do was die next to his family and end the pain that haunted him.

"But the salve…you wanted me to walk to the stream to wash?" Sully countered, trying to catch the medicine man in a loophole. Cloud Dancing nodded gravely, almost ashamed.

"A test. The evil spirit was not as strong then, and you resisted leaving the circle. Now, the darkness grows stronger, trying to make you go before my prayers are done." His answer was simple, honest.

The more Sully thought of all his morbid, dark thoughts the more he began to wonder, just a tiny bit, if perhaps it was an evil spirit haunting him. He started to wonder if he really did want to die to be with Abigail or to just make the pain stop. What if he found her grave, took his life, and yet never found Abigail and Hannah that way? He looked at the coat as he slowly sank to the ground. He always thought fondly of Mini when he had looked at the coat. Now he wondered if the Indian's symbolic idea of an evil spirit was closer to the truth. He had cloaked himself in nothing but sadness since the moment Abigail had passed away.

All he was sure of was the simple fact that, without asking him all about his life, Cloud Dancing knew him, knew his pain. Snow Bird did, too. They could see what Mini and Ezra didn't see. And, in spite of him being white, and them being Indians, they were going to great lengths to stand up for him when he was too weak and sick to see clearly for himself.

Could it be that the Lord above was trying to send Sully an answer?

Could the prayers of this man truly help him?