Chapter Twenty-Eight
Bobby smiled as he greeted the young parents, raising his arms in a sign of affection as the fire light bounced off of his coppery skin. "Welcome!" He touched the twin's heads, chuckling when Sid yawned and Maya wrinkled her nose. He looked over to Claire, and gave her a brotherly smile. "How's mom doing?" He asked, noticing that she was still acting as though she were tender between the legs.
"Sore." She smiled, touching Maya's nose with her fingertip as she opened her eyes. "But happy."
"Glad to hear it." Bobby turned and lead them into the teepee. "May I?" He asked, holding his arms out to take Sid from his father.
John nodded and pulled his son out of the sling and gently laid him in Bobby's arms. He watched as his friend rocked the child against his body and placed him on an otter skin before doing the same with Maya. He took a seat only a few steps from his children, still hesitant about the whole thing.
Bobby's grandfather appeared in the doorway a few second's later, with a rattle and a young man with a drum. "You must be John and Claire." He smiled. His face was wrinkled with age, his hair streaked through with gray, and eyes as soft as a rabbit's fur. "My name is Gawonii —He is Speaking." He touched the young father's shoulder, placing a bowl of blue paint in his hand. "If you would allow me to, I would like to paint your face in the traditional way of a Cherokee father."
John nodded, swallowing as he pulled his shirt off so that it wouldn't get stained. He knew that they would see the scars, but was shocked when the didn't make any comment on them. He let Gawonii trace over his features, able to feel the watery texture and smell the scent of… Lavender? Is that what this was made of?
Gawonii took a step back, and drew a few small lines of red paint on Claire's cheeks and nose. He picked up the rattle and gently shook it over John and Claire's heads, before he moved over to the babies, and started to chant.
John couldn't understand a word of it, but something inside of him shifted, like something in his chest was trying to escape. He raised a hand to his heart, coughing as that something inside of him seemed to be clawing at his lungs.
Gawonii smiled slightly, watching as the smoke from the fire changed as the evil spirit was being pulled from John's body through his children. He raised his voice, chanting louder as John coughed more, until finally John was silent and the children began to cry as the smoke of the fire returned to a full tower and not a tiny thread.
John gasped for breath, and looked at his hands. "What did you just do?" He asked, his eyes like pennies in the firelight.
Gawonii blinked slowly, and painted a few lines over Sid and Maya's tummies before he wrapped them in the otter skins and gave them to the parents. "You have a troubling spirit following you, I simply made it easier to keep it from chasing your children."
John brushed his finger's over Maya's cheek, listening as her cries became slower. "Like a vaccination."
Bobby laughed, and John could see that he too, was covered in paint. "Of sorts." He smirked, placing a cup of steaming tea before the couple and dropping some mint leaves into it. "Welcome to the tribe, little brother."
