CHAPTER 38
Before today Kiowa never knew what it was like to feel the blow of battle. Now he is more battered than any fight he has ever been in. I could really use a shield. He endures her assault with half a smile.
"I am here because I don't love them. I love you."
His words stun her. She doesn't know what to think. "Because I am the prettiest?"
"I do not know all the reasons why. But the pain and worry disappear when I am with you. See, I can eat." He searches for the pemmican she brought. When he finds it, he snatches the pouch up, opens it, and stuffs it in his mouth. "This is all I know."
His authentic expression and the satisfied, determined look in his eyes conquer her. "You do love me!" She tries to hold up her last defense, a stern glare. Does he even know what love is? she thinks to herself. He must not. I should tell him. Anoki draws a long, deep breath. "Hopi love is as pure the pearl-white horse. Once you take my hand with love, mine will never let go. Hopi love goes on forever. It is full of color and light. We capture it and weave it in our clothes, our hair, and even our blankets. What do you think keeps us warm at night? A blanket? Ha! No. It is love. Love makes you ridiculously happy when it wraps its white wings around you and protects you. Love will take you anywhere you want to go. Love is gentleness for the one you love. Love is kindness in a limitless well. Love requires patience to raise children. When it is true, love can endure the test of time and it will outlast our cliff dwellings. Above all, it is loyal! The more you share it with other women, the less I have to give back to you. The more you share with me, the more I have to give back to you. And so you see, love is like the horizon; it goes on forever. It cannot be captured in one word. It is infinite and lacks the words to describe it because it isn't just a word. Love is also an act. It is a gesture. It is a moment. To have true love is to have the greatest treasure on earth and heaven. To have my love is to hold the most delicate and fragile part of me. Only a god could have created love. The father is the source. It is worth more than all the horses in the world. It is more desired than the best food. Love is the food of the soul. Love does not dishonor those who have it."
"I have never heard anyone use words like you do. If I am in the presence of the father's creation, am I worthy of holding this precious gift?"
"Without love, I am nothing. I am not protected. You preserved me. I could be beneath the dust of the earth and it would have been as though I had never existed if I did not have love," Her last defense is wiped clean of anger. She beams true love. "Tell me how you feel!"
"I cannot make you suffer with my envy. I am a fool to puff up and show off like the blow snake. I do not seek my happiness, but I seek yours. You speak with harsh tones, and yet I am not provoked. I cannot have one evil thought against you. My heart rejoices in this single truth. I know for certain that my love for you is a flame, and I can't share that with just anyone. You are right. We both feel the same way, and it is wrong to share it with others. Can you bear my love?"
"Yes! Now you can see. Your love brings me hope. Now I can endure anything. Love never fails Kiowa! It is the greatest magic. Our love is perfect!" He has her full attention now. She feels tinges of guilt for thinking a bead of shame could be woven in his perfect hair.
"Your ways are right. I only want one true love to hold this hand till it withers and dies."
"We must have faith!" Anoki takes his hand.
"We must have hope!" Kiowa cups her cheek with his warm palm.
"We must have love," they say together, then kiss.
He takes her by the waist and mends the tear with his powerful arms and firm lips.
"How will I know if I am true?"
"Yes, how will you know?"
"I cannot know. I am a man. My head is full of foolish thoughts."
"Yes, I can see that. What will you do?"
"The only thing I can do. I will dance before Taime and see if I am made of leaves or if I can withstand this eternal flame you speak of. If I do not fail the ultimate test, I know he will find a way to unite us. Make us one."
"What is the ultimate test?"
"I will volunteer to dangle in front of the sun by eagle claws."
Anoki gasps. "That is the ultimate test?"
"Can you think of a harder one?"
"No. How could I?"
Kiowa holds up his hand and rests it on his heart. "My tribe's heart will always seek my strong blood to pump and coarse through their veins."
Anoki sighs. "My tribe will seek my blood to birth the next generation of royalty. How can I be your enemy? We are a tribe of peace. We trade with the Kiowa. Can our love not mix into Hopi and Kiowa children, without the eagle's claws? Won't they make you bleed?"
"By the blood comes more blood. You claim your duty to your tribe, so it is my duty to my tribe that binds me. That is exactly what makes you their enemy. Your power to mix blood. They will not stand for it."
Anoki tilts her head to the side and looks at him with a calm, pondering expression. "I do not understand the ways of your brutal tribe. My people will cherish this love and foster it. It scares me that your tribe will not, but I believe your words and I trust that you will find a way to keep us safe." She leans her head against his chest and realizes she must ask him one very important question as she presses her hand to his beating heart. "Kiowa, is this bud of love already nearing a winter chill? Will it wither and die like all things the Winter Woman kills with her frosty breath? Or is our love still springing in our hearts?"
"Inside my heart, I feel as though it is as hot as summer. All I know is that the tallest mountains and deepest valleys won't stop my love from bringing me to you. Surely you can believe that. I have crossed both mountains and valleys to be here with you."
She smiles and looks at him with a tender devotion that makes his soul feel whole. "Yes, I can see that."
He tucks her hair behind her ear and says, "Only the Sun God can say what our love can do." Kiowa turns away from her. What he has to say next he can't say while she stares at him. Maybe I have said enough. Maybe I need not say more.
She nestles back into his chest. He leans down to kiss her again. She wants him to take her breath away for the rest of her days. Cut the string and let me fly, great war chief!
"I will not be gone long, Mother," Kida says as she packs her horse. She takes extra care securing her bow.
"I do not want you to go. What if some enemy should find you and make you a captive?"
"Then at least I will be someone's wife."
"Kiowa would never allow that."
Kida smiles at the thought of him coming to save her.
"I will follow his tracks to the Hopi village. When he sees how concerned I am, he will know that I love him."
"Can you make him love you by showing him the love in your face and eyes?"
"Yes. When he sees, he will know."
"You have much to learn about men, Daughter. With bow and knife, you are undefeated. But with the arrows of the heart, you have yet to draw your string."
"Always speaking in circles, Mother. I never understand your circles."
"Kiss me good-bye and go learn for yourself. Every daughter must have her heart broken or else it cannot grow."
I do not want my heart broken. That is why I go, dear Mother, Kida thinks. She kisses her mother on the cheek.
"I will return with Kiowa."
"He will come home on his own. If you ride in with him, that does not mean you have caught him and he is yours."
"Ugh…enough of this." She mounts her horse. Kida kicks at her pinto pony and reassures herself that her presence is in fact the only way to help Kiowa come back to his senses.
When she arrives at the Hopi village, she struggles to communicate her intentions. Though she searches high and low, she can't find Kiowa or Paw. She eventually finds a Hopi girl that signs in Kiowa. The girl tells her that Paw and Kiowa split up.
She points east and signs, the younger one went that way. She points west, the older one went that way.
Kida grits her teeth as she sees a group of men lead by the Hopi Chief, ridding east. Why would Kiowa ride east, when he should be riding west? And why are those men riding east? Kida wonders. I should follow them.
Though she is tired and it is already sunset, she rides late into the night and cautiously stalks up stream. She finds the group of Hopi men clustering around Kiowa's trail. She gasps and dismounts her horse.
Of course he and Paw would hide in a canyon. He is so smart. And so stupid! Why would you hide in a canyon? Now you have nowhere to run! There are too many of them. Do I get the tribe? Do I sneak attack? I'm such a fool. I left my bow on my pony, and my pony is walking away. Ugh…As she unsheathes her knife, she hears a familiar name.
"Walpi, tells me that Kiowa and Anoki ran off together. It is late into the night. Either I am going to have a son in-law or a grandson," the man who signed their location says.
One of the warriors chuckles and says, "Both would good."
The men laugh and follow the trail.
Kiowa, Kida thinks as she grits her teeth and clenches her knife. They had better not harm one sacred hair on his head. She bites her tongue hard to keep herself from screaming. They know Kiowa. How can they know Kiowa?
She follows the Hopi men and prepares to attack them when the time is right.
As the Hopi party moves upstream and nears the falls, they surprise the couple.
"What is this?" Kiowa shouts, leaping to his feet and searching for the weapons that are attached to his horse.
"Why did you leave your weapons fastened on that fine horse Night Wind? Don't you know he could run off or be stolen and you would never see him again?"
"It would not be hard to find him. I'm certain if he were stolen, he would end up at your house," Anoki growls at her father.
"Ha! Ha! This is a father asking what this boy's intentions are with his daughter!" Kikmongwi folds his arms and proudly stomps his foot.
Walpi doesn't say anything, but he waves at his sister, who scowls at him.
"I ugh…um…" Kiowa doesn't understand Kikmongwi's Hopi words, but judging by the look on his face, he pieces together what's upsetting him.
"If you are going to spend all night with my daughter, by Hopi law you are married. Is this what you want?" Kikmongwi pokes Kiowa in the chest.
Anoki translates. "He wants to know if you are going to make a dishonest woman out of me by keeping me out all night, or if you will make me a happy bride."
"That is the desire of my heart."
"It is the desire of my heart also!" She pecks him on the lips, then turns to her father and shouts, "We are to be married!"
"Well, then, be married!" Kikmongwi raises the whooping celebratory cry, and his warriors follow. They take one another's hands and dance in a circle around Kiowa and Anoki.
Kiowa awkwardly grins and waits for them to stop shouting before he breaks the bad news. "Tonight will not be that night. As you know, Anoki, I must pass the test."
"Will I ever see you again?" Anoki asks, feeling the string to her heart pull tight. She takes his hand and searches for evidence of his power over her.
"If I am true and if I can hold your flame the way Hopi do, then doubt me not."
"If you can't?" she asks.
"Then I will not return."
Anoki wraps her arms around his neck and sobs. "I would fill every canyon with floods from my tears if that were true. Do not make me like Ayko, wandering in and out of caves repeating your name over and over again. Please, I'm begging you, do not make me an ugly, lonely old woman."
"No, no, do not do that, sweet Anoki," Kiowa whispers.
"You are my chief. Oh, why did you have to discover us, cruel father? I only had to wait till dawn."
"Come now, Anoki. The smiling sun will shine on us tomorrow and dry your tears from this cold night." Kikmongwi pats his daughter on the shoulder.
The gentleness of this tribe is so different from Kiowa's. He's reminded of his noble deer friends. Strange that they should have the same dignity and trusting expressions.
Kida follows the Hopis' tracks all the way to Kiowa. She hears the whooping celebratory cry and mistakes it for the war cry. I am coming, my love! If you must die, I want to die also! She hurries through the shadows. She spots what she thinks to be the war party. Anticipation builds. She hears Kiowa speak calmly with no real fear in his voice. Her worries dispel. But why are there so many Hopi warriors?
She bites her bottom lip and maneuvers to a position where she can quickly grab one of the Hopi and slit the man's throat. As she does so, she sees that no one is threatening Kiowa at all. I don't understand; they have the numbers. She watches patiently and sees Kiowa embrace Anoki. A sharp pain stabs her all the way to her heart.
Is my knife sheathed in my chest? She looks down at her hand.
The agony is so swift, she hears the fractures of her breaking heart. Oh, Mother…she sobs. In that instant, Kida immediately understands the cause of all Kiowa's hidden pain. The happiness on his face. And the agony in her chest.
Kida seethes with rage. She bites her lip so hard, blood pools in her mouth. She points her knife at Anoki and takes a blood-spitting oath. "Your spring of love swells my river of hate. The earth is our mother, but she will soon bury you in the naval of her tomb. I will not stand for this! None of us will stand for this dishonor! You will pay with your life, foolish Hopi girl!"
Author's note: Parents... a constant thorn in love's side. How many of us have been disrupted by a parents unwanted interuption? Share your story in a rewiew. Quick reminders... wattpad has pics for every chapter. amazon has the whole book. "Harvest Moon" by Zachary Lovelady. Check us out on instagram: harvestmoonofficial