Chapters 39
When Paw and Kiowa return to camp, the squaw line up. Their gushing eyes, pretty smiles, and waving hands welcome the men home.
"Hello, great war chief! Do you need my help putting your things away?" Dancing Fawn offers.
Now that I know what you really want, I will not even give you a sideways glance, Kiowa thinks. He proudly lifts his head and presses his lips until his jaw tightens. His eyes rest on the distant horizon as Night Wind walks straight on.
Paw collects all their presents and counts them. He laughs at the safe distance the girls keep from Kiowa. It is as though some invisible line has been drawn that they dare not cross.
"A whole heap of pretty faces will test the love in your heart by tempting your eyes. Do not feel ashamed if your eyes lead your hands. No young man could be expected to keep his hands off so much longing beauty."
"Be quiet, Uncle! If I did that, I would be an enemy to love. Always you and Makes Trouble tease me with words. My love is not drawn by my eyes or my hands, but by my deep heart."
Paw sighs. He is dead. Stabbed through the heart by some woman's magic. He will never be the same now. If I were him, and those girls were running up to me, I would trade that one woman to hold even half of these girls, and there would be a dozen children by next spring. What a fool!
"How are you feeling?" Willow asks, handing him a comb and her heart.
"Better!" Kiowa answers, patting his belly. "My hunger has returned to me."
"Then I will be by your tepee later and will bring you all the meat you can eat. You have been without good meat for far too long."
"Thank you, Willow. Tell your sister Kida hello for me."
Riding past his tepee, Kiowa stops at his mother's home. He dismounts Night Wind and barges into her wicker hut.
"Welcome home, Kiowa," his mother says. Grass Woman stands, dusts her buckskin skirt off, and greets her son with a huge hug and a wet kiss on the cheek. She motions toward her guest. "Kida has been telling me of her trip to trade with the Hopi."
Kiowa stiffens.
"She says she had hoped to find you and your uncle, but she only found Paw's trail."
"Yes. He was easy to find. I was able to find his trail there and followed it back," Kida says with a half-smile.
If you could follow his tracks, you could follow mine. I must find out how much this fox knows. "You have always been a good tracker, Kida."
"I can catch anything that leaves a trail!" Her half smile expands into a full smile.
"Wonderful. Mother, may I speak with you by yourself?"
Kida uncrosses her folded legs and leaps to her feet. "I was leaving. I just wanted to tell you something, Grass Woman that I thought you must know. But I can see that Kiowa will most likely tell you himself."
Kiowa looks away.
"Kida, stay. You are like a daughter to me. Anything Kiowa has to say, he can say in front of you."
Both women turn their attention to Kiowa. Smiling mother and jealous frowning squaw make a strange mix of expressions.
"Well, since we are the family with Taime, I thought we could start the sun dance early in the spring instead of in the summer."
"What a strange request," Kida says with a scrutinizing scowl.
"Yes, indeed," Grass Woman says, looking from Kida to Kiowa. She lowers her hand and takes Kida's, thinking she's pieced together the cause of this strange request.
"I just feel like it would be better for the tribe if we had answers to questions before summer."
"Questions like?" Grass Woman grins excitedly, putting her arm around the woman she assumed was her soon-to-be daughter-in-law.
"Questions that will send me on my life's journey. If it is possible, do you think we can hold it in three—no, four—moons?"
"Why not tomorrow?" Kida smirks sourly.
Grass Woman's smile beams so wide, she shows her missing teeth. She lifts her hand to cover the blemish. "Yes! Yes, we can. I will tell Onendah. He will be cranky, but he is always that way now."
The next morning, Makes Trouble and Kiowa ride through the village.
"We begin in three days. Treat each other with honor these next few days. We do the dance of the sun. Prepare! Remember to stay away from bear, skunks, rabbits, and buffalo hearts."
Kiowa holds the magic pouch, containing the carved Taime figure, up high so everyone can see he has the power to call the dance.
Each person they greet gives a whoop of understanding and an "Ah-hoe!" vote of confidence.
After Kiowa and Makes Trouble finish informing the entire tribe, Kiowa searches for his uncle.
"Where can he be?"
"If I know your uncle, he is teaching the rabbits how to wrestle."
"Of course he is. I will come to your tepee later. Let me have words with my uncle for now."
Kiowa rides away and finds his uncle in the soft sands by a stream.
"May I speak with you?" he says, interrupting Paw's lesson.
"Wait!" Paw turns back to his student. "Grab my wrist like this," he says as he extends his arm and encourages the youth standing next to him.
The boy does as he's instructed.
"Now pull me into you and use your hip to lift me off the ground."
The boy lifts Paw's muscular body off the ground with little effort. He begins twirling Paw around. "Ha! Ha! Look at me," Snake Tongue shouts, spinning faster and faster. "I have a mighty warrior on my back."
"See, Snake Tongue, now you don't have to go spreading lies around the village. The next time Soaring Sparrow tells you lies, grab his wrist and throw him on the ground." Paw stands up and pats the boy on the head. "Size does not matter when leverage is on your side. Now, remember, we make deals like we wrestle. We always seek leverage."
"Uncle, please!" Kiowa interrupts. "I must speak with you."
His stern, frustrated expression and stomping foot make his nephew look less like a man and more like a child who needs to relieve himself.
"Of course. Go on." He motions with his hand.
"I wish to speak with you alone."
Kiowa leads his uncle away from his students. They walk in silence until they are away from unwanted ears.
"Thank you for telling me about that sacred place."
"Ah, so you found it."
"I did," Kiowa says with a relieved expression.
"So will you be having a son?"
Kiowa bits his bottom lip and shakes his head.
"What is it you want with her if you don't want that?"
"I want to be with only her..."
Paw folds his arms, an indication of a protest Kiowa had not anticipated. "You want to follow the Hopi way?"
"Hear me, Uncle, before you judge me. You have taught me since I was a rabbit, and now I am a Dog Warrior. I do not know what to do with this love I carry, so I asked my mother to sun dance. I do not know how to ask permission from the tribe. She says she will ask Onendah, but she hasn't done anything! I need to have my vision to test my manhood to know whether I am worthy of Hopi love. They have some flame that will burn me up if I am made of leaves. If not, my flame will burn her up like she is leaves. Are we both leaves, or are we both carrying the flame? Someone is bound to get burned!"
Paw says nothing for what seems like an eternity. His eyes shift from side to side as he weighs options out in his mind.
"Does any of this make sense to you, Uncle?"
"No."
"Please, Uncle! Speak your thoughts so my hope will not be crushed into shame."
Paw lifts his finger and says, "Here is what I know. But you already know what I know. Your brother said it when you wanted to bring the Hopi girl to the tribe the first time. The tribe will never allow a warrior like you to marry an outsider like her. I have seen women brought and burned at the stake before. I have seen them shot with arrows. It is always the warriors who think they can bring strange women out. It is always squaws who kill them. Maybe if you marry Kida first, have a child or two with her, then pretend to steal Anoki, she could be your second wife."
Kiowa's face twists in extreme disgust. "I could never be with Kida."
"She is the best of our women, and everyone says you will pick her."
"Who says that?"
Paw shrugs. "Everyone!"
Author's note: Poor Anoki. Rejected for her beliefs, her tribe, and her ways. Believe me, I can relate. My tribe (mostly my sister) rejected my love. So sad, but when you get lemons, you make lemonade!