CHAPTER 55
The couple is trapped in their bliss, a dance ensues. The wolves circle each other and nuzzle noses.
Kiowa presses his lips to her face and tries to kiss her, but his lips don't work the same.
"I wish with all my heart that I could kiss you."
"I wish you could hold me. Your arms are strong and made me feel safe."
The wolves go from howling gratitude to whimpering loss.
"It seems in our desperate escape, we have sacrificed our first night as man and wife."
"What shall we do?" Anoki asks with her hungry eyes fixed on his.
Her seductive stance makes his hind legs go weak, forcing his bottom to the ground. His tail flops all around, picking up pine needles as it pats the earth. His ears flatten.
"A warrior so brave and so fierce must have other passions," she says, stepping toward him, the huntress, now hunting the hunter.
Kiowa tries to think of ways to show his love to his new wife, but the reality of the situation is that the exchange they made has robbed him of his most human element, mortal affection. Thoughts of him dragging his fingers through her hair are displaced as he examines his paws and realizes that his claws will most likely hurt her. His tongue goes in and out of his mouth as the sweet words he wishes to say to her won't form on this large, cumbersome animal tongue. He puckers his lips to kiss hers, but instead bumps his snouts with hers. Wrecking everything, he presses his head to her neck and wonders what it would have been like to touch her breasts. The agony of the loss makes him draw a long deep breath and release slowly. He whimpers.
Careful, you fool. This is your wedding night, and if you keep this up, she's going to name you Whimpers a Lot. The thought of having such a weak name reminds him of his youthful days when he was going to paint a deer on his shield.
"Wolf or woman, I am your wife, am I not?"
"I am thinking of a way to treat you as my wife."
"Have you not grown up near animals?"
"Yes," he says, clenching his teeth and closing his eyes. He releases one last remorseful whimper.
"Are they so different than we?"
Yes! he thinks to himself, reflecting on his loss.
He knows better than to list the human features he already misses.
The two stand close to each other and eventually maneuver into positions that allow them to consummate their marriage.
Back in the pine forest, the Indians stare at the glowing magic.
"We shouldn't," Paw says, looking at the wolf paw and the golden lance.
"Onendah isn't here to stop us." Makes Trouble smirks.
Before he can finish his words, Walpi lunges for the lance and touches the wolf paw and lance.
"I will not let you eat my sister," Walpi shouts. He immediately collapses and disappears beneath the glowing mist.
"Hopi? Hopi!" Makes Trouble shouts in a jealous rage. He watches Walpi's hand rise up above the mist like he's reaching for the sky. Wolf claws protrude out of his fingertips and his hand sprouts light brown fur, but the transformation doesn't appear as swift. A shadow stirs inside the mist. Two wolf eyes glow. A growl is heard. The vapors swirl. A man's frame with a wolf's head startles Makes Trouble.
"Well, if Hopi can change, then why not us?" Makes Trouble asks Paw. He does as Onendah showed them. The transformation does not go as smoothly. His hands grow long black claws and sprout golden fur, but the popping sound doesn't occur. His head twists and configures into a wolf's, but his heart lacks courage during the transformation and his body begins resisting the change.
Makes Trouble swipes at a tree and leaves a huge gash in the trunk.
Splinters spray against Paw's calm face. "Don't fight the magic, Makes Trouble."
Makes Trouble's fearful heart keeps his chest, arms, and legs human. He looks at Paw with a wolf's head and gurgles as his snout protrudes and his teeth elongate.
"AAAARRRRGGGHHRRRROOOO." Makes Trouble unleashes a terrifying evil howl. His back broadens and triples in size. His chest doubles in bulging mass. In an instant, he grows muscles so thick he doesn't resemble a man or a wolf, but something in between. He spreads his massive arms out and sees coiling golden wolf hair spread all over his body in patches instead of one smooth coat. He holds his hands up and examines his mutilated fingers, then presses them to his cheeks and shakes his head. His eyes flutter, then glow bright green. He looks down at his feet and sees black claws protruding out of his splitting moccasins. In a rage, he sprints into the forest, slashing tree trunks as he goes.
Paw grumbles and shakes his head. "He makes trouble, even with magic." Paw thinks it odd that Makes Trouble resists. Now he is stuck with the head and hands of a wolf but the body of a man. "How awful and dreadful. Not even a woman's love could look upon that monster's face."
With no one left to stop Paw, and since he has no one left to live for, he sighs and reaches down to pick up the lance. As soon as his fingertips make contact, he feels the sun's power. A sun-kissed glow transfers from the lance to his body.
"Ah-hoe, this feels amazing!" he says with a bright smile. His teeth glow white. "All that is left for me now is magic."
Not far away, Makes Trouble's growls and screams mix between beast and man.
"I'm not so sure I want to be a wolf." Paw reflects on Makes Trouble's transformation. He thinks of every animal he could be.
"Life as a happy river otter would be short. But I might find love again and hold hands with a lady otter. That would be nice."
"Grrrraaaawwwrrrr…" Makes Trouble screams into the night.
"Or maybe a powerful cougar? I've always wondered what it might be like to be a soaring eagle."
"Help me!" Makes Trouble speaks.
"Leave me to make up my own mind, Makes Trouble. You had your turn. Now it's mine. Let's see. I could be a bear." Paw taps his finger to his temple. Oh no. Anything but a bear. He reflects on Black Bear. "I could dangle from the web as a spider or I could crawl on my belly as a snake. Perhaps I could be a large fish and swim in the everywhere waters to find out things no one will ever know." Feelings of excitement surge, but with each thought, images of the predator who eats that animal follows.
"No, I suppose I cannot be any of those things. I could never be eaten. That is the worst of things." He turns the lance over and over and thinks, If only I had my cougar furs.
Not really sure why, he decides against being a mountain lion. Leaning down with true ambivalence, he touches the wolf hide. He immediately transforms into a husky black wolf with gray eyes. His brother's pant legs split off of him and fall to the damp forest ground.
He hears Makes Trouble's heavy breathing.
"Paw, help me! This is bad magic. Something is wrong," Makes Trouble shouts as he returns.
Paw stumbles out of the mist. The two stare at each other, blinking in disbelief.
"Can you understand me?" Makes Trouble snarls.
Paw tilts his head but doesn't answer.
Makes Trouble signs. Your black fur and gray eyes make me wonder how many wolves have watched me without my ever knowing.
"Your green eyes frighten me," Paw responds.
My eyes? What about yours? Makes Trouble signs his response.
"I think I would like to be an eagle like Onendah; do you think it is too late to reverse this spell?" Paw asks.
Makes Trouble stares at him blankly, his distorted jaws gaping.
"Do not eat me, monster. I did not cast the spell. You did it of your own free will."
Where's the lance? I have to change back. I would rather be a cricket than this…this… Makes Trouble thinks, scrambling for the golden lance, but its glow has faded. Oh no. It's too late. What have I done? His jaw pops and elongates his distorted mouth.
Walpi, now a hefty golden wolf with a black raccoon mask that connects to long black streaks down his back, appears out of nowhere. He snarls and leaps on Makes Trouble. In one swift motion, he manages to knock the hideous creature down. The brownish wolf bites hard on the monster's ear. "Run, Father of Kiowa. I will protect you against this ravenous man-wolf."
Makes Trouble screams from the dreadful pain.
"The love I have for my nephew has taken me to strange places…" Paw glances down at the ground, ignoring the scuffle. He sees his golden heat signal fade from the torn deerskin breeches that have acted as his brothers' legs carrying him all the way to here.
"This is the place where I stand on new legs?" He chuckles as he wobbles forward unsteadily on four feet. He leans down and detects the faint scent of his brother beneath the overwhelming sour scent of years of wear.
"Run, Black Wolf, before this monster eats you!" Walpi shouts. He clamps down on Makes Trouble's crooked ear.
"Please, please let go of my ear. You are hurting me terribly." Makes Trouble snarls, then swipes. The last change to his jaw has made it so that his words only come out in drooling growls and snarls. When Walpi doesn't let go, he signs, Help.
Looking up, Paw laughs when he sees Makes Trouble's sign. "That is not a monster, Hopi. That is Makes Trouble."
Walpi releases his bite. "I doubt that. Are you certain?"
Paw looks down at his long sleek black legs. "Onendah said new legs would carry me. I wonder if he knew they would be wolf legs," he says in a tone so low, only animal ears could hear.
Of course he knew! He has great power, Makes Trouble signs.
Paw sits down and lowers his ears. He sees his brother's image in his mind as clearly as if he were standing in front of him. He feels his eyes water and then laughs at the thought of a crying wolf.
"Do you hear that?" Walpi asks, leaping off of Makes Trouble's chest.
I do! Makes Trouble signs, feeling a strange sensation electrify him as his mane stands up on the back of his mortal neck.
"What is it?" Walpi asks Paw, but the black wolf is lost in his thoughts.
"It sounds like crying or…"
"Whimpering!"
"Give me peace, boys. I mourn and feel happy for my lost brother, all at the same time."
They both look at him and tilt their furry heads to the side.
"They are happy tears! That is all."
"Warriors cry?" Walpi asks.
Yet I still hear it, Makes Trouble signs, walking over to the fading mist. He looks down and sees Kiowa's fading prints, Anoki's, and a separate set of wolf prints, which glow much brighter than both of the others. The tracks move in the same direction.
Makes Trouble tilts his head up and sniffs the air.
Paw, I do not think we are the only wolves in the forest, he signs, sniffing the tracks and jogging down the trail. He shakes the earth with his massive frame.
Paw, do you hear me? Makes Trouble signs.
Paw remains lost in memories of his brother. "I did not, but I can see that you will not allow me a single moment of reverence."
"These tracks follow Kiowa's and Anoki's trail," Walpi says.
"Kill," they hear a voice say.