CHAPTER 57
"Kiowa, can you not see who that wolf is?" Anoki asks.
Somewhere in that ravage gray beast, Kiowa was also Indian, and when his love spoke, he knew the place. It was his heart.
"That is your uncle. Release him."
Kiowa blinks several times, then opens his mouth. His whole body is on fire from where the wolves bit and clawed him.
"Anoki, it is I, your brother, Walpi," the gold wolf says, keeping a safe distance from her and Kiowa.
"I know who you are. I assume that monster is Makes Trouble. But who is this red wolf? Is this a real wolf, or a skinwalker like us?"
"What happened?" Kiowa asks, as though he has been somewhere else and has just returned.
The other wolves lower their heads and submit, except for Paw. He pants and licks his wounds. Though he won't admit it, his head aches so bad he wonders if his nephew did not fracture his skull.
"Have your senses become so much like the wolf that none of you is man?" Paw asks, wondering why his nephew has treated him so harshly.
Kiowa shakes from his snout to his big bushy tail.
"I do not know. I was here with Anoki. Now I'm here with all of you. Uncle, you are one of us!" the mighty gray wolf says, panting.
Paw tilts his head in total confusion.
"Makes Trouble? Walpi? Onendah changed you as well?"
The two playfully pounce around. Makes Trouble looks ridiculous.
You didn't think we would leave you alone in the dangerous wild, did you? he signs.
Kiowa glances at the red wolf. "Who is this?"
All eyes turn to the limp red wolf.
She is alive. I can hear her heartbeat, Makes Trouble signs.
The wolves circle Kida, growling.
As she comes to, she slowly sits up. Her cracked ribs and sore neck keep her from putting up a fight.
"Kill me quickly!" she says, lowering her head.
Anoki sits beside Kiowa. The early-morning light begins to lighten up the dramatic scene.
"A woman knows the actions of her own. You are the one who loves Kiowa?"
"KIDA!" Kiowa growls, baring his fangs.
With great effort, Kida rises to her feet, taking her most proud stance. "It is I! I am not ashamed of who I am, though now, what I am." She lifts her paw and licks it, "Abandoning our people will not save lives. Our people are excellent trackers. Come, Kiowa. Let us change back to our human forms so we can marry and be one with our people and be together"—she glares at Anoki—"and be happy."
"I am one with my people and I am more happy than I have ever been in all my life."
"The Hopi girl is not our people, and you are happy roaming the plains as a man. As nature intended you. You kill buffalo and protect our people. This is how we live. This is how we have always lived. This is just how things are!"
"Anoki is not people anymore, and neither are we. We are wolves now," Paw says, pointing out an obvious fact that Kida has overlooked.
"It doesn't have to be this way, Kiowa. But if you will not change back, I will go and tell the tribe what you have become. If you think they were angry before, wait until they see you now."
"Do the Kiowa speak wolf? Or do they kill wolves?" Anoki asks.
"Arrggghhh! They will speak to me when I change back," Kida lashes out.
Paw looks up at the rising sun. "Onendah said they would not be able to change until the next harvest moon. This means we cannot change either."
"Not allowed to shape-shift back? But I thought his power would allow us to come and go as we pleased." Kida begins to cry, which sounds like pathetic whimpers.
"Were any of you forced to change? Or have you all chosen this path?" Kiowa asks.
Each wolf reflects on their decision.
"I was the first to choose this!" Walpi proudly proclaims.
I chose the same, Makes Trouble confesses with signs.
"I wasn't sure what I wanted, and I could have been anything. No matter what I would have been, my heart is with my would-be son. Where he goes, I will follow," Paw answers.
"I only transformed into a wolf because I could not think of what kills a wolf, or I would have chosen that," Kida hisses.
"It seems one thing unites us all," Anoki concludes.
"What is that, Hopi girl?" Kida vehemently demands.
Anoki scoots toward Kiowa and rests her paw so it touches his. "Love!"
Kida snarls and skulks away, like Anoki is twisting a knife in her already-bleeding wounds.
"Think of it. I love Kiowa and he loves me. So we chose this. Makes Trouble loves Kiowa like a brother, so here he is. Paw, you could have been anything, but I can see you love your nephew. Walpi, do you love me?"
Walpi nods.
"Even Kida, twisted as her love may be, came to be a wolf through love for Kiowa."
If looks could kill, Kida's face would have killed Anoki. But as they are as harmless as words and since Kiowa already forced her into submission, all she can do is show her discontent by sticking her tongue out and making horrible angry faces.
"Your words are true, Hopi, but what do they mean?" Paw asks.
"Can't you see? We have everything a tribe would need. We have love, warriors, women, and now we have numbers."
"Uhm…Anoki, I wanted to be a lone wolf with just you," Kiowa says, hoping to resume his honeymoon.
"You are so much like your father." Paw chuckles, shaking his head and thinking of the irony in Kiowa's father's name, Lone Wolf.
"I propose this: Accept our love. We would be with a tribe if they would have allowed it. But since they will not, we can have our own tribe."
A word: Isn't Anoki grand? So forgiving. Such a big heart.