CHAPTER 58
Kida's lips curl in disgust.
"We have all lost our tribes. But it's okay, because those places can be filled." Anoki smiles and prances around as she thinks of all the children she will have under the protection of her new tribe.
"You are not as sneaky as you think. I know what you are thinking, Hopi girl," Kida declares, grimacing.
Anoki trots over to Kiowa and drags her tail under his chin.
"Yes, indeed. We must organize a pack. This will make us stronger," Paw says.
Yes, a pack. Makes Trouble signs his agreement.
"We cannot skinwalk back into our true human form as we please?" Kida asks a second time.
"No, jealous one. We are stuck this way until next fall," Walpi growls.
"Will I be stuck like this"—Makes Trouble waves his hand over his face and presents his body—"until the harvest moon?" He makes a sour face.
Paw nods.
Makes Trouble grunts out a strangled roar.
"Kiowa is the best warrior among us. He will lead us well," Anoki recommends proudly.
"The elders used to say that the strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf," Paw says, thinking back to the bonfire stories that once mesmerized him.
Kida slowly turns and begins to walk away.
"Where are you going, Kida?" Kiowa shouts.
She turns around and lowers her head. "I have offended you both and I don't deserve to be a part of your pack. I will make my own way until the moon turns me back to my true form. Then I will go back home."
"And then what?" Kiowa probes her.
"Tell our secret?" Paw asks.
"Of course. The tribe will want to know." She makes eye contact defiantly.
"They will kill all of us, and Onendah, if you do that," Paw tells Kiowa.
"Then kill me now and be done with me! I am already dead inside. Why not kill the flesh?" She turns and bristles up her mane.
No one can kill my sister, Makes Trouble signs. You all have someone. She is all I have.
Anoki moves in front of the men. "Kida, I forgive you."
"I do not ask for your forgiveness!" Kida roars, growling and moving closer to her.
"Nonetheless, you have it. Our numbers are few. The pack will need women to grow our numbers, and none of these fools was smart enough to bring a woman with them. So that leaves you and me."
Kida glances over at the men. "If any of them had a woman, what woman in her right mind would follow them to this life?"
"It can be no other way, Kida. Life is better than death."
Kida stops snarling.
They all look at each other for consensus.
Walpi is the first to nod his assent and, though she isn't certain, Kida thinks he winked at her.
"Fine, till the next harvest moon, then," Kida relents, seeing the wisdom in her enemies' words. Besides, her aching body won't allow her to fight any longer.
"Let this be our order, then, and let each of you show it by a vote."
One by one, the wolves circle around Kiowa.
"Put your paws together on top of mine and repeat after me."
They obey him.
Makes Trouble is the last to rest his enormous foot on top of their paws, setting it down as gently as he can.
"This is our only law. The strength of the wolf is the pack. And the strength of the pack is the wolf."
As a group, they take their oath.
"Now let us go from this place, for we must learn how to hunt with our mouths and run with four legs," Kiowa says, taking the lead.
Paw sighs. "I am going to starve, as I am clumsy with all of these legs." He hobbles away, feeling a sobering agony from his wounds. An agony all the wolves share, except Anoki.
John picks his nose and goes to eat it, but Charlie's disgusted expression halts him. He looks up like nothing is happening and wipes his booger on the bottom of his shoe.
Charlie gags, then takes a moment to regain his composure.
"As I've said, the Indians survived on the buffalo. So when they became wolves, they still had to rely on the buffalo for survival. But now they had to learn how to hunt as wolves."
"Wait. Wouldn't Kida still be in love with Kiowa? How can they live together?" Zack asks.
"You're thinking about this all wrong. See, the Indians saw all things as necessity. Kida did everything in her power to win Kiowa over and she failed. Now her obligation was to fill a role in the tribe."
"What happens if she doesn't?" John asks.
"You don't wanna be an Indian without an occupation. That would mean you're expendable," Charlie answers.
"So even if she did love him, she had a job to do?" Zack inquires.
"It's not a job; it's her obligation. And if she fell short on a hunt and cost the tribe food, well, then, you better believe she was going to face some punishment."
"Are you saying she didn't really love Kiowa?" Kevin asks.
"Whether she did or didn't, Kiowa chose Anoki. See, boys, it's like this: One day you will all choose a bride, and it doesn't matter if anyone else has feelings for you. All that matters is that you choose, and life goes on."
"So the Indian wolves valued occupation more than love?" John nods, answering his own question.
"That might be true for Kida. Can we get back to the story?" Charlie asks.
Out on a vast open prairie, the wolves crouch on a high mountain. Not a single cloud hovers in the sea-blue sky, while emerald grass stretches out like an ocean.
"Makes Trouble, I am afraid," Walpi whispers to the monster who has both taught him the Kiowa signs and become his mentor.
Makes Trouble draws a deep, growling breath. His auburn, black-flecked patches of fur add to his hideous nature. He looks at Walpi, crosses his legs, and patiently signs, Don't be. The buffalo that lead the pack are not the buffalo that you will attack. Wolves and Indians hunt the same. Kill the old. Run the herd till it tires, then pick off the weak or young. Eat, grow stronger, live to hunt another day.
"How can you tell the weak from the old?"
That is sometimes hard. Older buffalo have gray hairs on their chests and back. But both will separate from the herd, and that is always their biggest mistake.
"Then what?"
Then, when the herd circles around the young, the hunter among us with the greatest courage and the strongest magic will attack the largest buffalo.
"Why do we attack the largest buffalo when we can sustain ourselves off the weak and old?"
Because it is a great honor to kill the courageous ones.
"Can't we get hurt?"
Yes, but they will, too.
"I don't want to get hurt."
None of us do. That's why we use magic.
"But your magic didn't work on you. And besides, I don't have any magic."
Well, you'd better borrow some or you are going to get hurt, Hopi. I swear, all these questions end in one of two ways: Run and kill or run and die.
"One more question."
Makes Trouble growls with a dull, impatient rumble. Yes?
"I am afraid of more than the hunt."
What else scares you besides being mauled by buffalo hooves or stabbed by their horns?
Kida.
Makes Trouble looks at his sister and tilts his gory head to the side in confusion. Why Kida? he signs.
"She keeps staring at me," Walpi signs back with trembling paws.