CHAPTER 73
Back at the sacred pine forest, where the Indians first transformed into wolves, Onendah stands in front of a lean-to medicine lodge. He had crudely stretched buffalo hides over the weak beams and wetted them down. The hasty construction had gone into the night.
"Come, friends. It has been a winter, a spring, a summer, and now a fall. I have safe lodgings for you. Come." He pulls a buffalo-skin flap back. Billowing steam plumes out and obscures the brilliant harvest moon.
Paw and Makes Trouble go to work on the lodge, ensuring that it is stable.
"What am I supposed to do?" Anoki asks Kiowa.
"Be cleansed," Kiowa answers, putting his arm around his scantily clad wife.
"Why must we be cleansed?" Walpi whispers to Kida.
"Because your spirit is dirty," Kida whispers back.
Onendah beckons them and pats each one on the head as they enter the lodge. "I must hear your stories and we must all dance a new moon dance to honor the gods before dawn. I have spent a year getting ready for it. Since you have all returned unharmed, we must worship and make a sacrifice to the gods."
"But we have so little time," Walpi complains.
Everyone goes silent.
Onendah hits him with his wand. "There, you have been marked. If trouble comes, it comes to you. All the rest who want protection, we must dance and be thankful."
He leads the nearly naked, wobbling tribe into the lodge.
"Ha! You have forgotten how to walk as people. It is to be expected. I forgot how to use my people arms. But see how quickly my hands work?" He motions all around with his hands to show them what he's done.
Paintings and dream weavers litter the shelter. Walpi and Anoki wear the same dumbfounded expression, while the Kiowa walk up to the magic symbols and motion with their hands. They thank their gods and pray to them for protection. Walpi rubs the spot where Onendah hit him.
How do I shake a curse? he wonders.
A tremendous wave of heat opens every pore as Onendah spills water onto heated rocks. Inside, a large pole is painted white and decorated with bat wings strung together, taut raccoon skins, spider webs captured in time, and snakeskins frozen midslither. They all point to the sky to honor the creator.
"We must have spirits of the night with us if we are to be cleansed and receive their powers."
Onendah escorts the men to one side and the women to the other. They thank him as they dress in white Kiowa ceremonial deerskin raiment.
"What is it like to walk as wolves?"
They all look at one another and smile with an understanding that words cannot describe.
"It is—" Paw begins.
"Yes, that is wonderful." Onendah cuts him off. He waves an eagle feather fan and disperses sagebrush smoke. "It is quite amazing to be an eagle also, but I will not bore you with the greatness of flight and all the many wonderful things I have seen. Listen, dawn is fast approaching. We must move. We must dance."
"Quickly, paint your faces. Hurry, now. We mustn't waste time. The sun will be upon us, and I am sad to say that the Kiowa tribe searches for you still," the medicine man informs them as he hands them a tray of white paint.
Anoki paints a single stripe across her face. Kiowa presses his hands against both sides of his mouth and uses three fingers to leave tracks across his forehead. Each Indian paints themselves according to their visions.
Onendah motions for them to sit down once they are finished. He lights a long hollowed-out pipe and passes it around.
"Het ya. Nay ah, hay ya." He begins to chant the medicine song. He motions for them to repeat his prayer.
"Brother to the sun, we thank you, pale moon, for keeping our secrets and letting us live a life that we could not dream, but living in it feels like a dream."
Kiowa begins to sway back and forth. The men follow his lead. Kida beats her hands against a raw hide. She exaggerates the motion to show Anoki she is to do the same.
The dance takes up most of the night. Onendah brings out a leather pouch with the invaluable stone idol, Taime.
"I know we would normally dance for days, but because of our circumstances, we have only this little bit of time. I have Taime with me. Ask his blessing and be on your way."
"Let Anoki go first," Kiowa politely requests.
Anoki sits up on her knees and makes rocking motions with her cradling arms. "I would like a baby. Many winters with my loving husband. And enough game to last all of us through another winter."
Kiowa motions to his teeth and pretends to elongate them. He thanks Taime for giving him the power to defeat his enemies. He asks with hand signs that his mind will be quicker than his enemies', his heart braver, his strength increased tenfold, and his magic even more powerful.
Paw's request is quick. He thanks Taime for giving him new legs and asks that he may continue to look after one who feels like his son, Kiowa.
Makes Trouble lifts an owl wing and drags the feathers across his face. He asks that Taime will sweep doubts away from his eyes. He motions fox ears with his fingers and asks that his mind will be clever and filled with fox thoughts. He also asks for wisdom beyond the owl. He prays for the power of an entire wolf pack and asks his tribe to forgive him if he fails to transition into a gold wolf. He finishes his prayer by asking that Taime that his sister stay a wolf.
All eyes turn on Kida.
She takes a moment. The stillness breeds sorrow. Tears stream down her cheeks. She points to Kiowa, then her heart, and signs like she's breaking a stick over her knee. She thanks Taime for removing the thorn from her heart and giving her a new heart. She goes to point at Walpi, then pauses for an infinite awkward second. Her cheeks blush and she quickly signs her gratitude for her mother and father and asks Taime that they will forgive her and Makes Trouble for the life they have chosen to live.
The tribe lets out soft expressions of joy.
Walpi is the last to go. He asks for only one thing, that whomever he gives his heart to will accept it.
Onendah motions for them all to rise.
"It is important to remember this. We walk in two worlds now. Never forget what it means to be people, but also, enjoy being wolves."
Anoki breaks the reverence. "How long will we be like this?"
Onendah looks to Kiowa with a harsh glance.
Kiowa raises his hand and lowers it, signing her to hold her peace.
Onendah motions for them to come closer.
Kiowa and Anoki put their arms around each other. Their flesh presses together for the first time, which excites them and causes them to blush with giddy waves of tiny tingling lightning bolts.
Onendah lifts the wolf paw and goes to transform them, but Anoki stops him. She slides her smooth hand into Kiowa's rough, firm grip. "I beg of you. Please let us use our mortal hands on mortal flesh as long as magic will permit."
Anoki wastes no time waiting for permission. Onendah's baffled expression gives her the opportunity to lead her love's beaming face off into the forest.
"Ugh…" Onendah says with a confused look on his face. "The honey of love is sticky business. The stingers of these bees' love will certainly keep all of us away."
I will stay awake and watch for the sun. Let them be husband and wife, Makes Trouble signs as he touches the lance and the wolf paw at the same time. He seamlessly transforms into an auburn wolf. Circling around the pit to find a comfortable place to rest, he lies down.
Sitting by the fire, Paw feels his eyes grow heavy. He nods once, then twice, and quickly falls asleep as Onendah rests his old bones.
The fire crackles and sways. When the sky lightens and the stars begin to fade, Paw feels a cold hand push on his arm.
"You did not think Makes Trouble would stay awake, did you?" Onendah asks the dreary-eyed man.
"You were supposed to watch for them," Onendah grumbles. "Now an old man has lost his sleep and will never find it. Get up and quickly go get your pack together."
Paw sits up and yawns. He touches the lance and paw, stretching into a wolf as he leaves the sweat lodge. Outside, he tilts his head back and howls.
Kiowa and Anoki fumble out of the forest. The peaceful, joyous expressions on their faces reveal what their words never could.
Onendah holds the golden lance up. They each place their hand on the shaft. Then he touches each Indian with the wolf's paw. One by one they skinwalk back into wolves.
"Go, my children. Be free!" He waves them off, then returns to the lodge. "I am old and tired. Now I must…" He sits down and yawns. "Time is the enemy to us all. We think it will never run out when we are younger, but here I am, Taime, in the winter of my life. I am here with your spirit all these years later and, somehow, I lived each day as one."
He lifts the owl wing and washes smoke and steam over his head.
"Bless them, Taime. Bless my wild children that they will have great love and happiness in their lives. Do not let the Woman in the Ground take them anytime soon. Let her go find others to take to her land of cold, deep sleep. The world is full of old lazies who would rather sleep always. Lazies like me." He yawns. "So why not take me to rest, Woman in the Ground? Rest with my wife." Onendah blinks once, then falls asleep just as the sun rises.
Several days later, cattle move through the prairie. Fenced in a fifty-mile circuit, they circle and feed on fresh-grown grass and drink from a stream that cuts through the property.
"Yum…num…yum. The tops are so fresh and crisp. It tastes so good! Ona, try you some of this here," Ol' Bruce, the big brown bull, says, rocking his lower jaw back and forth. He grinds the grass to a pulp, then closes his eyes and swallows.
"Simply divine." The thousand-pound prize bull savors each delicious bite.
A cowbell chimes as Ona moseys on over, she's a black-and-white spotted dairy cow with short horns. She leans down and munches on the tall grass.
"Bruce, that sure is good."
Miles away from the cattle, the wolf pack hide in the shadows of a new cave they've discovered.
Paw's long black snout glances over at Kiowa. "I believe Raging Bull now. There are no more buffalo and, like a fool, I killed all the sheep."
"You didn't kill all the sheep," Anoki interjects. "I did. So did Kida."
"Perhaps he was right. So what! He's dead, and nothing can change that. Maybe the time of the buffalo is over. Thankfully, the Great Spirit has provided a new buffalo for us." Makes Trouble licks his lips and motions for the cattle.
Kida squints off in the distance and spots the cattle.
Most of the day, Makes Trouble and Kiowa prepare a plan that they run past Paw. When the three warriors come to an agreement, they run their plan past Kida and Walpi. Brief objections are met with more discussions, but eventually a plan is agreed upon. Then Anoki has her say.
"Rest now. We will need our strength when we move out."
The pack settles down. Most doze off.
Two wolves stir. Kida and Walpi. Waiting for the rest of the pack to fall sleep, Kida slips out and walks a good distance away. She climbs on top of a large cliff that overlooks the canyon and tilts her head to the glowing half-moon and diamond-like stars.
"Arrr, arrr, eeeewwww," she howls softly, singing the wails of her heart. Her words are a mix of sobs and fractured sentences.
"Mother, I miss you. Father, do you miss your daughter? Makes Trouble is happy. Do you search everywhere for us and find us nowhere? We are here with Kiowa and his stupid pack!" she whimpers.
Walpi slowly makes his way up to her, then sits beside her.
"Is it good to mourn for so long?"
"You could not understand a woman's broken heart, Hopi."