Now, my soul's been sent to Hell, tortured, almost became a demon, rescued, shoved back into a months old corpse, mangled by angels, actually turned into a demon, purified and then slowly corrupted by the Father of Murder's Mark that made me immortal, then healed from that. It's been through a lot. Sam's soul hasn't had it much better. I sort of expected a wrenching, tearing, agonizing pain when Coyote did whatever she was going to do but it was nothing like that. Maybe the Natives just have nicer magic, or my Warrior Spirit isn't the same as a soul, whatever the reason I definitely preferred the experience over all the other times my soul's been separated from me. This internal warmth spread through me, almost like I'd just had a shot of really expensive bourbon and I felt bigger, not physically but like I was part of something greater. Maybe whatever Coyote was doing was bringing me some sort of enlightenment, which was damned amusing to think about for a second or two until the warmth faded and this pressure started building in my chest. It wasn't painful, not really, but something definitely wanted out. Coyote's chanting changed again, the pressure grew and the space in front of me started to glow, same with Cougar and Sam. Her voice grew louder, her dancing got faster then she threw her head back and brought her hands together in front of her chest. What followed that wasn't just a clapping sound, I was pretty sure the rumble of thunder that seemed to roll through the forest was somehow linked with what she just did. A huge black wolf stepped out of my chest, I felt this really odd sucking feeling deep inside me and that's when things got weird.

I was on two feet while being on four paws, I could feel wind rustling through what was left of my fur at the same time I felt it on my hands. An even larger white wolf stepped out of Sam's chest, it's fur was streaked with black and it had several old, healed scars on it. A cougar that had to be the most massive version of a cougar anyone could imagine stepped from Cougar's chest. It glowed pure white and had some seriously huge teeth. I looked back down at the black wolf that was my Spirit, Sam's scars had all healed. Mine? Well let's just say if I saw a dog that looked like my wolf did I'd call the cops on whoever owned it.

It had more scars then fur, a lot of them were open and bleeding. Buried under the new wounds were layers and layers of whip marks, knife wounds and burns. It turned it's head and looked at me, the eyes were red tinted yellow and tired. Sam's wolf and Cougar's cougar had already taken a few steps and were crouching down, waiting for something to come at them. Mine just stood there, like it didn't have the energy to move. At least it did until Sam's wolf snarled at another, smaller grey wolf that had appeared and seemed to be heading straight for him. My wolf went from exhausted to straight out rabid in half a second. It lunged at the grey wolf, knocking it off it's paws and straight into a tree. I felt it when they hit the tree, I felt the teeth of the grey wolf ripping into my skin and I tasted the blood when my wolf ripped it's throat clean out. This was going to be confusing as all hell.

Coyote had opened her eyes after calling our Spirits out, she saw my wolf take out the grey one and almost stopped doing her odd shuffling dance, which probably would have been bad. I didn't know which was worse, the complete surprise on her face at how bad it looked or the look of sorrow that followed. Then her eyes met mine and what I saw t topped the other two for things I didn't need to see. Pity laced love, I hate pity. I didn't know if she was pitying me because of what I had been through or what but it didn't matter. I make my choices, however stupid they may end up being but they're my choices. I live with what comes after, always have, always will. Before I could get too pissed off about it four wolves, another cougar and a bobcat came at us along with a a whole slew of war cries from the people they belonged to and, judging by the volume, a few of their friends had come with them.

The wolves were varying shades of browns and greys, they looked more like the usual wolves you see pictures of. The bobcat went straight for the large coyote that had appeared out of nowhere about ten feet away from Coyote, which was a stupid move on it's part. Cougar's cougar didn't wait. It took one jump, landed on the bobcat and I thought that was the end of that till the other cougar joined in and knocked him off the bobcat. Sam's wolf and mine stood side by side and waited for the other wolves to come at us but they stopped about twenty feet away and started shaking their heads while pawing at their eyes.

"That confusion thing she did?" I asked Cougar who winced in pain, his cougar had taken another hit.

"Yes. It won't last long though."

"How do we...never mind."

Our wolves seemed to know what to do and split apart to come at the four from opposite sides. Then an arrow flew by and a scream came from behind me. I spun and saw a guy with one of Roy's arrows sticking out of his chest stagger and fall over about four feet away from Coyote's back, he had a knife in his hand. I have no idea why they weren't using guns but I was damn happy about it. The Spirits and screaming had all been a distraction, well until now. Now they broke cover and came at us, give me an enemy running straight into my gun every time. I went to fire at one guy when a burning pain sliced across my arm just as howl came from where the wolves were. It was so damn intense that I lost my grip on the gun just as the guy I'd been about to shoot lunged at me with a huge ass knife. I jumped back when the taste of blood hit my mouth again along with the feel of my teeth wrapped around a furry neck. Oh yeah, this was going to be really damn complicated. My arm still worked, thankfully, so I managed to pull the tomahawk out which I'd stashed where I usually put my machete and took a swing at him. He wasn't expecting that and ducked out of the way just as another guy came from my right screaming and aiming for my head with a damn sword. I got the tomahawk up fast enough to catch his blade redirect it, then aim a left cross for his face. It hit but didn't seem to do much to him. He brought his sword back up high, I went low and took a chunk out of his stomach, that got his attention. I didn't have time to finish him off since the first guy came back at me just as my breath somehow got knocked out of me even though no one had hit me. I dropped, rolled away and saw my wolf pinned underneath one of the bigger enemy wolves. Mine was snapping at the other's neck and raking his back claws along belly of the brown wolf. The brown wolf snarled and drove down towards my wolf's neck, Sam's wolf was busy with the other two wolves but spotted what was going on, literally jumped over them and tackled the enemy wolf away from mine. Mine righted itself and got in between the remaining two and growled so loud my rib cage was rattling. They froze and Sam's wolf ripped the hell out of the one it'd tackled while hideous, gut wrenching screams came from the woods again. That was the second time that'd happened and I'm not a real big believer in coincidence. I knew what they were up to.

"Roy! Take out the people in the woods!"

If we could take out the Spirits that'd be one less threat to us and make it a helluva a lot easier to concentrate on the physical fighting. I didn't know where Roy was or if he'd even spotted the people hiding out, hell I didn't even know if he'd heard me then the cougar screeched and started squirming like something was stuck in it's back. Cougar's cougar didn't wait to see if it'd explode and went for the choke hold that cats always use. Sam's wolf looked up from it's kill and snarled in the general direction of the remaining wolves and I didn't know what had happened to the bobcat by then. The last two wolves lunged towards ours just as the ground became covered with snakes.

All of us, people and Spirits alike jumped. I don't care what world you're in, you see snakes, you move. Somehow Coyote had managed to stay free of the fighting, not sure why or how but I noticed no snakes were inside the circle she'd drawn where she was still chanting and dancing. Fake snakes then, I was about to start slicing their heads off with the tomahawk when a frigging flock of some kind of falcon just appeared out of nowhere and dove straight for the snakes.

The snakes vanished, the falcons broke off and vanished into the trees and we all sort of stared at each other for a second, "Take that bitch!" Coyote shouted into the woods. "How many more lives are you going to lose today? Well?"

Another yelp came from the forest, then the sounds of something crashing through trees followed by a thump, then silence. I heard some weird bird calls and the remaining people along with the wolves backed off and four guys walked towards us, behind them was a woman. She was in full Native dress like Coyote but had the long, feathered headress trailing down behind her. Next to her two guys were carrying Roy who was tied up, gagged and looked knocked out cold. "I guess I should ask you the same question sister." The woman said. She was shorter than Coyote, her skin was not nearly as dark as most of the Natives I'd seen and she had blue eyes. There was no way she was pure Native, no way in hell.

They dropped Roy then tossed his bow on the ground next to him. One of the men kneeled down and put a knife against his throat, "He's rather skilled," Leaping Deer stated, "But he showed himself to follow your order."

Somehow things like that always end up being my fault. Worst part was neither Sam or I had a clear shot, thanks to the guys shielding her. Of course my gun was still on the ground so I guess it didn't really matter.

"Why are you fighting me Sister Running Coyote? This is what's right for our people."

She had that feel, the psychos always do. They act all nice and polite even when they're sticking blades into you.

"Our people?" Coyote replied, "You're not even a pure blood Indian."

"And yet here I stand, surrounded by proud Warriors while you have three white men and your childhood friend. You may have the skin tone and the heritage but we know what you are pretender. You rejected us, rejected your heritage, refused to take any Native man to your bed, still do. You're a white man's whore, filled with greed and disgust of your own kind. Your tribe knows that, the others know that which is why you stand here outnumbered and alone."

I sure as hell wasn't going to stand for that, "Watch it bitch!" My wolf's snarl added a nice extra emphasis.

"You reek of evil and despair," she shot back, "Look at your Spirit. That is what she chooses over us."

"Show me yours or shut the hell up," I replied. "I doubt it's pure seeing as how you've been on a nice murdering spree."

"I don't answer to you."

I was about to keep egging her on when Coyote took the words out of my mouth.

"And I sure as hell don't have to answer to you. You stand there, hiding behind your so called warriors, using a helpless white man as a hostage while lecturing me about being a pretender? You're planning to kill thousands of innocent people, people who did nothing to us in some sick attempt to bring about a better life for us? You're nothing but a sick, twisted, half breed who plays at being an Indian."

"So arrogant, so blind. It's a pity, I could have used you. Kill them."

Their wolves lunged, her guys lifted their bows and a deafening screech from the sky just about made all our ears bleed. I looked up and there was that same pure white eagle I'd seen all those years ago in the vision and it was diving right towards Leaping Deer.