Chapter 12 - Shooting The Moon
The orchestra began to play as the Hunt Ball began. No one was dancing though. Thomas did some quick thinking and realized that the guest of honor, the princess, was supposed to start out the dance, with the king and queen watching. John Smith had forgot to mention this to him. Thomas did not offer Pocahontas his hand like John Smith had instructed him but rather reached out and grabbed her hand. He pulled her out onto the dance floor, surrounded by the lords and ladies.
The music was much different than the drums and flutes of her village and even different than the fiddle and hornpipe she had heard back in Jamestown. It was much slower. Only their hands touched, hers placed atop his in the air between them. She tried to stick to the memorized dance steps she had practiced with John Rolfe. Thomas led her through the dance sure-footedly. They spun around each other like two birds in a courtship dance, Thomas eyes' never leaving hers. Soon the other couples joined in the dance and the pressure of everyone watching them came to an end.
"So, we came all this way for this," Thomas remarked off-handedly as they danced, though her hand was still on his. "Though I used to live in England, I never attended a ball before. It's a bit different than the dance back in your village, or the one we had back in Jamestown, or even on the ship."
"Yes, it's a bit different," Pocahontas answered, "though I have seen peacocks do something similar before."
Thomas tried hard to keep from laughing in public.
"You didn't do such a bad job talking to the king and queen," he went on. "I never met them before. Actually your father Chief Powhatan was the first king I met."
"I miss him," Pocahontas said, "and the others back in Virginia."
"And Meeko? Don't worry, we'll see them again. I promised. Unless," he said hesitantly, "you wish to stay here in England. Which do you prefer, London or Virginia?"
"I am enjoying myself here, but . . . once we are finished here, I wish to return home to Virginia," Pocahontas admitted.
"I'll be with you every moment," he said.
As the music came to a crescendo he put his hands on either side of her waist and lifted her up into the air, giving a laugh. Her feet left the floor as if she were floating, her hands anchored onto his shoulders. She gave a small laugh as well as her raven hair toppled down to the skirt of her gown. She landed on the ballroom floor again in Thomas' arms.
While John Smith and John Rolfe were distracted making conversation with the king about their adventures back in Virginia, Thomas led Pocahontas on a walking tour of the palace.
He walked hand in hand with the princess down a deserted hallway. For a moment she stopped in front of a window and glanced up at the moon and a star in the night sky.
"What are you thinking about?" Thomas asked her, leaning up against the windowpane.
"A story I heard from Kekata." The medicine man told many memorized tales to the tribe about different animals and warriors and maidens.
"Tell me," he said interestedly.
"Coyote the trickster once approached a lone warrior and told him that if he shot an arrow at the moon and if it hit its mark, the moon would grant him whatever wish he made."
Thomas listened, sympathizing with the lonely warrior. "What happened?"
"The warrior made his heart's wish and tried three times to hit the moon with no success. Then he aimed his last arrow upward, straight at the moon. He pulled the string of the bow back with all his might. He let the arrow fly, but it struck the night sky with so much force that it shattered the sky into pieces that fell down to the earth. Coyote was punished by having to collect all the sky pieces and putting the sky back together. But some pieces were still missing, and the holes in the sky were now stars. The missing pieces can still be found here and there, and will grant a wish to anyone who finds one."
"He over-aimed at the moon," Thomas said lowly.
Pocahontas gazed at him, remembering how they had took turns firing bows and arrows back in the village, and imagining him as the lone warrior in the tale who she had always wondered about. What had he wished for? Kekata would not tell her.
Thomas reached out a hand and playfully tugged at the ends of her long hair. "Tell me, what would you wish for?"
Pocahontas turned to the window. "I would wish to see my home of Virginia again."
"And I wish for you to return with me to Virginia."
Pocahontas looked back to him. He then imitated stringing a bow and arrow, aiming it toward the window and upward at the moon, and letting the arrow go. "Phew!" He made the sound of the arrow flying, lips quirked in a grin.
"Perhaps I will find a piece of the sky," she replied, her red-painted lips raising in a smile.
Thomas raised a hand and brushed it against Pocahontas' cheek, then leaned in to kiss her on the mouth. Pocahontas felt herself lost in the kiss. He pushed her up against the palace wall, her arms thrown around his shoulders. Her hand grasped his red hair at the back of his head while his hands pulled her long charcoal-black hair behind her lower back. Pocahontas felt as if flames were flickering inside of her. Thomas felt like a heat wave had come over him as a red haze burned his cheeks. Then Thomas broke apart from their kiss and pulled away from the embrace.
"We should get back before they come looking for us," he said, thinking of their two chaperones being distracted by conversation the last time he saw them. And then we should get back to Virginia, he thought to himself, where they would be free once again from this suffocating way of life. He missed the virgin beaches and forests of America.
