Bending toward her pony's ear, Laylah said, "You know where to go, don't you, girl?"
Briefly, her pony shook her head, as though to say, "Do you need to ask?"
Laylah smiled.
CHAPTER TWELVE
––––––––
EAGLE HEART AWOKE WITHa start. Some unknown sound had awakened him. He didn't move. He dared not breathe.
Had the enemy found him, after all?
Here came the sound again: a rustling echo made by some being, something alive. Slowly, with stealth, he inched his hand toward the knife at his waist.
"At last you are awake, my brother."
At once, he recognized the mind speak of his sister wolf. He answered, "I had thought you and your mate would have moved away from me by now."
"We cannot," came the reply.
"Why can you not?"
"Because we have news for you:sheis back."
"She?"
"Your mate. She has returned to the place where you saved her."
"Steals-my-breath? She is back?"
"I saw her. My mate did, also."
"Steals-my-breath..." He whispered her name. A flood of joy, of surprise and even shock swept over him, and, for a moment, he was incapable of movement.
His sister wolf said in the mind-to-mind talk, "We stayed here while you slept. How could we leave when she is there and you are here? You cannot make babies when you are not together."
Eagle Heart laughed. He said silently, "It would, indeed, be hard to do."
"We leave now unless you have need of us."
"I believe I can find my way back to the coulee," he said silently. "Do you need food?"
"We would be happy to have whatever you can share."
"Here, what I have in my pouch is now yours." He reached into a medium-sized buckskin bag on his hip and emptied the contents of the dried meat on the slab of the rock which had been his bed. His sister wolf took a slice of the meat and brought it to her mate, who was keeping his distance from Eagle Heart, the human being.
Eagle Heart came up onto his feet and stepped toward his two horses. While he quickly placed his blanket onto the back of his Appaloosa, he glanced toward the sky, observing the star constellation of the Seven Brothers. From this constellation, he estimated the remaining evening hours, realizing the night was only half over, and, if he were lucky and pressed his ponies—changing mounts often—he could probably make the coulee before daybreak.
But, he must ride as fast as the wind. Making his buffalo rope into reins, he placed the grip into his pony's mouth and then jumped onto the Appaloosa, having picked up the rope of his packhorse. Without thinking too greatly about direction, he set his path south and east. Before he left, however, he spoke to the wolves, saying, "Thank you, my friends."
"You are my brother," said the she-wolf. "You are human, but you are also one of us. We are tied."
"Yes," he replied in the mind speak. "We are tied."
****
LAYLAH HAD LITTLE KNOWLEDGEof what to do in the wilderness when no one else was with her, helping her. She didn't possess the skill of creating a shelter from nature, nor did she know if she were safe from any predator—both animal or human—who might venture into this coulee. And, this was not her only problem: she was also frightened.
