Nevertheless, it was, indeed, a moment of unparalleled beauty. As a feeling of utter joy swept over her, she sighed, realizing she had never felt as though she, too, were a part of the exquisiteness of nature. And, all this was hers because of the love shared between her and Eagle Heart.
"See you...path in sky?" Eagle Heart pointed toward the Milky Way. "This path...we call...Sparkling Wolf Trail. It on this...trail,Poia, Scarface, returned...after visiting Sun."
"I remember this legend," she said, "for you told it to me when we were stranded in the blizzard. It is the legend of the man who journeyed to the Sun so he might marry the girl he loved. Didn't they return to the land of the Sun after they married?"
"Áa, they did, but...before they go...they taught...my people ...sacred sweat...lodge...songs...we sing...still."
"Yes, I remember you telling me about this. And, is it the Sparkling Wolf Trail that Scarface and his wife used to travel between the earth and the land of the Sun and stars?"
"It is so."
"How beautiful a legend it is—perhaps as beautiful as this valley, with snow-capped mountains rising up on both sides of us. As I look at their peaks now under the light of the stars, it seems to me as though the only reason for them being there is to protect this valley. Yet," she continued, "it is strange those mountains should be so deeply entrenched with snow, while here in the valley the grass is still green and beautiful flowers grow abundantly. Also, although it is cool here, it is warm enough for us to sit next to this lake. It is as though we have the best of both worlds."
"It is so," said Eagle Heart in English as he stretched out his arm to pull her in even closer to him. She responded by snuggling in toward him as intimately as she was able.
Even still, it seemed to Laylah that she was not as close to Eagle Heart as she might like to be. It seemed funny to her how the idea of crawling beneath his skin—if it could be done—appealed to her. Only then might she feel she were close enough.
She spoke her thoughts aloud, saying, "I wish I could make love to you throughout each and every day. Or, if we couldn't do this, perhaps we could never be apart from one another. What am I to do? I desire to be in your arms always."
He sighed before he said in English, "I...lucky man."
"I feel in a similar way as you," she said. "Lucky.”
As she looked outward and toward the lake, she became aware of another strangeness: she was not cold. Indeed, with Eagle Heart's buffalo robe wrapped securely about them both, and, with their arms hugging one another, neither one of them shivered, though the air in this place was cool.
Eagle Heart drew his arm away from her for a moment and signed, "Because this valley is so high up from the prairie floor, and because it is nestled between two of the tallest mountains in this part of the country, it gives a man protection against invaders. It is why so few people have knowledge of this place or come here."
"Truly? How is it you know this valley well enough to bring me here?"
"My father has often brought me hunting here," he said in sign.
She frowned. "But, didn't you say this is Crow country? Couldn't you have attracted a Crow war party by coming here to hunt?"
"We could have, it is true, but we never did. And, I think the reason is because the Little People who live here under the earth protect us. My father learned of this place through a family of Little People."
"Oh my, a family of Little People? But, I thought you said the Little People help only the Crow tribe."
"This is usually true. But, my father's story is a little different," he signed, speaking in Blackfeet, also. "When my father was very young and unmarried, he became part of a war party going into Crow country. It was his first time being on the war path. It was a small party, for he and his friends were still quite young and were only trying to raid the Crow for horses, not take lives. However, a Crow war party of many warriors found them and killed them almost to a man. My father was left for dead. It was told to me by my father that the Little People found him and were ready to kill him, too, for they have always favored the Crow. But, there was a young girl in one of the families of these Little People who looked upon my father with love and would let no one near him. Only she would attend to my father's wounds.
"My father grew well again, and, as he became stronger, he began to hunt for her and her entire family, sharing only the choicest meats with them. She is the one who showed this land to him, and he walked it with her often. They talked very much, for he taught her the Blackfoot language. I was told they often held hands. They even sang together. The snows came twice and still he walked this land with her. You see, he loved her, too. But, their love could never be. You have seen that these people are only as tall as a man's knees and sometimes smaller. Even she knew it could not be.
"After a few years, she told him she had no choice but to let him go back to his own people, he to marry another and she to do so, too. But, she asked him before he left if, once a year, he might come back to this valley to visit with her and to hunt for her people."
"And, he has?"
"Áa," Eagle Heart said in gestures and in the Blackfoot tongue. "My father has never failed to return here at least once a year. As I grew older, he began to bring me to this place, because if anything ever happened to him, he wished me to carry on in the same way as he so as to ensure her family was always well cared for. He loved her very much. He still loves her."
"What a beautiful love story," Laylah murmured. "Did you ever meet her when you came here with your father?"
"I have. The Little People do not age as quickly as we do, and it is said they possess an energy which can produce magic. Her name is Auk-a'pii; her hair is dark brown and curly, and she is beautiful. But, she has her own family now, as does my father. Yet, always, they have loved one another. Never has it mattered that he and she were from different races of people. I have seen them together, and there is happiness all about them when they are together. My father says it causes Sun and even the stars to smile.
"Neither her husband nor my mother, nor any of their children," Eagle Heart continued, "care that the two of them are in love. Her family loves him as she does. And, so I love her, too. My father rarely brought my older brother here because my brother walks a different path than I—his spirit living more in the physical realm than in the spiritual world. He could not see the Little People. Perhaps you should know that if ever my father is unable to come here to hunt, I am bound take his place."
"Of course you will." Laylah was disconcerted to discover she was on the verge of crying, for the story touched some deep place within her. And, she wondered what else was she going to learn in this wild and unchartered land?
"You would not object to this?" he asked in sign. "It would be my duty to carry on as my father had done."
"No, of course I would not object. Although perhaps," she added, "you might allow me to join you on these trips? You must be aware I love it here, too. It is, after all, my first home with you since you have become my husband."
