He was about to turn back toward the white man when a thought occurred to him, and, stretching out his arm toward the girl, he opened his palm and showed her the bullet.
"Aye, sir," she said. "I saw what thou did. It was as if thy palm pulled up the bullet." And, then she cried.
Reaching out, First Rider caught hold of her hand and, turning his palm upside down, let the bullet fall into her hand. He said, "You…keep. You…helped. Good…omen…this. You keep."
"I will," she said, her lips shaking as she spoke. "I will get thee a skin of the deer, also. Thank thee." And, then she cried again and was gone.
First Rider watched the young girl as she came to her feet and then sprinted toward the only other woman in camp—Matsowá'p, Czanna. Because he knew Matsowá'p was wise in many ways, he felt assured he would soon have the skin he required to help stop the flow of blood.
She was a pretty girl, this daughter of the white man, and someday, he thought, she might make some man a goodwife. He, however, did not include himself in the role. He was already in love with the beautiful daughter of Chief Flying Hawk.
And so, they had become connected to one another spiritually. He remembered, too, when Otahki and her father had been required to stay at the Pikuni camp because of having no home elsewhere, and how Otahki had followed him most everywhere in camp.
Back then he had looked upon her as he might one of his almost-sisters, he being indulgent as she had tagged along behind him when he was in camp. But, always in the back of his mind, he knew she might be more than an almost-sister because of their spiritual connection, but what this was, he didn't know.
And so it was now that, despite the serious reason for his need to trek to the fort, the message from Otahki's father uplifted First Rider's spirits, and a true spark of gladness came into his heart. He would see his friend, his little almost-sister again.
Unexpectedly, and without warning, a premonition came to him, and it was a strange one. Intuitively, he felt that not only would he help Otahki, in some way she would aid him, also.
It had always seemed strange to him how close he had become to the girl those four winters past, since she had been little more than a child. At the time, he remembered thinking about the bizarreness of Otahki…a beautiful, but aloof young girl who could sing the strange sounds and words of a song with him, even though the Big Person's song was unmelodic.
She had medicine, this girl. It was this recognition, alone, that made the girl's peculiarity make any sense to him.
Oddly, too, he didn't doubt that it had been Otahki's voice and her spirit, added to his, which had helped him to heal her father, since the man's injury had been serious.
Still, unique though she might be, merely thinking of the young girl caused his spirits to rise. Soon they would be reunited with one another.
But, there was another factor to be considered regarding Henrik's message: he had offered to pay First Rider several horses for the healing ceremony—presenting First Rider with all of his horses, including a pony that was well known amongst the Pikuni to be a fast buffalo runner. Despite this, as soon as he could, First Rider would decline the offer.
Though First Rider did not understand it, Otahki was a part of him. He would do what he could for her—it requiring no payment from her father.
It was odd, though. After learning of Henrik's offer of the ponies, a strange thought had flashed through First Rider's mind, that perhaps it would be he who would be giving horses to Otahki's father sometime in the future. Only, for an entirely different reason.
