CHAPTER FOUR
"I am coming to you," said Poka'aki in the mind-speak, interrupting Red Fox's thoughts. "Please show me again where you are. I am riding Mr. Dandy, the best buffalo pony in all the Pikuni camps."
Clearing his thoughts, Red Fox answered her in the same form of communication and said, "You should not come here where I am. Nor should I have come here to greet you. It is only because I promised you I would do so that I am here. But, it is for the best that we do not see or speak to one another again."
"What?" she answered. "But, I thought you said you were not married."
"So I am not."
"Then, why would you not—"
"Because I am not the one whose woman you should be," he answered, interrupting her.
"Not the one I should marry? But…do you no longer love me?"
"It is difficult for me to answer your question. I have changed, but not in the way you think."
"Either say it is or say it is not so. Do you still love me?"
In answer, he blocked his thoughts from her.
"I am coming to you" he heard her speak through their mind-to-mind connection. "Where is this place you showed me when I was on the ship?"
Still, he didn't answer.
"Well, I am riding the best buffalo pony in our nation, and I intend to find you. You can either show me where you are or Iwill simply wander over these plains looking for you. Or perhaps a war party might discover me instead, and I will become their captive."
He smiled. This woman he loved could certainly be stubborn. Via the mind-speak, he said, "I should not have spoken to you as I did when I first saw you on the boat-that-walks-on-water. It is only seeing you again…" Once more he barred his thoughts from her.
"Well, I for one, wish to discover more about why you feel I am not the one for you to marry. But, I am back in our country now, and you shall not stop me from finding you, though I might discover trouble this day instead of you. But, if this be what you wish…"
He laughed aloud, remembering again how beautiful and sweet, yet how persistent this woman could be. He said in mind-speak, "It is not what I wish! It is what must be!"
"Piffle! Oh, I see where you are now! We will speak of this more. Wait for me. I do not wish to encounter a war party."
"Are you certain you know my location?"
"Of course I do. It's in a coulee where you, George and I have often hunted. Stay there. I shall be with you shortly."
"I will not stay here like a dog in submission while you risk war parties who might even now be out upon the prairie! I shall meet you, instead!"
Poka'aki laughed.
He heard it within his mind and was glad, supposing even his best intentions sometimes could meet a strong opposition. However, blocking his thoughts from her, he determined that one action he would never take with her was to make her his woman, and this included making love to her.Niitá'p,he would once more assume the role of being her friend, instead.
Áa,yes, this was a good plan. His time with the Lakota and Cheyenne had taught him this well: he must not marry her.
Quickly, he mounted his Paint pony, Flies-like-the-eagle, and seeing Poka’aki’s location within his mind, he kicked his horse in its flanks, setting out to meet her, while his faithful pet, Hunts-with-the-wind, kept pace with the pony. Bending down toward his pony's ear, Red Fox said, "We go to meet Poka'aki. Remember her? Let us hurry."
His stallion, as was usual, seemed to understand exactly what was said, and with an intelligence that was rare, Flies-like-the-eagle knew what to do. Racing up and over one of the hills between himself and Poka'aki, Red Fox came into sight of her. Both he and she were whipping their mounts into a race toward each other, coming in closer and closer to one another.
Seeing her again as she pushed onward toward him, with her hat flying behind her, attached by its ribbon around her neck, and her dark-red hair blowing back in the wind, he was stunned at her beauty. How could he have forgotten?
There was no one like her in all the world. Not only was she lovely to look at, she was a woman determined to have her own way, and he loved her for it. Indeed, she possessed the spirit of a warrior, all wrapped up into the gorgeous figure of a woman.
He had loved her from afar for a long time before presenting himself to her. And, his reasons now for denying her to himself had been made in order to keep her safe and alive. And yet, suddenly and without his conscious will, many of these carefully thought-out logics concerning why this woman could not be his took flight, leaving his mind as though they had been no more than feathers caught up in the rage of a blizzard.
Before his pony had even stopped, Red Fox jumped off of it, coming down onto the ground in a run, and he sprinted toward her, his pet wolf at his heels. Intending to catch her pony and help her down, he did not expect her to dismount also, andhe watched her slide down her pony and hit the ground in a run toward him.
