Page 55 of The Last Warrior

“Little Blue Eyes?”

“It is the name I gave to you on the first day we met. You were wearing blue, and the blue of your eyes was startling to me. I have never forgotten.”

“Little Blue Eyes,” she repeated with a smile. “I like it. I like it very much.”

“Then it is what I will call you from this day forward. Little Blue Eyes, wife of mine.”

Coming down over her, they shared several rare, sweet and elegant kisses. Scooting his weight to the side of her, it was not long before they had both drifted off to a well-earned nap, her cloak and his blanket gently imparting them both with a warmth they hardly needed.

Black Lion jerked awake. What was it? Something had roused him. Had it been the crack of a twig against a footstep?

Alert now, Black Lion remained absolutely still, although his mind raced. If the whites discovered him and his wife here, wrapped as they were in each other’s arms, there would be little point in announcing the fact they were married and committing no crime. Actions could be taken which could harm, while questions might be asked later, perhaps much too late…for him.

Gently, he roused his wife awake with a kiss, then placed a finger over her lips to keep her from speaking out. He whispered against her ear, “I have heard something in the forest, and I fear we may no longer be alone. You stay here, dress yourself as quietly as you can, then hide in the bushes. I will leave here to go and investigate whether someone is here, or whether we have been joined this night by an elk or a deer.”

She nodded.

After grabbing hold of his jeans, he pulled them on, then slipped his feet into his moccasins. He didn’t bother with his shirt or his jacket or blanket, for when scouting, whether it was warm or cold, clothes were an encumbrance. As soon as he was dressed, he became instantly the scout. Lowering himself to his hands and knees, he slithered noiselessly away.

First he searched for clues over the ground close by to them. When he found nothing, he scoured farther afield, his investigation taking him through the bushes and the brambles in the forest, over its rises and falls. Expanding his awareness outward, he let his mind extend into the environment around him, seeking anything unusual in the natural order of things. But he could discern nothing.

Finally, he saw what he had missed before, there by a stream. A broken twig and the imprints of a doe. He let out a sigh of relief.

It would seem that for now their secret was safe.

However, he had no more than relaxed his guard when another detail came all too vividly to mind: You must keep to your purpose. Do not become distracted by ways of the flesh. Though you are married, you, your people, must be willing to sacrifice pleasures of the flesh.

The voice was loud in his ears, as though his spirit protector were here with him now. He frowned. Why was he recalling this now? It was not like him to forget the warning. A man did not ignore his vision.

It did, however, cause him to question: Was he distracted? By his wife?

No, this didn’t feel right, plus he didn’t think his wife was a mere distraction. Rather, what had happened tonight was completely natural. Although, in truth, he would have to admit he had forgotten about his vision, at least for the time when she had held him in her arms. But what man wouldn’t have done the same?

Remember a man who ignores his dreams merely exists, and much trouble will come to him.

So had spoken his elders.

“Eya!” he uttered the word aloud.

Was he not permitted a brief diversion? She was his wife, and as such, she deserved a husband who would initiate her into the ways of married life. What he had done was not a vice.

Yet he couldn’t shake the idea that he might have erred.

Quietly, he played his own devil’s advocate.

As his tribe’s champion, he was not as free as other men. Indeed, until he had accomplished his task, he was bound by the needs of others. But did those needs include abstaining from relations with his wife?

No. No man need ignore the needs of himself and his wife.

Yet, should he even be married, when he had yet to accomplish the task before him? In truth, until he had met his wife, nothing else had ruled his life. Previously, his romantic encounters had been pleasant, yes, but certainly not as important as his responsibility to his people.

Perhaps this was what was causing his doubt. Somehow, in some way, she had become as important to him as his own people.

How could he have let this happen?

How could she have become the center of his thoughts, when his duty to his people was, as yet, unfulfilled?

Perhaps she had medicine? If she did, it was surely a strong medicine. For when he was with her, thoughts of his tribe, his duty, his obligation disappeared, as though they were mere obstacles to something greater. Nothing, except her, mattered.