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If you but knew.
—ANONYMOUS
Stunned at the sight of the panther with Kaylene, and realizing that it must be her pet, Fire Thunder stared a moment longer.
He came out of his trance when Black Hair ran up to him, a rifle in his hand.
When Black Hair saw the panther he aimed at it.
“No!” Fire Thunder said, shoving Black Hair’s rifle aside. “Do not shoot it!”
“Why would I not?” Black Hair said, his eyebrows raised inquisitively.
“Shoot your rifle, but not at the animal,” Fire Thunder said. “Fire one shot into the air to frighten it away. That is all.”
Black Hair stared disbelievingly at Fire Thunder for a moment longer, then did as he was told.
Fire Thunder watched the animal lurch with fright, and then lope away into the dark shadows of night.
He paid no heed to his warriors who had been awakened by the gunfire and were now there, relieved when they saw that their chief was not in danger.
“What happened?” Black Hair asked, staring down at Kaylene and the blood-soaked sleeve of her gown.
Then his eyes widened when he saw the knife in Fire Thunder’s hand.
“It was the panther,” Fire Thunder said, his gaze shifting, to look at his knife. “It came out of nowhere. When Kaylene saw that it was ready to pounce on me, she stepped in the way.” He gave Black Hair a quick glance. “The panther means something to her. It must be her pet. It somehow knew to come to her rescue.”
Fire Thunder stared at the bloody knife again. He shivered, knowing whose blood. Then he leaned over and wiped the knife clean on a thick stand of grass, and slid it back inside its sheath.
Again he looked at Kaylene. The pooling of blood beneath her arm, and the way she lay, so helpless and unconscious on the ground, made Fire Thunder move quickly. He knelt down beside her and ripped the sleeve of her gown open and peered intently at the knife wound. He was relieved to see that he had missed the bone.
“You carry medicinal herbs with you at all times,” Fire Thunder said, looking at Black Hair. “I will carry Kaylene to the camp. You ready the herbs. We shall apply them to her wound.”
Black Hair nodded and turned and pushed his way through the milling warriors.
With a gentleness, Fire Thunder slipped his arms beneath Kaylene and lifted her.
When she groaned and her eyes fluttered slowly open, Fire Thunder waited for her to look up at him, guilt washing through him.
Through a pain-induced haze, Kaylene gazed at Fire Thunder. “What . . . happened . . . ?” she whispered, her one arm lying limp across her stomach.
“I am glad that you are awake, but now is not the time to talk,” Fire Thunder said, holding her closer. “I must take you back to the warmth of the campfire. I must see to your wound.”
Pain spread through Kaylene in great hot waves. “My wound?” she whispered. Her eyes drifted slowly closed, then flew open again. “What . . . wound . . . ?”
Not wanting to explain just yet, nor wanting to alarm her into worrying her about her panther, Fire Thunder ignored her question.
Instead, he ran toward the campsite, his warriors moving aside to make a path for him.
“Oh, no,” Kaylene cried, suddenly recalling everything. “Midnight! Where is Midnight?” She gathered a fistful of Fire Thunder’s buckskin shirt in her free hand and yanked at it. Wild-eyed, she looked up at him.
“Tell me you didn’t shoot my panther! Tell me!”
“Your panther is all right,” Fire Thunder said, his eyes wavering on hers. “It ran into the brush. I realized, by how it came so gently to you after . . . after.... I plunged the knife into your shoulder, that it meant something to you. I did not shoot it. I did not allow Black Hair to shoot it.”
Kaylene exhaled a quavering sigh of relief, then closed her eyes as the waves of pain swept through her shoulder again. “Thank you,” she whispered, barely audible. “Midnight . . . is . . . everything to me. Everything.”
Stunned to know that she would have such a connection with an animal, Fire Thunder stared down at her. He started to speak to her, to apologize for all the trauma that he had brought upon her, but she had drifted back to sleep.
