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Then she caught sight of a slow procession of people moving away from the village, toward
a wooded area. She could see several men holding the body of Good Bear up in the air on a platform. She trembled when she recognized Fire Thunder at the head of the procession.
When she turned around, Running Fawn was undressed.
“We must move quickly now,” Running Fawn said as she reached for the bottom of Kaylene’s blouse, and slowly began pulling it over her head. “Once the burial is done, we are expected in the council house.”
Casting aside her bashfulness, Kaylene sighed and helped Running Fawn take off the rest of her clothes.
Running Fawn held on to Kaylene around the waist as Kaylene walked gingerly into the water, expecting it to be cold. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise when she found the water pleasantly warm; in fact, warmer than the air around her.
“It is like bathwater,” Kaylene said, glancing at Running Fawn as she helped her move more deeply into the current.
“The water is warmed from hot springs that shoot up from the ground beneath the river,” Running Fawn said. She handed Kaylene a bar of soap. “You bathe what you can. I then will bathe the rest for you.”
Glad to at least have some control over her bath, Kaylene gladly took the tiny bar of soap. She sudsed herself, bent low and dipped her hair into the water and sudsed it. After the soap was rinsed from her hair, she stood still as Running Fawn bathed her wounded shoulder, and her back.
When they were through bathing and fully clothed, they walked solemnly back to the village, where they could see people sullenly entering the council house.
One ritual had been completed this morning. Another was yet to be performed.
“Your people do not like me, so why do they agree to join Fire Thunder and Bull Shield in my curing ceremony?” Kaylene asked, her heart pounding more erratically the closer she got to the council house.
“Fire Thunder is our chief,” Running Fawn answered. “They would never disappoint him.”
Little Sparrow took Kaylene’s hand and gave it a soft yank.
Kaylene looked down, melting inside from the smile of assurance the small child gave her.
Then she swallowed hard as they walked into the council house, where in the center, on a flooring of packed earth, roared a great fire. Its smoke lifted in slow spirals to the smoke hole. Its flames cast eerie shadows on those who sat around it, their eyes now on Kaylene as she slowly approached.
Fire Thunder went to Kaylene.
Running Fawn and Little Sparrow stepped aside as Fire Thunder placed a gentle arm around Kaylene’s waist and led her toward the fire, where he nodded at her and urged her to sit down on a thick pallet of furs.
Gulping hard, her heart racing fearfully, Kaylene smiled awkwardly up at Fire Thunder. Then she followed him onto the pallet of furs as he pulled her down beside him.
Running Fawn and Little Sparrow sat down behind them, Black Hair waiting there for his daughter.
Suddenly Bull Shield, in a long and flowing robe, entered the room, his hands clasped together before him. His gray hair was loose and rippling down his back.
He wore a necklace of animal teeth.
His almost sightless eyes stared straight ahead as he walked among the people, everyone’s gaze on him. There was a silence as he came and sat between Kaylene and Fire Thunder.
Music of a ceremonial nature began, the musicians somewhere in the darker part of the council lodge, away from the light of the fire.
Kaylene’s back stiffened when she heard the rhythmic thumping of a drum, with gourd rattles accompanying the drum beats. She could hear brass bells and tinkling cones. The distinct sound of a flute rose above the music of the other instruments.
Fire Thunder listened intently to the music, always moved by its mystery. He closed his eyes and envisioned the drums, the most important instruments of all those being played. They were made from three-legged iron kettles, with buckskin stretched over the top of each and fastened with rope.
The flute alerted the manitous that a ceremony was about to take place.
The music continued for a while longer, then everything became quiet when Bull Shield rose to his feet and went to stand over the fire.
A young brave went to him and placed a bundle of tobacco in his right hand.
Fire Thunder knew that tobacco was powerful medicine; it could ease both pain and hatred, and his people often used it in healing ceremonies.
