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Little Sparrow’s eyes gleamed with love as Fire Thunder reached up and took her from her burro. He hugged her, then placed her on the ground and knelt before her. Gently he framed her copper face between his hands. She could read lips well, and she watched his lips as he spoke to her.
“Is your cousin Good Bear going with you, to keep watch on you?” Fire Thunder asked. His gaze moved over his sister, to see if she wore the proper clothes for the adventure that lay ahead of her.
Like the other women who were going into town, she wore a plain dress with a full skirt that could be drawn up into a kind of pouch to hold the chiles she hoped to sell there. Her hair had been plaited into three braids that were pulled up to the top of her head and fastened there with a ribbon.
“Yes, Fire Thunder, Good Bear is accompanying me to San Carlos,” Little Sparrow related to him in her form of sign language. “And I am so excited.”
She hugged her brother, her dark eyes dancing as she looked past Fire Thunder’s shoulder and saw her fifteen-year-old cousin approaching. He was a thin lad whose voice was in the process of changing, proving to everyone that he was becoming a man. He wore his long hair past his waist. His jaw was square. His nose was wide on his copper face, and his lips were thick. He was dressed in a fringed outfit and buckskin moccasins.
Fire Thunder held Little Sparrow close, his hands caressing her tiny back. Their parents having died at the hand of a Comanche raid when they lived in Texas, he had become his sister’s guardian. And he had quite a task in hand, for being unable to hear or speak, she was more vulnerable than the rest of the Kickapoo children.
But Fire Thunder had always tried to make his sister not feel different. He had never wanted her affliction to get in the way of living a normal life. He made certain that Little Sparrow participated in everything the other girls did. She harvested as the other girls and women harvested. She sold her harvests as the others sold theirs. She entered into the dancing ceremonies as the others danced. She didn’t hear the music, but she felt it deeply within her heart as she watched the others.
With most who knew her, she communicated by way of sign language, or by reading their lips. She was a sweet, innocent child who trusted everyone, and who never saw an enemy.
That troubled Fire Thunder more than the affliction she had been born with. She might trust the wrong person some day and he might not be there to protect her.
With the worries for his sister deep inside his heart and mind, Fire Thunder rose to his feet, and turned, and faced Good Bear as the lad came and stood beside him.
“Good Bear, you must stay with my sister at all times while on your journey to
San Carlos,” Fire Thunder said, laying a heavy hand on the young boy’s shoulder. “And once there, do not take your eyes off her. Do you understand? You will be her voice when those she tries to sell her chilies to do not understand what she is trying to say to them. You will make sure she is not cheated when she receives payment for her chilies. Do you understand the importance of staying close to my sister?”
“Have not I earned your trust?” Good Bear asked, glancing over at Little Sparrow, who sent him a trustingly sweet smile. He turned his eyes back up to Fire Thunder. “I have always brought her home safely, have I not?”
“This is today that I am speaking of,” Fire Thunder said seriously. “Not yesterday, or the day before that. Prove to me again today that your trust is earned.”
“Yes, sir,” Good Bear said, squaring his shoulders. “Thank you for entrusting her into my care. That alone is an honor, when there are so many others you could ask besides me, your mere cousin.”
Fire Thunder patted the boy’s shoulder, then drew him into his arms. “I do trust you, Good Bear,” he said, hugging him. “Go to San Carlos. Enjoy the outing.”
“Thank you, my chief,” Good Bear said. He helped Little Sparrow onto her mule.
Strained voices turned Fire Thunder around. His eyes wavered when he saw his friend Black Hair having trouble again with his daughter, Running Fawn. Her mother had died in the same raid as Fire Thunder’s parents. Running Fawn had never accepted the death of her mother. She had never gotten over the trauma of that day, when many died, and when many were wounded as the village was set to flames by the Comanches.
Without a mother’s guidance, Running Fawn had become rebellious, too strong-willed for her own good.
Fire Thunder stood back and listened to father and daughter, as did the rest of the village. People were silent in the wave of the rage building in Black Hair’s voice.
Fire Thunder never interfered in any of his people’s personal affairs. That was not the duty of a chief.
“Get off the burro, Running Fawn,” Black Hair said as he glared at his daughter. “You are not going with the others this time to San Carlos.” He hated to even think about the gossip about his daughter—that she was suspected of having trysts with young Mexican men her age.
Running Fawn, her black hair loose and flowing around her shoulders, her face beautiful, but twisted now in a stubborn glare, folded her arms defiantly and refused to budge from the burro.
“Do as you are told, Running Fawn,” Black Hair said, trying to speak in a softer tone so that the others might not hear. He tried to invoke the sternness that was necessary to make his daughter realize just how angry he was at her insolence.
Still she did not stir from the burro.
Black Hair’s face flamed with anger. He placed his hands at his daughter’s waist and lifted her bodily from the burro and placed her feet on the ground before him.
“You shame me among our people by not only gossip that is ugly about you, but also now, when you refuse to do as you are told,” Black Hair said, his jaw tight, his nostrils flaring. “Tell me, daughter, are your pockets filled with chilies? Or is your reason for going to San Carlos today to see a young man? Running Fawn, do you not see the wrong in being so loose with yourself? You should remain a virgin to the day of your marriage. Until you have spoken vows, you should be completely innocent of men.”
Running Fawn’s lips parted in a gasp. She paled and looked shyly from person to person as they stared back at her. Tears crept from her eyes as she looked quickly up at her father. “How could you?” she cried, then ran to her lodge, sobbing.
There was another moment of strained silence, then Fire Thunder went to his sister and gave her another hug and a kiss. In sign language he told her good-bye, and that he loved her, and to be safe while away from him.
She nodded, her eyes wide and shining.
