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Brave Wolf pushed his half-eaten tray of breakfast foods away from him. He stared blankly into his lodge fire as he again became lost in troubling thoughts. Now that Mary Beth was no longer with him, he was not sleeping well, nor had he wanted to eat.
He even found it hard to perform his duties to his clan.
He only hoped that his people did not notice. He had tried hard to put up a good front.
But in his eyes, if anyone looked closely enough, was a quiet torment. He knew the sort of man Colonel Downing was. He was cold-hearted, calculating, and had a deep-seated hatred for all Indians.
It had taken all the willpower that Brave Wolf could muster to tolerate the insolent colonel that day he had came to have council with Brave Wolf after renegades had ambushed and killed the army wives.
“I must at least try to see her,” he whispered to himself.
That was what he must do. He would hide close to Fort Henry and try to catch a glimpse of Mary Beth from afar. If he did see her and saw that she was alright, he would rest much easier at night. He would dream better dreams.
He wondered when she planned to return to him. How much longer would she feel that she must stay to know whether or not her son could be found by the soldiers?
And when she did decide to leave, how could she explain her departure to the colonel? If he knew that she wanted to return to the Crow village, to live among the Crow, he might not allow it.
Filled with so many doubts and questions, Brave Wolf decided that today was the day he would try to find some answers. He would go and watch for Mary Beth. But if he did not see her, what then?
How could he return to his village without knowing how she was? Might not the torment be twofold if he went and did not see her?
No matter what, he had to at least give it a try. If luck was on his side, she might even today ride from the fort on the beloved steed that was now hers. She might be ready to put her old life behind her and forge ahead with the new.
But if she had not received any word yet about her son, would she be ready to look forward and let the past die as it should die?
They had such a wonderful future together.
They would have many children to replace the one she had lost, if indeed David was gone. They would have sons and daughters.
That made him smile despite the misery of missing her.
He had no duties to tend to today for his people. His brother was faring well enough—so well, in fact, that soon a decision must be made about his future.
His people had begun to tolerate his presence among them, had even begun to forgive the error of his ways. Night Horse seemed to have changed back to the warrior he had been before being lured away by greed. His future was in his own hands.
Shaking his head, Brave Wolf went back to thinking of his own future. He had begun making himself a new medicine bundle, which he hoped would not only busy his hands and mind while Mary Beth was gone, but also bring him good luck.
The new medicine bundle was made now and before he left the village today, he would uncover it and get it blessed by his people’s shaman, Many Clouds.
Having it with him today would almost ensure that he would see Mary Beth, for all the while he was making the new medicine, she had been in his heart and mind.
He went to the back of his tepee, knelt, and began slowly, almost meditatively, unfolding the thin piece of doeskin in which he had kept his new medicine.
He unfolded the last corner of the doeskin and smiled as he gazed down. He had made a hoop from a red willow branch. He had wrapped it in buckskin, then painted it half blue and half black and tied a hawkskin and some red feathers to it. It had taken a good portion of one day to complete it.
“My chief?”
The voice of Many Clouds made Brave Wolf turn toward the lowered buckskin flap at his doorway. Even before the sun had risen fully along the mountaintops, he had gone to Many Cloud’s lodge and told him that today was the day for him to bless his new medicine. He was there now, at his chief’s request, to do so.
Brave Wolf gazed at his medicine once again, then rose from his haunches and went to the doorway. He held open the buckskin flap.
“Welcome,” he said, stepping aside so Many Clouds could enter.
Many Clouds returned Brave Wolf’s smile, embraced him, then walked with the younger man to where the new medicine lay awaiting his blessing.
“I see that your new medicine has been properly made,” Many Clouds said, moving to his haunches before it. “The black paint represents night and the blue the earth. The red feathers represent the clouds and the hawkskin, your vision.”
“Hecitu-yelo, yes, you have read my new medicine well,” Brave Wolf replied. “I have already smudged it and sung to it in order to make it powerful.”
