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“Then what is the name your mother gave you, which you do not think is . . . ridiculous?” High Hawk said, his eyes dancing. He was enjoying this banter with a woman who had much spirit and pride.
“Joylynn,” she said softly, realizing that she was being foolish, not telling him her name. She had more important things to be concerned about. “Joylynn Anderson.”
“Joy is a word our people have used often when giving daughters names,” High Hawk said, searching her eyes. “But Lynn? No. I have not heard such a name as that before.”
“Joylynn is one name, not two,” she found herself saying more softly than she wanted. She wanted to appear strong in the eyes of this warrior, not appear defenseless. She had looked after her own welfare ever since she had fled her tyrant of a stepfather.
“Joylynn,” High Hawk said, slowly nodding. “That name will do. I will enjoy calling you that until later. Until you are with my people for a while. Then you will be given a name of my people.”
“And so you plan to hold me hostage for a long time, do you?” Joylynn said, trying to act as though what he had said did not matter much to her. She now knew what his intentions were. He didn’t plan just to keep her for a while, until she trusted him with her beautiful horse, and then let her return to her own world. He had abducted her to keep as his own.
“I do not like that word ‘hostage,’ or ‘captive,’” High Hawk said. “It is not my habit to take either. And I do not see you as my captive. You are with me for a specific reason. The moon’s glow showed me to you. Destiny made it so.”
“A specific reason?” Joylynn gasped out. “Destiny? The moon showed me to you? What sort of nonsense is all of that? You heard my horse and came for it, to steal it, and then could not pass up the opportunity to take a woman to your lodge with you to do . . . to . . . do whatever you plan to do with me.”
“Plan to do with you?” High Hawk said softly. He reached a hand out to touch her face, only to have her slap it away. “In time you will understand why I had to find you and bring you among my people.”
“I will never understand why you abducted me,” Joylynn cried. “It is wrong. All of what you have done tonight is wrong.” She gestured with a hand toward the stolen horses. “Not only did you steal someone else’s property, the horses . . . but . . . also me, a human. You are watering the horses, and me, as though we are your true possessions, when in truth, neither I nor the horses are yours.”
High Hawk glanced over his shoulder at the muscular, handsome horses he had stolen, then turned his eyes back to Joylynn. “No matter how you see it, the horses are now Pawnee steeds, and there is a Pawnee saying that says, ‘Take care of your horse, and he may save your life,’” he replied. “These horses will be better off with my people. We show respect for our steeds by saying, ‘Heru atiku,’ which means, ‘Greetings, horse.’ We spend much time caring for our mounts. After a hard ride, a warrior will walk his horse for a while to allow it to cool down, and he will use a corncob to curry it. Tallow is rubbed on a horse’s groin if it has been ridden for several days on long journeys.”
Joylynn listened attentively, surprised to find what he was saying truly interesting. Indeed, she was finding everything about this handsome warrior fascinating.
His voice, his eyes, intrigued her no matter how hard she fought against such feelings.
Unconsciously, she leaned closer to him as he talked, as though his voice had put her in a trance.
“Different plant medicines are used to heal or alleviate ailments such as saddle sores and distemper,” High Hawk continued. “It is said that a horse has understanding. If you see a horse put his head down and sidle along when he is ridden, someone is mistreating him. If you take care of him and have compassion for him, when you get on him he is going to want people to know he is proud. Horses are smart. When there are people about, he is going to nicker and hold his head up. That horse is going to try to make you look good to others.”
He glanced again at Joylynn’s steed, then into Joylynn’s eyes. “Horses are creatures of Tirawahut, and they must be treated with respect,” he said. “But there are always evildoers who will mistreat anything.”
“Who is Tirawahut?” Joylynn asked.
“The Pawnee’s Great Spirit, as your God is your Great Spirit,” he said. Then he took her hand and helped her to her feet. “We can spend no more time watering the horses or teaching you the knowledge that you must have now that you are a part of the Pawnee’s lives.”
Frustrated at his including her as a part of his people, Joylynn went to Swiftie and swung herself into her saddle. She rode beside High Hawk as he led his warriors, with the stolen horses trailing behind them.
Everyone was quiet as they rode onward until up ahead Joylynn saw the Pawnee village. The moon illuminated many tepees in the shadow of a tall bluff, and glittered on the surface of a river rolling past not far away.
Fires flared before almost a hundred lodges, smoke spiraling lazily from their smoke holes. The tepees were arranged in a semicircle, with an opening left facing the river.
Joylynn was frightened at the prospect of facing so many Pawnee. She had become accustomed to High Hawk and his warrior friends, but she knew how whites were resented among Indians. She hoped that this warrior who abducted her was of a high rank and would not be challenged by anyone.
She rode onward at High Hawk’s side, feeling cold and trembling from fear.
CHAPTER SIX
Dawn was breaking along the horizon as Joylynn rode into the village with High Hawk close beside her. Upon arriving at the outskirts, she had noticed huge fields of corn, beans, squash and other plants.
Close by, where the river ran snakelike over the land, there were clusters of scrub oak with heavier timbers of elm, cottonwood and willow.
The village itself was clean and neat, hardly a tepee was soiled or yellowed with age.
People were awake now, women, children and warriors alike, coming to their entranceways, lifting their flaps, to see who was arriving so early.
Some of their eyes went immediately to Joylynn, studying her, while others, mainly the men, looked intently at the horses that had been captured and brought home.
The onlookers did not come out to meet High Hawk and his warriors, but went back inside their lodges to prepare for the long day ahead.
