He felt that his brother needed some reassurance, for this morning, before they had set out on another day’s grueling journey, he had seen something in Sleeping Wolf’s eyes that he had never seen before. Total defeat.
And High Hawk understood. Sleeping Wolf was the only one besides the elderly and ill who traveled on a travois to their new home. If he had felt useless before, he must feel doubly so now.
High Hawk no longer knew what to say to his brother to lift his spirits. Sleeping Wolf seemed to have retreated to his own little wor
ld, one of stark loneliness.
And the way their mother constantly coddled him, treating him more like he was a baby than a grown man, had made Sleeping Wolf feel even more helpless. He had grown tired of not only her, but also her voice, Sleeping Wolf had confided to High Hawk. He craved to be alone. To him, that was better than being treated like a child.
High Hawk nodded a quiet hello to those he rode past as he moved down the line to see how his brother fared. Surely it had frightened him to be riding on a travois so close to the steep drop-off.
Perhaps now that their path was not so treacherous, Sleeping Wolf would feel less anxious. Perhaps he would even smile when he saw his brother High Hawk.
High Hawk looked over his shoulder and saw Joylynn glance back at him, as though she had known he was going to look at her.
Last night, beneath the stars, he had wanted her ever so badly.
But everyone lay in close proximity of each other. Their blankets were arranged as close as possible to the campfire, in order to make certain no mountain lion could come upon them as they slept and drag them away.
A fire always kept the night’s animals away, for a fire was something unknown to them, and the unknown was feared by all beings; not only animals.
He gave Joylynn a smile, then turned and made his way again down the line of people. He was almost at the end of the procession, where he hoped his brother lay as comfortably as possible on the travois.
High Hawk had seen to it that he would rest on many blankets and pelts, in order to cushion his twisted back.
His mother had placed one of her more beautiful blankets on him, taking the time to lovingly tuck in the sides before they headed out this morning.
High Hawk nudged his steed with his heels and rode onward, nodding a hello to the warrior whose horse pulled Sleeping Wolf’s travois.
Then High Hawk’s heart went cold as he saw that the travois was empty, the blanket that had covered his brother dragging on the ground beside it.
“Sleeping Wolf!” High Hawk cried. He shouted at the warrior. “Stop! My brother. He is gone!”
The horse that was transporting the travois stopped, as did all the others ahead of him.
The horror in High Hawk’s voice had caused everyone to stop and gaze at him, alarm on their faces.
Having heard, Joylynn rode quickly back to join High Hawk.
When she reached him, she dismounted and stood with him as he looked back in the direction they had traveled.
“He must have fallen off,” Joylynn said, pale at the thought of what might have happened.
She looked quickly at Blanket Woman as two warriors escorted her there, one on each side of her, steadying her as they gripped her elbows.
“My son!” Blanket Woman cried as she stared at the empty travois, then looked in desperation at High Hawk. “He . . . is . . . gone. Where, High Hawk? Where is he?”
High Hawk went to his mother and embraced her as the two warriors stepped away from her. “Somewhere behind us,” he said thickly. “He must have rolled off. We shall go and find him and bring him back.”
“But if he fell off, why did he not cry out and alert someone?” Blanket Woman said, kneeling down beside the travois and running a hand across the indention of her son’s body in the blankets.
Then she looked quickly up at High Hawk again. “He must have been injured by his fall from the travois,” she said, tears spilling from her eyes. “He must have been knocked unconscious, or he would have alerted us that something had happened to him.”
“Ina, the fall off the travois would not be far enough to knock my brother unconscious,” he said gently. “Probably, he did not want to cause any more problems after he slipped from the travois, so he decided to just lie there until someone discovered he was gone.”
“But why?” Blanket Woman asked, pleading with her eyes. “Why would he feel he could not let anyone know he’d fallen off the travois?”
“Ina, I do not have any answers, and as long as we stand here talking about it, he is still back there, alone,” High Hawk said. “Ina, I will go now. I will find and bring my brother back.”