Savage Tempest

“We should get back to the village,” Joylynn said, stepping away from High Hawk. “Rose is large in her pregnancy now and might be tiring from caring for Moonbeam this long. Her child should come any day now.”

“Andy has proven to be such an honest, caring man, whose every breath seems to be taken for his beautiful Pawnee wife,” High Hawk said, placing Sleeping Wolf on the ground, so that he could run and play on their way back to the village.

When a butterfly landed on his son’s hand, High Hawk smiled at the wonder in Sleeping Wolf’s eyes.

He knelt down beside his son. “That is a butterfly,” he said. “Is it not beautiful?”

“Butterfly,” Sleeping Wolf said, repeating after his father. “Beautiful.”

“That is right,” High Hawk said, patting his son on his bare shoulder. “You are learning to speak quite well now, my son.”

The butterfly suddenly took wing. “Sleeping Wolf, watch the butterfly as it flutters away,” High Hawk said. “It will go to a flower now and sip nectar from it so that it will have energy enough to fly on to another and another.”

Sleeping Wolf giggled and ran after the butterfly as High Hawk stepped closer to Joylynn and slid an arm around her waist. “Tirawahut has been good to us,” he said. “The white eyes have not yet discovered our stronghold. Our people feel safe now and no longer fear that each day may bring doom to them. It is a good time for us all.”

“And I adore the new name that you have chosen for me,” Joylynn murmured. “Pretty Moon, after that first night we met one another. Oh, was not the moon so brilliantly bright and large that night?”

“My wife, it led me to you,” High Hawk said. Then his eyes widened when he saw someone running toward them, shouting excitedly.

“It is Three Bears,” High Hawk said, raising an eyebrow. “I wonder what brings such excitement into his voice?”

“His wife,” Joylynn said, her eyes widening. “She has surely given birth. She has gone far past the time when she should have had her child.”

Panting hard, Three Bears stopped when he reached them. “Two babies at almost the same time have been born into our Wolf band of Pawnee,” he said when he finally caught his breath. “My wife gave birth to a son, and Andy’s wife gave birth to a daughter!”

“Both?” Joylynn exclaimed.

Then she reached a hand to Three Bears’s arm. “Are they all doing well?” she asked, then took a step away from him. “Rose was caring for Moonbeam. Who is there with Moonbeam now?”

“She is in good hands, for Yellow Blossom came to care for her,” Three Bears said, smiling. “And, ho, all is well. The newborn children are healthy, and the mothers and fathers are well, happy and proud.”

“As we are happy and proud for you, my friend,” High Hawk said, placing a hand on his best friend’s shoulder. “Today our people have much to rejoice over. Let us return to the village and celebrate together.”

Three Bears flung himself into High Hawk’s arms and hugged him fiercely, then stepped away from him, gave Joylynn an affectionate hug and ran on ahead of them toward the village.

“As I was saying . . . all is well,” High Hawk said, smiling at Joylynn. “All is very well.”

She returned the smile, so content she felt she might burst from happiness. She would not ever linger on the sadness of her past, only the goodness of today, and the future, which she would always share with the man she adored . . . her Pawnee chieftain husband, High Hawk!