Savage Abandon

He went back inside the cabin.

He stopped and eyed that door.

It had been left ajar, too, so he decided not to close it completely, either.

“I guess I’ll have to sleep tonight chancing that some wild thing might come along and mosey inside with me,” he mumbled to himself.

He knew, though, that he would rather take that risk than possibly alert Indians to his presence.

The cabin was growing chilly as darkness dropped around it. He turned and eyed the fireplace and the wood that was stacked beside it. Oh, how he would love the warmth of that fire through the night. Yet again, he had to out think the savages and knew that smoke would draw them there.

He saw blankets lying on the floor where Harry had spent the night. He shuddered at resting in a place where a dead man had slept.

But Harry hadn’t died in those blankets.

So tired he could hardly keep his eyes open any longer, he lay down on the blankets, but sleep eluded him as the moon sent its light down through a window and onto his face.

“If it ain’t one thing, it’s another,” he growled.

He yanked his cards out of his rear breeches pocket, finding it strange that they were all he had left of his worldly possessions.

He shuffled them, dealt himself a hand of poker, then dealt another to a pretend person in front of him. He played both hands, snickering when, of course, he was the winner again.

“I can’t even beat myself,” he said, laughing throatily.

He slid the cards aside on the floor, then yawning, he stretched out again on the blankets. Feeling cold, he yanked one of the blankets from beneath him and pulled it snugly around himself.

He fell into a restless sleep and was awakened suddenly in the night by something sniffing at his face. When he opened his eyes, he stiffened with intense fear when he found a wolf there, gazing at him directly in the eyes.

Tiny let out a loud shriek, which startled the wolf. Tiny watched it make a wide, quick turn and run from the cabin.

“Well, that’s enough of that,” he whispered to himself. “I’m gettin’ outta here while the gettin’ is good.”

But he would never forget coming eye to eye with a wolf and livin’ to eventually tell someone about it.

He gathered up his cards, stuffed them in his rear pocket, and ran from the cabin. He fled the fort, and kept running, hoping the wolf wasn’t following his scent.

Tiny stumbled through the forest, not realizing that he was going farther and farther from the river.

Suddenly he tripped and fell hard to the ground.

He was unaware of his cards flying from his pocket, or the wind taking them up and blowing each in a different direction.

Chapter Sixteen

In life we share a single guilt,

In death we will share a single coffin.

—Tao-Sheng

The mournful sounds of people wailing, of flutes and drums being played, filled the village of the Bird Clan.

Wolf Hawk had come to Mia at daybreak and awakened her. He had carried a tray of fruits and meats, and she’d been surprised that he would awaken her so early to eat the morning meal.

But moments later she understood.

He had told her that today his people would hold the burial rites for the two fallen braves. He had said that he would be gone for most of the day, joining the rites.