Savage Abandon

Talking Bird had many supernatural powers. He could will the river to part with only one blink of his old eyes or cause the ground t

o quake and shake, leaving large cracks in Mother Earth.

Planning to use his powers today, he lifted his buckskin medicine bundle onto his lap. The fire’s glow shadowed his ancient face.

His long, lean fingers slowly opened the bundle. He reached inside. He took from it his sacred calumet pipe. He gently laid the pipe beside him, then again reached inside his medicine bundle and withdrew a smaller bag from it, which held the sacred tobacco.

He opened this bag, then lifted the pipe from the thick fur of the bear, and shook tobacco into the bowl until there was enough to smoke and pray to the Earthmaker. It would not be on trappers alone that he would cast a spell. He would also invoke the waters that cradled the boat carrying them closer and closer to the fort.

He smiled at their foolishness in returning.

He took a small twig from the lodge fire and held it to the tobacco in his pipe.

He puffed long and hard until he felt the tobacco smoke deep inside his lungs and knew the pipe was going well enough to be used for his prayers.

He took the pipe from his mouth. He held it heavenward and gazed up. He looked through the smoke hole and began speaking his feelings to the Earthmaker.

“Earthmaker, to whom my words are spoken today, I hold this pipe up to you,” he said softly. His old eyes watched the smoke spiral slowly through the smoke hole.

He again placed the pipe in his mouth, puffing hard on it, then exhaling so that the smoke wreathed around him.

Again, he took the pipe from his mouth. He turned it in all four directions, then held it down toward the earth. Once he had honored the spirits with whom he was communicating, he rested the bowl of the pipe on his knee. He could hear the spirits whispering all around him as he said, “There are two evil white men who have wronged our people, not only taking animals and furs on land that is usually hunted by the Winnebago, but also the lives of two of our beloved youths. I ask you to watch for these men as they grow closer and closer. It is my fervent desire that the river water shake with an earthquake of your doing, but not enough to harm my people who are on nearby land.”

He bowed his head, then looked above again, through the smoke, and smiled, for he knew that what he had prayed for would be granted him.

He had never disappointed the spirits, nor had they him.

Chapter Twenty-four

Quick!

I want!

And who can tell what tomorrow may befall—

Love me more, or not at all.

—Sill

As Wolf Hawk held Mia ever so close in his arms, kissing her, she clung passionately to him. She had never known such feelings could exist and had not even fantasized about being with a man like this.

But it seemed natural to be there with Wolf Hawk, becoming oh, so dizzy, the longer his lips lingered on hers.

And then she drew quickly away from him, her eyes wide, as she gazed down at the mats on the floor of the tepee. She looked quickly up at him.

“Did you feel that?” she gasped out, searching his eyes. “Did you hear it? The floor trembled for a moment and I even heard a strange sort of rumbling, but now both are gone. Did you experience the same thing? It felt like the beginning of an earthquake, but thank goodness it stopped.”

Wolf Hawk smiled at her. He reached out and took her by the hand, then led her to a thick pallet of furs. “Come and sit with me,” he said, leading her down to sit beside him. “What you felt and heard happens sometimes, but rarely have my people experienced an earthquake serious enough to do harm to our village or our lives. There seems to be a weakness of the ground where we have made our home. Perhaps that is one reason white people do not make their homes here.”

Wolf Hawk had not told her the full truth. He understood the magic of his grandfather and he felt that what had just occurred was his grandfather’s doing.

Wolf Hawk was not alarmed. He knew that his grandfather only caused the earth to shake for good reason.

Wolf Hawk did not know why his grandfather had chosen to use his powers today, but he never questioned Talking Bird’s power.

If his grandfather saw a need for an earthquake, so be it.

“But aren’t you afraid that the earthquake might come in full force some day and kill you all?” Mia asked.