Savage Illusions

Perhaps Two Rid­ges'.

Spotted Eag­le frow­ned when he tho­ught of how Two Rid­ges lo­ved wo­men all wo­men. It wo­uld be hard for his vi­ri­le fri­end to cho­ose among tho­se many to whom he had shown spe­ci­al at­ten­ti­on.

"He is yet yo­ung," Spot­ted Eag­le whis­pe­red to him­self. "And best that he has not yet ma­de a cho­ice. I ma­de mi­ne, and I ha­ve now lost her!"

Then he frow­ned, won­de­ring how he co­uld ever aga­in ha­ve a ple­asant tho­ught abo­ut Two Rid­ges, who had de­ser­ted Spot­ted Eag­le! It wo­uld be hard for Spot­ted Eag­le ever to un­der­s­tand why!

His he­ad bent, his sho­ul­ders slo­uc­hed, Spot­ted Eag­le ro­de on­ward, now un­t­hin­king, for to think was to hurt. No mat­ter how hard he tri­ed, he co­uld not stop thin­king abo­ut Jole­na for long.

Everything led back to her.

The rus­t­ling of dri­ed and rot­ted le­aves be­ne­ath the um­b­rel­la of tre­es at Spot­ted Eag­le's right drew his he­ad up with alarm. His hand went auto­ma­ti­cal­ly to the rif­le­bo­ot at the si­de of his hor­se. His fin­gers did not even ha­ve a chan­ce to ma­ke con­tact with the rif­le be­fo­re he saw his ar­c­he­nemy, the Cree war­ri­or Long No­se, not­c­hing an ar­row on­to his bow and ta­king a ste­ady aim at Spot­ted Eag­le.

Another so­und aler­ted Spot­ted Eag­le to yet anot­her pre­sen­ce in the fo­rest. Gas­ping, Spot­ted Eag­le wat­c­hed Two Rid­ges ri­de to­ward him, in his hand an up­ra­ised kni­fe. Two Rid­ges gla­red at Spot­ted Eag­le, his jaw clen­c­hed tight with hat­red. It daw­ned on Spot­ted Eag­le that his best fri­end was at­tac­king him!

Stunned by Two Rid­ges' be­ha­vi­or, he for­got all abo­ut Long No­se. Two Rid­ges was clo­ser. His kni­fe wo­uld find Spot­ted Eag­le's he­art be­fo­re the Cree's ar­row did.

Spotted Eag­le glan­ced from the Cree to Two Rid­ges as Two Rid­ges ca­me clo­ser. Then Spot­ted Eag­le gas­ped and cri­ed out when un­k­no­wingly Two Rid­ges bloc­ked Long No­se's way, spo­iling the re­ne­ga­de Cree's shot.

Just as Two Rid­ges ro­de up next to Spot­ted Eag­le, his arm po­ised for the de­ath blow, Spot­ted Eag­le he­ard the sharp twang of a bow as Long No­se let lo­ose his ar­row. Spot­ted Eag­le's body lur­c­hed, res­pon­ding as tho­ugh the ar­row we­re pi­er­cing his own body as he wat­c­hed it en­ter Two Rid­ges' back.

The kni­fe fell from Two Rid­ges' hand as Two Rid­ges swa­yed, then top­pled off his hor­se on­to the gro­und, scar­cely bre­at­hing.

Stunned, Spot­ted Eag­le sta­red down at Two Rid­ges, unab­le to mo­ve. His tho­ughts cen­te­red only on his for­mer fri­end, who lay dying, and on Two Rid­ges' ob­vi­o­us in­ten­ti­on to kill him. Spot­ted Eag­le for­got to worry abo­ut the Cree who had shot one Blac­k­fo­ot whi­le plan­ning to kill the ot­her!

Two Rid­ges' li­fe's blo­od po­ured from his wo­und, sta­ining the le­aves on which he lay a scar­let red.

A lo­ne gun blast fil­led the air, dra­wing Spot­ted Eag­le out of his stun­ned re­ve­rie to re­mem­ber the Cree and the Cree's re­ason for be­ing the­re­to kill Spot­ted Eag­le, his enemy!

Spotted Eag­le wat­c­hed Long No­se crum­p­le to the gro­und, wildly clut­c­hing at a blo­ody wo­und on his ba­re chest, then ga­ped openly at se­ve­ral Blac­k­fo­ot war­ri­ors from his vil­la­ge as they ca­me ri­ding up, one of the­ir rif­les smo­king from the shot that had kil­led the re­ne­ga­de Cree.

"Spotted Eag­le!" Do­ub­le Run­ner sa­id, qu­ickly dis­mo­un­ting, whi­le the ot­hers went to Two Rid­ges' aid, kne­eling down aro­und him. "We ha­ve be­en se­ar­c­hing for you. We fe­ared you we­re de­ad."

Double Run­ner glan­ced down at Two Rid­ges, then up at Spot­ted Eag­le aga­in. "The Cree shot ar­row off at Two Rid­ges be­fo­re we co­uld stop him," he sa­id. "We did not ar­ri­ve so­on eno­ugh."

Knowing that his war­ri­ors had not ar­ri­ved so­on eno­ugh to see that Two Rid­ges had plan­ned to kill him, Spot­ted Eag­le fo­und it hard to res­pond to Do­ub­le Run­ner.

Instead, his he­ad swim­ming with so many qu­es­ti­ons, es­pe­ci­al­ly abo­ut Two Rid­ges, and se­e­ing that Two Rid­ges wo­uld not last much lon­ger, Spot­ted Eag­le qu­ickly dis?

?mo­un­ted and fell to his kne­es be­si­de Two Rid­ges. He lo­oked at his war­ri­ors, one by one. "Le­ave me to spe­ak alo­ne with Two Rid­ges," he sa­id thickly.

The war­ri­ors nod­ded and went back to the­ir hor­ses, wal­king them away from Spot­ted Eag­le and Two Rid­ges.

Spotted Eag­le's first tho­ughts we­re to ma­ke Two Rid­ges mo­re com­for­tab­le. He stu­di­ed the ar­row, then ste­adi­ed his hands and pla­ced them to it and snap­ped it in two. It was lan­ce-sha­ped in­s­te­ad of bar­bed, so he ma­na­ged to draw it out com­p­le­tely in­s­te­ad of ha­ving to le­ave a por­ti­on of it im­bed­ded in Two Rid­ges' back.

When Two Rid­ges emit­ted a gut­tu­ral gro­an of pa­in, Spot­ted Eag­le frow­ned down at him, still won­de­ring what co­uld ha­ve ca­used his fri­end to be­co­me his enemy!

"Your kni­fe did not ha­ve a mind of its own," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, tos­sing the bro­ken ar­row asi­de. He lif­ted Two Rid­ges' he­ad from the gro­und so that the­ir eyes co­uld me­et and hold. "You we­re in full com­mand. Why did you cho­ose to use it on yo­ur best fri­end?"

"Before I die, for­gi­ve me," Two Rid­ges sa­id, re­ac­hing to clutch des­pe­ra­tely on­to Spot­ted Eag­le's arm. His vo­ice was so we­ak that only Spot­ted Eag­le was ab­le to he­ar him. "Be­ca­use of a wo­man I did this! Only be­ca­use of a wo­man wo­uld I go aga­inst my best fri­end! Ne­ver ha­ve I fo­und a wo­man who was spe­ci­al eno­ugh to risk a fri­en­d­s­hip over. Not un­til… Jole­na." "Jole­na?" Spot­ted Eag­le gas­ped. "You did this be­ca­use of Jole­na? You… fell in lo­ve with my wo­man?"

"As you did, I co­uld not help but fall un­der her spell," Two Rid­ges sa­id, cho­king as blo­od be­gan se­eping from the cor­ners of his mo­uth. "I was cur­sed, it se­ems, the mo­ment I cho­se to win her lo­ve, no mat­ter what I had to do, even if it me­ant lo­sing a fri­end."

"You lo­ved her eno­ugh to want to see Spot­ted Eag­le de­ad?" Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, his he­art ac­hing to know the­se truths, yet now reg­ret­ting ha­ving kept a cer­ta­in truth from Two Rid­ges! If Spot­ted Eag­le had not sel­fishly kept the sec­ret of Jole­na's pa­ren­ta­ge from Two Rid­ges, her very own brot­her, then no­ne of this wo­uld ha­ve hap­pe­ned!

But ne­ver wo­uld Spot­ted Eag­le ha­ve gu­es­sed that Two Rid­ges was ca­pab­le of such a fi­en­dish act as this, no mat­ter what truths that had be­en kept from him. Spot­ted Eag­le had al­ways tho­ught that Two Rid­ges was a man of strict ho­nor, ca­pab­le only of un­do­ub­ted trut­h­ful­ness and un­bo­un­ded ge­ne­ro­sity. The lo­ve for a wo­man had chan­ged him over­night, it se­emed!

"Forgive… me…" Two Rid­ges beg­ged, his eyes slowly clo­sing.