Savage Illusions

Spotted Eag­le had no chan­ce to res­pond. Two Rid­ges to­ok a wild gasp for air, then di­ed.

Filled with many tu­mul­tu­o­us emo­ti­ons, Spot­ted Eag­le sta­red down at Two Rid­ges, fin­ding all of this hard to com­p­re­hend. This yo­ung man who­se fu­tu­re was so bright was now de­ad, ever­y­t­hing go­ne so qu­ickly from his grasp! Spot­ted Eag­le had of­ten te­ased his fri­end that his pas­si­on for wo­men wo­uld be the de­ath of him.

But ne­ver had he ac­tu­al­ly me­ant it! It had be­en a way of te­asing Two Rid­ges over his wan­de­ring eye and he­art!

Spotted Eag­le had ac­tu­al­ly en­vi­ed Two Rid­ges' lig­h­t­he­ar­ted mo­od to­wards wo­men and his skill at te­asing and lo­ving so many!

Now the­re was not­hing to envy.

A sud­den tho­ught ca­me to him­how wo­uld Two Rid­ges' fat­her fe­el if he knew the full truth of what had hap­pe­ned he­re to­day? It wo­uld de­vas­ta­te a man such as Brown Elk to know that his son had bro­ught such dis­ho­nor to him­self!

It had to be kept from him, so that Brown Elk co­uld mo­urn his son wit­ho­ut sha­me clo­uding his me­mo­ri­es of a son he had ido­li­zed.

"I will rig­h­t­ful­ly ke­ep this sec­ret," Spot­ted Eag­le whis­pe­red, slowly la­ying Two Rid­ges' he­ad back on the gro­und. "I was wrong to ke­ep the sec­ret to myself that Jole­na was yo­ur sis­ter. But I must ke­ep sec­rets aga­in! Ne­ver will I al­low yo­ur fat­her to know the tre­ac­he­ro­us son that you we­re. You do not de­ser­ve such lo­yalty from Spot­ted Eag­le, but yo­ur kind and ge­ne­ro­us fat­her do­es!"

Rising slowly to his full he­ight, Spot­ted Eag­le ga­zed down at Two Rid­ges a mo­ment lon­ger, then wal­ked away to­ward his wa­iting war­ri­ors. When he re­ac­hed them, he lo­oked so­lemnly from one to the ot­her.

"He is go­ne from us," he sa­id, al­most cho­king on the words and the ac­tu­ality of what Two Rid­ges had plan­ned to do. And why wo­uld Two Rid­ges want to do such a thing?

He su­rely had to know that Jole­na was de­ad!

That had to me­an that his hat­red for Spot­ted Eag­le ran even mo­re de­eply than je­alo­usy for a wo­man, and that was so­met­hing that Spot­ted Eag­le co­uld hardly ac­cept.

Only yes­ter­day he and Two Rid­ges we­re ri­ding si­de by si­de, tal­king and la­ug­hing as fri­ends do.

There had be­en no sign then of Two Rid­ges ha­ving ha­ted him.

"The news we ta­ke to Brown Elk will ta­ke away the joy of his ha­ving just dis­co­ve­red that he has a da­ug­h­ter, and that she is ali­ve and well," Do­ub­le Run­ner sa­id glo­omily. "Sad it is, that he ga­ins a da­ug­h­ter, then lo­ses a son."

Spotted Eag­le's he­art did a stran­ge le­ap at Do­ub­le Run­ner's men­ti­on of Brown Elk's da­ug­h­ter.

There was only one da­ug­h­ter!

Jolena!

And Do­ub­le Run­ner was tal­king abo­ut her as tho­ugh she we­re ali­ve, as tho­ugh he had met her!

This had to me­an only one thin­g­t­hat Jole­na was in his Blac­k­fo­ot vil­la­ge!

"What are you sa­ying abo­ut a da­ug­h­ter?" Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, clas­ping his fin­gers to Do­ub­le Run­ner's sho­ul­ders. "Abo­ut Brown Elk's da­ug­h­ter?"

"While you we­re away, she ca­me in­to our vil­la­ge," Do­ub­le Run­ner sa­id softly. "She was the one who told us that you might be de­ad. Yo­ur fat­her sent a se­arch party out lo­oking for you, in ho­pes that you wo­uld still be ali­ve. It was with happy he­arts that we fo­und that you we­re.''

Double Run­ner glan­ced over his sho­ul­der at Two Rid­ges. "Had we ar­ri­ved so­oner, we wo­uld ma­ke two fat­hers happy upon our re­turn to our vil­la­ge," he sa­id sadly.

Spotted Eag­le was only half-he­aring what Do­ub­le Run­ner was sa­ying. His he­art was thum­ping wildly with joy over kno­wing that his wo­man was ali­ve af­ter all.

And she had even fo­und her way to her pe­op­le's vil­la­ge!

Everything wo­uld now be per­fect if not for…

He tur­ned and sta­red down at Two Rid­ges, still fin­ding it hard to be­li­eve that Two Rid­ges wo­uld go so far as to kill his best fri­end.

Yes, he nod­ded to him­sel­f­t­he­re had to be mo­re to it than that.

But he do­ub­ted he wo­uld ever find the an­s­wers now that Two Rid­ges was no lon­ger ab­le to gi­ve them to him.

Anxious to go to Jole­na, to ta­ke her in­to his arms and hug her to him, fe­eling the warm, swe­et press of her body next to his as full pro­of that she was, in­de­ed, ali­ve, Spot­ted Eag­le wal­ked briskly to his hor­se and swung him­self in­to his sad­dle.