Chapter 6: Windshift: Magic ... Remember?

'Yes, we're going with you.'

"Why? I've been hunting you for 6 moons."

'Yes. But you don't want to eat us, you want us to help you.'

"This is true. You're more valuable than the prairie grazers."

'The prairie grazers have their own place in the circle, you honor them when you take a life, and you waste nothing.'

"To do so would be to curse the maker."

'Long ago, before there were mountains, we were friends of tall walkers. We helped them hunt and move their lodges.'

"You know, I want to sit on your back and guide you in the way I want to go."

'If you sit, tell us where you want to go, we will take you there. You don't need to guide us.'

What the hell, he thought. I've nothing to lose.

'This is true, you have nothing to lose and we ... we gain protection from the scheming lions.'

The trip back to the band was much quicker than the trip to the edge of the trees in the morning.

The stallion was right. All he had to do was mount, think of where he wanted to go ... the horse did the rest. Very smooth, the gallop over the plains to the encampment. The horse made sure he didn't fall or jounce.

By the time he was half way home he ceased to concern himself with the ride. Now he worried about the hunters in camp. No one, since he had come to the camp, had even seen a horse closeup. Always from a distance ... always moving away. If it weren't for the dust, they would be ghosts.

"Hallo the camp ... I have friends ... I repeat ... friends. I would take it ill in anyone who harmed one."

The lion hides were of more interest than the horses. And would be ... until the hunters returned home with no meat.

In the morning there were 24 horses and several yearlings close to his lodge.

He dressed in his worst clothes. He strode to the headman's lodge, scratched on the cover and entered.

Great plains nomads are much alike the universe over. If you're part of the band, no matter how you got to be part of the band, you're welcomed as a band member. His acceptance into this one was through a combination of strength, wisdom and guile.

Rather than talk to the headman, he handed the bag with the ivories to the headman's wife. Then he sat tailor fashion across the fire from the headman. The wife sat next to her mate and opened the bag.

Surprised, she leaned to her mate and showed him the contents.

Neither spoke, they looked the question.

He began, "My heart is heavy, I have no laughter in my lodge.

"My furs are cold, I have no one to share them.

"I grow weak, I am a bad cook.

"My clothes are worn and ragged. There is no one to fix or make me more.

"I have five lion hides, but no one to make robes of them." He sighed.

"I have noticed that you, my chief, have laughter, warm furs and well made clothes.

"You are strong, you have a cook."

The headman looked at his wife. "This is true. I share my laughter with my mate ... my heart is happy.

"She keeps me dressed well.

"My furs are warm, my mate keeps me warm at night.

"I eat well, my mate is a good cook.

"A mate would make your hides into furs.

"You should bargain for a wife. What do you have to offer?"

He replied, "I have lion ivories. The lion is fierce ... his teeth are deadly. A man who possessed a necklace with a lion ivory would have the strength and cunning of the lion."

The chief said, "I don't know about that. Maybe I can find a man who needs the hunting skill of a lion. Such a man might have a daughter no one else wants, a hunchback or too tall. I can't promise that there is such a man in the band, but I will ask my mate to go see if there is such a one."

"I know of one, husband. She has a cast in one eye and flat feet. Her sisters are beautiful but her father would like to see her mated before he allows the others to marry."

She looked the mateless one in the eye, "Four ivories would make a magnificent necklace. One with much power. Four ivories would find a beauty in your furs."

"Beauties are always full of themselves. A woman with a cast in one eye and flat feet might be more grateful to a husband who has horses.

"She could ride instead of walk. She would have much status in the camp.

"A beauty wouldn't be worth four lion ivories. I might be willing to offer three ivories for twins ... or four ivories for the flat foot and her two sisters."

"Your lodge is small," she countered. "Where would you put three wives and their possessions?"

"I have horses. They have consented to carry me and my possessions. With horses to carry my belongings I could have a much larger lodge." He looked around at the chief's lodge. "I could have one large enough for five wives."

The chief's lodge was the largest one in camp but there was no room for more than one wife ... a lodge big enough for five wives would require long poles and many hides.

"For the man who would bargain for me I would give these." He tossed a bag with five lion claws in it at the feet of the chief.

The chief opened the bag..."Go, woman. Take four ivories to the wife of the man with the twins and the outcast." He turned to the man, "Come and eat, you look hungry."