It snowed today, or was it yesterday?

I ain't sure where I am. I can't say much about nothing presently. I feel myself moving. I keep waking up to lying down. I ain't moved nowhere, has I?

I don't remember when I went to sleep, but I'm on the move. Can't be sure how this is. I'll work on it.

It's cold. My face is cold. I'm warm. I ain't sure how that be possible.

I smell rabbit again. I smelt it before. I don't remember killing no rabbit lately. Could be wrong. I keep thinking I'm moving, but I'm lying still.

The Indian boy keeps giving me a hot drink. I think it be him. I drink it and take what he cook. Tastes a lot like rabbit. I fall asleep. I wake, drink, go to sleep.

Where am I? I fell. Am I still falling. My leg is hurt. Hard to move.

I woke and the Indian boy is pulling me on a sled. I say boy. He's older than me. Where am i going? I'll figure out when I wakes up. Where'd he come from? Where am I going. He doesn't seem to speak. He pulls and makes me drink tea.

More tea when I woke. I watch him. I want to ask where we are going. Tired. So tired.

"You eat," he said.

Was he talking to me? What am I eating? Hot. Good and I sleep.

Leg aches. Forgot I got broke leg.. Leg aches. Oh, yes, tea help leg.

The sun shines on face. Feels nice. I am not cold. I haven't been cold since...

Since I fell. I remember now. I fell. I didn't fall. The griz had me, lost me once I crawled between trees. I got on my feet, running with nowhere to run....

I opened my eyes. He watched me standing next to me. Where did he come from. How did he get in my dream? It's too crazy to be real. I'm dreaming. That's why it's so jumbled up inside my head. He's helping me drink. Am I thirsty?

There were men, big men. I remember one of them reaching for him, and he was gone from my dream, but the second man turned from tending the horses, and I watched the Indian boy stand up with bow in hand, and....

I couldn't be sure. The arrow was in the chest of the second man. He seemed to reject any idea he might be dead, but I have no doubt he was dead. I'd never seen a man die before, but I saw this one die, or did I?.

I never dreamed of death and dying before. I never dreamed my leg hurt, but it does hurt. It hurts a lot. We had horses. Are they the Indian's horses? I'm moving faster. Not fast, faster. The sun shines on my face. My leg aches. The ground is more even. I'm not tilting as much, but we don't stop. I'm thirsty and my leg is broke. It hurts. I need to stop. I need to get up.

We are moving on flat land. I see no rocks or trees. I see pastures and fields. We are still moving but I am fine. Off mountain for first time in weeks? Months? How long has it been? The pieces were coming together. So tired.

I was sure I had broke leg. Is my back broke? I couldn't move. I lay very still after a while. No move. The Indian boy came and he said he had my gear and even my deer hide. It was that deer the griz was after. I forget to put it up.

Did I shoot my griz? Can't remember.

I feel rabbit fur next to my chest. It's soft. I'm hot. On flat land now. Few trees. Pain rushes over me. Then I drink tea. It better. I feel like I am in two worlds. In one I move and move. In the other I drink tea and eat. The tea make pain stop. Maw drinks tea. Does it take her hurt away? Ain't seen Maw in while.

Am I alive or did the griz get me? I remember the griz roaring. I remember two griz. I lose Hawkin. Crawl. I run, I fall. Some one fusses. I fuss. More tea and sleep. I'm so tired. So warm. I forgot being warm. It's nice.

"Drink. You safe. No more bear. Be home soon," the soft voice said.

I'm going home. He takes me home. Nice to be home.

"Who?" I asked, forgetting the question.

"Li'l Fox," he said from across the fire. "You rest. No talk. Home soon."

I'm moving again.

Leg hurts today.

I'm not cold. The sun is nice. It's behind me.

I didn't remember falling, but I know I fell. That's where I first saw Li'l Fox.

Did I dream all this. Am I going to wake up in my bed at the cabin?

"We need to get my hides," I said. "I need my hides."

"Under you. I get hides. Rifle beside you. nothing on mountain."

He didn't speak English, but I knew what he was saying. Hides under me.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Take village. Medicine Woman fix. You see. Good as new soon."

I felt safe but I worried about being scalped. I knew Indians scalped people. I felt for my hair to be sure.

"Why?" I said without having any particular thing in mind.

"Save birds. Save fox once. Call Li'l Fox."

He laughed and I laughed.

"You watch me," I said, feeling his eyes on me as we sat at the next camp.

He put the bark and grass in the cup I drank the brew from. His back was to me. I didn't know if he heard me or listened. I didn't make sense to myself half the time.

"Feel you. Smell fire. Went to see why white boy on mountain. Not Li'l Fox business," he explained.

He used the English word for business. He knew some English. I knew some Pawnee. What a strange pair we were. He saved my life and was taking me home.

"Warrior no scalp little boy," he said when I asked once.

He wasn't much older than me and he was a warrior.

"I see. No watch. Hunt deer on mountain. Weather bad. Heard shot. Only you on mountain. I go see. Find boy."

"How'd you find me?"

"Follow tracks. You shoot bear near camp. Follow bear. Second bear follow you. Find rifle, more tracks. You not up above. I look down. See white boy. No Li'l Fox probably didn't mind me sleeping. I didn't babble so much when I slept.

"Things jumbled inside head," I said.

"Fever talks. Tea make sleepy. Help Pain. Medicine Woman help pain."

I realized we were sleeping together under a buffalo robe. He slept beside me, but he didn't take me off the sled. He moved my gear so I couldn't roll off, and he was on the other side of me. I was warm. It was nice.

I was having a dream. I had the same dream in pieces. For the first time, I dreamed all the pieces in the proper order.

I'm not sure which morning it was. I was awakened by talking. I was the only one Li'l Fox had to talk to. I felt him beside me. I could feel his warmth.

If he wasn't talking, who was?

"Look, Wild Cat, here's two naked little boys. Hairless as little girls."

"I got to hobble these horses, Jake. Save one for me."

I felt the buffalo robe being lifted off me. I felt exposed. When my eyes opened, there was a huge man standing over us. He reached to touch Li'l Fox. Li'l Fox's arm crossed me. He got the knife from its sheath. In an instant, the knife was in the man and the man was falling on his face. Li'l Fox stood with his bow.

As he put an arrow in place, I turned to see the other huge man turned from the horses. His eyes opened wide and at the same time Li'l Fox fired. Looking at his chest, he seemed surprised to see the arrow. He tried to pull it out of his chest, before falling forward.

"You shot him. You shot him," I yelled.

Li'l Fox had his hand over my mouth.

"It dream. Just dream. Quiet now."

"It's not a dream, you killed two men."

It too time to calm down. Li'l Fox said nothing about the dream about what happened on the mountain. That's where the horses came from. They belonged to those two men.

A few minutes later, after drinking the brew, the horses went into motion and so did I. That's when I wasn't sure if it was a dream or real. The brew scrambled up everything again. That's why we kept moving, taking fewer breaks. He wanted to get away from that mountain as fast as he could.

He said, "Maybe more. Come Look for friends. We go. You OK?"

I was fine, but he killed two men. I watched him drag the man next to us off into the forest. He came back to drag the other man away. He gathered everything they brought to our campsite and put it on the sled with me. He rigged the sled for the horse to pull and we were on our way down.

It seemed like a while before we stopped. My leg had become more and more painful. I began to groan every time the sled tilted or jerked.

I opened my eyes as he had me drink more tea.

"Chew good," he said and I did, after he put meat in my mouth.

We were moving again. Where were we going? The horses covered a lot of ground way faster than we were going on foot.

"I don't know. What happened?" I said, the next time Li'l Fox was over me.

"Bad men hurt. I stop. You rest."

"Where are horses from? I'm hot. Where am I? I want to get up?"

"No. No get up," he insisted, but I forgot what I said as a warm peacefulness took hold of me. He peeled the last robe down to my waist. I felt pleasant cool air all around me. We were moving again. It was fine.

I woke up with a start.

"Don't leave me. I'm scared. Who are they?" I asked, thinking someone was there, but it was only Li'l Fox.

"There is no one. You safe."

I wanted to get up but I could hardly move. One leg seemed tied down. When I made my leg hurt, I stop moving, but we were moving again.

Where did the horses come from? We have horses?

"You OK," he asked, looking down on me.

"Me tired," I said.

"Sleep now. Home soon."

Where is home? Am I going to the cabin?

I don't want to go there. I need to get my griz. I got griz. Didn't I?