Running Horse didn't know about history. He couldn't see what was coming. I'd like not to know. Maybe we'd live a fairly full life. None of us was going to live the life we'd be offered by the whites. It would be better to be in a cage to be looked at; Species, 'Pawnee.'

No, none of us who know freedom, would allow it. Someone who never knew freedom might go for being in a cage to be looked at.

I forgot where I was. I'd lost my mind in some black corner of my brain. I pulled Running Horse tightly to me and held on tight.

A sob escaped me.

"You cry. Why cry?"

"I'm happy," I lied.

"You scared. What scare? Running Horse protect Tall Willow."

"I'm fine," I said, and his lips were on mine.

Running Horse didn't understand. I didn't understand.

"You want to know what scares me? You scare me. I love you so much. My love is so large it scares me."

He showered my face with kisses. He held me, kissed me some more, and we made love. He didn't leave me, but making love was what made us happiest, and so we made love.

It was the day I realized there would be no, 'And they lived happily ever after,' once our story was told. If our story was told, I'd need to tell it.

I did fear the future. I'd lived in bliss for years. I loved the simplicity of life in our village. We were about to move out of a world we knew. We were moving into a future no one could predict.

The talk of going home dredged up the unhappiness from my past. Going back there could unleash memories of a past I no longer considered to be anything but a misadventure. I saw no good that would come from going home.

I was still able to become lost in Running Horse's kisses. It was enough to change my mind for the time being. I would not falter in my love for my man. I would watch myself more closely. I'd see danger coming and we'd go around it. Perhaps the past doesn't necessarily mean the future is already set.

We'd be okay. Our future would be what we made it. That's what I had to believe. The future is in our hands, and it will be a good one.

The fire blazed. We'd been hunting and returned, and I did not fire an arrow. That was a first. I hardly remembered it. The smell of venison was intoxicating. Running Horse had shot a deer, now I remembered. He'd come to drink and he died there. We'd eat and give thanks for our good luck.

Running Horse handed me a stick with the most magnificent venison still on fire. I blew the fire out and took a bite of the sizzling meat. We were having a most delicious life.

Long after he was asleep, I felt his smooth tender body next to mine. The night breeze blew the heat of the fire over us. I was hot and cold and so comfortable. My fear subsided. We had a good life. We'd soon take a trip to find the place for the new village. Everything was going to be fine. I did not want to be scared any longer. I was going to miss what was the best time in my life.

Running Horse tested himself on a daily basis. I watched him climbing, jumping, running through the woods. On the coldest morning he'd be shirtless and gathering wood or hoisting the meat up into the treetops. Some days he'd wait until we got back into camp to clean and quarter his kill. He'd carry a two hundred pound buck on his shoulders. He moved it like it wasn't really anything at all.

A life of living off the land made Running Horse hard and capable. He was as hard and capable as a man could get. While we made love, his hardness excited me in a way nothing else did. Our bodies in contact was the perfect place for them to be.

As long as I wanted to go, we went. If I showed signs of being tired, we stopped. He knew me as well as he knew any human.

Being alone on the mountain was the best thing we did. That's when we were really together. I would concern myself with living and loving. I'd worry less about the death of our way of life. While we had life, we needed to live it to the fullest.

I'd let the rest of the world take care of itself for now, if I could.

On the mountain, in the buffalo robes, our love exploded. The power took us away from there and ourselves.

A state of bliss existed, igniting us, uniting us, and our perfect passion until there was no me, only the we were once love took us away. There were no words to convey it, no way to say it, once we were lost in our everlasting love.

Running Horse was a man among men. He was my man.

*****

By the time we woke on the third day, hunting was on our mind. We had a small amount of meat that might feed the village for a few days, but it wasn't the kind of meat it would take to keep the village in venison until it was time for the spring hunt. That was another month away.

Since we started our two man hunts to supplement meat supplies, we brought back plenty of meat to allow for freely drawing on what was left from the last hunt. The extra meat was enjoyed by everyone.

We spent plenty of time in the buffalo robes. It was time to get serious about the hunting part of the hunting trip. We stuck pieces of meat in the fire before dressing, and by the time we left our camp, we ate juicy hot venison from the one deer Running Horse got two days before.

We went in the opposite direction today. As the sun peaked over the treetops, we found a place with moss surrounding the tree Running Horse leaned against. It was way easy on my butt, and there was a watering hole thirty yards away.

With Running Horse's arms around me, I held both of his hands. My mind was on hunting, and I wouldn't try to distract him from the job we were there to do today. I could be nice, if I absolutely had to be. I was warm and comfortable. A branch hung down that blocked off my vision to the left. The spot where animals drank was clear.

I yawned a couple of times. I didn't know why I was so tired. I would keep my eyes open. We had to get some meat today.

Running Horse yawned. I giggled.

"Sleepy head," I said softly.

He giggled. I smiled and yawned.

We heard it before we saw it. It was coming from the left side. The bush and branches cracked as it was moving branches and limbs before we saw it.

Was it a griz? Whatever it was, it was big, as it stepped out into the open, taking a few steps to get his drink. We were already standing. There was no way we were sitting still and let something that big come our way.

It only wanted a drink, and our bows were at the ready and our arrows flew. We both got a second arrow and were firing those as the first arrows hit. The beast turned toward the brush he came out of, but after two steps, his legs folded, and he died where he stood.

"What is it. It's bigger than a buffalo," Running Horse said as we walked around a half a ton of meat.

"Moose," I said. "I saw a picture in a book."

"How are we going to get the meat back to camp?"

"We will need to cut it up, haul the meat up into the treetops, and take it back a hundred pounds at a time," I reasoned.

"Not enough rawhide to hang all this meat," Running Horse said.

"Cut it in eight pieces. Make sleds. We drag back," I said.

"Yes," Running Horse said.

His knife was already busy getting the seven or eight hundred pounds of meat ready to go to the village with us. Dragging the sleds to camp would be hard work, but once we hooked it to our horses, all we had to do was pull it home.

Were eyes going to bug out when they saw what we brung them.

It took the rest of the day to get it back to camp. We were exhausted by the time we got there. I didn't know what moose meat tastes like, but we had a roast ready to go before Running Horse got the fire going good. It couldn't be that bad. It would be a new experience for the people in the village.

"Venison?"

"Tangy venison," Running Horse said, taking a second bite.

Moose meat was great. I ate my fill, and we had enough to feed us on our two day trip home. We'd take our time and the horses did all the work. We didn't hang the meat to prevent predators from coming into camp to get it. It was half frozen by the time we reached camp, and before we got in the buffalo robes, the meats froze solid.

The mountain was cold when we got on top, and it was colder when we left. We had to watch out for ice. We had no desire to slide off the mountain. The trail down was pretty well traveled and we'd taken sleds down for years.

The warriors came out to meet us, once we were getting close to the village. We stopped to talk and they walk around and around the sleds, wondering what they were looking at. With what was left of the buck Running Horse got, we had twice the meat we usually took back on one of our two man hunts.

By the time we had the children running beside us as we brought in more meat than any of the kids had seen, I was back to thinking about the trip to the river, before going to where Lone Wolf instructed us to go. We'd hunt in little more than a month. After that, it would be time to go see what we could see concerning the new village. The water was just now getting down to where it usually is, and that gave us plenty of time to decide how to handle the move.

Tall Elk once more stood in our way.

"No need move. Plenty water. Two year much rain. Ponds full. Steam rushes. Child chief and white hand man."

Running Horse jumped up, losing his temper, and gathering himself back in before losing control.

"Village move. Lone Wolf tell Running Horse, must move. White men stop water flow."

"No Running Horse's word. Lone Wolf word. Lone Wolf see all. Lone Wolf know all. We move."

"Lone Wolf dead. Hard talk," Tall Elk said.

"His words, "Move. Water stop.""

Medicine Woman put things into perspective.

"Lone Wolf have Dark Horse advice. Train Running Horse. Approved of Tall Willow. Medicine Woman trust Lone Wolf's wisdom. He sees much. He knows plenty. He tell Running horse, "Must move." No argument. Move before water stops running. Too late, once water stop."

"None must move. Village move. You stay. Water stop," Running Horse tried one more time.

"Must move. Follow Running Horse. So says Lone Wolf to Dark Horse," Dark Horse said from his seat in the council circle.

"I am Pawnee. Sit at Running Horse's right. I step away," I said, wanting to disarm the opposition.

"Need move," Dark Horse objected. "No step away."

"No move," Tall Elk said.

"No one likes move. We need move together. One people move. Running Horse chief. Tall Willow at right. Say move. Need move," Medicine Woman said.

Everyone agreed.

Tall Elk walked away from the circle.

It was an argument that went on, because Tall Elk kept it going. He'd lost in the council, and the village would move when the time came, and they'd follow Running Horse and me to the new location.

No one but Tall Elk questioned Running Horse being chief. No one but Tall Elk objected to me being on Running Horse's right.


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"Home Sweet Home"

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"Speaking"

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