The horses, always happy to be set free, stood maybe five feet away from the riders. They were ill at ease with the dark cloud sitting a few feet away from where we stopped them. They didn't care much for the wall of clouds. I didn't think much of it either.

Running Horse moved ten or fifteen feet from the firepit, once the meal was over. He let the fire burn down, and if there were embers still burning, they weren't going to burn long. I moved closer to where Running Horse lay down. I was close enough to hear him breathing, but no closer. He needed space when we faced unfamiliar obstacles, and I knew the signs.

We would endure the storm and move on tomorrow weather permitting.

After so much risky business that the day held for us, I was worn out too, and it didn't take me long to drop off. I woke or drifted close to wakefulness a couple of times. Both times I heard the snoring and heavy breathing. I wasn't all wet yet, and so I drifted away again, too tired to do anything else.

I didn't get any closer to Running Horse. I could see he had begun the ritual of contacting his spirits. If we ever needed some advice, this seemed to qualify. I thought we had gone as far as we needed to go. I hoped the spirits told him to go home, but I also knew it didn't work that way.

We didn't come all this way to turn around and go home. There was a reason we had ridden what seemed like nine or ten days to me. Running Horse was looking for something, or maybe he was being guided toward something, and all we got so far was more of the same. We could have been riding on the surface, except we weren't on the surface.

I woke again a while later. I didn't touch him, but I knew he was seated right next to me. I could feel his closeness. I listened to him breathing before drifting off one more time after checking to see if I was all wet.

How long I slept I can't say, but sometime during the night I was startled awake. I sat straight up. My heart was pounding in my chest. It was plenty dark, but the sky was full of stars. They cascaded from one end of the sky to the other. I don't know there were that many. I was fascinated. I lay back down and stared into the night sky. I found no constellations I knew, and then, I sat up again.

I couldn't see anything of the ground. I listened for Running Horse and heard nothing. I felt the grass around where he was when I lost contact with the world around me.

I was standing, and I moved back and forth trying to find him, but I found only grass and more grass. I stood to look at whatever it was, but it wasn't there. I couldn't see it, but I thought I could see the darkness, and the darkness had no clouds as far as I could see.

I walked forward one or two steps, and remembering whatever it was, I backed away. There had been a wall of clouds there a few hours ago. I would look from side to side and resist going forward or back, after I went back to where my search started.

I walked no more than a minute or two, stopping and listening for Running Horse's breathing, and I walked a bit further, stopped and listened.

Then, I remembered a lesson I learned when I wasn't ten yet. Paw told me if I was lost and couldn't be sure where I was. I should stay put if it was dark and not go on until there was enough light to see, because if you kept walking in the dark, you were going to get further and further from your camp.

I immediately laid down on the ground. I hadn't walked but for a few minutes, and I didn't go far enough that I couldn't yell once it was daylight, and everyone would hear me.

I could probably see them in daylight and with that in mind, I went back to sleep.

I lay in the soft fragrant grass and drifted off into a fine sleep, and when I woke hours later, it was daylight directly ahead of me. I was lucky to have stopped when I did. I was no more than five feet from the edge of a cliff. There was a five hundred foot dropoff. That wasn't even the most spectacular part of it.

At the bottom was a river and across the river was the most spectacular sight I had ever seen. The most beautiful and greenest valley I had seen spread out for miles on all sides. In the distance I could see how the valley swept up to end at the base of those huge mountains I had been watching for days.

This had to be where we were going but where was Running Horse. I stood and tried to find our camp as the daylight slowly crept west to east and was about to shine where I had rested. As I looked at where it was still dark, there was some kind of rock formation that stood by itself at the top of the cliff.

It was Joe who came first, and he stood looking at what he called the monument.

"What is it?" he asked.

The others weren't far behind Joe, and no one said anything about where they found me. We were all drawn to the monument that was still in darkness as the light slowly worked its way toward us.

There was a noise that drew our attention to the monument as a single ray of light hit the very top. We were all looking up at what must have been a throne at the top of twenty foot columns of rock. I immediately thought of the footprint Joe found. It would take a man with that foot to be tall enough to sit on that throne. A tall man wasn't sitting there, Running Horse was. The beam of light reached him, and we all looked up in wonder.

Where were we? How did he get up there? There were no footholds. Each column was twenty feet of solid rock, and the throne was crafted at the top. There was no way for him to climb up. There was no way for him to climb down.

No one said a thing. We stared at Running Horse. We were in a sacred place where people once lived. For some reason I didn't think the people who lived here were still here. There were no signs of people on the land we traveled. I wanted to tell Running Horse to come down. I couldn't speak. I couldn't move as the light finally fell on Running Horse's face and then he was in the light.

We sat near to the columns. If Running Horse could sit and wait. We would sit and wait with him, and that's when he took to talking in a voice that wasn't his. At first I didn't know the words were coming from him.

"We are the Popotu, star people. We lived here for a thousand generations. We lived well and no one was as powerful as the Popotu. We ruled all within our domain. You lived as the Popotu lived, or you died. When the Modoray came a hundred generations ago, we put an end to any idea they had they could overrun us. Many of the Modoray died at our hands. We were trained to kill any foreigner who stepped upon Popotu land."

"This was how we were taught. This was how we grew strong and were never challenged until the Modoray came. They came from the north, and we told them to go back. Ice forced them to come out of their land on to ours, and we did not want them here. This was the land of the Popotu. The Law Givers told us that this was our land. We protect it from invaders. The Popotu grew up with laws that were the Popotu way."

"There came a time when the sickness came. We had sickness before, but not like this, and we died, and the Modoray came and knew we were dying. The Law Givers warned us that only the Popotu should be on this land, and if we let others come and live, and we didn't kill them, we would die at their hands. To live long lives, we needed to stop anyone from entering the land of the Popotu. It was our duty. It was why we lived."

"Many Popotu died, and when we could no longer defend the Popotu land, the Modoray came with medicine and a cure for the sickness. As we got well and were gaining strength, the Modoray taught us a new way to make food in the ground, and we grew healthy and strong, and when we met to thank the Modoray, they hugged us and told us by cooperating, we can grow to be stronger and better people. If we allowed others to teach us their ways, we might learn things that help us to be better Popotu, but the one thing that was the most important thing, that we not kill each other or take things that belong to others. This was the way to our own destruction, but we weren't destroyed, because the Modoray saved us and taught us much."

"The land of the Popotu was also the land of the Law Givers. They were here hundreds of generations before our generation lived. They made the laws and kept us safe, as long as we kept the enemies off of Popotu land. Not turning back the enemy was the worst thing you could do. It was against the laws they wrote. The Law Givers lived in castles high on the mountains, and they sent messengers with warning to kill any threat. They sent us a warning to kill the Modoray or else, but we couldn't kill them, they had become our friends. They knew things to make our lives better. Being friends was easier than wanting to kill enemies. We would not kill the Modoray. We learned that we didn't need to kill. We could have good lives that no longer involved killing."

"The Law Givers came down from the mountain to scold us. They warned us of the danger in what we had done. We were allowing other people on Popotu land. This was forbidden. It was against everything we were taught as Popotu. We only had one job, that was to keep Popotu land free. They spoke of the penalty for our crimes and warned us that they would let us go this time, but we were never again let Modoray come on the land of the Popotu. The next time wouldn't go as well for us. They are the law givers. They had spoken."

"Yes, they had. We didn't like what they said. We stood up. The Law Givers took a step back. They began to reason with us. They told us how important it was to keep the enemy off our land. They had protected us for a thousand generations, and we were risking it all by letting the Modoray on our land. Now that we didn't kill for the Law Givers, our life was much better. The Popotu were a happy people for the first time."

"We took a step forward. They took a step back. They explained how they always protected us and made sure we were well cared for. They thought about our welfare before they thought of their own. They were Law Givers because they knew what was best for all the people. They did live in castles, but it was a small thing to take when they give so much."

"We took a step forward. They took a step back. When they realized they were surrounded, they pleaded for their lives. They had good hearts and protected us as best they could, and we asked why they lived in castles, while we lived meager lives. They told us they were the law Givers, and they were due some comfort for doing so much for us. They lived like kings and got us to kill for them. We took a step forward. They took a step back."

"We took another step forward. They began to plead for their lives. They were sure we were going to kill them. We had killed for them for a thousand generations, and now we had turned on them, and they cried and asked to be allowed to leave and never return to the land of the Popotu."

"We no longer killed. We would not kill the Law Givers. Killing was a mean thing to do, and we were happy, and we lived in friendship with our brother the Modoray. We no longer needed to kill anyone."

"The Popotu left a small opening in the circle we made around the Law Givers, and they slipped away, running for their lives, but what they didn't know, we didn't need to kill anyone. This was the land of the Popotu and the Modoray. We were brothers and lived very good lives. We no longer killed Modoray."

There was a silence. Running Horse's tears stopped. He still looked out over the valley. We sat waiting for his return. There didn't seem to be any evil in the words that were spoken. Why the spirits spoke to all of us, I can't say. Perhaps they were extending the invitation to all of us and not leaving it for our chief to decide.

"You came in search of a safe place. When you sat in your valley to talk to the spirits of your ancestors, we heard you. We did not reply. We knew you came to the valley to escape death. We saw that your heart was good. You sat waiting for your spirits to speak, and we spoke to you. The danger you escaped wasn't gone, it merely backed away because of the storm that was sent to save you from being in the valley of death."

"You need a place to go. You need to escape men who would kill you for no reason at all, except you are Pawnee, and like all other Indians, death is waiting for you, one way or another. We did not know that death was waiting for us, when we joined with the Modoray to cooperate and to live in peace. The Modoray knew the ice too. The ice drove them out of their land and into our valley, and it turned out well for all of us, but in time, the ice came for us too."

"The ice came off the mountain. We watched it move down from the peaks. It was in the furthest reaches of the land of the Popotu and Modoray. We knew it came before, and it retreated back up the mountain, but this time there was no retreat. Everything was covered in ice. When we decided we had to escape, the ice was already on the cliffs where we have guided you. There was no escape for us. Beware of the ice."

"The valley of the Popotu and the Modoray is a good valley. There are no enemies here. We have no enemies, only people who might become our friends, and we extend the hand of friendship to the Pawnee. If you come here, you will be safe. If you want to live here, this is as fine a place as you can know. We invite you to leave the death and dying behind you, as we left it behind us, but beware of the ice."

"If the ice comes down off the mountain, you must climb the cliff and go as far on the pastureland as you dare go. Sooner or later the ice will leave, and you can return home. We did not heed the warning of the ice coming, and we died. This is the land of the Popotu. It became the land of the Modoray, and it can become the land of the Pawnee, and you might live here for the next thousand generations, if you live wisely."

Running Horse cried throughout the dissertation. His tears had stopped, as he sat as if he belonged on that throne, looking out over the land of the Popotu.

I had no desire to sit with him. I felt rather diminished by a man who guided his people to safety. I felt safe. I felt the grandeur of this place. There was grandeur and promise, there was beauty as well as practicality. The fear I felt from time to time left me. I knew why it left me, and I felt as though we finally found our way home. This time we would not need to move. This time we were in a place where we had been made welcome by the past generations that lived on this land for a thousand generations.

Usually, the spirits spoke only to Running Horse. This time they spoke through him to us. They had gone on a journey of discovery and friendship, and they lived in peace together after knowing only war and fearsomeness. Yes, the Popotu were a powerful race of beings, but they were capable of changing and doing good for people who had nothing but love in their hearts for them.

It's hard to find friendship with your fists up and at the ready, but the Popotu learned. They opened their hands to friendship and brotherhood. They lived in concert with a race different from their own. They learned from them, and they learned that killing and fighting wasn't the best thing to be doing with their lives.

It was a little like being back in Mrs. Taylor's class. It went on and on until the complete story was told. We all cried for the Popotu and their brothers the Modoray. They would have been good people to know. We had been searching for a place where men didn't kill each other for the sake of Law Givers and kings. We never killed because someone told us it is what we needed to do, but we were a small clan. Killing never went well.

We now knew where the spirits Running Horse didn't know were taking us, and it was good.

I felt good about it.

On to Chapter Twenty-Four
"Popotu Valley"
Back to Chapter Twenty-Two
"Calm Before the Storm"
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