by D. J. Holmes
* * *
As Blue Cloud enters the village, Flying Eagle spots his return, and aggressively approaches him.
“What have you brought back, my Brother?”
“Come with me to our Chief’s tipi. We will greet him first out of respect. After we greet him, I will show you what we brought back at the same time that I show Mother and Father.”
Blue Cloud is pushed in a challenging way by Flying Eagle. Black Bear and the other braves run to Blue Cloud’s aid. Blue Cloud looks at them, and says, “Thank you, my Brothers. I can handle him now.”
Flying Eagle continues looking at his younger brother in a threatening way. “I have been taking care of your woman while you have been away Little Brother. I think that she has changed her mind, and wants to be my wife.”
“…My older brother. When we were younger you would treat me in this same brutal way. I have grown while I have been away. I would ask that you show me more respect.”
“I will show you respect if you will fight me for your woman!”
“I will not fight you, my brother.”
“You are still a coward since you will not fight me for Snow Flower,” Flying Eagle says as he pulls out his knife.
“Older brother, it will be her decision as to whom she chooses to be her husband,” Blue Cloud states confidently.
Turning around, he walks away from his older brother toward his parent’s tipi. Flying Eagle throws a knife, aiming it to aggressively hit the ground just to the side of Blue Cloud’s right foot.
“I see that you have lost something my brother,” Blue Cloud says as he sits down on his heels and picks up the knife. Looking back at his brother, with a look that shows that he is not threatened, he throws the same knife back, hitting a tree next to and at the level of Flying Eagle’s head.
Blue Cloud turns back around with determination and continues walking to Chief Joseph’s and Mother Willow’s tipi.