“This hand once held the flint knife that my father made for me. It’s gone now,” she said, “Sunk into the heart of Deft Eagle when he attempted to tear off my clothes and rape me tonight.”
“What?” I gasped.
“And when the others saw the dead man I’d left lying on the grass next to the fire, they turned to the murderer and gave chase. I knew that they were faster than me, so I could only do as I’d always done and that was to preserve my life,” she cried.
I pulled her to me and held her. She shuddered in my arms, crying out as though in pain.
“I killed every last one of them. I turned and loosed an arrow into the chest of the first one. The chest! I treated a man no differently than I would a deer or a bobcat! I killed a man with an arrow. Then the next man was as startled as I by my actions, but then he quickly realized I had no arrow aimed at him,” she choked out, “But I was able to free one from my quiver and fire it before he could even touch me.”
“You had to do it, Wildwood,” I whispered, “They would have probably all raped you and then killed you afterward.”
“The last guy was actually frightened by all he saw, so he turned away. As he ran, he called me the Shawnee name for a murderer of innocent men. He was going to return to the village and tell the lie that I killed innocent men. So I actually… I actually slotted the arrow and killed him as well,” she cried.
I held her and finally, she wrapped her own arms around me and held onto me. While I understood her actions and actually condoned them as well, I could also understand why a jury would argue that she didn’t need to kill the last guy. I could also imagine as she probably had that there are those that would listen to the false story of that one “witness” and convict the innocent person who spoke the truth.
“Where do we go, Wildwood?” I asked, “You know I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth.”
She cleared her throat and wiped her cheeks on my shirt. I could hear her still breathing back the cries.
“They had all been making comments about what they wanted to do to me. While I believed we had all been searching the woods for our prey, they were all the while eying me as though the prey were really me all along. I heard their words, but I just didn’t seem to understand at the time,” Wildwood said, “Not one of them were innocent. Not one, Time Traveler.”
I kissed her forehead, wondering why she felt the need to still plead her case. She’d had no choice whatsoever. I whispered as much into her hair and let her know just how glad I was that she was alright – physically anyway. I held her for several minutes before she answered the question I had previously asked.
“We need to go back to your dad,” she whispered, “We have to go back.”
“My father?” I asked, “They forsook us, Wildwood! We’ve proven we can make it without them!”
“That’s true, but we can’t stay here,” she said, “And we agreed that we want to have this baby… but… but I’m bleeding.”
“Bleeding?” I pulled away from the embrace, “Were you injured? Did they do something to you?”
“Not bleeding in that way,” she said, “Something’s wrong inside.”
It took me a moment to understand what she was saying.
“Oh my gosh! When did this start? We need to get you some help!” I burst.
“It’s not a lot of blood, but it happens and I get some pain,” she replied, “I was going to tell you soon, but I wanted to be sure whether it was important or not.”
“Wildwood,” I breathed.
“I just want to have a real doctor tell me I’m okay… that we’re okay,” she said, “Especially knowing that your dad is a doctor from the future, I’m sure he has ways to tell if something is truly wrong.”
“But what about the others that live in that village with my father?” I asked.
“As you saw tonight in the village back there, no one needs to know when I show up,” she offered something of a devious grin, “I know where the shadows are and I know how to use them to my advantage.”
She wiped the tears from her eyes and then offered me a pleading look. I nodded, cupped her face in my hand, and then kissed her gently.
“Let’s put some distance between the village and us,” I said and then thought of her fragile situation, “But will you be okay for such a journey? If we need to settle down and make camp, you need to let me know.”
“I noticed no changes in the problem whether I sit down or whether I walk,” she said, “And right now, you and I don’t have a choice. We need to go and we need to go as quick as we can. Because when the bodies are discovered, I’m a murderer of innocent men.”
Laakwa
I had no way to determine the time. The moon had moved a good distance in the sky since the time I’d gone to bed, but I wasn’t accustomed to determining the time based on the moon. Besides, it wasn’t as accurate as the sun. Using mere guesswork, I’d say that I went to bed early around nine o’clock and at that time, the moon had been directly overhead. It was now more than halfway to the horizon, so from the noon position of the sun at nine o’clock until the five o’clock solar position now, it had to be around two in the morning.
Wildwood still carried the candle while we made our way through the woods. Since there was no wind and the flame was halfway down in the glass, there was no risk of it going out. And since our visibility wasn’t great, I was carrying the shotgun in both hands like some crazy jungle warrior. I also carried it with a round in the chamber should something pounce without warning.
I could see that Wildwood was a bit unnerved by the idea of a nighttime trek through the woods as was I, so we walked in a side-by-side fashion instead of the way she typically led. She recommended we take a different way back to my father’s village than the way we had come. It had something to do with being tracked, she explained.
After about an hour of walking, we came across a creek. Wildwood wanted to stop for a moment so she could clean up. We had run out of body wash about two weeks ago, but we still had a little shampoo. We retrieved the shampoo bottle from the camp roll and she used it to wash her hands and arms. She also washed her face, though I didn’t recall seeing any blood there. Afterward, we put the shampoo away and then Wildwood blew the candle out. Once the wax started to congeal, she stuffed that in the camp roll as well.
We continued onward for only a few more minutes before Wildwood asked if we could rest. I wasn’t used to her being the one asking to rest, so this concerned me. She admitted to feeling some abdominal pain as well as simply needing to sleep for a bit. We located an evergreen with a large base of overhanging branches similar to the one we used as shelter from the rain. We crawled inside and she immediately lay down on the bed of needles. She used the camp roll as a pillow and didn’t even ask for a blanket from my backpack. I took one out anyway since it really was a bit chilly and covered her up. Then I leaned my back to the tree trunk and rested the shotgun in my lap as I listened for any dangers nearby. I had thought I’d keep watch while she slept, but I apparently was as tired as she. At some point, I fell asleep.
I awoke, as I often did, to the sound of a million birds in the treetops. I still hated nature’s alarm clock and wished that God didn’t set the alarm so early. I discovered that I had lay down at some point and rested my head on Wildwood’s thigh. I wasn’t ashamed to admit that she made for a good pillow.
Wildwood shifted beneath me and then patted me on the head. I leaned up and saw that she was looking through the branches at something.
“Did you sleep well?” I asked.
She shushed me and then pointed out in the direction that she was looking. I couldn’t see anything.
“A bear has been sniffing around this tree for the last half hour. I don’t know if he thinks we’re food or what, but he obviously smells us,” she whispered.
“Do bears eat people?” I asked, truly wondering if we were at risk.
I could see movement out there now. It took me a minute to see it for what it
was. This was a large, fat-looking black bear. It was currently facing a way as though it had lost interest in us.
“They’ll eat anything, especially when they are putting on weight for hibernation. And shortly after hibernation as well. I guess they’re only tolerable through the summer,” she whispered, “But this one doesn’t look to be particularly in need of food.”
The bear made a sound like that of a whine. Then it turn to us. It moved toward us, frightening me to the point that I took the shotgun and aimed right at its head. It sniffed the tree again and then pawed at it. Wildwood backed away just as the giant claw reached in and grabbed at the blanket.
It growled when we tugged it away from the beast. Then the growl became a roar aimed directly at us.
“It smells the blood on my clothes,” she said, “Or maybe it smells my own blood. I do think it wants to eat us.”
As its muzzle came through the branches, I pressed the shotgun close and fired it point-blank at the bear’s face. The explosion was loud, as was the wet scream that erupted from the bear. Unwilling to face its wrath if it had somehow managed to survive that blast, I cocked the weapon and fired it again and again. I don’t know if three rounds were really necessary because the bear may have been falling to the ground anyway. It dropped with a thud, its mangled face lying just inches from the end of my weapon.
Wildwood quickly grabbed the camp roll and tossed the strap over her shoulder. She then started rolling up the blanket I’d covered her with.
“We have to get out of here. We’re still too close to the village,” she said almost frantically.
“What about the bear?” I asked.
“We leave it. We don’t have the resources to skin it and we certainly don’t want to cook it when a campfire would be visible all the way to the horizon,” she said, handing me the blanket to put in the backpack.
I tucked the blanket away and followed her as she crawled out from under the cover of the tree. I stood up and stared down at the enormity of the beast next to us. Wildwood grabbed hold of my hand and then nodded toward the rising sun. Then without so much as another word, we were back on our journey toward the Cuyahoga River and my father.
Nethaawe
The morning proved to be uneventful. We spent the majority of our time trekking through vast portions of grassy land or wild forests, just as we’d seen on the way to the Portage. About the most exciting thing to happen was when we came across a pack of wolves. Initially the pack took a little too much interest in us, surrounding us as they watched from the trees nearby. They followed us for about two miles and then must have lost interest.
When we reached a distant part of the Cuyahoga River and knelt to take a drink, Wildwood found it hard to get up again. A pain radiated across her abdomen and made it hard for her to stand up again. We sat down on the edge of the river and then I had her lay back with her head on my lap. I wished there was something more that I could do for her, but without hospitals or medicine, I was pretty much useless.
“That sun shining up above is deceiving,” Wildwood said, looking up at the sky above, “It speaks of summer, yet we are in the heart of autumn. The leaves are orange, red, and yellow and the winds are bringing in the cooler air, but the sun seems oblivious to all this.”
I looked up and indeed, it was a cloudless sky and the sun shone brightly.
“I’m hungry, Time Traveler,” she added.
“It’s my turn now, isn’t it?” I looked down at her.
She nodded.
The river beside us was abundant in its offerings both on the surface and below. Two ducks swam nearby, but I was fairly certain they were mates. I couldn’t kill one of them. I took Wildwood’s bow and the arrow she used for fishing and then walked along the edge of the river, searching for something that I couldn’t miss hitting. I found my target, slotted the arrow and pulled it taut. I eyed down the length of the arrow as Wildwood had taught me.
I released the arrow and then yanked back on the cord. I had hit nothing but water and river pebbles. I groaned, seeing now that I scared all the fish away. I walked a little further and found another target. I knelt a little closer this time and sighted my arrow as I’d been taught. I fired it and this time nailed a long river fish with a wide body. It had been pierced through the belly, so it was very much still alive when I pulled it from the water.
I carried my catch back to where Wildwood lay. She smiled up at me and nodded her approval. I set the fish down on the frying pan and then proceeded to gather some firewood. Less than a half hour later, I had the fire going, the fish gutted and scaled, and finally the fish cut into nice triangular tenders and cooked to perfection. We sat on the riverbank and ate what I believed to be the best meal I’d had in days.
Afterward, we rested for another hour. By then, she was ready to get up and move again. We gathered our stuff and then crossed the river to the other side. We would now be following the Cuyahoga River on the other side. She assured me that she knew the way back to the village from here, so we made our way along the river’s edge, noting that the land was getting higher and higher. It wasn’t long before we found ourselves walking along the cliffs, looking down on the river far beneath us. And then by mid-afternoon, we were standing on the very cliffs across from my grandfather’s cave. I was glad to see we’d made it back to familiar territory.
We rested at the cliffs so Wildwood could determine how she was feeling. She remained in high spirits in spite of the random bouts of pain in her abdomen. She chose to take this time to teach me more of the Shawnee language. We hadn’t had any of these educational moments in a couple days now. After about ten new words and two new common phrases, she was ready to move again.
We made good time from that point as we had finally arrived at the village as the sun started setting over the horizon. She now demonstrated her skills when it came to hiding in the shadows. We circled the village, watching all the while and determining how best to approach my father. We finally found him inside a hut that had been built between the village and the river. We listened and watched until we were able to determine that he was alone inside the structure. Seeing our opportunity, we entered the hut quickly and then closed the leather door behind us.
We found him sitting on the floor before one of the radios, listening to it with a set of headphones. He never heard us come in and since his back was to us, he was oblivious to the fact that we were in the room with him. He mindlessly reached over and tapped a few keys on his laptop, then turned to the radio again.
I approached him and tapped him on the shoulder. He casually removed the headphones as he turned to me. He didn’t appear even the slightest bit startled that I’d come back.
“I’ve got it working and I’m pretty sure I’ve located the late 1900s,” he said, smiling as he shared this bit of news, “I think I might be able to eventually pinpoint the spot where you left.”
“Dad, I need your help,” I said, sickened all of a sudden by his lack of interest in me or the fact that I’d survived upwards of three months without him or the assistance of anyone in this particular village, “Wildwood is in trouble.”
“Isn’t she always?” he turned to her and smiled.
His eyes dropped to her little stomach and then he nodded in understanding. His patronizing smile disappeared and then he rose from the ground.
“What can I do for you?” he asked.
“I’ve been bleeding and I get some pain down here,” she rubbed the bottom part of her belly, “It’s a deep pain.”
“Oh!” his eyes went wide, and then he thought better of his reaction and gestured to the floor beside him.
“Would you mind if I took a look and a listen?” he asked.
She nodded, then sat down on the floor. He then asked her to lie back. She did so, laying her head on the lap that I offered her. I held her hand, hoping she truly wasn’t uncomfortable with a man looking around down there.
He lifted her dress and had her prop her legs up. He didn’t look down t
here for very long before having her allow him to place his ear on her belly. This required lifting the dress up further. He lay on her belly, listening for a minute and then had her turn over. He lay his ear on her lower back and listened, this time in three different spots.
He then tugged her dress down and patted her reassuringly on her knee. He then took her hand and helped her to sit up before him.
“We need to get her some prenatal help, Maddox,” he said, “She requires some real prenatal assistance in such a way that I’d recommend taking her to the emergency room.”
“Dad, this isn’t funny,” I growled.
“Nor do I think it’s funny. I can’t make an accurate determination, but I can tell you it looks like the beginnings of a placental abruption, meaning the placenta is separating itself from the uterine lining. This could pose a serious problem for both Wildwood and the baby,” he said, “And we can’t treat this here in this world. You need to go back.”
“Back?” Wildwood asked, “To Time Traveler’s world?”
“Time Traveler?” he looked to me and then smiled, “I like the name. Yes, Wildwood, in the world we come from, this is something that can be treated, but only if you go soon. And if you’re not going to go, I need you to stay in bed for a long while. You cannot be walking, running, or hunting if you want this baby to live.”
I stared at him for a minute and then turned to Wildwood. She looked to be both frightened and sad at the same time.
“I want this baby. We want this baby,” Wildwood said.
“Then you two are going to stay right here in this hut and you’re going to listen to everything I have to say. Because if I send you back, you’ll be taking this equipment with you,” he said, giving me a stern look, “You are going to have to do a little more than call 911 when you get back.”
We both agreed to do everything my father would tell us to do.
Yaama
My father wanted to keep our presence a secret, so he had us make camp inside his little hut. We unpacked our bedding and made ourselves a place to sleep near the door. Since he had electricity running to the small house, he had a lamp going to keep it from being so dark and dreary.
[2014] Wildwood Shadows Page 17