Wolf Shadow’s Promise

by Karen Kay

  “So,” Alys uttered, “there is gold in those caverns, after all.” She glanced around the room. “Did father register the deed for the acres at Sun River?”

  “Nope, that’s why we’ve got to find the deed. When we came here, there was no General Land Office. We was told that one would be established soon at Fort Union. And so your father put the deed into safe storage. I believe he hid it in the caves until such a time when he could go east and register the claim. He died before he made that trip, and before he was able to tell me where the deed was. When you were young, I told you we was looking for treasure, for gold. I did it to make it a game for you. And I suppose there might be gold there, but that never really mattered to me. All the time, I have been looking for this document.”

  “I see.” Alys turned to glance briefly at the reverend. “And what does this have to do with Brother Mark?”

  “Brother Mark needs a bit of land, just a little to set up a ministry for the Blackfeet. Although the land will be officially yours—if’n we find that title to it—I had promised him that if he would come here and perform a duty for me, I would grant him some land.”

  “Mrs. Clayton, there really is no need,” the good reverend protested. “I would have come here with this fine young man anyway.”

  Alys now turned her wide-eyed glare upon Moon Wolf. “You went to fetch the reverend?”

  He grinned at her. “I did.”

  “With what purpose in mind?” she asked.

  “Alys, I needed to see the reverend,” her mother took over the conversation. “Moon Wolf did it for me and for—”

  “Maybe you should run and get your clothes,” the good reverend now said in turn.

  “What is going on here? Is there some plan afoot between the three of you? What kind of celebration is this that we’re going to?”

  “A dance,” Moon Wolf said.

  “A dance that requires me to wear my best dress?”

  “Everyone there,” said Moon Wolf, “will be clothed in their best apparel. You would not want to go there without your very best, would you?”

  She cut him a glance. These three were up to something. She knew it.

  Was it possibly something to do with their marriage? Was the good reverend here to?…No, she daren’t hope for it, lest it not happen.

  Well, the sooner she went, the sooner she would find out.

  “Land sakes,” she said, “I reckon that, seeing as how everyone here seems to be waiting for me, I guess I’d better go upstairs and get my things.”

  And at that, she lifted up the bottom of her skirt, turned, and raced from the room on up the stairs. But not before she heard Moon Wolf’s question, “What does this deed look like?”

  Alys didn’t wait to hear the response. After all, it would be no more, no less than a simple piece of parchment…

  Chapter 24

  “I know that you have hesitated to come into my camp,” Moon Wolf caught her as she stepped from her room, her clothing put neatly into a box, since she would not wear a white dress through the muddy streets of Fort Benton. “But I promise you,” he continued, “that tonight it will be safe. My sister has journeyed here to lead us with our celebration.”

  Alys smiled at him. “I’m sure it will be fine.”

  He, however, must have read her thoughts, for he said, “That fort in Canada was a bad place. Even the Indians would hesitate to go there. It was not a place I should have taken you.”

  “You had no choice,” she defended him. “I accompanied you there of my own free will.”

  “Still,” he said, “the smart ones kept away from there. This is different, however, this encampment around your home. There is to be an ‘I saw’ dance, there tonight.”

  “Ah, so that is the dance we are to attend. What is an ‘I saw’ dance?”

  “It is a dance where the renowned of our warriors reenact their exploits on the warpath. You will like it, I think.”

  “I am sure that I will. Is your sister there now? In your camp?”

  “Aa, yes, she is. She and her sisters-in-law have already erected a lodge for you and me. It is an honor that they give to us.”

  Alys grinned shyly. “Then I will go with you quite happily. I would love to see your sister again. But, tell me, why has she never come here to see you before now?”

  “Ha! My sister carries bad memories of this place, I believe, and she has not been back since her time here so long ago. But she is making an exception now, for you and for me. They plan to pay tribute to us and our marriage and have prepared a feast for us.”

  Alys caught her breath. She hadn’t expected that. “I am honored,” she said, and meant it. “Is there anything that my mother and I should bring?”

  He thought for a moment. “Besides the dress?”

  She nodded.

  “Perhaps some gifts. Some blankets, beads, maybe some flour and coffee, some sugar.”

  She touched his sleeve and asked, “Do you think they might like to come to my house and have a sit-down dinner here, instead?”

  “I do not think so. They would worry that other white people would see them and make their lives more difficult, perhaps. They have prepared us a marriage lodge. It is better if we go to them, I believe.”

  “Then so we shall,” she said and leaned up to give him a kiss.

  He chuckled, and, taking hold of the box she held and putting it to the side, he swept her off her feet, holding her so close, she could feel every firm imprint of his body. He muttered, “It is true that I have been gone several days. I am sorry that I distressed you. Know now that from the first day I saw you until this present day, you have always been in my heart. If I fail again to remind you of this, know always, my wife, that it is you who makes my heart happy. Please always remember this.”

  “It will be my pleasure,” she giggled against his throat and hugged him so hard, her arms hurt. “I love you so very, very much.”

  The wind howled across the barren prairie, right up to the lodges, where it set the drying skins, which had been placed there earlier, under the sun, to waving back and forth. It also blew Alys’s hair back, away from her face, but she didn’t mind. The breeze was cool and refreshing, the kind of wind she had heard Moon Wolf refer to as a “medicine wind.” With it came the rousing scents of dry prairie grass, smoke from the encampment’s fires, and the pure fragrance of mountain air. All around her women sat in the open air, working over a new lodge, their talking and giggling reminding her of a circle of close and happy friends. Alys inhaled deeply and closed her eyes.

  She sat outside the lodge that had been given to her, the tepee placed next to Moon Wolf’s sister’s for convenience and safety. Painted in bright hues of red dots and blue triangles, their tepee lay within the inner circle of relatives and friends. Aunts and uncles, cousins and Moon Wolf’s almost mother had converged upon them, ready to feast and to honor the new couple. All seemed anxious to meet her.

  Alys had already learned that Moon Wolf’s own mother and father no longer lived—one the victim of smallpox, the other a casualty of alcohol.

  Meanwhile her own mother reclined in the lodge of Moon Wolf’s almost mother, the many female relatives gathering there to pamper and fuss over her—much to Ma Clayton’s delight.

  Butterfly Woman, Aapani-aakii-wa, suddenly appeared beside Alys and shooed her back inside the colorful lodge.

  “Ann-wa ann-wa-hka k-oom-wa-hka?” Butterfly Woman asked.

  Alys, after taking her seat on a soft rug in the women’s section of the lodge, could do little more than shake her head. She glanced all around her, noting that the tepee lining, so carefully erected, boasted a patterned design of blue and red. Scents of sage, fire, and leather reached her nostrils, the odor fragrant and pleasant, one she would associate forever with Moon Wolf, with this night.

  Butterfly Woman tried again to communicate, this time in sign language, repeating the words, “Ann-wa ann-wahka k-oom-wa-hka?” Still, Alys could not understand, and she cast down her e
yes.

  “She asks where is your husband,” a warm male voice translated from the direction of the tepee’s entrance flap. Alys looked up to espy her husband, still dressed in his best clothing, standing beside the portal.

  “Oh,” murmured Alys.

  “Nitao’too, I have arrived,” he told his sister.

  Butterfly Woman looked up, then quickly down. She asked, “Tsima k-omoht-o’too-hpa? Where have you come from?”

  “K-ota’s-iksi nit-ii-yIssksipist-a:-yi-aawa, I tied up your horses that they not run away when the drumming starts.”

  “Soka’piiwa. It is good.”

  Perhaps because their conversation would normally be taboo, Butterfly Woman didn’t raise her eyes to her brother’s as she said, “Poohsap-oo-t. N-oko’s-iksi ayaakwa: sai’ni-wa. Nitaakahkayi. Come here. My offspring are about to cry. I am going home now.”

  Moon Wolf nodded.

  But before she left, Butterfly Woman turned back once and, catching Moon Wolf’s eye, asked, “Tsa niit-a’p-a o’taki-waatsiksi? Does your woman know what to do when the guests arrive?”

  “Saa, sspommihtaa. I am certain she does not, but I will help her.”

  “Kit-siim-o k-aak-sta’! I forbid it,” Butterfly Woman said in a rush. “Kiisto sskai’stoto, you would do something shocking. Soon they would start asking me to make dresses for you if you do this.”

  Moon Wolf simply grinned. “Then perhaps you will have to make that dress since I will help my wife get through this. She does not understand our ways.”

  Butterfly Woman hesitated. She said, “Tsaahtao’, perhaps I will return so that the evening is a happy one for all involved.”

  “Soka’pii, it would be good, I think. Akai-soka’pii, it would be very good.”

  Soon the evening was upon them, and Alys learned quickly that it was her duty to set the meat and blood soup, which Butterfly Woman and the other female relatives had prepared, before all of their guests. With tin plates, which she had brought from her house, she plunged into her duties.

  It was going well. Each person who had come to feast with them seemed happy to overlook her lack of knowledge of their ways, complimenting her instead on the fine meal.

  It was toward evening, when the last of their guests had arrived, that a man entered and took his place next to Moon Wolf. Alys automatically placed a meal before him without glancing up.

  “So,” said an oddly familiar voice, “this is the mystery woman who has become as great a legend as her husband.” The words had been spoken in English, and she looked up into the kindly eyes of the chief of scouts for the United States military.

  She remembered having approached this man once, when she was seeking one of his own to pretend to be the Wolf Shadow.

  “You? I remember you. I once asked you to pretend to be…” Her words trailed off as she glanced around her.

  “Alas,” he said, “it is true. You once invited me to pretend to be another and I refused. Looking back on it now, I wish that I had agreed. It would have saved you some grief, I think.”

  “That it would have. Then you are…my husband’s friend?”

  Moon Wolf interrupted. “Nit-o-ke’-man, my woman, this is my more-than-friend, Kut-ai’-imi, Never Laughs.”

  “More-than-friend?” She tilted her head toward Moon Wolf. “What is a more-than-friend?”

  “Ha, I have not observed this particular sort of friendship in the white man’s society, and so it is to be understood that you may not have heard of this before now. Let me explain it. In my village, when a boy is young, he and another boy close to his own age become friends, or blood brothers, and vow between them to remain friends all their lives, to share all that they might have, whether in joy or in sorrow, to die for one another if the need arises. There is no more honorable relationship amongst my people than this friendship. It is this relationship which is the most unselfish, the most giving and decent of any I have seen, in my camp and in yours also. Nowhere are the bonds so strong, except, of course, with one’s wife and children.”

  “A more-than-friend,” she repeated. “And Never Laughs is that? Our own chief of scouts?”

  Grinning, Moon Wolf nodded.

  “No wonder the military could never find you…”

  Both Moon Wolf and Never Laughs were chuckling, however.

  Said Never Laughs, “Yes, we have given our mutual enemies many a running battle. And it is with great honor that I have been a part of my friend’s coups, for we have helped each other in many ways, even avoiding the white man’s seven—eleven—seventy-seven, those men who do not reason well with their…enemies.”

  “It is true, my friend, we have had many adventures together, but I think that our escapades here in Fort Benton could be at an end. You have heard of the redcoats invading the north country to throw the whiskey traders out?”

  “Aa, yes. Word has come to us of this. It could be a good thing.”

  “If the redcoats are honorable, it could be. We will have to trust them and hope that they do not become the same kind of liars that the Americans have proved to be.”

  Moon Wolf’s friend nodded.

  “What have you to say about this new sheriff?”

  “I do not know what to make of him,” replied Never Laughs. “It is true that he has routed out some of the whiskey traders and has forced Lieutenant Warrington to leave, but I am not certain that he is friendly toward the Indian. We will have to wait and see.”

  “Aa,” Moon Wolf nodded. “Soka’pii.”

  The two fell into companionable silence while dusk fell all about them. At length, Moon Wolf added, “I went to see this sheriff.”

  “Aa, yes,” Never Laughs nodded. “This is a good thing.”

  “Aa, that it was. I wanted to see if this man’s heart was in the right place.”

  “And what did you find?”

  “His heart is true.”

  Never Laughs nodded. “I am glad to hear this. Did you tell him who you were, then?”

  “Aa, that I did, that he might know me and understand why I did what I must for my people.”

  “You what?” Alys raised up onto her knees, her hand coming to her chest, as though she might have trouble breathing.

  Moon Wolf’s friend, however, merely uttered, “Soka’pii.”

  “He gave me this.” Moon Wolf held up a medal with the face of President Grant on it.

  Alys gasped. “Then he didn’t arrest you?”

  “Saa, no. Why would he do this? He, himself, is here to destroy the whiskey trade. Why would he arrest me when he and I are of the same purpose?”

  “But the merchants, the other people in this town could be furious with you and could catch you and—”

  “I would not hide from them and I would seek to live with the truth of who and what I am. Now that the whiskey trade is finished in Canada and the sheriff is here, there is no longer a need for the secrecy.”

  “You did the right thing, my friend,” Never Laughs commented. “You have remained true and honorable to yourself and to the people. It took courage to confront this new sheriff.”

  “Aa, aa.”

  “But come now, I must leave you so that I might go and prepare myself for the ‘I saw’ dance.”

  Moon Wolf acknowledged the man with a brief nod. “You are right. I must prepare, too…and my wife also.”

  “Aa, aa, aa. Soka’pii.” With this said, Moon Wolf’s friend arose and departed.

  “What did you mean, and your wife?” Alys asked after Never Laughs had left.

  Moon Wolf didn’t answer. Instead, he urged, “Come, we must go quickly to the caves.”

  “Why? You didn’t answer my question.”

  But Moon Wolf had already arisen, was already at the entryway, holding the flap open, when he said, “Come, I will explain.”

  “But Moon Wolf—”

  He was already gone.

  Goodness, how people did come and go here. Well, what choice did she have? Getting to her feet, she followed him.
/>
  Makoyi greeted them as soon as they entered the caves, rising up onto his hind legs and resting his front paws on Moon Wolf’s shoulders. Moon Wolf laughed and petted the animal.

  He said, “I am happy to see you, too, Makoyi. I was hoping that you would be here, for there is something that you must do this night.”

  “What is that?” Alys asked Moon Wolf.

  But he did not answer her, merely smiled, until he offered, “You will see. You will be pleased, too, I think. Now, come gather your things and mine, too, that we might quickly return to the encampment. I need to get something from one of the other tunnels.”

  “And all this is for the dance?”

  “It is.”

  “Where will the dance be held?” she asked.

  “In the big council lodge of the Mut’siks, the Braves Society,” Moon Wolf answered as he set Makoyi onto his feet and began treading away, toward another cavern. “The people will want us to count coup,” Moon Wolf told her nonchalantly.

  She turned to give him a wide-eyed stare. “Us?”

  Moon Wolf looked back at her and grinned. “Aa, yes. You and me. Come, we must hurry. You collect our things while I investigate this tunnel.”

  “Is there something there that you need?”

  “Perhaps,” he responded and was gone.

  “What is this counting of coup?” she asked as he returned.

  “When a warrior returns to his people,” he explained, taking his things from her and leading the way toward the place where the caves met Alys’s cellar, “that warrior will tell the people all that he did that was brave and that helped the people, that all in camp might know of it. It is a good thing. Our young people hear it and want to be like these warriors, and our braves are honored, never to be forgotten.”

  “But why these clothes?”

  “Because a warrior will usually tell of his deed dressed as he was at that time. However, because tonight is special, you and I will not be expected to do this, though we must hold these things in our hands as we speak. It is why we have come to the cave. We must bring our things, these clothes, with us.”