Cheyenne Moon (12 page)

Lone Raven began to trash around and cry out in pain. Since she had regained consciousness, she had cried and begged Abby to kill her. “Please, I want to die, I cannot stand this pain”

“I won’t take your life and I don’t know what to do to help you,” Abby said as she wiped Lone Ravens face with a wet cloth.  “When will Black Heart be back? Maybe he knows something that will purge your body of the snake venom”

“He will not be back until morning, and he will not help me, he only uses me.” Lone Raven barely had the strength to speak. “If you wish to live you need…”  She stared off into space for a few second as if she had seen something horrifying. “I know that…..I have been a bad person and I am dying, there is nothing you can do for me.”

Abby put her hand on the other woman’s head; she was burning up. “Here try to drink some water.” Abby held the water to Lone Ravens mouth. 

Lone Raven pushed the water away. “I cannot swallow….please take the boy and go.” She convulsed, screaming in pain and then went silent, her eyes locked in a frozen death stare. Abby gently closed the other woman’s eyes. What an awful way to die.

Abby dug a shallow grave and piled all the rocks on that she could to protect the body from wild animals. She feared all the strenuous work, combined with being pushed and shoved around yesterday would harm her baby. Perhaps soon she would be reunited with Shadow Spirit, with any luck he would return to the village by morning, and she and Joshua would be closer to finding their way to safety.

Shadow Spirit returned to the village at dawn, tired, cold, and hungry. He was met at the edge of the village by the guard who quickly told him of Abby’s disappearance.

How could this happen, they were supposed to be in there stronghold where no white man could find them. Then he had a thought that made him quake with fear. “Please Great Spirit; do not let Black Heart get his hands on my wife again.”

He went to his mother’s lodge and found his mother and Yellow Dove huddled together. He gently nudged his mother to awaken her.  She opened her eyes and saw the torment on his face, and knew that he had already been told about Abby.

“I am so sorry my son. I feel that it is my fault that I somehow should have protected her better,” Green Eyes cried.

“It is not your fault Mother. When exactly did she go missing?”

“Three suns ago, right after you left for your hunt.”

“Were there any signs as to what happened to her?”

“There were footprints leading away from the stream, but they were small, too small to be made by a man?”

Yellow Dove, who had been quite until now, burst into tears, “I should never have left her. I knew something was wrong just a short while after I left the stream,” she said between sobs.

“Why did you both not return to camp together?” Shadow Spirit asked.

“Many Flowers called to me, she wanted help with something I do not even know what she needed now,” Yellow Dove said.

“Mother will you pack some things for me for the trail,” he turned to his sister and pulled her close. “Please do not blame yourself, if you had been there when Abby was taken you would probably have been killed for I believe that it was Lone Raven that took her, and she only wanted Abby.”

Yellow Dove hugged her brother and prayed that nothing would happen to his wife, for Abby had become like a sister to her in the short time she had been with the tribe.

“My son, are you not going to take some of your warriors with you to find Abby?”

“No, I can travel with less noise if I go alone, and one horse is much easier to hide than many. I am sure that it was Lone Raven who took Abby and where she is, Black Heart is not far away,” he declared.

“You are right I know, but I would feel better if you were not going to be alone.”

“I will be fine, am I not a proud Cheyenne chief. Please Mother I need to go, I am already so far behind, and I want to find my wife.”

Shadow Spirit left with-in the hour. He rode all day, keeping to the trees away from the main path for fear that maybe Lone Raven or Black Heart had doubled back. He stopped to rest at dusk and had a meal of roast venison that his mother had packed. He had traveled south, hoping that was the way that Lone Raven had taken. Yellow Dove had said that the tracks indicated that that was the way that they had gone. Who was to say that someone had not brushed away the tracks farther away from the village, just to throw him off the trail?

He was not so sure that they would go south because it took you closer to the scattering of white people’s dwellings that had not been burned out by the Crow. Some of those shacks had been standing for years. He did not see how these people survived. Their homes looked as if at any moment a small storm would demolish them. The animal that stood in the small pens next to the barns was so thin that you could see each rib. The whites that had come from the east with dreams of prosperity, had their dreams shattered, partly from attach of the Crow and renegades from other tribes and partly from their lack of knowledge of this land. Once in a while, you would see a farm that was well tended and successful. Shadow Spirit felt sorry for those who had such a rough life, especially for the children. 

He had just bedded down for an hour or two of rest when he heard a noise coming from the bushes. He pulled his knife from the sheath attached to his thigh and stood in readiness for whatever was stalking him. He had felt that he was being watched since early afternoon. Shadow Spirit was a pack of tight muscles as he watched his stalker emerge from his hiding place. He smiled broadly as Storm meander from behind the bush. He bent to one knee and tousled the big wolf’s fur; Storm licked Shadow Spirit in the face and bounced around with exuberance and happiness at seeing his friend.

“Where have you been? It has been weeks since I have even caught a glimpse of you, I thought you might have forgotten all about this Cheyenne Chief.

Shadow Spirit gave Storm the rest of the venison from his supper and settled down for some sleep, he knew now that he did not need to sleep lightly for he had the best guard in the land watching over him.

When Shadow Spirit woke up it was snowing and the sky looked dark and ominous. He prayed that Abby would be somewhere safe when the snow hit in earnest. The snow was beginning to stick to the trees and the bushes, and the temperature had dropped while he was sleeping. He felt guilty for sleeping when his wife was missing, but if he did not rest, he would be no help to her.

He ate a strip of dried buffalo and refilled his water bag, before heading farther south. Storm accompanied Shadow Spirit, occasionally going off into the distance, then stopping and waiting for Shadow Spirit to catch up, as if trying to lead him in the right direction. The snow was coming harder now and the wind was blowing and howling through the trees, the sound was lonely and bleak. Shadow Spirit hoped it was not a sign that his search today would be futile.

He searched for hours going in one direction and then another. He was about to decide that he was going the wrong way when he came upon a spot where someone had camped. There had been no fire started, but Shadow Spirit could see where someone had slept, it looked like there might have been two people in camp.  There were footprints everywhere some of the prints appeared to be made by a small child and the others by a woman. He felt at a loss as where to look next, he had been over miles and miles of land in the last two days how could Abby and Lone Raven have gotten so far ahead of him, they were on foot as far as anyone knew. Then a thought hit him, what if Black Heart had been waiting with horses somewhere close to the stream where Lone Raven had forced Abby to go with her. If that were the case then they had a big head start on him.

Storm was sniffing around the camp, pushing his nose around and under brush and rocks. He acted like he had found something, so Shadow Spirit went to see what the wolf had found. Laying there right beside a large pile of rocks was an emerald from the necklace that Shadow Spirit’s mother had given Abby.

“So she has been here, maybe we are on the right trail after all.” He put the emerald in a leather pouch attached to his shirt. 

If Abby had been here, then who was the child traveling with her?

Shadow Spirit mounted his horse and looked around for Storm; apparently, he grew tired of waiting and decided to go on ahead. The snow was several inches deep and the drifts were knee high in places. The farther he went the worse the weather became, it was snowing now so hard that he could not see, it was a true blizzard. He rode on in the blinding snow and wind, if Abby had not found shelter he feared that he had lost his beautiful wife and their unborn child for all time.

Abby and Joshua sat huddled together in the trunk of a huge tree that had been hallowed out by time. The old tree was twisted and bent, and there were several dead branches hanging down like the gnarled fingers of an old woman. Some of the branches were bowed so low that they partially covered the entrance to the hollow part of the tree. Abby had hung up one of the blankets over the tangled mass of limbs and tied it in place. It helped to keep the wind out, and she hoped it would deter any wild animal that might be nosing around. 

Joshua slept soundly wrapped in a thick buffalo hide that she had taken when they fled Black Hearts camp after Lone Raven had died. Abby had taken everything that she could put on, carry, or stuff in Lone Ravens bags, which were thrown across her horses back and she had also taken the horse. She had tied it to the tree, wishing there was some place that he could get in out of this raging snowstorm. 

Abby shifted Joshua around so that she could try to stretch her legs but there was not enough room to move. She had on all of Lone Ravens clothes that had been in camp, and the extra moccasins she had found, that must have belonged to Black Heart. Joshua’s small body was snuggled close to hers and he was unaware that there was a blizzard going on just on the other side of the blanket. He had cried for his mother before he fell asleep, but his sobs had subsided as he held on to Abby’s hand. She cried now, wanting to be home and to see Shadow Spirit and all the people that she had come to love. Surely, she wasn’t far from the winter camp, but the way the terrain had been, she was not sure which way they were going. The last two days they had traveled uphill at times, then down along narrow ledges with dangerous drop-offs littered with huge jagged rocks. Abby and Joshua had walked when they were close to the ravines she had led both the horse and the little boy as they waded through the snow. 

As the daylight had faded and darkness promised to overtake them, she stumbled upon this old tree while looking for some sort of a cave to use for shelter until morning.  She supposed that this was a good as a cave, only smaller.  She checked Joshua making sure that he was as warm as possible. He looked up at her so sweetly through sleep clouded eyes.

“Mama”

“Oh Baby go back to sleep, I’m right here I won’t let anything hurt you, I promise,” she hoped that she could keep that promise.

“I want my mama,” he said as he closed his eyes once again.

He was a beautiful child. He had curly black hair and big blue eyes, and the cutest little nose. His skin was as smooth and soft as butterfly wings and still held some of the tan he had gotten from playing in the sunshine this past summer. Abby wondered if he had grandparents or aunts and uncles somewhere that would want to raise him. She had fell in love with him when she first saw him and he looked up and smiled, that smile went straight to her heart and latched on.

As Abby drifted off to sleep, she wondered where Shadow Spirit was, she knew that wherever he was he would never give up until he found her. She hoped that she would be home soon. She needed to rest for her baby’s sake as well as her own.

Abby woke to the sound of someone coughing just beyond the blanket. She froze with fear and grabbed the knife that she had kept by her side as she slept. She listened as a woman began to sing Amazing Grace. Her voice was clear and strong with a touch of rasp. Joshua stirred and started to say something, she but her finger to his lips and made a motion for him to be quite. Abby peaked out from behind the blanket to see a petite woman in a pair of men’s pants that had holes at the knees and the hem was tattered from years of use. She wore a long weather beaten old overcoat that was two sizes to big with the sleeves covering half her hands. She wore a yellow and red flowered bonnet trimmed in a delicate green lace; the bonnet didn’t go with the rest of her attire. She was bent over shoveling snow. She was standing slightly sideways so Abby couldn’t get a good view of her face, as she continued to shovel and sing. 

“You can come out now,” she said. 

Abby jumped back into her hiding place, surprised that she had been discovered. She was strangely not afraid of the woman; she did not seem threatening, especially in that bonnet. She poked her head out of the tree and looked directly into the dark brown eyes of the little woman. She had the of lines life on her face, but particularly around her eyes, as if she had spent a good deal of time laughing.

“I said you can come out, I’m not going to hurt you.”

Abby removed the blanket and crawled slowly out of the alcove in the tree trunk.

Joshua came out behind her holding on to her doeskin dress. He looked scared and whimpered softly.

“Well I swear you two look like you have not had a bite to eat in a month of Sundays. I guess you could use a good hot breakfast, follow me,” she said as she began trudging up a path that Abby had not seen when she decided to sleep in the tree. The path ran between two hills that were covered with evergreen trees, it looked like it had been carved through the hillside by a small stream that had long since dried up. If you didn’t know it was there, you would never notice it for all the dead vines and brush that lay where the trail began. They walked around bend after bend where the trail twisted and turned so that Abby wondered if she could find her way out. She carried Joshua because the snow was so deep in this ravine that it would have came past his knees. She trudged on and on, and with each step the snow becoming harder to get through and Joshua seemed to get heavier.  She would have been better off in the tree at least she was dry there.

The path finally ended in a clearing where at the base of a great mountain sat an old barn that had been on fire at some point in time. The fire had blackened and splintered the planks, leaving jagged edges sticking out haphazardly. The clay that had once held them together was now ash. What was left of the roof sagged and seemed ready to cave in. Surely, this was not where this little woman lived.

As they approached the barn, Abby could see swirls of white smoke coming from a crumbling chimney. The dilapidated old building looked like it was attached to the mountain because it was so close to it. 

“Watch your step,” the woman said with a twinkle in her eye as she grunted and opened the charred barn door. 

“Do you live…?” Abby started to ask her if this was where she lived as she stepped inside the barn, but she was so astonished at what she saw that she couldn’t finish the sentence. In the middle of the barn sat a perfect little cabin with a swing on the front porch and windows with black shutters that were drawn together to keep out the cold. The cabin was made of hewn logs that fit together like they grew out of the earth for just this purpose. 

“Come on in, don’t just stand there you are letting in the cold.”

Abby entered the cabin and the heat coming from inside enveloped her in a cocoon of warmth that brought back memories of her childhood home. Remembering her father and all that he had sacrificed for her, a tear slid down her cheek.

Joshua stirred in Abby’s arms wiping the sleep from his eyes he looked around in amazement his surroundings. He squirmed trying to get down.

“Here let me take the boy to the table and get him something to eat. You should not be packing him around in your condition, come on over here and eat, you look like you are about ready to hit the floor. My name is Polly, what’s yours?”

“Abby and thank you for helping us”

At the table, Polly dished up heaping bowls of stew with an aroma better than anything Abby had ever smelled. She could detect the onions, potatoes, and meat, she even got a whiff of the herbs that her mother had used, it was a heady fragrance that made her mouth water. Polly went to a cook stove and pulled out cornbread that was golden brown with a crunchy crust and piping hot.

“This stove was all that we saved after the Indians attached”

They sat down at the table and began to eat. Joshua crammed the food in with both hands ignoring the spoon that Polly had provided. 

“Here son, slow down, nobody is going to take it away from you.” Polly commented.

She looked around at the two-room cabin. There was one large central room that held a bed with a beautiful red and yellow patchwork quilt. The bed was tucked away into one corner in the front of the room, on the other side stood a beautiful mantle over a fireplace. In the back part of the room stood a black stove that along with the fireplace was the source of that comforting heat. It had four burner plates and a reservoir in one end that held hot water. There was a shelf over the stove that served as a warming rack, it held bowls and plates. Abby couldn’t see what was in the bowls but the plates were filled with golden brown biscuits that made mouth water. The table where they were seated had intricately carved legs and four matching chairs it was clearly made by a real artist.

“Polly, did you carve this furniture?” Abby asked.

“My son did this table and he did the mantle and the bed also. He loved to make things. He was so good with his hands.” Polly said with a veil of sadness coming over her face.

“Does your son live here with you?”

“He did, he went hunting a couple of years ago and never came back. He hated killing living things but it was something that had to be done to eat.”

“What do you think happened to him?”

“I know what happened to him some sort of animal killed him. I found his remains three days after he left.” She stopped speaking for a minute as if to collect her thoughts. “There wasn’t much left but a mother knows her child no matter what kind of shape their in.”

“I’m so sorry because I know what it is like to lose someone you love.”

“Weren’t your fault it’s just one of the things that happen in this harsh country. Let me put the boy down for a while, I will put him Joe’s room. That was my son’s name. What’s your boy’s name?”

“His name is Joshua but he is not my son. He was being held by a renegade Indian when I was captured and brought to the camp. We managed to escape and have been running and hiding for two days.”

Polly picked up Joshua and carried him through the door to the adjoining room. Abby walked to the door and watched as Polly put the covers around the little boy. There was a smile on the older woman’s face when she turned around.

“He is a precious child, what will become of him?”

“He saw his mother killed and I think his father was killed also. He said his father was asleep in the yard when he was taken away. I don’t know if he has any other family or not, if I don’t find any I will take him home with me.” Abby saw a look of pity in Polly’s eyes.

“Do you think your husband will take you back after the Indians had you?” Polly asked.

“I know that my husband will want me back, and will not stop looking for me as long as he has any life left in his body.” Abby was aware that Polly believed that her husband was white, and for the time being she let her believe that.

“I hope you are right. How is he going to feel about the baby that you carry?”

“He will love it every bit as much as I will.”

“Which Indians had you captured?”

“The Cheyenne that are lead by Chief Shadow Spirit and I was never held captive by the gentle people of that tribe.”

“I have heard that Shadow Spirit is a fair man, he helped me once when I was out looking for wood for the winter, about a year ago last November, I had stepped in a trap I’d set for a mean old bear that kept coming around.”

“Did you talk to him?”

“Yes, I thanked him for helping me and he said that I was welcome in perfect English, I was surprised at the manners he showed,” Polly said.

“He rescued me from one of most evil men I have ever met,” Abby stated. “You have probable heard of all the mayhem he has caused, he is called Black Heart.”

“I have heard of him, I believe that I have seen him and two other men along with a woman ride by the tree where you and the boy were hiding. I have used that same tree many times to stay out of sight.”

“No one will have to worry about the woman anymore, she died of a snake bite a few days ago, and I buried her. She was evil.” Abby said as she yawned. “I know that it is morning, but I am so tired, do you think that I could lie down for a minutes.”

“You go on I have some things to do outside and then we will have dinner, I don’t usually cook dinner. I always make my cornbread while my oven is hot from the biscuits and I make enough to last awhile. I just have whatever I can grub up for dinner and then I cook supper.”

“I will help you cook supper. I so appreciate you letting us rest up here. I promise we will be on our way soon.”

“I will hear of no such thing you will stay here until this snow storm is over or until spring whichever. “Now rest and take care of that baby.”

Abby entered the room off to the side of the main room and was happy to see that it was just as beautiful as the other room only smaller. There was a bed and a chest with four drawers with a pitcher and bowl sitting on it. The carvings on the chest were as detailed as the ones on the table but a total different pattern. 

Abby crawled into the bed with Joshua, who slept with the innocence only a child had. He stretched as he repositioned after Abby lay down.

Abby listened for some sign that Polly had left but it was so quiet that she imagined that she could hear the snow fall.