White Eagle's Touch (35 page)

“I see,” she said. “Tell me more about this war lodge. I didn’t know Indians had such things. What is it?”

He sighed and settled himself next to her, lying down, one of his hands holding his head, the other reaching out to run smoothly over her buckskin-clad legs. “A war lodge is a place where our party can house themselves and rest until they are ready to attack the enemy.”

“Why would you need such a thing? Why not just attack?”

“Because the best way to strike an enemy is with surprise, and so we do not wish to expose ourselves to needless discovery. If we use a war lodge, we can make a fire within the lodge itself and the smoke does not carry, revealing our presence to our enemies. Also, the war lodge is a place from which we can safely send out hunters to obtain meat, to dry it and make it into pemmican so that all our warriors will have a needed supply of food to reach home. From this place we can also send scouts out into the area to find the enemy, thus we save the main party from exposure and discovery.”

Katrina just gazed at him before she said, at last, “I didn’t know Indians used such techniques. I thought Indian warfare was…more spontaneous than carefully planned.”

“Then you do not know the Indian well. It has always been a saying of my grandfather’s that one must never attack an enemy until one has done everything possible to secure his own position.”

“Did he really?”

White Eagle nodded.

“What does this structure…this war lodge look like?”

“Like any tepee, but with a major difference. This lodge is made from only the branches and logs of trees, no buffalo hides, and each log is set up so that the structure is in the shape of a circle. Plus, there is a flat, low entryway attached to the shape, which spreads out over a distance, making it difficult for any enemy to enter, since he would have to bend over to invade it.”

“I see. Will you make one of these once we get into the country of the enemy?”

“Perhaps, although there are many there that are already constructed, and it is my responsibility, as the leader of this party, to know the location of these places. I know of such a structure close to where we should find the enemy, and we go to that one now. But if it is damaged, we will make a new one.”

“That is good.” She seemed to have no more to say on the subject, until, all at once, she appeared to realize something, and blurted out, “But how would you make one, if it is constructed out of nothing but logs? I’ve seen none of your men with axes.”

He gave her a patient smile. “We have our sharp scalping knives. And there is always plenty of wood that has fallen down from storms. It will be enough.”

She seemed to discover, all at once, that he still rubbed her legs with his free hand, and she glanced down at that hand now. “I thought you said that we cannot have marital relations while you are on this path.”

“It is so.”

She gave him an incredulous look and continued, “Then I suggest you cease what you are doing now before I become so enamored that I cause you to abandon your principles.”

“Principles? What is this word, principles?”

She sighed. “They are a standard of behavior one sets for oneself. For instance, not to make love on the war path would be a principle.”

“Aa,
and so you think that you could lure me from this path I have chosen?”

“If you don’t desist what you are doing, I just might try and then…”

He grinned. “I think I might like you to try, so beautiful are you.”

She held up her buckskin garb. “In this?”

“Aa,
in that. You look more beautiful than I can remember.”

She gave him a snort.

And he chuckled. “But you are right. I should stop touching you and rubbing you before I begin to urge
you
to make
me
abandon my ‘principles.’ Come, let us take off our clothes. Perhaps that is the best way to control that urge.”

“I think not.”

He grinned. “Still, I would have you warm and naked against me throughout the night.”

“Do you truly mean this? You are not just teasing me?”

“What is this teasing?”

She gave him a cynical look.

He chuckled. “Perhaps this will not be the wisest thing I could do. But I know I will not rest until you are in my arms…without your clothing.”

She began to unfasten her belt, as she contributed to their conversation, saying, “Then why do we hesitate?”

True to his word, he held her body close to his for the rest of the evening.

They reached the war lodge the next day.

Set in a background of heavily wooded forest, it was an extremely crude structure, designed just the way White Eagle had described it. The logs had been placed straight up and were woven together at the top, rather than tied, and heavy logs thrown all around its base kept the structure from falling apart. It smelled of must and mold and the odd fragrance of pine needles, and it appeared to house a couple of furry rodents, the sound of their tiny feet tapping against the logs as they scurried away. It was not a most welcome homecoming.

Katrina glanced over to White Eagle, who stood deep in conversation with one of his warriors, both men talking softly, periodically gesturing and glancing over toward
her.

She kept her silence for as long as she could, and then, unable to repress her curiosity any longer, she asked of White Eagle, “What is it that you would like me to do?”

Both men glanced up at her in a hurry, but then they each one gaped at her…almost looking as though they were…fearful? Finally, however, White Eagle recovered and said something in Blackfoot to his friend who nodded at his words. And then White Eagle began to pace toward her.

Coming to stand no more than a few feet away from her, he said, “I would ask that you clean out the inside of this lodge. It looks as though it has been some while since it was last used, and there will be old, dried pine boughs and grass inside, covering the floor. Clean them out and put in fresh boughs and grass.

While you do this, I will set four sentries to watching for the enemy so that you will be safe while you work, and the rest of us will go out to hunt buffalo. I leave you to clean the lodge and to set up several willow-branch frames for the drying of the meat when we return.” He paused while he looked questioningly at her. “Do you think you can do this?”

She nodded in agreement, saying readily, “I think that I can.”

“Good, then,” said White Eagle, and he made to walk away from her. “I leave you to it.”

She watched him for a moment, before, looking up at the war lodge, she bent to go inside.

It was dark in the interior of the lodge, much too dark. It was the first thing she noticed. She couldn’t see a thing. She glanced around to where tiny rays of light filtered in through the outside, but not with enough radiance to illuminate the interior.

Well, no wonder. There were no windows here, only logs and bark.

And she wondered: How could a structure as important as a war lodge have no windows? This was not the same sort of dwelling as a tepee; those lodges at least had a skin covering, which glowed warm and airy, allowing some sunlight to filter into it.

She wondered for a moment if any of the men here would care if she were to fix up the lodge.

It looked easy enough to do. There were places here and there, where the bark was the only thing between the inside and the outside of the lodge.

It would be simple to poke a small hole through a few pieces of the bark in order to add some light to the dwelling.

Should she do it?

First, she had to see what it would look like.

Taking a small piece of the bark, she wedged it here, fiddled with it there, until it allowed a small portion of light to enter.

It looked so much better!

Dare she do it again, so that more light could enter?

Perhaps not, but it looked so pretty.

She found another piece of bark and began to adjust it, too. And then another piece.

It looked better and better. Surely no one would object to such a change, would they?

Of course not.

Feeling assured that the entire party of Indians would thank her profusely for her helpfulness, Katrina looked toward a section of logs that had a break in between them, with nothing but a flimsy piece of bark to cover over the gap.

She tried to adjust the bark and the tree limbs, but no matter how she scooted the limbs, or set the branches and bark, it remained firmly in place.

She looked around her, espying a sharp tree branch on the floor. Maybe she could poke a small hole in the bark. Surely, except for the additional light, no one would notice.

She took hold of the branch and, using all her might, she broke through the bark, leaving nothing but a gaping hole.

Sunlight immediately poured in through the opening.

She smiled. Beautiful.

She found another gap. One more, she decided. She pounded through another hole; then oddly enough, another.

Why, already it looked better.

Just one more, she decided, this one and she would be finished.

She looked for another gap, found it, and held her stick up to it. One, two, three. Putting all her force into it, she hit at that bark, her attempt so successful, she knocked over one of the major log supports, in her attempt to stay on her feet.

The log next to it tumbled unsteadily for a moment, then stopped.

She let out her breath, unaware she had been holding it.

But, she relaxed too soon. Within minutes, that same log moved again, loosening itself and the one next to it. And then the worst thing that could have happened, did. The unsteady beam fell, causing a singular rippling effect, and every single other piece of timber began to fall down, domino-like, until the entire structure rumbled and roared, tumbling to the ground.

It had all happened within the speed of a few seconds, and Katrina had been given no chance of escape. However, she didn’t need it. She was never in any danger, and no logs fell on her, the entirety of the main supports simply tumbling to the ground, in a cardlike fashion, one over the other.

She threw her hands over her face, unwilling to witness the effect of what she had caused. Dirt flew in the air as heavy logs hit the ground, sticks flying off in every direction, logs, bark and grass shooting up into the sky and then falling softly to the ground like so many petals of rain.

And then it was finished. No more booming, no more rumbling or reverberation, no more sound at all, and Katrina uncovered her eyes to look around her. She, alone, stood in the center of the wreckage; she, alone, surrounded by sprouted pine boughs, bark and a scattering of branches in her hair.

She glanced at the damage done and then, more tentatively, she gazed up at the Indians.

Trying to smile, she drew in a sharp breath, but her smile was too small to take effect.

No one returned the gesture.

In truth, to say that the Indian warriors exhibited astonishment, as they looked at her, standing as she was in the middle of their former lodge, would have been a gross understatement. To say that none of them could move or could talk for many, many moments, too, would not have properly described the enormity of the bafflement displayed by one and all.

Several minutes passed where the only thing to be heard in the air, in the forest, was the frolicking of the wind through the trees, as though it played some joke on them all.

It was many more such moments before Long Arrow had recovered sufficiently enough to lean over toward White Eagle, Long Arrow murmuring, “My friend, we did not have great foresight, I think, when we said there was little trouble your wife could cause within the lodge.”

White Eagle, seemingly unable to do more than stare at his wife, who bore branches and bits of dirt and leaves scattered in her hair, on her shirt, all over her clothing, slowly shook his head and began to walk toward her.

White Eagle chose a different site for the construction of their new war lodge, in case their enemy had heard the sounds of the wreckage of the old one and had come to investigate.

“A war lodge is supposed to have no windows,” he said to Katrina sometime later, “so that it is shelter against the weather. The light coming in from where the poles meet at the top is enough. Once we are inside, we will build a fire, and it will be a fine shelter. You will see.”

The Indians promptly proceeded to build another leaving Katrina to herself. A few times she had tried to help them, but the men had looked upon her with such instantaneous fright that she soon stopped offering.

“We must build this lodge stronger than the other so that it will not fall down at the mere touch of a woman,” White Eagle told them. “It is a good thing that my wife discovered the old one’s weakness. Perhaps we should thank her.”

Yet no one did.

Katrina watched the men work, as the warriors collected windfalls and heavy timber as well as sections of bark from the cottonwood trees. And she did her own part to help, by gathering together brush and branches, which, she had discovered the hard way, were used to cover over the gaps in the structure.