by Judd Cole
Touch the Sky watched her disappear, her kiss still lingering like a gentle touch on his lips. He was about to turn toward the thickets when, again, he had the sudden feeling he was being watched.
He glanced all around, unable to see much because of the huge rock formation beside him which loomed over him like a wide tower, blocking the sun. But the feeling was still there like a hand on the back of his neck. If the tribe had indeed sent spies, what did this mean?
He stepped across the trail. Little Horse stepped out to meet him, leading their ponies. Touch the Sky’s eye caught something bright glittering in the dirt. He stopped, glanced down.
A blue silk ribbon. Kristen must have dropped it.
A heartbeat after he crouched down to pick it up, an arrow missed his head by inches and embedded itself firmly in the trunk of the aspen beside him. It struck so hard that the shaft was buried almost two inches into the trunk.
Despite the shock of it, neither Cheyenne moved for several long moments. Then they briefly examined the arrow and locked glances.
Neither brave was surprised to recognize Cheyenne markings.
Even when they heard a pony escaping behind the rock shoulder, they didn’t bother to give chase. This close to the soldier town of Fort Bates was no place for Cheyennes to be warring against each other. And neither warrior was interested in revenge at that moment. Revenge was a small thing in the face of the possible banishment or even execution which might await them at the Powder River camp.
“Brother,” said Little Horse, his voice reverent with wonder, “that arrow should have put you under. But I have seen another arrow, the one buried in your hair. You were not meant to die just then because the hand of the supernatural is in this thing.”
His mouth set in its grim, determined slit, Touch the Sky snapped the arrow in half and threw it into the thickets. He and Little Horse had fought honorably, following the Cheyenne way. They had at least given his white parents a fighting chance to survive in the valley. It was right to come here and fight.
But returning to his old life, seeing Kristen again, had once again left him feeling like a man with a foot planted in two worlds, unsure which one was his. And as they rode, gazing uneasily around, that broken arrow became an omen of the unknown fate which awaited them upon their return.
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Cheyenne Series
1: Arrow Keeper
2: Death Chant
