“If this washed up, the other stuff may have washed up too,” Mackenzie said hopefully. “At least now, we have a way of hunting for food. I have a gun and bullets in my sack!”
Eagle Eye shrugged. She wasn’t letting the setback daunt her, yet he knew if they didn’t find the canoe, their journey may have to be terminated. He didn’t know how far away the place was that she wanted to go to, but he knew it was farther than he had ever traveled before, and he had gone a good distance from his village in the past. Though he had traveled down the river before, he had never come to the end of it. Her plan was to go to the end of the river into white man’s country. He was certain it would be too hard for her to walk that far.
“Come,” he said, taking the sack and slinging it over his shoulder and then grabbing her hand. “We will follow the shore to see if the canoe washed up too.”
Her small hand felt snug in his own, yet he noticed she lagged a little behind and realized he was walking too fast for her. It convinced him all the more that walking to her destination would not be advisable.
The next thing they found was the paddle and one of the buffalo robes. It was soggy and covered in sand. Eagle Eye knew they couldn’t carry it with them in that condition, so he draped it over a branch of a nearby tree.
“Take the things from your sack that needs to dry out, and hang in tree with buffalo robe,” he told her. “I will take gun and hunt for food. You wait here for me.”
“Have you ever shot a gun before?” she asked.
Eagle Eye Twisted up his face. “It can’t be that hard.”
“Well, I have never shot one either. Maybe you should practice before you head out,” she suggested. “I know how to load it and pull the trigger, but I am probably a terrible aim. You should do better, seeing as how you know how to shoot an arrow straight.”
Eagle Eye shrugged, holding out his hand for the gun. Mackenzie fished it out of her sack and handed it to him. “I’ll put some little rocks on top of big rocks by the shore, and you try to shoot them off,” she suggested.
Eagle Eye discovered it wasn’t as easy hitting a target with the gun as it was with his bow and arrow, but he persisted until he got the feel of it, while Mackenzie held her ears and watched on. When he felt sure enough of himself that he could actually hit what he was aiming at, Mackenzie give him a handful of bullets, which he put in the pouch he always had hanging around his neck.
“Stay here and wait for me,” he told her.
She nodded and watched him disappear through the trees growing near the shore, and then off through the tall grass. Mackenzie suddenly felt more alone than just sitting by herself at the river’s edge. Her life seemed empty and unfulfilling. What did she have to look forward to, once Eagle Eye returned her to her home in Missouri? If her father and brother were there, at least it would give her hope, but if the house was empty…the thought frightened her. She would just have to make the best of it, she decided.
She wondered what Plenty Proud was doing. Eagle Eye had told her it would take three days of fasting before he could even begin to purify himself to have his vision quest. It had only been two days since he left her. It would probably be another week before he even discovered she was gone. She shuddered inside, thinking of how upset he was going to be, even if his vision quest told him she was not the woman for him. Only Little Bird would comfort him, she thought, begrudgingly
She thought of how contented she had felt in Eagle Eyes arms the night before, yet how confusing it was because she was in love with Plenty Proud, not Eagle Eye. Still, there was a lot of appealing features about Eagle Eye. He was kind and thoughtful, just like Plenty Proud, and the way he looked at her made her shiver in the same way. It was hard to choose which brave pleased her the most, but in the end, her thoughts always went back to Plenty Proud.
The sun was warm and comforting as it shown down upon her. A slight breeze hastened the drying of her blankets along with the buffalo robe. She stood up and brushed the sand from the fur, rubbing her cheek against it, remembering how soft Plenty Proud’s buffalo robe felt against her skin as they made love. Mackenzie took one of the dried blankets and placed it on top of the grass, and laid down on it. She realized how tired she felt, not having slept very soundly the night before. She wasn’t sure when she fell asleep.
She was awakened by Eagle Eye shaking her shoulder. He had already made a fire, and she could see a rabbit on a stick cooking over it.
“How did the gun work?” she asked as she rubbed her eyes, and glanced up at him.
“Better than a bow and arrow,” he admitted, handing her the gun. “The rabbit is almost cooked. We need to continue down the river. It is getting late.”
Mackenzie put the gun in her sack, and then folded the blankets and put them inside as well. By the time she had finished, Eagle eye handed her half of the rabbit he had cut in two with his knife, and they both began to eat.
Soon they were tramping along the river again, Eagle Eye with the buffalo robe and sack over his shoulder, and Mackenzie following closely behind. The whole rest of the day, they walked, eating some of Mackenzie’s carrots she had in her sack. She figured that when they stopped for the night, they could cook the potatoes to eat, which she had gotten at the trading post along with the carrots. Their eyes scanned both sides of the shore, looking for the canoe, with no luck. They didn’t find anything else from the canoe either.
Finally, Eagle Eye suggested they stop and camp for the night, and he busied himself making up a fire, while Mackenzie laid out the buffalo robe and blankets, handing Eagle Eye a couple of the potatoes to cook. He wrapped them in damp leaves, and put them in the coals, next to the fire to bake.
After eating their simple meal, the two crawled under the buffalo robe together, but Eagle Eye did not take Mackenzie into his arms the way he longed to do. He was afraid to touch her because it was just too tempting to forget his vow if he did. Makenzie curled up in a ball with her back to Eagle Eye. It was best this way, she kept telling herself until she fell asleep.
When she woke in the morning, Mackenzie saw that Eagle Eye was already up. “I will go hunting again,” he told her, holding his hand out for the gun, and she rummaged in her sack and gave it to him, along with more bullets.
“You were gone so long the last time. I think I will walk along the river, looking for the canoe, while you are gone. When you get back, you can catch up with me,” she told him.
He looked a little worried because he didn’t want to get separated from her, but then he shrugged. If she stayed close to the shore, he shouldn’t have a hard time finding her, he decided.
“Don’t wander away from the shore,” he cautioned her. “Leave everything here and I will bring it when I come.”
Mackenzie nodded, and started strolling along the shoreline, in search of the canoe. She worried that they would never find the canoe and they would have to return to the Sioux village. Then she would either have to break Plenty Proud or Little Bird’s heart. She didn’t know which.
She had been walking for about an hour when she stopped and stared. Then she started crying out in glee! There, turned upside down, tangled in a bush was the canoe. She started running until she reached it, and then did a little dance in celebration for her find. She hoped it wasn’t damaged. When she turned it over, she discovered some of the supplies were still inside, lashed to one of the seats where Eagle Eye had secured them. Eagle Eye would be so relieved to discover the canoe was safe. She sat down in the sand and leaned against the canoe, in wait of Eagle Eye.
She waited until it got dark, but Eagle Eye had not appeared. This frightened Mackenzie, but it was too dark to go back to the campsite, so she turned the canoe back over, spreading the other buffalo robe that was still in the canoe when she found it, on the ground beneath the canoe and crawled under it, lying against the soft fur of the buffalo robe. She slept fitfully, worrying about Eagle Eye. She hoped he hadn’t accidently shot himself, or decided against helping her return to her home. He had been acting a li
ttle indifferently towards her ever since they woke up in the cave. She was beginning to believe he had regretted making love to her, and didn’t want to be with her any longer. Only she was sure he wouldn’t just abandon her, to wander on her own along the river.
She had eaten some buffalo jerky, she found with Eagle Eye’s supplies in the canoe, but her stomach still growled. Only she was too nervous to eat as she kept thinking of all the things that might have happened to Eagle Eye.
When he hadn’t arrived by morning, Mackenzie turned back, heading for the campsite to discover if he was there or not. She was so impatient to discover the answer, she sprinted most of the way.
Mackenzie arrived at the campsite out of breath, to find it just as she had left it, and no sign of Eagle Eye. She sank down and started weeping, wondering what she should do. Should she wait? Should she go looking for him? Only she didn’t know in what direction he had gone, and she knew her ability to track anyone was next to nil. She decided to wait, just in case he had gotten hurt and was having a hard time getting back to her. She feared that either a wild animal had attacked him, or he had accidently shot himself, and she would never see him again.
She nibbled on some carrots, and ate the last can of fish, which was in her sack, while she waited, feeling more apprehensive about his absence the longer she sat there. When the sun went down for the second time and no sign of Eagle Eye, Mackenzie was at her wits end. She curled up in the buffalo robe praying for him to return, as tears fell upon the fur and dampened it
By morning, she felt weak and listless. She was afraid to leave the campsite, yet at the same time, she knew she couldn’t remain there forever. If Eagle Eye hadn’t returned by now, she didn’t think he was ever going to return. Something must have happened to him, knowing he would not just decide not to continue on with her. At least he had the gun. If he was hurt, he may have to remain where he was until he healed. If he was dead… she didn’t want to think about it.
Mackenzie began packing everything into her sack, and headed back to where she left the canoe. Now she had no gun, and Eagle Eye had the only knife. She didn’t know how she was going to find anything to eat, and decided to just make the food they had packed, last as long as she could. It had taken her brother and her over a month to travel from their home by land, progressing about twenty miles a day. Going down the river was a lot faster, so she figured she could cover more miles a day than by land. It was at least six-hundred miles, following this river to the Missouri river and then continuing on to Missouri, and they had gone quite a ways down this river already. She calculated that if she traveled at least fifty miles or more a day, it would take her between one and a half weeks to two and a half weeks. Riding in a canoe would not take a lot of energy, since the current would carry her most of the way downriver. If she ate one meal a day from the sparse supplies she had with her, she was sure she could make it. In fact, if she didn’t stop and camp, and just let the river carry her at night, the journey may go even faster.
With that decided, Mackenzie tried to keep a brave spirit, only she couldn’t help wondering why Eagle Eye never made it back to the camp. There was no way she could ever discover the answer, though. Once she got to Missouri, she would never see any of her Indian friends again. She only hoped she would survive the trip and wouldn’t run into any more storms along the way. She would feel safe traveling down the river alone where no one could get to her, either wild animals or people. It was best she remained on the river and didn’t try to camp at night, since she didn’t have her gun any longer. If she saw anyone on shore, she would lie down in the canoe, so they couldn’t see her, and hopefully, they would just believe it was an Indian canoe floating free.
Before she put anything in the canoe, Mackenzie checked it to make sure there were no holes in it, and she wouldn’t end up sinking, once she got it on the river. It looked safe to her, and this time, she tied everything securely in the canoe, so if anything happened again, everything would remain inside instead of being dumped out in the river. She hoped for fair weather, as she pushed the canoe into the river and jumped inside.
It took some time to figure out how to use the paddle, but she had watched Eagle Eye paddling and was sure she would get the knack, eventually. Once she managed to get the canoe to go in a straight direction, she felt a lot calmer. She realized that the current pulled her pretty swiftly, and the only reason she needed to use the paddle was to keep the canoe pointed in the right direction. Yet, if she wished to travel faster, she could also use the paddle to propel her forward. She started to appreciate the reasons both the Indians, and trappers alike, used the river for faster travel.
The only drawback was that the sun shone down on her relentlessly, the water reflecting the sun made it even worse. She emptied her sack into the bottom of the canoe and draped it over her shoulders and head to try and shade herself from the sun. It only helped a little, but was better than nothing.
Mackenzie was amazed at how swiftly the river was moving. It was early spring, so the mountain snow melting was dumping more water into the river. To her, it was a good thing. It meant she would reach her destination a lot faster. At night, she laid the buffalo robe out, rolling one of them up to place between the two seats, and putting the other one on top of the seats and rolled up robe. Then she covered with her blankets and let the canoe find its own way down the river. Sometimes she would have to paddle it back out to the center, when it ended up drifting to shore. She felt remaining on the river both day and night would make the journey go even faster. When she was sleeping, it was like time did not even exist. She couldn’t tell how far she traveled when she was asleep, but sometimes, when she woke, all the landscape along the shore line would be drastically different from the day before, so she knew she must have gone quite a distance.
At night Mackenzie dreamed she was making love to Plenty Proud, but then his face would turn into Eagle Eye’s face, and by the time she woke up, she wasn’t certain who she had been dreaming bout. She tried to put them both out of her mind, but it seemed they were the single focus of her thoughts. She was certain that by now, Plenty Proud would have finished his vision quest. He was probably happily accepting Little Bird for his wife. After all, the girl was very pretty, and she liked Plenty Proud. Since his mother approved of their becoming husband and wife, there should be no problem with Plenty Proud accepting Little Bird as his wife.
Even as she made up the scenarios in her head, she felt jealous. Someone else would be feeling Plenty Proud’s hands and lips caressing them. She was happy she had had him first, though. She tried not to think about Eagle Eye, because she didn’t want to assume he was dead. If he wasn’t dead, though, and came back looking for her, he would never find her now.
When the Cheyenne River dumped out into the Missouri, Mackenzie was ecstatic, even though the water was turbulent as it met up with the Missouri, and she had to struggle to keep the canoe upright. The Missouri River was so much wider than the Cheyenne. She had heard a paddle boat one time tried to travel all the way up the Missouri River farther than any other boat had gone just to see how far they could travel on the Missouri River. There was a lot of dispute as to whether it actually ever happened, though. Now the river would bring her all the way through Iowa and Nebraska, to Missouri, and then she could make her way to her house, which wasn’t far from the river. There was at least three or four hundred miles left to go, though. She should probably be there within a week.
Now the river was not as secluded as the Cheyenne had been. There was a lot more traffic on the river, since it was the main highway for people in the States to make their way from one place to the other, and ship trade goods on the river. She noticed people on the bank and on other boats, looked at her curiously, scratching their heads at the redheaded girl dressed in a squaw-dress, riding in an Indian canoe. If anyone asked, she would tell them she had been captured by the Indians, and had escaped in one of their canoes. They would consider her brave and daring, only she didn’t feel tha
t way.
She had betrayed Plenty Proud, and if Eagle Eye ever made it back to camp, he would have nothing to use. However, she justified, he was an Indian. He knew how to survive in the wild. He had her gun, and could make things out of nothing, like most Indians managed to do. It would test his skills. He would either have to walk back to his village, or find a way to build himself another canoe. Worrying about him was the least of her concerns.
Her food supply was low, and she contemplated trading one of the buffalo robes to someone along the way for more food, but she needed both of them in order to sleep in the canoe at night. Only now, she had to tie the canoe up to the shore at night, because of the traffic on the river. She could not just let the canoe float on its own without her guiding it. She always stopped at night on the off side of the river, where it was less populated than on the State side of the river. The Missouri River was considered the “jumping off” place from the States into the territories of the West. It had only been a few years back when the first travelers to Oregon had made their way from the States, crossing the Missouri River from St. Joseph and other ports from Missouri.
Mackenzie decided she would just have to make it without any food. She figured it was only a couple more days before she got to her destination, and if Plenty Proud had to fast for three days to prepare for his vision quest, and then continue to fast during his vision quest, she could survive for a couple of days without food.
The closer she got to home, the more familiar the scenery became, and the more excited Mackenzie began to feel. She was weak and tired, though, and hoped that once she brought the canoe to shore and concealed it, she would have enough strength to make it to her house, which was about a half a mile from the river. Determination propelled her forward, though. She had made it this far, all on her own, and she wasn’t about to give up now. When she finally made it to shore, and found a place to hide the canoe, she scrambled up the bank, gaining strength in her excitement of almost being home.
Plenty Proud Page 13
