Nah-ghee Chay-dehn’s horse was a magnificent looking animal with a long flowing mane and tail of pure white, but the horse itself was a black-and-white paint, with an arched neck and flawless conformation. He hobbled the horse, and let it occupy itself by grazing on the grass near the river bank.
I felt more than just hobbled, because I was not given the freedom to wander around even in a restricted fashion, so I occupied myself by watching my captor with growing curiosity. He stood before me, looking down at me, as though he wasn’t quite sure what he should do with me. Then he gave a little shrug, walking towards the river, and to my utter surprise and shock, he removed his breechcloth and walked out into the water.
I had never seen a man in total nudity before, and although I looked away in the beginning, I found myself watching him as he walked out into the water, the lines of his strong back etched against the blue of the river. Then he began bathing, and diving under the water to wet his hair, coming up, and slinging his head, like my horse had done just before I had fallen off.
After awhile, he came up out of the river, and I watched the water flowing off his skin, and running over his muscles, causing them to shimmer in the early evening sun. He stood from a distance, gazing at me, as I returned his stare, with apprehension when he walked up even closer. He seemed to have no modesty, as he stood boldly looking down at me, as though he enjoyed taunting me with the sight of him, and then he turned and scooped up his breechcloth, and fastened it around himself.
My heart stopped pounding as fast, while I let out a breath of relief, but the picture of him still stood vividly out in my mind, and I couldn’t rid my thoughts of it. I watched him pulling something from a pouch, and saw it was a dead rabbit, which he began skinning. I figured he must have shot it earlier at some point, possibly while I was asleep. After putting the hide of the rabbit back in the pouch, he busied himself with preparing to cook it, as he stuck the rabbit on a long stick, and held it over the fire, while I watched on. I suddenly realized I was famished.
The smell of cooking meat filled my senses, and I couldn’t wait for it to be cooked, as I anticipated the taste of it against my tongue. Every once in awhile, Nah-ghee Chay-dehn looked over at me and smiled. I could tell he was trying to make me feel less nervous, but all I could think about was how he looked standing before me without shame or modesty.
Finally, he came over to me, and removed the ties from my hands, but he left my feet tied, then handed me part of the rabbit. I eagerly began to eat it, and he seemed to enjoy watching me eat.
When we were finished eating, he untied my feet, leading me over to the travois, that was now flat upon the ground, motioning for me to lay down. Once I laid down, he covered me with the blankets, and lastly the buffalo-hide. He knew, like I knew, that no matter how hot it seemed to get during the day, once the sun went down it became very cold. As soon as I was covered, he crawled under the blankets with me, and put his arms around me, causing me to stiffen, but after awhile, I realized the reason he was holding me, was to keep me from escaping, since he had not tied me up again.
CHAPTER TWO
I lay with my back pressed against the hard, firm body of the savage behind me. His strong, muscular arms hugged me to him in a relentless state of captivity. I was acuity aware of my hair being ruffled by his warm breath, and the feeling of hopelessness of knowing I had no way of escaping. Even if he wasn’t holding me to him in his vice grip, there was no way I could ever find my way back to my family. Even if I followed the river back, and he did not manage to catch up with me, by the time I came to the place where I had fallen in, the wagon train would have been long gone by then.
Besides, I had no clothes, and the heathen had removed my shoes, probably another tactic to keep me from running away. I had no food, or anything to keep me warm at night. I certainly felt snug and warm at the moment, I thought, but that didn’t comfort me.
I experienced a sudden feeling of loss and sadness knowing I probably would never see my family again, along with the dreary prospect of having to live with a bunch of savage Indians, once my captor brought me to his village, which I assumed was the place he was taking me to.
Up until now, I had merely accepted my situation, because there was nothing else I could do. Perhaps Nah-ghee Chay-dehn had saved me from drowning, but now I wondered if it would have been better if I had drowned. I felt a tear slowly slide down my cheek, and then my body was shaking with the realization that from here on in, my life was going to change drastically. I could not stop the tears from spilling even faster, as all hope seemed to drain from me, as I was forced to accept my strange destiny.
“Hee-yah cha-yea,” I heard him whisper. “He-yah cha-yea,” he murmured a little louder.
However, I didn’t know what he was saying, and the very knowledge that I couldn’t even communicate with him, made me cry even harder.
“Hee-yah cha-yea!” he said firmly, as he turned me to him.
His thumbs rubbed under my eyes, as he held my head in his hands, wiping away my tears.
“Hee-yah cha-yea,” he repeated. Then his lips were kissing my eyes, as though he was trying everything in his power to stop me from crying.
“Hee-yah, hee-yah,” he kept repeating, as he continued to kiss my eyes, and hold me firmly against him.
One of his large hands covered the back of my head, as he began to stroke my hair, running his fingers through my long honey brown tangles. “Hee-yah cha-yea,” he chanted as he rocked me in his arms and stroked my hair.
I assumed he was asking me not to cry, but what did he expect? He must have known how frightened I must be feeling. Couldn’t he sense my fear, and my mistrust of him?
On the other hand, he had been going out of his way to try to calm me, even if he had kept me tied, but I suppose, like a wild animal that you wish to help, you have to keep them restrained until they can trust you. Did he think of me as a wild animal that he was helping somehow? After all, he did save me from drowning, even though I had wanted to follow that bright-light into that overwhelming feeling of love.
At length, I did calm down, because it appeared I was running out of tears, but my body still trembled with the aftermath, and he held me even tighter, pushing my head down against his shoulder as he continued to rock me in his arms.
Then he began singing a strange Indian song, and though I couldn’t understand the words, the unusual tune seemed to sooth me. His voice was deep and mellow, and the sound of the notes had that familiar chanting sound that Indians used when they sang. He repeated the same words of the song, repeatedly, until I started to recognize each time he started the phrase anew. I wondered if it was some long ago lullaby that his mother had once sung to him? He seemed desperate to find something to make me feel secure. Maybe he had succeeded, because I eventually fell asleep to the sound of his magnetic voice singing in my ear.
When I opened my eyes, my face was inches from Nah-ghee Chay-dehn’s face. I was afraid to move, in case I woke him, so I lay there taking in the features of his face. In his relaxed state, he did not seem as frightening to me, and I could actually see attractive features in his face. His lashes, that lay against his cheek were thick and dark, the same as his straight eyebrows. I noticed a fine scar across one cheek that added intrigue to his features, rather than distract from it. His hair was thick and luxuriant with a healthy shine, as it lay over both of our shoulders. His full lips were now relaxed, instead of held in that straight, rigid line, he usually kept them in, between smiling at me, as though trying to hide his thoughts.
I wondered what he really thought, but seeing as how I didn’t think I could ever really communicate with him, I doubted if I would ever discover it.
He stirred, and I held my breath as his eyes gradually opened, pinning his dark, sultry gaze against my astonished light blue eyes. He slowly smiled, and cautiously ran a finger beneath my eyes.
“Wah-shday,” he murmured, leaning forward and kissing each of my eyes.
I felt a little as
tonished, but then he stood up, pulling me up beside him and led me out to the bushes. I saw that he was starting to relieve himself, and looked away. Then he motioned to me to go into the bushes, and I did the same. When I emerged, he took my hand again and started to lead me to the river. I was trying to figure out what he was taking me there for, when he stopped, and let his breechcloth fall away, causing me to step back, thinking the worse. His hand reached out and grabbed my wrist, and with his other hand, he began removing what little clothes, I had to cover my body. Now I was shrinking from him, and trying to pull away.
“Hee-yah!” he said firmly. “Hee-yah!” and then he gave a tug on my wrist, pulling me out to the river.
He brought me splashing into the river, and I gasped at the sudden coldness against my skin, but he wouldn’t allow me to pull away. Once we were waist deep, he started bathing again, as he had the night before, and motioned for me to do the same. At first, I just stood there, watching him, too much aware of his nearness, and the way his body looked, but he seemed oblivious to me watching him, and slowly, I too began bathing, feeling very self-conscious of my nudity, and his as well.
It seemed natural to him to be in that state of undress beside me, and for me to also be there with no clothes on. He barely looked at me, and then he was wading out of the river, and I watched his wet hair drip water, which slithered over his broad shoulders, down to his narrow hips. His strong thighs flexed as he walked onto the shore, and then knelt to retrieve his breechcloth and adjust it onto his body.
Slowly, I joined him, and he handed me one of the blankets we had been sleeping under, to dry myself, and after I was dry, he gave me my clothes to put back on.
Once I was dressed, he stood there looking at me, after barely glancing at me, when I had no clothes on. I couldn’t read his thoughts, but the look in his eyes showed concern, and maybe even compassion. He did not tie me up again. Instead, he turned and went about attaching the travois onto his horse again, putting the blankets back over his saddle, and then motioning for me to get onto the travois. Somehow he knew I wouldn’t try to escape, or maybe he was just hoping I wouldn’t.
Before he swung upon to his horse, he handed me some dried meat, he took from a pouch on his saddle, took a couple of pieces for himself and then mounted his magnificent horse. Once again, we were traveling along the trail beside the river, but this time, at least I could look around me and enjoy the view.
My journey on the wagon train was nothing like the journey I was taking now. The wagon train had followed the trail over the prairie, traveled over valleys of alkali that bit our skin, and stung our eyes, causing us to put scarves over our faces, so we did not have to breathe in the white, plaster like dust. We had traveled through canyons where there was barely enough room for the wagons to fit between the high rising bluffs. Then we had careened down trails so steep that we had to attach logs to the back of the wagons to keep them from tumbling over themselves, or running down the oxen that pulled them. Sometimes, the trails leaned so precariously to one side, that we had to tie ropes to the side of the wagons, and a row of men would pull against them to keep the wagon from tipping over on its side.
Even though we always follow the river, when we could, we followed it at a distance where the wagons had enough flat land un hindered by trees. Often, we had to divert away from the river, when there were too many trees, or the banks were so steep that we couldn’t even reach the water.
Now Nah-ghee Chay-dehn and I were making our way through a wooded shelter along the river, following a well-worn path, made either by deer, or perhaps other Indians who followed this route. It wasn’t as hot as traveling across the open plains, but it was muggy at times. Small insects often filled the air around us, flying about our face, and at those times, I would put my head under the buffalo-hide to keep them at bay.
Birds seemed to fill all the branches, calling to each other in a melody that only nature could produce. Though I had seen antelope and Buffalo on our way along the Oregon trail, now I was seeing deer, raccoons, beavers, grouse, even turkey, skunks and porcupines that all frequented the river for water.
Nah-ghee Chay-dehn and I never actually talked, even though sometimes he said things to me in his language to try to instruct me in things, but while I would sometimes catch on to what he wanted me to do, I couldn’t understand a word he said. I found myself talking to him, though. Because I was so bored, I just wanted someone to talk to, so I began telling him all about my family, as I reminisced, living in a past, I most likely would never experience again. Then I began telling him in great detail about our journey out here, before I fell into the river.
Suddenly, he turned to me and stated: “Ay-nah-kee-yea!”
The harshness of his voice shocked me, and I blinked.
He put his hands over his ears, and shook his head.
“Ay-nah-kee-yea!” he repeated, and I knew what he was telling me.
He was letting me know that my incessant chattering was driving him crazy, and the very knowledge of his disliking to hear me talk, hurt my feelings.
“Fine, you ugly Savage!” I yelled. “I shall never talk to you again!”
Then I ducked my head under the buffalo-hide, and tried to hold the tears back. Even my attempts at trying to make myself endure this trip with him, was disapproved of, I grumbled to myself.
I felt the travois come to a stop, and then Nah-ghee Chay-dehn was pulling the buffalo-hide away from me, and patting my shoulder, saying something in his own language to me.
“Shut up!” I screamed in his face. “You think I can understand you any more than you can understand me? I don’t want to listen to your Indian gibberish any more than you want to listen to my English gibberish, so just leave me alone, and don’t talk to me either!”
I slapped his hands and pushed him away.
“Just leave me alone!” I cried again, and pulled the hide back over my head.
Eventually, the travois started moving again, and neither of us said another word. I sat sulking as the travois bounced over the uneven trail, and occupied myself by watching all the bugs that hovered over the river.
The travois came to a stop, and Nah-ghee Chay-dehn came up to me, and surprised me by tying my hands and feet again. Then I watched him take his bow and arrows, that he kept in a leather quiver, and head out through the trees. I figured he was going out hunting, so we would have something to eat for the evening meal, and didn’t trust me enough to leave me on my own without tying me up. This made me feel annoyed at him, because I had been cooperating with him as well as I could, so he would trust me, and he still didn’t trust me. Well, I guess we were even, because I didn’t trust him either, I thought.
After a long time, right about when I was fearing Nah-ghee Chay-dehn wasn’t going to return, and I would have to figure out how to get out of my bindings, and ride away on his horse, which is probably what he feared I might do if he didn’t tie me, he showed up with a couple of dead pheasants slung over his shoulder. Their feet were tied to each other with a leather thong, so one bounced in front of him, while the other bounced behind him, as he walked.
He mounted his horse without a word, not bothering to untie me. He didn’t even look at me, and this made me angry.
“You dirty heathen!” I yelled at him. “When you untie me, I am going to escape. I would rather be lost in the woods than remain with you!”
Then I began reciting all the poems I had learned by heart, and the words to the song we sang along the way to Oregon, at the top of my lungs, just to get on his nerves. When I ran out of songs and poems, I started all over again.
After about an hour of this he turned to me again.
“Ay-nah-kee-yea,” he growled.
I knew what it meant, and that I was making him angry, but it was the only way I could get back at him, so I didn’t stop talking. If he hated listening to my voice so bad, he could just gag me, I told myself, with satisfaction. Every time he said the words to me, which was several times along the way,
I merely smiled at him and talked all the louder.
Eventually, he stopped, and removed the travois from his horse, as before, and started building a fire. Then he came over to me, and untied my feet, but did not untie my hands. He threw his breechcloth aside, but this time he did not remove my clothes. Instead, he pulled me out into the water with my clothes on, bathed himself, and then dragged me back to shore. When we reached the campfire, he threw a blanket at me, put another one on the ground under a tree, and pushed me down onto it, tying my wrists to a longer thong, which he tied to a low branch of the tree.
“Ay-nah-kee-yea,” he said under his breath as he glared at me, before he turned his back to me, and went over to the fire.
He started striping the skin of the pheasants, it seemed angrily, turning them inside out with the feathers on the inside. After cleaning the birds, he put them over the fire, as I sat shivering in my wet clothes, under the blanket. I knew he was going to leave me like that all night, so I would probably freeze to death, once the sun went down. No more nice Indian, I thought. I had angered him with my rebellious chattering, when I knew it irritated him, and he was going to punish me to put me in my place. Now I was more angry, and a little frightened, because I was at the mercy of this wild creature, and no telling what he may decide to do to me if I made him angrier.
When the birds were done cooking, he handed me one on the end of the stick, but I merely turned my head, and refused to take the stick.
“Woh-Day” he demanded, pushing the bird towards me.
“I’m not hungry!” I stated, and turned my back and lay down, as best I could, under the circumstances.”
Shadow Hawk Page 2
