by H L Grandin
“Your life may not be the price that you are forced to pay Tyoga Weathersby. But the day will come when you will know that your life would have been a bargain.” He turned. And they were gone.
Chapter 18
Green Rock Cove
Three days later, when the young men arrived at Tuskareegee, the unsteady stares from those they passed gave clear indication that something was amiss.
They kept up their deliberate pace towards Nine Moons’s lodge. “Ty, what do you think is going on?” Tes Qua asked. “Why is everyone staring at us?”
“Don’t rightly know, Tes,” Tyoga replied, “but somethin’ ain’t right.”
When they passed by the council lodge, nine-year-old Paints His Arrows Red came running up to Tyoga with a prideful grin on his face. He had been the one chosen to go forth to ask the question of the great warrior. His friends peered from around the corner of the lodge while watching the scene unfold from afar. “Is it true, Tyoga?” the young boy asked walking with a sideways skip to keep up with them. “Did you do it? Did you send Wahaya to do it?”
Tyoga looked down at him and said rather brusquely, “Go away. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The young boy skipped away toward his friends with his chest puffed out, swollen with the pride of having spoken directly with Tyoga Weathersby. He was greeted with congratulatory slaps on the back.
“What was that about?” Tes Qua asked.
“I don’t know, but I reckon we’re gonna find out right quick,” Tyoga replied.
They entered Tes Qua’s father’s lodge. Nine Moons rose to his feet as soon as he saw them. “Good. You have arrived. Are you hurt, my sons?” he asked while hurriedly embracing them both. “I was afraid that you had been injured.”
“No, Father,” Tes Qua said. “We are fine. Why would you suppose that we had been injured?”
“So you do not know what has happened?” Nine Moons asked. “That is both good and bad, my sons.”
“Why, Father?” Tyoga asked. “What has happened?”
“We have heard of your trouble with Seven Arrows two moons ago.” Looking toward the lodge fire around which Tes Qua’s mother, True Moon, was cooking, Nine Moons he added, “Two of the men that were with Seven Arrows were found dead in Fifer’s Pass. They were torn apart in a savage attack, much like the braves who were killed on Mount Rag.” He paused to take a deep, slow breath. “Chief Silver Cloud wishes to speak with you in the council lodge.”
Tes Qua said, “My father, we will go speak with Chief Silver Cloud, but I want you to know that neither I nor Tyoga had anything to do with the deaths of these Shawnee. If they were attacked by wolves, it has nothing to do with us.”
Nine Moons held up his hand as if to stop Tes Qua’s words. “We will see, my son. Sometimes the truth is not nearly as persuasive as what appears to be.” He added, “We will see.”
The gravity of being summoned to the chief’s lodge was not lost on Tyoga and Tes Qua. They had been in wilderness campsites for the past six days. They were dirty, smelled of smoke and ash, and Tyoga’s pelt-like beard concealed his face from below his eyes to his collarbones. He appeared more animal than man. Before presenting themselves to the leader of the clan, they both needed to wash and change into clean clothes.
True Moon told them, “I will get you both clean clothes. Tes Qua, you wash in the basin. Tyoga, go to the river and fetch more water so that you can clean up when Tes is finished. Hurry now. You don’t want to keep Silver Cloud waiting.”
“Mother,” Nine Moons said, “let the boys eat some food and rest a bit before going to the council lodge. They are hungry and tired, and Silver Cloud will wait. Get them something hot to eat.”
“Tes, you go ahead and use the water in the basin,” Tyoga said, “I’ll go to the river to bathe and shave. If e-tsi (mother) is good enough to fix her son a plate of her venison stew, I’ll be back in plenty of time to eat and rest a bit before we go to Silver Cloud.”
True Moon smiled. “Go clean up, my son. Your stew will be here for you when you return. Go.”
Tyoga removed his sweat soaked doeskin shirt, threw it over his shoulder and headed for the river.
The sun was warm, the sky was clear, and the temperature unseasonably mild to make for a beautiful fall day.
There were two coves in the river that the villagers frequented to bathe. Flat Rock was the inlet closest to the village, and the one most often used for communal bathing.
The Cherokee were a vibrant people who recognized few barriers to sating their sexual desires. There were very few taboos. Tribal norms permitted couples to pause along a mountain trail for a sexual tryst for nothing more than the shear joy of the experience. Men and women bathed together without any regard to their nakedness. It was as natural to the Ani Unwiya as eating together, sleeping together, and making love in the family lodge.
Unmarried maidens often used the pond or stream to take advantage of a solitary brave. The young girls were sexually aggressive. Bearing the child of a particularly brave or strong warrior out of wedlock was not considered a social faux pas. On the contrary, the bearing of a child from such a union, especially if it was a male child, was seen as an honorable accomplishment for which the woman was held in high regard.
When Tyoga arrived at the Flat Rock, Lone Dove, Morning Sky, and Walking Bird were bathing together. Sisters, Morning Sky and Lone Dove were taking turns washing each other’s back.
Finished with washing her hair, Walking Bird was quietly braiding her wet locks when she noticed Tyoga along the trail. “Eh ya, Ty,” she said to her companion bathers while flicking her head in the direction of the stunning young man.
The maidens’ dark eyes riveted on Tyoga’s naked muscular chest. Their heads gently swayed in rhythm with the roll of his broad shoulders and swing of his powerful arms. Morning Sky and Lone Dove stole an impish sisterly gaze before making their way out of the deeper water. They reached water shallow enough to expose their breasts as Tyoga rounded the bend.
“A hey-yo, Ty,” Morning Sky called to him while seductively arching her back and reaching her arms towards the sky. “The water’s warm. Coming in?”
Lone Dove did not stay in the waist deep water, but continued her alluring glide to shore to expose herself all the more. With both hands over her head, she squeezed the excess water out of her thick lustrous hair. Brilliant sunbeams streamed through the swaying branches of the willow trees on the shore to halo her exquisite form with a radiance that matched her seductive beauty. Her taut breasts and erect nipples framed in the sunlight invited Tyoga to join her.
“A hey-yo, Ty,” she said. “Come in and join us, Ditlihi. You look like you could use a good rub down.”
“I don’t think so, Lone Dove.” Glancing at her breasts, Tyoga added, “Seems like the water is pretty chilly from up here!”
Walking Bird and Morning Sky covered their mouths and giggled out loud.
The open invitation to join the beautiful young ladies brought a smile to his face. “Thanks, but I think I’ll give you girls some privacy. I’ll head on down to Green Rock Cove. Besides, I know the kind of rub down you’re talking about. Not that I couldn’t use one, by the way,” he said with a smile.
Seeing the bulge in his tight leather breeches assured the young ladies that their little game had achieved its desired intent. They weren’t willing to let the opportunity simply walk away.
“Ah come on, Ty. You used to swim with us all the time,” Walking Bird teased.
“Yeah … well … I’ve grown as you can plainly seen,” he said.
Walking Bird, who had remained in waist deep water suddenly stood up. She cupped one melon-sized breast in each hand. “Have these grown too, Ty?”
Laughing, Lone Dove and Morning Sky ran back to the deeper water and splashed Walking Bird. They grabbed her arms and pulled her back down into the water. Walking Bird’s voluptuous breasts were the envy of all of the girls in the village, and the focus of attention wherever they went.
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br /> Amused with their playful teasing, Tyoga waved his arm in the air and departed over the rise.
Green Rock Cove was a smaller, but deeper, inlet ringed by birch and maple trees. Boulders served as diving platforms on the far side of the cove, while the near side had a gentle slope of pebbles and sand that descended gradually into the deeper water. He hoped to find some privacy and calm here.
He stood for a long moment on one of the diving boulders while gazing into the reflections of the clear, cool water. After letting his doe skin shirt drop from his hands, he untied his leather adobes to let them fall to the ground. He placed the palms of his hands in the small of his back and bent backwards to stretch long and hard in the warmth of the sun. His muscular upper arms knotted and flexed in a sensuous dance that was perfectly timed with the rhythmic arching of his lower back. He locked his hands together behind his lower back, and stretched while reaching both arms as far back as he could. His triceps bulged as his chest exploded forward to release the pent-up power stored in his magnificent pects. The beads of sweat coursing along the chiseled contours of his abdominal muscles sparkled in the sunlight like tiny diamonds while drizzling past the hair below his belly button to continue their journey down the front of his leather britches. He squatted down close to the water’s edge, filled his hands with the cool water swirling gently in the quiet cove, and flung it into the air to soak his hair, shoulders, chest, and back. He stood up slowly, and peeled off his deer hide breeches.
Closing his eyes, he stood naked in the sunlight to revel in the moment of oneness, silence, and inner peace. He quickly opened his eyes and cocked his head while listening intently. He wasn’t alone. He paused only for a moment and dove into the cool water.
In the bushes on the rise just above the cove, Praire Day, the eldest daughter of Chief Silver Cloud, was quietly kneeling while watching Tyoga’s every move. Biting her bottom lip, she laid her left hand upon her chest in a futile attempt to quiet her pounding heart.
The sensuous joy of the crystalline water caressing his tired body buoyed his weary spirit. Holding his breath, he dove down and effortlessly glided over the pebble and sand-bottomed pool, while turning over stones in a playful hunt for concealed crayfish and salamanders. With a push off the bottom, he flew skyward to breach the water’s surface like a dolphin in the bay.
Wiping the water from his face and eyes, he paused only long enough to catch his breath before rolling back down to the bottom to resume his critter search.
He was still underwater when he heard the splashing coming from the shallow sandy shoal. He looked toward the direction of the sound and recognized the long lean legs of Praire Day gingerly walking towards him. Before he had time to surface, she dove to the bottom of the pool and cupped his head in her hands. The surprise of her nakedness in Green Rock Cove left him with no defense save a sheepish underwater smile. The playful broad smile she returned put him momentarily at ease. But her eyes told another story.
They broke the surface with their arms and legs intertwined in that gangly awkwardness that accompanies balancing on wet stones.
“Praire Day, what are you doing here?” Ty asked even though he knew all too well the answer.
“What do you think, Ty? I’ve been following you.” Her chestnut eyes sparkled.
They both laughed out loud when he lost his footing on the moss covered rocks and began to tumble backwards. She hooked her leg around his thigh to prevent his fall. He grabbed her shoulders to steady himself. Pulling her towards him—they looked into each other’s eyes. The laughing stopped.
Praire Day was slightly built, and a few years older than him. Her long lean torso supported full breasts that seemed disproportionately large for her petite frame. Her well-defined waist hinted at the child that she nearly carried to term. Although her legs were long, the top of her head only came to Tyoga’s chest.
When the laughter stopped, she did not raise her head to look him in the eyes, but floated in the water in front of him with her eyes locked on his upper chest. He looked down at Praire Day’s wet hair cascading off her shoulders and floating in a tangle of gentle softness at the small of her back. Drops of water shimmered in the sunlight on her forehead before forming ribbons of water that streamed lazily down her nose and over her prominent high cheeks. Dewey drops softly drizzled over her full lips and she stuck out the tip of her tongue to arrest the flow. Pausing to rest in the cleft of her chin before dropping to her chest, threadlike rivulets careened over and between her breasts. She held herself far enough away from Tyoga’s chest so that he could watch her breasts float in the crystal clear water of the cove.
Summoning her courage, she looked up into his eyes as her nipples grew in response to the urgency she felt between her legs.
“Praire Day,” he whispered.
“Don’t speak, Ditlihi. I have ached for this moment to come. More than you can ever know.”
Placing her hands on his shoulders, she hooked her ankles together in the small of his back and lifted her forehead to his lips. As his lips gently brushed her skin, she shivered while her hips convulsed in a primal yearning that defied temperance or restraint.
Praire Day had been a widow since her husband was killed more than a year ago. At his death, one of his brothers would have been expected to take her into his lodge, care for her, and tend to her sexual needs just as he would satisfy the desires of his own wife. Praire Day’s husband had no brothers. Even though she was the daughter of the Chief of the Ani-Unwiya, she had moved into her father-in-law’s lodge, and was cared for by his family.
Usually a widow was not released from mourning until a brave asked for her hand in marriage. The village knew that Praire Day wanted to be Tyoga’s woman, and no brave would dare to ask for her hand until he had made his intentions with Sunlei clear.
He and Sunlei had been lovers since the night on the summit of Mount Rag. The sexual freedoms of the Cherokee placed few constraints upon where, when, and how they were able to express their love for one another. As teens, their lust was unquenchable.
While the fact that Sunlei never became pregnant was a source of concern for her and her family, it had been a God send for Tyoga. The sexual freedoms practiced by the Native Americans were not acts that were open to the judgment of others. There was no good or bad, right or wrong associated with the joys of sexual union. There was the utility of procreation and the necessity of keeping the tribe strong with the blood of new warriors and wives.
Such was not the case in Tyoga’s world.
The white world was shackled by traditions mandated by the zealous dictates of societal taboos and religious dogma. Sexual union out of wedlock was an immoral act that condemned the offender to burn in the fires of hell for all eternity. Fathering a child with an Indian woman would ostracize the Weathersbys from the few white families who formed the loosely knit neighborhood of the American frontier. They would be outcasts who would garner no help in times of need.
Tyoga was a young, strong, unmarried man who had been faithful to a single woman. He was torn between his love for Sunlei and the growing demand to take Praire Day, whose gorgeous body was draped so sensuously around his own. Feather soft, her nakedness floated gently against the coarseness of his masculine form, and her scent filled his head with a flood of emotion that engorged his senses with disarming abandon. He struggled to reconcile all that he thought he knew about his character and integrity.
What would my Cherokee brothers think of me if word got out that I had rejected the daughter of their Chief?
They will not think that it was the honorable thing to do. They will think it a dishonor and a disgrace to the tribe—the tribe of which I am a member—the tribe that saved my family’s life.
His resolve waned with every beat of his pounding heart, as the natural curiosity shared by young men since the beginning of time overwhelmed reason and sensibility. Afterall, it would be little more than a physical act of intense pleasure lasting only seconds. How could such a simple a
nd joyous moment jeopardize his relationship with the woman he loved? He was certain that after their coupling, he could walk away and leave the act in the waters of Green Rock Cove.
What about Prairie Day? Can I trust her to keep our tryst a secret?
It was not an act of which an Anu-Unwiya maiden would be ashamed. Any woman who could claim to have been taken by Tyoga Weathersby would be held in high esteem. Bragging about the liaison would be the natural course, and yet he somehow felt that she understood the need for discretion.
Lifting her gently to his lips, they delicately explored the taste of each other’s mouth. Her fruity sweetness surprised Tyoga as he savored the fullness of her bottom lip. He kissed her cheeks with increasing urgency as he felt himself grow in response to her thrusting hips.
Praire Day pushed away from Tyoga and looked into his eyes in a way that Sunlei had never done. It was a look of resolute confidence borne of an acceptance of destiny’s cruel injustice.
He watched her eyes as they traced the contours of his face as if committing to memory every line and nuance. She kept her eyes wide open and slowly inched her lips toward his in a gesture of intimacy that he had never known.
Without kissing, barely touching at all, she floated her parted lips over his in a feather soft sharing of breath and essence and life. The sensuous expression of passion filled him with an ecstasy that he had never known, and emptied him of resolve.
Releasing the hunger that burned within, he pulled her to him and kissed her long and hard. He reached around and cupped Praire Day’s hard round buttocks in his strong shaking hands. With a gentle lift, Praire Day floated onto him.
Chapter 19
The Summons to South Fork
Tyoga was still soaking wet when he came rushing into Nine Moon’s lodge. Tes Qua’s mother met him with a bowl of hot venison stew in her hands. Sunlei was also waiting for him. Tes Qua was no where in sight.
