The Travelers 1

by Lee Hunnicutt

  Sonny and Jack didn’t wait. They took off as fast as they could run toward the cries.

  After he had told Falling Moon Woman to wake the village, he ran after Sonny and Jack. The boys had a fifty-foot lead on him but he blew past them like they were standing still. Even though Two Feathers could not understand the words of the cries, he knew who was screaming them. Fear filled his heart and he ran faster.

  As he passed the last teepee on the edge of the village, he looked across the river and in the early morning light could see a small figure running toward the village. The trees were a mile away from the Cheyenne camp. Beth was about half way between the tress and the village.

  A hundred yards behind her was a large Crow warrior and he was closing fast. Fifty yards behind the first warrior was the first of two more Crow warriors and following him at about thirty feet was the third warrior.

  Two Feathers ran down the bank of the river, crossed the river and was up the far bank at a dead run. As two Feathers topped the far bank, the boys were running down to the river. By now all of the dogs in the village were barking and tribe members were pouring out of their lodges and heading for the river.

  Two Feathers had slung his quiver over his shoulder and across his back. He fished out an arrow.

  It was apparent to the boys and Two Feathers that Two Feathers would not reach Beth before the Crow warrior reached her.

  Two Feathers ran another hundred yards, stopped and nocked his arrow.

  The Crow warrior was no more than thirty feet behind Beth. She could hear his running footsteps and his breathing and knew he would soon have her. Although it felt like her lungs would explode she reached deep inside herself and ran faster. The footsteps and the breathing sound came closer.

  Two Feathers drew back his bow and without pause let the arrow fly. The boys ran by him. He didn’t wait to see if the arrow would hit its mark. He began to run.

  The breathing was closer.

  The warrior was only ten feet away from Beth. He twisted his right shoulder back and raised his war club high for the kill. The arrow hit him right in the breast bone, burying itself all the way to the fletching. He dropped over dead without a sound.

  The breathing stopped. Beth ran on.

  Fourteen yards behind her was the second Crow warrior. He jumped the body of his dead comrade as did the warrior behind him. Both warriors were closing on Beth.

  Two Feathers once again passed the boys. He was now fifty yards from Beth. All during this ordeal Beth had held on to the Crow war club. Two Feathers dropped his bow. As he passed her, he snatched the war club from her hand. Jerking the war club out of her hand threw her off balance but she kept her feet and kept running.

  Sonny picked up Two Feathers bow on the run. Beth ran by the boys and continued to run for the safety of the village.

  This puzzled Jack. He thought that she would have stopped behind them now that she was safe. He didn’t have much time for such thoughts. Crow warriors were swarming out of the trees at the base of the mountain. He did a quick estimate and figured that there were between eighty and hundred warriors.

  The second Crow warrior was so fixed on Beth, his target that he was completely surprised to see that she was replaced by someone who was not running away from him but was running towards him. It was the last thing he saw.

  Two Feathers stepped to the side so that he passed the Crow on his left. As he passed the Crow he swung the Crow war club in a horizontal arc. The stone club caught the Crow in the back of the head crushing it like a grape. The force of the blow was enough to knock the warrior forward and off his feet.

  Two Feathers allowed the momentum of the blow to carry him around a full 360 degrees. To the boys it looked much like a ballet move. Two Feathers feet had left the ground so that all of his body weight was put into the blow. The club continued in its arc but Two Feathers had changed its direction so that now the club was traveling in a vertical downward motion. The club caught the third warrior at the top of his forehead, killing him instantly and knocking the warrior backwards. It was one fluid motion. At no time had the club stopped moving until the last Crow warrior was dead. It was over so quickly that if you blinked you would have missed it.

  The boys arrived seconds later at Two Feathers’ side. Sonny gave him his bow. With contempt Two Feathers threw the Crow war club to the ground and took his bow from Sonny.

  The Crows that had emerged from the tress were running full tilt towards Two Feathers and the boys. At the same time the village warriors began to form up beside Two Feathers, Sonny and Jack. Soon most to the tribe was there. Even some of the women were there armed with a variety of weapons. Falling Moon Woman stood by her husband’s side with bow and arrows.

  Now that the odds had changed, the Crows stopped their advance. The two warring parties stood in parallel lines about two hundred yards apart. All was silent.

  Jack looked up at Two Feathers. His face was impassive but his eyes were smoldering fury and hate.

  They were standing next to the last warrior that Two Feathers had killed. Two Feathers looked down at the body and spit on it. He then began walking toward the body of the first Crow that he had killed. Gray Dog, Spotted Horse and the boys started to follow him. He turned and gave his bow to Sonny and raised his hand to them and gave an abrupt “Stay!”

  For the first time he smiled when he realized he had no knife. Jack had one so without a word he reached over and pulled it from its sheath, turned and continued toward the Crow.

  Jack and Sonny looked up at Gray Dog for an explanation. All they got from him was a “Hah!” Spotted Horse gave a grim smile and snorted what could have been a laugh.

  The boys were puzzled and thought that Two Feathers was walking to his death. They then saw that he wasn’t walking toward the line of Crow but he was headed to the body of the first man he had killed with his arrow. The man lay about fifty yards from them.

  Two Feathers’ walk was slow and deliberate. When he reached the body, he rolled the body around so that he and the dead man were facing the enemy. He pulled the dead man by his hair up into a sitting position and with one quick motion scalped him. He held the scalp high above his head.

  The Cheyenne went nuts yelling, hollering and taunting the Crow. All the Crow could do was stand and glare.

  To show his contempt, Two Feathers turned and slowly walked back to the line of Cheyenne.

  Gray Dog and Spotted Horse had dragged the bodies of the other two Crows out in front of their battle line.

  When Two Feathers got to them he did the same thing that he had done to the first dead Crow. Each time he took a scalp the Cheyenne taunted the Crow warriors with cries and shouts.

  Out in front of the Crow warriors was a resplendent warrior exhorting his troops. Jack could see that this guy was some sort of chief and he was ready to do battle but for some reason his troops just didn’t seem up to the task. It seemed to Jack that the Crow warriors sensed that something wasn’t right about the whole situation and were reluctant to charge the Cheyenne.

  Whistling Elk had joined Jack, Sonny and Two Feathers. He said to Two Feathers “Plenty Coups”.

  Two Feathers grunted.

  Jack waited until he couldn’t stand it and said, “Grandfather what is Plenty Coups?”

  Whistling Elk smile and looked down at Jack and said, “Not what, who. Plenty Coups is a great Crow war chief.” He pointed with his war lance at the Crow warrior out in front of the Crow warriors.

  About that time three other warriors appeared in front of the Crows and joined Plenty Coups. They engaged in spirited talk with Plenty Coups.

  Whistling Elk said to Jack and Sonny “Red Wing the Medicine Man, I don’t know who the other two are.” Whistling Elk pointed to the warrior who was carrying a medicine stick decorated with feathers and beads. At the end of the stick was a large medicine bag that looked about twice the size of a grapefruit.

  The two other warriors were Weasel Tail and Big Nose.

  Big Nose wa
s standing ten feet from Owl Ear, the first warrior, that Beth had hit with a rock. He had caught only a fleeting glance of Beth as she had passed him but what he saw had terrified him.

  All he had seen was Beth’s arm extended toward Owl Ear’s head and he had seen Owl Ear fall over dead. Beth had passed between him and Owl Ear so he didn’t see her take the war club from Owl Ear’s lifeless hand. When he passed the second dead warrior he assumed that she had killed him in the same manner, by magic or a lightning bolt. The only description he could give of her was a golden haired white girl, her hair standing on end and dressed as a Cheyenne woman she had appeared out of nowhere and killed two proven Crow warriors.

  Weasel Tail now told his tale of this same white girl who appeared out a rock as a bear.

  Red Wing argued that this was strong medicine and that they should get out of here as quickly as they could. Five warriors were already dead. This was not a good sign.

  Reluctantly Plenty Coups agreed.

  Just as Plenty Coups was getting the word Jack, looked to the right down the line of Cheyenne warriors to see Beth riding full tilt towards Two Feathers. She had her rifle in her right hand. She pulled her horse up short and was off his back before he had come to a complete stop. She hit the ground running and stopped by Two Feathers side.

  Both Big Nose and Weasel Tail were yelling at Red Wing and pointing at Beth. The entire line of Crow warriors took a deep breath all at once and took a nervous step backwards.

  Red Wing began to dance in a tight circle. Every time he came around to face the Cheyenne and Beth he would thrust his medicine stick towards Beth and give out a loud cry “Whaaa!!”.

  Whistling Elk began to chuckle. The three white children and Two Feathers looked at him for an explanation.

  He said, “He does a spirit dance. He is trying to save their souls. He is trying to protect them from you Bear Spirit Woman”

  He looked down at Beth, smiled and said, “I don’t know what you did to them but whatever it was they don’t like it.”

  Beth looked back at Whistling Elk and said in cold fury “They meant to kill us Grandfather. They meant to steal our women, children and horses and they meant to kill as many of us as they could.”

  Jack looked at Beth and saw the same cold fury that he had seen in Two Feather’s eyes. What he saw made him shudder. He had seen Beth angry many times but he had never seen her look this way and it frightened him.

  As she turned her attention back at the line of Crow warriors, Red Wing was redoubling his magical efforts. He was now reaching into a pouch on his belt and grabbing handfuls of a magical powder and throwing it in the direction of the Cheyenne. He would throw some powder, thrust his medicine stick at them and shout an incantation. He would then stand transfixed with his hand holding his medicine stick above his head pointing the stick at the Cheyenne.

  Beth took a half dozen rapid steps forward and as quickly as Two Feathers had loosed his arrow moments before, she fired her rifle at Red Wing. To all who saw her shoot, it was all one fluid motion. The rifle came up to her shoulder. She took aim, fired and brought the rifle back down to the rest position.

  From the first time she picked up a rifle, as an eight-year-old girl, it was apparent that she was a natural. Jack remembered Frank calling her the most incredible rifle shot that he had ever seen. What happened next bore Frank’s appraisal out.

  The bullet hit Red Wing’s medicine stick just above his hand shattering the stick and sending wood splinters into his face. Plenty Coups was standing slightly to the right and behind Red Wing. The bullet was then deflected just enough to hit Plenty Coups a grazing blow in his upper left arm.

  A gasp went up among the Crow warriors. They stood stock still for a second, silent and then as one turned and ran into the forest behind them.

  With a mighty whooping yell, the Cheyenne surged forward in pursuit of the Crow.

  Whistling Elk held his war spear out in front of Jack, Sonny and Beth to keep them from joining the chase. He laughed and said, “No Crows will be caught today. They have too great of a head start and they have inspiration to make them run fast.” He looked at Beth, laughed again and said, “You are that inspiration. None of them want to be caught by you or even to face you. Your medicine is too strong for them.”

  Sonny laughed and said, “I’ll say.”

  Jack said with a laugh “You had better watch out Sonny. She’s armed and dangerous.”

  “What do you mean by that crack, Sonny.” She said angrily.

  “Beth, you should see yourself,” said Sonny. “Your hair is standing straight out from your head and you are covered in blood and lord knows what else.”

  He reached over and picked some goo off her shoulder and rubbed it between his fingers.

  “It looks like brains and bone to me.” he said.

  “What have you been doing?” he said, pretending to be grossed out.

  Beth exhaled loudly and said, “Sonny, some days you can be such a jerk.”

  Sonny raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders and said, “What can I say? You found me out.”

  He then put his arm around her, his voice breaking said, “I was really worried about you Beth. Jack and I thought for sure that Crow had you.” He nudged one of the corpses with his toe.

  “If it hadn’t been for Two Feathers, this guy would have killed you for sure,” said Sonny.

  Jack said, “Beth, that rifle shot of yours was the most fantastic bit of shooting that I have ever seen but Two Feathers’ bow shot was even more incredible than that. If his arrow had missed, your brains would have been scattered all over this field.”

  Two Feathers had wisely decided not to join the chase and was standing beside Whistling Elk.

  Beth walked over to him, put her arms around him, hugged him tightly and laid her face against his chest. The enormity of what had taken place this morning sweep over her. She began to weep softly.

  Through her sobs she said, “Thank you Father, for coming for me. As I ran” her voice began to break and squeak “and could hear the warriors behind me, I knew that you would come for me and that I would be safe.” She completely broke down and was now sobbing uncontrollably.

  Jack watched Two Feathers’ face closely. Moments before when he had looked at Two Feathers’ eyes he had seen a murderous resolve. Now all he saw in his eyes were the tenderness and love of a father for his daughter.

  Two Feathers put an arm around Beth and with his other hand he stroked her head. With a voice full of emotion, he said, “I would die for you little one. While I live no one will ever harm you.”

  He then looked up as if he were embarrassed. At that moment Falling Moon Woman came over and collected Beth. Falling Moon Woman made soothing, comforting sounds and began to stroke and pat her. Beth clung to her tightly.

  Both Sonny and Jack walked over to her as Falling Moon Woman held her. They touched Beth and kissed her on the cheeks.

  In a few minutes, Beth began to compose herself.

  The first Cheyenne warriors began emerge from the trees. The chase was over.

  Two Feathers looked over at Beth, smiled and said softly, “Wipe away your tears, stand erect and look like the warrior that you are.”

  The first warriors were carrying the bodies of the two Crow that Beth had killed. They dumped the bodies unceremoniously at Beth’s feet.

  In a few minutes, the rest of the warriors had given up the chase and had returned. The whole tribe was standing in a circle around them.

  Two Feathers took Jack’s knife out of his belt and handed it to Beth.

  She knew what he expected of her. At first she thought she was going to vomit. Then she straightened up. She bent over the first corpse, grabbed him by the hair and with one quick motion scalped him. She did the same to the second body. She then with a swift motion thrust her hand with the bloody scalps high in the air. With a triumphant look on her face she held the scalps up, turned her face to the heavens and let out a scream of primordial victory.<
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  During all of this, it was as if the whole tribe was holding its breath to see what this white girl would do. When Beth held the scalps above her head the entire tribe began to celebrate with whoops and hollers. Even Whistling Elk let out a loud cry of pride and joy.

  Sonny and Jack were the only ones not celebrating. They just stood there wide eyed with their mouths open.

  Sonny thought “Beth has taken this Indian thing far too seriously.”

  Jack thought with a mixture of horror and excitement “War is a sport to them. Cheyenne 5, Crow 0, we’ve just won the Super Bowl.”

  They both felt the exhilaration but he nor Sonny could bring themselves to join the celebration.

  Both boys looked over to Whistling Elk, Two Feathers and Falling Moon Woman. They hadn’t joined in the celebrating either. All three of them were looking at Beth with parental pride.

  Jack thought “They are looking at her as if she had just found the cure for cancer and had solved faster than light travel.

  My God, what have we gotten ourselves into?”

  He looked at Sonny and could see that Sonny had similar thoughts.

  About that time, a horseman carrying a lance was breaking through the crowd. He was beautifully dressed in his finest buckskins with elaborate bead and quill work. His facial paint had been applied with great care. His face was painted bright white, his eyebrows and lips a flat black.

  When Jack first saw him, it stunned him. He took a quick step backwards and thought “This is the horseman of Death.”

  Then he realized who it was. It was Badger, a halfman-halfwoman.

  The Cheyenne did not discriminate against homosexuals. They accepted them for who they were. They were often taken on war parties because they told good stories and were good at tending the wounded.

  Badger was now performing the duties of a halfman-halfwoman.

  When the tribe saw him enter the circle of people and ride up to Beth, they redoubled their celebrating and hollering.

  Badger lowered his lance. Gray Dog stepped forward and took the scalps from Two Feathers and Beth and individually tied them to the lance so that all five scalps were like separate banners on the lance.