Buffalo Heart continued telling them that Badger had told the men, at first, that Grizzly Killer lived far to the south but he had never been there and did not know where it was. When the men left the camp they headed south. He described all four men as best he could with Red Hawk and Little Horse adding what they could remember of the four men. When Red Hawk said the biggest man was riding a spotted horse, Zach was surprised. He hadn’t told anyone- not even his wives- of the dream he had nearly a year ago about the big grizzly changing from a bear into his Pa and then telling him to be aware of the man riding a spotted horse.
He thanked the boys for bringing him the message and offered them his teepee for the night. But Red Hawk said, “We will sleep under the stars for it is clear and warm and we can watch the stars in the night sky.” Zach nodded and took his wives by their hands and they walked along the creek as the darkness took over the world around them.
He was quiet for the longest time, then he told them of the dream. He told them of the giant bear coming from behind the pine tree and how the bear stood up on his back legs and turned into his Pa right before his eyes. He told them how after he awakened he had found the fresh grizzly tracks around the tree where his Pa was standing. He told them of the words his Pa had spoken… about how he had to take care of his family and also, to be aware of the man riding a spotted horse.
He told them he hadn’t known what that had meant until now but if these men were the brothers of Bull Beaumont and one was riding a spotted horse then he believed this is what his Pa was warning him of. He told them he had thought a lot about the words his Pa had said in the dream. About how he had a lot to accomplish in this life and he needed his family to do so and so he had to take care of and protect all of his family.
Sun Flower and Shining Star were both looking up into the eyes of their husband and they both saw the distant look. Sun Flower was the first to speak and asked, “What will you do, my husband?”
His words were short and simple, “I will protect my family now, and forever.” He felt a slight shudder go through Shining Star as she thought of the implications of those simple words. He drew her closer to his side, looked at the worried expression on her beautiful face, leaned down and kissed her on the forehead then did the same with Sun Flower.
He told them, “I will not wait for this trouble to find us. I will find them before they can find or hurt any of my family.” His words were spoken softly and with love but also with the force of will that both women knew well.
Sun Flower told him they could help but the look in his face told her he would not allow that even before he spoke. “I know you can help, but we all have our chores to do. We have a winter’s worth of meat and hides to care for and take home. That is just as important as finding these men. No. You will stay here and care for our winter’s supplies. I will find these men and find out just what is in their hearts. If their hearts are good I will return to this place to help get the meat home but if their hearts are bad I will take what time I must so they are not a threat to us ever again.”
The three of them were silent as they walked along the creek back to camp. The others were still sitting around the fire as they walked in. Raven Wing saw the sadness in the eyes of her sister. As Running Wolf and Shining Star’s eyes met he, too, knew what Grizzly Killer would do. But Running Wolf stood and said, “I will help. These Shoshone braves can stay and protect our women… they have already agreed. I will not stand back again while my brother puts himself in danger. If you ask me to do that, you ask too much.”
Zach was about to protest before Running Wolf had finished but he paused. He knew Running Wolf was a proud and confident warrior and he knew his pride would not allow him to stay behind as he had done with the Blackfeet. He was confident these three young Shoshone men would defend the women with their lives. He looked into the eyes of Buffalo Heart and he nodded, then Red Hawk and Little Horse and they both nodded. He then looked and Running Wolf and nodded his agreement.
Before they turned in for the night he got as much information as he could from Buffalo Heart, Red Hawk and Little Horse about where Badger had made camp. Then he and Running Wolf made a plan. They had to cut the trail of the four men before another storm could wipe out the tracks so they decided to head northwest until they did so. Zach thought if the men with the Beaumont brothers where the ones that had been with Bull at the rendezvous they would know the country and would head south along the Seeds-Kee-Dee and he could think of no other way they could be looking for him if it wasn’t for those friends of Bull’s. But not knowing for sure, he felt it best to find their trail and follow where ever it led.
As Zach walked into the teepee he was met by both of his wives standing in the dark, the only light coming from under the rolled up ground flap and the dying flames of the outside fire. They helped him out of his moccasins and buckskins and as he lay down on top of the grizzly skin he felt the naked bodies of Sun Flower and Shining Star as they laid down one on each side of him. He put an arm around each one and held them tight and he knew without any doubt he would do whatever was necessary to protect them.
Protecting them was his responsibility and if he must give his life he would gladly do so as long as they were safe. He loved them both more than life itself and the more he thought about the Beaumont’s and the threats Bull had made the more determined he became to find these brothers of his and put an end to the threats and worry.
The Devil’s Wind
When he opened his eyes the next morning he could hear the sound of Jimbo softly snoring and the horses just outside of camp munching grass. He could hear the first birds start to sing in the bushes and trees along the creek. A wolf howled way off in the distance and he could feel the warmth of his wives’ bodies lying next to his. He knew all was well and as he started to move Shining Star put her arms around his neck and held him tight. He gently kissed her and then watched as she stood and slid her soft doe skin dress on and stepped out of the teepee. He turned toward Sun Flower to give her a kiss and as he did she rolled her body on top of his and they made love in the cool dim light of the early morning.
He watched as Sun Flower slowly got up and slipped her dress on and he heard the gentle rustling and a soft moan come from Running Wolf’s and Raven Wing’s teepee. He heard Sun Flower blowing life into the coals of the fire as he lay there watching the sky getting lighter by the minute through the smoke hole. As he started to get up himself, Shining Star stepped back inside carrying her dress in her arms. She was wet from head to toe from the quick bath she had just taken in the cold water of the creek. Her body was glistening with water droplets and she was shivering from the cold. She pushed him back onto the robes and lay down next to him. Her cold wet body made him shiver and he rolled on top of her covering her as best he could with his warmth. He looked down into her dark eyes and they were smiling back at him and he kissed her long and slow. They made love and afterward she held him tight. She did not know when she would see him again after this morning and she didn’t want to let him go.
He caressed her face and felt the tears on her cheeks then picked her up in his arms and told her everything would be fine. They dressed and stepped out into the early morning light. Sun Flower had the big coffee pot on and when she saw the tears still in Shining Stars eyes she came right over to them. She took Shining Star by the hand and whispered, “We must be strong so his mind will be on what he must do and not on us for as long as this will take.”
Shining Star nodded and smiled and looked up at her husband and said, “I will be strong Grizzly Killer, for I have been alone before but before you leave you must promise that you will return to us. For I know you always speak true and if you promise, I know it will be so.”
He smiled and didn’t hesitate when he looked at both women and promised he would return.
While he and Running Wolf ate a quick breakfast, Buffalo Heart, Red Hawk and Little Horse saddled Ol’ Red and the chestnut and put lead ropes on the roan that Zach had ridden
while Ol’ Red was healing from the attack of the grizzly and a bay that Running Wolf had picked as his second mount. They figured on traveling fast and would change mounts often to lessen the burden on them.
The women put several day’s rations in pouches and helped tie their bedrolls, food and water pouches on their second mounts. Just before he mounted up, Zach hugged and kissed his wives one more time.
Then he turned to the young Shoshone and said, “You three are proud Shoshone men, do us and your people proud.” One of you better leave this mornin’ and ride hard back to Badger and let him know why you do not return. But come back just as fast as you can. I am grateful to all of you.” With a big smile Little Horse said, “I am the lightest for the back of my horse, I can be there before nightfall and back by the morning.”
He nodded his approval and climbed in the saddle on his big red mule. Running Wolf was already on his chestnut and as they looked at their wives all three were standing by the fire holding one another with worried looks and sadness on their faces. As they started to ride away all three women smiled and waved and Raven Wing shouted, “We’ll be waiting right here for you!”
Jimbo was way out in the lead as they set a ground eating lope heading towards the pass at the south end of the Wind River Mountains. They changed mounts every hour and by early afternoon had crossed the Sweet Water river. They had to slow as they started the climb up to the trail that leads over the pass and to the dry, sage covered flatland between the pass and the Seeds-Kee-Dee. Jimbo had only been in sight a few times since they left home but as they entered a clearing in the quakies just below the main trail they saw him stopped and sniffing at the ground. He stayed right there as they approached and Zach could tell there had been a camp here just the night before even before he got down off Ol’ Red.
They studied the ground carefully. There were two sets of boot tracks and two sets of moccasin tracks. The boots tracks were over an inch longer than Grizzly Killers moccasin’s and nearly 3 inches longer than Running Wolf’s. Running Wolf commented, “The men that made these tracks must be bigger than Bull Beaumont was. I never saw a man’s tracks this big.”
Zach just nodded and called Jimbo over to him. He rubbed his ears looking him in the eyes and asked him, “Have you got their scent, boy?” He held Jimbo’s huge head in his hands for another minute gently rubbing his ears and staring into his eyes then he stood up and said, “Find ‘em Jimbo, find ‘em.”
Running Wolf studied the tracks of the horses of the four men until he was sure he could tell them from any other horse track and as they mounted up, Jimbo was already over a quarter mile ahead.
The tracks left this abandoned camp heading west by a little south and they followed knowing the four were nearly a day ahead of them. Their travel had slowed for they were in timber and most of the time they had to keep to only a fast walk. It was early evening when they came out of the pine and quakie-covered hills onto the dry sage flat country that went for nearly eighty miles to the Seeds-Kee-Dee. Zach commented, “There ain’t much water ‘tween here an’ the Seeds-Kee-Dee. When me and Pa crossed it with General Ashley it was in the spring and we found water holes and a few creeks runnin’ but this time of year I figure it’s gonna be mighty dry.”
After Running Wolf thought about that for a minute he said, “I know these horses need rest but let’s push through the night. They won’t need as much water without the sun and we can rest in the heat of the day.” They changed mounts again and started out at a gentle lope.
Just after the sun set they were heading down a long shallow canyon that went all the way up to the mountains and when they reached the bottom they found just a trickle of water in the creek bed. Jimbo was there waiting for them and they could see where the four men they were following had dug out a good-sized hole they let fill with water for their horses to drink. It was full again and Jimbo had already drank his fill. They filled their own water pouches and then let the horses drink, changed mounts again and continued on.
It was just after midnight when a breeze started up from the south and within an hour it was a mighty stiff wind they were quartering into. Jimbo came back to them and it was obvious to them he had lost the scent because the wind was blowing it away. With the blowing dust they couldn’t follow the trail so they stopped out on the sage-covered ground. There was no protection from the wind and no hope of finding any. They curled up with their backs to the wind down in the short sage and wrapped their sleeping robes around their heads as best they could. Ol’ Red and the horses stood with their rumps to the wind and heads down as the dust and sand blew the rest of the night.
By morning, the wind was still blowing but now the sky was gray and lowering. They were stiff, sore and tired from no sleep and the miserable night, but worst of all the tracks they were following were gone, as well as the scent.
Zach gave Jimbo a piece of jerky then they saddled up and continued in the same direction heading for the river. The clouds kept lowering throughout the morning and by noon they could feel the first drops of rain. They hadn’t seen any sign of the tracks they were following since just after dark the night before but Zach felt confident the men they were following would hit the river and follow it south.
By midafternoon they were soaking wet and cold. It was a bone chilling cold that didn’t seem right for August. The hard wind had died down to just a breeze with an occasional violent gust and by now they had no hope of finding any tracks. It was getting on in the afternoon and still raining when they saw the green waterway of the Seeds-Kee-Dee. They headed straight for the river and the protection of the trees and brush along its banks.
It was late afternoon when they reached the protection of a large stand of cottonwoods on a bend in the river and there was plenty of grass along its bank. They unsaddled and let Ol’ Red and the horses go. After drinking their fill, they rolled in the wet grass and settled in to graze through the evening. Zach started working on a lean-to while Running Wolf got dry limbs from the protected trees and started a fire. By the time Zach had his sleeping robe secured over the lean-to the fire was going strong and they both stood by the fire at the base of one on the largest trees and started to dry their buckskins as best they could. The wind had completely stopped and there was an eerie calm.
They could hear the river gently splashing along its bank and the occasional rain drop but other than that the world was completely quiet. It was maybe an hour before sunset and it was like all life had left the world. They chewed on some jerky and gave a piece to Jimbo but now even the horses had stopped eating. It was like the whole world was just waiting for something to happen but they had no idea what that something might be.
The sky was getting lower again and turning a strange purple green in color. Then, from way off in the distance they could hear a mighty roar. They looked at one another and Jimbo started to whine. The horses were pawing at the ground and had a frightened look about them. The distant roar was getting louder and the air was so still not a single leaf was moving. Zach stepped out where he could see and hear better and tried to tell what direction the roar was coming from but it seemed to be all around them. Then, in one incredible instant a gust of wind almost took them off their feet.
Zach grabbed hold of a cottonwood tree and Running Wolf fell flat to the ground. Zach felt his weight lift off the ground and he just tightened his grip around the tree and hung on with all his strength. Rocks the size of rifle balls were hitting him and he hung on. He saw Running Wolf being blown across the ground and into a large bush which he wrapped his arms and legs around. But he could not see Jimbo or the horses. The roar was deafening and he could feel the tree he was holding onto trembling from the force of the wind. He heard a crack over the roar and saw a large cottonwood just south of them split down the middle and one half of it disappeared into the swirling cloud of dust.
Then the terrible wind was gone and tree branches, rocks, bushes and even water started dropping from the sky all around them. He finally dared let go
of the tree he had his arms wrapped around with his fingers interlocked and started to work the blood back into his hands. Running Wolf crawled out from under the bush he had been holding on to and noticed there was no trace of the fire or even where he had built it. The lean to and the bed rolls were gone with no trace of them. The whirling wind was now a few miles to the east of them and they could see its cone-like shape with the mighty dust cloud at its base as it whipped back and forth across the sage covered plain. As Zach watched he softly said, “The Devil’s wind.”
Jimbo and the horses were nowhere to be seen. As they started to look around they saw their saddles and tack stuck in some brush just out of camp but they had no sleeping robes and their food and water pouches were gone as well. All the trees around them looked like the sage brush does after a large herd of buffalo has run over it with branches broken and leaves stripped off. Zach looked at Running Wolf and said, “We must to find Jimbo.”
Looking for Jimbo
They stood and watched as the twister disappeared back into the clouds then Zach whistled just as loud as he could for his beloved dog. He whistled long and loud over and over again with no sign at all of Jimbo. Darkness was coming fast and Running Wolf got another fire started and built up the wood for it to last a while and they started up the river still whistling for Jimbo. Zach was feeling a panic start to build inside of him as he wondered what had happened to his closest and oldest friend.
As the last of the light faded away into blackness they had to return to the fire. The clouds were still heavy, blocking all light from the night sky and the deep darkness made it impossible to see where they were walking.
Once back in camp Zach whistled every few minutes to give Jimbo a direction in case he was confused and hurt. Then he just leaned against a cottonwood and watched the flames flicker into the darkness of the night. The night was cold and with no robes they kept the fire going and stayed close to it. His belly started to growl from hunger a couple of hours before dawn and he walked down to the river and drank his fill. He stood there on the river bank looking west and could see a few stars in the western sky, so he figured the storm was moving out. He thought about that Devil’s wind. He had heard stories about these giant twisters that destroyed everything in their path but he never even dreamed the stories were true. He wouldn’t accept the fact that Jimbo was gone and he wouldn’t believe that even the Devil’s wind could have carried him away. He must find his dog for he was part of his family and he wouldn’t leave Jimbo behind any more than he would leave Sun Flower, Shining Star, Running Wolf or Raven Wing. He would find Jimbo even if he had to abandon his pursuit of the Beaumont brothers for now. He thought about the women and hoped the storm had missed them but he felt in his heart it had.
Grizzly Killer: Under The Blood Moon Page 19
