TC29

Before Jashen sealed the cairn, Takoda saw that the motionless white figure was still contained within. Its arm and hand were in the same position they were when he took the black staff, as he was clearly invited to do. A tame bison trod slowly on the charred summit of the hill looking for any green thing to eat. Takoda’s hunters thought it looked like supper.

Takoda was so overjoyed to see his son that he completely forgot he once ripped away his name and turned him out into the night. “Shy Bear!” he exclaimed, and ran toward the boy to embrace him.

But Jashen was having none of that. His body language halted his father at a single pace. He extended his hand and gripped his father by the lower arm near his elbow after the custom of the inhabitants of Kemen. “You forget yourself, Father. No more am I to be called Shy Bear, as you yourself told me. My name of manhood is Jashen.”

Takoda searched his son’s face and saw that he seemed a little taller now, visibly and a little older, which was most puzzling after only an absense of twenty-eight days. Also there was the matter of the strange young woman who stood quietly next to him.

Jashen said. “Father, this is my wife, Princess Leliel. Her father Michael has commanded us to return to the People and live among them. We are to make ready for the coming of another people he has prepared from among the Whites, people who are still far from here, toward the rising sun. To this end Leliel has already taught me their speech.”

In the camp of the People word spread that the hunting party was arriving days before they were expected, and it was feared they would bring news that it was impossible to reach the roaming herds by reason of the fire. But their fears were laid aside when they saw the carved meat of a buffalo dragged by horses into camp on several travois.

Yuha was among the women who went to greet the hunting party. What she saw brought her joy beyond measure, such that she, too, forgot herself and cried out the boyhood name of her son, “Shy Bear!” she repeated many times as both mother and son embraced.

“Jashen, mother,” he told her gently. “I am to be called Jashen.”

Yuha’s hands roamed over her son as she tried to assure herself he was not a spirit. He took his mother’s hands in his own and stood apart, so that she could see what had been added to her beadwork.

Her eyes then turned to Leliel, who stood over even the tallest men in the camp. Sha wore something like a ceremonial dress of har own but skillfully fitted to har curves. And Yuha saw Leliel had a headdress with white horns that curved in a circle over har head. They tapered to points that nearly touched.

Between the points was the lens of a headband light, a gift from her mother Sarah. She illuminated the light and danced for Jashen’s parents, and Takoda, secret bearer of a darker gift from Sarah, knew he and the other hunters had already seen Jashen’s woman from a distance, once upon a time. Leliel was Dancing Star to Takoda, and would be until his dying day.

“Mother,” said Jashen, “this is my wife Leliel, who is a princess among her people, in a place very far from here called Kemen.”

“I greet Yuha, mother of my husband,” Leliel said. “In the lodge of my father not a day passed that Jashen did not speak of both you and Takoda with a love that could not be hidden. And it was not long before his love for me could not be hidden, much though he tried!”