The Legend of Black Wolf - Sully's Journey Home

Chapter Eight

        Cloud Dancing lifted small stones from the creek bed as he thought about what to say to Black Kettle and the tribe. The braves had been Bright Spear, Runs In Quiet Shadows, Many Claws, and Hidden Trees. They would be back by now, telling everyone that they thought Cloud Dancing was conspiring against them all with a white man. Runs In Quiet Shadows had looked as if he believed what his medicine man professed, but the others were not to be convinced. As Cloud Dancing had tried to point out the white man's black coat, corresponding with his visions of the black wolf, they would not listen. Hidden Trees had asked Cloud Dancing to kill the white man right there and be done with the bad omen that had been plaguing his dreams for months. He had fired the arrow that had killed the mighty buffalo the season before, and he wanted the white man's death to add to his list of many accomplishments as the strongest warrior in the tribe.  

        Cloud Dancing had warned all of them that if any harm came to Black Wolf that the Great Spirit would be very angry. That the Great Spirit had hidden another meaning in the visions that Cloud Dancing did not know yet. When that did not convince them, he suggested that perhaps Black Wolf carried a white man's disease that could kill the tribe. This made the warriors back up, for the diseases of the white man were very deadly. At that point, the four had gone to seek counsel with Black Kettle and decide who should end the journey of the white man.

        Cloud Dancing decided he would ask to speak to Black Kettle alone first. He was one who was not against all white men. He had gotten a white man's tribal flag from the big white chief in the East, Lincoln. Black Kettle had always been willing to hear a man out, and Cloud Dancing was hoping that he would give the same accord to this white man. There had to be reason in the Great Spirit's plan. If only he had time to learn about it.

        Walking back with an armful of small stones, his thoughts continued. The elders did not understood the words of the white man, and they might decide that Cloud Dancing wasn't speaking the truth if he tried to translate. And if they believed he was sick, they would all decide to kill him for the safety of the tribe, regardless of the good he could bring. It was a risk and Cloud Dancing hoped that he could somehow convince Black Kettle to allow him to let the white man live long enough to discover the truth.

        Black Wolf lay where he had fallen, and Cloud Dancing began lining the area around him with the stones, blessing them each in turn. He made quick work of a circle. In the center he would start a fire, and the four sections that flowed from the center would mark the four sides of Mother Earth. One section held Black Wolf, one would be for Cloud Dancing himself, and the other two would be for sacred items. Black Wolf watched him intently, still too weak to do much more than sit up.

        "What're ya doin'?" Sully asked weakly.

        "This is a sacred circle. Inside the circle, no harm can fall on you." Cloud Dancing answered as he worked. Sully was doubtful of this. He had to wonder just what good a ring of stones around him would do if the others came back and decided to draw their bows and knives again.

        "What did you tell them?" Sully finally asked. The Indian turned away from the circle to face him.

        "My vision of you was to help, not kill. I must do what the Great Spirit shows." Cloud Dancing said in a low voice. Although his tone was sincere, Black Wolf's eyes were full of hunger and anguish, and he could not hear the sincerity over his own pains.

        "One wanted to kill me." Sully said, wary. The medicine man gave a nod. 

        "I tell Hidden Trees you are not evil, but he does not trust the white man. I will speak to Black Kettle. Make him understand." The medicine man stood, hardly believing he had said so much. He walked back over to the rock and gathered the pack one of the braves had left behind. Sitting down and opening it, he found bread from Snow Bird; bread he had told her he would be back for that evening.