The Legend of Black Wolf - Sully's Journey Home

Chapter Ten

        Sully watched the two Indians meet and talk in the clearing. Their native language was so strange sounding to him that he could not help but listen. Try as he might, he could not understand a word they said to each other, but he could sense the affection they had for each other by the way they spoke. It was clear that the medicine man's wife was concerned by the tone she used. It hurt Sully to watch her take a step back from Cloud Dancing before he could touch her. It meant she was afraid he was infected with a white man's disease and she didn't want the sickness to spread.

        Other than the pains in his stomach as Cloud Dancing kept handing him bread to eat, his foot had really been the only other physical pain Sully had. And with the salve that he had applied the night before, even that was starting to ache less. The concoction had stunk, and some was still stuck to his skin, but it no longer throbbed. Whatever Cloud Dancing had put together, it definitely had worked. More than these physical pains, however, the pain in his heart grew. Watching the two Indians have their marriage interrupted by him made him feel very guilty.  

        He decided he couldn't stay any longer. Being so close to Colorado Springs yet still being so far from Abigail's grave was like torture to his soul. He tried to imagine seeing the stone, seeing both stones, touching them…but it was too much to bear at the moment. He pushed thoughts of Hannah from his mind.  

        Snow Bird departed, leaving another pack for them. Her retreat was soundless, and after only a few steps, her clothes helped her all but blend into the woods completely. Sully marveled at them both, that they were willing to take risks for him, a stranger who had hurt so many others.

        "She can see you are heart sick." Cloud Dancing said, sitting back down in the circle. Sully turned to the medicine man.

        "She wouldn't touch you." He said as he watched Cloud Dancing look in the pack that she had brought both of them.

        "Black Kettle allows no contact until we are sure you do not infect the camp." He said quietly. He could tell that Black Wolf had been watching them closely the entire time.

        "You know that if I was sick, you sat close enough to me that you'd probably already be sick too." Sully said, thinking back to some of the men in his regiment that had come down with measles right after he had enlisted. Even before that, in his mining days, he had seen whole camps of men wiped out by fevers. How it was possible, he did not understand, but somehow, just being near enough a sick man without touching him was enough. Cloud Dancing was quiet while Sully's thoughts wandered.

        "Spirits say I am strong. I trust their signs." He looked over at Black Wolf, who was simply amazed. Sully hadn't had such a faith in his own God in so long that it was almost unbelievable that someone else could trust so strongly in some unseen force to protect him. He shook his head.

        "I can't believe you wanna help me." Sully pointed to the trees where Snow Bird had walked away. "I've taken you away from your family. They may never let you go back home! Believe me, I know what that's like. Your people have been constantly attacked by white men like me…yet you keep trying to help me. All I want is to get to town and find my wife's grave so I can—" Sully stopped himself, his impassioned words rising as his frustration mounted. He took a deep breath. "So I can lie next to her…one last time." His last words came out deflated, sounding as hollow and broken as he felt inside. Sully rubbed his face before the Indian could see the tear that had threatened to fall.

        Cloud Dancing had to agree with Black Wolf. All white men that his tribe had ever come across were out to take everything in sight. They had tried to avoid the settlers as much as they could, but there had been a few times that they had resorted to fighting to protect what was sacred to them. He knew the risk of following the Great Spirit's sign. It could very well mean that his time with his tribe was over and he was to start a new journey. It would be sad for him to leave his family, but there were paths that the spirits made that could not immediately be seen. It did not mean that what the spirits wanted was wrong.