Yelloweye
7
The Human Mind
The Family
COLE SPENT MOST most of the morning in the Forest Service office again. Arlen was sympathetic, but felt his hands were tied. Next, Cole picked up Mary Beth and Ashley and they drove to Cheyenne. It might seem unlikely that a rancher could walk in and visit the governor, but Wyoming was a state of only 600,000 citizens, ranked tenth in total area for states, but 50th in total population. The elected officials knew who the influential ranchers were in their state.
“Cole, I know you didn’t support me in the election, but that doesn’t make a difference to me. I know and you know that you were responsible for saving my daddy’s ranch back during the range wars with that bastard Joe Teine. Don’t bother to deny it. I know it’s buried too deep to ever prove, but you were the one. I just know it. Frankly, I wish Harry Harrison had won the damned election. Then I wouldn’t be presiding over a state that is becoming the target of every angry environmentalist in the country,” Governor Meade said.
“George, there has to be something we can do about this,” Ashley said. As president of the Cattlewomen’s Association of Wyoming, she carried influence in her own right.
“I wish,” the Governor replied. “I can’t even send state troopers up there. It’s Federal land. I know we’ve had a policy of encouraging energy exploration, but none of these licenses that Shale Oil is using come from the State of Wyoming. They are issued straight from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The very people who are supposed to be looking out for your interests. The Forest Service is part of the USDA. After the Department of the Interior rolled over on the Yellowstone site, USDA just followed along. Whoever had the bright idea of putting National Parks and National Forests under two different departments was loco.”
“What about pressure on Richard and Elaine?” Cole asked. Wyoming’s two U.S. Senators had been quiet on the whole affair.
“They don’t even return my phone calls,” George said. “I’d guess the money that paid for their elections came from Shale Oil and other big energy companies. Aside from the fact that they’re ugly, we could put a hundred windmills down by the Laramie River and power the entire State. The only reason we need oil is for money. How many barrels of oil is a fat steer worth? Believe me, the projections for output from those new wells is a lot more than that. But do you think the state will see any of it? It’s not ours. It’s Federal.”
“You can’t eat oil,” Mary Beth said.
“I’d like to try force feeding a few of those bastards,” George grumbled. “What I am going to do is talk to my National Guard liaison to see what we can do to protect the village up there. I don’t want private militias deciding to take action by themselves like at Standing Rock.” The Governor looked intently at Cole. The message was for him, as well.
Second Live Report
“This is Sarah d’Angelo coming to you from the Yellowstone Grizzly Village where tensions are mounting after yesterday’s surprising appearance of buffalo—excuse me, bison—approaching over the far ridge to stand looking at the Shale Oil drilling site. The Park Service has estimated that there were more animals in the herd than had ever been counted in Yellowstone. As you can see, the spokesperson called Earth Sister is just cresting the earthworks to approach our cameras.”
Drums picked up a rhythm from the village, perhaps louder than the day before, though it was difficult to tell on the television. The echo reverberated throughout the basin.
“Earth Sister, thank you for taking time…” the announcer began.
“Today the elk come,” Earth Sister interrupted the reporter. “This is not a protest of one human economic class against another. It is not between the corporation and the People. This is Grandmother Earth rebelling against the way you have treated her. She has been passive and you have ignored her. Now, she becomes active.” The spokesperson swept her hand toward the horizon and elk poured from the tree line. With the elk, however, were also whitetail deer, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, moose, and bighorn sheep. The fact that well over a thousand animals appeared on the horizon was almost overshadowed by the number of species represented together.
“These are her representatives to warn you. Depart. The wolves are near,” Earth Sister concluded. She handed her microphone back to the technician standing by even as Sarah d’Angelo was trying to ask a question and turned to go back to the village. As silently as they had appeared, the animals moved back into the trees. The news cameras panned over the encampment.
It was assumed the People had moved into the park via over-snow vehicles during the winter. By the time regular roads opened in April, over a thousand people had taken up residence. Few people knew that Park Rangers who had been granted admittance to the village found the settlement had the appearance of having been there a hundred years. The village even included an earthworks fortification so that anyone coming across the meadow could not see into the village but could be seen from the ridge. From the position of the television crew, people could be seen going about their everyday business in the village close to a mile away.
Satellite imagery was ordered, tracking the site for the past several months. The results were classified as top secret. One day in March, the scene was a tranquil winter basin. The next day, a village occupied the space. Officials were baffled, but were not letting the sudden appearance be known. The civilization represented by the primitives in this village had not been encountered before.
When tourists began to show up in May, they found the northwestern part of the Park closed. The Grand Loop Road was blocked from the Fishing Bridge to Old Faithful. The north and west entrances were barricaded by the park service with only access being granted to the drilling site from the north. Yet the protesters’ village survived without resupply.
Unlike Standing Rock, the protest occurred on Federal land, so local law enforcement had no authority to even assist Park Rangers attempting to keep the protesters away from the construction sites. But they found themselves in a non-confrontational situation. The protesters welcomed the Rangers, fed them, and thanked them for their care of the land entrusted to them. They insisted that they were witnesses only, and that stopping the construction and pseudo-fracking was Earth Mother’s task and she would take care of it.
Even as Earth Sister finished her daily warning in front of the news cameras, huge drums changed tempo. It was the same every evening. The natives danced and summoned the power of Earth Mother.
The Family
“I did some research,” Aubrey said. “While you were all out taking care of business today and I had a baby on my tit, I looked up information about Earth Sister. She’s been seen at many tribal gatherings for different tribes all over the country. She is known by her tattoo and as the Voice of Twin Wolves. Some drum maker has been talking up the need to resist the rape of Mother Earth among all the different Native American Nations and he frequently cites the words of Earth Sister. That absolutely has to be Merv Longsteer’s granddaughter, Mandy Stevens.”
“They are there, aren’t they?” Mary Beth whispered. “Who else could talk to the animals and lead them into valley? Into the valley of the shadow of death. Who else could move supplies and people in and out without using the roads? Our children are going to lead the attack.”
The family cleaned up the meal and put Theresa and Katherine to bed. Then they returned to the office. Ramie got the box off the mantel and turned to see who would read. She faced her own dear wife, Aubrey, who held out her hands.
“I’ll read tonight,” Aubrey said. “I’m the only one here who isn’t blood related. And I’m a third, like Mandy. I’ll read their story.
Caitlin: Mapping the Future
We were out early and took Bells and Bows out for a little ride before breakfast. I don’t think anyone noticed that Mandy rode double with me as we trotted down the road and let her off at the Bear Claw to get her car. She came back later in the day to go for a ride, but we didn’t have a conference. We were busy with all the boarders and pleasure riders who came out.
Phile and I rode scout along the trails to make sure they were safe and no wolves were prowling the area. We hadn’t heard anything from them since Christmas, but I didn’t trust them. Pa was still debating whether to drive the cattle up to the leased pastures, but we all figured that’s what we’d be doing the day school got out.
“See if you can do it while I’m out riding,” Mandy said. “Only don’t go having any orgasms. I might fall out of my saddle.”
She took off and we linked easily so we could ride with her. Of course, we had work to do. It’s never a holiday on the ranch. When we had to concentrate on a task, like driving the tractor load of hay down to the bottomlands for the rescues, we found we could easily transfer the link to Wolf Riding Woman and Wolf Rising. They were used to our time as well as their own. We really weren’t four people. We were two people with four bodies. Regardless, it was a thrill to Mandy to be directly in touch with us in our other lives. She had a million questions and assured Wolf Rising that she wanted to make love to him as much as to Phile.
It surprised me that she spoke Cheyenne to us, even though the dialect was a little strange. Turned out that Merv had been teaching her so she’d be able to understand us better.
“No secrets from you, are there, woman!” I shot at her.
“Never have been,” she answered. “Even before I knew the language, I recognized things you were saying. That’s why it finally occurred to me that you could get into my head. Oh! Look at that beautiful doe and fawn!”
Of course, we saw them through her eyes. We didn’t control her; we were just along for the ride.
We decided to see how long we could keep the link open. Mandy went home and we had no difficulty staying connected as she drove to her house, nor reconnecting after dinner. We all pleasured ourselves that night, one at a time so the other four could all experience what we felt. The feedback loop was once again intense, even though we were miles apart and only one at a time entered the circuit.
“Na-mé'oo'o,” I whispered gently. “Na-mé'oo'o, awake and hear me.”
“What? Who?” Mandy sat upright in bed.
“It is Wolf Riding Woman, my beloved.” I’d concocted this experiment myself and I was surprised that it was working.
“You’re… Is Caitlin…?”
“My other self is sleeping. But I wanted to reach out to you from here in the Oxėse.”
“Why? I mean, this is fantastic! You contacted me across centuries! From a different world. I knew you were present with us when we joined, but that you could reach me like this is amazing,” Mandy spluttered. “Why? Are you okay?”
“Yes. But it was more than an experiment. I wanted to tell you, my sweetheart, that I love you. I don’t know why it is important. I am the same person as Caitlin, but if she were here with me, I would make love to her. Perhaps one day we will be united. It is important that you know that I love you across all ages, Na-mé'oo'o. Even if my hand never touches your face, you are my beloved and Wolf Rising’s. We love you across his chasm, just as Caitlin and Phile love you in their bed.”
“Oh, Ho'néené'šeohtsévá'e, I love you.”
In the morning, I would tell my others about what I had done.
Phile: Night of the Wolves
The three weeks that followed our first ride on Mandy were exciting, exhausting, and filled with adrenalin rushes. And lots of orgasms. We were linked together while we took our final Social Studies exam. Wolf Rising thought it would be fun to masturbate and the three of us in the exam room let out a gasp and sigh right in the middle of the exam. Mr. Hanratty made us empty our pockets on the table to make sure we weren’t receiving messages through an electronic device. He always seated Caitlin and me on opposite sides of the class, but now he looked strangely at Mandy, too.
Of course, it wasn’t all having orgasms and fun. But there was a lot of that. A subtle change had come over our school in the past two years. Guys were getting bolder and it seemed like they were caring less about women. We’d all heard rumors about rapes, but there were never any court cases. I’d been in the bathroom between classes and Mandy wanted to find out if she could feel me pee. She said it was different than a girl. I had to work a little at getting things tucked back into my jeans with the things she was thinking. I walked out of the bathroom and saw Mandy at her locker about twenty feet away. I looked past her and some big oaf had Caitlin pinned against her locker with a hand on her breast. She was pushing at him.
“Mandy!” I screamed in her head. “Caitlin needs help to your left.” I was rushing toward them, but Mandy was fast. She spun and reached between the guy’s legs and grabbed. I could feel her squeeze and gave her a little boost of my own anger to make it harder. The guy threw back his head and screamed. In front of him, Caitlin, suddenly free from his attack, reached out and grabbed both his nipples and twisted as hard as she could. He screamed again.
“You grabbed my balls!” he screamed at Mandy, jerking away and putting both hands over his nipples.
“Oh. Sorry,” Mandy said. “I wanted to feel your cock, but I couldn’t find it. You sure you’ve got one?” I was willing to bet that if he did, it was all shriveled up in horror.
“And you!” he screamed rounding on Cait. “My nipples!”
“You were pinching mine,” Cait said. “What did you expect? I just wanted to see what it felt like.”
“That’s assault!”
“The Attorney General says grabbing someone’s genitals is not sexual assault,” I said. “Want to take it to court?”
“You freaks aren’t human. Fuck you!” he said as he backed away, then turned and fled. I leaned against a locker and casually slipped my knife back into my boot. We’d long since found that our bone knives didn’t show up in the metal detectors at school. I was glad in a way that he ran away. I was sure Mom Mar would beat my ass if I put a knife in him.
It was too bad that Mandy couldn’t initiate the link. At the same time, it was probably a good thing or we’d have fallen off horses, swerved off the road, or hurt ourselves pitching hay when she showed up. She had a bit of a headache after I’d screamed in her head. We walked her over to her grandfather’s and Merv nodded at us as we went out back. Nobody could see us out there and we fell together in a hot make-out session for about ten minutes.
We were all linked together and could feel the growing pressure.
“Tonight,” Mandy whispered. “Just link me in when you start to make love. I want to be with you.”
“We should all be together,” I protested.
“Two of my lovers will be in a different time zone,” Mandy whispered. “It’s our season. I will feel everything you do if you bring me along.”
“Mandy, you know how much we love you, don’t you?” Caitlin said. “How much I love you.”
“I sure do. And you, too, Wolf Riding Woman and Wolf Rising. I think I’ll have you tattooed on my chest so I can carry you with me all the time.” I touched the chest in question and she pushed herself into my hands. We heard Ramie’s voice in the store and Mandy slipped home while we went inside.
Seemed like it took forever to get the family celebration over with. Nothing against Kyle’s birthday, but we really had more important things to do. I had a feeling my other siblings wanted to get to their apartment, too. Caitlin and I stripped down and collapsed onto the bed together. I kissed her hard in both timelines. Wolf Riding Woman and Wolf Rising were as ready for this in Oxėse as we were in now-time. We’d gone to the trouble of building our own special wigwam next to a hot spring on the ridge overlooking what I knew would eventually become our homestead. We’d piled it thick with furs we’d collected over the winter and were naked and waiting.
We all sat facing each other. That sounds strange, but when I looked out of my eyes I could see both Caitlin and Wolf Riding Woman. She could see both Phile and Wolf Rising. We took hold of each other’s hands and concentrated our thoughts. In a second, Mandy was in our minds and we were in hers. And it wasn’t that she shared with one of us. I could feel her disorientation as she experienced seeing all four of us through the others’ eyes. And then we were in her head as well and I could see myself looking at Caitlin.
“Mandy, I can feel you and talk to you, but I can’t see you,” I said. “I want to see your pretty eyes and sweet breasts. Don’t you have a mirror?”
“Oh, wow! That’s kinky!” she said. She turned on her bed and faced her closet mirror. Not only could we see her breasts and eyes, but as she sat on her bed, we could see between her legs, too. I ached with desire for her. I wanted so much to touch her and she raised her hand to her own breast. I felt her caress herself as I caressed Caitlin. I looked at all three of my women and just poured out my love to them. They were so beautiful!
“I love you,” I said and they knew I meant all of them.
“Is that really how you see me, Phile?” Mandy asked. “I seem so much prettier in your eyes than when I look at myself.”
Caitlin leaned forward and kissed me. It was more than me that she was kissing. Mandy gasped.
“I love you,” Caitlin said to all of us.
It took us a while to sort things out and relax. It was true that Mandy was with us in our minds, but we couldn’t touch her. It was frustrating. No matter how intent we were on each other, we were missing something.
“I wish we could all five be physically in the same space,” Caitlin moaned. “I want to come. I want to feel you in me. I want my lovers to all be touching me.”
And then the wolf howled.
We could hear him outside both the bunkhouse and the wigwam. We could hear him inside our heads.
Wolf Rising and Wolf Riding Woman didn’t bother dressing. They grabbed their horseshoe hatchets and rushed outside to face the silver wolf. Caitlin and I pulled our underwear on and slammed our feet into boots at the door as we grabbed our rifles and went outside. Ramie, in just her t-shirt and panties, was face to face with the huge wolf.
“Wolf! I’ll kill it,” Caitlin screamed as we came around the bunkhouse. Wolf Riding Woman raised her hatchet.
“Caitlin, rest your gun. He won’t hurt us,” Ramie commanded.
“They killed my baby,” Cait cried.
“Not this wolf!” Ramie said.
We knew. Since our night among the wolves in December, we hadn’t heard from our spirit guide. We still hated that he was Creator Wolf. I’d rather have had a prairie dog as a spirit guide. But he owned us. Owned our souls.
“Nésemoo'o,” Mandy said. I’d forgotten she was riding with us, in all our heads. “Listen to the spirit.”
Caitlin was only wearing panties and it was damn cold out. Of course, I wasn’t wearing much more, but Pa handed Caitlin his shirt.
“Here, baby. You’re freezing your tits.”
She gave him her gun so she could pull the shirt on and he wouldn’t give it back. We all gathered behind Ramie in now-time and a pack of wolves gathered behind Manėstóhó'néhe, Creator Wolf. In Oxėse, the pack we’d bonded with gathered behind the spirit as Wolf Rising and Wolf Riding Woman faced him.
In now-time, Wolf was licking at Ramie’s scars. I never realized she’d formed a bond with him, probably because of the bite she’d received and the teeth she wore around her neck. We could all hear Ramie declare Wolf’s blessing.
“This land is forever ours. Even our spirits will protect you, our pack, and our hunting. We will never rest. And we are deadly when we hunt.”
But the five of us linked together heard more. Creator Wolf leapt into our heads to deliver the rest of the message.
You are our spirits. You are our pack. You must never rest. You must be deadly when you hunt. You will call the packs, the herds, the flocks, the lone beasts to the aid of Néške'emāne, Grandmother Earth, and they will listen. And you, Ho'enáséé'e, Earth Sister, will be the voice of the Twin Wolves to the people. Your time comes soon and you will be brought together.
The wolves at the ranch disappeared when a raven swooped in and grabbed them. In Oxėse, Yelloweye landed and Creator Wolf loped away with the pack. We went back to our room. No one else seemed to have heard what we heard. Everyone just turned and went to bed. We were still linked together with Mandy and she joined us as we sat to listen to Yelloweye. The idea of having sex was put on the shelf.
Caitlin: The Journey of Earth Sister
When you’re dealing with spirits that are thousands of years old, soon is a relative term. I was so pissed at Creator Wolf and Yelloweye that I could hardly focus on what we’d been told. I was about to make love and they had to go and interrupt everything. It was so unfair!
Phile and I got under the covers to get warm, but we held Mandy with us. Wolf Rising and Wolf Riding Woman retreated to their bed skins in the wigwam and the old owl walked right in with us.
I try to put what we got from the two mystical creatures in words, but even when Phile wrote down what Creator Wolf said, it wasn’t like he literally spoke the words. So, when I write what Yelloweye said, I’m just making up the words and trying to sort of interpret them. Sometimes, I didn’t quite understand him, but Mandy helped me write this down. Like Manėstóhó'néhe said, she was the voice of Héstahke Ho'néheo'o, the Twin Wolves. Here’s the way she wrote of our time with Yelloweye.
Mandy: Voice of Twin Wolves
The Twin Wolves came to me to make me their woman and gladly I went to their furs. Their hearts entwined with my own and I loved them. But as we sat naked on the earth, Heove-'éxané called hoo-hoo and sat before us. He fastened his eye upon us and delved into our hearts. Coming to rest upon my eye, he commanded, “Ask!” And I knew that I must seek the questions that would reveal his purpose.
“Heove-'éxané, the people know you come to collect the spirits of the dead. Have you come to collect us, your servants?” I asked.
“No.” He declined to add any details—just that we would not die tonight.
“Heove-'éxané, your wings span time, just as the hearts of Twin Wolves are in two places at all times. Whose death do you portend? Tell us that we may offer comfort and prepare Mother to receive her child.” I said.
“I have seen Our Mother die,” Yelloweye said sadly. We sat in silence and wept, for if Mother Earth died, the People would also die.
“Is this written?” I asked. We all knew that once the history was written, the story was told. But we did not know if the future was bound to our visions.
“It is a vision,” the Owl said. “I have seen a great scorpion stinging Mother repeatedly, filling her with his poison and bleeding her of life. I went to the spirits of the two-leggeds. I cried to them that we must battle the scorpion. But when I told them of the scorpion, they responded, ‘The scorpion is god! We will worship the scorpion. No other could cause the Mother to submit.’ I wept.
“I went to the spirits of the four-leggeds. I cried to them that we must battle the scorpion. ‘Lead us,’ said Creator Wolf. ‘We will do battle.’ But when I flew to the heavens, they could not follow. Creator Wolf howled his frustration for he was lusting for the blood of the scorpion. ‘Bring us a leader we can follow!’ he howled.
“I went to the spirits of the winged ones. I cried to them that we must battle the scorpion. And the winged ones took council. ‘The two-leggeds will not hear us. The four-leggeds cannot follow us,’ said Eagle. We must bring forward a champion who will count coup on the enemies of Mother Earth. ‘I will find a champion among the two-leggeds,’ cried Redtail and he flew to a man to become a champion. The man counted much coup on his enemies, but he did not kill the scorpion. ‘I will find two that will fight the scorpion,’ Blackfeather boasted. ‘They will cause the four-leggeds to follow.’ Blackfeather found two who could bridge the gap in time, but they could only make peace between the two-leggeds and four-leggeds. They could not lead.’
“At last I was sent. I would find a champion. ‘One did not work. Two did not work. I will find five that will be as the fingers of the two-leggeds’ hands. They will close together into a fist and all the people will follow. The four-leggeds will answer their call. The two-leggeds will turn from their ways. The fliers will blanket the sky. And the fist will hammer the scorpion to his death.’ And I searched through all time to find the spirits that would be one hand.”
Understanding that Yelloweye spoke of us, we wept because we were children and the task was too great.
“I have chosen you,” Yelloweye proclaimed. “No task is too great. I have given you three spirits that you may stand firmly on the ground and not waver. I have given you five bodies that you might span time and summon all the People to follow. I have given you teachers among all creatures that all would understand and follow you. And your task is soon to come.”
“What must we do?” I asked our mentor. “You have made us and you will rule us.”
“You have not yet learned all that you must. Your bodies drive you forward to mate and become one flesh. But you are still in different realities. You must bring all five fingers together in order to make the fist. Only as the fist can you battle the scorpion. Use the lust of your flesh to bring the fingers together and you will be sated beyond your imaginings,” Yelloweye said. We blushed our shame, for if Creator Wolf and Yelloweye had not interrupted us, we would have sated ourselves this night. Yet each of us knew that would not have been enough.
“What must we learn?” I repeated. “And from whom?”
“You must learn to make the mountains echo with thunder,” Yelloweye said. “You must forge a bond so deep that it transcends realities. You must learn to open the door between the People and the worshipers of the scorpion that they may be defeated. To learn these things, you must visit Vóhpȧhtse, White Mouth. He will teach you to roar.”
“Where will we find Vóhpȧhtse?” I asked. Tears ran down my cheeks for the great grizzly bear struck fear into the hearts of braves with just his roar.
“The Twin Wolves will follow the pack. They will lead you to the place. There you must make peace with White Mouth and learn to bridge the worlds,” Yelloweye said. He gazed again into each of our eyes and screeched a hunting cry. Then I found myself in my own bed, sitting naked before my mirror, looking into the eyes of Earth Sister—she who would speak for the Twin Wolves.
Caitlin: The Way to White Mouth
I was bitchy the rest of the weekend. The family all assumed it was because of the wolves and that I didn’t get to kill one. Well, it was in a way. It was because they interrupted us making love and now we had to wait again. I did apologize to Ramie, but it didn’t do much good. Her girlfriend broke up with her and Kyle. I felt bad for them and blamed the wolves for that, too. I didn’t know what I’d do if we lost Mandy.
Wolf Riding Woman and Wolf Rising were running with the wolves in Oxėse. We took only our knives and hatchets, dressed warmly, and wore our wolf skins over the top. The wolves were leading us north through the mountains, stopping long enough to hunt along the way. We didn’t cook our food, but cut a haunch from our kill and ate it raw. We made the first kill and the pack waited until we ate the liver and tore into the meat before they fell to gorging.
The pack changed day after day. Wolves are territorial and our first pack fell back as we crossed into the territory of the second. There was a lot of sniffing around, but even the alpha didn’t growl at us. I saw him look up and in the distance caught sight of the silver wolf moving on. This pack escorted us farther north. I figured we covered about thirty miles a day, and we traveled for the better part of three weeks.
In the meantime, we had work to do on the ranch and school to finish. We got out of our junior year about the same time that the pack—the fifth one since we started the journey—all lay down at once. Out ahead of us was a huge herd of buffalo. More than I’d seen anyplace but in the southern plains. It was still early in the summer and I didn’t think these guys had migrated. Still, there were thousands of them. At first, I thought we were going to hunt and gorge, but after we’d rested a few minutes, the pack all slunk away. There were no others joining us. We waited there for a day and decided we needed to hunt or we’d starve. We were apparently where we were supposed to meet White Mouth.
I wasn’t enthused.
I’d never tried to communicate with a grizzly. I never wanted to hunt one. It took a whole hunting party to take down a full-grown grizzly, and even then, it wasn’t unusual for one or more to get hurt or killed. There was smaller game to be had. Game that didn’t have three-inch claws and teeth. Even smaller black bears if we wanted tallow and a good hide. We set snares and caught a couple rabbits, found some edible roots, and built a fire.
In now-time, Mandy came to the ranch on Saturday after school let out. She pulled a trailer behind her truck. We found time to lead her out to the woodlot where we’d had our first face-to-face conference. It didn’t take long for the three of us to get naked.
“You’re leaving,” I cried as I held her to me. Phile was holding her from the other side and I knew it would only take a couple good twitches to have him inside her. She held him back.
“I have to go to the res for the summer,” she said. “After I load Wildfire, I’ll pick up Grandfather and he’ll go with me. Whatever it is that we have to do, I’ll need all the Nóváhe medicine I can get in order to accomplish it.”
“We’ve seen you almost every day in school and out here when you ride. Mandy, I’ll miss you.”
“Sweet loves. My lovers. Learn what White Mouth has to teach and call me to you. You can always link and ride my mind. I am always happy to be joined with you. I know the time is coming,” she said. “Mmm. And if you keep twitching right there, I’m coming, too!” We enjoyed our love, but we didn’t take the last step. Deep inside, I knew Yelloweye was right. We needed to all five be together when we made love. I just didn’t know before that it was possible.
The Family
“I didn’t ever want to remember that horrid night and morning when I left you,” Aubrey sobbed as she put the pages back in the box. “I’m so thankful you took me back!”
“Hush, you silly goose. You’ll sour your milk and Katherine will be upset,” Ramie said as she hugged her wife. “If you hadn’t given us that jolt, Kyle and I might never have had the courage to be with each other. You have to admit that when we got back together it was twice as good.”
“Three times,” Aubrey laughed.
“Five times,” Jason’s voice said through Kyle.
“Do you realize that according to Yelloweye, we were all an experiment?” Cole asked. The younger generation looked at him expectantly. “Yelloweye’s story, according to Mandy—or Earth Sister—was that Redtail and Blackfeather both tried to find the champion in our family and only got part way there. They sent me back. They pushed it and even sent me back without a host. They sent you two back and then brought Miranda and Jason forward. Then they sent Caitlin and Phile back, but they didn’t give them a host. They gave them two bodies. I think there was more than that, too. Ramie loosened Wolf from his time trap and brought him forward. I wish I knew what was going to happen next. It makes me want to stay up all night and read the rest, but somehow, I believe we are supposed to be reading this now at the pace we are reading. It’s something important.”
“I think it’s something about the box,” Ramie said. “I think we have to open it slowly. Things that are in the box haven’t been set yet. I’m scared.”
Kyle and Aubrey hugged their wife as Mary Beth and Ashley hugged Cole. Out there somewhere, three souls in five bodies were planning something important.
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