and he would be married. All the weeks he had seen no danger. Nothing but the land, the rocks, the scurrying lizards and small game. The medicine man had been wrong and he was returning to his love.
As the sun cleared the horizon, Shining Moon unwrapped the leather pouch, and taking the antler, he placed the antler on the obsidian and struck the rock. The first chip flew, exposing the deep black luster within the heart of the unworked obsidian. After the first chip, he worked feverishly, striking and moving the striking stone, chipping, feeling, touching the obsidian. Within an hour he had one side of the spear point roughed out. Holding it out to inspect, he was happy and satisfied. He retied the bundle and gathered his horses. Riding, he felt alive and warm knowing the stone was safely tied to his waist.
CHAPTER 2
THE MEDICINE MAN
Man of Darkness held lightly to the shoulder of Lame Deer as she led him outside the tent. It always filled him with joy in the morning to touch the shoulder of his wife as she led him outdoors. He did not know how he would have made it through life without her. Ever since the day when his sight had suddenly left him she had been there. She was his staff and confidante. One who he had hurt deeply years earlier. The knowledge of which would forever pain his heart.
As a boy he was a wild one. Always riding his pony faster and more daring than the others. Unafraid as a young man to sneak in and steal from the camps and settlements of the Spaniards. He was afraid of nothing, always testing his courage. Sleeping with all the young maidens he could. Not wanting love or marriage. Content to sit with the men and tell of his conquests and love affairs. But even as a youth Lame Deer had always loved him. Born with a limp, she was not desired by other men. An outcast by the gods, she was considered weak and inferior. But with all the pain and separation she was of such a heart she did not grow bitter but became inside a woman of great wisdom and feeling. Always ready to help a member of the tribe. Working with the sick or the old. Through her Man of Darkness learned deeply of the heart and the knowledge of sadness.
At times, Man of Darkness would sit and remember when he was young and how Lame Deer would always seem to be close to him. Always within her sight. And how he would ignore her. Afraid to talk with her or be kind to her in fear other members of the tribe would think he was weak. He could remember the day he did marry, how taking his young bride to his tent they had walked by Lame Deer and she was crying. But even with his marriage, Man of Darkness remained wild. It was not long before he was sleeping with other women and spending longer and longer time going into the land to raid the Spaniards. It was after one of his journeys he awoke blind. Going to bed at night he was fine, but in the morning it was as though the gods were cursing him for what he had been and he did not see. He stood and yelled, rubbed his eyes, but there was nothing. Gone was the sight of the world. Within a sun his wife had left him for another man and he was alone.
Soon after, he awoke one morning to the smell of cooking rabbit and he could hear the movement of another in his hogan. Feeling a warm touch on his face, he heard Lame Deer speak. “I have loved you since my eyes first set upon you and from this day forth, I will be your wife in all things.” He could hear the slight sobs in Lame Deer’s voice. “And in time you, too, will grow to love me,” she told him. It was then that his dreams began, dreams that would foretell of the fortune, dreams that came true. And with this, his name was changed to Man of Darkness.
In time the people knew that although he was blind, the gods had done this to him so in his darkness he would be the eyes of the tribe. He would dream and know if the year would be a good year. His dreams told him of good harvests, or good hunts. His dreams had foretold of the coming brown men and also of their explusion from the land. Of impending danger. He was not like other medicine men, sitting for hours in smoky rooms, eating peyote. His dreams came on their own. Cloaked in perpetual darkness, he was one step closer to the other world than other men. And now with his old age, Man of Darkness was the most revered of all the medicine men. No man in the tribe from greatest warrior to the men of the council had as much power over the tribe as Man of Darkness. But now with all the recent bad and confusing dreams, Man of Darkness’s heart was filled with despair. Without Lame Deer he knew inside himself he would just as soon be dead and gone from this world.
“It is a sunny and bright day, my husband,” Lame Deer spoke as they came out of the mud and rock home. Man of Darkness was still confused and musing over his dream that had sent the young warriors out onto the land looking for impending danger. He stood and breathed deep the morning air and pictured the sights around him. The memories of sight were bright as though he were young. He could see the running children and the dogs. He could see the sunrise and the curling of cedar smoke from the bread ovens. All things he could see as bright and fresh as though his eyes were alive and well and not dark sunken spots without spirit. He sat down on the ground in front of the house as Lame Deer went to the river to fetch water. Taking from a pouch on his belt a soft stone, he began to rub it gently. It was a magical stone, able to drift one into their thoughts, pulling out the doubts and confusions and leaving one rested and secure. But although he had sat the last days rubbing the stone, looking for answers, the stone had not brought him peace or answers but only more confusion and unrest.
Ever since Man of Darkness’s gift had been shown to the tribe, he had never felt confused. There had not always been good years, but there had been no confusion, and now he did not know what to do with the confusion or questions. Maybe the gods were taking his powers away. Maybe they were slowly giving his powers to a younger man as yet unknown to the tribe. It was strange. He had tried all his medicines but to no avail.
The dream had come as all the others, unexpected and unsearched. He never knew when the dream would come to him. They just came. Came in brilliant flashes of color and sound. Far more distinct than any mere focus of the eye. There were colors and shapes never seen by man that entered his mind. Shapes and sounds that only he could decipher. But this dream was beyond deciphering. Lame Deer had finished cooking dinner and all around him he could smell the odor of the fresh deer. After eating he had sat smoking his pipe peacefully when the dream came. There had been a large bright red heart that suddenly appeared in the sky. A heart that beat so loud it pained Man of Darkness’s ears and made him wince. Flowing out of the heart were the souls of his people. Each soul twisted in agony and each soul was covered with an object from the earth. There were trees and cactus, lizards and birds, deer and elk, buffalo and fish, but they were all dead. Dead and contorted in pain. And then from the heart came the earth. But it was not an earth of mountains and rivers, land and water. It was an earth covered with tall buildings like no man had ever seen. And in the buildings were men dressed in clothes unlike any man had seen. Clothes that fit close to the body and choked one. And the people were sad, but at the same time smiling. But the smiles were short and selfish. With one gasp the earth split open and all the plants and animals upon the face of the earth came out as teardrops. Great rushing torrents of water that were salty and dark. Water that swept out until the earth floated upon it like some floundered fish. And with a great rush the earth began to shrink and the large buildings that stood taller than any mountain began to crumble one upon each other until the earth and the animals and all things upon the face of the earth vanished into a small pinpoint of sand and then the grain of sand disappeared, and there was nothing.
Man of Darkness felt as though a great void had swallowed him. There was no life, no living creature. But then out of the darkness another earth appeared. A smooth orb of darkness that had strange crisscrosses running across it. A taut shiny object stretched between cut trees that crisscrossed the earth and in each of these crisscrosses was a house. Houses like the Spaniards built, but the men and women moving in the houses were not brown like the Spaniards — they were white and black and yellow. And they also were sad. Tears flowed from their eyes but they could not speak. Man of Darkness could see in their eyes great sorrow and unrest, deep fear. Then for a moment the dream had stopped and Man of Darkness took a deep breath, glad the dream was over, but then in another rush of color and sound the dream started again. A great tree with many branches came bursting forth from out of the earth. And on each branch was a member of the tribe.
