Reckless Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

great stillness hung over the hilltop, as if the very earth were holding its breath. Then a wild rushing noise filled Shadow’s ears and as he stared upward at the sun, it seemed suddenly to be falling toward him. In terror, he pressed himself against the damp ground, fearing certain destruction. Suddenly the sun split in half and out of the middle flew two red-tailed hawks. In perfect unison, they soared through the air, wheeling and diving, moving with timeless grace, until they hovered above Shadow’s head.
    “Be brave,” the male hawk cried in a loud voice. “Be brave, and I will always be with you. You shall be swift as the hawk, wise as the owl.”
    “Be strong,” the female admonished in a loud voice. “Be strong, and I will always be with you. You shall be smart as the hawk, mighty as the eagle.”
    With a rush of powerful wings, the two hawks soared upward and disappeared into the sun.
    The sky was streaked with flame when Shadow found the strength to rise. Walking slowly, like an old man, he made his way to the edge of the summit and there, lying in one of his moccasin prints, he found two feathers and a small red stone. Reverently, he touched the feathers and the stone, then placed them in his tobacco pouch. Later, they would go into a medicine bag to be worn around his neck.
    Elk Dreamer was mightily impressed with Shadow’s vision and that night there was feasting and dancing as the entire tribe turned out to welcome a new warrior into its midst. Shadow, the boy, was dead, and in his place was born Two Hawks Flying, the warrior.
     
    Many things happened in the next few years. Two Hawks Flying killed his first enemy, a Pawnee brave scouting for some white buffalo hunters. He scalped his first white man, a prospector searching for gold in violation of the treaty that promised the Sioux and the Cheyenne ownership of the Black Hills for “as long as grass shall grow and water flow”. He counted coup on a dozen enemies, both red and white.
    To the Indians, war was a game. They did not fight to annihilate one another as the whites did, but to gain honor among the tribe. Any man could kill another from a distance. There was no honor in that. But to touch an armed foe with the tip of your bow or a coup stick—now there was courage! And if you then killed him and scalped him and took his horse and weapons—ah! That was a major coup, one that would be told over and over around the campfires. And if that man was a chief, so much the better!
     
    At the age of seventeen, Two Hawks Flying was heralded as a mighty warrior, brave in battle, wise beyond his years. By the time he was eighteen, he had earned enough coup feathers to make an impressive warbonnet. Only his father, Black Owl, had a finer one. When he rode into battle, Red Wind’s flank carried the print of a man’s hand, indicating his rider had killed at least one enemy in hand to hand combat.
    Having thus established himself as a warrior, Two Hawks Flying began to think about taking a wife. There was not a family in the village that would not have been pleased to have him as a son-in-law, and he knew, with a touch of pride, that he could have his pick of the maidens. But it was Elk Dreamer’s youngest daughter, Bright Star, who finally caught his eye. Tall and willowy she was, with a warm smile, a merry laugh, and a way of swaying her hips that made him shaky inside. Virtue and chastity were highly prized among the Cheyenne, and though he longed to hold Bright Star in his arms and his loins ached to possess her as a man possesses a woman, he admired her only from afar.
    He might have spoken to Black Owl about a go-between, might have asked Bright Star to run away with him if, for some reason, her parents refused to let them wed. Might have done a hundred foolish things if he had not ridden down to the river crossing one warm midsummer day and seen Hannah walking in the woods with two young men.
    Just the sight of her took Shadow’s breath away. She