A Long Way from Home

 Chapter 1: No Pants!

I am in a valley of butterflies and clouds.  Then I feel fur brushing against my cheek.  It feels like coyote’s fur!  Wait, coyotes aren't in my dream.  I sit up and rub my eyes.  I hear someone screaming!  It sounds like my mom!  I stand up and quickly braid my hair.  I slip on my shoes and almost exit our family’s teepee, when I hear dad whisper shouting, “Ala, you forgot your pants!”  I looked down at my bare legs and I noticed that I had forgotten my pants!  “Ooops!”  I said, and then pulled up my warm tan pants.  When I looked up, I noticed that my dad was up and dressed.  Well, half dressed.

“Dad,” I said, trying to be very surprised but in my mind I heard myself saying Ala, don’t you dare laugh.  “You..you forgot your pants!”  I couldn’t keep it in any longer, and I burst out laughing.  The sight of his face was so funny when he looked down at his bare legs, that I hit the ground laughing.

I must have hit my head harder than I thought, because when I opened my eyes and sat up, I was on my horse Cloud.  She is a very sweet brown horse with white spots all over her.  Then I felt a little scratch of talons on my shoulder.   “Sanna!”  I shouted gladly.  Sanna is my other pet, a bald eagle. She is gentle with me and always leaves me when she goes hunting, but comes back eventually that day. Today she hunted a rattle snake and gave me the tail. 

“Dad,” I said, “why are we on horseback? And where are we?” 

“We…well,” he stammered. 

“Come on, Dad,” I said.  “Spit it out.”

“Well…your mother got taken by a pack of coyotes.”

It sounded to me that he said that Mom got taken by a pack of coyotes, really fast so that he could get done with it as quickly as possible.  Once that was all in my head, I said “Giddy-up Cloud! If we want to catch up to mom we need to make haste.”  Cloud whinnied and took off. 

“Ala, no!” shouted my dad.  But it was too late, I was heading for cactuses!

Chapter 2: A Prickly Situation

Cloud whinnied and reared up.  “Ya!”  I said as I almost fell off.  I got off Cloud and walked a little bit.  Then, I noticed that Cloud was limping.  I motioned for Cloud to stop so Dad could catch up to us.  “Ala,” he scolded, “never disobey me again young lady!” 

“Sorry Dad, but look!”  I said as I pointed at Cloud’s hoof.  Dad turned Cloud’s hoof around.  Cloud neighed as he took the prickle out of her hoof, then licked him when he gave her an apple.

Chapter 3: The Map

As my dad lit a fire, I laid my head against Cloud’s back and looked up at the sparkling stars in the night sky.

Sanna flew over and landed on a rock.  She had found bits of deer on a dead deer’s skull, and brought me a piece of its antler.  “Dad,” I said.  “Where do you think Mom is?”  I wondered if dad would know the answer to my question.  Probably not.

“Ala,” he finally said.  “That question can’t be surely answered, but I do have a good guess where the coyotes are going.”  He picked up a stick and drew a map in the moist soil.  He circled the place where we are and drew an X where he thought the coyotes had taken Mom.   When he was done, I studied the map and then pointed at the place where Dad had marked ‘ghost town’ and said “Why did they name it Ghost Town?  They should have named it Deserted Town.”  We laughed and then I fell asleep.

I woke up long before dawn.  I lit a fire and looked at the map Dad had drawn.  Dad wasn't awake yet, so I didn’t think out loud.  Aha!  I thought as I picked up a stick and drew the quickest pathway to where the coyotes were thought to be.  Hmmm.   I thought.   Well, we’ll have to go through the woods and um  down this hill and  -- I stopped at the ghost town and shuddered.  Would it be faster if we went through the ghost town or around it?  I pushed my braids back.  Some times it helps me think better.  I finally chose around it.  Then I threw some sand into the fire and fell asleep hoping that I had chosen the right direction.

Chapter 4: Flash Rock

I woke up with this nuzzle on my cheek.  It was Cloud telling me in her kind horsey language that she was hungry and you’d better get up.  I rubbed my eyes and got up and gave her an apple.  Dad was meditating.  That meant I was supposed to stay quiet, so I took Cloud for a walk.  But before I could get off Cloud, a rock fell out of the sky and landed in my hand.  I looked up and there was Sanna.  I was pretty sure that Sanna had accidentally hunted a rock that looked like an armadillo.  Then Sanna took off to find a different prey.

 I got off Cloud and then felt the rough sides of the rock.  I turned it over and on it were little squiggly lines.  I couldn't make out what the picture was, if there even was one.    I turned it over to one side and then it all came into place.   It was the map that Dad had drawn.   Only except that there was a pathway, and what was it?  There was a little blue flashing light.  The place where the light was, was where I was.  “Da—” I started to say, but I remembered that he was meditating, and I decided that I would keep Flash Rock a secret.  I named it Flash Rock because of its flashing blue light.  I tied Flash Rock to a piece of string that I found in my pocket and put it around my neck.

I took off the necklace that my Mom had given me for my 5^th birthday, and remembered how my mother had said “Something beautiful for someone beautiful.”  I sighed and put my beautiful beaded necklace in my right pocket and waited for my dad to stop meditating.

Chapter 5: Thinking

While Dad finished meditating, I copied the pathway shown on Flash Rock on to Dad’s map.  I carefully tried to draw the exact same line, but I shuddered when I drew a line through the ghost town.

Dad had finished meditating, so I said “Dad, I know the fastest way to get where Mom is.”  I pointed at the map.  “I’m sure that that is the fastest way.”   I didn't know if the path on Flash Rock was correct.  After all, it was just a rock.  But something inside me knew that the markings on Flash Rock were right.  I just knew it.

Chapter 6: Into the Woods

“We’re off,” said Dad.  It is afternoon now and we are on our way to the woods.

“Ya!”  we both said and Cloud, (my horse) and Nightmare (Dad’s horse) galloped off.

As we entered the woods the sun started to set.  I could hear crackling noises as if some creature was following us.  The more crackling I heard, the more tense and afraid I became.  “Stop!” I said. “ I've got a feeling that we are lost.”

Me and dad motioned for our horses to stop.  Then Dad said “We might as well be.”  I pushed my braid back and thought.  If only we had some sort of compass.  It is dark now so we can’t make a sun compass.  Aha!  I can use Flash Rock.  I took Flash Rock out from under my dress and noticed that we had made a left turn instead of a right turn.  “Dad,” I said, “I know where we have to go.”

Chapter 7: Hillside Slip

As we reached the end of the woods, it was late at night and we laid down to sleep.  But I just couldn't fall asleep.  Maybe it was the thought of creatures still following us or maybe it was that the moon was too bright, but it seemed to me that rest coming was impossible.  But somehow it came.

“Ala, wake up.” It was Dad shaking me to get up.  We took our horses to a hill.  I turned my back to Dad and checked on Flash Rock to see if we were supposed to go down the hill.  The pathway on Flash Rock went down the hill.  It was a pretty steep hill.  A rocky hill too.

Cloud and Nightmare started to trot down the hill when suddenly Nightmare tripped over a rock and fell on his butt, which knocked over Dad and make him fall on his butt.  And then both of them slid in circles and bumped into Cloud which caused her to fall on her butt, which caused me to fall on my butt.  We slid in circles down the hill.  When we reached the bottom, me and Dad looked at each other and laughed.  Then we set off once again.

Chapter 8: Ghost Town

As we walked into the ghost town, a horrible thought passed through me.  What if there are real ghosts here.  There was nothing that I was more scared of than ghosts.  Creak, creak.  I jumped.  But I noticed it was just the shutters.  I thought I had heard whispering, but it was the wind.  Then I saw a huge spider but it was just some sagebrush rolling around.  I held my breath, with my eyes wide.  The trip through the ghost town was the worst trip ever.   That is why I was so relieved when we finally got out.

Chapter 9: The Big Hike

Peck, peck, peck, went Sanna's beak.  “OK, fine.”  I said and gave her a scrap of meat.  “Here,” I said.  We were about half way up the big mountain (our final destination).  I gently patted a panting Cloud and gave her an apple.  I looked up and shaded my eyes.  The sun was so hot that I felt like a snowman melting in the summer.  I pushed my braids back and paused for a moment and then said, “The cave looks about a half? No a quarter of a mile away.” 

By the time we got up there, the sky turned from blue to purple.  We hoisted our horses up and then both of our horses neighed.   We turned around and jumped.  There, standing right in front of us, were two growling coyotes!

Chapter 10: Reunited

“Grrr,” the coyotes said. 

“Well Ala,” said Dad to me.  “I think that this will be our last place alive.” 

Then we heard a woman’s voice say “Stop!”  The coyotes whined and backed off.  Then out of the shadows came …. Mom! 

“Mom!”  I said, running over to give her a hug.

“Teerlan!” my dad said, with tears coming into his eyes.

“Acrono!” Mom said, starting over to him.

They walked towards each other and right when they touched hands, Flash Rock came off my neck and started spinning!  It spun and spun until it had formed a little blue tornado.  Out of the top of the tornado came a tiny little coyote cub. 

“So that is why they brought me here!” said Mom.

“Wait,” I said.  “You didn't know?”

“Well, no.” Mom said.

I heard a coyote bark.  Then Mom said “He said he likes you and you should stay.”

I frowned at her and said “You know how to speak coyote?”

Mom nodded and I turned to Dad.  “May we stay here? Pleeeeese Dad.”

 

“It is fine with me if it is fine with the coyotes.” Replied Dad.

Another coyote barked and Mom said “She says that it is fine.”

“Yes!” I said.  And I jumped into the sky.