Strongheart Read Free Page B

neck, crushing his larynx and fracturing his cervical spine in two places.
    He was buried not far from the tamer lower headwaters of the mighty Mississippi.
    Ironically, in Montana, Abigail’s grief-stricken mother fell getting off the wagon, striking the left front wagon wheel with her forehead and snapping her head back, fracturing her neck as well. She died instantly, and Abby quickly became even more of a survivor, as she was the only child.
    After the loss of both parents, she was in a state of total despair and depression. Abby knelt by the hastily dug grave and just stared. She did not care about living or dying. After many attempts to motivate or move her failed, she was left alone with her family wagons by a heartless wagon master. After two days of crying, and taking nothing but little sips of water, she built a fire as her father had taught her and made a nice breakfast. She had come to the realization that she did indeed want to survive, and she would. The beautiful fifteen-year-old made herself a hearty breakfast of bacon, biscuits, eggs, and coffee.
    That is when, two miles away, the big silvertip plains grizzly bear stood on his hind legs and slowly popped his teeth, sniffing the wind. On the breeze, he picked up the delicious smells, and he headed that way at almost a dead run. Bears have an incredible sense of smell, and this big bruin was no exception. He had survived thirteen winters already and was cunning, ferocious, large, and very powerful.
    He came up out of a draw and again stood on his hind legs, testing the wind, his nose well over eight feet in the air when he lifted it and smelled. He picked up Abigail’s scent as well and dropped to all fours, let out a ferocious growl, and made his charge. A grizzly bear can outrun a Thoroughbred racehorse on flat ground, and his flat-out charge was so unnerving that Abby stood transfixed and actually paralyzed in fear and denial. As a last resort, she raised her frying pan.
    He was almost upon her when the arrow penetrated his rib cage from the right side, passed through his right lung, left lung, nicked his heart, and wedged into his left shoulder muscle. He let out a roar and stopped mid-charge, then stood again to face his new enemy: the powerful, handsome Lakota warrior Zuzeka, whose name meant “Snake” and who stood there with a large Bowie knife in his hand, his bow cast aside on the ground next to him.
    Now the bear redirected his charge and dashed for the warrior, who refused to give ground. At the last second, the bear stood on its hind legs, bent slightly forward at the waist, and took a swipe at Zuzeka, raking his upper chest with four large claw marks, from the left side to the right side. Blood started streaming down the warrior’s chest and rippled abdomen. He plunged the knife into the bear’s chest just as it let out its death howl from the arrow. As it fell forward in a heap, its shoulder slammed the brave young man back ten feet, and he lay there unconscious.
    He awakened to the smells of food and was very hungry. The startled brave sat up and looked around. It was daylight, and he finally realized that he was in the wagon of the wasicun woman, lying on her bed. He shook his head trying to clear his brain. Zuzeka looked around the inside of the wagon and recognized that this young woman was a good housekeeper.
    She bounded up the steps and into the back of the Conestoga, and he jumped, reaching for his large knife, but the sheath was not around his waist. They looked at each other, and their eyes locked. Her chest started heaving a little in and out. His eyes entranced her. She smiled softly, and he relaxed, and she opened a box and pulled out his knife and sheath and handed them to him, as well as his bow and quiver full of arrows.
    Abby said, “Do you speak any English?”
    â€œYes, a little maybe,” he said. “What happened?”
    She smiled. “You saved my life. This giant bear was charging at