Free Panther in the Sky by James Alexander Thom Page A

then looked thoughtful. “The little dog is bad. But what he does is good for us. I would not want the world to end.”
    “Would you not? Would you not want to go to heaven?”
    “Someday. But not yet.”
    “Ah. Why not now?” Chiksika was smiling at his little brother’s solemn concentration.
    “Because I cannot, yet.”
    “Why?”
    “Because our father says I have a great thing to do. I do not yet even know what it is. But the world cannot end until I have done it.”
    Chiksika was delighted by this. “Ha, ha!” He hugged Tecumseh to his side, and his laughter was rich and loud in the quiet woods. Tecumseh was infected by it, and his own child’s laugh rang out. It was a joy to learn to understand the world he lived in, and his brother Chiksika was his primary teacher, even more than was his father, who had less time because all the people in the tribe were in his care. It was as if his father had hundreds of children, many of them much older than himself. Tecumseh understood this about the chief and was very proud of his father. But it was Chiksika who was Tecumseh’s first teacher, protector, hero, and friend. And just as Chiksika in childhood had always trailed after his father, and emulated him, and absorbed everything he said, just so Tecumseh did Chiksika. He had long ago decided he would be just like his brother.
    Chiksika did not try to shake off his younger brother. It was not just that he liked being the object of such adulation. He enjoyed the child’s voracious curiosity and his untiring vitality. The boy was remarkable. His mind caught and held everything that entered it. He could recite tribal lore word for word after hearing it once, but he liked to hear it over and over so that he could examine it in his mind. And already, at six years, he was the champion among his peers in every sort of hunting or fighting or game-playing skill. With his little hickory bow he could put arrows almost unerringly into any mark. He could outrun many of the ten-year-olds, was a quick, strong, and tricky wrestler, and rode a pony as if he were a part of it. Chiksika, himself acknowledged as one of the most promising young bucks in the sept, saw Tecumseh as even more promising; he was aware always of hislittle brother’s destiny signs, and he felt a sacred duty to help guide him along the path to a worthy manhood.
    Suddenly now Chiksika raised his head. Someone was running through the woods, coming close. Chiksika tensed and crouched, though no danger was likely this close to the town.
    Now they saw the figure coming, flitting through the sunbeams in the deep green woods, naked except for breechcloth and moccasins, muscular and graceful. Chiksika raised his arm and shouted:
    “Stands Firm!
Pe-eh-wah,
this way!” The youth veered toward them and trotted up, his silver ear ornamentation jouncing heavily. His usual smile of greeting was not on his face.
    “Here you are! Quick! Come to the council lodge. Your father calls for everyone. Great trouble with the Long Knives! They have burned the Wapatomica towns of our people!”
    “Burned the towns?”
    “Yes! With an army they went up the Muskingum, and burned the towns at the Forks! Hurry!” He turned and sprinted back toward the town, summoning them to follow. Chiksika and Tecumseh plunged into the woods and caught up with him. Chiksika’s blood felt as if it were boiling through his veins; his soul was full of the silent scream of outrage. Could this really be true, that the whitefaces had dared do such a thing?
    T ECUMSEH LISTENED FROM THE EDGE OF THE CROWD AND felt the anger and excitement of the warriors growing as they were told of the events. As he heard the chiefs of the Wapatomica towns tell of it, he tried to see it in his mind.
    It had started when some of the worst sort of Long Knives had tricked some of the followers of Tah-ga-ju-te, a great Mingo chief, and murdered them. The Mingo was a peaceful chief, a friend of both white men and red men. His