Free Birth of the Wolf (Wahaya) by J. B. Peterson Page B

expect.  “Why have you bound my brother and my women?” he asked impassively.
    “ We had no way of knowing who they were Zeev,” the Shaman said, “they shall be set free immediately.”  The Shaman issued orders in the Lowland dialect of Quechuan and several warriors moved to release the prisoners.  Dave started to talk and Nick shook his head imperceptibly.  Dave shut up instantly, but pointed at Abbie’s foot.
    Nick walked to Abbie, lifted her, carried her to the altar, and placed her upon it.  Unwrapping the compress, he looked at the swollen and infected cut.  Turning to the Shaman, he asked for Pau D’Arco, cat’s claw, and nasturtiums. 
    Seemingly proud of Nick’s knowledge of Awajun medicine, the old man opened the proper pouches on his medicine belt and removed packets of the requested substances.
    In truth, a large part of U.S. investments in Peru are due to the incredible knowledge base of the Awajun Indians regarding the medicinal qualities of plants.  With Peru’s amazing biodiversity and the proliferation of species, Peru is a veritable cornucopia of supplies of both basic pharmaceuticals and research potential.
    The old Shaman watched with great pride as Nick prepared the bark strips of the Pau D’Arco by steeping them in the metal canteen cup and then crushing the nastrutiums before mixing them in as well. Nick added the root of the cat’s claw plant to the mixture, covered the top and allowed the mixture to steep. 
    As he let it steep, Nick chanted the words that his grandfather had taught him, basically a prayer to the Great Spirit acknowledging that it was the Great Spirit doing the healing, not Nick or the plants. 
    “ Pride is a good thing for a warrior Nicholas,” the old man had said, “but for a warrior to take credit for deeds that he himself has not performed is shameful before other men and before the Great Spirit.  Always remember to give credit where credit is due.  If you try to take credit for the work of the Great Spirit, he will punish your patient.”
    Amanda Dunn had managed to maintain her sanity throughout the whole ordeal, but this was so surreal that she was having trouble believing what she was seeing.  The young man, so calm and so confident since the moment she had first seen him, looked perfectly at ease among these savages, as if he was one of them. 
    In the outlandish getup he was dressed in, he actually looked like one of them.  When Nick had walked through the cloud of red smoke with that makeup on, she had not been entirely sure it had been Nick. He had spoken to the men and to the old medicine man in their own language and now he had asked for specific plants to help heal Abbie’s infection. 
    “ Where do we get such men?” she asked herself, “and for god’s sake, where can we find more of them?”
    Cynthia Cohen, sitting freely now next to Amanda, was having many of the same thoughts.  She had never been a fan of the military, her background and education supporting her low opinion of the U.S. military, but these two men, especially Nick, were nothing like the knuckle dragging Neanderthals she had been taught to despise.
    On these two men the mantle of ‘Warrior’ took on a more than honorable cast.  The Ivy League attitude of this young Main Line Jewess was being put to the test by this whole experience, and her fierce contemporaries in Israel would have been drooling over this warrior.  As she eyed Nick’s incredible physique and felt his charismatic presence, she began a little mental drooling of her own.
    Nick removed the stone from the top of his canteen cup and asked Cynthia to spread the cut on Abbie’s foot once more.  Abbie was still shaking with fear of the warriors surrounding her, but Nick’s calmness seemed to help her. 
    Cynthia’s hands were gentle, but the infection was still painful, and she bit back a cry as Cynthia opened the cut.  The decoction that Nick poured over the infected wound was soothing, and the