gathered for the dangerous journey he was to embark on the next day.
Her heart jumped when she heard him coming in but she continued tidying his bed and poured fresh water into a bowl before she felt composed enough to look at him.
His face was painted black with red half-circles around his eyes. In the separate world of the dance it was fitting, but here it made her uneasy.
“You scare me now.'
Smiles A Lot touched his face with a finger. 'The paint?'
'It makes me afraid.'
Smiles A Lot grinned and nodded his head. 'Good,' he said, 'maybe it will make the enemy afraid, too.'
He reached down for the water bowl and she handed it up. Then he sat in front of her and splashed water on his face.
'Are you tired? ' she asked, handing him a cloth.
'Yes, I feel good.'
While his eyes were covered with a cleaning rag, Smiles A Lot heard her say, 'You were the best,'
'I was just dancing,' he said and shrugged.
For reasons that mystified the new warrior, Hunting For Something seemed suddenly frustrated.
'I thought you were the best,' she said, rising defiantly off the floor. 'Good night.'
Helplessly, he watched her step past the bed where Rabbit was sleeping and slip huffily into her own.
Smiles A Lot wanted to ask what was wrong but she had turned her face away. All he could see was the back of her head. He finished rubbing the paint off his face, slipped out of his clothes, slid under the covers of his own bed, and tried to think of tomorrow.
But he could not maintain a single line of thought. The girl lying a few steps away kept intruding and he had just begun to think of how he might find the courage to go to her when he heard a rustling of covers.
A moment later she was standing over him in the half-light of the dying fire, staring down with an odd look on her face.
'I want to sleep with you,' she said emphatically and before Smiles A Lot could respond, she was pulling her dress over her head. In what seemed one motion she dropped the dress and lay down beside him, stretching her long, skinny frame straight out as she nestled against his chest.
'There,' she sighed, snaking an arm under his and pulling herself closer. 'This is how it should be.'
He could feel her moist breath as she whispered against his shoulder. He could smell the fragrance of her skin. The pressure of her lithe body was the most wonderful thing he had ever felt.
'You make me happy,' he whispered. 'I don't want anybody but Hunting For Something.'
As he said this he pulled her closer and he could feel her lips brush the skin on his shoulder. Her free hand stole softly onto his chest and didn't move, and Smiles A Lot thought briefly that he might levitate off the bed.
'I want a baby,' she murmured.
One of her legs slipped between his, and Smiles A Lot's mind ceased to function under the barrage of tactile sensations that overwhelmed it. His body lost its tension as it melted into hers and they writhed under the covers as two snakes entwined, groping, twisting, undulating in celebration of instinct. The awkwardness of novices was flung aside as they feverishly searched out one another, and even as she cried out, Hunting For Something urged him on. By then Smiles A Lot was past all need of encouragement, and the perfection of the collision that came soon after left them stupefied.
After a few minutes he rolled to one side but she did not move. Her glistening eyes stared into space while her shoulders and chest heaved for breath.
He watched her dreamily, his fingers playing with a thick strand of her shiny, black hair.
'I think I have it,' she whispered blankly.
'What?'
'A baby.'
A look of puzzlement appeared on Smiles A Lot's face.
'How do you know that?'
'I feel different.'
'Maybe we should do it again.'
She shifted her eyes to his and smiled. 'I would like that,' she said.
'I've heard that some people have to do it a lot to get a baby,' he said, laughing.
Hunting For Something turned her face to the shadowy rafters overhead.
'You have to come back,' she commanded.
Smiles A Lot lay back then, and together the lovers contemplated the nothingness above them.
'Warriors die sometimes,' he said softly.
'I'll pray to the Mystery every day,' she countered. 'I'll pray to the Mystery all the time you're gone.'
She talked on a few minutes more before she realized her husband had fallen asleep. Hunting For Something lay as she was, swathed in the fertile, pungent odor of their lovemaking, her sleepy, unfocused eyes staring into the Mystery as she marveled at the incontestable change that had taken place deep in her body.
Then she, too, fell into a leaden sleep, which passed uninterrupted until first light, when she woke to find Rabbit's bright, inquisitive eyes gazing at her. Sometime during the night the boy had wedged himself between them.
'What are you doing here, little brother?' she asked drowsily.
'I got lonely. Is this how we will sleep from now on?'
'Where's your brother? '
'He's here.'
Rabbit turned impulsively and began to shake his sleeping brother.
'Smiles A Lot, wake up. . Smiles A Lot!'
While Hunting For Something packed his food and accoutrements, Smiles A Lot chose three excellent ponies from his herd and set to work in front of the lodge painting crow symbols on the tough little dapple-gray that had carried him to the Medicine Bluff and back.
At mid-morning, Dances With Wolves appeared with his dejected children to ask Hunting For Something if she would look after them in his absence. Her heart opened to the gloomy children being left behind and she promised to take good care of them.
Smiles A Lot had been selected, along with Dances With Wolves and a few other seasoned warriors, to scout the advance for the main column, and they disappeared to make final arrangements with their compatriots.
In the time they were gone, Snake In Hands and Always Walking sat as listlessly as the condemned, a demeanor they maintained through the riotous, village-wide send-off for the more than one hundred cherished warriors who rode onto the plains a few hours later.
This time a score of warriors, among them several Hard Shields, had been left behind. The village was secure, and Hunting For Something was happy when Rabbit, Snake In Hands, and Always Walking went on an egg- hunting expedition, leaving her free to daydream about Smiles A Lot through the afternoon.
But she began to worry when there was no sign of the children at sunset and her heart jumped with fear when Rabbit came in alone just after dark.
''Where are Snake In Hands and Always Walking?”
'They're gone,' the boy answered impassively.
'Gone? Where?'
'They went after Dances With Wolves.'
'What?' cried Hunting For Something, her voice rising. “When did they go?'
'Oh, a long time ago.'
'Why didn't you tell me?'
'They made me promise not to tell anyone till after dark.”
Hunting For Something's hand had gone over her mouth and she was staring wide-eyed at nothing as her mind ran with all manner of tragic possibilities.
'Were they on foot?' she asked, suddenly hopeful.
'No, no, they took ponies. . and food, too.'
Rabbit's attention was momentarily diverted to a kettle hanging over the fire.
