Daughter of the Eagle by Don Coldsmith

and was just stepping from the water when two of his friends rode up.
    â€œAh-koh , Bobcat,” called Dark Cloud. “Get your horse and come with us.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œThere are antelope near Cedar Creek,” he pointed to the south. “Some of us are going on a hunt!”
    Bobcat was already pulling on his leggings. Aiee , this was what he needed.

16
    Running Eagle stood at the edge of a rocky hilltop, looking once more at the world that had been hers for the past four suns. She hated to leave; the vision quest had been so satisfying and fulfilling.
    She did not know what she had expected, but there was no way to describe the experience. The first pangs of hunger had given up and ceased to gnaw on the second day. It was after that that the brightness, the color, and the clarity of the world became apparent. It was true both in wakefulness and in her dream visions. She wandered in her mind’s eye across the rolling prairie, not distinguishing dream from reality. She found herself inside the thoughts of the creatures around her. The timid maternal concern of the quail on her eggs under an overhanging grass clump was plain to her. Just as plain was the confidence of a majestic, old bull elk, his new antlers still furry at this season. She communed with an otter, who laughed at her over the accident in the swimming challenge. The thoughts of a rabbit who nibbled grass near the stone where she sat complimented her on her race, and she smiled.

    In her delight at the ability to commune with all these creatures, she almost forgot that her mission was partly to search for her medicine animal. It was really no great surprise to her, however. Somehow, she had known it would be an eagle.
    The puzzling thing was that nothing much transpired. She found it more difficult to understand the eagle than any of the other creatures. It merely came, sat on a broken dead tree stub at the rim of the canyon, and looked at her.
    In vain, Running Eagle searched for some message, some meaning. The proud gaze of the bird was inspiring, uplifting, and seemed somehow urgent. But there was no apparent purpose, no direction. Ah well, perhaps it would come later. She remembered that her father had once said it was years before he understood his medicine animal.
    She awoke and found that it had indeed been a sleep-dream. The sun was rising, and the prairie was coming alive for a new day. In the low spots along the stream, scraps of fog hung like wisps of smoke among the trees. The world was good.
    Running Eagle took a little water from the skin and raised the chanting melody of the Morning Song to Sun Boy in the east. So great was her pleasure, her exaggerated enjoyment with the experience, that she felt she could stay here indefinitely. She knew otherwise, of course, but it was a delightful fantasy. She really must begin her return journey today to the camp of the People.
    There were advantages to that, she realized. It would be good to break her fast, to eat again, though she felt no urgency in it. It would also be good to be with her family again, to feel its affection and support. She could talk with her brother and share some of her feelings about the vision quest. Some, but not all.
    Best of all, she now admitted to herself as she gathered her few belongings, she would soon see Walker. She was ready to forget her petty anger at him. She did not fully understand his reasons for the Challenge, but was willing to
forgive him. Now, her vision quest behind her, she could begin to think again in terms of sharing his lodge.
    She hung the club at her waist, picked up her bow and arrows, and swung her robe across her shoulder. She took a last glance around her camp site and then another long look at the green expanse of prairie, as if she had never seen it so clearly before. She turned toward the game trail which picked its way down the steep side of the hill.
    Sun Boy was high before Running Eagle stopped by a shady spring of