Grail Quest by D. Sallen

councilmen around me muttered among themselves. Whatever was going on signaled me to be alert. A heated argument broke out between the Shaman and a younger man. Chief Otisco ordered them apart. Turning to me, he wanted to know who the witch was. “Tell him the witch is called Coyote.”
    “Hmmmnnn. We see red-haired girl on hill. She make bad noise, wave arms, maybe she witch too.”
    That answer caused some more general alarm. Chief Otisco continued, “Why you not fear ghost sickness?”
    “We fear ghost sickness. The witch gave us ghost sickness. We nearly died. The red-haired girl made him cure us. Once cured, we can’t catch it again.”
    Then the young man who was arguing with the Shaman pushed past him and ran at us.
    “Maybe big trouble Squire. Young buck took canoes. He thinks you lie. He not sick.”
    I jumped to my feet and demanded, “Who calls White Chief Squire a liar?”
    The young man sprang towards me. He dashed his spear into the ground in front of me. Then arms akimbo he taunted, “I, Berserk Beaver say you speak with forked tongue! No ghost fever in my canoes!”
    No one had to tell me that I faced a deadly challenge. No hesitating…I grabbed the spear…broke it over my knee. With a contemptuous sneer…I   threw the pieces aside. Matching his stance…I looked him in the eyes…swaggered up close in front of him…He   didn’t flinch…I decked him with a right to his jaw.
    Moyock told me that Naturals weren’t familiar with boxing, so my tactic caused a lot of surprise. Young man had guts though. Mouth bleeding, he leaped up to grapple with me. They didn’t know scientific wrestling either. I hip rolled him. When he was on the ground,   I turned him over and pinned his arm behind his back. Despite a lot of chatter, no one intervened. Still holding him prone, I looked up at Moyock. “Now what?”
    “They wait to see you kill him.”
    “Interpret for me, Berserk Beaver is a brave young man. He just doesn’t know White Man’s fighting medicine. Because he is brave, I not want to kill him, but I do want our canoes back.”
    I must have said the right thing because Chief Otisco said indeed, our canoes would be returned to us. After he said that, I released Berserk Beaver and lifted him to his feet. He snarled at me and walked off. I wondered what prompted his actions. Could it be simple greed, or was he intelligent enough to see thru our charade?
    Moyock said, “Chief say, now you have bitter enemy. Better you kill him. He want gain honor back. Only by hurting you. Beware!”
    “If I killed him, I thought his friends would kill us.”
    “No. His challenge was to death. They respected that. You lose some face not killing him. They think maybe you weak.”
    I shrugged that aside. “Then I’ll be on guard against all.”
    The Chief led us down to the river’s edge to recover our canoes. We got there just in time to see Berserk Beaver punching holes in one of the canoes with his broken spear tip. Chief Otisco shouted “Stop him!” At the Chief’s command, three warriors ran down to pull him away. Beaver had damaged the canoe enough that it wouldn’t float.
    Chief Otisco said, “I will see that your canoe is fixed. Berserk Beaver acts like a spoiled child. He brings no honor to the Unilah. You come back for it…” He held up his fingers, “Maybe ten days.” I distributed more tobacco before we left and gave another knife to Chief Otisco.
    “That was good move, Squire. Naturals not have metal knife. If you not give another, take first one away from wife”  
    Rowing back upstream to the fort against the current was not as hard as I thought it would be. We reached home before dark. This time we pulled our canoe well up on the shore, behind the fort walls, and out of sight from anyone on the river.
    Leahna seemed glad to see us. “You   back with scalps. That good.”
    “Yes and with one of our canoes. We’ll get the other later.”
    Moyock explained to her all that happened at