[2014] Wildwood Shadows Read online

  I wrapped my arms around her thin waist, pulling her to me as I kissed her. She had learned a lot since the first time I kissed her and now she sought me as much as I sought her. I hungrily nipped her bottom lip, then kissed her chin and down the front of her neck. She leaned back, allowing me to hold her and kiss the trail that led from her collarbone up to the bottom of her ear.

  I nibbled her earlobe as she breathed out a shuddering sigh. She wrapped her hands around the back of my head, holding me to her while I returned to tasting her neck and throat.

  “Now, Maddox,” she whispered, “I want nothing more from this life.”

  “I want you too, Wildwood,” I replied against her lips, “But I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “I heard that it doesn’t always hurt,” she replied, kissing me as I paused near her lips.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” I replied, “I don’t want to hurt you emotionally. What if the tribe comes against you for making your own choices?”

  I hid the other questions that I couldn’t speak aloud. Questions such as “What if I leave one day” or “What if I leave and take you with me to a world you would never understand?”

  “You and I are alone here and the decision is ours alone,” she said, “No one else but us. We have control over our future, Maddox.”

  And with those words, I lowered her onto the high grass beneath the morning sun and lifted her dress. Her long, smooth legs were wrapped around me even before I freed myself from my jeans. In that moment, I made love to her in such a way that I never thought possible. I wanted to be infinitely close to her and I couldn’t be satisfied otherwise. I tugged her dress completely off, kissing her intimately the whole time. Anything that separated me from her had to be removed in that moment.

  Moments later, we both rocked against each other completely naked under the sun. I took my time, wanting to savor the moment for as long as I could. She cried out three times in what felt like orgasms by the way she tightened around my unit. Her third one was too much for me and I released what I had for my first time ever, crying out multiple times in the process. I finally lay spent in her arms, kissing her shoulder while I silently wished I had more to offer her.

  “I never knew it would be like that,” she whispered, her lips near my ear.

  “Never ever,” I agreed, “I want more of you. I want so much more.”

  “Then here I am,” she said.

  We lay there as one in the tall grass for several more minutes before we reluctantly separated and put our clothes back on. Curiously enough, she was very modest about being seen in the flesh, so I didn’t peek as much as I had wanted to while I got dressed. A moment later, she was back in the lead and I was following as we made our journey onward.

  Haceepeleewa

  Our lunch would consist of wild turnips which we washed off in a creek. We supplemented our meal with a side of ripe blackberries. I’d never eaten a turnip before, or if I had, I was sure it had never been a raw one, so I watched her to see how it was done. She held it by the greens and bit into it like an apple. It seemed easy enough and to my surprise, it was rather tasteless. It reminded me a little of eating a raw potato.

  We sat next to the blackberry bush while we ate, gorging ourselves on the sweet berries. If the berries hadn’t been so tender, I would have requested we take some with us as we continued onward.

  “How much further until we reach these cliffs?” I asked.

  “We’re actually pretty close,” she said, “But we’re on the opposite side of where we need to be to find the White Papa.”

  We finished up our lunch and then continued on our trek through the woods. I was already getting pretty exhausted by the time we found ourselves near the top of a steep cliff. Far beneath us at the bottom of the rocky gorge was a river that had probably carved its way through the bedrock over the course of a million years. We had quite a breathtaking view that wasn’t for the faint of heart.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” she asked as we both towered over this untamed world.

  “Definitely,” I replied, “But how do we get across?”

  “We’ve got to go down to the river,” she replied, pointing off to my left, “There’s actually a deer path over there that leads to a spot where we can climb down.”

  I started in that direction and then was halted by a hand clamped on my wrist. I turned to see a reprimand perched on her tongue.

  “I told you that this was a haunt for wolves and snakes. Let me take the lead so I can keep an eye out,” she said, “Nevertheless, keep your eyes on the ground as well.”

  I stepped aside and allowed her to take the lead again. She slipped past me and just a few minutes later, we were walking down a steep path that led us downward along the cliff face. The path stopped suddenly at an area where a trickling creek had cut through the rocky cliffs and headed down toward the river.

  I mimicked her actions by leaping the small creek and crawling up the angled boulder on the other side. We were still probably fifty feet above the river, but at least now we faced a series of boulders and fallen trees the led downward at a more reasonable angle. She lay down on her belly and slid down the side of the boulder feet first. I did the same, wondering for a moment how we would climb back up on the return journey.

  “Shouldn’t White Owl have caught up to us by now?” I asked.

  “He’s probably not coming,” she said, “Knowing him, he would have never approved of this journey anyway.”

  “Wait a minute, I thought it was partially his idea,” I said.

  “No, it was all mine,” she replied, leaping to a flat-topped boulder that angled downward toward the river.

  “But…” suddenly I remembered her asking me to make sure not to damage any leaves once we left the path in the woods.

  I realized in that moment that she expected us to be followed, but wanted to make sure no one could do just that. She was really one to cause some turmoil and discord amongst those around her. While I admired her for her independence, I questioned the disrespect she showed to those who made up her family and community. In this case, she was probably making an enemy of the whole tribe including my own father.

  I leapt to the boulder and almost slipped. I caught myself by taking another step to gather my balance. She knelt down and placed a hand on the end of the boulder as she dropped down to the ground below. I did the same, finding it hard to keep my balance on such a steep hill covered in loose gravel.

  We used a fallen tree as a handrail as we both had trouble with the slippery gravel on our downward journey. I found comfort in the fact that she was experiencing as much trouble as I with the gravel and the steep hill.

  “Maddox!” she screamed, spinning quickly and leaping toward me.

  I grabbed hold of her arms, but slipped on the gravel and then we started sliding down the hill together.

  “No, don’t slide!” she screamed, grabbing at a limb from the tree beside us.

  We stopped, but just barely. I was sitting on my butt with my arms wrapped around her. She was on her side, lying with her head around the center of my chest. We no sooner stopped before she started climbing over top of me onto a mossy boulder that bordered the side of our path.

  I turned to her to find that she was crying right now, taking her moccasin off. That was when I saw the two holes near the toes of her shoe.

  “No!” I hollered, climbing the hill and securing my footing next to the rock.

  I grabbed her foot and inspected the area where the bite mark was on the shoe. I couldn’t find any holes or blood. Suddenly, I saw a spot of blood on the side of her middle toe. It was a scrape where the poisoned fang had barely broke the skin. I spit on it, wiping it clean so I could get a better look at it. It was somewhat swollen along the two-millimeter scrape, but it didn’t look like the fang or the venom had found its way into the bloodstream.

  “I think he pretty much missed,” I said, watching to see if the toe was going to swell any further.

  “It h
urts though,” she said, tugging her foot from my hand and examining it herself.

  “What would we have done if you’d have been bitten full on?” I asked, “This is why we should have brought someone else with us.”

  “It couldn’t have happened,” she said, rubbing her foot, “I have your arrow in my quiver and since the gods see me as your guide, they are protecting me as well.”

  “I’m being serious here, Wildwood!” I insisted, “What if you would have been bit? I’d have tried to suck the poison out, but that doesn’t always work!”

  “I’m being serious here too, Maddox,” she said, releasing her foot and then examining the moccasin, “You still have some of the paint on your left cheek from last night. You are still protected. The gods protect the guides of the ones they are looking out for.”

  She truly believed in her religious upbringing, so I probably wasn’t going to get the answer I was looking for. I believed in a god as well, but mine was one called Jesus Christ. And although he looked out for me, I wasn’t invincible. I wondered for a moment if he even still looked out for me considering the fact that I really hadn’t gone to church in over a year. I hadn’t even acknowledged the man in just as long. I was merely a Christian by title, but that didn’t change the fact that I believed in him. I wondered for only a moment if I was as deluded at Wildwood. I’d seen plenty of evidence that my god was real, but would he be considered imaginary a thousand years after I’m long gone?

  “Check this out, Maddox,” she put the moccasin on and then lowered her foot to me, “Squeeze where to two holes are.”

  I squeezed, feeling two toes directly beneath the both holes. She looked at me and nodded. What could I say to that?

  “Let me go down first this time,” I said, “I’ll put my shotgun in his mouth and blow his head off.”

  “No, I know where he is,” she replied, motioning for my weapon, “Give me the thunder bow.”

  Usually I’d argue, but as long as the weapon was cocked and as long as we slid down slowly, I was pretty certain she could kill the snake. I cocked the shotgun and then handed it to her after she slid down from the rock.

  “I’m letting you do this on one condition though,” I said, “That you put on my boots.”

  She looked down at them and probably realized that they were much sturdier than her own. She agreed. Propping myself against one of the tree branches, I helped her to get my hiking boots on and then I tied them for her. I wore her moccasins like flip-flops since I couldn’t fit my feet completely in them. If it hadn’t been gravel beneath us, I’d have just gone barefoot.

  We stayed seated as we slowly slid down the hill. She kept the shotgun pointed down along the right side of the hill. I could now see the overhang where a small cave was formed from the jutting rock wall. By the way she had the shotgun aimed, I was fairly certain that this was the snake’s home. We slid down slowly, keeping as far to the left as we could. She wisely poked the barrel of the shotgun toward the overhang, finally getting the response she had hope for. She fired even before the snake had a chance to bite the shotgun. The half that wasn’t vaporized by the blast was flung off the cliff side.

  She cheered loudly in spite of the fact that she nearly lost my shotgun in the event. Her whole right arm had lurched backward as the barrel of the gun scraped against the rock wall, but it still abolished the snake and that was all that mattered.

  She slid down now at a much faster pace, leaving me behind with only her moccasins as protection against the gravel. We both stayed seated in the gravel as we slid only because it was so hard to stand up at such an incline. We soon reconnected with the creek that we had leapt over earlier. It sliced through our gravel slide, making it necessary for us to leap off the edge and drop down about four feet into the trickling cool water.

  I waited until I saw her step out of the water and stand on the other side of the creek. I dropped down, hitting my unprotected heels painfully on some sharp rocks. I cried out as I sat down on the edge of the creek and removed her moccasins. I was shocked to discover no scrapes on my heels.

  “I guess we should trade back now,” she said, sitting down next to me and removing the boots, “Can I keep the shotga for a little while though? I kind of like it.”

  “The shotgun?” I asked, realizing that she probably only heard me call it that a few times, “Yeah, I still have another weapon right here.”

  We traded shoes and then I checked my Glock again. I still hadn’t fired the thing, so I didn’t really know what to expect. But the fact that it was loaded with hollow points and also that it held more ammunition than the shotgun, I figured I’d be okay.

  We rose from the ground and looked onward toward the river. We had finally made it. We were still about ten feet above the river, but at least it was a grass and slate incline at this point. We rushed to the river’s edge where she knelt down and with a cupped hand, she took several drinks from the river.

  I was parched as well and had no other options available to me. While I certainly wished for an ice cold Mountain Dew or a frosty bottle of Gatorade, I was left with the unfiltered aquarium water before me. This situation proved the theory that thirst could bring a man to his knees. I cupped my hand and drank from the cold river. I drank and drank, filling my stomach and relieving the desert that had taken over my dry throat.

  Thanks to my new companion, I was now eating raw turnips and drinking from the river. I could have never imagined such a thing. I looked at this beautiful dark-skinned woman next to me as she stared up at the cliffs ahead of us. This wasn’t supposed to be how people looked in the past. The drawings of Native Americans always showed sad, dumpy-looking women either carrying a papoose or lugging in the harvest. Never did the women in the drawings smile as brightly as Wildwood did. Never did they appear as vibrant and enticing as Wildwood.

  She turned to me to discover that I was staring at her. That powerful smile appeared again, making me wish we were back home… at my home in my time, but together. I’d take her to Outback or Texas Roadhouse for a nice steak dinner, all the while getting the honor of drinking in her beautiful face while we talked about everything that was important to us. After that, we’d go somewhere fun – maybe miniature golf or to an amusement park just so I could hold her hand and watch her laugh a hundred times. Finally, I’d take her somewhere that we could be alone just to spend an hour or two kissing her and whispering all that I wanted to do with her. Why couldn’t I take her home?

  I realized just then that I’d been daydreaming while my eyes had been captured by her. The daydream broke my heart because it was just that – a dream.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked.

  “Just wondering how it would be like if I met you in my world. Imagining all I’d rearrange in my life in order to make sure that you and I spent all our time together,” I said.

  “Is that a hard thing to accomplish in your world?” she asked.

  “In some ways, but I imagine it’s similar here. During the school year, I’d have to suffer with only seeing you in the evenings and maybe not all of them because of various commitments. When I got older, maybe my job would interfere,” I said, “But there would be times we’d get a whole day or two with no interruptions.”

  “I don’t know what ‘school year’ is, but it sounds like life in our world. There are times that the hunter - usually the man - would leave for a whole day or two and then return with the kill. During the summer, hunting is easy, but in the winter, it might require a lot of patience from the hunter. The hunter might have to go out with three or four others only to return a couple days later with a single deer.”

  “I guess that perfect days like today wouldn’t be common in either of our worlds,” I said.

  “Really? You think today is perfect?” she asked.

  “How could it not be? I’ve spent my entire day with you and… well, there was that time in the grassy field… you know,” I said.

  “It’s been the perfect day for me, but I didn
’t realize you felt the same way,” she said, scooting closer and kissing me on the cheek, “I worried somehow that this… that I wasn’t really important to you.”

  “How could you think such a thing?” I asked, “Everything you’ve seen or experienced from me has been real.”

  “But I know nothing about your world,” she said, “What if people go down the river of time just to have some fun and then go back home? What if people in this world are a bunch of skeletons beneath the dirt mounds, so our feelings don’t matter to those who are still living?”

  I backed away, startled by the sting of her words. I looked at her, appreciating what she had just said.

  “You are so much smarter than I’d given you credit for. When I first came here, I did look at everything and everyone as though I were just a spectator. It felt like nothing mattered because in my world, everyone here was just a portion of ancient history and long dead if not forgotten. Even when I found my dad, I still didn’t think of him as really real,” I said, “Wildwood, you are very important to me and this truly has been a perfect day.”

  Wapacikitha

  We crossed the river which had not exceeded one foot in depth the whole way across. I was getting accustomed to walking around in sloshy boots and wet pants. It was very uncomfortable, but no one else I’d seen ever seemed to mind it.

  She quickly located a grassy hill that would take us about a quarter of the way up the cliff. She pointed out that the rocky ledges in that area were the kind that would be easy to climb. Just before we headed in that direction, Wildwood stopped and pointed toward the cliffs on the other side of the river. I followed the direction of her finger and saw the wolves. There were four of them pacing along the upper deer path that we had taken earlier.

  “Do you think they were following us?” I asked.

  “No, but they know we’re here now. Most wolves don’t bother anyone, but these ones… well, they are very territorial and have been known to attack on many occasions,” she said, “We’d best head up in case they decide to head on down.”