Puma Son of Mountain Lion Read online

  Puma Son of Mountain Lion

  A Novel by

  William Wayne Dicksion

  Smashwords Edition Copyright 2011 William Wayne Dicksion

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  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Original Copyright © 2008 by William Wayne Dicksion

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recoding, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Other novels by

  William Wayne Dicksion

  A Brief Moment in Time

  Beyond the Valley of Mist

  Sagebrush

  A Man Called Ty

  A Button in the Fabric of Time

  Legend of the Lost

  Danny

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  Acknowledgments

  The painting of the Indian boy on the cover was done by George Catlin, frontier artist (July 26, 1796-December 23, l872). Cover design by Malia Wisch, email address: [email protected]

  Prologue

  Michael McBain was 12 years old, traveling with his mother and father from Virginia to Santa Fe, when they were ruthlessly attacked by Indians. Everyone in the wagon train was killed except for Michael. He survived because he was hidden under the overturned wagon. He vowed to kill the attackers and also to fulfill his father’s mission.

  In Virginia, his father had promised a dying Spanish nobleman that he would help to prevent his granddaughter from losing her land in Santa Fe. The property was a land grant that had been given to the man by the king of Spain.

  Michael survived alone in a cave until age eighteen. Then, on one of his exploring trips, he encountered two Indian women being attacked by a pack of hungry wolves. If he helped them, he would expose his presence to what might be hostile Indians. Risking his own life, he fought the pack and saved the women. The younger of the two was a girl named Evening Star and the older woman was her mother, White Bird. White Bird had broken her leg, so Michael helped them get back to their village. These Indians were of the Arapaho tribe, and they were not hostile to Michael—they appreciated what he had done and treated him well. Michael’s friendship with Evening Star developed into love, but he still had a score to settle with the four Comanche warriors who had killed his parents.

  One day, while dressed in the skin of a mountain lion, he found the village of the men who had killed his parents and, in hand-to-hand combat, killed each of them. The story of how he, single handedly killed the most feared Comanche warriors, became a legend, and the story was repeated around many Arapaho and Comanche campfires. They said he was half-man and half-mountain lion and his powers as a warrior were so great that no man could defeat him.

  Michael revealed his cave to Evening Star, and she spent a night with him. They became lovers and a child was conceived. Michael asked Evening Star to become his wife. Although she loved Michael and wanted to be his wife, she could not. The Arapaho chief had given her to his friend Black Crow. The chief knew that Evening Star loved Michael and maintained control over her by holding her mother hostage whenever she was away, threatening to kill her if Evening Star did not return. Fearing for herself and her mother and wanting to bear Michael’s child, Evening Star’s only choice was to become the wife of Black Crow and remain with her people.

  Michael saved two mountain men from being killed by Comanche warriors by beckoning to them from under sagebrush that he used to conceal the opening to his cave. The mountain men gave Michael the nickname “Sagebrush,” which was shortened to “Sage.” Michael told the mountain men of his father’s obligation and difficulty with Evening Star’s chief. Pat Connors, one of the mountain men, who had lived with the Arapaho when he was trapping fur in Colorado, told Michael that the chief would carry out his threat if Michael didn’t do as he demanded. Pat convinced Michael to allow Evening Star to remain with her people and accompany him and his partner, Joe Martin, to Santa Fe to fulfill his father’s obligation.

  Before Michael left, he spent one more night in the cave with Evening Star. He showed her where he had left gifts for the child she was going to bear and told her how to find him should she ever need him. He cautioned her to not reveal the secret of the cave even to their child until the child was old enough to understand.

  When the Arapaho first saw Michael, he was dressed in the skin of a mountain lion, so when Puma was born, they named him Puma Son of Mountain Lion.

  Chapter 1

  The Village

  The Arapaho village sat among a grove of large trees that grew beside a stream. The trees provided shade in the summer and shelter in the winter. Summer had come, and the days were getting long. Prairie flowers were blooming, the evenings were warm, and twilight lingered. Puma and the other children loved chasing fireflies in the gathering darkness. Smoke from the cooking fires hung in the quiet evening air. The sound of children laughing, men talking, and women putting their babies to bed, mingled with the muted calls of night birds.

  Indian women and children spent their days gathering wild berries and plums that grew along the creeks. It was a wonderful way to live and a great time to be alive, but times were changing in the village of the Arapaho. Their long ancestral enemies, the Comanche and the Kiowa, raided them regularly. Each time the village was raided, some of the Arapaho warriors were slain. Their numbers were diminishing and after each raid the village was less able to defend itself.

  Stories of white men coming were being heard more often and Puma’s people, the southern Arapaho, were struggling to survive. The leaders of the tribe talked of returning to their ancestral lands on the eastern slopes of the Rockies. They hoped to ally with the Cheyenne and rebuild their tribe and their nation—together they would be able to defend themselves against the continuing onslaught of the Comanche and the Kiowa. Puma had witnessed 12 summers and he was tall for his age. He stood straight and moved with the grace of his namesake, the Mountain Lion.

  They called him “Puma Son of Mountain Lion.” His mother, Evening Star, was the squaw of Black Crow, but Puma knew that Black Crow was not his real father. His younger brother and sister were the biological children of Black Crow, and they looked differently. Black Crow had never mistreated Puma, but he showed a preference to his blood children. Puma had never seen his white father, but he had heard many stories of how his father killed four of the Comanche’s most fearsome warriors all by himself. The ones telling the stories said that the Comanche fears that he will return some day.

  Puma didn’t look like the other Indian children. He was bigger and his hair was not as black. His eyes were not as black either; they were brown. He sometimes wondered about his real father, but he didn’t really miss him. The Arapaho were his people; he had a good life and he thought of him self as an Indian. Since Puma’s father was a great warrior his tribe was expecting great things of him.

  Puma’s test of manhood was only days away. His mother was concerned that he might need a place of refuge, so she decided now was the time to show him his father’s cave. Black Crow, her Indian husband, was away on a hunting trip with Chief Long Knife, and they would be gone for many days. Even
ing Star told Puma that she was going to take him to his father’s cave and give him the weapons his father had made for him. She would also tell him how to find his white father should he ever need him.

  Chapter 2

  The Cave

  Puma was surprised when his mother told him that tomorrow they would leave his younger brother and sister with friends and go on a journey. She packed enough supplies for several days, so Puma knew they would be going a great distance. He would take his bow and arrows. They might need extra food, and they might encounter dangerous animals. Evening Star told Puma how proud she was when she saw him preparing to defend her. She said that he reminded her of his father.

  When they left the village the following morning, the grass was still wet from the dew and the shadows were long. The sun rose brightly and a few white clouds drifted lazily in the early morning sky. As was the Indians’ custom, Evening Star told Puma the way to go and Puma took the lead. There were no trails to follow, so Puma leaped nimbly over logs and around boulders as they made their way through the forest. Evening Star was still young and strong, so she had no difficulty keeping up.

  They traveled across rolling forested land all morning. Stopping briefly, they sat on a log lying near a small stream and ate their mid-day meal of dried meat and parched corn. After eating, they crossed another stream and then entered territory that Puma had never seen before. Ahead was rolling hills covered with tall prairie grass and, in the distance, a stream with large trees growing beside it.

  After passing a turn in the trail, they entered a canyon and came face to face with a male mountain lion blocking their way. The lion didn’t seem startled; it just stood staring at Puma. Evening Star’s heart stopped. She anxiously watched her son stand firm while he faced the dangerous beast. It was a scene as old as humankind itself—a human male with a superior brain, facing an animal with superior strength, each refusing to give way to the other. Evening Star knew Puma was in danger. The boy and the lion continued facing each other, and then, as though an understanding passed between them, the lion raised its head in recognition of his opponent, turned, and slowly walked away.

  Evening Star hurried to Puma and asked, “Where did you find the courage to stand and face that lion?”

  “I don’t know why, Mother, but I felt no fear. I felt a kindred spirit with the lion. It meant me no harm, and I meant it no harm. There was something that passed between us.” Puma paused and turned to his mother. “Do you think the lion could have known my father?”

  “I don’t know, but your father said that he felt a special relationship with animals. He told me that he and a lion once fought a battle to the death. Maybe the lion did feel the same kinship for you that all animals seemed to feel for your father.” Looking down the canyon, Evening Star said, “We’re entering the canyon where your father’s cave is located. I’ll tell you when we get close—. Let’s see if you can find the cave. Many men, both Arapaho and Comanche, have searched for the cave, but none have found it. Your father said he found it by accident. If he had not found it, he would have been killed, and you would not have been born.”

  Puma jumped on a rock ledge, looked around, and said, “Mother! This is a beautiful spot. It’s so peaceful and quiet. The water in the stream is clean and clear. The meadow, with all the big trees and little animals playing, looks like what I have imagined the happy hunting grounds might look.”

  “Yes, I’ve seen it before, and I’m always moved by its beauty. It was a special place for your father and me, and now, it will be a special place for you, also. If you picked up a rock and threw it, the cave would be within your throwing distance. Let’s see if you can find it. I’ll sit here on this rock ledge, where I sat with your father, while you search.”

  Puma reasoned that if there were a cave here, it would have to be in the limestone cliff. He searched every nook and cranny. Nothing! He called out, “Mother, there is no cave here!”

  “Yes, there is. Your father was just your age when he found it. His father and mother had been killed by the Comanche, and four warriors were hunting him. They meant to kill him. If you were he, and knew you would be killed if you didn’t find a hiding place, what would you have done?”

  “I would crawl up this little stream, and hide behind those willows .... I’ll show you,” Puma said excitedly. While crawling up the stream, Puma saw where the water was running from under a ledge of rock in the wall of the canyon. He lowered his head to get under the low-hanging willow branches and continued toward the cliff. Then he saw the opening! It was hidden behind an outcropping of rock and, because it was under the overhanging ledge, the opening could not be seen unless the one searching was crawling in the water with his head near the surface. Puma was sure he had found the cave, but since the opening was small and dark, he was reluctant to go further. Then, remembering that his father was running from four Comanche warriors who were trying to kill him, his father would not have hesitated.

  So Puma placed his face near the water and crawled through the small opening. After passing through a short tunnel, he found himself inside an underground room. He heard water pouring over a waterfall back in the cave. His heart was pounding. He had found what no other member of his tribe or the Comanche tribe had been able to find in all these years! He waited until his eyes adjusted to the darkness and then saw the room and the area where his father had lived. Puma felt as though he was intruding upon his father’s sanctuary. After pausing for only a moment, he exited the cave. When he reached the outside, he called, “Mother! I’ve found the cave!”

  Evening Star smiled and said, “I’m pleased that you have shown the same resourcefulness that your father did. It is wonderful that you have found your father’s cave. What could be more fitting? Now we must gather wood and make torches. Your father showed me how to make long-lasting torches by using pitch from pine trees. After we’ve made the torches, we’ll re-enter the cave and build a fire. Then I’ll show you the inside of the cave and take you to where your father left gifts for you.”

  To keep the wood dry while taking it inside the cave, they made a small raft and floated the wood on it. After making their way inside, they built a fire. The fire gave them enough light so that they could see the size and shape of the cave. It was surprisingly big and spacious.

  “The cave is just as I remember,” Evening Star said. “It’s obvious that your father cleaned it before he departed. Come, I’ll show you the rear entrance. It’s a long way, and it’s very dark. We’ll need the torches.”

  They carried two torches but lit only one. They would need the second torch to light the return trip. While working their way back into the cave, they passed the waterfall where Michael had taken his baths. Then they passed two cascades where the stream flowed over the sides of limestone ledges. They continued following the stream deeper into the cave until they reached the opening in the top. Michael had used a rock to replace the sagebrush that had concealed the opening. They could see sunlight shining around it. Puma pushed the rock aside and they crawled through the opening and stood on top of the limestone that formed the canyon. They looked around for a while, reminisced of what Michael and Evening Star viewed, and then re-entered the cave and replaced the rock.

  With the light of the second torch, they made their way back to the place where Michael had hidden the gold and the weapons he had left for Puma. If Michael had not shown Evening Star where, and how, he hid them, she would never have been able to find them. First, they found the pots and pan and household things, such as tableware, books, and pictures that Michael had recovered from the wagon. These were things that Puma had never seen or even imagined existed. He was fascinated by the pictures. There were pictures of his grandparents and even a picture of his father when he was about Puma’s age. Puma was pleased to at long last see an image of his father. He was a handsome boy, with light-colored hair and fair skin. He didn’t look like anyone Puma had ever seen.

  They took a long time going through all the fascinating th
ings, and then they came to the sack of gold. Neither he nor his mother had any way of knowing the value of the coins, but Michael had told Evening Star that the coins were very valuable in the white man’s world. There were more coins in the bag than Puma could hold.

  They found clothes that Michael had brought with him when he came to the cave. The clothes fit Puma, but he felt uncomfortable in them. Puma and his mother laughed at how different he looked. At last they came to the weapons. Evening Star told Puma that Michael had fashioned the weapons with great care so that they would be the same as the ones he had used. He made them by using the metal working tools that his father had brought with him on the wagon train. By using these weapons, Michael had been able to get food, make his clothing, and repair his shelter. He hoped his son might be able to do the same if he should ever need to.

  In a little while, Puma and his mother found the lance. The metal point was long and sharp, and it was attached to a wooden shaft with rawhide. The balance was perfect. The shaft was made of the finest hardwood, and the wood had been polished. After examining the lance for a time, they continued looking, and found the ax. It had been made from one solid piece of steel. The metal handle was wrapped with rawhide to make it easier to hold. The only weapon Puma had ever seen that could compare with this weapon was the knife the chief owned. Everyone knew that the knife the chief carried was a knife Puma’s father had made for Evening Star.

  Puma had heard stories of his father’s great skills with these weapons. He asked, “Mother, is it true what they say about my father’s remarkable ability with these weapons?”