Comanche Dawn by Mike Blakely

near your lodge.”
    â€œThe Na-vohnuh are large people?”
    â€œThey stand as tall as I stand, as tall as you one day shall stand, my son. They do not have the evil medicine of the Nenupee, but they are cruel. In days long behind us, days of our grandfathers’ grandfathers, the Noomah and the Na-vohnuh were always at war. The Na-vohnuh killed whole villages of True Humans to feast upon their flesh. Others they tortured slowly, keeping them alive for days.”
    â€œWhere have they gone?”
    â€œSomewhere in the south. That is all I know. The wars with the Na-vohnuh were long ago. No one remembers where the Na-vohnuh may now be found. But, there have been puhakuts among the True Humans, puhakuts with strong visions, who say we will meet the terrible Na-vohnuh again in war.”
    â€œHow will we know the Na-vohnuh, Father?”
    â€œBy the way they call our kind. They call us Idahi. Speak this, that you may remember, my son.”
    â€œ Idahi, ” Shadow said.
    â€œOur fathers have told us to remember this name. It means Snake People in the tongue of the Na-vohnuh, for they would step upon us like snakes. We will know them by this name they call us and by their customs.”
    â€œWhat customs, Father?”
    â€œStrange customs, my son. The warriors cut all the hair off above their ear on the bow side, and grow it very long on the arrow side. Remember this, so you will know them at a glance. They remove the eggs of lice from their clothing with their teeth, making the eggs pop between their teeth. And, so the old storytellers say, their penises are infested with maggots!”
    Shadow gasped.
    â€œWhen the True Humans find these Na-vohnuh, my son, we must drive them away from their hunting grounds. We must kill their warriors and destroy their villages. They are terrible people who cast evil spells on anyone who shows them mercy. I hope I am still alive when we find them, for I want to scalp plenty of them!”
    Shadow seemed less troubled after hearing his father boast his love for battle, and the two of them watched as the last pole-drag passed, its tracks plain on the ground to either side of the paw prints of the dog that pulled it.
    â€œYou must go with your mother now, Shadow. And I must trail the Northern Raiders. When I see you again, we will have a scalp dance!”
    Shadow rode away in a lope to catch up with his mother. Shaggy Hump smiled, proud of his son’s riding ability. The boy moved with the loping pony like a bird clutching the branch of a tree that waved in the wind. He watched his son ride away, then turned northward to find a secluded place where he could pray to his guardian spirits to guide him into battle.
    *   *   *
    The moon was right when Shaggy Hump found the enemy warriors two sleeps north of the Canyon of Red Rock. It was the time of the Moon Wearing Away, when his enemies would sleep most soundly. The Raiders were packing buffalo meat back to their village on the horse they had stolen from Black Horn.
    It had been easy to follow them, for their burden had made the tracks of the horse press hard against the ground. Still, Shaggy Hump had ridden carefully, dismounting before every rise to crawl ahead and look for the enemy warriors. In this way he had found the smoke of their fire just before sunset, climbing up from some timber along a stream, then turning to trail away on a high breeze, looking like a gray snake hanging over a ledge. He was among the foothills of the Mountains of Bighorn Sheep—a place Shaggy Hump had visited only once before, for it was well within the range of the Northern Raiders.
    He left his horse many arrow shots away and crawled closer to get a look at the enemy, keeping his head below the tops of the sage bushes. The stream and the timber poured out of the mouth of a canyon here, making a good place to camp. He could see that the Raiders had wrapped the body of the warrior Black Horn had killed in a