edicine bag adorned
with the beadwork owl. She crossed the little clearing around the house
and entered the woods. Here, where no one could see her, she opened the
medicine bag and took out five tiny gray scraps of the magic mushroom.
She put them into her mouth and chewed and swallowed slowly.

Then she got down on her hands and knees and spread her blanket. Oak,
maple and elm leaves, brown, red and yellow, lay thick on the ground.
She scooped leaves into the blanket. When she had gathered a big pile,
she bundled them up and went back into the house.

Carefully she spread the leaves on the bed over White Bear's body. She
heard the grandfather say something to Yellow Hair.

Yellow Hair spoke quietly to her, saying that the grandfather feared
that the leaves were not clean and would make White Bear sicker.

How could the leaves not be clean, Redbird wondered, when they came from
the woods, outside any dwelling?

But she answered, "Must do what I know. If seem wrong to him, must do
anyway, or can do nothing."

She heard Yellow Hair talking quietly to the grandfather while she
settled herself on the floor beside the east side of the bed. She could
not understand the words, but she heard acceptance in the old man's
sigh.

Grief and fear that White Bear would die trembled inside her. Breathing
deeply, she let the strength of those feelings enter into her spirit,
urging her on to begin the journey she must make.

She must go into the other world and find her guide. She began the
medicine woman's chant Sun Woman had taught her:

"Let me walk through the dark place
To the light of the other world.
Oh my red spirit Bird, fly to me,
Sing to me from the other world.

"Let me walk the sunwise circle
Into the night that hides this man.
Oh my red spirit Bird, sing to me
And fly with me to the other world.

"Sing and fly,
Sing and fly,
In the sunwise circle
To the other world,
Into the night."

She allowed the chant to settle into a simple, repetitious humming that
slowly, with the help of the magic mushroom, drew her soul out of her
body.

She stood up. The three people gathered at the foot of the bed did not
see her standing. They were looking at her seated body. She looked down
at White Bear. She saw through the leaves she had spread over him and
right through his skin.

Five glowing streaks ran from his collarbone to his belly. The claw
marks of his guardi