hed on the head of the Bear was the tiny red spirit Bird.

_We are looking for my father's brother_, came White Bear's thought. _He
killed my mother and many brothers and sisters of yours and mine. He
shot me._

The Bird sang to Redbird, "I know where the uncle is, but I can only
lead the Bear to him if you say I must do it."

"I say you must, then," she said, just above a whisper. Whatever was
needed to save White Bear's life, she had to do it. Whatever she must
give up in return.

The Bird leaped into the air, his crest a bloody spearpoint. The Bear
lifted a black nose the size of Redbird's fist, and the white body
turned to follow, passing before her like a mountain of snow.

Hand in hand White Bear and Redbird followed. The Bird flew far ahead,
and they could not see him, but the Bear trampled down the grass and
left a path that was easy to follow.

Loving thoughts passed between White Bear and Redbird. If they always
met like this, Redbird thought, they could know what was in each other's
heart and their love would be deeper.

Then she remembered Wolf Paw and the new life that she alone knew was
growing in her belly. The life that fulfilled Wolf Paw's wish to have a
child with her.

She felt like a statue carved in ice. And at that very moment White
Bear let go of her hand. Somehow she knew that he was withdrawing from
her, not because he had sensed her thought about Wolf Paw, but because
he was troubled by some thought of his own. But instantly there was a
space between them, and she no longer knew his mind.

He was still walking beside her. He walked straight ahead, not looking
at her. She turned her head to the front and did the same.

She felt as if she had been pushed away, hard, and it hurt.

It seemed to her that they walked for days through the unchanging grass,
but the sun remained fixed somewhere beyond the tasseled curtain.

Yellow and blue, yellow and blue, the whole world had been reduced to
those colors. And to one sound, whispering grass.

The Bear stopped walking. Redbird and White Bear went around the huge
animal, Redbird to the right and White Bear to the left.

She found herself on the edge of a great crack in the ground, so deep
that its bottom lay in shadow. It zigzagged from somewhere, appearing
out of grass, and continued toward somewhere, vanishing back into the
prairie. A stream of bright blue water wound through the dark bottom of
the ravine; water had cut this wound in the