Yellowstone Legends Page 19

  Her reaction to his answer was no less than what he’d expected. She shook her head and stood with her back stiffened.

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? I think I’ll keep heading toward Mount Holmes and stick to the original plan.”

  Raking her fingers through her hair, Kendra stood and glanced around, then headed away from camp.

  “You can’t go off by yourself, woman. You don’t know where you’re going.”

  She slowed but didn’t stop walking. Tossing a quick glance over her shoulder, she retorted, “You do what you want, Wolf. I know I’m not going back to that valley until I figure out what year it is.”

  Wo'itsa cursed. He could simply leave her and do as he’d planned. It would be the wiser decision. He started heading in the direction of the valley where he’d parted ways with Mukua. If the elder came for him in this new time, the valley would be the most likely place. He glanced over his shoulder. Kendra had already disappeared between the trees.

  He shook his head and headed in the opposite direction. Why did he feel such an undeniable pull toward her? It almost outweighed the obligation he felt toward Mukua. He had to find out for himself why his path had crossed with this woman, and unless he followed her, he’d never find the answer.

  After some time, Wo’itsa stopped, and cursed again. That fool woman was going to get herself in more trouble if he didn’t stay with her. He’d already failed at saving a woman’s life. Leaving Kendra to fend for herself in an unknown time, and without a weapon, would be her death sentence. Besides, Mukua had always seemed to be able to find him without any problem before.

  There was no telling how far she’d gone already, but he had to find her. Wo'itsa stepped quickly through the forest. It wasn’t difficult to follow Kendra’s tracks, but movement through the trees caught his eye. Four men stood, looking intently at something, pointing to the nearby clearing and whispering. They were the same four hunters he’d seen the night before.

  Wo'itsa remained concealed behind a tree. One of the hunters – White Wolf’s friend – left the others and ran through the trees at a fast pace until he disappeared from view. The rest of the men continued to talk in hushed tones, then headed on their way.

  Whatever it was they’d seen had been urgent enough to send a messenger, presumably to alert other members of their clan. Perhaps a war party of Bakianee was in the area. If so, Kendra was in danger.

  Cautiously, Wo'itsa snuck through the forest until he reached the clearing. Whoever or whatever had alerted the Tukudeka hunters was no longer there. Kendra’s tracks had led in the same general direction, so he backtracked until he found her prints again, and picked up his pace.

  Why was she heading into the hills, where the terrain was more difficult to navigate? When he finally reached the top of the ridge, the stench of rotten meat filled his nose. A half-eaten elk carcass lay partially buried under a tree. Wo'itsa circled around the kill. There was a good chance a predator would be nearby. Further away, the ridge dropped off at a steep angle into a gaping canyon.

  Kendra’s tracks disappeared among the rocky ground a good distance away from the steep drop off. Some small pebbles broke loose from somewhere nearby, and the faint sound of feet scraping over rough ground became louder.

  The sound was different than Kendra’s foot pattern. Wo’itsa darted behind some rocks to conceal his presence. Not a second later, his eyes widened. A woman of small stature appeared. Her hair was the same color as Cameahwait’s wife, and she was wearing clothing similar to those worn by every woman he’d seen come from the future.

  A bony hand touched his shoulder, and Wo'itsa almost gave away his location. His heart pounded faster than usual. By reflex, his hand went to his knife.

  Mukua.

  Wo'itsa caught his breath as his body calmed from Mukua’s surprise appearance, then said in a hushed tone, “That woman. She must be warned of potential danger with a carcass so close. Kendra as well.”

  The elder smiled, his hand still on Wo'itsa’s shoulder. “The women are of no concern to us. We shall see how strong Natukendra’eh’s bear spirit truly is. Come, Wo'itsa, we have somewhere more important to be.”

  The loud roar of a grizzly bear echoed off the canyon. The large predator charged from the woods directly toward the woman with the yellow hair. Where was Kendra?

  Wo'itsa had no time to act as everything around him was thrown into darkness once again.

  Chapter 17

  From atop the ridge, Kendra glanced across the wide expanse of the canyon, then leaned slightly forward to gape into its depths. A river – presumably the Gibbon River – meandered in a snake-like fashion far below. She stepped back as her gaze followed the flight of an eagle, his screech echoing off the canyon walls.

  The sound sent a thrill down her spine, and goose bumps formed on her skin. She’d seen and heard plenty of eagles before, but watching the majestic bird soar over this magnificent landscape sent her pulse racing as never before.

  Some inexplicable sensation took hold of her as her eyes were drawn to the eagle’s flight, as if she was trying to attain some spiritual connection. It was an odd, yet electrifying feeling, giving her a sense of freedom for the first time.

  The bird called again, soaring overhead. It appeared as if it was looking directly down at her, calling to her specifically, and trying to tell her something.

  Kendra blinked and shook her head. When she’d come to Yellowstone with Kunu, he had often pointed out eagles and had told her she should pay attention to them, but she’d brushed it off like she’d brushed off most everything else he’d ever said.

  The eagle continued to circle above, but his flight pattern became wider until he finally disappeared from view. Kendra continued to stare into the surrounding vastness. Nothing but mountains covered by lodgepole pines as far as the eye could see.

  She sighed and rubbed her arms. It truly was a beautiful sight. She’d just never taken the time to really see it before. After the first couple of trips to Yellowstone that Kunu had brought her on, it had become boring. One thermal feature looked the same as the other, and the mountains and forests simply didn’t hold her interest.

  Maybe she simply saw the beauty of the wilderness through an adult’s eyes now.

  Or, maybe there’s something about these mountains that is calling to you. You just never listened before.

  That elder, Naatoyita, had said she needed to reconnect with her family. How was she supposed to do that when she’d never known who her family was? Or had she already known them through Kunu’s stories of the Sky People? He had been telling her stories about her family all along. It was still too surreal to comprehend.

  Kendra drew in a deep breath of the fresh mountain air. The late-morning temperature was still crisp and refreshing. A gentle breeze blew through her hair, cooling the nape of her neck from the sun shining high above.

  Something seemed different somehow from any other time she’d been in this vast park. Was it because she was in the past? Perhaps learning about her true identity made her view this place with new eyes. What had compelled her to follow a path to the top of this ridge in the first place? She was supposed to be heading toward Mount Holmes.

  She was still going in the right direction, but for some unexplainable reason, she’d needed to be on higher ground, to see the valley and surrounding hills from above, like the eagle. Maybe here she could find that elusive connection to her real family. Kendra shook her head and scoffed.

  Whenever someone had asked her about her family, she’d simply said she was adopted and didn’t know anything about her birth parents. It was the truth.

  If someone had called her a Native American on the streets of L.A., she’d denied her heritage. On the Rez, she was picked on for not being full-blooded. All her life, she’d lived between worlds, never fitting fully into either. Her two parts had never been whole.

  She’d forged a life for herself and created her identity away from the Rez. She had a good career as a New Yor
k detective and had chosen to forget where she’d grown up. She was happy for the first time as she was on the road to achieving her goals, but then the dreams had started again.

  From what the elder, Naatoyita, had told her, she was part of both clans of the Sky People. That’s why she’d dreamed about bears and wolves, and why she had been compelled to get her tattoo. He’d basically said she already knew she belonged to both, and didn’t have to choose one over the other.

  Oddly, that infuriating Sheepeater, Wo'itsa - the Wolf - popped into her mind. A strange sensation she tried to push out of her mind swept through her, thinking about the way he’d looked at her this morning. His eyes had held admiration rather than hatred or the intent to kill her.

  He’d built a fire to keep her warm last evening, then had gone off to find food when she’d announced she was hungry. She’d done nothing but fight with him since the moment they’d first met under the most bizarre circumstances, yet he hadn’t attempted to hurt her at all, when he could have easily killed her on multiple occasions.

  The appreciative looks he’d cast her way had sent a tingling sensation down her limbs and through her insides. Plenty of guys had looked at her with interest, but there was something so raw and intense in Wo'itsa’s eyes that it defied explanation.

  Was Wo’itsa the other survivor of the war between the clans that Naatoyita had talked about? One of the last things the elder had told her was that the snakehead would always take her where she needed to go. It had, literally, dropped her into Wo'itsa’s lap.

  She shook her head. Whatever had created the snakehead devices was a mystery, but part of her lived inside it. That’s what the elder had said. That’s how she controlled it. As bizarre as it all sounded, she couldn’t deny the truth of it. Whenever she looked into the eyes of the snake, they drew her in as if her life depended on it.

  Kendra ran her fingers through her hair. She’d lost the snakehead, and she had no clue where and when in time she was, or how to get back to her real time. She stared off into the distance. Everything seemed to blend into one big blur.

  What was her real time? Was it in the twenty-first century, or in the seventeen hundreds? Too many confusing questions were going through her mind. The first thing she had to do was figure out what year she and Wo'itsa had been transported to. If he had touched the eye of the snake, did that mean it had brought them somewhere in time where he needed to be, or where they both needed to be?

  Maybe she should have stayed with Wo'itsa this morning and not walked away. If she was going to do her part to bring Mukua to justice and destroy the time travel vessels, she needed to get Wo'itsa on her side. To do that, she had to convince him that Mukua was nothing but trouble, but how?

  Kendra gaped down one final time at the thin ribbon of water that was, no doubt, the Gibbon River, then stepped away from the edge of the canyon and headed back into the trees. If she backtracked, maybe she could catch up with Wo'itsa before night set in again.

  “You really were stupid to think you could go off on your own like this.”

  She had no weapons in case she needed to defend herself, and she certainly had no clue where to go once she got closer to Mount Holmes. Cameron’s cabin was in Hayden Valley, and that was – if she wasn’t mistaken – an impossibly long distance away.

  The stench of something rotten filled her nose, and she froze. It was a faint odor, but she’d definitely smelled it. There was something dead nearby. Ravens sat in some tree branches a short distance away. Kunu had always said that ravens were the first messengers to alert a bear or wolf to a free meal.

  So, if there were ravens and a carcass, the odds of a predator being nearby were pretty good.

  Kendra ducked further into the trees, her eyes surveying the area around her. Her heart began to pound again. If she encountered a bear, it might not end well for her.

  You’re Natukendra’eh weda. You soar like the spirit bear.

  She almost laughed out loud. “I’m not going to test the theory that I might be immune to a bear attack.”

  The scars on Cameron Osborne’s back flashed in her mind.

  She stopped dead in her tracks when her peripheral vision caught movement coming from between the trees, heading for the clearing and where she’d suspected the animal carcass might be. Kendra ducked behind a young lodgepole. Her limbs weakened as adrenaline rushed through her system. Her first instinct was to run, but her years of law enforcement training helped her now to think more rationally, yet she scarcely dared to breathe. A bear would be able to sniff her out immediately.

  As whoever or whatever moved through the forest, there was a faint snapping of twigs and the underbrush rustled. He, she, or it was heading in the direction of the mountain ridge and closer to where Kendra had smelled the sour stench of decay.

  Kendra leaned around the branches of the lodgepole to get a better look. Her eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of golden hair partly spilling over something blue. That couldn’t be an animal. Besides, animals usually didn’t make any noise at all, unless they were moving quickly. But then it would be a much louder, crashing sound.

  Seconds later, a petite person walked into an area a few feet from the trees. The most startling fact was that this was a woman, all alone, out here in the middle of nowhere. She wore sturdy hiking boots, hiking pants that looked a bit dirty and worn, a t-shirt, and a daypack.

  Kendra’s heart skipped a beat. Was she back in her own time? This woman was clearly a backpacker, or at least a seasoned hiker, not something one would encounter in the eighteenth century.

  Something about her slight figure looked oddly familiar. Kendra squinted, then blinked and shook her head as another rush of adrenaline whooshed through her system.

  Aimee Donovan?

  As the girl came closer and passed within about ten yards of Kendra’s hiding place, there was no doubt that this was the daughter of Matt Donovan. She’d seen her less than a week ago. Except, she didn’t look like the grief-stricken teenager Kendra had last encountered. Her hair was still the same golden blonde, bound in a ponytail and bouncing down her back, but her face looked more mature. She was definitely a few years older than a teenager, probably in her early twenties, which would make her only a few years younger than Kendra at this point.

  Kendra stood rooted to the spot. She wasn’t back in her own time after all. It would appear she’d overshot 2005 by several years. Good for Aimee to have moved on with her life, and embraced her independence after her parents’ deaths. She had obviously become a confident woman if she was out here hiking without any companions.

  Kendra paused for a moment. If they were in the future, where were the hiking trails, the road, and hordes of people that would undoubtedly swarm Yellowstone National Park this time of year? She’d walked for hours and hadn’t so much as heard a car in the distance, or come across any other hikers.

  Or, Aimee Donovan had somehow traveled to the past.

  Kendra shook her head in dismissal. How could that be possible? Aimee had given Kendra the box with the snakehead. She couldn’t have time traveled to the past. Besides, she’d known nothing about what that box had contained.

  What would happen if she revealed herself? Would Aimee remember her, too, and then wonder why Kendra didn’t look any older? She had to at least warn her about the nearby carcass. If Aimee kept heading in the direction she was going, she’d walk right past it. So far, there hadn’t been any signs of a predator, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t one close by.

  Kendra stepped from behind her hiding spot, then froze. Something else caught her eye. Another figure stood, watching from a safe distance.

  Mukua!

  Kendra’s eyes darted to Aimee, then back to the Sky People elder. Anger, and a sense of grave danger took hold in her. What had Cameron said? Matt’s daughter was at risk from the elder, too.

  Here was her chance to apprehend the old man and gain possession of his vessel. It didn’t appear that he had seen her. His eyes were following Aime
e. Slipping quietly behind the tree again, Kendra moved to the next shrub to try to surprise the elder from behind. If he saw her, he might simply vanish again.

  Scarcely daring to breathe, Kendra slipped from tree to tree. Her hand had gone to the back of her jeans out of habit, reaching for a weapon that wasn’t there. She didn’t need a gun to apprehend the frail old man, but it would still be nice to have it.

  Mukua stood still as he watched Aimee head into the clearing and toward the ridge that overlooked the canyon. Suddenly he began following her, but not in a direct line. He was heading toward the area of the stench.

  A branch snagged Kendra’s jacket, nearly pulling her off her feet as it entangled with the collar. She cursed under her breath, reaching for the limb to free herself without giving away her whereabouts.

  Aimee reached the clearing and froze. Her face lifted slightly, as if she was sniffing the air. She’d clearly smelled the nasty odor of something dead. Hopefully, she’d know what that meant and would turn back into the forest.

  At that moment, Mukua raised his hand, then threw something into the thicket. Seconds later, the bush rustled forcefully, and a huge bear emerged, shaking its grizzled fur. Its eyes blazed with agitation as it swung its head around in apparent confusion.

  Kendra gaped, blinking in disbelief. Had that elder just deliberately woken a bear from sleep to provoke it? Mukua was far more dangerous than any criminal she’d ever apprehended. He’d already killed three . . . no, four people, and there was no telling what he would do next.

  One thing was clear, however. Cameron Osborne had been correct when he’d said that Matt Donovan’s daughter was in danger.

  “I wouldn’t put anything past him,” Kendra mumbled.

  Mukua moved through the trees with speed that belied his old age. He looked in her direction. Their eyes met. A triumphant smile lit up his face, then he continued to an outcropping of rocks, where he came up behind someone standing and surveying the area.