CONGRATULATIONS

past her in a chestnut blur and was gone, disappearing through the trees toward the mouth of the ravine. Gazing a er her, Naya shook her head, as if to clear her senses. Water still owed in the creek and a breeze still rustled among the leaves. The moon still cast its dim glow – but the moment of utter clarity had vanished, just as suddenly as the young horse. Shaking herself again, as if awakening from a dream, Naya retraced her steps to the mouth of the ravine. There was no sign of the red lly…

By the time she was ready to give up trying to nd her way back to the featureless rise where she’d le her things, dawn still showed no sign of illuminating the eastern sky. Naya stopped at the top of a small hill. Better to wait until daylight and get her bearings. Besides, her hide boots were soaked from wading in the stream and needed time to dry. Her feet felt icy as she stripped the boots o and laid them beside her. Making a nest for herself in the tall grass and saying a brief prayer to her guardian spirits for protection, Naya curled herself into a ball and fell into an exhausted sleep. Much later, she awoke to the sounds of strong teeth rhythmically cropping the grass on the hillside just below her resting place. With a start, she opened her eyes and sat up. In that instant, the small band of horses took ight, streaming down the slope and up the next shallow incline, where they wheeled abruptly and came to a halt, eyes intent on the creature who had materialized so unexpectedly out of the grass. Next to one of the dun-colored mares stood the red lly. Without thinking, Naya rose to her feet, sending the small herd eeing once again. Within moments, they had been swallowed by the vastness of the steppe. A surge of wild excitement was immediately replaced with bitter disappointment, followed by concern as Naya remembered her predicament. Where were her things? Only then did she take stock of her surroundings. There, partially concealed by the grass at her feet, lay her deerskin bag and her rawhide rope. Somehow, miraculously, she’d found her way in the dark back to where she’d started… or had she?

Maybe she’d never le her watching post on the rise and all the rest was a dream, or some kind of vision.. Absently, still preoccupied by what may or may not have happened the night before, she reached to put on her boots which lay on the grass beside her, drying in the morning sun.