Page 76 of The Spirit of the Wolf

“Very well.” She followed him up and trod across their camp. He led her to a log that had fallen across the stream, perhaps in ages past. At least it seemed it must have been ancient, because in spots the log was hollowed.

Without warning, Grey Coyote squatted, poked his hand into its trunk, and pulling back, he came away with something…alive. A tiny, little masked creature.

Marietta gasped. “Oh, my! It’s a baby raccoon. Oh… It’s adorable.” She reached out to touch it. “It’s sweet, isn’t it? But where’s its mother?”

“She is nearby, perhaps gathering food or maybe watching us. Her tracks are here.” He pointed toward them. “And they are fresh. But the baby does not yet know fear, and she has a few brothers and sisters in this hole with her.”

“Oh… Can I pet her?”

Grey Coyote gave her a smile and nodded. “It is why I thought I would show her to you. But we cannot keep her. You know this.”

“Of course I do. But I have never seen a baby raccoon.” She returned his grin. “How can you tell it is a girl? I mean, she’s so small.”

“In the age-old way.” He pulled up its tail. “She may be small, but it is not impossible to distinguish male from female.”

“I see.” She bestowed a good-natured smile upon Grey Coyote.

He laughed with her, but it was more than the gesture of a simple smile. Somehow, in some way, this moment between them was special. It was as though they were sharing an instant unlike any other. Love and affection flowed like a current between them. And all because of a baby raccoon.

She should tell him. After all, he had confessed his love for her. She should at least admit she had…feelings for him. She took a breath, glanced up at him, opened her mouth…but whatever she had meant to say died on her lips.

Behind him, standing at the peak of the coulee, were two coyotes. Seeming neither friendly nor fearful, they appeared rather misty, as though they stood in shadow.

“Mr. Coyote, look there.” Marietta indicated the spot with her head.

Grey Coyote turned, nodded slowly, then gazed at her in a curious fashion. Though he said, “You see them,” his look at her was puzzled.

“Of course I see them.”

Unexpectedly, the coyotes began to howl, yipping, with one answering the other, but gradually, although she was never certain when it happened, their barking turned into talk…human talk…English…

Was she losing her mind?

“The one you seek is near,” said the male coyote, the larger of the two. “Your chance approaches.”

“Neither small nor large, nor wide, nor narrow, the white man possesses a thing that will propel you toward freedom. Though he will think it is possessed by him and though you must possess it, and it will possess you, only when you are free from it, yet act as it, will your people be released from the mist.

“You alone must solve this, you alone must act on it, and if you do, your people go free. Fail to settle the riddle satisfactorily, fail to act, and your people remain enslaved. Further, if you err and do not resolve this, you will live the rest of your life forever knowing that you did not prove yourself worthy.”

But there was more.

The smaller coyote, who must have been female, yipped, then spoke. “Woman, do not be deceived. You are now, and have always been, a part of this.”

Then in unison, they said, “We have spoken.”

Slowly, the images disappeared, as though they had been no more than a mirage. For a long moment, Marietta could neither speak nor look away from the spot where they had been.

When she shifted her weight and sat forward, the spell dissipated. She shook her head. “That was…bizarre.”

“Indeed,” Grey Coyote responded.

Marietta blinked several times. “I…I could have sworn…no, it couldn’t have been.”

Grey Coyote was looking at her strangely. “Couldn’t have been?”

“Oh, it was nothing. I just… I thought… Did their howling seem peculiar to you?”

“What do you mean, peculiar?”