All the signs had been there. Two days ago there were two stars within the circle around the moon. That indicated two days before bad weather arrived. He burned the time hunting, fishing, gathering supplies to fight, and sharpening his knives on stones. On the morning of the second day he departed the Land. By afternoon he’d reached the white man’s land to begin his war.Even as he approached he could sense the white man was on the alert. The Land screamed its warning, every smell, tree branch, sound, and birdcall indicating that alarm was in the air. At the old Indian burial ground, he discovered fresh horse tracks all over the Indian field, even at the hollowed-out oak, where he’d watched the colored girl hiding. He had tracked her there easily when she first arrived but had not bothered with her. He was actually a little frightened of her. She had helped his son, surely, but she had magic, a power that was unseen, and for that he feared her. It did not escape him that she might put forth her powerful magic against the white man, or perhaps even use it to his favor.
