With her arms crossed tightly across her chest, Ualaxy shivered in a sudden rush of goose bumps. Her hair tingling, she said. "Something is coming this way."
"What is it you are feeling? You look as if..." The Loup Garou looking at the girl with is head tilted, twitched his nose, his big ears rotated as if listening intensely.
Whoosh... thump! Something had just slammed into the small cabins door. A quivering twanging sound, a vibration sending the Loup Garou to jump from his chair and rush to the door."
"Ohooo!" he said, and looked over his shoulder to see Ualaxy's reaction.
Ualaxy rocked back-and-forth slowly with her eyes closed.
"You are more important than I realised." said the shaking wolf.
Outside the cabin the singing of many wolfs filled the air.
"Okey dokey. We both must be brave hearted. Are you afraid?" he ask?
Ualaxy nodded her head answering yes.
"Are you brave enough to continue?"
Ualaxy nodded her head yes."
"Brave girl, I will call you, 'Brave Girl of My People." The wolfs eyes glowed in the lamp light and many tears filled his eyes. He smiled, looking at the girl with new respect.
"Are you just going to stand looking like a woozie, or are you going to open the door?"
The Loup Garou wolf took a deep breath, his nose sniffing the door up-and-down, and from side-to-side. Ualaxy heard him whisper something under his breath as he opened the door.
"Ahwooo!" he said. "It is a message sent from the high desert clan of the Washoe-Washeshu. Ahhh, from the lake of Ku-ya-pa. On your travels to this cabin, did you once stop by a strange lake?"
Ualaxy nodded her head yes.
"Umm. It seems you have a message from the Mothers of the Lake." With a shaking paw, the wolf carefully removed a strange arrow from the cabin's door. "Big medicine, this message." and walked to the small round table. He slowly placed the arrow on the table. His large tale twitched in excitement.
"Message? I see no message." said Ualaxy looking at the arrow on the table. "It just looks like an arrow to me. Where is the message?"
"I can see my job of teaching you is not going to be as easy as I first thought."
"Easy! You want easy?"
"All right now listen to me. We must read the arrow together." said the wolf, his voice now calm with a hint of kindness that only wolves possess. "There is a plant that grows in the southwest region of the western desert. The people of the Blackpool Kapern have destroyed much of the land where it grows wild." The Loup Garou's eyes searched the cabin as he stood close to the young girl. "Did you find a leather pouch here in the cabin?"
"Yes." said the girl.
"Please, will you bring it to me?"
Ualaxy stood up and walked into the small cabins other room where she slept. Under her bed of many skins, she reached for a small leather bag she had found along with the lamp and book. The bag was covered with many small beautiful glass beads that had been sewn into the leather. She returned to the living room and placed the pouch on the table in front of the wolf.
"Thank you." said the wolf. "Hump... big medicine, Please sit down and we will began."
Ualaxy gracefully sat down. Her hand slightly shaking.
"Little Brave Girl, you show big courage. The clans of my people have made a good choice in giving you such gifts. " And again the wolves eyes filled with tears.
"Ya ya, so now what do we do now?"
"We prepare ourselves to read the message of the arrow."
Sitting on a small table next to the cabin's window was a shell from Queen's Bay of the great sea to the west of Blue Bird River.
"Please, hand me that sea shell."
Ualaxy reached from her chair to the small table and handed the sea shell to the the Loup Garou. Carefully opening the leather pouch, he removed several dried leaves from the desert plant, and placed them in the sea shell.
"How did you know what was in the pouch?" ask the young girl.
"We call it intuition in your language, it too is a gift from the spirit world." said the wolf with a big smile showing his many white teeth. From the wood stove he removed glowing ember and placed in in the shell from the great mother sea. Ribbons of white smoke curled up from the shell as he placed it on the table. "Now only truth will be spoken between us. The Witches of Wüstland, the People of Washoe-Washeshu, and many clans will hear our words. We must choose our words wisely."
"I'm afraid." said Ualaxy. The air in the cabin now smelled clean with the odor of the white smoke that curled around them.
The wolf smiled. "Apparently you have been adopted by many clans because of your bravery. The Queen of Little Thunder Sea has tested you and knows your spirit guides to be very brave and yet full of fun. She will help you over come your fear. Excitement and fearful emotions feel very similar. Relax and have faith you are protected. Now, shall we read the messages of the arrow?"
Several days ago I was outside practicing my swing by whacking pine cones with me nine iron. Looking down the meadow valley I could see smoke bellowing up over the mountains. My first thought was, "I need a rake, this nine iron ain't doing a proper job of cleaning up the yard."
before and had planed to go exploring up there for information on a story I'm working on. The next morning Sarah was whining to go for a drive (she loves to go exploring) so I grabbed the camera and we drove into town for supplies: coffee, half and half, brown sugar, tobacco, dog biscuits, and of course any news on the fire. We stopped by my friends Peter and Joann's for a short visit and I mentioned the fact that I didn't have a rake. While in the kitchen having coffee with Joann, Peter, dear man that he is, promptly found an old rake head and wielded a long length of pipe to it for a handle. He even sprayed painted it red! Dang! Am I blessed or what? 
