Cougar of Spirit Lake. Linnette MDiv Eller

himself, she was his in every way possible. Grandfather had not only been accepted among her people but had lived much of his life with them, and his beloved Singing Water. Even now the young ones spoke of them as legend. Their love and honor for one another known to many and admired by all. Grandfather had left for the Spirit World but two summers past. He had lived ninety-six summers he told her that spring. He was anxious to be with his Singing Water, who had passed into the Spirit World six summers before. The twinkle had been taken from his eyes when she had died. Theirs had been a long and happy life together, and both had lived to be very old. The love they had for each other had never left their eyes, regardless of the years they had spent together.

      Legend.

      Yes, thought Winter Woman, their love was legend, but only part of the legend. Her Grandfather had dreams too. His dreams, as hers, seemed to fly over time and look into the time that was beyond them. The wise leaders of her people had listened to Grandfather's dreams, and held them in great reverence. Not only did he have dreams, but other gifts as well. He sensed things as he called it. He had been known to tell the hunters exactly where to go that day to find the mighty buffalo, moose, or elk. His sense never failed. The hunters never questioned him and would going directly to the place he had described and find exactly what they had been told would be there. The mighty Chief did not question him either. When he went to him and told him the village had to be moved immediately because of a great sickness coming to it, the Chief had acted. That same day, they had left the village. Later, they were told that white trappers had come to the deserted village that day, and all but one had died there of the great sickness.

      Grandfather in his later years had told Winter Woman how he had grieved when his only daughter told him she was to have a child. His dreams had shown him his beloved daughter being taken into the Spirit World during the birth of this child, Winter Woman. Although he adored his beautiful granddaughter, he had named Winter Woman, he and Singing Water mourned the loss of their only child, born late in life for them. They carried that grief in their heart for all their years.

      They had transferred all their love to their little granddaughter. Winter Woman realized she had probably not missed having her own mother nearly as much due to the love and care lavished on her by her Grandparents. She had grown into a beauty herself, although she was never really aware of her beauty, even now she was stunning. She had known many summers, and this would be her forty-seventh summer. She looked closer to thirty, however. Her life had brought her much happiness, and her gifts of dreams brought her people many rewards.

      There had also been times that this was not so. Times when she almost wished she did not have the dreams, because she did not want to see what these dreams beheld. The sense was hers, as it had also been her Grandfather's.

      She recalled the day only twelve summers old that she had asked him why he had given her the name Winter Woman. His green eyes looked at her very solemnly for many moments. Then he told her that her dreams would always come as the cold wind of winter came. She had known for a very long time now that this was true. Even in the warmth of summer an unexpectedly cold breeze would chill her body momentarily and then be gone. That same night she would have a dream. It had always been so. The winter wind came, and the dream followed.

      She had learned much from her gentle Grandfather about her dreams. In her youth, she had trouble understanding them, and he would always take the time to sit with her and talk of the dreams and explain them. She detested not having him with her now. She missed him so very dearly.

      When the time came and Grandfather made his journey into the Spirit World, he was still a figure to behold. His tall body never became stooped or bent. He always stood proud, which made his six foot six height seem even greater. He had broad shoulders and was a man of legendary strength and endurance. Grandfather had once told her that his own father had been a huge man of Nordic heritage. His mother was a petite, green-eyed beauty from highlands known as Scotland. Winter Woman's own son seemed to have inherited his size from her Grandfather.

      Yes, she mused, his size as well as those green eyes. Although her husband was a large man himself, Winter Woman was quite small, in fact her Grandfather had told her she was petite, a word used in faraway lands he had said. Her son, however, was the physical replica of Grandfather. Oh yes, her son caused many blushes and whispers as he walked through the village, his looks and size were much talked of among the maidens. Winter Woman knew it was not only maternal pride that made her know her son was an incredibly handsome man. Yet still he had no woman in his life.

      Thinking of her Grandfather and husband brought other memories back to her as well. She had loved her husband. A great Chief, and yet a kind and gentle husband.

      Only once had he yelled at her and only once did he strike her. She had seen this coming in a dream before it happened too. That dream she had scoffed at. That dream she had told no one except Grandfather. He had shaken his head and looked at her sadly when she tried to convince him as well as herself, that this had not been one of her special dreams. This dream did not count; it could not be true she kept telling him.

      Grandfather had told her the dreams did not always show what we wanted to see, but they were true no matter how hard we might try to dispel them from our minds. At the time, she could not even imagine her husband being with so much anger that he would ever strike her. This was not his nature. Sadly, in the end the dream had proven to be true as her Grandfather had said it would.

      When her young son was only nine summers old, Grandfather told her he must be sent away to learn the ways of the white man. She had not agreed with him, and they had one of the few arguments then that ever made a shadow across their lives. Grandfather knew the boy would go to the white man's schools though, and he finally admitted having seen many things about this in a dream. It was necessary that the boy be taught both cultures, he said, because he would walk his life among both worlds and another world of gifts that they both knew.

      When she had told her husband this, he had railed against her. He was a Chief. His son would become a Chief after him. There would be no white man's school for his son. The argument between them had continued for three more days, until he actually had been angered enough to strike her in his rage. In the end, their son had gone to the white man's school, but things were never to be the same between her husband and herself again.

      Two summers later, her son returned to spend the summer in the village with his people. She could still remember her excitement to have him back with her again! She had sorely missed him. The moment of his return she had felt the cold wind, and had shivered, knowing she did not want this dream to come unto her that night. As the dreams are not brought forth by the desires of the dreamer, neither can they be wished away. That night her dream came, but had she known the term nightmare, she would have called it that rather than dream.

      Shaken and frightened by her dream, she had awakened her husband and told him of it. Since the time their son had left the village, two summers before her husband had treated her dreams, and those of her Grandfather with scorn, and something akin to hatred. So it was on that night. He scoffed, then became angry and rolled on his side, placing his back to her. She did not sleep that night, weeping silently until the morning dawned.

      Three days later, as the dream had been so it was.

      Her husband took their son to Spirit Lake. A great storm rolled over the mountains and lightning flashed across the Lake. The Chief had taken his son out upon the great Lake to speak to him of the many things he should have been teaching him during his absence from the village. The Chief became enraged when he saw the storm coming across the mountains, as Winter Woman had told him it would from her dream. He became so determined to break the truth of the dreams of Winter Woman, that he made a fatal error of judgment. One that before his son had been sent away, also because of the dreams, he would not have made. The great storm took her husband's life that day. As she sat in the village, she sensed the moment it happened and began weeping softly and quietly to herself.

      True to her dream, her son met with his namesake that day. The huge tawny Cat with the all-knowing green eyes, had pulled him from the frigid waters by his buckskin shirt, and saved his life. The men from the village had raced to the boy after seeing across the lake, the Great Cat actually jump into the waters, something they had never seen before. The Great Cat had stretched