Cougar of Spirit Lake. Linnette MDiv Eller

large body out beside the boy and warmed his chilled body, so dangerously cold from waters of the Lake. He never moved, protecting and keeping him warm until the men arrived from the far side of the Lake. When the men arrived, the Great Cat rose, put his nose to the forehead of the boy, looked closely at his face again, then turned and padded away into the forest leaving the men awestruck.

      This served to verify that his name had been given with meaning. Grandfather had named her son the day of his birth, Cougar of Spirit Lake. There had been those that had hidden smiles over this great name given to such a tiny baby. The smiles, replaced with awe the night he was born, when the Great Cat had walked into the village, looked into where Winter Woman and her new son were sleeping, and started a rumbling purr. After a moment, he turned, surveyed those who had stopped what they were doing to stare, then turned and walked nonchalantly away.

      On the day her son left for the white man's school the hunters saw the Cat sitting on a rock high above the Lake. As her son and her Grandfather rode away they heard the Cat scream as it paced to and fro. The chilling sounds of the screams echoing across the water and up into the mountains for what seemed like hours. The Great Cat was not seen again for many moons. On the night before her son returned from school its voice could be heard echoing across the Lake once more.

      Her husband had seen the Cat lying on a rock above the Lake the morning he went out upon it with his son. His last mistakes on this earth were ignoring what Winter Woman had told him from her dream, and ignoring the Cat known as the Spirit of the Lake. He looked up at the tawny Cat, frowning down at him, green eyes narrowed, and looking angry. The Chief dismissed this thought, disgusted at even allowing it, since everyone knew a cat could not frown or look angry.

      Winter Woman allowed her son to stay with her for several more summers after losing his father. Grandfather finally came to her and said the time was again at hand for Cougar to return and finish his education. She wept softly into her furs that night, even though she knew this was meant to be. Again, the village heard the Great Cat sending his screams across the Lake as Cougar and her Grandfather rode away.

      Cougar returned a man. Winter Woman felt cheated that she had not been able to watch this happen. She had sent away a boy of thirteen summers. A young man of seventeen summers, tall and lean had returned for a summer, and again left. Finally, a man of twenty-three summers had returned.

      The village had awakened earlier than usual the day of her son's return. His return was not expected. They were all ill at ease when the Great Cat could be heard echoing across the Lake. They wondered why the Cat was behaving in such a manner. It was not for them to wonder long because shortly before the sun reached mid sky Cougar of Spirit Lake rode silently into the village and strode to his Mother and smiled down into her eyes.

      Coming back to the present Winter Woman absently stirred the fire. Cougar had returned over five summers ago now. He was the Chief of the village on the shores of Spirit Lake. She worried for her son. She could see the loneliness in his eyes, and yet he had not taken a wife. Winter woman knew the answer to this. The answer was in her dreams; she just did not want to believe it, even though she knew the dreams would be what was to be. As it is to be, it will be. She knew this.

      There had been the first dream about this nearly nineteen summers ago. It was not a bad dream. She did not understand it, and spoke with her Grandfather, but he had told her this was not for him to explain. This dream's meaning would be shown to her in time. Still, she mulled it over in her mind over and over because this dream stayed with her, all these years, and it was still as clear as the first time she had dreamed it. It came into her mind again this night as she sat before the fire.

      She had dreamed of a white woman with hair like corn silk, and the gentlest blue eyes that Winter Woman had ever seen. She sensed her to be a very kind and gentle woman. She was giving birth to a tiny baby girl. The birth brought much joy to the new parents. Suddenly, in the dream, the Great Cat appeared sitting at the foot of the bed. Then the white woman kept softly saying to the child a word Winter Woman was not familiar with, although at Grandfather's insistence, she was very fluent in English. She had to ask him of this word, and this, he did explain. It was a name. It was a girl's name and the name was Jessica.

      Tonight, her dream had again been of this beautiful woman. Winter Woman had felt the woman's Spirit step over into the Spirit World. The husband of the woman was so overwhelmed with grief that when she saw his eyes she knew he was no longer with this world. She knew the white man's mind had gone from him when his wife had slipped into the Spirit World. Winter Woman felt much concern for the innocent ones she could sense needed this man. They were his children, and they too were grieving deeply over the loss of their beloved Mother.

      Suddenly, the sound of the Great Cat echoed through her dream, and she saw him sitting on the ground looking up into a window of a house, of the type white men lived in. The Great Cat also seemed disturbed and was flicking his great tail about and staring at the window. She looked in her dream at the window and saw what she thought to be a kitten, thinking it to be an off spring of the Cat she looked closer. It was not a kitten, no; it was a girl, nearly a woman. She had the most unusual hair, flowing about her to her waist in glistening beauty, streaked with a color close to that of the Cat's. The girls’ eyes shared their luminous green color with the Great Cat.

      Winter Woman was bewildered, and wondered what was wrong. Why did she keep confusing the girl with the Cat? She could see huge tears falling from those eyes, staining the delicate cheeks of this girl. Her grief and mourning were so great it nearly overwhelmed Winter Woman even through the dream. It was heart rending to hear her small mewling sounds, like a kitten, but these were the sounds of muffled crying, of trying to keep silent in her grief.

      The Great Cat could also hear the sounds, and he was making sounds of his own. They were horrible sounds, echoing through the valley in sympathy to the muffled grief of the girl. Winter Woman became confused yet again when she saw her son. She looked from the Cat to the girl to her son and could not understand how it could be that they all had the same eyes.

      She knew that the girl and her son and even the Great Cat were somehow bound together. Even after the dream was over, the sound of the anguished cries of the Great Cat echoed across the strange valley where the girl lived. She knew without knowing that this valley was far, very far indeed from this village on the shores of Spirit Lake.

      Perhaps mused, Winter Woman staring into the fire, the dreams to come to her from this night forward she would await with eagerness. She wanted to unravel the mystery of these dreams. Her one great comfort was that when she had looked into the eyes of her son while he had looked up at the girl his eyes no longer held any loneliness. Oh, if only her Grandfather were here, perhaps he could be persuaded to help her with this dream.

      At last, as the first rays of the new day came upon the village, Winter Woman slept. It was a peaceful sleep and without dreams, a soft smile gracing her beautiful face as she slumbered.

      CHAPTER THREE

      It had been six months, since they had lost Mama. Jessica felt as though it had been a lifetime instead.

      She remembered thinking at the time that at least they still had Papa. How wrong she had been in that! She didn't even know who Papa was anymore, in fact, she did not think Papa knew who he was anymore and far worse. He did not care. His grief was a horrible thing to behold, and he had not improved at all in these past months, if anything she thought, he was worse.

      She had taken over the running of the farm. The bitter cold morning that dawned the day of Mama's death took their crops from them. It had been an unseasonably early fall and the crops had frozen like shafts of ice in the field for three days. The gravediggers had even complained of the frozen ground. Jessica shivered as she remembered. Yes, one thing after another she thought. Will this never pass she wondered?

      She had repeatedly asked Papa for the accounts so that she could deal with each of them and have a good understanding of where they stood and what needed to be done. That had proven to be a waste of time. Papa would not even speak with her about the farm. Even after all of these months of trying to communicate with him, she still had no idea, and she held bitter feelings over that. If she had one more man tell her 'not to worry her pretty