Cougar of Spirit Lake

By Linnette Eller and Barb Druesedow

Appearing at the foot of the bed where the beautiful woman is giving birth to a daughter, the huge cougar sits quietly because he knows all that is to be and sees all that is. Yet this is only the beginning of the long trek for the mystical giant cat and the girl as she grows into womanhood.

You will be taken on a journey through love, the supernatural, mystery, intrigue and murder. Traveling from the Ohio River Valley in the 1800's to the majestic Rocky Mountains and Spirit Lake, the mysterious lake where Winter Woman waits patiently. Winter Woman who is Legend, as is her son, the handsome, sensuous Chief, both knowing without knowing and sharing the mystic power of the Cougar of Spirit Lake.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781456606015

Book preview

you!

CHAPTER ONE

The huge green eyes missed nothing as the mountain lion sat very still. Watching. Silently watching…....

The girl was watching the cat. Whatever he was looking at so intently was beyond her range of vision. Little did she realize the resemblance between them. Yet anyone looking at the two would have seen it immediately. The sleek animal with its golden fur revealing platinum highlights and the beautiful young woman with the strawberry blonde locks made unusually striking by the shimmering white-gold streaks running throughout. Her eyes were a rare tawny green in color, nearly identical to that of the beautiful beast.

Beauty observing, beauty. The girl unaware of the link between herself and the magnificent animal, but the cat knowing…all knowing.

The cat waited ever so patiently. The girl suspended in the mist-filled space between sleep and waking, drifting in a dream, a dream of the cat. In her dream, the animal looking intently at a place she could not see, could not comprehend. He was looking at a time beyond the present, a place whose time had not yet come, but it would, and he would wait patiently. He had waited patiently for years, and he knew that what was to come was soon to be.

Innocently, the girl slumbered in the world of dreams unaware of what the all-knowing cat was watching. Indeed, it was the girl herself, he was watching, but in a different time and a different place. Watching...waiting...and knowing.

Slowly, the girl came fully awake, trying in vain to hold on to the dream. Trying to keep the dream with her this time. She remained motionless in her bed willing the dream to remain, willing herself to remember all that the dream contained. These elusive dreams that were intangible and even mysterious. These dreams of the cat, always of a cat, yet somehow she knew that it was not just any cat, but always the very same cat in all of these dreams.

Jessica had told her parents of the dreams long ago. Her mother had explained that she too, had seen a giant cat, a mountain lion. It was on the morning of Jessica's birth she had seen just such a cat. It was all very strange, but considering the long and difficult labor, Lilly Ferrall had endured bringing her first-born into the world it was probably just a figment of her imagination caused by the sheer exhaustion. At any rate, this is what she had told Jessica. Lilly herself had always said she ‘wondered’, but deep down, she was absolutely convinced she had seen the cat in the room as plainly as she had seen the bed, chair, or lamp. He was sitting patiently, utterly still. Only when Lilly had taken Jessica into her arms for the very first time did she see the cat move. She had looked directly at the cat, deep into those green-gold eyes, and she could swear he smiled at her.

All very ridiculous of course, after all cats did not smile.

She was never, in all the years since that day, able to convince herself that she imagined the entire thing. As Jessica had grown, Lilly had time and again noticed the striking similarity of Jessica's eyes to those of the cat. Not just any cat, not like any drawings she had ever seen of a mountain lion. No.

That cat.

The dreams of the cat had started for Jessica when she was only a toddler. Lilly knew then that in some way there was a link between her daughter and that giant feline. She had discussed it on more than one occasion with her husband, John.

John Ferrall admired his wife greatly and set great store by her ideas and quick mind. Both were well educated having come from wealthy families who believed in educating their children. When Lilly told him about seeing the cat in the bedroom on the morning of Jessica's birth, John did not discount it. As time passed, they talked of it more often because of the dreams their small daughter began having. Still, they couldn't answer what it could mean or why it should have happened. John had told Lilly that many strange things happened in this world for which there were no explanations and this certainly was one of those instances.

They felt it odd that even when she was small Jessica had no fear of the dreams. When she was older, she had tried to describe the feelings that the dreams left with her upon waking. The only word she could find to fit the feelings was protected. The cat made her feel as though he were her protector. It sounded odd even to her when she said it, but the feeling of being safe and protected always lingered with her after waking from one of her dreams.

Although Lilly and John could not understand why there would be a connection between their daughter and the cat, they were relieved that the dreams were not nightmares for her. They had remarked more than once to each other how she reminded them of a golden kitten. Her unique green eyes, so large and ever so slightly slanting at the edges, the masses of tawny golden hair falling in shimmering curls to her waist. Now that she was nearly a grown woman she even walked with the lithe grace of the golden feline. The resemblance came through even in the pet name that had come to them almost automatically. The name they had called her since she was just a baby, and still did call her... Little Cat.

Jessica at the moment did indeed resemble her namesake as she stretched and arched her back luxuriating in the soft warmth of her feather bed. At last fully awake with the last remnants of the dream still echoing softly through her mind.

It was the cat again, always the same cat. Jessica could not have told you how she knew it was the very same cat, and you could never convince her it was not. She knew. She knew without question and without doubt, it was always the very same cat.

How strange it was to dream of this huge cat when in reality she had never seen a mountain lion. When she had wondered if the animal from her dreams was what a mountain lion actually looked like her mother had given her a book she had ordered for her. Jessica had felt a certain breathless anticipation as she opened the book. There, staring out from the page at her was a cat exactly like the one that had always walked silently through her dreams. She thought it so strange that she had been able to visualize so exactly in her dreams an animal she had never seen before in her waking hours. Yet there was no disputing that the drawing on the page was the exact likeness of the dream cat.

It was cold. A suddenly, bitter cold morning. Her green eyes fluttered open to see the frost on the window. She snuggled deeper into the warmth of the feather bed, dreading the thought of leaving its comfort. Below her in the kitchen, she could hear the sounds of Mama starting breakfast. Reluctantly, she left her bed to dress hurriedly and go down to help in the preparation of the morning meal. She shivered as she looked at the window. It was so cold and yet only yesterday it had been such a warm and beautiful fall day.

Jessica would come to wonder many times in the coming months, if the dream of the cat and the morning dawning so cold was an omen of the coming events of the day. It was to be a day that put into motion events that would change her life.

Change it beyond her wildest dreams.

Last fall everything had been so different. She had just passed her eighteenth birthday. Last fall Mama had not known that she was going to have this baby, her fourth child. The two of them had been so close, spending many afternoons together sewing, crocheting and knitting. All the items of their labor going into the beautiful hope chest that Papa had made for her birthday, and that was even now sitting at the foot of her bed. Mama had helped her design patterns for her linens, and they had spent many enjoyable hours. Heads bent over their labor while they talked about so many things, and shared giggles and peals of laughter. It had been a special time for them both.

Now Mama was large with the last weeks of her pregnancy. Jessica was worried, and she knew that Papa was as well. Mama looked so pale and seemed to be tired all the time. Yet, when they would voice their concerns to her, she would just laugh them away. She kept telling them that the last months of pregnancy were always tiring. She had seen Jessica and John exchanging doubtful looks at this explanation but would hear no more of their worries and dismissed them with a smile and change of subject. Jessica had taken over the running of the house as much as Mama would allow.

Mama and Papa believed in educating their children well and had taken painstaking care in tutoring them. Jessica had now taken over that duty as well. Each day she spent several hours with her brothers going over their lessons as diligently as Lilly or John would have done. Jessica was a very intelligent young woman and far more educated than most young women in their area. She was also the only one of her age still unmarried. Mama and Papa did not hold with young marriages or early courtships.

She had attended many socials with her parents and greatly enjoyed them. She was now allowed a male escort, since she was eighteen, but she still had not accepted any of the young men who had asked her. She did not in the least mind these strict rules. She was always busy it seemed. Jessica had learned a fair amount of nursing skills from helping a neighbor who was a midwife and makeshift nurse, and she attended to injury and illness for their neighbors on the surrounding farms.

Jessica, like all the Ferrall’s was an avid reader, and she loved going to Papa’s office and just going through the books on the shelves. She could still remember Papa making those shelves himself with so much care and thought. Many a lively debate or conversation had taken place around the dinner table over one book or another that had been read recently. Theirs was a happy and very close-knit family, and Jessica had no real desire to rush into a marriage or even courtship.

Papa had long ago built a small room onto the house with windows on three sides for her and Mama to use for their sewing, painting and drawing. Even with all the work of running the sizable farm they always seemed to make time to indulge their considerable talents on canvas. Every room of the house had at least one of their pieces of artwork hanging in beautiful hand crafted frames that Papa would make for them. Jessica felt that they were a very fortunate family in all respects. To be so loved and nurtured and to enjoy the education and arts that had been given to them by their parents.

If there was any unhappy facet to her life, it was the lack of companionship with girls of her own age. Jessica had never been able to fit in with the giggling, flirting girls of her acquaintance. They seemed solely interested in finding a young man, marrying and having children. Jessica wanted these things too, only not pressingly. She had only recently become interested in one of the young men in the neighborhood. He was a very eligible bachelor and sought after by many young girls, but seemingly, his one and only interest was Jessica Ferrall.

With a sigh, Jessica finished the struggle of tying her masses of hair neatly away from her face. So much hair she thought, yet Papa called it her crowning glory. Yes, but Papa did not have to go to so much trouble each day just to keep the shining curls neatly in place and out of his face. She had always wished for beautiful pale golden blonde hair like Mama's rather than this odd color she had. Mama had such silky hair, so fine in texture while Jessica had such thick quantities of hair spilling down her back in unruly curls. She hurriedly finished with her toiletries and went directly to the kitchen. Mama was putting biscuits in the oven, and Jessica frowned as she noted how pale she looked this morning.

Mama, would you please sit down! I can do all of this, please, sit down and let me do this for you.

Oh, Jessica! Please stop fussing about me, I am perfectly alright as I keep telling you and your father. You would think I was the only woman in the world to ever have a child. Glancing up and seeing the doubt on her daughter's face Lilly smiled and said more gently, Really, Little Cat, I am fine, just fine. Now come on and let's get this table set for breakfast.

Papa would you tell her to sit down, maybe she will listen to you. Jessica said as John walked into the kitchen.

Lilly, why don't you take it easy? After all Jess can run this house on her own, and you know it, so there is no reason to keep tiring yourself out like this. You do look a little peaked this morning. whether or not you will admit it.

Why just listen to the two of you! This is my fourth baby not my first! I think I should know better than you two if I am fine or not. Now, do please stop going on about it!

Lilly you know that this pregnancy has been different, in fact, different from the very beginning, and different, from any of the others. John replied, casting a worried look at his wife. Why wouldn't she listen to them and just take it easy? He was genuinely worried about how this entire pregnancy had been going. It was just too different from the others and she looked so pale and drawn, downright thin, even if she wouldn't admit it.

Oh, you two are going to drive me to distraction! Besides, there are things to be done. Have you forgotten that Thomas is bringing his folks for dinner this evening?

Of course we haven't forgotten Mama, not for one minute, but I can do all that needs to be done! If there is anything you particularly want done all you need do is tell me.

Hearing the pleading in her daughter's voice Lilly stopped for a moment and gently laid a hand against her soft cheek, and looked lovingly into her green eyes.

Now listen, I want to do this myself. Furthermore, I am going to do it myself. I am certain that Thomas has a betrothal announcement in mind and tonight is going to be the night!

Mama! Thomas has not mentioned, even so, much as a word of such thing to me! Besides, if I remember correctly it was not so long ago that you cautioned me about Thomas, remember? You said there was something about him that you couldn't put a name to, but that just did not sit right with you.

Well, it was probably just an over active imagination on my part. The way the two of you blame everything else on my condition why not just put it down to that too? She flipped a mischievous glance at her husband, who sat shaking his head in defeat, but with a tender smile on his face.

I thought since I haven't been very encouraging about Thomas to you that the least I could do is make this night special for you since he is apparently the one you have decided on. I really mean that. I know what I said about a bad feeling about Thomas, and, truthfully, I still cannot shake it. I just don't want to spoil your happiness Jessica. Besides he seems to be held in very high esteem by this community, and everyone seems to like him, so it must just be me.

Oh, Mama! You don't even know if Thomas is going to propose, and you haven't asked me if I would accept him if he did! Jessica replied, unable to prevent the blush that tinted her delicate cheeks.

Oh yes we do know he is going to propose! Jessica whirled to face her father as he interjected this bit of news.

Yes, yes indeed we do. He replied seeing the surprise on her face. As a matter of fact, he asked me for permission last Sunday afternoon after church. I told him that I wouldn't stand in your way but it was totally up to you as to whether or not you accepted his proposal.

Papa! Do you mean to tell me that he asked you three days ago, and you haven't said one word to me until now?

Now, Jess don't get so riled up about it. If you don't want to marry the boy all you have to do is say so.

Papa maybe even I do not know what I am going to say! Why ever wouldn't I want to marry him?

Just take your time, that's all I say. I don't have anything against the boy, one way or the other. I'm just not any hurry to lose my only daughter.

I do promise I will take my time, and I am in no rush to get married.

Good girl. Now where are the boys? We have work to get done and the hands have already started.

No sooner had he said this than the two in question stumbled sleepily into the kitchen and took their places at the table.

Good morning sleepy heads. Lilly greeted her sons Tommy and Jacob. Tommy looked a great deal like her with his pale blonde hair and blue eyes. He had just turned a gangly seventeen. Jacob was nearer to his father in looks and was the baby of the family. He was nine years old and growing like a weed. The boys answered in unison as they took their chairs.

Morning, Mama.

Didn't, think you boys would ever get up this morning. Why the hands have been working for hours I think.

Sorry Papa. I was up late watching the men bring in the corn from the south parcel. We'll be working the middle parcel today I take it? Tommy queried, diving hungrily into his breakfast.

Sure will, now eat up, and let us be getting on with the day.

After breakfast, Jessica began clearing the table and getting the dishes washed and put away. When she opened the back door to shake the crumbs from the tablecloth, a chill wind struck her face, and she shivered as though a cold hand had struck her. She quickly closed the door and began putting away the last of the dishes. Lilly came back into the kitchen and sat down at the table. Jessica turned to speak to her when suddenly Lilly bent over and moaned. Jessica dropped the dish in her hand and rushed to her mother, kneeling down beside her, noting how pasty white she looked. She cried, Mama, what is wrong? It isn't time for you to go into labor yet, what is it?As she questioned her mother Jessica looked down, saw the crimson stain spreading across the floor beneath the chair, and was on her feet and out the door screaming for Papa before she even realized that she had moved.

She rushed back to her Mama's side and pleaded with her, Mama, please. Tell me what is wrong. Oh Please, please tell me how to help you Mama. You know I have only helped deliver two babies.

Seeing that Lilly was unable to answer her questions, Jessica got her out of the chair and gently laid her on the floor. Saying a silent prayer over and over in her mind she ran for a comforter and pillow. She was still praying and hoping that she could help her mother through whatever was to come when she heard her father's footstep on the porch. John entered the kitchen, took one look at his wife and carefully lifted her into his arms and carried her across the sitting room into the bedroom. When he gently lowered her to the bed he turned, his face white and grim, and yelled for his eldest son to ride to the Bidwell farm and see if Doc Hansen was there and if not to find him wherever he was. Tommy hesitated at the bedroom doorway his eyes wide with fear as he looked at his Mama lying so pale and still on the bed. John exploded, bellowing like never before, ride boy! Now! Ride like you have never ridden before and get that doctor here!

Tommy raced from the house, and was quickly on a horse and flying out of the yard. He rode like he had devils chasing him, his face pale and fear showing wild in his eyes. His chest was heaving and tears rolling down his face as he prayed aloud, oh please God, not my Mama! You gotta make her alright. Please God, don't let my Mama die. He prayed over and over, too frightened to realize what he was saying, or that he was screaming it aloud as he rode.

John felt utterly helpless as he looked down at his wife. He felt as though a great weight was crushing down on him, crushing his world, because Lilly was his world. She had been his world for over twenty wonderful years now.

Frozen with fear, Jessica stood in the doorway watching the scene, as though she were removed from it. She jumped as if a shot had sounded when her Papa yelled at her. Help me Jessica, help me, we have to do something for her! You, you’ve helped deliver more than one baby around here. Now, help me, I don't know how to help her, what I need to do!

The agony in his voice broke through to Jessica's panic filled thoughts. She stumbled into the room, and to the bed where her Mama was beginning to moan. If possible, she looked even paler than she had before, with a blue tinge to her lips. Pain must be wracking her body because she was starting to moan and writhe on the bed Oh God, Jessica thought, looking at the blood staining the bed. How can anyone lose so much blood and still be alive? The thought had only barely formed in her mind when the full horror of what was happening struck Jessica like a blow. Her Mama was not going to live. She was dying right before their eyes. She quickly removed Lilly's clothing and covered her in blankets because she was shaking with chills now. She examined her enough to know a hemorrhage of this magnitude was far beyond any nursing skills she might possess, but still she kept trying... trying to do anything that might help. Anything that might save a life that was as dear to her as her own.

She could not stop the hemorrhage and despite some feeble contractions, there was not enough strength in Lilly to bring the child into the world. This birth was all wrong, there wasn't even any dilation. Finally, in desperation, Jessica attempted to deliver the child as she had seen the Doctor do on another occasion. It did not take her long to realize this was not going to prove successful either, and she rose wiping the blood from her hands and arms. Finally, in total despair she knelt beside the bed, and did the only thing that seemed left for her to do. She prayed, tears streaming down her young face and the heartache showing on her delicate features as she looked at her Mama, knew she was losing her, and felt an agony like she had never known existed.

Later that afternoon Doc Hansen stepped from the bedroom and faced Lillian's family. He was a caring man and this part of his work as a doctor was one that he detested and dreaded. He was going to have to tell this man and these three children, that a woman, they all loved so dearly was no more. Lying in the bedroom he had just left was a beautiful gentle and loving woman, not yet in her prime. Her life cruelly taken from her, when she had not yet seen her thirty-ninth year. He faced John.

I'm sorry John. Nothing I could do, and even if I had been here when it happened, it would have been too late. I am so very sorry.

John looked at him in disbelief, and, with a hideous bellow of, NO! He bolted from his chair and through the bedroom door. Following the slamming of the door, they heard his full anguish as his pathetic cries echoed through the silent house. No, Lilly, no, not you, no, not my little Lilly, oh no. Noooo.

Tommy and Jacob sat next to Jessica, and all three held each other in a fierce grip. Trying to comfort and be comforted but finding none in their shared grief. The sounds of the terrible pain they heard coming from their Papa breaking their hearts all the more. Jessica knew, as she looked at the bedroom door, that nothing would ever be the same again. Huge, hot tears streamed down her face as her mind grasped this thought and her grief welled anew.

Throughout the valley that night, many folks, the Ferrall household included, could have sworn they heard the screams of a mighty cat. The screams brought many residents upright in their beds and sent cold chills shivering down their spines. However, not much was said about this because everyone knew that no mountain lions had been around the area in many, many years.

CHAPTER TWO

Winter Woman stirred the embers of the fire and added a few sticks of wood. She pulled her fur robes around her and sat staring into the flames. Another dream. This one she knew had a special meaning. She pondered all that this one could mean but Winter Woman sensed without knowing how, that this dream did not mean something to only her people, this one directly involved her, and of this, she was certain.

She recalled her Grandfather with his sparkling green eyes and ready laughter. At first, her Grandmother had merely been his woman as was the way with so many of the white trappers, but her Grandfather loved her too dearly to let it rest at that. He married her Grandmother not only in the custom of her people but in the way of his people as well, as if to insure 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 his 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