Talon Dance

By Jason Lefthand

The eagle clans of the mountains have enjoyed two decades of peace. Clan warfare has ceased, and people have settled into normal lives, but that is all about to change. Dagazhin, the crow witch from the north, has returned and he is bent on unleashing his wicked wrath upon the eagles who banished him.

Kate, the next leader of her clan, knew something was terribly wrong when her brother, Thunder, did not return with his band of trackers sent to find Dagazhin.

Along with her companion Allen, Kate will go against the elders' wishes and leave the village to track down her brother without their help.

As Kate searches for Thunder, she will encounter dark crow magic, twisted creatures, and old gods long thought dead. Kate will battle the crows in the sky, outnumbered and alone. She has to stop Dagazhin before he resurrects an ancient evil from Navajo lore, the flying monster who terrorized the land before the mythical warrior twins ended it. Kate will have to face the monster atop Spider Rock. She will have to endure the pain of her past. She will have to rise.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jason Lefthand
• Release date: Oct 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536535600

Book preview

By: Jason Lefthand

Copyright © 2014 by Jason Lefthand

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States Of America

First Printing, 2014

Double Rainbows at Spider Rock, Canyon de Chelly by tsalproject, used for the cover under CC BY 2.0/Mo

Cradle Of Stars by Scott Cresswell, used for the cover under CC BY 2.0/Mo

Na'ashjéii Asdzáá

The beginning.

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Spider-Woman pulled the thin blanket away from the entrance of her mud hut. It was a modest shelter, small, but the right size for her minute, stooped frame. She had draped a colorful blanket around her shoulders that reached to the end of her tattered dark brown dress. Her stringy white hair was parted right down the middle and hugged her sagging cheeks. Her face was a deep brown, her lips darker. She glanced over her shoulder. Her dark eyes peered at the little bit of rope she gripped in her wrinkled hand.

Waning sunlight poured into her home as she leaned against the wooden doorway. She dragged out a large sack. It crunched on the red dirt behind her as she walked along a narrow path she had made in between sagebrush and red ant hills. She kept her eyes on the ground, and didn't say a word. Every so often she tugged on her bag, as though it were a dawdling pet.

The brush soon became sparse and there was only a loose collection of red sandstone. It was the end of her walk.

She tugged once more and pulled the sack around her feet.

Her steady hands undid the knot. She pulled out bundles of white blankets, yellow, blue, and finally black.

It had been four years of singing, four years of gathering the right fibers. Four years of concentration, and four years of solitary work in her little home. She sniffed and rubbed her nose. Tonight was the final night. She had to place her blankets onto the stone.

She unfurled the white blanket first and held it up before a tall spire, which was thick at the base. It reached high into the evening sky. All around her, the immense red canyon walls echoed the songs she had sung. She felt the songs on the back of her neck and on her hands as she placed the blanket against the red surface. It hung there, stuck by an unseen force. She unfurled the yellow blanket, the blue, and black, each one was suspended on the rock.

It was then she exhaled, for a long time, as if she had held her breath for all those years.

With her eyes closed, she remembered the young twin boys. She looked at the ground where they had sat, where a warm fire burned before them, as Spider-Woman wove a tale about the monster that lived on tall cliffs, a monster that could fly and kill in one swoop. She told them how to find it. She told them how to kill it. The boys sat and listened. The smaller one was is in awe. He beamed as her shadows danced on the tall rock. The other boy had a serious look on his face. He rarely smiled and never looked into Spider-Woman's eyes.

Then, she told the boys to bring its head to her. She would bury it under the tall rock, and that was where it would have remained.

That was a long time ago.

Spider-Woman moved her mouth, until finally she found her voice. Sacred words rolled off her tongue, in the old language that few understood. A hush flowed through the canyon as Spider-Woman held out her hands. The white blanket trembled until it turned into smoke. The yellow shined so bright that for an instant it was a second sun. The blue turned to water and melted into the surface. And the black blanket erupted into a fierce fire so hot it scorched the red sandstone. It burned for only a moment.

She wrung her hands together, and shook the energy off her fingertips. The flying monster was sealed away, and it would never return.

A little fire kept her warm after the sun had set. She placed the colorful blanket over her lap as she sat next to her home. The dark sky came alive. In the pattern of stars she saw the monster's terrible visage as it looked down upon her. She ignored the omens that hung high above. Her voice was strong. She closed her eyes as the old magic flowed over her body. Spider-Woman continued to sing next to her fire until the darkness gave way to the dawn.

The twins had ultimately killed the monster and its head was buried beneath the tower, but as with things left in the past, nothing ever really went away.

Kate landed gently atop a jagged overlook high in the Rocky Mountains. Her arms, each one covered in long golden brown feathers, fell to her sides. She sighed; a look of annoyance prominent on her face. It was good to get away from her clan, even for a while. She detested the constant weighing of options of the elders, which usually erupted into arguments and more time wasted. The feathers along her neck receded quickly, and if one did not watch closely enough, they were gone in almost an instant. Down below was the dense wooded valley. It stretched on for miles in all directions.

Her sharp eyes followed the tree lines to a large mountain in the distance. Nestled in the forest were houses, each one was painted in bright, cheerful tones. The houses were staggered along the eastern face, one almost on top of the other. Near the summit was hers, the yellow building with a thick layer of pine branches on the roof. Next to her home was the gathering spot on the edge of a cliff where the elders