Soaring Like Eagles by Sandra Markle

Author:Sandra Markle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: family, native american, north carolina, grandfather, heritage, eagle, cherokee, poacher
Publisher: Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Inc.

Chapter Eleven

I awoke the next morning with a start and sat up quickly. At first, I felt confused by the surroundings and the disturbing dream images lingering in my mind. But the events of the day before quickly rushed back to me.

Father Paul had obviously already gotten up some time ago. The blankets he'd used to make a pallet for himself lay neatly folded in a stack on the floor beside me, and a fresh fire blazed in the fireplace. Its warmth felt good in the early morning chill that penetrated the small cabin. I turned, looking around for the priest, and when I didn't see him, I was suddenly afraid I'd slept so long that he'd already gone back down the mountain.

"A bad dream?" Tsan's question startled me. I hadn't realized he was awake, and now I saw that he was sitting up in his bed, sipping something from a mug. I wondered if Father Paul had made him more oak bark tea.

"Yes," I admitted. "Father Paul hasn't left already has he?"

Just then the cabin door opened, and Nvya bounded in ahead of the priest. "What a beautiful day for fishing. Early morning is the very best time for catching trout. Just look at these beauties." He proudly held up a string of four large, glistening brown fish with long snouts and rosy rainbow-hued streaks along their sides.

"So, Tsan, you're looking much better this morning. How about you, Kate? Did you sleep well?"

"Sure—except I had an awful nightmare. It was a lot like the one I had before," I told Tsan. "I'm in the eagle's nest. I don't really see the nest, but I'm sure that's where I am. Anyway, there are these two fluffy gray-brown birds right in front of me. They make the most pitiful peeping sound. It's almost a shriek. I want to help them by feeding them, only I don't have any food. I feel really bad because I don't have anything to give the baby birds. Then this one eaglet starts waddling toward me. I reach out for it, but before I can reach it, I slip and start to fall. That's when I always wake up."

"It's a vision," Tsan stated.

"But what does it mean?" I asked feeling puzzled and confused.

"Probably nothing," Father Paul put in.

"It's the eaglets' a nih ski:na calling. They haven't yet passed over into the Darkening Land," Tsan insisted.

"That's unlikely," Father Paul said, shaking his head. "Young eaglets must eat their own weight in food every day. I doubt if they've survived."

"It hasn't been all that long." I looked from Tsan to the priest. "Couldn't the eaglets still be alive?"

"It's unlikely," Father Paul repeated.

"It is possible," Tsan confirmed.

"Look, if there's a chance—any chance—I've got to find out for sure," I announced. I stood up so quickly that Nvya jumped to his feet, too, and barked, as though he understood that something exciting was happening.

"How can you?" Father Paul asked. "An eagle's nest is in the treetops."

"I'll climb up to it."

"It's too dangerous, Kate," Father Paul warned.

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