dragged back to their homes, begging for mercy.
22 All of this did not go unseen. Half a day's journey away the mirrors
told Screaming Hawk what his scouts had seen, and even before his men
he wept. And no one thought less of him because of it.
23 He sat his feet northward. As they marched by a grove of trees, he
saw a strange sight....a Tree with a neat fence around it, and a little
altar. Sitting against the Tree, a man watched them march. "Odd, is it
not," he commented to his assistant Warlock Little Deer, "that a man
sees such an army pass and does not come down to hear the news?"
24 "What man?" questioned Little Deer.
25 "The man by the Tree, the Tree by the brook with the fence around
it. Do you not see the man?"
26 "I see nothing," answered Little Deer, "but a Tree."
27 Screaming Hawk raised his hand and the column stopped. "What is this
place?" he asked.
28 One of his men came up. "Lord," he explained, "this is the estate of
The Hawk Clan. That is the Tree where The Hawk had his Vision."
29 "Stay here," ordered Screaming Hawk. He marched down the hill,
crossed the brook, climbed up to the little altar, saluted it, climbed
over the fence and approached the man beneath the Tree.
30 Behind him, Little Deer spoke to the men. "Pass the word," he
ordered, "bow down and pray, for The Lords are with us, and some Great
Wonder happens here today!"
31 The men did not need encouragement. Each began to pray in his own
manner, as Screaming Hawk sat down beside the Man at the Tree. "Lord,"
he said, "I am troubled."
32 "I know, my son," The Spirit answered.