It was freezing cold. I was bundled in buffalo skin draped around my shoulders and tied around my waist with a thick grass. Me and my family were traveling across the west river to our winter cave, baskets in hand. The journey was long and hard, and took weeks to pursue. I was tired. We had been walking for hours and it was late. we neared a great oak covered in snow. I couldn't take it. I had
to rest. I threw myself down against the tree. Snow surrounded me. My mother gave me a worried look a kneeled down beside me. My father didn’t sit. He was eager to keep going. I buried my head in my mothers lap and shut my eyes. I heard my father take a breath and opened my eyes ever so slightly to see
him walk down a snowy path and sit down on a stump behind some bare bushes. I closed my eyes once more and slowly drifted off to sleep. Awaiting the morning. An eagle overhead, soaring through the air. Diving. Deep down to the earth. Looking for its prey. I was it's prey. Eying. Lunging. I screamed. I sat up. It was only a dream. My breath was heavy, my heart beat fast. It was only a dream I told myself again. I looked around snow covered my body. It was
morning. I could tell by the small shimmering ball of sun just starting to rise. I wrapped my buffalo fur more tightly around me, brushed off the flecks of ice from my front, and stood up. I walked down the thin but short snowy path and around the bare bushes. The stump was there but my father was nowhere in sight. My eyes were wide. I raced back to the oak in search of my mother.
But I had no luck. I dug and dug in the snow. The baskets were gone but my mother's deer skin hung on a near branch. I reached to grab it and snuggled it to the ground. My brain filled with worry. My head was hot. Questions filled my body and I hugged my mother's deer skin even tighter.
“Where were they? Were they in trouble? Did they need my help?”
I quickly raced down the path tripping as I went. I ran and ran until I reached a small creek. Suddenly, I heard a booming of hooves in the distance. Raging buffalo were headed my way. I raced in the direction I had come but tripped on a bolder on my way. The world went dark. I heard the whistling of wind, my parents holding me whispering “I love you” in my ears, silent deer and slinking newts. Someone, somewhere would come for me. I just knew it deep inside.