Excerpt Upper New York State April, the Rain Moon -- 1847 Light rain had fallen during the night, and the morning air was sweet and fresh and redolent of rich, moist earth and the fragrance of new spring growth. Wide, expansive meadows with long, waving grass were jeweled with myriad wildflowers. Here and there stood little copses and clusters of plum trees, gooseberries, and wild currants, which in a few months would be loaded down with fruit. In the distance poi-ithakis , passenger pigeons, flew in a vast, undulating flock, dipping and rising as they traveled north from their winter's migration. Among the widely separated oaks and elms and hickories stood two braves of ten winters. They were of the Kispokotha , the Shawnee, and they were hunting small forest creatures with their newly crafted bows and arrows. An unseen squirrel overhead suddenly barked angrily, startling the two small braves. When they looked upward and saw the cause of the squirrel's outburst, they smiled and admiringly watched a pair of red-tailed hawks soaring overhead in the sky like beautiful, moving clouds. Knowing they were always under the protection of Moneto , the Supreme Being of all things who ruled the Yalakuquaku-migigi , the universe, they walked onward. The fear that had come with being startled was gone as quickly as it had come. Panther, the son of the powerful Shawnee chief Red Thunder, was the first to break the silence. He held his bow at his side and smiled over at Cloud, his best friend from the time they could talk and laugh together. "This one is yours," he whispered as the bushy-tailed squirrel hopped to the ground only a few feet from them. "My friend, you will have the first kill of the day." Cloud didn't have time to notch his arrow onto his bowstring before the squirrel scampered away into the thicket. "My first kill today will have to be some other small creature, Panther, for this squirrel is more cunning than both of us." He laughed softly and slid his arrow back into the otter-skin quiver at his back. "It seems the squirrel is acquainted with the weapons of the Shawnee, for when it saw my arrow drawn from my quiver it fled." Panther shrugged. "There will be more," he said, walking onward with Cloud at his side. "We have just begun our hunt today. The sun has many hours left in the sky. "It is my deep desire to grow into a man quickly so that I can join the true hunt with the warriors of our village and bring home not only the meat of small creatures and fleet-footed deer, but also pelts from the most powerful and feared animal of the forest, the bear," Panther then said, recalling his father's tale of how he had battled a bear with no weapon but a knife and had come from the battle the winner. Even today Panther's father wore the proof of that victorious battle, a prized necklace of down-curved bear claws, separated by silver cylinders, hung around his neck. It made Panther smile to recall himself as a child, clinging to his father's powerful neck as his father strove to implant the proud history of the Shawnee tribe in the mind of his son. Ah, how Panther had enjoyed running his tiny fingers over the smooth finish of the bear claws of his father's necklace as he talked to him. It was then that Panther had dreamed of wearing the same sort of necklace around his own neck when he was a grown man who could hunt as well as any of the other warriors. A man who could boast of such a bear kill and wear the prize around his neck was a man both feared and respected by his peers. But for now it was enough for Panther to wear about his neck his medicine bag, or mystery . The mystery bag , made of otter skin and ornamented with ermine, was the key to all Shawnee life and character. Inside Panther's bag were many prized possessions. A rabbit's paw was his favorite, for it was the paw from his very first kill. The pelt was now a part of the robe his mother wore around her delicate shoulders. A lad with large, expressive eyes, Panther was already well built for his age. He was keen in his senses and swift in his reflexes. He was strong and erect in posture, excelling in sports, games, and hunting. Today he, like his friend, wore leggings of buckskin decorated with painted porcupine quills, ribbons, and beads. Their chests were bare, but on their feet they wore low-cut sturdy buckskin moccasins, and around their long, flowing hair each wore a beaded headband, tied and knotted at the back. "Spring is my favorite time of the year to hunt," Cloud said, interrupting Panther's deep thoughts. He inhaled a deep breath of fragrant air. "I, too, wish to down a bear one day, but not so much for the claws to make a necklace as for the pelt, which I will give to my ailing grandmother. Too often I see her sitting beside the fire and she is still not warm enough. I fear her time on this earth grows shorter each day." "Your sympathy for her is good," Panther said as he brushed aside the low-hanging branch of an ancient elm tree, revealing a river a short distance away, its ripples shining like millions of diamonds beneath the brightness of the sun. "You will be rewarded twofold in the hereafter because of your goodness here on earth." "You are as good, my friend," Cloud said, his eyes catching a movement ahead through the trees. His insides tightened when he saw a boat rocking at the very edge of the river as waves splashed against its sides, a rope from a tree keeping it from floating away. "A boat, Panther," Cloud said, his eyes narrowing. "Look. Do you see it? It is one of the white man's strange river craft called a keelboat. I would like to take a closer look." His eyes shifted and narrowed when he saw the muted orange glow of a campfire. "I see a campfire some distance from the moored boat," he whispered harshly. "The white-eyes who are traveling in this boat have surely stopped to eat." Panther's nose twitched. " Nyoh , yes, they are near, for I smell the aroma of white man's coffee," he whispered. " Nyoh , let us go and take a look at their boat. But we must be careful not to make any noise. If they catch us, who is to say what our fate will be?" He slid his bow over his left shoulder and held it there as he walked stealthily onward through the thick brush. Before they got far they saw something that made them both grow cold with disgust. "Cloud, do you see? The white-eyes are surveyors," Panther hissed as he stared at many stakes in the ground. "The stakes planted in the ground are the first seed of another white man's settlement." "I wish I were a man ten times as strong as I am now," Cloud said bitterly. "I would rid the land of all white-eyes!" Panther was just as bitter, but did not voice his feelings to his friend. It was bad enough to recall what his father and his grandfather before him had said about the onslaught of white people in the area that was once occupied solely by the red man. His father and grandfather had said that life under white tyranny would be a life without honor, dignity, or self-respect, to which death itself was infinitely preferable. "All white-eyes are sholees , vultures!" Cloud said venomously. "Let us make it hard on those who have wrongly come to our people's land today! Let us go and overturn their river craft. Better yet, let us loose it so that it will float downriver with their supplies. They will be too busy going after it to think of the stakes they leave behind. While they are gone we shall uproot the seeds they planted on our soil and throw them so far away they can never find them." "We have been taught not to interfere in anything the white men do, for our deeds will come back to our village and bring harm to our people," Panther said sadly. He sighed as he stopped and stared first at the keelboat, and then at the campfire from which came much boisterous laughter. "Let us at least go ahead and look inside the white-eyes' river craft," Cloud insisted. "Most boats are loaded with many tempting items rarely seen by the red man, especially young braves such as you and me. What can it hurt, Panther? Let us take one look and then return to our hunt. We can never forget the importance of the hunt. We Shawnee are hunters by tradition!" Panther kneaded his brow as he gazed at the boat with a longing he could not deny. " Nyoh , let us go ahead and take one quick look and then hurry away from here," he said. His heart pounded with the excitement of seeing new things, and from the danger of possibly being discovered. The thrilling combination made Panther feel strangely alive inside, urging his moccasined feet onward until he came to the banks of the river where the boat swayed and rocked in the waves. "We must hurry," Panther whispered as he looked over his shoulder at the glow of the campfire through the trees. Then he stepped into the water and made his way toward the boat. The river bed was gravelly and its waters were sparkling clear. In the deepest parts could be seen sharla , trout. When they came up to the side of the keelboat, their eyes widened with wonder. Never had they seen so many strange-looking tools and food supplies. Even the pelts that lay stacked at one end seemed finer than any that Panther had ever seen. Cloud lifted the corner of one of the pelts. His eyes widened even more when he saw a large jug of what he knew was white man's firewater. He had spied on white men sitting beside campfires many times and had watched how they drank from this type of jug and soon began to behave strangely. "Is that firewater?" Panther asked, staring at the jug. "I have heard it called by the strange name 'rum'," Cloud whispered back, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "I would like to taste it, Panther, to see if the tales I have heard of it are true." His eyes now begged Panther. "Let us steal it. Surely the white men will only believe they lost it by mistake. They would never suspect that two young braves took it." "My father and yours have taught us the evil of firewater," Panther said, yet he was unable to stop the racing of his heart at the mere thought of stealing the firewater from the white men, let alone taking a taste from the jug. "Just this once, Panther," Cloud said, his hand inching toward the jug. "See how easy it would be to take it?" His fingers trembled as he placed them around the coldness of the jug. "All I have to do now is to take it from the boat and it is ours." Panther again gazed over his shoulder toward the campfire, his ears picking up the men's laughter. The sound took him back to a time when white men came to his village and poked fun at his father and the warriors who stood square-shouldered and proud at their chief's side. Since then, Panther had grown to hate the laugh of the evil white men. His hate had grown through the years; he had found few white men who deserved to be called "friend" among the many who trespassed on the land of the Shawnee. " Nyoh , we will take it," Panther blurted out. "If it is left for the white-eyes, they will drink it, and who is to say what they might do when their minds are clouded with the firewater? The white-eyes are too close to our village. They might come and defile some of our women!" His face twisted with hate, Cloud grabbed up the jug, and soon he and Panther were far from the white men's boat and camping place. They sat down comfortably beneath a grand old oak tree. Panther watched guardedly as Cloud yanked the cork from the jug. "I am not sure if we should..." Panther began, now hesitant to do something he knew his father would abhor. Yet what could only one taste matter? he reassured himself. Surely that could do no harm! "You first," Cloud said, holding the jug out for Panther. Panther placed a hand up between himself and the jug. " Neh, you drink first," he said thickly, again troubled by what they were doing. He didn't make it a practice to do wrong behind his beloved father's back. He truly hated starting now. "I might not even take that first drink. It is wrong, Cloud. So very wrong, what we have done, and are about to do." "It was good to take the firewater. The white men would have caused trouble for our people if they had consumed it," Cloud said stubbornly. "And I must have a taste. I have heard so much about the firewater. I must see if it burns the belly as most say it does." "And if it does?" Panther said, arching an eyebrow. "Once the burn is there, my friend, how will you remove it if you wish it removed?" "It will go away," Cloud said, shrugging. Panther scarcely breathed as he watched Cloud take that first sip of firewater. He flinched when Cloud yanked the jug from his lips and began to gag and choke, his eyes wide and watery. "Is it that horrible?" Panther asked softly, disbelieving when Cloud ignored his question and quickly took his second sip, and then another and another. "Cloud, you are drinking too much firewater," Panther said, trying to take the jug from his friend. Cloud held onto the jug tightly and took another long swallow, then rested the jug on his lap as the alcohol seemed to spread and burn in the pit of his belly. A strange look came into his eyes as euphoria spread along with the warmth through his entire being. Suddenly he felt as though he had no care in the world, as though the firewater had erased it from his brain. The feeling of well-being was wonderful. He felt as though he were flying among the clouds with the beautiful eagles! He took another drink, then finally handed the jug to Panther. "It is now your time to taste the wonders of the firewater," he said, his words slurred. He was having trouble focusing his eyes on his friend. "It is something more pleasant than bad," he said, hiccoughing and then laughing. "You have changed to someone different from who you normally are," Panther said warily as he gazed at Cloud, and then at the jug. "I doubt I should drink. If it changes someone so much, I --" "Drink!" Cloud said, placing his hands around the jug and forcing it to Panther's lips. "You may never have the opportunity again to taste firewater. See that it is not bad as everyone says. I enjoy it very much." Panther took a slow sip, then shoved the jug away as the fire burned down his throat into his belly. " Neh ," he said, not allowing Cloud to put the jug back to his lips. He wiped at his mouth with his free hand. "I want no more of that stuff. I see nothing good in the taste. It is firewater. It burns all the way down to my belly. Surely an evil spirit is tucked away in the fiery liquid." "It is a spirit that I enjoy very much," Cloud said, chuckling. He took another long drink from the jug, then winced when he dropped the jug and broke it. "Good. Now you can drink no more," Panther said, getting to his feet. "Come, friend. You must walk off the effects of the fiery liquid. We will then return home. Now that you have drunk so much firewater, there is no use in hunting." " Neh !" Cloud said, stumbling to his feet. "I still hunt! I will take home food even if you do not." "Cloud, no --" Panther said as Cloud clumsily nocked an arrow on his bowstring, pulled back the bow, and started to release it. He was not shooting at anything in particular, just proving to his friend that he still had the ability to shoot. Waves of panic swept through Panther when Cloud's hand slipped from the bow and sent the extremely sharp flint arrowhead into a wild flip backwards. Panther gasped with horror when the arrow entered Cloud's left eye. Stunned by the sight of the arrow lodged in his friend's eye, Panther stood frozen, unable to move. But Cloud's loud cries of pain as he fell on his back on the ground, his hands trembling as they clawed at the lodged arrow, brought Panther quickly back to his senses. Panther fell to his knees beside Cloud. " Oui-shi-cat-to-oui , be strong, my friend," he cried. "I dare not remove the arrow. We must return home so that our medicine man prophet can remove it. Two Spirits has the skills required. Please come, Cloud. Please get to your feet so we can go home and get help." Blood streaming from his eye, his body racked with deep sobs of pain, Cloud allowed Panther to help him to his feet. Staggering, Cloud's arm around Panther's neck, they struggled through the thick brush, and then through the forest, until finally their village came into sight through a break in the trees. "We will soon be there," Panther said reassuringly. He held his friend close to his side. As Cloud took each step, crying out with more pain, the pain reached clean inside Panther's heart as though it were his own. "Cloud, you will soon be all right," Panther said, sobbing. "We have just a little farther to go and you will be in Two Spirits' care. He will know what to do." "It hurts so," Cloud sobbed, the blood still spilling from the wound around the lodged arrow. His bare chest was now crimson. " Nyoh , I know the pain must be more than anyone can imagine," Panther said, swallowing hard. "But you have been oui-shi-cat-to-oui , strong. You have been more brave than anyone I have ever known." "Was my accident because of the firewater?" " Nyoh , I would say entirely because of it." "But it made me feel good." "It altered your brain. It slowed your hand and dulled your eye. That is good for no one." "But I crave more even now." " Nyoh , it is said that is how firewater works. You want more and more." "If I had more, surely I would not feel as much pain." "Perhaps more pain, my friend." "Please, Panther," Cloud sobbed. "Please help me, Panther. I... hurt... so bad." "Soon the pain will lessen," Panther promised. "Two Spirits will take it away." Excerpted from Savage Joy by Cassie Edwards. Copyright © 1999 by Cassie Edwards. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.