The three days watch was over too quickly. Enonai had grown accustomed to Akonha's company. He began to earn his name of Silent Hawk again though. He seemed anxious to get back to the hunt. The time spent working together went mostly unnoticed by others, except for Amonee. Many of the hunters and warriors had spent the three days going along on tasks of gathering and such that took the women and children outside the circle of the camp. Others were posted to guard the perimeter.

During the Council meeting at the end of the watch, a decision was made to send a party to the camp of People in the Flats. They were believed to be making trouble in the pale villages. The small party would ask them to cease these activities, at least until after the winter move southward. It was understood by all that the hostility might be redirected as a result of the request. Seven were chosen to go. Akonha was among them. Enonai's brother Kai was chosen to go too. They would leave during the waning moon. They would need the darker sky, since the path would cross a major supply road used by the Coat's.

Akonha was explaining this to Enonai as they sat on her pottery rock, watching the full moon flicker in the stream. They sat apart. Even in their togetherness since the incident, Enonai felt sure she was just being protected. Akonha had not indicated before that he was interested in more than life as a lone hunter. When her imaginings started to carry her away, she kept reminding herself that even if he sought a mate, he would look elsewhere. She owed him a debt she could never repay and surely he just felt some sense of extended duty.

His words of the upcoming venture drifted off into the night and were lost in the sound of water laughing over stones. Owl made his presence known. Coyote sang his night song. Enonai eventually found herself smoothing her skirt idly as she quietly hummed no tune in particular, just letting the melody drift with the other sounds of night.

Akonha sighed and reached to his waist. He untied a small pouch and rubbed it in his hands, shifting the contents. Enonai eventually turned her head to watch. It was the first time he'd ever seemed nervous.

He did not look at her as he started to speak. "I do not know if you will think this a good gift."

"I've said before that I owe much to you and you need give me nothing." She frowned as his hands worked at the pouch.

"But this... this would be, in truth, a gift to myself." He'd been thinking on this for days and most especially since he found out he would be leaving on a mission soon. He finally opened the pouch and poured its contents into his open palm.

They were small and the pewter was not shiny but the buttons reflected the moonlight well enough. When he heard her gasp, Akonha closed his hand on the buttons to cover them.

"There are nine. I had thought perhaps..." He shook his head. "It was a bad notion. I'm sorry."

Enonai bit her lip and looked up into the sky. Maybe that would forestall her tears. "What had you thought?"

"They are, to me, a symbol between us." He wasn't sure how to explain his idea to her but had to try. "When a warrior makes a kill, he has claim to what remains of value. A hunter has hides and food."

"Yes and you have buttons, a few coins, perhaps a knife... and one who owes you for the mercy." Her voice was hushed, coming through her tight throat.

Akonha shook his head and reached for her hand. She immediately shot a glance down to her hand in his. He pressed his hand open in her palm, releasing the buttons to her then held tightly. "Not my spoils, Enonai. Ours. What you... What you endured and what I did to end it, this is what brought us together."

Her eyes slowly rose to meet his and his heart lurched to see the tears sliding down her cheeks. She hoarsely spoke her confusion. "I do not know what you say." She abruptly pulled her hand from his. The buttons scattered across the rock as she rose to her feet and stepped away. She wrapped her arms around herself and walked downstream.

After scrambling to pick up the metal buttons, Akonha went after her. "Enonai! Please, I will explain."

She stopped without turning. Her heart had spun with thoughts of him for too many days and now he'd brought up some token of what? Their friendship? Her onus? Metal from the stinking midnight wool of the man who had likely ruined her life?

Akonha's mind was racing. Now what could he say? What could make her know his intent? "Promise you will listen." He saw the moon play on her hair as she nodded. "They are only bits of metal, yet they mark a change in many lives, especially ours." He stepped in close behind her and clutched his hand tightly on the buttons. His voice was very soft but she felt his words stir her hair and her soul. "I cannot know, my Enonai, what this change has meant for you." He bravely reached across her shoulder to bush her cheek. "I do not have the words to express the change in me... but I know, it is you."

She still wasn't hearing him. He knew this by her response. "I'm sorry. I am grateful but I should trouble you no more." Her voice was cold. She needed to seal herself off from him and from her own fantasies.

His heart finally burst. He slipped his arms around her, one hand still closed over the buttons. He dipped his head and spoke against her shoulder. "No, Enonai. Hear my heart if not my words. Our time together has not been enough. I want a lifetime with you." He felt her collapse back against him. She shook within his arms as hers came up to cover them, to hold tightly. She curled to kiss his fist of metal.

When Enonai calmed somewhat, she still spoke haltingly. "I have for many days wanted to hear that you feel as I do but I feared... I still fear..." She gently pulled his arms from her and turned to face him then stepped back another pace.

For Akonha, she was a vision, a kind and beautiful spirit that he could not have hoped to know. Her sadness did not taint her beauty. In fact, it urged him further. "Tell me what you fear. Nothing from me, I hope."

Her lip began to quiver. She took a few sharp sobbing breaths then buried her face in her hands as she descended slowly to her knees. She was speaking all her words at once but into her hands and Akonha could not understand any of it. He stepped in and knelt to her. His free hand brushed her hair back as he leaned to kiss the top of her head.

Enonai shook her head, finally drawing her hands from her face. She clasped them both around his fist and the bits of pewter. Her sorrowful eyes looked up at him. She could barely speak her greatest fear since the incident. "What if... " Her eyes searched Akonha's face. This had not occurred to him, she was sure of it. She closed her eyes, dreading his reaction. "What if I carry his child?"

( Continued Page 5 or back)