The medicine man’s tepee was the last one in the back row and was placed a little apart from the others. Clawing Bear was sitting in front of his tepee.
“Come in, Bent Arrow,” Clawing Bear invited, getting slowly to his feet.
Bent Arrow followed the medicine man into the tepee. Clawing Bear sat near the fire and motioned Bent Arrow to sit beside him. The boy sat quietly while the medicine man selected a pipe, filled it, and lighted it with a brand from the fire. Clawing Bear inhaled deeply, and slowly blew the smoke to the east. After a pause, he took a second puff and blew it to the south. In the same way he blew smoke to the west and to the north. Then he laid the pipe aside.
“You ran a good race today,” he said.
“I didn’t know you were watching,” Bent Arrow answered.
“I don’t miss many races,” Clawing Bear replied with a smile. “I am pleased that you are running better.”
“Your treatment is making my leg better,” Bent Arrow explained. “That is why I am able to run faster.”
“It is about your leg that I wanted to talk with you,” Clawing Bear told him.
Bent Arrow held himself as motionless as possible while the medicine man again filled the pipe and again blew smoke in the directions of the four winds.
“When you were very small, only in your second summer,” Clawing Bear finally began, “your parents took you with a hunting party like this one. One day, when most of the hunters were gone, the Sioux attacked the camp. There were not enough Crow warriors in camp to protect it. When Flying Arrow and the other hunters returned, they found the camp destroyed and, apparently, everyone in it slain.”