Grief and fear that White Bear would die trembled inside her. Breathing deeply, she let the strength of those feelings enter into her spirit, urging her on to begin the journey she must make.
She must go into the other world and find her guide. She began the medicine woman's chant Sun Woman had taught her:
"Let me walk through the dark place
To the light of the other world.
Oh my red spirit Bird, fly to me,
Sing to me from the other world.
"Let me walk the sunwise circle
Into the night that hides this man.
Oh my red spirit Bird, sing to me
And fly with me to the other world.
"Sing and fly,
Sing and fly,
In the sunwise circle
To the other world,
Into the night."
She allowed the chant to settle into a simple, repetitious humming that slowly, with the help of the magic mushroom, drew her soul out of her body.
She stood up. The three people gathered at the foot of the bed did not see her standing. They were looking at her seated body. She looked down at White Bear. She saw through the leaves she had spread over him and right through his skin.
Five glowing streaks ran from his collarbone to his belly. The claw marks of his guardian.
She saw the hole in his chest, how it ran between his ribs. In the eight days he had been lying here, the wound had closed up. If he lived long enough, it would heal slowly. But there was water pooling in his chest, and the longer he lay there unconscious, the more the water would fill up his chest until he drowned.
His spirit must be coaxed back from the other world.