There was this girl who had no mother. She was spoiled. No-one dared tell her no. When she was nine she wanted to go with the hunting party to the Buffalo Country. She sat at the planning talks her eyes wide.
``You are too young,'' her grandmother said, ``they cannot wait for you if you lag behind - you will be lost in the mountains - in the Crow country. Once our friends, but no longer.'' The girl insisted. She could ride as well as any of them. She would go. Her aunts and grandmother at last said ``Have your way.''
The girl packed warm blankets and dried meat. She took four good ponies.
The first day out she kept up with all the riders, but that very first night her ponies got loose and caused much trouble for the band. After that she was very careful, but she became so tired, she couldn't get speed from her ponies, and she fell behind. One night her aunt rode back and brought her in to camp just before dawn when it was time to leave again. She knew she could not continue. The next day she intentionally stayed back. Her aunt did not come to help her.
She had been to the planning sessions. She knew where to cut through the mountains. She knew the river crossings to avoid. She knew where small game would be abundant. For two more days she continued on alone with her little string of ponies. But the nights began to frighten her. Without dogs how could she know what approached in the dark? And so she turned and started home, angry at herself.
The days ran together. She slept on her pony's back, oblivious to where they chose to go, and so it was that her ponies took her into a Crow hunting party. There was much surprise. The look-outs had not seen her. They kept the girl with them and she became best friends with a boy who was son of a chief. She taught him her people's way of riding to evade spears and arrows by clinging under the horse's neck. He showed her how to trap jack rabbits with no more than a strand of braided grass. When she was strong again they set her free, burdened with supplies and small gifts. The one she treasured most was a white swan's feather given her by the boy she loved.
``In five years when the grass is new come back to this place,'' he said. ``I will be a warrior then, and you will have such pride.'' He watched her moving far away until the distance claimed her.
The girl grew into a young woman and in five years when the grass was new she went to that place and she waited for her lover. She waited until the grass was brown. The next year too, and the next.
The girl married and lived long.
When she felt death at her shoulder she took the white swan's feather and she went into the mountains to a secret place. She buried the feather and for the last time she sang her spirit song.