The entire tribe was involved in the ceremony, and I’d been told it would be an all-day affair. I’d been required to sleep alone last night, with the advice that “my soul needed solitude before the wedding ceremony.”
Leaping Deer awoke me at dawn and showed my attire for the day—a beautiful white deerskin caftan decorated with elaborate beadwork.
“But first, we clean and purify you,” Leaping Deer said as she scurried around the teepee with far more energy than I was ready for.
“Put this robe over your shoulders and come with me.”
She led me to the creek, where several young women stood laughing and talking.
When the other women saw me, they pointed, smiled, and passed conversation back and forth.
I caught snippets like, “We must make her beautiful for Swift Hawk” and “What an exciting day! Two Timebornes!”
But otherwise, their conversation jumbled and blurred as my nerves began to amp up.
“You, there! Chumani and Kimimela,” Leaping Deer snapped at two of the most boisterous young maidens.
They looked to be all of twelve years old.
“Guide Little Moon into the middle of the creek.”
“Yes, auntie,” they said simultaneously, giggling.
Oh, boy. Here we go with my freezing cold ablutions.
“Robe, off,” Leaping Deer said.
I looked around to make sure the men of the tribe were all occupied—and didn’t see one. So, I let the soft suede robe fall from my shoulders, then removed my dagger from my thigh and set it on the ground.
Chumani and Kimimela stood on either side of me and took my hands. They kept their gazes trained on the ground or each other—never at me—as they led me into the creek.
I gasped as the icy water touched my thighs, hips, and belly.
Chumani and Kimimela giggled, saying, “White woman skin can’t take the cold,” and “She cries like a baby.”
“Chumani and Kimimela!” Leaping Deer snapped from the creek bank. “Show some respect.”
“Yes, auntie,” the girls said, contrite.
“Little Moon, please crouch in the water. The girls will remain standing.”
I crouched, sucking back my gasps of protest at the cold liquid.
“Now, douse her with water while I pray for her soul.”
The two girls exchanged a glance of pure mischief.
Uh oh.My gaze bounced between the impish pair.
“Girls!” Leaping Deer called. “Follow my actions.”
She crouched at the water’s edge and scooped water into her hands. Then, she lifted her hands high. Water dripped between her fingers into the stream. She said, “Wakan Tanka, teach Little Moon how to trust her heart, her mind, her intuition, her inner knowing, the senses of her body, the blessings of her spirit.”
The girls scooped up water similarly and poured it over my head.
I couldn’t help but let out an exclamation.
The girls laughed.
