05 - The Last of the Mohawks : The wind changes
Story index at the bottom
By David
Friday, July 14th 2006 - 08:56:30 AM
The Last of the Mohawks
Part 2: The wind changes.
I watched Tangle Foot jog off to join his fellows, leaving me alone to the quiet woods and my thoughts. I had never been tied up like this before, and even though I only had ropes on my wrists and ankles, I felt completely helpless. And because I was bare to the waist I felt horribly vulnerable. I got a taste of the terror that a real Mohawk captive must have felt when he was stretched out naked on a frame and waiting for torture.
I listened to the sounds of the woods. For about fifteen minutes I heard only birds and animals. Off to my left I recognized the slow hollow drumming of a pileated woodpecker working its way from tree to tree towards the glade. Then it flew across the opening and landed on the trunk of a dead pine in good view. Forgetting everything else, I watched in fascination as it worked the trunk for several minutes and then moved on. Those who love the forest are never alone there.
After the woodpecker vanished, I again became acutely aware that I was tied up spread eagle on a torture frame. A few minutes later I heard shouting off in the direction Tangle Foot had run. Then silence again. Then I heard people coming through the woods, talking and laughing, not trying to hide their presence or their numbers. This was not a good sign.
Through gaps in the undergrowth I spotted a line of warriors approaching the glade. They were all shirtless, so I assumed they were Mohawks. But the third in line did not have war paint on his body. As they came closer I saw it was Mario. He walked with his hands behind his back, and I saw ropes circling his waist.
Five warriors came into the glade: the four Mohawks and Mario. At least André still roamed free. He was our only hope, but what could he do against so many?
They led Mario to the stake nearest to the torture frame and me, where they untied him. With four Mohawk warriors surrounding him, he didn't even try to fight. Shadow Warrior and Tangle Foot backed him against the stake and held his arms behind it while Running Deer tied his crossed wrists. He then used more rope to tie Mario's elbows back against the stake, and he wrapped some ropes from his elbows across his chest and over his shoulders binding his body tightly to the stake. He then spiraled a long rope down his body, tying him with extra turns at the waist, knees and ankles. When Running Deer had finished binding Mario, Lone Wolf stood in front of him, gloating over his new captive. Mario was so firmly tied up to the stake he could barely move.
"What is your name, Abenaki?" Lone Wolf asked as he tossed Mario's shirt on the grass beside him.
Mario scowled at him. "You know it's Mario. Are you dumb or what?"
"I meant your Indian name."
Mario was silent for a moment, because he still hadn't settled on his Indian name as André and I had. Then he said "Hosmigotcha." I had never heard that one before.
"Interesting. What does it mean?"
"It's about a great adventure I had. One day my father's horse ran away, so I tracked it for many miles. At last I found it grazing on clover in a meadow where I stalked up to it and lassoed it. Then I said to the horse, "Hoss, me got ya!"
Lone Wolf laughed. "So, we have Graylock and Hosmigotcha, if that really is your name."
"It is."
"But there was another one, a yellow haired warrior. What's his name?"
"André."
"His Indian name." Lone wolf spoke with a sigh, as though the questioning were becoming tedious.
"Like I said, it's André. He's a half-breed. You saw his blond hair. He calls himself André DuBois. He says that it means André of the woods."
"So, he thinks he's a pretty good woodsman, huh?"
"You better believe it. And you guys had better watch out. Whenever you're alone in the forest, watch your back. He can take you any time he wants."
Lone Wolf laughed loudly at that, and I saw his clenched fist fly towards Mario's face, but he stopped it an inch before it would hit and just pushed Mario's jaw aside gently. "I like you, Hosmigotcha. You've got spunk. I'll give you the honor of proving it when we torture you, and maybe we'll adopt you into our tribe. Would you like to become a Mohawk warrior?"
Mario thought for a moment, and must have realized that a little diplomacy could save himself a lot of grief. "Maybe. I'll know when the time comes."
"Good." Lone Wolf sauntered over to me and walked around me in silence, inspecting my bonds. Then he gave me a hard slap on my butt and said, "So, Graylock. How does it feel to be a Mohawk prisoner?"
"I can handle it."
"We'll see about that. Practice your death song while we hunt down André, because after we bring him in, you will have to sing it."
He returned to Mario and told him that he should practice his death song too, but reminded him that if he showed great bravery under torture, they would adopt him into the tribe.
"I can hardly wait," Mario said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "I hate to miss out on anything. Are you going to whack my butt too?" Larry chuckled and gave him a slap on the buttock, but not half as hard as the one I got.
"OK braves, let's get this over with," Lone Wolf said. "There's only one enemy left, and a half-breed at that. I think we've made enough noise to attract him. Shadow warrior, you hide in the woods where you can watch our prisoners. If you see André sneaking in to rescue them, give a yell and tackle him and hang onto him until we get here. The rest of us will set up an ambush in case he comes down the road like Hosmigotcha did."
They left the camp and when they were out of earshot I said to Mario, "Hosmigotcha? Where did that come from?"
"It's just something I heard somewhere. Call me Mario."
"Okay Mario, do you think you can get loose?"
He struggled against his ropes and said, "I doubt it. How about you?"
The ropes gripped my wrists tightly and the knots were out of reach of my fingers. I yanked on the pole but it was white ash and too strong for me to break. I could not slide my hands together. I stood there bound and helpless.
I tried to make the best of the situation. "This is some adventure, isn't it?†I said to Mario. "Being tied up like real Indian prisoners waiting to be tortured."
"It's different," he said, and then looked at me with a grin. "Have you got your death song?"
I had one that I had made up out of phrases I took from a book on Indian languages that I got at the library. It had Sioux and Mandan and Ojibwa all mixed up in it, but it sounded pretty good and no one would know. "Yeah, how about you?"
"I think I'll just chant some Latin. André and you will know, but the Mohawks won't." I knew what he was talking about. Our guys were all from the north end and altar boys at St. Michael's. The Mohawks came from the other side of the tracks, the middle and south end of town, and were Baptists and Congregationalists. An Indian death song or a Latin chant would be all the same to them.
We fell silent, and then in the quiet woods I heard the call of a white-throated sparrow: "Old-Sam-Peabody Peabody Peabody". I knew it was André. You sometimes heard them at this elevation during the spring migration, but never in summer when they were in the high mountain forests.
Scanning the woods in the direction of the sound, I saw André's head peeking out from behind a small hemlock. When he had my eye he started asking questions in sign language. I responded by either casually lowering my head or turning it aside for "yes" or "no" in case Shadow Warrior could see me. Within a few minutes André knew there was one guard watching us, and he knew roughly where that guard was hidden. His head disappeared. A few minutes later I heard rustling in the woods and a muffled cry.
A few minutes after that, André trotted into the glade leading Shadow Warrior by a rope that bound the Mohawk's wrists behind his back. He hitched his prisoner to the stake next to Mario, then drew his hunting knife and cut away Mario's bonds, freeing him quickly, as the enemy could return at any moment. Then he ran over and cut me loose.
"It's a waste of good rope," he said. "But at least it's Mohawk rope. Get your shirt and let's go."
Mario and I grabbed our shirts, André unhitched Shadow Warrior, and the four of us dashed into the woods as fast as our prisoner could run with his hands tied behind him.
We kept going for a couple of minutes until we figured we were safe, and then sat under a tree to catch our breath.
As Mario and I put our shirts back on I looked at Shadow Warrior and asked, "how come you didn't yell?"
"André sort of twisted my arm and made me promise scout's honor not to yell."
"Sort of?"
"Well, okay, he really put the pressure on. It hurt like hell."
"Sorry about that," André said, "but I was desperate."
"That's okay. In a way, I'm glad you took me prisoner. At least I get away from Larry's bull for a while."
"You mean Lone Wolf?"
"Hah! He's really going to be a Lone Wolf if he keeps it up. He takes it all too seriously. Why can't we just have fun?"
"So it was his idea for you guys to sneak up and capture us today?" I asked.
"Yeah. He's still brooding over the way you beat him down on the Lemon Fair and made us all sign articles. I told him we promised no more sneak attacks, but he said that only held for the river and pirate stuff. Jim wouldn't have anything to do with it. I guess I went along with it because I'm just a weak tagalong. Another loser like Larry."
"No you're not," Mario said. "You've got something Larry will never have. How would you like it if we adopted you into our tribe?"
"Can you do that?" he asked.
"Sure, just like Lone Wolf said he might adopt me. All you have to do is show bravery under torture, and then we adopt you."
"Uh, I don't know. What kind of torture?" He looked at us a little leery.
"Tickling!" Mario shouted, and pounced on him, running his fingers up and down Shadow Warrior's sides. Shadow Warrior laughed and kicked his legs spastically. Then André sat on his thighs and I pulled off his moccasins and tickled the soles of his feet.
After three or four minutes of that, we stopped the torture, and Shadow Warrior lay on the ground laughing softly and breathing hard. I saw tears running down his cheeks.
"Do you think you'll live?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'll live."
"Will you join our tribe?"
"Yes, I'll join."
"Scout's honor?" André asked.
"Yes, scout's honor. But that isn't necessary."
I untied his hands and Shadow Warrior sat rubbing his wrists. "I get to have a new name, right? I hate "Shadow Warrior". It sounds like I'm a spook or something."
"So why did you pick it?" Mario asked.
"I didn't. Larry, or I should say Lone Wolf, makes all the decisions. I told him it was a stupid name, but he said he liked it, and that was that."
"Well, that explains one thing," I said.
"What's that?"
"Why Steve is called Tangle Foot. Lone Wolf's idea, right?"
"You got it. So, anyway, my new name is Fox because I was smart enough to leave his stupid tribe. And now that we've got four warriors and he's only got three, let's take him down."
The four of us returned to the Mohawk camp and did a circuit of it in the woods to make sure no enemy lurked nearby. The area seemed deserted, so Lone Wolf was still waiting in ambush. That made sense because he had only been gone for less than half an hour.
"I've got an idea," Fox said. "Tie me to a stake, and then hide up in the woods. I'll yell for help and when they get here they'll all gather around me to untie me and hear my story. I'll tell them André shagged me and that I saw you all run away. While I have them distracted, you guys run in as quietly as you can. Each of you tackles a Mohawk and holds him tight. I'll help whoever's got Lone wolf and we'll tie him up first. The rest should be easy."
We went into the clearing and Fox stood against a stake with his wrists crossed behind it. I started to tie them loosely. "You can get out of this easily if you have to," I said.
"No. Tie me up for real. They have to believe I'm a prisoner."
"What if we run in and you are still tied and can't get free?"
"Yeah, right." Fox thought for a moment and said, "once I'm free I'll wave my hands around like I'm all excited. When you see that, then you charge."
So I tied Fox up firmly, binding his wrists behind the post. I didn't tie his feet however or wrap any other ropes around him. Then we scattered and hid in the woods at the edge of the glade. Fox called loudly for help, and kept on calling until the three Mohawk warriors came running into the glade.
"What happened?" Lone Wolf asked as he approached the bound warrior.
"André snuck up on me and jumped me before I realized he was there."
"And you didn't call for help?"
"I tried to. I really did. But he clamped a hand over my mouth, and he also got me in an arm lock. He really put on the pressure, and it hurt like crazy. I had to promise scout's honor not to yell."
"And you just let him do it?"
"Hey, he surprised me and he's stronger than me. What could I do?"
"You could have yelled sooner. You seemed to have forgotten your scout's honor once they were gone."
"André let me shout after they left so you would come and untie me. I never broke scout's honor."
So far, every word that Fox had spoken was the truth.
"Well, I think maybe you could have fought a little harder. I should leave you tied to that stake for letting us down. Unfortunately, all three of them are on the loose now. We need you for battle. Untie him, Running Deer."
"Thanks," Fox said.
"But I'm not going to forget this, Shadow Warrior. I'll deal with you after we've captured the Abenaki. Which way did they go?"
"The last I saw of them, each one was running off in a different direction."
I watched as Running Deer untied the ropes, and when I saw Fox waving his arms excitedly, I trotted softly from my cover. André and Mario ran into the glade also. We had not gotten far when Running Deer shouted "Look out! It's an ambush!"
The three turned to face us and stood ready to meet our charge, but that was okay. I tackled Running Deer, Mario got Tangle Foot, and André pulled Lone Wolf to the ground.
As I wrestled with Running Deer I saw Fox run over to André and Lone Wolf with a rope. In an instant it struck me. Everybody's fate depended on Fox. I had a good hold on Running Deer, but by the same token he had a solid grip on me. Neither of us could easily get away. Mario and André were in similar straits.
If Fox helped André take Lone wolf prisoner, then we were fine. But if Fox were only tricking us and helped Lone Wolf, then we three Abenakis would wind up tied to stakes by the fire ring.
I saw Fox jump into the melee, and waited to see where his loyalty was.
As I watched the squirming heap formed by Fox, André and Lone Wolf, all I could see was a tangle of bodies, arms, and legs, and a rope snaking around. I could not tell who was tying up whom. Then, over the scuffling and grunts of the struggle, I heard the shout "traitor!"
(Part 3 to follow)
David
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David's stories
- 01 - The Battle of the Lemon Fair : Mario is taken hostage (m+/m)
- 02 - The Battle of the Lemon Fair : The best laid plans of mice and men (m+/mm)
- 03 - The Battle of the Lemon Fair : Into the enemy camp (m+/m+)
- 04 - The Last of the Mohawks : Captured (m+/m)
- 05 - The Last of the Mohawks : The wind changes (m+/mm, m/m)
- 06 - The Last of the Mohawks : Traitor (m+/mmm)
- 07 - Pestered by Mario (m/m)
Index of all stories in the "Archive for Everyone" section