01.065 Interlude - Xapaaliia

2 Years Ago - Sunday, April 5, 2020

Crow Territory, Montana, United States

The Crows collected in the lodge.

Isaac had a constant headache. Why he had fasted he didn’t know. Maybe he was a fool just like the others. He didn’t need to be here, just outside the lodge hall in a field nearby, praying to spirits he didn’t believe in.

It wasn’t like the annual ceremonies that the tourists all were kept from. It wasn’t particularly sunny either truth be told. And it was early in the year. The Apsáalooke Chief had made the trip here though, an aging man, tough as nails.

Isaac remembered being an idealist, thinking there had to be a way to reconcile their history and culture with the outside world. But now, he thought that those who had assimilated were forced to choose one or the other, their cultural baggage unpacked and just an overnight bags worth for show. Even the Christians were outsiders out there.

So he fasted and prayed to something. It wasn’t to Akbaatatdia.

He wasn’t gone so far he couldn’t hear the drum. He remembered his childhood, running the fields, hunting frogs and small creatures, his father and mother had lived on the reservation then, together.

The ceremonies and wide-eyed wonder, the Sun Dances of his childhood and those drums.

Maybe he fell asleep.

When he awoke the sun was high overhead. He could feel some drool from his mouth and his fingers and toes were numb.

Dumbass, he thought. The lack of food had knocked him out and he could have frostbite.

He heard a bit of shuffling and when he sat up, he startled the large white bird that had been pecking at him. He looked at the bird and the exposed spot the bird had found on his leg and drawn blood.

“Thank you bird. I suppose I would have died out here.” He wiggled his toes and fingers, all there and feeling was already coming back. “Damn idiot, coulda had frostbite.”

Idiot, the bird agreed which caused him to take a look at the bird again. He didn’t recognize it from elementary school but he hadn’t much cared about birds back then.

“Let me see if I have some food. I owe you that much.”

He checked his pack and all he had was a Snickers for after the Sun Dance.

Well he didn’t hear drums anymore. So it was over. He broke off a piece and tried handing it to the bird.

Idiot. Chocolate is poisonous to birds. You trying to kill me?

Isaac snapped to attention and looked at the bird who went on grumbling, Thirty thousand years locked up by that dummy and I get out and take a flight and learn some stuff. Ah! Here is a human who is doing things the old ways — although you should like chop off a finger or something — and then I land and the dumb human tries to kill me.

“What the fuck?” Isaac scrambled up to his feet.

Do you have pizza? The bird walked over to the pack Isaac had dropped and stuck his head in.

“Am I dreaming?” He said out loud.

The bird looked up, Of course you are.

Isaac shot awake. The drum was still playing and his hands and feet still had feeling. No bird and his snickers bar was intact.

But there was a white feather right next to it.