"You fought?"
"Oh no, I am a healer and I was there to take care of the wounds. The blue coats brought me out there to tend them."
"I see. And will you now be our healer?"
"Yes, the elders have asked me to."
"That is a good thing." His mother acknowledged.
"Did you regret my brother winning the challenge?" Washita asked.
Sasha looked down at the earth beneath her. How could she answer and be honest? "A little, yes. I do not want to lie to you. I have not known your brother long. I couldn't believe he would challenge Big Knife for me."
Cochita and her sister looked at each other.
But their mother shook her head at them. "In her place, you would have felt the same." She scolded them. "She is honest and that is something my son admires greatly."
"I don't think his father likes me much."
"He is a quiet man always. Whether he likes I do not know yet, but he respects you. My son has chosen you to marry among all his own tribe, he has found you. There is a reason. And if love is not between you, it will be someday, or he would never have taken you."
Sasha stared at the old woman and smiled wondering how she could say such a thing.
"It is sometimes hard to turn lose of the past."
"Yes, and you are wise to know it." The woman said. "I think he has chosen well."
Sasha smiled at her.
Later that same day Black Wolf took her around the reservation so she could see where it began and ended.
They stopped at one point and walked their horses. "So, what do you think?" he asked her.
"About what?"
"My family, marrying me, and becoming a Shoshone?"
She leaned against a tree and put one foot up on it as she studied him a moment. "You have a nice family. Your parents are sweet people. I like them. Your brother and Sweet Bear are very nice too."
"I can see Washita and Cochita made a bad impression."
She sighed, "I do not blame them. I am a stranger to them. I must earn their respect. If my brother was to bring a wife from another tribe in, I would be leary too."
He nodded. "I have sprung a surprise on them, and they are angrier with me, than you."
They were silent a long while, "Do you think you can learn to live here in peace and harmony?" He asked her bluntly.
"It would seem I have no choice."
She could tell by his expression he was disappointed in her answer, but it was the truth.
"If I gave you a choice, how would you answer?"
She hung her head and hesitated to speak. Then she blurted. "I'm not sure I can answer that for now."
"You are wise beyond your years. And truthful. I like that about you."
"That's what your mother said. That you appreciate the truth."