The target was a piece of wood with chicken feathers imbedded into it.

The night Li'l Fox made the bow, he carried it to just outside the wigwam, after I watched he string it, after measuring the deer tendon and putting loops in each end, he stringed the bow by bending it back against his foot and slipping the second loop in place.

"Come," he said and in a minute we were outside.

I was following Li'l Fox most of the time, but we went no further than the front of the wigwam. It wasn't dark but the sun was gone from the sky. Li'l Fox aimed almost directly over his head and fired the arrow into the sky.

"You hear land. Go get," he said.

I listened and heard the arrow land a few dozen feet away. When I came back with the arrow, Li'l Fox had gone back inside. I went in to sit beside him.

"You take," he said. "Too tight for Li'l Fox."

I'd watched him carefully craft the bow. I watched him increase the tension on the bowstring. The bow was always going to be my bow. I understood that when he brought back the branch that became my bow.

I'd watch Paw do the same thing Li'l Fox did. I'd seen how Li'l Fox strung the bow. I could make a bow now. It might not be a bow as fine as the one he made for me, but, in time, I'd make such a bow. The secret of making arrows was still unknown to me, but I'd watch Li'l Fox make arrows, and I'd make mine.

There had been talk of a deer hunt in the fall. It wouldn't be that much different than when I went off with Paw to get a buck or two. This time we'd be a group of boys going to hunt on the mountain. We hunted on the mountain, because it froze on the mountain first, and you didn't want to take your deer before the first freeze.

I would go on the hunt with the boys from the village. My Hawkin would stay in the wigwam. I intended to go on the deer hunt. I planned to get a buck. I planned to get it with my bow.

Li'l Fox made the target, stood fast fifty feet away. He hit it on his first shot.

"You shoot," he told me.

He handed me a quiver with a dozen or more arrows.

He helped me with how to hold the bow, and he put the first arrow in place so I could hold it against the bowstring. I took careful aim and the arrow went I know not where.

"OK. Plenty arrows," Li'l Fox said and didn't even attempt to find my first errant shot, or the second, third, or fourth.

"Maybe not lose more. Made twenty. Me show again."

Li'l Fox used his bow. He faced me as I stood to one side. He let the arrow go and it embedded in the target in the middle.

"Pull back. Hold. See down arrow. Let arrow go."

His skill with a bow was impressive. I tried to do it exactly like he did it.

I lost two more arrows before I hit the ground a few feet from the target. I wasn't close to the target, but I didn't lose many more arrows. I would go to look for the arrows I did lose, but most were so high in trees, I couldn't reach them.

For three days in a row, we got up before daylight, went to the woods where Li'l Fox hung the target. He'd shoot one arrow into the target and then it was my turn for the next hour, or until we were too hungry to stay longer.

After a week or two of the weather beginning to heat up that spring, I got up without waking little Fox and I carried my bow and the target out to the edge of the forest. I spent a lot of time missing that target. Each morning I went out determined to hit it one time. All I wanted was to put one arrow in the target.

The third week of shooting at the target, I finally hit it. The arrow lodged right in the very bottom where there were no feathers, but I hit it. In another week I hit it twice, three times, and then one morning I put five arrows in the target. I had a little trouble getting the arrow out without ruining the arrowhead.

I decided I'd stand back another ten yards, so I didn't lodge the arrow so deep into the target. Li'l Fox built in extra tension, because he saw I was growing. I was taller than he was by the time he was helping me take my first steps. I was stronger, taller, and built more like Running Horse than the other boys who carried extra weight that rounded them out some. I never carried extra weight.

As I moved back another ten yards, I needed to arc the arrows to get the arrow to go where I wanted. That tension felt almost perfect. I moved ten more feet back, and I hit the target eight out of ten times. I only had ten arrows by this time, and I got Li'l Fox to make several arrows while I watched him.

One morning, I saw Running Horse watching me shoot at the target. I quickly moved back ten more yards to hit the target from almost twice as far from where I started. I took my time, brought down the bow with my arrow into my aiming zone, and I let it fly. It hit the target dead center.

Running Horse had nothing to say about what he'd seen me do. I'd been at it for over two months since Li'l Fox made me the bow, and I was great shooting at a target that didn't move. I wasn't ready to go hunting on my own next, but I began practicing at each distance I'd used before learning how to use the bow.

One morning, it wasn't Running Horse observing me, it was Dark Horse. He'd watched me when I was first walking with Li'l Fox, and we didn't get far from the wigwam. He sat outside the wigwam beside Medicine Woman at times. They watched me as I ran. No one else ran the fields the way I did. There was plenty of activity to keep them fairly slim, but my left leg was stronger than my right leg, and I used running to get them back in good working order.

Li'l Fox watched my target shooting at times. He didn't say anything. He saw me moving the distance between me and the target over and over again. I made a point of using the shorter distance and slowly doubling it. I never went further away than that. It suited the strength of the bow. It suited my strength.

I would go bow hunting with Li'l Fox before it was time to go deer hunting, but it was the deer hunt I was looking forward to. As I felt more confident with my bow, I didn't go out as often. When I went out twice a week, one time Li'l Fox would go with me to monitor my progress. He had little to say to me about it.

"Is good," Li'l Fox said.

I noticed Running Horse watching me during the day when I played the game the Indian boys played. I wasn't particularly skilled at games I hadn't played before, but when a game was similar to the games we played at school, I was able to hold my own.

When I relaxed to take a break from the games, I'd feel Running Horse's eyes on me. As with bow practice, I wanted to look good for him. I didn't feel the need to look my best when Medicine Woman or Dark Horse watched me. For them I wanted to know the game and play on a level with the other boys.

During the heat of summer, we took opportunities to go to the pond to swim and cool off. We fished often and one morning when I joined the boys with Li'l Fox, Running Horse had a target similar to the one I shot at, and he hung it a good distance away.

It might have been a little further back than where Li'l Fox started me.

"I get bows," Li'l Fox told me, bringing back our bows with sufficient arrows.

Once again, Running Horse watched me. I sat off to one side and did not shoot at the target. Running Horse waited for everyone to have a turn, and he walked back ten yards, drawing a line with his moccasin.

Most boys hit the target at the new distance. I watched. Running Horse watched me watching. He drew another line and a few boys dropped out. The boys who went ahead, most put an arrow in the target.

Running Horse hadn't taken his turn either, but he kept moving the distance back for the boys who wanted to try it. Once he reached the spot where I stopped adding distance during my practice, he let two other boys take a turn. Neither of them hit the target.

Running Horse stood on the line he drew, took a single arrow out of his teeth, and he took his time raising his bow, letting it settle down into the area where he was aiming at it, and he let it fly. The arrow took a big arc as it found its way to the target, hitting it dead center.

He turned and smiled at me. He knew what I'd been up to. I knew he knew. I took a single arrow from my quiver, putting it in my teeth as he'd done. I put my toes behind the last line. I put the arrow against the bow string. I did it exactly as Running Horse had done it, bringing my bow down with the arrow ready to fire, I let it go.

It soared in an arc and lodged right next to Running Horse's arrow with a great deal of surprise coming from the other boys who hadn't seen me practicing.

How'd I do that?

No one was surprised by what Running Horse did. He was already the best at everything the boys did. The boys never watched me, but they'd just seen me match Running Horse's skill with a bow.

As we prepared to finish up, Running Horse came to me and put his arm over my shoulder. Li'l Fox, me, and Running Horse walked back to the village.

"Shoot plenty good," Running Horse said, leaning his lips close to my ear.

A chill ran through me as he came so close. I wasn't sure Running Horse approved of me being with his best friend all the time.

"You shoot plenty good too," I repeated.

He laughed.

I got my griz. I fell. One of my lives ended and a new one took its place. From the first days with Li'l Fox, things I couldn't have imagined happened to me. The entire experience seemed like a dream. I'd been in the village for over six months, and I felt as if I'd lived there all my life.

Learning what I learned, I knew going on a hunt and bringing back a buck would go over well with the people who would eat from the buck I kilt. While it was too early to think of the hunt, it wasn't too early to prove that I could use a bow as well as anyone there.

Lone Wolf was the only warrior left in the village next to the stream on the far side of the mountain. He put Running Horse in charge of the hunt. It was up to Running Horse to lead the next warriors who lived in the village.

I was told that Lone Wolf was no longer well enough to see to it that warriors knew how to fight and hunt for the village. He'd be in any fight that required him. He' follow Running Horse.

The entire village heard Lone Wolf replace himself with Running Horse. An official ceremony that had Running Horse and Lone Wolf standing together as the torch was passed to the next generation.

This was good. I felt closer to Running Horse since he'd seen me use a bow. He knew my skill was acquired recently, and he could do what he did with his arrow, every time he shot an arrow. For me, it had been a lucky shot. I was full of what boys at school called piss and vinegar.