For today’s sample scene, I thought I’d choose a dream that Citlali has in Bound by Honor, Bound by Love.

The dream has a couple layers in it that has to do with some of my research of the Mandan Indians.  Since I wasn’t able to describe the meaning behind this dream in my book (because that would break the flow of the story), I will give the meaning behind it in my next post.  😀

Citlali closed his eyes and waited for Onawa to come to him.  Seconds turned into minutes, and by the time a half hour had passed, he gave up counting the seconds.  She was in no hurry to see him, and who could blame her?  He was lucky she bothered coming back to his lodge at all.

He finally drifted off into a fitful sleep.  In it, he caught images of an impregnable wall that circled the entire village.  All full-blooded Mandans were locked inside, and Onawa was unable to see Julia, Woape, her nieces, and her father.  She tried to climb the wall to get outside, but when that didn’t work, she dug a hole until she reached the underground tribe of Mandans who never made it to the surface of the earth.  They showed her a passage that took her above the ground, and the Lone Man led her to the river where a large sacred bundle led her to the people she loved.

Woape and her father and nieces were all white.  Their heritage had been removed from them, and Onawa took the corn from the sacred bundle and it transformed her into a white woman.  She gave birth to a white child.  Woape asked who the father was.  Onawa said the chief of the white man was the father, adding that she loved him.  When Woape asked about Citlali, Onawa said she never knew someone by that name.

At that point, Citlali woke up, his heart pounding loudly in his ears.  He had no idea how long he slept, but beside him, the bed was still empty.