Looking up at Jackson, Maximus murmured, “As you probably guessed, the woman died in the storm trying to find her way back to the house. It’s hard to imagine a storm so fierce that humans can’t see their hands even if they’re a foot away from their faces. But that’s what it was like that night.”
“Why would she go out on a night like that?” asked Jackson. “Certainly, she must have known it was risky.”
“She was a pioneer woman…they’re made of sturdy stock, and besides, the animals were important for their survival. They always relied on a snow rope that ran from the house to the barn to keep them from losing their way during the white-outs that regularly occurred during blizzards. She reached the barn and, after making sure their cows were not in trouble, headed back to the house. But on the way, a vicious gust of wind knocked her down and she lost her grip on the rope.
“After struggling to get up, she could no longer see her lifeline. Panicking, she called out for her husband, but her voice was carried away by the wind. As the bitter cold enveloped her, she headed in what she thought was the direction of the house, but never made it. Her husband found her in the morning, frozen to death.
“From that point on, Reeve’s life went from one filled with love to another filled with hate. Irrational with grief, his father placed the blame for his wife’s death on him and made his life a living hell. Where previously he had plenty to eat, his father began to starve him. His hatred grew for the boy his wife loved and, seeking other forms of punishment, he kept Reeve locked in thecellar for days on end or hung him from a beam in the barn until he fainted.”
“Why didn’t Reeve’s animal kill the man? Surely any human, even if he had a gun, wasn’t a match for a buffalo.”
“White buffalos are rare among the animal kingdom…but a white buffalo shifter? Well…there never was one before Reeve and he didn’t shift for the first time until he turned ten.”
“I bet that was a fucking shock to his ‘father’ when it happened,” Jackson muttered.
“It was a bigger surprise to Reeve who knew nothing about shifters. The first time it happened, he was alone in the barn, feeding the cows. His animal felt Reeve’s fear and shifted back quickly, leaving the boy with all fours on the ground and his clothes torn to pieces. Fortunately, the next day, it happened again, and his animal explained who he was and warned him that he was in danger.
“After shifting back, Reeve hurried to the house and packed his few belongings, hoping to escape, but it was too late. Unknown to Reeve, his ‘father’ had seen him shift the first time.
“Ordering Reeve outside, he snapped an iron collar around his neck and locked it. Connecting a chain, he hauled Reeve over to the barn, threw him into a stall, and told him that was his new home. After his father left, Reeve tried to free himself but couldn’t…nor could he shift because the collar made it impossible.”
“How old was Reeve when you found him?”
“Twelve. For two years the man kept him locked up, but that didn’t stop the beatings. There were many nights hecried himself to sleep, cursing his animal for making his life worse.” Maximus fell silent again, lost in his memories for a moment. “Whenever a white buffalo appears on earth, many believe it foretells change, and so it was when Reeve’s buffalo finally revealed itself. The rains stopped, crops failed, livestock died of thirst, the sunbaked soil turned to dust and was swirled away by the winds.
“Without any explanation of why his green fields had become arid, the man again blamed Reeve. And, in part, he was right, but not in the way he thought. According to the legend I read, the White Buffalo is connected to Mother Earth, and how one treats him is reflected in how nature reacts.”
“So the worse Reeve’s father treated him, the worse the conditions on earth became,” Jackson said.
“Yes, exactly. That’s why Mystia and I found the earth nearly bare of vegetation. During the two years the man kept Reeve locked up, his farm, along with the rest of the planet, paid an enormous price for his treatment of the White Buffalo. No matter how much the man tried, nothing would grow in the soil.
“After becoming very drunk one night, he was certain all his troubles had begun when Reeve joined him and his wife. In his crazed state of mind, he believed everything would be restored to the way it was if he killed the boy.”
“And that’s when you found Reeve,” Jackson murmured
“Yes. We barely got to him in time. That morning, the farmer had taken Reeve from the barn and put him in a wagon before driving out to the furthest corner of his farm. There, he set the two posts into the ground andtied Reeve to them. Over the next several hours, he whipped the boy until there wasn’t an inch of his skin that wasn’t cut. Climbing back into his wagon, he drove off, leaving Reeve to die.”
“What happened after you cut him down?” Jackson asked, softly.
“Mystia whisked us home and summoned a shifter doctor to treat him. He stayed with us for several years, slowly recovering his health and coming to terms with who he really was. Then, when he was ready, Mystia found him a tutor. When he turned eighteen, he left us to attend college. He and I have been friends ever since the day I found him.”
“When did he join the High Council?” asked Jackson.
“Shortly after he graduated from college. After the suffering he experienced during his childhood, he was determined to prevent other shifter children from going through what he had,” Maximus replied.
Leaning back in his chair, Jackson thought about everything he’d learned and while it explained a lot, there were still some unanswered questions. “Do you know about Reeve’s connection to Smokey?”
Nodding slowly, Maximus replied, “I learned of it back when he first met Smokey at the agency’s training program for new recruits.”
“Reeve told you who he was, but didn’t tell Smokey?”
“Smokey hadn’t accepted his true self and, until he did, Reeve was not allowed to say anything about it to him.”
“Why not?”
“The Great Spirit forbade it…and it nearly broke Reeve, who had waited so long to find Smokey.”
“I wonder why,” Jackson mused.
