Just as Timpoochee was recounting the story, a rush of wind and a flutter of wings captured Rising Fawn’s attention.
“Timpoochee, my love!” she exclaimed, pointing up the hillside. “A giant gugusta, the wood pecker!”
Skittish as they are, the woodpecker immediately launched off further into the woods and out of sight.
“That’s reassuring,” Timpoochee said. “Good medicine with those creatures. Do you think that was the flutter heard by the seven with the box containing the daughter of the sun?”
“I don’t know,” Rising Fawn said.
“The seven men didn’t know, either,” Timpoochee said. “But they continued their journey home and when the arrived and opened the box for the sun, her daughter was not in it.
“The sun had been happy when the men started their journey but when they returned without her daughter she was very upset and cried and cried for days and flooded the land with her tears, a great flood and people were afraid the world would be drowned.
“She would not come out of her daughter’s house and the world was dark and flooding so the people held another council and decided to send their most handsome young women and men to dance and amuse her.
“But nothing worked. No matter how handsome were the young people and how much they delighted in the dance the sun would not come out of her daughter’s house and the world became darker and even more flooded.”