Jared leaned into him and kissed him long and gently. When he broke the kiss, Jared looked into Liam's beautiful blue eyes. "Liam, I love you unconditionally. I am not complete without you in my life. I love you."
Liam started to cry again. "I don't deserve you, Jared."
Jared stood and led Liam to the bedroom. He helped Liam get undressed and crawl into bed. Jared quickly undressed and crawled into bed behind Liam, spooning him. With his arms wrapped around Liam, he whispered into his ear, "I love you, Liam."
"Jared, I am the most fortunate man on the planet to have met you. I love you so very much," Liam whispered back.
"Let's go to sleep and see what the next day brings, Liam. Good night, my love." Jared kissed the back of Liam's head.
Liam bent his head down and kissed Jared's arm wrapped around his chest. "I love you, Jared. Thank you." Liam was exhausted and fell asleep quickly.
While Jared was waiting for Liam to fall into a deep sleep, he thought about the crisis with Liam's inability to deal with the death and suffering he saw as a paramedic. It had become obvious to him that the real root of the problem for Liam was the suppressed memories of his parents' deaths. He blamed himself for their deaths, and in this context he was blaming himself for the deaths of some of the patients.
When Jared was sure of Liam sleeping soundly, he gently moved away from him and got out of bed. He went to his smudging room and kneeled before the bench. After chanting prayers, lighting candles and the smudge bundle, he cleansed himself with the sacred smoke. After cleaning himself, he placed the bundle back into the bowl.
"Creator, guide my hands to do your work. Liam has a heart and spirit which needs to be mended for him to continue on his pathway in life. I sense good things from this man. He has a potential to achieve great things in his life and to help many, many people. He lives for his job as a paramedic and his real potential to make a difference."
"Creator, I have promised you, and I have kept my word that I would never use your gift for personal gain or reward. I am conflicted because I know I can help Liam, but I love him and I believe it would be for my benefit. I need your guidance, Creator—what am I to do?" Jared continued to kneel and look into the flames of the candles in front of him.
"Creator, my heart hurts for Liam with a pain I have never experienced before. My head hurts thinking of him. My soul longs for him when we are separate. My loneliness and pain all disappear when I am with him. I cannot allow him to continue on this path to destruction." Jared reached out and turned his palms upward. "I offer my life and spirit to you, Creator, in exchange for Liam's broken heart and spirit being healed. I do this freely, I do this for love, and I do this to heal that man."
Jared had tears slowly leaking from his water-filled eyes, leaving a wet trail down his cheeks before they dropped off and onto the floor.
Jared brought his hands back towards him and positioned them on his legs. Suddenly, the smudge bundle lit itself and started to smoke. Jared looked at it and suddenly knew what to do. He picked it up with the eagle feather and ran to the bedroom. When he looked at the bed, Liam was still sleeping. Jared pulled the sheet back and saw that Liam was lying on his back with arms and legs spread slightly.
Jared took the smudging bundle and, using the eagle feather, directed the smoke over Liam's body from head to toe. When done, Jared stood back and looked at Liam. Usually the smudge smoke spreads out and up throughout the room. This time it was noticeably different to Jared. The smoke seemed to be hanging in the air, clinging close to Liam. As he was watching, the smoke seemed to take on a slight glow, growing until it was giving a white light to the room.
Jared noticed the smoke moving around Liam's head. It then became obvious that Liam was inhaling the sacred smoke as he breathed in. Liam's body began to glow slightly, commencing with his head. The glow spread down into his chest and abdomen. As the glow had passed Liam's shoulders, it had split and began traveling down each arm to his fingertips. Now the glow had reached Liam's hips and once again split into each leg, progressing until the tops of his toes were glowing.
The glow intensified as it encompassed Liam's entire body. Jared saw a dark shadow rise up out of Liam's body and was sucked up into the heavens. After what felt like hours but in reality was only a few seconds, the glow and the sacred smoke which had been clinging to Liam's body was gone. Jared pulled the sheet back up, covering Liam's sleeping form.
Jared returned to the smudging room and kneeled while placing the bundle in the bowl. His eyes were moist, knowing he had witnessed the Creator at work. He also knew it was time to forfeit his life and spirit to the Creator as he had promised. Jared chanted and prayed, entering into a trance.
While in the trance, he had a vision. Jared was seeing the same vision of the bear, the eagle and the wolves he had seen previously. The difference this time was a buffalo had joined the group.
"I am very proud of your willingness to serve," the buffalo said to the bear. He continued speaking to the bear and revealed to him that the eagle would be his partner, and together they would serve him well as a team. He knew the eagle's spirit was not well and it would be healed. He must have the eagle and bear together to serve him well.
"The offer of your life force to heal the eagle was the act of ultimate sacrifice for love, but I will not accept it," the buffalo revealed to the bear. "It is time to start teaching the knowledge to the eagle. The eagle has the gift within him from many generations ago, but it needs to be brought out from within him. The sacred smoke has brought it forward, but he still needs to be taught how to use it."
When the buffalo had finished speaking, he lifted his head up and let loose with a series of grunts, a loud reverberating mooing sound while pawing the ground. The wolves entered the sweat lodge, followed by the bear with the eagle on his shoulder, and finally the buffalo entered as well.
Jared could see into the sweat lodge and the animals had taken up position around the sacred rocks inside. Jared could also see the shadows of humans, almost a crowd size, inside the sweat lodge, but he couldn't see them clearly enough to identify them. Jared came out of the trance at this point.