Under the shadow of gray clouds, three children venture into the woods, where they spot the corpse of an old man.  Suddenly, a wild figure emerges, with long fingernails and tangled hair.  It is the hattakfullih nipi foni, the bone picker, who comes to tear off rotting flesh with his fingernails. Only the older Choctaws will speak of him.  The gruesome bone picker is just one of many creatures, scary and mysterious, who lurk behind every page of this spine-tingling collection of Native fiction, written by award-winning Choctaw author Devon A. Mihesuah.  Choctaw lore features a large pantheon of deities.  These entities created the first people, taught them how to hunt, and warned them of impending danger.  Their stories are not meant simply to entertain: each entity has a purpose in its behavior and a lesson to share - to those take heed.