Under the Ice

Fortunately, they still had walrus meat left over from his last kill, so they could travel without the time-consuming chore of stopping to hunt.

Arnuk, his lead dog, seemed to sense the importance of this journey, and led the pack onward with untiring effort. Still not certain what, if anything, they’d find at the end of this trek, Ootah chose their course by dead reckoning. Perpetually etched in his mind’s eye was the fiery exploding wheel he had watched soar through the dawn sky, and the resonant, earsplitting boom that had shaken even the pack ice beneath him. Thus, he needed no white man’s compass to lead them onward.

The fractured ice made their progress slow, and whenever Ootah’s doubts clouded this mission’s purpose, he had only to touch the bone amulet that hung from his neck. Carved by the hands of Anoteelik, his grandfather, this sacred charm inspired Ootah to push on. For how could he ever forget the horrifying nightmare he had shared with Nakusiak?

During this dream, his mother had journeyed from the land of the dead to warn of the great evil that would soon be upon them. Surely this vision was a presentiment of things to come, for Nakusiak’s body was still warm in his grave when the very sign he had warned of filled the dawn sky with a fiery brilliance.

The tales of the grandfathers told of this very same event. And if the time of prophecy was indeed upon them, it was now up to Ootah to appease the great evil that had fallen from the sky and been subsequently released in the frozen land of the people. This responsibility was a great one, and Ootah did not take it lightly. For to fail meant utter calamity, as the land would be cleansed with fire and the people would be no more.

Try as he could, Ootah had valiantly tried to keep his thoughts pure ones. But he was only a man, and as such was subject to the weaknesses that each and every member of his species shared.

Consigning himself to do his best, Ootah relentlessly pushed his team further up the coastline. A vicious wind began blowing in from the north, and when a line of black clouds began gathering on the horizon, he knew that a storm would soon be upon them. A moment of indecision followed, in which Ootah was caught between halting and immediately building a snow house or continuing on to reach his mysterious goal. As the fates would have it, it was Arnuk’s incessant barking that convinced Ootah to push the sled onto the ridge of the next ice hummock.

With the storm continuing to develop on his left, he looked out onto a massive snow-covered plateau located at the very edge of the frozen sea.

Scattered throughout this plain were thousands of bits of fire-charred debris. And at that moment, Ootah knew that his pilgrimage was over.

Their first priority was to build a snow house

Ootah, Akatingwah and their son joined in to help with the construction of this domed structure in which they would ride out the rapidly advancing storm. Ootah planned to begin his exploration of the debris field that surrounded them as soon as the igloo was completed. Yet no sooner was the last rectangular block in place than the blizzard was upon them.

Rushing outside, Ootah began to work on a windbreak for his dogs. The snow was falling thickly by this time, and as he hurried to complete building this protective barrier, it was Arnuk’s mad yelping that convinced him to temporarily abandon his efforts and see what was upsetting his lead huskie so.

Ootah loosened Arnuk’s tether and the dog went dashing out onto the plain. The snow was falling so heavily that Ootah lost sight of the huskie in a matter of seconds. Yet knowing full well that Arnuk would not run away like this on a mere whim, Ootah reluctantly trudged out into the gathering drifts to see where the dog had run.

The howling gusts penetrated even his double262 thick caribou fur parka, and Ootah was set to abandon his quest when Arnuk came bounding through the snow. After briefly nuzzling his master’s legs, Arnuk once again turned away from the campsite.

Yet this time the huskie proceeded at such a pace that Ootah could readily follow him.

After climbing up a jagged ice-filled ridge, the Inuit was in the process of questioning his dogs’ sanity when the alien flash of a blinking light suddenly caught his attention. Emanating from the opposite base of the ridge he had just scaled, this flickering light had an intense reddish glow to it, and easily cut through the falling snowflakes. Arnuk could be seen furiously pawing into the adjoining drift, and Ootah decided that this mysterious object certainly deserved a closer look.

Paying little attention to the bone-chilling winds, the Inuit slid down the ridge and approached the blindingly bright light that continued flashing in short staccato blasts. With Arnuk’s help, Ootah merely had to kneel down and lift the now-uncovered object out of the drift it had been buried in.