Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: North (05/05/16)
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TITLE: Turn Around | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
05/08/16 -
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Thormond stroked his chest-length, golden beard and watched a herd of caribou push through chest-deep snow drifts. He tugged his beaverskin parka tighter around his ears. “Uncle, is this the instinct which pushes you to explore the frontiers for our people? Which is ridiculous? To believe in the writings of an ancient book or to believe that a thousand-thousand rainbows dancing in a sky could be the outer edges of the throne of our Creator?”
The weather-worn hunter raised his bow and stretched it toward the herd. “Nephew, we’ve followed these beasts for days and still they keep ahead of us. You claim they move toward some mysterious celestial lights in the night. Tonight I will resist my rest and see this sight for myself.”
“Remember the writings from the book called Revelation.” Thormond pointed northward. “A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.”
“An emerald rainbow? And what colors did you say you saw?”
“What I saw was more like a living rainbow. It moved like a snake escaping a mongoose, ribbons of yellow, green, purple, red.”
“I should never have listened to that brother of mine.” Demeclees lowered his bow and peered back at the last traces of distant scrubland. The tundra spread out in an endless emptiness of white.
The caribou had cleared a small section of moss and lichens near his foot. It was how they survived, moving the snow and nibbling the plant-life clear to the ground. One last dwarf shrub poked through the snow nearby.
“That father of yours sits on the ice skinning seals and leaves me to chase the dreams of his son. I will give you this one last night to show me the glory of your Creator.”
“The trapper said he once saw the lights far to the north when he tracked a fox. It was right before the great war.”
“Is this the same mumbling fool who told us he had seen the glory of the Roman goddess Aurora?” Demeclees adjusted his crude snow shoes and started after the caribou. “Creator? Goddess? Has the whole world gone insane? We are all there is.”
Thormond pulled at his beard again and smiled. “He is no fool, my uncle. He met with Inuit hunters who told him that the lights were the spirits of the animals they hunted – the spirits of seals, salmon, deer and whales. One of those Inuit said they were the spirits of mighty hunters. Every person who has seen these lights know they reflect the realm of God.”
Demeclees shouldered his bow and turned away from the caribou. “I’m sure it was nothing more than a fire, perhaps a large group of warriors preparing for battle.”
The sun slipped toward the horizon and Thormond began the task of preparing a snow-block shelter to protect the explorers from the increasing bitter winds.
“Are you sure we have gone far enough?” Democlees questioned. “I promised you this would be my last night pursuing this quest.”
“It is far enough,” Thormond said as he packed another snow-block in place. “Tonight, we will see the star-fires of the gods that light up the night but we shall also see the glory of the Creator who is over them all.”
The older explorer unwrapped his seal-skin pack and tossed a piece of pemiccan to his nephew. “Your aunt Sasmay made this herself as the reward for your discovery. I told her we would only find the wind if the wolves didn’t eat us first.”
Thormond stooped and picked up the treasure from the indent in the snow. “What secrets lie in this reward?”
“If I knew the secrets of every woman’s food there would be little reason to hurry home. I could make it myself. It is the taste of the north – try to guess what you taste.”
Thormond tore off a morsel with his teeth and savoured it. “Moose, not caribou or bison; the fat of a seal, not a whale; the berries from the plains of the buffalo. This is what I taste.”
“Don’t tell your aunt that you have such a fine tongue. She will never agree to match you with our Shamas after this trip. Now, it is dark. Where is your Creator’s throne?”
“Uncle, turn around to the north and see.”
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