by
Ruth
I wrote this story when we were studying Baffin Island away in the north as part of our weather project at school. My teacher gave me a subject but I wrote the story myself. On Baffin Island it is always icy and most people live on fresh seal and caribou meat. Their water is brought daily so it doesn't freeze in the pipes."
oming Sari answered her father's call. She had been playing with her friends but now she ran to the Sled. "Will we hunt the seals today?" She asked.Her father nodded. "Yes but we had better start right away." he said, "I don't like the feel of this wind." Sari knew what he meant. She was uneasy about the wind too. It was not like the usual wind. That could be fierce and hard, this wind was almost bitter. It seeped into corners usually sheltered and the cruel way it blew made her flesh crawl. It was as if it were searching for something, something to destroy, to devour.
Pulling herself together Sari put on a brave face." Yes she said I 'll come right away. I'll just say goodbye to the others. While her father loaded the sled Sari told the others she was going hunting."Lucky!" They all said. They longed to go and hunt with their fathers but the Inuit families only allowed men to hunt. The others all had brothers to go instead of them so they were not allowed. Sari had no brothers so she must go with her father. Father needed help to bring in the heavy animals and they needed the animals for clothes and food. When everything was ready the set out, the sled whizzing over the frozen sea. Finally they stopped and Sari and her father got out. Together they cut a hole in the ice. The seals swimming below would come up to breathe and they would kill them and pull them out of the ice. Mostly they got one or two but sometimes none. Today there were none. Sari forgot her uneasiness in her excitement and begged to stay till they caught one, but her father had been glancing at the sky the whole time and now he refused to stay any longer." This is storm weather Sari." he told her "We must get back before it hits. Then Sari remembered her earlier fears about the weather and without a word she got into the sled. Quickly her father joined her and soon they were covering the ice at tremendous pace. Sari had never before travelled so fast in a sled and she began to enjoy it. Then she remembered they were in danger and they might not get home suddenly she felt very sad. Her mother always hated her coming on these trips; maybe they should have listened to her. She wondered if they got back would her mother let her come again? Would she want to go? The wind was stronger now but still the same wind that had felt so different to her this morning Now it returned bringing an army of snow-flakes that softly fluttered down Sari wondered how something so pretty could be so deadly .The flakes grew thicker and thicker and it became colder and colder
Sari began to feel sleepy. Her father shook her awake roughly "Don't go to sleep Sari." he shouted. Sari knew why. If you go to sleep in such cold you freeze to death. Desperately Sari tried to keep her eyes open. Suddenly she realised the sled had stopped." Wwhats going on" she asked sleepily. "We're going to build an igloo.," her father said "The snows too thick to drive the sled on. We might miss our way. We can't find our way without the icebergs and things to guide us."Sari didn't say anything; there was nothing to say. She knew her father must be very worried to stop as near to Iqaluit as they must be now. With both of them putting their full attention to the work the igloo grew quickly and it was soon completed. Sari's father began moving their things into the igloo. By now the snow was thinner but still far too thick to drive the sled. The whole world around them was white, there was no telling where the smooth ice ended and the white sky began. All around them was a flurry of snowflakes but the snowflakes were certainly thinner. Now she could see her father standing several meters away from her when before she could not see him when he was in the front seat of the sled and she was in the back. Then from the distance came a tinkling noise Sari recognised. It was the bells from Uncle Tom's sled. Sari knew they had probably come looking for them. Jumping up and down she shouted, "We're here! We're here! Her father did the same. The sleigh bells came closer but they still shouted. Then they could see the sled and they knew it could see them. They were safe. Later on as Sari told her story to the other children from Iqaluit she heard bit by bit what had happened in the town. Her cousin Pani knew what had happened when her mother came to speak to Uncle Tom and the other children knew enough to fill in anything she missed out. As Sari looked round her friends she knew something. There was no place like home.
Story by: Ruth, age 11, Scotland
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