Northwind © Christoffer Petersen 2022 (Now available for pre-order from Amazon)
December 15
Kalaagi paced inside the cabin, brushing a track across the bruised floorboards with his tiny feet. The soles of his kamiks left little more than a flat oval trace in the dust before he wiped it away on his return. Naaluk watched from the end of Luui’s bed, her eyes fixed on Kalaagi’s face as she chewed what was left of her fingernails.
“It had to be done, Brother,” she said when Kalaagi caught her eye. “It needed…”
“Naamik!” Kalaagi silenced his sister with a wave of his finger. She saw the sparkle of Arctic magic wrapped around it and chose not to say anything until it was gone. The magic crackled and spat from Kalaagi’s fingers until he resumed pacing and the cabin echoed with the soft thumps of his padded feet.
“At least the wind is not blowing,” Naaluk said as she tried to lighten the mood. “That’s something.”
“What is it?” Kalaagi said. He stopped at the far end of the cabin and turned to glare at Naaluk. “What is it, exactly, Sister?”
“Well,” she said with a frown. “It’s not windy.”
“That’s what it’s not,” Kalaagi said. He took a step closer. “Let me tell you what it is, so you know what you’ve done.” Another sparkle of magic stopped Naaluk from telling her brother that she knew what she had done, and that she had done it for Luui. “What it’s not is safe, or even hopeful. You tricked Northwind into making a deal with Luui.”
“A challenge, Brother,” Naaluk said. She slid off the end of the bed and thumped across the floor to stand in front of her brother. Barely taller than the legs of the cast iron stove, the Qamallarlutik still managed to fill the cabin, and, without Luui to stop them, they bristled, chins jutting and fingers pointing until they were close enough to part each other’s fringes with one outburst after another. “There is a difference.”
“The difference, Sister, is that Luui might not come back. She might die on the mountain.”
“She won’t die,” Naaluk said, shaking her head. “She’s Luui Angakkuarneq, the shaman’s daughter.”
“The shaman is dead, Naaluk,” Kalaagi said. “He is weak. He can’t help her.”
“She will find other spirits to help.”
“And if she does, Northwind will blow. The challenge was set for Luui, and Luui alone. She is all alone, Sister. You put her there, and I…” Kalaagi took a deep breath. “I did nothing to stop you.”
“Because you know it’s right.” Naaluk’s voice softened as she reached for her brother. She pressed her tiny hand on his arm, patting the sleeve of his sealskin smock as she talked. “Luui has been out of sorts,” she said. “She has had a sickness.”
“Grief,” Kalaagi said. He sat down and Naaluk sat next to him. “For her ataata.”
“She misses him,” Naaluk said. “He didn’t visit. And at this time of the year…”
“She is reminded of him.”
“Aap.” Naaluk nodded. “And moping about the cabin, did not help. Not one bit.” Naaluk slapped Kalaagi’s arm three times – one slap for each word. “And so I made a deal with Northwind.”
“You put words into her head.”
“And the words,” Naaluk said, with a mischievous smile forming on her lips, “made Northwind think. They gave her ideas.”
“About pujoralak.”
“Imaqa.” Naaluk shrugged. “Who knows?”
“Northwind knows. She wants pujoralak. Wants to destroy it.”
“She thinks that’s what she wants,” Naaluk said. She snapped her fingers and spun a ring of bright golden magic around her index finger. Naaluk flicked her finger into the air between them, drawing stars here and there, before flicking them away with tiny gusts of breath from her lungs. “Northwind wants what all winds want.”
“And what’s that?”
“To be known, of course.” Naaluk let her hands fall into her lap and the magic popped and spluttered until it was gone. “No one ever sees the wind. They see what the wind does, and they curse it, or they use it, but they never see it. Northwind can blow all she wants, but what she really wants is a body, something to hang things upon. Pujoralak is sticky. She wants it for herself.”
“That’s not what Luui said.” Kalaagi shook his head and the tip of his hood wobbled. “Luui said Northwind can’t blow the dust away if it is coated in pujoralak.”
“Exactly, Brother.” Naaluk slapped Kalaagi’s arm. “You’re getting it now.”
“Getting what?”
“The plan.”
“What plan?”
“Our plan, Brother.” Naaluk sighed. “Must I do everything?”
“You’ve already done too much.”
“And now that Luui is on the mountain…” Naaluk’s nose wrinkled as a thought passed through her small head. “She is on the mountain, Brother. Don’t you think?”
“It’s been eight days,” Kalaagi said. “She has not returned.”
“But she’s not… You know?”
“She’s not dead.” Kalaagi shook his head. “We would know.”
“Aap,” Naaluk said. “We would.”
“But we would know for sure if we could look for her. But you made the deal with Northwind. No help, you said.”
“Northwind said.”
“It’s the same thing, Sister.”
“Which makes our plan much better.”
“Better than what?”
“Better than pacing in the cabin, waiting for Luui to come home, and the big woman in the little plane.”
“It’s a big plane,” Kalaagi said.
Naaluk shrugged. “Same thing.”
Kalaagi wondered, not for the first time, how Naaluk and he came to be siblings, or how she even came to be. “We’re don’t think alike,” he said before he could think to stop himself.
“We don’t need to.” Naaluk stood up. She examined her thumbs and turned them towards Kalaagi. “Look at my whorls,” she said.
“You still don’t know what they are, do you?”
“I don’t,” she said. “But I like them. And we’re going to tell Northwind about them.”
“Why?” Kalaagi reached out for Naaluk as she scooted away. He grasped a handful of air where she once stood and scurried to his feet as she headed for the trap door in the cabin floor. “Naaluk? What are we doing? What are we going to tell Northwind?”
Naaluk opened the trap door and then turned to look at her brother.
“Which is it?”
“What?”
“Doing or telling? What do you want to know?”
“Both,” Kalaagi said. And then, “Doing, first.”
“What we are doing is going to find Northwind. And then, when we find her, we are going to tell her all about how pujoralak will give her a body, but she will need so much of it, she can’t possibly expect Luui to carry it all by herself. So we are going to help her bring it back.”
“We’re going to help Luui?”
“Aap.”
“To get more pujoralak? For Northwind?”
“Not exactly,” Naaluk said, lowering her voice to a whisper. “First, we help her climb the mountain. Then, when Sermilissuaq comes…” Naaluk raised her eyebrows as she looked at her brother. She tapped his chest with a tiny finger and said, “That’s you job.”
“Me?”
“You’re older than me.” Naaluk nodded as if what she said made perfect sense. “It’s only fair it should be you to deal with…”
“A great bear covered in ice?”
“Ah?” Naaluk said. “So you know all about it? Perfect. I knew you were the right one for the job.”
“Naaluk…”
“And,” she said, raising a finger to stop Kalaagi saying anything more. “While you’re doing that, and Luui is scooping up all the pujoralak into a big sack, or something, I will be making the final preparations.”
“For what?”
“Getting off the mountain.” Naaluk tilted her head to one side, and said, “Brother? Did you think climbing Qaqqaq was dangerous?”
“It is dangerous, Naaluk.”
“Aap. But have you ever tried to climb down a mountain that is always growing taller?” Naaluk’s eyes sparkled as she read her brother’s expression. “That’s what I thought,” she said. “But don’t worry. You might be the expert with massive bears covered in ice, but I happen to be an expert in coming down mountains.”
“Naaluk, you are not an expert. You have never climbed down, or even up an ever-growing mountain.”
“And nor have you ever met a bear covered in ice? Or have you, Brother?”
“I have not.”
“Perfect,” she said, flashing Kalaagi a cheeky grin. “We’re going to be fine.” Naaluk raised her hand and pressed her finger and thumb together. “I hope you haven’t forgotten how to fly, Brother,” she said, snapping her fingers.
The air in the cabin exploded in a flutter of wings as Naaluk changed form into a winter-white ptarmigan. She circled the cabin once, before folding her wings and diving through the trap door.
“Oh, Naaluk,” Kalaagi said with a sigh as a loose tail feather brushed his cheek. “This is never going to work.” He shook his head and then shrugged. Kalaagi snapped his fingers and flew after his sister. The Qamallarlutik left Luui’s cabin and headed north to the mountain.
To be continued on December 16
Northwind © Christoffer Petersen 2022
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