Chapter Eight: The Disaster

  Kallik


  I woke up to the sound of cracking. I quickly woke up and felt heat in my fur, much stronger than my body warmth. I turned to Nisa. Nisa nudged Taqqiq gently. Nisa's cautious eyes stared at me, harder than a seal's blubber.
 "Sun-sky is coming earlier and earlier. we have to hurry, before our den is filled with water!" Nisa told me. Taqqiq woke up, with his eyes full of alert.
  Sun-sky.... I thought. It seems more disastrous than I thought.
  I followed Nisa out of the den. Just as Taqqiq got out, I saw... us on just an ice-floe. Water surrounded our icy island, and some more empty ice-floes bobbed up and down.
  "We must move quickly, and swim to each ice-floe if there's a huge gap." Nisa said.
  So scared....
  Nisa jumped onto one island. I hopped on one next. Taqqiq soon followed.
  I saw a waterway, far away from our next ice-floe. "Mother, me and Taqqiq don't know how to swim!"
  Nisa gently nosed my fur, warm and kind. "Our ice spirits are with us."
  "HURRY!" Taqqiq shouted. The tenseness in his voice made me whirl around. "Orcas!"
  I never seen an orca, but I knew they were dangerous. Nisa saw the evil black fins, cutting through the water, circling our island, that was slowly sinking from our weight. No, no.
  Ice spirits, help us! Our fate, is it to die?
  Nisa finally spoke. "We must cross. These orcas... I sense they will be too slow. But the number... too much. May the ice spirits be with us!"
  I saw Nisa flop into the water. The ice-floe me and Taqqiq were standing on, floated again. But it wasn't over. I saw splashes of water, roars and blood. Nisa has to be alive! Giant teeth of the orcas, fear stung me as they sunk into Nisa's flesh.
  "NO!" Me and Taqqiq said.
  "Go!" Nisa hoarsely said.
  I turned to Taqqiq. "We must get across! Our mother wants us to! She's strong enough to hold us back."
  Taqqiq nodded. "Together."
  I nodded and we sent a spray of water. Me and Taqqiq paddled to the ice-floe. Taqqiq went up first and he helped me up. We stared at Nisa.
  "You can do it!"
  But no, the splashes of water gradually died down. The orcas were coming for us next. The ice cracked and separated me from Taqqiq. An orca shot up from the crack and was tipping my broken part. I squeezed my eyes shut.
  "Kallik, move!" Taqqiq desperately shouted.
  I opened my eyes and shook my head. "If I was to die, then let me be! You go ahead, Taqqiq! At least I'll be with Mother."
 So there I stood, feeling the ice-floe tip over.
 My duty was to die.
 So let me.