by Sean Cullen
The voice was gone. Hamish X felt its absence in his mind. He bumped the underside of the ice and found a large pocket of air. Pressing his face into it he gasped deeply. Then he saw the pale glow of the hole a few metres away. Hamish X swung himself upside down and, using his boots for traction, began to propel himself in long loping strides, running against the bottom of the ice towards the opening.
Up above, Yuri, Alexis, and their mother had watched in wonder as the glow swelled under the surface.
“What is it, Mama?” Yuri asked. Alexis even stopped giggling.
“I don’t know,” Mama said as the glow began to fade. She could sense that something wasn’t right and decided to get the business over with as fast as possible. “Let’s dump these two and get out of here.”
Mimi had already been strung upside down on the winch. She strained every fibre of her being but she was bound up tight. Yuri went to the lever and prepared to pull. Alexi began to giggle once more. Mimi resigned herself to her fate, trying to be brave. She looked straight down into the circle of water, black and deep. She saw her terrified reflection, her eyes wide, her hair standing out in a black wiry cloud. Tears fell from her eyes, adding their salt to the sea. Hamish X was dead and soon they would be too.
Then, something odd happened. She saw Hamish X’s face in the water beneath her. She blinked, but it didn’t disappear. She let out a muffled yelp of sheer joy.
“Look at her,” Mama cackled. “She’s trying to beg for mercy. Too late.”
Mimi saw Hamish X raise his hand. In it, something glittered. The Swiss Army knife! Hamish X pointed to the knife and winked. If the gag hadn’t been in her mouth, Mimi would have smiled.
“Drop her!” Mama shouted. Yuri pulled the lever and Mimi plunged into the water with a splash.
Alexi picked up the inert body of Parveen in one hand. He went to place him on the hook, but Mama stopped him. “It’s no fun killing someone who isn’t awake to enjoy it. Just toss him in and we’ll get out of here.” Alexi giggled and moved to obey. He didn’t get the chance. When he stepped to the edge of the hole, two sets of hands burst from the water and pulled his feet out from under him. The huge man fell backwards, landing flat on his back. Parveen rolled safely away from the hole as Hamish X and Mimi hauled themselves out of the water.
“Shoot them!” Mama shrieked.
Yuri reached for his rifle but Hamish X slammed a boot down on it, driving his other boot into the man’s back and knocking him flat. Then he kicked the rifle and it skittered into the hole, sinking out of sight.
“Grab Parveen and run,” Hamish called to Mimi. Mimi hesitated. Alexi was struggling to his feet. “Go!” Hamish X shouted. Mimi ducked under a swing of Mama’s club and, grabbing the hood of Parveen’s parka, began to drag him away. Alexi lumbered to follow her, but Hamish X picked up a chunk of ice and hurled it at him, striking a glancing blow off his skull. Alexi rounded on Hamish X like a bull, snorting and clenching his huge fists.
“Forget them,” Mama scowled. “They aren’t going anywhere. We kill this one first.” Yuri pulled a wicked-looking knife from his belt. Alexi began to giggle. Mama raised her club. They circled Hamish X, waiting for an opening.
Hamish X gritted his teeth, fighting the chill and the exhaustion that threatened to overwhelm him. His mind raced. Three against one wouldn’t normally faze him, but he was weak and his limbs were going numb. He looked down at his boots. Could he use them again? Could he call up whatever power was in them one more time? He tried to feel the same strength he had before. He relaxed his mind and tried to connect.
“You should have stayed under the ice, leetle boy,” Mama taunted. “What we will do to you will be much more painful now.”
There! He felt it: a tickle of heat, a flame of energy coursing up from below. He grabbed hold of it with his will and stoked it in his mind.
Yuri stopped circling, uncertainty flickering in his face. “What’s he doing, Mama?”
Hamish X smiled a grim smile. A glow pulsed from his boots, casting a blue radiance over the faces of his attackers. “I am Hamish X.”
The three mouths of the poachers dropped open. “Uh-oh!” Alexi said softly.
“And these are my boots!” Hamish X stomped with his right foot. The ice beneath him groaned and popped. He stomped with his left foot and the ice shrieked, fissures erupting outward from where he stood. The ice heaved. Yuri, Alexi, and Mama were thrown to their knees.
“And this is for the bears!” Hamish leapt in the air and brought both boots crashing down.
With a series of loud cracks like firecrackers going off, the ice shattered. Geysers of black seawater erupted from below as the three poachers clung desperately to pitching slabs of ice. The cracks began to radiate farther, with a rumbling like thunder. Alexi slid off a plate of ice like a fried egg off a greased frying pan, disappearing under the water.
“Alexi!” Yuri cried before the ice floe he was clinging to flipped over completely. Mama scrambled to maintain her hold on a piece of ice that crumbled beneath her. When she saw her boys disappear she wailed like a wounded beast. “I’m coming, my babies!” Then she let go of the ice and slid beneath the waves.59
Hamish X was too busy leaping from chunk to chunk of bobbing ice to think of anything else. The whole sheet was disintegrating beneath him. He made his way in the direction Mimi had gone, slipping and sliding, his boots providing little purchase. His strength was flagging. He’d dredged up the last of his energy to shatter the ice and now his limbs became leaden. Each step was a labour, his breath rasping in and out of his lungs. He peered ahead and saw Mimi a few metres away. She stood on unbroken ice, waving. A boiling swirl of shattered ice separated them.
“Come on, Hamish!” she shouted. “You can make it.” He tried to conjure up a last burst of speed but the tank was empty. His boots slipped as he tried to jump across from one floe to another. He fell and plunged beneath the water.
At least the others are safe, he thought. They can help the children … and Mrs. Francis … and … and … He gave in to the cold and the darkness.
He didn’t know how much time had passed when he felt something coil around his waist. It felt like a thick hose or tentacle. He tried to struggle but he had no strength. The tentacle gripped him tight and he felt himself lifted from the water into the freezing air. He blinked the seawater from his eyes and saw a brown, bristly, snakelike appendage wrapped around him, holding him aloft. He followed the appendage to its source and found himself looking into a huge gentle brown eye in the side of a huge furry head.
“What in the world?” That was all he managed to say before he passed out.
Chapter 22
When he awoke, Hamish X found himself warm and dry and lying beside a small fire in a room with a white ceiling. He was in a tiny cabin made from stacked blocks of ice. A stove, placed on a round stone, burned in the middle of the cabin. Greasy smoke rose and left the room by way of a little hole in the roof. Through the hole, Hamish X could see a circle of clear blue sky.
Hamish X looked around the little cabin. A couple of rifles leaned against the wall, along with some spears and wickedly sharp knives. He was lying under a pile of soft silvery pelts. He barely had time to wonder where Parveen and Mimi were when Parveen stuck his head through a small opening hung with a similar pelt. He had a bandage over his eye, but he seemed otherwise in one piece.
“Hello Hamish X,” Parveen said. “I hope you have slept well. Your clothes are dry.” He tossed them in and Hamish X caught them. “Come outside and meet our most extraordinary friends.” Parveen left Hamish X to get dressed. He hurried into his clothes and a few minutes later stepped through the door flap.
The sky was endless and blue as a robin’s egg. It was cold, but the weak sunlight bounced up off the ice, making the day blindingly bright. Mimi was a few metres away, standing among a group of three short dark-skinned men dressed in down-filled parkas. They were showing her how to hold a spear that ended in a wicked barbed hook.
Parveen smiled and waved. Hamish X’s mouth gaped in shock when he saw what Parveen sat upon.
The animal looked like an elephant but was much, much bigger. Its entire body was covered in thick brown fur, except for the long leathery trunk that was bare. The trunk ended in a clever little knob with two wet slits in it. Two long tusks protruded from either side of the trunk, curving inward towards the tips.
“Meet Amanda!” Parveen called.
“She’s … She’s …”
“Species Mammuthus primogenus: a woolly mammoth. I’ve ridden elephants before but never of such prodigious size.”
“A woolly mammoth? Aren’t they extinct?”
“Don’t say that too loudly,” a voice said. “You’ll hurt her feelings.” The owner of the voice stepped away from Mimi and the others. He was only slightly taller than Hamish X, but he was a grown man. He had a wisp of a beard on his chin. His face was broad and his features flat. His dark eyes were almond shaped and twinkled with amusement. He smiled at Hamish X. “And here is the boy called Hamish X. You have slept the whole night and day. That is only natural after the adventure you had on the ice.”
“You know about that?”
“Your friends told us the tale. Those poachers were bad people. They come from their land to steal the hide of the white bear, our brother. But they do not respect the bear’s spirit. They leave the meat to rot and steal only the skin. Our land is better off without them.”
“Who are you?”
“I am called Aglucark. This is my band. We are hunters in this land. You are welcome among us for your service in vanquishing the skin stealers.”
“I was trying to save my friends.”
“Also a deed worthy of praise.”
Hamish X looked at the mammoth.
“Come and meet our friend, Amanda,” Aglucark said, guiding Hamish X over towards the creature.
“Amanda?”
“That is what we call her. She pulled you from the water. Come. She wants to meet you.” They walked towards the beast, who turned her massive head at their approach. She was huge and powerful. She could have easily crushed them all without exerting herself, but she was obviously a gentle creature. Her fur gave off a powerful, musky odour that was strong but not unpleasant, like a barn full of animals. Amanda rolled a gigantic brown eye and her trunk gently wrapped around Hamish X’s shoulders. The wet end of the appendage snuffled at his face, tickling him.
“Ha! Ha! Stop that!” Hamish X scratched the side of the trunk, eliciting a happy grunt from Amanda. “How is it possible? I thought mammoths were …” he caught himself before saying the word. “Where did she come from?”
“Ah yes,” Aglucark smiled, “Therein lies a tale. It will be dark soon. Let us eat and we can share our stories.”
A half-hour later they sat in the ice cabin around the flickering light of the seal oil stove. Mimi, Parveen, and Hamish X sat on one side. Aglucark and his two companions sat on the other. A meal of roasted seal meat washed down with melted snow sat happily in their stomachs. Seal was strange, heavy and oily, but it filled them up nicely. Mimi was just finishing the story of their quest, starting with Viggo and the Cheese Pirates and ending with the escape from the Russian poachers.
“… Next thing I know, there’s Hamish X hollerin’ at me to go. So I grab Parveen and drag him outta there and you know the rest.”
Aglucark clucked and whistled appreciatively. “An amazing tale. You have done well to survive this far. The Arctic is a harsh realm, difficult even for those who are born here as we are.” He indicated his companions, who nodded.
“Now,” Hamish X leaned forward, “you have to tell us: Where did you find Amanda?”
Aglucark smiled. “Amanda was a gift from the spirits. I had a dream about her. I heard her call. She was trapped. She was in pain. When I woke, I set off to find her and the spirits guided my steps. I found a cave of ice and she was frozen there, perfectly preserved. I gathered my cousins Angelo and Wilbur …” Again he indicated his companions, who smiled and nodded once more. “Together we chopped away the ice and exposed the creature to the sun, gently warming her with fans and firepots. Suddenly, she stood up and trumpeted a welcome, alive and well as could be. It was a miracle, a gift from the spirits!”
“Why did you call her Amanda?” Parveen asked suddenly.
“I once had a girlfriend of that name. She reminded me of her.”
“A twelve-tonne hairy elephant reminded you of a former girlfriend?”
“They both have big feet.”
“Oh.”
“Now, we ride her on the hunt. She is cheaper to maintain than three snowmobiles and can forage for herself. We keep her a secret, however, even from our closest friends. If anyone knew she existed, they would come with their scientists and their machines and put her in a zoo or worse.” He smiled and made a sign with his hands. “Amanda is a gift from the spirits and so we must cherish her and keep her safe.”
Outside the little icehouse, Amanda grunted and stomped. Hamish X looked at the faces of his new friends in the firelight.
“Thank you for your help,” he said. “Without you, we’d surely have frozen to death out on the ice. You’ve already done so much, but I ask you one more favour. You’ve heard our story. You know we must find our friends. The Cheese Pirates mentioned a place called Snow Monkey Island. Do you know it?”
Aglucark gazed back at Hamish X, his black eyes reflecting the firelight. Finally, he nodded.
“We know it. It is a day’s ride from here … by mammoth, of course.”
“Can you take us there?”
Aglucark was silent for a moment. He looked at each of them in turn. Then he spoke for a moment with his cousins in their strange, guttural language. Finally, he addressed the three travellers.
“The island of the snow monkeys is a dangerous place. First, one must get past the snow monkeys. These monkeys are not like normal monkeys. They are not humorous or silly to look at. They are vile and filthy monkeys. They inhabit the cliffs surrounding the pirate stronghold. One must climb past them to reach the plateau where Captain Cheesebeard makes his lair.
“Also, there are a large number of pirates. You must defeat them all in order to escape with your skins intact. Do you have a plan of attack?”
Hamish X shrugged and smiled at his friends. Mimi smiled back and Parveen took off his glasses, polishing them with a piece of cloth. “Why break with tradition?” Parveen said.
“All we need is for you to take us there,” Hamish X pleaded. “Can you do that?”
Aglucark looked into the fire as if looking at something only he could see. “I had a dream that you were coming. The Raven spoke and said, ‘Be ready: Three will come. One is the Wolf … loyal and fierce.’” He pointed at Mimi, who blushed and squared her shoulders.
Aglucark continued. “One is the clever beaver, planning and building, dedicated to the good of the clan.” He smiled at Parveen, who pursed his lips in mild distaste.
“Fine. She’s a big, powerful wolf. I am a large rodent. That’s just wonderful.”
Aglucark laughed. “Every creature has its task. Every creature has its gifts.” He turned to Hamish X, serious once more. “You the Raven could not explain. ‘He is a boy but not a boy. He is other. He is alone. He will be called “Big Boots.”’ He said we must help you, for you have many great deeds to accomplish. You must beware, however. You think you are searching for one thing, Big Boots, but that thing is not exactly what you imagine.”
“I’m looking for my mother,” Hamish X whispered. He debated with himself for a moment, then added, “I think she’s been talking to me … in my mind.” He related what had happened under the ice.
“This is puzzling. A spirit voice is guiding you, but it may not be what you think it is. Be cautious,” Aglucark said. “You may be disappointed with what you find.”
The oil stove popped in the silence. Hamish X sat deep in thought. “Boy who is not a boy,” he whispered. “What does it mean?”<
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“It is not for me to know. It is the place of the Great Spirit and he has chosen to remain silent.” The Innu smiled. He reached out and squeezed Hamish X’s hand. “You have saved many bears. You have come a long way. This is already a great deed. We will take you to Snow Monkey Island, but there we must part ways.”
Aglucark stood. “You must rest now. The way is hard and we leave at dawn.”
Later, in the small hours of the night, Mimi woke to discover Hamish X’s blanket empty beside her. She carefully got up, picked her way through her sleeping companions, and stepped through the fur hanging that served as a door.
The moon hung low in the sky, casting a pale glow over the ice sheet. The northern lights blazed above, shifting and sliding across the black velvet of the sky. Amanda grunted and raised her trunk when she saw Mimi. Mimi went to her and almost tripped over Hamish X sitting on a lump of ice.
“Hey,” she said, sitting down beside him.
“Hey,” he answered.
They sat for a while, enjoying the deep silence. Occasionally the ice cracked, sounding like low rumbling thunder. The sky was shockingly full of stars, wheeling slowly against the blackness of space. Finally Hamish X spoke. “I’m afraid,” he said.
“Of what? Yer the toughest, smartest, bravest kid I ever saw and that’s includin’ me. What could possibly scare ya?”
“I’m afraid that if I ever find out who I actually am, I’m going to wish I hadn’t. Part of me wants to just leave the book and go away.”
“Yeah, I git it. But I think yer gonna go and git that book back and then yer gonna do what ya gotta do. Find yer ma. Figure it all out ’cause that’s the only way ya ain’t gonna be scared no more.”