Embers of the Raven: A Christmas Story from Greenland (The Christmas Raven Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

from the other side of the lead as Amâgaiat continued to abuse the spent dwarf. Mikissok waved bravely before another slap caused him to pass out.
    The dwarf was afforded little reprieve. He awoke to a horrible choking as frigid sea water was forced into his lungs as the troll plunged him repeatedly into the arctic waters. Satisfied that he was awake the troll cast the dwarf back onto the shrinking ice. Mikissok scrabbled into a sitting position, spitting and coughing into consciousness. More loud cracks around them and the sudden shift of the ice beneath them gave both Amâgaiat and the dwarf a moment’s pause. The troll smiled a grim smile at the dwarf. Mikissok spat and steeled himself for the inevitable. He took one last look at the polar sky but it was black. It seemed that even Nissimaaq assumed the worst for the Northern Lights were absent.
    As Amâgaiat drew back her hand for one final slap, a crack and a shriek rent the polar air and she was suddenly still. The troll turned and beheld the shrieking sack on an ice floe of its very own now detached from the sea ice connecting it to the land. The dwarf forgotten, Amâgaiat leaped at once from floe to floe before she landed heavily upon the ever decreasing plate of ice that bore the amauten. The floe tipped, the amauten slid into the sea and Amâgaiat followed it instinctively. With one clawed hand she snagged the amauten and followed it down to the depths from which not even Amâgaiat could ever return.
     
    ҉
     
    Mikissok was not sure for how long he had dozed. The slight tipping of the ice upon which he lay roused him and he felt unfamiliar hands, women’s hands, bumping him into the bottom of the umiaq skin boat. Mikissok pushed himself upright and staggered to a standing position in the bottom of the boat. He could barely see over the gunwales. Cautiously, he spoke.
    “I need to get back over there,” he pointed towards the land. “Take me to that iceberg.”
    The women looked nervously at one another before changing direction and paddling towards the land, in the opposite direction of their winter camp. As they neared the iceberg Mikissok could see that it was not yet free of the ice and that the wild seas had abated. As they drew alongside, as near as they could land, the dwarf scrambled out of the umiaq, nodded his thanks and trotted off in the direction of the iceberg. He would not see the women ever again. In fact, he vowed never to see any Greenlanders ever again. The flight and fight upon the ice floes was forgotten as Mikissok neared the towering iceberg and beheld the spatter of crimson across the base, below which lay the dark, broken form of the raven. Mikissok knelt and wept. He prodded at the raven before clasping it to his breast.
    “Silly bird,” he cried. “Such a silly, silly bird.” Mikissok carried the raven to the shore and, with the last of his kindling and what material he could find, he lit a modest fire on the snowy beach.
    As the fire reached its peak the dwarf placed the raven upon the flames and whispered goodbye before turning for home. Mikissok was without kindling, in need of shelter and missing his friend.
     
    ҉
     
    The unseasonable break-up of the ice had confused the land and it seemed it snowed all the deeper and froze all the harder in the days approaching the turn of winter. Mikissok was out foraging under the black polar sky when he heard the tinkling of small bells and the grating of ice beneath a sledge in the distance. He turned to see the hunter approaching and, despite his grief, Mikissok was glad at the sight. As the hunter approached the dwarf saw he was not alone. Upon the sledge sat another man and a small child. Mikissok sighed. He did not wish to have anything more to do with humans. Setting aside such feelings, Mikissok turned to greet them.
    As the sledge ground to a halt the child leaped off and ran towards him, the man hurried after. Nissimaaq smiled and took his time with the dogs before walking