Ice Blink

2: Water and Ice

When Nuna left the igloo, she ran straight into her best friend.

"Look at how bright the world is today! You have to come kayaking with me, Nuna."

"Ulaakut, Aniu." Nuna wished her friend a sarcastic good morning. Aniu always forgot the pleasantries.

"Did you have a good talk with Qignaaq? Has she made you a fully-fledged angakkuq yet?"

"Far from it."

"Come, our kayaks are this way." Aniu hooked her arm through Nuna's and dragged her towards the bay. "I got yours ready for you."

"What if there are jobs to do in the village?"

"Did Qignaaq ask you to do anything for her?"

"No."

"Well then, what are you worrying about? Besides, we need to stretch our muscles after being cooped up for... how many days? I lost count. It's hard to tell when you can't see the sun rise or set."

Nuna shuddered at the memory. The anger and malice of the wind, as if it had been trying to force its way in to snuff out their lives.

Somehow, she found herself bundled into her kayak with a paddle thrust into her hands.

"Catch me if you can!" Aniu began to forge ahead, pushing little chunks of ice out of the way with her blade.

Nuna set off after her, and her worries slowly faded. The day was a beauty: dazzling blue sky, glaring white snow, and sparkling ice formations drifting past them like lazy gods. Seals poked their heads out of the water to watch the two girls pass, and the crisp surf lapping against ice was the only sound. Perhaps she could do with some of Aniu's optimism. How could anything go wrong today?

Aniu's smile crinkled the corners of her eyes. Nuna rarely had to tell Aniu what she was thinking or feeling. Aniu was her sister in everything but blood, and the village joked that the ancestors were cruel to have given them life in separate wombs. They even looked similar. Aniu's face was a little less round, and she wore her long dark plaits pinned back into a bun at the nape of her neck so they looped behind, just brushing her shoulders. Nuna, in contrast, let hers hang free. And, of course, they had the Nualik ancestral tattoos which were bestowed upon girls when they came of age: two siqiniq lines running along their foreheads to form a V-shape almost like an arrow, and tavlugun dots and lines on their chins.

There was a puff of something that sounded like breath, and a spray of water arced into the air further out into the open sea.

"Aniu, look!" Nuna cried, as a huge dark shape broke the horizon's smooth line.

"A whale! We should find the crew and tell them." Aniu's eyes shone.

The day had just become a thousand times better. A whale could feed the entire tribe for a season, and as winter was on its way, this could be the difference between life and death – especially with the recent blizzards that had seemed never-ending, much worse than usual for this time of year.

"You think we can find my father and his crew?" Nuna said doubtfully. "They could be anywhere." They had lost sight of the bay and the village: their world was one of ice and water and nothing else.

"They'll have stopped by the closest breathing holes on their way to open sea," Aniu replied. "I know how to get there from here. Come on!"

Right. They let Aniu come with them on hunts – because Aniu was actually capable. Aniu was practical, an asset to the crew. Unlike Nuna.

Surely she should be used to the dull bite of envy by now. Nuna pushed it impatiently out of her head and sliced the water with her paddle until her kayak skimmed the waves. It was easy to lose herself in the physicality of it all, united with Sedna the Sea Mother, relishing the burning in her arms.