A Fire Within

Part 1

Chapter 1

Akna felt her husband's fear the moment he entered their snow cave.

"Your father is coming," he said, snow from the blizzard stuck to his dark hair and eyelashes.

A spike of panic started in her gut and shot up to her ears. She pulled the seal fur blanket over her, concealing her infant daughter. Hopefully she wouldn't make a noise. "Does he know?"

Her husband shook his head, unsure.

Her father stepped inside their cave. Hair like snow, eyes like embers, the Sunreader had a commanding presence wherever he went. With him were several of his bravest divers, her husband would normally be one of them, but here he seemed to stand apart.

"May the sun rise above you, father," said Akna. "I think I will recover soon."

"Restrain him," said her father.

"What?" Akna said, as the divers subdued her husband.

"Akna!" he said, pinned to the floor.

"Father?"

He pulled the seal fur away and Akna's tiny infant, her baby daughter, cried out in fright and pain, her tiny limbs flailing.

Her father took the child, unwrapping the blankets around her. "So it is true?" he said.

"Please," Akna said through tears. "She needs me, she isn't ready. Don't do this."

Her father frowned in disappointment. "How long have you hid her from us?"

Akna didn't dare lie. "When the rock fell from the sky," she sobbed.

Father sighed. "You've endangered the tribe." He turned and left the snow cave, taking the infant into the blizzard.

"No!" Akna said, following him. "I'm not ready!"

The Sunreader paused. "Trust me, daughter."

The divers allowed her to follow at a distance. Her father took the now screeching baby onto the low deck of the iceberg, where many gathered to observe the ritual. Thick clouds obscured the sun, a sign of uncertainty. The seal herds barked at the sight of so many gathering, curious, excited.

Father placed her baby in the fresh falling snow of the blizzard and backed away. Akna's husband fought the divers, struggling to get to their child, but they pinned him in the snow.

"She's not ready," Akna cried.

Her Father held her gently, but firmly from interfering.

"It's the only way," he whispered.

"What if she doesn't survive?"

He didn't respond. They both new the odds, while favorable, weren't perfect.

Akna prayed as snow buried her precious child. She knew of no worse sound that the tortured squeals of her child.

Until they stopped.

The silence broke her. She fell to her knees. The herds quieted, sensing the mood. Only the sounds of the storm remained.

The snow completely buried her child. They hadn't even named her

Her father knelt beside her, held her as she wept. This was her fault. She should have presented the baby to the Koar immediately. And now-

She heard something. A whimper, or had it been the wind?