Sawanay and Suguji

Chapter One

Sawanay was in the canoe, heading through the great river, the one where the banks are always frosted over with ice, and on the shores there are no trees, just small bushes and long, dry grasses which are always ice cold.

Sawanay belonged in a warm house with hot coco. She belonged to be with her mother and father, and to be safe, living the life every other 11 year old would. But right now she was floating away, over the waves, through the ice, wrapped in a bear fur coat and sitting with the strange people who had taken her away from everything she was used to.

There were four of them, each wearing a bear fur coat, but these coats were not bought from a store. Every day, the four strange men would take their bag of spears, now sitting in the corner of the canoe, and hunt in the wild for dinner. They would strip the skin off the creatures, (while Sawanay sat in the corner covering her eyes) then drench out all the blood in the river. After cooking the meat over a handmade fire, they would feast, always giving Sawanay the biggest portion.

She wondered if they needed her for something, and if it was something important. They never talked to her, but they always made sure that she got everything she needed and that she was pleased. Sawanay got just about everything that he asked for, except one thing . . . to go home.

Now she was heading off somewhere, to a place she didn't know. About the only thing she did know was that it was cold. So cold, in fact, that she couldn't even feel her nose, or her little pink cheeks. The coldness bit right through her coat, her six different under layers, her warm fur gloves, and her animal skin boots, which were also trimmed with fur.

She looked like an Eskimo. One of the first things she noticed about the four men was that they looked like Eskimos. Perhaps they were Eskimos, and were taking her to their little Eskimo Village, off on an iceberg. She didn't know, but she knew that she wanted to be back home. But seeing how far they were going, it didn't seem as if she'd ever go home again.