Arctic Wolf { Watty Awards 2012 }

Chapter 1

"Thanks." I said, accepting the metal canister of hot chocolate. The heat pouring from the container warmed my whole body causing me to have goose bumps. I brushed my long, raven hair out of my eyes and wind blew it right back into my face again. I sighed and watched my breath vanish in the cold air.

"Why did you help me? I don't know you and-no one would ever help a girl especially my age." I asked the strange man. He was wearing a thick white coat and his hood was lined with fox fur just like mine. He had rough skin and shaking hands that never stayed still. The man had a very raspy voice that gave me the chills but I knew he was safe so I stayed around the campfire he started in the middle of the snow storm. I had this strange feeling like I knew the man. It really bugged me that I couldn't recall who he was. It irritated me so much I wanted to scream.

The reason I needed help was because one of my Huskies that pull my sleigh broke out of his harness and injured his paw. He isn't the sharpest tool in the shed to be quite honest. I was far away from home in the middle of no where stuck in a snow storm. Luckily the man fixed the harness for my dog so I could go home and feed my family.

"You are special, little girl," he replied. "You have the gift."

"What gift may I ask, sir?"

I had no talents. I had no friends well, except for my dogs. I am an outcast. The only people that really mattered in my life is my family. I was different because, first off, I had piercing blue eyes with dark black hair with pale milky skin. People referred me to a ghost and that I really creeped them out. I was never given the label "Best Friend" or "The Girl I Have A Crush On". I was always called the Ghost. That's all that I am.

"Oh dear, dear Sinopa. You will know when the time comes." He said while brushing the pure white snow off my cheek. He knows my name? He knows my name!I have never met this strange man once in my life and he knows my name. It felt strange that this man knew me but I didn't know him. It felt like I had a secret stalker watching my every move, every breath I breathe, every drop of sweat that falls from my face he knows.

"Haha! You look like a cow that has just been hit with a shovel!" Chuckled the man, revealing something in his hand. A miniature wooden carving of a wolf.

" Keep this with you, my dear Sinopa." He placed the carving in my hand and closed my fingers over it, patting my hand as if he was securing the wolf.

"Ouw! Ouw!" howled one of my huskies. It's very strange. I know exactly what my huskies are trying to tell me. As if I can speak their "language". I walked to her and ruffled up her fur as she shook the layers of snow off her thick, warm coat revealing spots of gray and white.

"She's hungry, sir do you have any-" I turned around to see that the man had disappeared. The only thing left of him was his fur coat and his seal skin boots. I walked over to his coat. I don't know what I was hoping to expect but there were wolf prints in the snow, leading of to the distance. I swear on Agloolik's life, the spirit that lives underneath the ice and gives aid to fishermen and hunters, that the man turned into a wolf.

"We've got to get out of here." I told my dogs.

I jumped in my sleigh and didn't look back. "Mush!" I demanded and the dogs took off at lighting speed.

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"Aama! I swear on Agloolik's life the man turned into a wolf!"

"That's nice, dear." Said my mother as she ran her fingers through my hair. She never listens. Only when she chooses to. My mother was standing my the fire, rotating a salmon fish that I violently impaled on a stick. The salmon's eyes were bugging out of its head as if it was laughing in my face. I stuck my tongue out at it.