Chapter 4
December 20
Northwestern Passages, King William Island
Waking from a dream of snow and a giant castle rising out of it, Josh tried hard to shake off the fright of thousands of miniature Yeti pouring over the walls of the castle rushing at him. Hattie was beside him, shaking him roughly and repeating his name with a slight accent that he found appealing.
“Joshua! You must wake up!”
“What’s going on?” Josh mumbled.
He had to try hard to remember what had happened as they raced across the expanse of snow and permafrost northward. They came to an area where they had to slow down, he remembered that. There was a quick discussion between the two agents on how to cross a river or lake or something. Somewhere between drifting in and out of sleep on the long and boring drive he recalled they had stopped and prepared a dinner. It was pretty good, hamburgers and French fries with something Peter said he’d learned about in the west called a pink fry sauce. But none of it was tied together in a very cohesive memory.
By the looks of the surroundings it was already morning again. Probably late morning since it seemed the sun barely shone at all this time of year the further north they went. Hattie was excitedly trying to tell him something when Josh realized the two agents were not actually in the car with them anymore.
“They’re waiting for it!” the girl said excitedly and smiling. Then she crinkled up her brow and her lips. “Well, I thought you might not want to be asleep when it shows up and have you be embarrassed when you realized you were drooling in your sleep!”
“I wasn’t drooling!” Josh got defensive.
Hattie giggled and slugged him on the shoulder as he tried to sit more upright.
“What’s coming, anyway?”
Hattie flapped her hands again, much like her mother. “Oh! I’ve told you twice already. A sprite! They’re picking up a water sprite to help us on the ice at the North Pole!”
Josh was dumbfounded. He was sure he must still be asleep. A soda sounded good right now, but he didn’t think it was all that exciting to have one just at that moment. And to wake him for it, no less. “What do you mean, a ‘sprite’?”
“You know! A sprite!” Hattie had both palms turned upwards in a what-am-I-to-do-with-you expression. “Haven’t you boys talked about any other faerie folk besides Yetis this whole trip? Well…of course there’s actually still some question as to whether Yeti and Sasquatch are actual faerie folk. But they’re magic just the same.”
Josh was shaking his head. “Okay. Slow down. My head is still groggy. What the heck is a sprite, and why is it coming with us.”
“OH!” Hattie gave up. “You’ll see soon enough! Just watch!”
Josh looked at the LCD screens in place of the windows all about him and took in a filtered feed of the surroundings that had a couple lines marked trailing off in the distance in two directions, one solid and one dotted. He guessed that might be where they’d come from and where they were heading. The view was of a narrow run of water between where they were near a cliff and the shore opposite. To his right and slanted as though it were supposed to be “painted” on the ground itself were the words “Northwest Territories”. The water before them were labeled “Northwest Passages”. It seemed like the entire surroundings were barely lit by a soft glow, perhaps even just moonlight and the snowy ground that seemed to blend into cloudy skies were both calming and mesmerizing.
Ahead of the vehicle by several paces were the two agents and they seemed to be just watching the straight between where they were parked and the island or land across from them. From inside the cab of the CCV Hattie stared intently as though the arrival of the so-called Sprite was imminent. But the waiting continued. And continued. Josh felt like an hour had passed, although it had really only been about twelve minutes on the dash clock.
Finally, a loan figure came upon the scene, dressed much like Josh imagined an Eskimo would, or perhaps he was supposed to say Inuit if he understood Hattie’s clarification of terms early correctly. There was a heavy animal hide coat with fur along the face and wrists and hem. The pant legs were terribly thick and looked to be quite warm. And the feet and hands were covered by thick wrappings. He or she approached from the southeast along the edge of the cliff and could be seen in the left display screens of the faux side windows.
The figure was nearly upon Agents Samuel and Bartholomew when finally it came to Peter’s attention. Agent Bartholomew turned with a start, and then pulled his hand out of his pocket to greet the figure. It was then that Josh realized the two agents were still wearing only their black suits and ties, and yet didn’t seem cold in the least. Well…perhaps their heads as their hair had begun collecting a bit of snow. He figured something magical must be going on with their attire too, but was too intent on what was to happen with the First Nation person before him showing up instead of a sprite.
After all three greeted they turned towards the CCV and walked towards it, splitting to go around to either side and enter.
“Move over! Make some room.” Hattie said, trying to make room for the visitor who she must have thought was likely to get into back seat.
Instead, as the cold blast from the doors being opened on both sides in the front row of the CCV, Josh was distracted and could not get a good look at the visitor until Peter was seated in the middle, driving position again, Agent Bartholomew in the right seat, just ahead of Josh, and the visitor in the left. As the doors were shut, Josh could see that the world outside the cab of the truck was indeed much darker than it seemed on the display screens inside where they sat. Perhaps that’s part of why the agents had not noticed the person walking up to them until the last few steps.
Whomever it was bundled up in the cold climate gear slowly removed gloves and then some googles and a face mask, and then turned to face the children. Josh noted her skin seemed oddly blue. Is she really that cold? Josh wondered, because it was more than just a slight tinge of color. The person’s hands were truly blue toned.
When her eyes met Josh’s he suddenly realized the visitor must not be entirely human. The woman had a blue-tinted face as well, smooth and pretty. But her eyebrows, upwardly pointed as they were, and her small amount of exposed hair were all white. With her hand extended she spoke in clear English but with a vibration in her voice, like she was echoing, or perhaps shivering from cold.
“It is nice to meet you, Joshua Manders,” she nodded and smiled politely as she shook hands. Then she turned to greet Hattie as well, “And Ms. Hattie Mejaki as well. I look forward to assisting you with your errand.”
“You’re…” Hattie stumbled as she shook the creature’s hand. “You’re the sprite?!”
The woman smiled and nodded again. “Of course. You would not expect to find many others here would you?”
“Yes, but…” Hattie was obviously a little flabbergasted despite her apparent disappointment. “You…don’t really look like a sprite.”
Peter snickered a little, even while the creature’s face returned to solemnity.
Bartholomew spoke up, “What exactly do you suppose a sprite looks like? Especially a water sprite that lives in this frozen waste land.”
The sprite smiled politely again with her head turned to Agent Bartholomew’s attention. “Well, Agent Bartholomew. I will concede that it is quite a bit colder here than most of you humans like. And also that it is indeed sparsely populated. But I wouldn’t really call these islands a wasteland. There’s quite unique environment here for those who would brave it. Especially for ocean-dwelling animals.”
Bartholomew back-peddled. “Oh! Of course. I didn’t mean it the way that sounded.”
“Naturally,” said the sprite. She caught the children’s eyes momentarily as Bartholomew looked to do a little recovery and gave them a small wink and smile.
“Her name is Qanik,” Peter mentioned quietly.
Qanik nodde
d her head in agreement. “I took the name when I first moved to this location about one-hundred and fifty years ago. It means ‘falling snow’. I think that is when snow is the prettiest. Don’t you?”
Hattie and Josh both nodded vigorously to agree. Something about the sprite and her smile were mesmerizing. It was as if she were hypnotizing them but they both wanted to let go and let her be in charge anyway.
“Qanik is here to help us on this mission. And, Hattie. It’s true a sprite can take many different forms. In fact, I was told…er hem,” Peter cleared his throat a little uncomfortably, “that you’d be coming from the passage, to tell you the truth.”
“Yes. I do normally stay in the waters,” Qanik replied and then turned to the children again smiling. “But when I heard you had two young assistants coming with you I thought perhaps I’d better look…more human.”
“Oh!” Hattie practically whimpered, “And you look so beautiful too!”
“Thank you,” Qanik acknowledged with a nod. “I do like this form. There’s something unique to creatures who can work the world around them in so many ways with only muscle and bone as you humans do, isn’t there?”
She had addressed Josh at the end. He nodded and replied nervously, “Yes…like building a tree fort or something. You just keep working at it with your hands until you get it right.”
Qanik giggled a little in her echo-y voice and was even more endearing to the children because of it. “Exactly. Just imagine what a human could do with some real magic!”
The sprite’s eyes seemed to flash just momentarily as she said it, as though a miniature streak of lightning had raced around the iris of each eye. It too was intoxicating from Josh’s perspective. Sprites, he decided that afternoon, were awesome. He considered he just might need to specialize in them if he ever did have an opportunity to work with the IPMA. Hattie could have her old fuzzball Yeti and Sasquatch to herself.