by Chris Kurtz
One morning, Flora heard the sound of pounding. She gently pulled herself away from the captain’s side and walked to the doorway. Aleric had found a hammer, saw, and nails. He was taking loose boards from wooden crates and making them into a box. Then he dragged the lifeboat off the top of the empty cabin and banged on it until it fell apart.
He laid out two curved pieces from the front of the boat parallel to each other like sled runners. He placed straight boards across both runners, nailed them down tight, and then attached the wooden box he had made.
“What does he think he’s doing?” Sophia had stepped up beside her.
“It’s a homemade sled,” said Flora.
They watched Aleric tie a rope to the front of the box. He made a loop in the free end. Then Flora heard the captain’s voice calling.
Aleric ducked past them into the snow shelter. In a few moments he reappeared, pulling the captain on a blanket. The captain’s eyes were brighter, and Flora thought he appeared to have regained some of his strength. Aleric helped him sit up with his back against the wall of the shelter so he could see.
But it was Oscar who took the most interest in the project. After so many days of rest, he seemed to be feeling much better. He sniffed the loop at the front of the sled, walked around the whole thing, and then stayed close to Aleric’s side, even getting underfoot at times, especially when Aleric bent to pick up the loop.
A spark of Flora’s old feelings flickered to life.
She tried not to remember. She tried not to feel. Stop it, she told herself.
But her desire to run with a team—to come through when everyone was counting on her, maybe even have a crack at leading the pack—wouldn’t go away. The truth was Flora wanted to walk—no, dance—around the whole sled herself.
Fiercely, she pushed away these thoughts. She crawled back into the snow shelter, into the darkest corner, and spent the rest of the day alone.
But that night in her dream she flew high above the earth in a moonless sky. Behind her, like a falling star, sailed a silver sled.
Chapter 30
That sled you’re building is more than just a toy, isn’t it?” It was the captain’s voice. Aleric and the two men were sitting on their beds.
Flora looked around. Where were Oscar and Sophia? She inched toward the door.
“I hate being hungry all the time. And if the others don’t make it back...” Aleric had a hammer in his hand. He began scraping at the floor of the snow shelter with the claw end but then stopped and tamped the loose snow back into place. “You said there was a food station three days out and that it’s not needed now for the expedition. I’d like to go find it and bring supplies back.”
“Well, by now you probably know how to use the sun and stars to navigate from watching the crew,” the captain said. “And of course the dog has already been there. These sled dogs have an amazing ability to remember their way back to a place they’ve already visited, and Oscar is one of the best. But even for me, with all of my experience, it’s extremely dangerous, even reckless, to head into that inhospitable terrain alone. Besides, I’m not convinced the dog is well enough to pull. It’ll be a heavy load when the supplies are added.”
“But Oscar looks almost like his old self.” Aleric thumped the side of his boot with the hammer.
The captain hesitated. “Let’s discuss this again in a few days. My health has been improving steadily. I should be the one to make the journey.”
Flora shook her head. Oscar was looking much better, but he was hardly back to his old self, and the captain would be lucky if he could even stand without help in a few days.
“We don’t need more food.” The sailor poked his stick into the snowy floor. “Why don’t we just eat the pig?”
Flora felt the hairs on her neck stand up. She measured the remaining distance to the door. She could make a run for it if the sailor got any ideas about jumping on her.
“That pig saved my life.” It was the captain.
“Well, it could save your life again, Captain, and I know just the recipe.”
The captain did not answer. Flora slipped out and walked until the camp was barely visible. She wished she could just keep walking. She was so tired of being afraid.
Later that morning, the captain was dragged out to his place against the shelter.
“Tell me if you see something that will make this thing glide better,” Aleric said to him. Then, looping the rope over his neck and under one shoulder, he gave the new sled a pull. Oscar followed, woofing. When Aleric didn’t stop, Oscar ran in front and almost tripped the boy until Aleric took the loop off and placed it around Oscar.
The big dog now walked like a king, pulling the sled with his head high.
About ten steps later, the loop slipped off his chest and down to the snow. Oscar picked it up in his teeth and dragged the sled another few steps, making everyone laugh.
Flora couldn’t help but smile too.
“I feel better already.” Oscar flopped down beside her. He looked better, although he was breathing hard. “Pulling is like...”
“Medicine.” Flora finished. “I know—you told me already.”
“Yup,” said Oscar. “And I’ve been needing a dose of that medicine for a long time.”
After a quick rest, Aleric brought out a second rope. Flora’s heart jumped. But he tied the new rope to the sled and made a loop for himself. He adjusted Oscar’s rope so it wouldn’t slip off. Together they pulled the sled in a tight circle as a team.
Flora couldn’t stand it any longer. She trudged away again, this time far into the white until the sounds from camp faded. She looked all around. It was so strange to feel trapped in the middle of so much open space. But that was exactly how she felt.
When she finally followed her tracks back, the sled was gone and so was everyone else except the captain. He had fallen asleep sitting up. Flora lay down at his side.
They both woke to a loud whooping. The sled seemed to be returning from a trial run. Sophia hopped off as they came to a stop and batted playfully at Oscar, who was pulling the sled by himself. Aleric had made him a sort of harness out of smaller ropes. Oscar looked happy but tired.
Aleric helped the sailor stand up from where he had been sitting in the bottom of the box and then unhooked Oscar.
“Sir.” Aleric walked up to the captain and saluted. “We’ve practiced with extra weight in the sled, a fully grown man plus me, and the dog did fine. I know you wanted more time to consider, but we don’t have time. I’d like permission to go out in search of the food stores.”
The captain looked at his boots.
Oscar joined the boy and Aleric reached down and patted him on the ribs. “I have the strength to help Oscar pull if need be. But I’m not getting any stronger on the little bit of food we get each day.” The captain shook his head. “My mind is made up. It’s no job for a boy alone. We’ll devise a plan in a few days.”
Aleric crossed his arms. He looked bigger and more confident than the boy Flora had met that first day on the dock.
“I know I’m only a cabin boy. But you were the one who said you never know where brains and talent will come from. It might be time to find out.”
“No.” The captain’s voice was kind but firm. “Permission denied. I would be sending you to your doom.”
“Yes, sir.”
Flora was surprised at how easily Aleric seemed to give up.
The boy looked around at the fading light. “It’s time to get inside, sir, and have a bite to eat. It’s too cold for you out here.” Aleric covered the captain’s legs with the blanket and gently pulled him into the snow shelter.
After Aleric dished out the evening meal, he tucked more blankets around the captain while everyone got ready for bed. Flora lay down again at the captain’s side.
“Keep him warm, pig,” said Aleric.
Flora woke in the middle of the night. She listened for the sound that had awakened her, but all was silent. She raised her nose
to sniff the air and then cocked her head and listened again. The captain was breathing slow and steady. The sailor was snoring loudly. But something was different.
Aleric and Oscar were missing, and so was Sophia.
Flora stepped outside quietly so as to not wake anyone. She looked around in the half-light. The sled was gone, but the runners had made clear marks in the snow, disappearing in a straight line into the great wilderness.
Flora knew this was no practice run. No matter what the captain had said, Aleric and Oscar and Sophia were off on their brave quest, and they had left Flora behind.
Chapter 31
They're gone.”
Flora jumped. Sophia had come up behind her silently. Flora turned back to look at the tracks. “I figured you were with them.”
“I wasn’t invited.” Sophia stepped forward and cleaned an ear with a paw. She sneezed and shook her head. “Oh well. Why would a cat want to go on a journey where she could end up dead, and all for the sake of others?” She paused. “Still, I can’t help being worried about Oscar. He acts like he’s better, but I think he’s still sick.”
“He is still sick, and I’m going after them.” Flora’s own words surprised her. She hadn’t known she was going to say them, but she knew they were exactly right.
“No, you’re not. You’ll never make it out there. You weren’t made for South Pole adventures.”
Flora gave her an icy look. “I think I know by now what I was made for.”
“If you stay here, we have a good chance of getting rescued,” said Sophia.
“Getting rescued is good,” said Flora, “if you’re a cat.” She stepped in between the sled tracks. “Like you said, no one can resist a cat. But pigs don’t get rescued. They get fattened up for later.”
Sophia followed, rubbing her side on Flora’s hind leg. “Aren’t you afraid of dying out there?”
“Nope,” said Flora. “I’m afraid of being afraid for the rest of my life. Well, best of luck and happy rescues.” She took a few steps.
“You’ll regret this decision.” Sophia jumped in front of Flora.
Flora stepped around her friend. “Maybe. But I think the captain is right. Oscar and Aleric aren’t in good enough shape to make it on their own. I believe I can pull a sled as well as any dog.”
“Speaking of the captain, what about him? He needs you.”
“He needs the food that will be coming on that sled even more.”
Sophia looked back at the camp, but when Flora trotted off again, the cat dropped in behind and stayed at her heels.
Finally Flora spun around in a cloud of powder. “What are you doing?”
Sophia shook the snow off her ears. “You’re not the only one who can be stubborn.”
Flora felt a shiver in her knees, and it wasn’t from cold. It was a shiver of hope that she’d have a teammate and not be alone in the emptiness. That was selfish, though. Out there was no place for a cat. “You’re hardly bigger than a snowball. You’d just be a burden.”
“At least I don’t sink into the snow up to my knees with each step,” said Sophia.
“Go home, snowball.”
“I’m not going to stay at camp and be ... alone. It doesn’t work for me anymore.”
“Then you’re a fool.”
“I used to be a fool,” said Sophia. “A stubborn fool. I didn’t know enough to stand by my friends. Now I’m just stubborn. Look, we’ve got a long way to go. If the pigs among us can manage to stop being so hardheaded and independent, it will be a lot easier on the cats.”
“I can’t believe a cat is lecturing a pig on being too independent.” Flora started out again with Sophia right behind.
Despite what Sophia said about her hooves, Flora didn’t break through the icy crust. She clipped along easily. Besides the swishing of her coat and the tapping of her hooves, there was nothing else to hear. Sophia followed on such silent feet that Flora had to turn her head to see she wasn’t alone. That was when she noticed the camp had disappeared from sight behind them.
“I hope you know how to take care of yourself, Sheriff,” she said from the front, “because I don’t know how to take care of either one of us.”
The two animals kept up their easy trot at first. But by late afternoon, the sled tracks led into an ice field that looked as if someone had chopped into it with a giant ax. Great big chunks of ice were standing on end. The sled tracks weaved in and out and over these frozen boulders.
Flora stopped, and Sophia came up alongside. The wind had picked up, blowing ice pellets sideways in little white waves.
“I wonder if we should press on or stop here for the night.” Flora pretended to think about these words, but she was watching Sophia out of the corner of her eye. She hoped Sophia, with her practical nature, might have an idea.
But Sophia was watching Flora.
Finally Flora couldn’t help herself. “Did Oscar teach you any tricks about staying alive out here?”
“If he did, I wasn’t paying attention.”
“I think I missed that lesson myself.”
Sophia looked back the way they had come.
It was starting to get too dark to travel. Flora walked forward a few steps and found herself out of the wind behind a large ice boulder. She began to hollow out a spot to spend the night. Her hooves were not as good as Oscar’s paws at digging snow, but she managed to make a rather shallow nest. Sophia made her own nearby but ended up between Flora’s front feet.
It was a cold sleep that night, interrupted often by the howling wind. No dreams came. Flora breathed in Sophia’s smell and wondered how Oscar was doing pulling the sled.
Hang on, she wished she could tell him. We’re coming.
Chapter 32
We’ve lost our trail!” Sophia called out the next morning. “Last night’s wind must have blown it away. But we can still turn back.”
She had climbed a tall ice pillar and was looking at the tracks leading back to camp, which were deeper and somewhat visible.
Flora tried not to show the panic in her heart as she stretched and sniffed around for a clue. Surely they weren’t defeated after just one day. “Turn back, then. I want to find that crazy, sick dog and the boy who won’t listen to his captain.”
“If I turn around, you’d better stick with me, pig. You couldn’t find an iceberg if you were standing on it.”
“I could if I had a friend who told me to look down!” She looked up at Sophia and noticed something. The block of ice Sophia was standing on had been scraped. There was a line at about the height of Flora’s head, as well as another mark at the same height a little farther away.
“Tracks!” she called up.
“You’re looking in the wrong place. Tracks are on the ground.”
“Aleric’s not the most experienced driver. I think the sides of the sled might have bumped into the chunks of ice here and there. See if you can spot any more scrapes.
Sophia gazed in the direction Flora was looking and then hopped down. “You’re right for once. From up there I can tell which direction they were heading.”
Flora grinned. “Then let’s keep moving, cat. I found the iceberg. Now you find our friends.”
Sophia stepped into the lead, occasionally leaping to the top of an ice mound to check her course.
Two hours later, they found the spot where Oscar and Aleric had spent the night. Aleric had made a small fire, and a few bits of charcoal could be seen in the snow. They were almost through the field of giant broken ice by now. Sophia climbed to the top of one last pillar.
“Flat country ahead!” she shouted. “And clear tracks again. Pick up the pace, slowpoke.”
Flora was so happy to hear the good news, she didn’t bother to respond to the insult. She started clipping along a little faster, and soon she could see the flat plain herself. Apparently the wind and sleet hadn’t blown through there during the night.
However, they were up on a ridge, and to get to the plain below, she and Sophia w
ould have to find a way down a long slope of sheer ice.
There was no snow on it at all. Anything on the ice simply slid to the bottom. Flora could see the scrapes where Aleric must have tried to drag his boots to slow the sled down. The scrapes led to a hole and a lot of churned-up snow at the bottom, where the sled had probably crashed and had then been pulled out.
Sophia walked a few steps down the slope and was able to keep her footing.
“Come on!” she called.
Flora stepped out as gingerly as possible. But in an instant her feet splayed in four directions and she was on her belly, sliding helplessly. No amount of scrabbling could stop her.
She plowed into her traveling companion, knocking Sophia’s feet out from under her. Sophia yelped and tried to stop herself with her claws, but Flora’s weight carried the two of them down like polished stones.
They struck the soft snow at the bottom with a plop close to where Aleric’s sled had landed. Snow went up Flora’s nose, and she sneezed.
“Get off me!” Sophia yowled, and struck out with her claws to make the point.
Flora squealed and struggled to find her feet in the soft drift. A few minutes later, they both stood panting, finally on a firm surface again.
“Nice job, pig,” said Sophia between breaths. “Someone explain to me how hooves make sense at any time on any animal.”
“I didn’t hear you complaining when these hooves were kicking ship rats in the head so you could waltz up and bite them!” Flora hadn’t meant to ever mention this matter, but now that her words were out, she was surprised at her strong feelings.
“Good point,” Sophia said at last. “I’m not very good at saying sorry, but I apologize.”
Flora didn’t know how to respond, so she was happy when Sophia simply walked back onto the tracks.
The snow on this plain was different from any snow Flora had seen before. In fact, it wasn’t really snow. Flora stepped out, and the ground crackled.
