Nanuk.
That is Grandma White Feather's voice again. But he cannot see her. All he sees is the slim and slender figure of Joe Darque bending but not breaking in the wind like a tree gathering all the darkness around him.
You have to find the perfect word for snow, Grandma White Feather says calmly. That is all that's left to stop him now.
And then the world explodes in colour. All of a sudden like someone turned a switch the former white and now black and dark snow fields around them are lit by flashes of colourful lights from behind the hills.
What is that, Joe Darque asks, his dark eyes reflecting the phenomenon. Aurora borealis? In the winter darkness? In the polar night? Come on, kid, we have to take a look.
He grabs the boy under one arm and the polar bear under the other one running towards the next hilltop with steps too wide to be true.
Looks like we finally found the North Pole, the Dark Eater laughs and laughs. And it doesn't look like a red and white striped pole at all. Are you disappointed, kid? Are you sorry that there are no candy canes and no elves?
You will win.
The colours like a rainbow in the dark fill up Nanuk's heart with hope and joy. They give him strength from a source like a well right in the middle of the flat, plain ice field beneath their feet.
You have finally found your inner place of strength. You will be victorious without a fight. You can now scare away the dark.
Grandma White Feather, Nanuk shouts out. I want to believe. Oh, how I want to believe.
There's a snow storm coming. Nanuk shivers. His sealskin anorak feels like coming back to life on his skin. Is this what freezing is like? No, he cries and flying and floating he drifts away into the warm and welcoming darkness of unconsciousness, his power animal right by his side.
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