Never Say Die by Will Hobbs

Author:Will Hobbs
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins

14

LIKE JONAH AND ME

“Let’s go find our groceries,” my brother said, and we headed downriver in search of the raft. Even if we didn’t find it, I wasn’t alone anymore, and not nearly as scared.

The walking would have been easy here, on the flats between the river and the foot of the mountains, if I wasn’t so weak. Hunger was gnawing at my insides, and I was starting to go light-headed.

I was watching for animals. With trees so scarce this close to the ocean, they had no place to hide. Open up your eyes, I told myself. You’re a hunter, bred to the bone, and you’re in the middle of that “hunter’s paradise” of Jonah’s. Find the caribou first, then worry how you’re going to get one.

The only animals I managed to spot were Dall sheep, so high up and so far away, they looked like tiny white dots.

Another day done. With the midnight sun low in the valley ahead, Ryan said, “Let’s rest for a while.” I got down on the tundra, and it was lights-out within seconds. Four hours later I woke to Ryan chewing on a stem of cotton grass. I thought about asking if that did anything for his hunger, but I already knew the answer. Instead I asked if he’d gotten any sleep. He shook his head. I notched Day 7 on my knife sheath. We started out again.

Around nine in the morning I noticed a golden eagle flying a big circle above our side of the river. A short while later I spied a caribou with a calf on the flats about a quarter of a mile ahead of us.

As we got a little closer I noticed that the calf wasn’t eating any grass, just nursing. Most calves are born right around June 1. This calf should be grazing by now, and it looked small, much too small, for June 21. This one was still wearing its reddish-brown birth coat. It might only be one week old.

This calf must have been born here in the Firth River country. The calf’s mother was a straggler who hadn’t been able to keep up with the other cows as they migrated north to the calving grounds on the coastal plain. Jonah always said that without “safety in numbers” going for them, stragglers don’t stand much of a chance.

All these things were going through my mind as I watched the caribou and her calf and the golden eagle. That eagle was circling a little lower. It wouldn’t be long before the eagle made its move.

I was preparing to make mine. I told Ryan to hang back, that I was going to pick up the pace and try to get closer to the caribou. He looked quizzical but said, “Go for it.”

I hurried forward, then slowed down as the eagle swung around. It flew another circle and I had time to get closer yet, to the cover of a lone spruce tree, without the caribou getting on to me. I kept my eye on the eagle.

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