Morgan, Eli, and Arik stood at the edge of the canyon and stared out over the North Country. It was surreal, looking at it now, with the sun just beginning to crest above the horizon and painting the earthly colors of Askí with warmth. It looked as though the White Time had never been there at all, but of course, that wasn’t the case. Too much had happened. Too many lives had been lost over the years since the White Time began its unrelenting stay, and too many had been lost just in the last week. They were all crying, in their own way and for their own reasons. At the hope the Green Time brought. At the loss of a great hunter who’d long provided for his village and had made the ultimate sacrifice for them. At the loss of an enemy, who, in his last moments, had become an ally.
Morgan took her brother’s hand.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s just…”
“Tell me.” She nudged him. “I’m your sister, you know. We’ve got to tell each other things, right?”
“He tried to kill me,” he said. “Then he saved us.”
“I know he did,” she said. “He changed.”
Eli looked towards the sky. Ochek wasn’t visible any longer, but he was there. Morgan could feel it, and she knew that Eli could too.
“It’s not fair that Mahihkan just died, and that’s all,” Eli said.
“You don’t know that,” Morgan said. “Not really.”
“Whenever anybody here looks up at the sky, they’ll know what Ochek did, but they won’t know about Mahihkan.”
“That’s not true,” Arik said. “His story will be told through Ochek, and all of us. We will remember the great hunter, and we will remember the wolf, the children, and maybe even the squirrel…the jury’s out on that one.” She cleared her throat awkwardly. “The point being, they will be honored. Plus, who wants to be in the sky forever, just turning around and around and with a broken tail, no less? Boring.”
“Arik, you really could’ve stopped at the whole ‘they will be honored’ part.” Morgan placed both hands on Eli’s shoulders. “Arik’s right, though. Not about the boring part, but the other thing. They’ll all be remembered.”
Eli nodded quickly. “Okay.”
“And what’s most important is that you’ll remember. Nobody’s really gone if they aren’t forgotten,” Morgan said. “Draw a picture of him.”
“Maybe don’t remember the part where he wanted to eat you, though,” Arik said. “Just, you know, all the after-wanting-to-eat-you things.”
Morgan rolled her eyes at Arik but laughed at the same time, and so did Eli. She tugged at Eli’s hand. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
It had been seven days since she’d arrived in the North Country and crossed the Barren Grounds. By the time they crossed through the portal, it would be just in time for breakfast.
They walked along the canyon to find a place they could cross, and if it wasn’t before the tree bridge, then it wouldn’t be until then. They were hungry, but okay, and there was no urgency now, just a pang in their stomachs. The North Country had been saved, the Green Time was back, and they’d find something to eat on the way to Misewa if they were lucky.
Several hours into their walk along the canyon, they came to the end of the mountain range and the beginning of the forest, where the canyon cut through, eventually leading to the tree bridge. But there was no point in walking hours more when there were perfectly good tree bridges all around them, just waiting to be of service. So they found a tree that grew near the canyon and appeared long enough to stretch across to the other side. They’d brought Ochek’s hatchet with them, and they set to work on chopping the tree down. It was hard work with such a small tool, and they took turns at the job. Of course, they didn’t need to stop for lunch because they had nothing to eat. By midday, they’d cut a large enough section out of the east side of the tree, and they gathered on the west side to push it down in the proper direction. If it fell the wrong way, it would end up at the bottom of the canyon, and at that point, they may as well walk the rest of the way to the already-felled tree.
They pushed with all their strength. The tree cracked and creaked as it started its descent. The trio stepped back and watched with bated breath. When the top of the tree slammed against the ground on the other side of the canyon, then stayed there after settling, they jumped and cheered and hugged. For that moment, each one of them was able to forget the losses they’d experienced and feel nothing but joy that they were even closer to home.
Arik went first, bouncing over the newly made tree bridge with grace, even the last part of it, which was more difficult because of the branches with their fresh leaves.
“Do you want me to go first?” Eli asked.
Morgan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “No. I’ll go.”
She climbed up onto the tree where it had broken off from the ground, stuck both her arms out for balance, and made her way across. She looked straight ahead, keeping her eyes on Arik, who was sitting on the edge of the canyon cheering her on.
“One step at a time,” she said to herself, and she repeated that same phrase until she came to the branches.
She stepped around them carefully, holding on to them for balance, and when she made it to the other side, she jumped off triumphantly, landing solidly on two feet. Arik got up and gave her a hug, and Morgan tried to give the squirrel a high five, but Arik had never done a high five before, so it all turned out very awkward. But they were happy nonetheless.
After Eli joined them, they continued on their way towards Misewa with no more obstacles in their way, other than the anticipation of getting there and hunger from not having eaten for so long.
But even that changed for the better.
With the snow gone and the trees full and the weather warm and the waters thawed, four-legged animals and birds and fish had returned to the area. The group first noticed this when walking by a stream, where Arik saw a fish gliding through the water. While she noticed it too late to catch it, it gave them hope. Next, it was a bird soaring through the sky far above them, and another landing on a branch overhead.
Soon after, Eli put a hand on Morgan and another on Arik to stop them.
“Shhh.” He pointed through the trees, where, to the right of them, was a rabbit.
“Wapos!” Arik whispered, but in such a way that it sounded like she wanted to shout.
She was almost too loud. The rabbit, which had been sitting there oblivious, perked its ears up. They stood still, as though the White Time had never left and they were all ice statues.
When the rabbit relaxed again and started nibbling on some grass, Morgan asked, “What do we do?”
“I think this is where I come in.” Arik took off like a rocket.
As Morgan watched, she couldn’t help but think of the first time she and Eli had met the squirrel, how fast she’d run away from Ochek. She looked even faster now, and the rabbit didn’t get far before she caught it and wrestled it to the ground. Moments later, it was dead. Before Arik brought the animal back to them, she said a prayer over it, thanking Creator for its sacrifice.
“I bet that’s something Mason never did,” Morgan said.
“Maybe he didn’t kill all the animals over the mountain,” Eli said. “He didn’t honor their sacrifice, so Creator took them away.”
“Or he did, but over here, they were just looking for food, like Ochek and Arik,” Morgan guessed. “There was nothing to eat here, so they went somewhere else.”
“I just hope they come back all over the North Country,” he said.
“Me too.”
They ate their meal right there. Eli prepared the fire, work that he’d become quite good at under Ochek’s tutelage, and Arik showed Morgan how to prepare the meat. They skinned the rabbit and cooked it over the fire on a spit of Morgan’s making, and when it was ready, they all ate their share. The meat was soft and fresh, and each one of them agreed that it was the best food any of them had ever had. By the time they’d packed up, more game had flooded into the area.
Full of food, the three of them moved faster, stopping only so that Arik could catch another rabbit and a prairie chicken to bring back for the villagers. Soon, the sun dipped below the horizon and night fell over the North Country, but they kept walking because they were too excited to camp for the night. They felt even more motivated when the stars began to shine overhead and they saw Ochek looking down on them with his square body and broken tail.
“It’s like he’s following us,” Morgan said.
Ochek did look that way. His constellation was bright and clear through the trees, and always directly over them, watching protectively.
“I think he’s doing exactly that,” Arik agreed.
After they’d hiked for a while longer, they saw lights flickering in the distance. They looked like fireflies. As they got closer, they saw that the lights weren’t fireflies at all, but a series of torches, all in a line. It was the villagers of Misewa, standing in a circle in the clearing in front of the Council Hut, each one of them carrying a torch, waiting to welcome the travelers home. Muskwa was in the middle of the circle, standing tall and proud and looking younger than when they’d seen him the first time.
Morgan, Eli, and Arik walked into the circle, where they met the great bear.
Arik took the game she’d caught off her shoulders and placed it at Muskwa’s feet. Muskwa nodded towards one of the foxes, and they gathered the food up and took it away.
“You’ve done a good thing, Arikwachas,” Muskwa said.
“Ekosani, Muskwa,” Arik said. “And you can call me Arik, if you like, Chief.”
“Dear Arik,” Muskwa said, “would you like this to be your home?”
“Muskwa…” Arik sounded breathless, unable to find the words for once.
“And not only because it’ll protect our traps.” Muskwa chuckled.
“Ehe, Chief Muskwa,” Arik said. “I would be proud to live here.”
“Good.” Muskwa took a long, sad look at the sky, at the Ochek constellation, which had followed the travelers all the way there. “You may stay in Ochek’s lodge.”
Arik nodded, then backed away to beside the humans.
“Children,” Muskwa said. “Come forward.”
Eli and Morgan did as asked.
“How do you know about Ochek?” Morgan asked.
“Only speak when spoken to!” Eli said to his sister.
“It’s okay, young one,” Muskwa said. “We saw the explosion of light, from here in Misewa, and the new stars in the sky. The Green Time danced through our village in a heavy, warm wind.” Muskwa closed his eyes, as though to pray. “Then Kisémanitou spoke to all of us, about what had happened. About our great hunter’s sacrifice.”
The bear opened his eyes and looked at the two children, nodding his head.
“You’ve done a selfless thing for this village,” Muskwa said. “We honor you for that. You could have left, but you chose to stay and help us. Help Ochek.” He offered each sibling a tobacco tie, placing the sacred medicine in their left hands.
“It wasn’t us,” Morgan said. “It was Ochek. We didn’t even—”
“And Mahihkan too,” Eli added.
Muskwa looked the travelers over, from Arik to Eli to Morgan. “Each one of you had a role, big or small, in bringing the Green Time back to the North Country. This story will be passed down from one generation to the next. We will not forget what has happened here.”
“I don’t think we’ll ever forget it either,” Morgan said.
“You’re welcome to stay longer, if you wish,” Muskwa said.
“Can we?” Eli asked Morgan.
Morgan shook her head. She answered to Muskwa, but kept her eyes on Eli. “Thanks for the offer, but we can’t. There are people waiting for us back home.”
Eli’s lips began to quiver, his eyes began to water, but he nodded reluctantly.
“We can come back,” she said to Eli. “If that’s okay with you,” she said to Muskwa.
“You will always be welcome here,” Muskwa said. “And you’re welcome, too, to stay till morning, rather than travel across the Barren Grounds at night.”
“That’s okay,” Morgan said. “I’m not afraid of the dark.”