Okay, here is the first deleted scene from Ice. This is the original chapter seven that is told from Tartok’s point of view to help fill the gap of time when Christine last see’s Kavick to when he is abducted. The final version doesn’t show what it was like when Kavick almost lost all sense of his humanity, and how long it took his body to change back completely. The part where Tartok breaks in Christine’s room, however, is told from Christine’s point of view in the final version. Now you know what Tartok was thinking when he saw Christine for the first time. I decided to chop this scene, and any other told from another character’s point of view, because I thought it would be easier to read if it was all told from one point of view, that being Christine’s.
NOTE: there are many spelling errors. Also, the O’Hara’s in this scene are the O’Connell’s.
Chapter Seven:
Missing
“Stop following me, Tark!” Kavick called back to me. He was stomping through the snow ahead, his black and white hair he so unabashedly displayed swung back and forth with every furious step. But he knew I was right; that was part of the reason why he was so mad. He shouldn’t have been associating with that girl. From his lack of willingness to answer my questions I could tell the girl knew our secret. Ever since we were little I could figure out what he was hiding if he didn’t answer the question. For example…
“Did you tell her about us?” I asked, not bothering to hide how frustrated I was with him. I wanted him to know. He knew better than to tell. No one could be trusted.
“Stop interrogating me!” he shouted, looking up at the dim sky above. There was the faintest wisp of green glowing overhead, the start of yet another Aurora Borealis.
“You told her,” I stated flatly.
“I didn’t say that!”
“You didn’t need to.”
“Whatever,” he huffed, still stomping his way through the ankle deep snow. He had never paused for a second as he avoided my question. He turned around, walking backwards for a moment as he pointed at me. “You think you know everything, but you don’t know her! She’s the kindest, most caring person I’ve ever met, and she’s been helping me for months!”
I wasn’t expecting him to say that. For a second I felt my surprise register on my face, but Kavick caught it. I could tell he thought it only confirmed that he was right and that he knew better.
But he didn’t know better. I was the one always looking out for him and the others. I was as good as the head of our clan. That is, if we had a clan. Just the two of us didn’t feel like much of a clan. It just made us feel like twins instead of the remains of a broken set of quintuplets.
“How is she so much more kind and caring than the others?” I said, once again not bothering to hide my disdain and disbelief. How could she be so different? I heard her talking to Molly. Molly is one of the most annoying people I have ever met. I never understood why Kavick associated with her, and as far as I’m concerned that’s just another of example of Kavick’s poor judgment.
“She’s the one that took me in when I was wounded,” he explained, holding up the arm which used to be injured.
I immediately relived that day for a moment, when Anana had come back panicked, asking for her sister and I to help him against the bear. She was equally worried about the fact Kavick had been spotted in the woods, since Kavick’s presence would look unusual, unlike her appearance.
The three of us had raced to where Anana had left him, only to find him walking naked and wounded in the cold, and not as a dog. He had explained to us about how he had tried to save a girl from a bear and she had taken him in her house and tended to his wounds. However, in order to escape, he had to change back into his human form. Never had I seen Kavick look so disheveled, so uncertain, so dirty, and so cold. There was a time when he was used to the moments of being naked in the freezing temperatures just after a shift. But that day he had been shivering, holding his arms, and there was a strange look in his eyes. I couldn’t quite describe it, but his footsteps did. His walk didn’t seem right. It seemed awkward. I could tell it was unnatural to him. He had already become accustomed to walking on all fours and the warmth of his fur. He stared at everything in wonder as if he were seeing it all in a new light. His eyes were big the whole walk home.
I had told Anana and Suka to go back home as soon as we had spotted him. They had quickly taken off to give Kavick some privacy. I had shifted back into human form and put an arm around him. We tried to keep each other warm as we walked back home since Kavick said he couldn’t walk on his leg. I had then looked at his wounded arm he referred to as a leg. He kept making comments about how pretty the colors of things were and his words were low and hoarse. It had been a week since he had last spoken.
“Why are you doing this, Tark?” he had asked in a shaky voice with chattering teeth.
“It’s only right I suffer with you and give you what warmth I can. I’m your brother. You would do the same for me.”
I had been a little frightened by the state he was in, but I hid it well. I had to be strong. Even though it felt like I had almost lost my brother, living as a wolf was the surest way of staying hidden. To my relief he was back to his old self by the time we got home. He had eagerly run into the bathroom, speaking about how badly he wanted to take a hot shower.
I’ve lived as a wolf for several days before, as well, but not for a whole week straight. There was usually a few brief moments where I had to shift back into a human for some reason. Apparently Kavick hadn’t had those moments. I had spoken to Suka soon after, asking how Anana was after they had gotten home. She had said Anana seemed a little awkward and very happy to be human again. I asked if she had inquired about her time with Kavick when they had been wolves, and she had said that her younger sister had told her they had done a lot of running and playing, sleeping, and only a little hunting.
“I thought Kavick looked a little thin,” Suka had commented from the roof of her house. It was late at night and everyone was asleep. Whenever we spoke about our siblings to each other, it was usually at this hour on her roof. Waiting to talk until so late was about the only way it was sure to stay just between the two of us.
“And that also explains why he ate the whole fridge when he got home,” I had said with a frown.
She grinned slightly and had a knowing look in her yellow eyes. “Anana did the same thing.”
I brought myself out of my memories a second later, strangely feeling a little grateful for this girl who had helped my brother. Because of her treatment Kavick’s wounds weren’t infected when I had found him. Kavick recovered well, but he didn’t shift into a wolf again until his gashes were reduced to just mere scratches on his arm and side.
Kavick turned his back on me again. “Now leave me alone!”
I stood still then, not wanting to fight with him anymore. I decided to let him be for a bit. “Be back in time for the Lights.” It was all I would say.
He just waved a hand up in the air, letting me know he heard me through the rush of wind that suddenly hammered us. It sent his long hair flying and it made me remember how my father was proud that he wasn’t afraid to display his heritage. An outsider wouldn’t know what it meant, but all of our kind would. He was even picked on by our own people for his Husky ancestry, and it showed more strongly in him than any other of my brothers. I was a black wolf, like Father. So was Maguyuk. Anuun was a Husky, but he was solid black. Tupit had a little, such as on his face, but he had many of those long streaks of black patterning his face like tattoos. Kavick’s face on the other hand was full white, framed by dark black. He had much more white than Tupit, just like our mother. Half his body was in white. Mother always felt guilty, though, like it was her fault, always saying she was sorry she had placed such a burden on her children.
I turned around, feeling conflicted feelings. I felt a bit of that same pride like Father had spoke of, but I was still frustrated with my last remaining brother. I didn’t want to lose him like Tupit. Tupit’s death was still fresh in my mind. I had been a witness to him being shot down in his Husky form, lying still that cold, snowy night during that unusual cold snap we had in the summer. I had been injured by gunfire, and Kavick was with the others trying to free Suka and Anana’s father from a trap in the distance. I had been made useless, forced to watch the hunter drag my brother away. I was surprised the hunter hadn’t tried to take me, as well. Perhaps he couldn’t manage dragging two wolves in the snow. The hunter placed Tupit on the front of his snowmobile, and took off. Kavick had come to my aid then, turning into a human in his worry. He was so busy checking on me he didn’t realize the hunter had killed Tupit.
“Stay with me!” he pleaded with me. He then whipped his head around, noticing our brother wasn’t there. “Where’s Tupit?!” I could hear the panic in his voice.
I finally managed to shift into a human and pointed to the snowmobile that was quickly growing distant. “He’s got Tupit!”
Kavick had jumped to his feet and ran after the hunter, shifting mid-run. But he couldn’t catch up with it.
He didn’t return to us, either.
Anana and Suka took me to their home that night with their father where we could tend to our injuries. I could hear Kavick wailing away at the moon in the forest somewhere until I finally fell asleep. Part of me wondered if he was hoping Tupit was still alive and would be able to escape and come back at his call. He was probably blaming himself, like our mother he took after. I could hear Anana crying, too, but she wasn’t howling like Kavick. I could hear it through the walls of the old house. Suka was trying to comfort her little sister in the living room. Anana had been just as close to Tupit as she was to Kavick, maybe even slightly more.
But it wasn’t Kavick’s fault. It was mine. I had been standing next to Tupit when it had happened. I should have been able to save him. It was my fault.
“Where’s Kavick?” I asked as I met up with the others at the bonfire. There was Suka, Anana, their father Tunerk, and their grandfather whom Kavick and I refer to in our private conversations as “Old Man Miller”. And then there were the O’haras, a family of six which had the exceptional good luck of not losing anyone to the hunter. However, we all have our suspicions if there is actually more than one hunter and if they had grown to such a large number that they were building that “factory” as a cover for some kind of base. Our suspicions have been growing stronger and stronger over time. Why would anyone want to build a factory out in this tiny, dying town?
“I don’t know. He’s your brother,” Suka said with that sarcasm I knew all too well. I should have known better than to ask her that.
I looked out toward the trees, feeling worried. Knowing him, he probably went to see that girl, putting himself in danger. I was so certain; I knew that had to be where he was. He was skipping the meeting just to send a message to me. And it just happened to be one of the most crucial meetings. The oldest O’hara boy, who was seventeen, was supposed to have been tailing a person we suspected of being a hunter. But Kavick doesn’t even know what that person looks like because he was with that girl the last time we spoke of it.
“Go ahead, start,” I said as I sat down alone on the empty log. Kavick was supposed to be sitting beside me on it. I was incredibly annoyed at my brother for skipping this meeting. Jonathan O’hara (the O’haras preferred to not use native names unlike the Millers and my family) was going to tell us what he had found out from trailing the suspected hunter. He stood then, looking a little uncomfortable at starting without Kavick. Most of us didn’t look Inuit anymore from all the breeding with white people, except the Millers. The O’haras were almost as pale as Kavick and I, and they all had brown hair since they had a lot of brown mixed in with their gray coat, unlike the Millers who had virtually no brown in their gray coats. They bred with only other wolf people, and used to only breed with other Inuits. Old Man Miller had dark skin and you could see some of his Inuit heritage in his facial features. His son Tunerk carried on the skin color to his daughter’s, but it was much lighter since their mother had been white. They all had gray hair and yellow eyes, except for the old man whose hair had turned white. Suka’s hair was cut incredibly short, almost like a boys’, and Anana’s hair was a little longer, hanging down just to the middle of her neck.
Jonathan cleared his throat and addressed us all. “I’ve been tailing the human who we saw the night of the fire at the factory. I wasn’t able to look around in his house for long, so I only have a last name. I was not able to find any concrete evidence that he is the hunter, but he did have a yellow snowmobile like the one the hunter who killed Tupit Skarling used.”
I felt anger and pain surge through me at those words. Everyone was locked on the oldest O’hara boy as he continued on with what he learned. He told us the last name he had discovered and said he was going to keep following this factory worker, along with another one of his brothers, and wait for another opportunity to search his house.
That’s where the meeting ended. It was short, as were most meetings anymore. We no longer played music since we had already reflected on the dead during the first few nights of the Lights. However, I remained long after the others had walked away, still reflecting on the dead of my family. I don’t know how long I sat there, staring into the fire until I finally left.
“Where’s Kavick?” I asked yet again on the following night. I looked around at everyone who was seated around the fire just as before. There was only silence and awkward stares. Tunerk Miller sighed loudly from beside Suka, showing his unhappiness. He raised an irritated eyebrow at me that spoke volumes. I could imagine what our next conversation would be like. I could hear his voice in my mind. “Get him in line.”
Tunerk didn’t like how Kavick was spending so much time away where nobody seemed to know what he was doing, and skipping meetings, at that. He had always had little respect for Kavick until Kavick helped him out of a bear trap the hunter had set the night Tupit was killed and taken. Despite Kavick not being a “true wolf” as he had said before in the past, he was suddenly polite to Kavick after that incident and soon asked him to marry Anana to carry on the wolf bloodline. Tunerk felt like we were a dying breed and needed to change that quickly before we were extinct. However, in his conversations with me, Tunerk still showed his unhappiness with Kavick’s relaxed, carefree attitude, saying he had no sense of duty for not wanting to marry his daughter. And now he had added “wild” to that list of traits he didn’t like about Kavick. I knew I would be hearing more of his complaints about my brother in the very near future.
I huffed and turned around. “Go on.”
“Without both of you?” Suka inquired in a surprised voice as I walked away.
“I’m fetching Kavick.” I stopped then, realizing there was a much faster way of hunting him down. Instead of sniffing him out, I could use Anana’s directions, since she was the one who had been spying on him, wondering where he was gone to so much instead of trying to get adjusted as living as wolf. He and Anana were supposed to be spending more time together, hunting and such, as wolves, because I thought he should marry Anana, as well, and soon. Even though Kavick didn’t to marry her, Anana was his friend so he didn’t mind spending time with her.
At least, until recently he didn’t mind. He had been spending less and less time with her. His excuse had been he was spending more time helping the O’hara’s with their store, but she didn’t believe him. She had told Suka she could smell a different scent on him and was curious to know where he had actually been spending so much time. She had carefully followed far behind him one evening and discovered him climbing through the window of a house. She could hear a girl’s voice talking to him.
I turned around and looked at Anana. She slowly tipped her head up at me, her yellow eyes growing bigger. I could tell she was figuring out what I wanted and she didn’t want to do it. But she would do what I asked. She hardly ever said no to anyone. That’s why she wasn’t protesting her father’s marriage proposal to Kavick. She was eighteen, but she did everything he said like she was a little child still with no free will. I then looked at Suka who was staring at me, wondering what I wanted. “Can I borrow your sister?”
Suka’s eyes grew a little larger then and she looked at Anana. Anana and her exchanged stares. Anana knew then that Suka had told me what she had told her in confidence about Kavick. Nothing was said and it only lasted a second. Suka looked down at her feet in a guilty way and said, “Ask her, not me.”
I looked at Anana again. She hesitantly stood, holding her side for a second, and then followed me into the trees. I stopped after a moment of walking and then turned to her. She wasn’t holding her side anymore where she had been shot, but she still looked frail. She always looked frail and delicate to me, because she was short and bony. She kind of did still look like a little girl. “Do you think you can show me where Kavick’s been seeing that girl?” I glanced at her side then to let her know she could say no if she didn’t feel like she could do it.
She was quiet a moment, mulling it over, and then gave a tiny nod. “Yeah, I can do it.”
I stepped aside and motioned for her to take the lead. She went over behind a large pine tree and came back a second later as a Timber wolf. I walked up to her and she stared at me. “I’m not shifting. I don’t want to frighten the girl.”
She let out a whine as she started walking ahead of me, clearly regretting her decision. She probably felt like she was betraying Kavick. We both knew he wasn’t going to be happy.
Anana led the way at a leisurely pace, making it easy for me to keep up with her. During the long walk to the girl’s house it seemed to get even darker and the Aurora Borealis grew even brighter even though it was already night when we headed out. The white snow stood out in the darkness. Moonlight filtered through the trees now and then, but I could make out Anana just fine without it. Once we finally reached the edge of the forest where there was a little light blue house in a clearing, Anana darted away, back to the meeting, not wanting Kavick to see her.
I looked down in the snow and could just faintly see tracks leading to the house. However, they looked old. They were have filled with this morning’s snowfall. Had Kavick actually taken the front door?
I walked around the tree line, staying hidden behind the trees. I could see the window the tracks led to. The blinds were up and it was the only room in the house that appeared to have a light on. I ran up to the window then as fast I could in the deep snow, ready to give Kavick the worst scolding and lecturing of his life. I couldn’t believe he had made himself known to the other person this girl lived with whom Suka had also told me about. Anana assumed he was probably the girl’s father. What if he was one of the hunters?
I forced the window up, making a bit of a racket, but not too bad. If her father was asleep then it probably didn’t wake him. I climbed through to see the girl sitting on the bed, staring at me with big gray eyes. For a second I nearly sighed out loud. I could see why Kavick had spent so much time with her in the past. She was pretty. He was being a typical, thoughtless, hormonal teenage boy. She had long straight brown hair that went down to her waist like curtains. She was a bit pale, but not nearly as bad as Kavick and I. Really, though, was there anyone here that wasn’t pale who was white? Summers are short and usually cloudy in this part of the world.
She was dressed warmly in a gray turtleneck that brought out the color of her eyes even more, blue jeans, and she was wearing boots, as if she were ready to head out into the snow. And then I noticed the coat and gloves beside her. She was planning on going out, and probably with him.
However, I was surprised to see that Kavick wasn’t there. Now I had exposed myself to the girl. Kavick was making me even more furious than before, and he wasn’t even present. I stood my full height and stared the girl down. “Where is my brother?”