Keep me Strong
Chapter 1
It was in the late evening in the dead of winter 1980 in Saskatchewan and a heavy blizzard was setting in. Two aboriginal bow and arrow hunters were returning back to their tribe after an unsuccessful day hunting with bows and arrows, both of them feeling that using firearms was both unfair and required too little skill to be fair for either them or their prey, however the weather had caused most of the animals in the area to seek shelter, and the two hunters decided to get back home before they froze to death. One was driving a ski-doo snowmobile through the heavily falling snow while the other hung on tightly keeping their hunting bows and arrows form falling off. The driver thought he spotted something in front of them, but assumed it was a snow back, as it blended in so perfectly with the falling snow and the snow on the ground so he ignored it at first. When they got closer he saw that it wasn't snow, but some animal lying on the ground; it looked half frozen, which was odd for a creature in winter.
The driver slowed down and got off the snowmobile and cent down to look at the animal, but it wasn't ordinary, it looked like and arctic fox kit but its fur was as white as the snow around it and it has heart shaped pads on its hands and feet, as well as a heart shaped nose and a small red heart on its behind; it was too short and it looked more humanoid.
"This creature, do you think it might be a spirit animal?" the driver asked.
"I'm not sure, but maybe we should take it to see the head shaman before it or we freeze to death," the passenger said, getting off and picking up the kit in his arms. Both of them boarded the snowmobile again and took off now with a new purpose.
A short time later they were inside the living room of their tribe's head shaman's house, a small but simple house where the living room was decorated in what would been seen as a stereotypical shaman's room decorated with earth colored wall hangings and having no coffee table and a padded rug in the middle of the room, which the young kit was now lying on. The head shaman was looking the kit over as it dozed, warming up in the heat of the house's furnace.
"So is it a spirit animal?" the snowmobile driver asked. The head shaman shook his head.
"No, he is not a spirit in animal form, but he isn't normal either. I can feel a great connection to nature in this animal and I feel that if we take care of him, we can learn just as much from him as he could learn from us," he said aloud.
"So what should we do with him?" the passenger asked.
"Leave him here with me, I shall take care of him and observe him and find out what he's capable of." Both of the hunters nodded and left the house to return to their homes. The shaman made some tea to help himself stay awake, not herbal tea obviously but some from the local store with plenty of caffeine in it. It was a couple hours later before kit stirred and awoke. The shaman observed the kit, who was male, as he observed his surroundings, finally turning to see the shaman, and was a bit frightened.
"Don't worry," the shaman said reaching forwards to touch the kit's forehead. The kit recoiled slightly but eased when the old man's hand gently touched his head.
"You are not human but you are not an animal either. You seem to be a bit of both, perhaps it was not a mistake that you were brought here. Since your fur is a white as the snow I shall name you Kona, which means snow." The old shaman withdrew his hand and the kit yawned, lying down to curl up on the thick rug.
"That's right, Kona, get some sleep for when the storm dies down tomorrow you shall meet the rest of your people."