Author Roxanne R. Roberts
Illustrator Jared S. Jefferson
Roxanne dedicates this book to her Alaska History and Literature classes. For helping her along the way and being supportive when she had writers block.
Jared would like to dedicate his illustrations to a friend. �I did these to help out a friend�.
�Hurry up we�re not waiting any longer for you!� Maluk yelled at Tatnee
�I�m a coming just hold on.� Tatnee called while he walked up to the hunting crew that waited over half an hour for him to get his stuff gathered up.
The hunting party was planning on hunting walrus but all the walrus was out to sea eating until their bellied were bloated. So the hunting group ended up looking for some Spotted Seals which they found sleeping on the other side of a large ice rock. They had all their supplies on a dog sled and they brought 3 other dog sleds to take the seal�s home with them.
�Shhhhh you need to be quieter Neonate we need to catch some animals so we have enough food for the winter.� whispered a Tatnee that was sneaking up on a spotted seal. The spotted seal was a good size male that was watching over his herd of mothers and babies.
Suddenly half the hunting party jumped out and threw their spears right at the lead male of the herd. All the hunters cheered as the rest of the hunting group threw their spears at the spotted seals. They took home many large males and very few females because they wanted to cherish the Seals way of life. They prayed to the seals that gave themselves to them, thanking them for helping conserve their villagers� lives by giving theirs.
They packed up all their supplies and put the seals on the dog sleds that had room for them. After Neunat looked around to make sure the party got all their supplies together, he looked behind the ice rock and found a baby spotted seal.
�Hey Maluk I found a baby seal!� Tatnee shouted, trying to figure out what he wanted to do with the baby pup. �Should I leave it or take it with us?�
�Take it. My daughter Itana will keep it as a pet.� So with that Maluk loaded the pup onto his sled and they hurried off home taking up speed to ensure the night does not catch them.
�Father, father you�re finally home!� Shouted Itana from the window in her room. She rushed out to the big room and her mother told her to sit down and eat her supper. She suddenly plopped down on her chair and started eating her soup. Her father came up the stairs and as soon as he opened the door Itana leaped into his arms.
Her father put her down and hugged Itanas� mother. It was late but Itana helped her father unload the dog sled and she put the dogs to their beds while her father brought the last of his equipment in the house. Itana wanted to hurry so she could have enough time for her father to read a story to her before she had to go to bed.
She ran as fast as she could to the house and as soon as she got in side she saw her mothers face and knew something was wrong.
�What is wrong mother?� Itana asked wondering if she even wanted to hear what was wrong.
�Nothing daughter, but your father brought you a present.� At hearing this Itanas face lit up. She hurried over to see what her father had.
�Father what is it? What is it?� She tried looking behind her fathers back but he just moved the opposite way.
�I will show you but you have to promise to take care of it.�
Itana has been hoping for a new puppy but what she got wasn�t what she thought it was. She saw whiskers and maybe it was a kitten she thought. She was getting all wound up and could hardly contain the excitement.
�OH I will, I will.� At hearing this he brought one hand out and then the other and Itana was stunned. It was a baby spotted seal. �You brought me a seal?� She asked completely discouraged.
�We found it while we were on the ice. I thought you might like it. You do like it don�t you?� He asked getting ready to take it outside but Itana was fast and grabbed it out of his hands and held it like a kitten.
�What happened to the baby seals family father?� She knew the answer when her fathers face was overcome with grief.
�I am sorry baby, its family came home with us, and the rest of the family is still out on the ice.� Itanas� eyes started to water thinking of this lonely baby, all alone with no family.
Itana couldn�t bear to think of this baby being all alone but Itanas mother and father firmly cancelled her idea of taking the baby back to the rest of her family. But Itana is a stern stubborn little girl. After about 4 days of feeding and playing with the baby seal and keeping her thoughts of running away and reuniting the baby seal with his family, to her self so her parents would never know what was going g on in her mind. Her parents would never allow her to go on her own and they would just put the seal outside and leave it to fend for her. Itana being the softhearted person she was wouldn�t let anything evil happen to this baby seal.
She was lying away one night and heard the seal crying for his lost family. She decided tonight was the night. She got dressed in her warmest, thickest clothes and pulled her polar bear parka over her head. She also grabbed her little bag and packed smoked dried salmon, a little bit of bread, and some whale meat that had some fat on the side. She packed all of this firmly away at the bottom her pack and put some extra socks in her bag. The seal was looking at her with soft curious eyes wondering what this little girl is up to.
�Baby, we are going to go find your family.� Itana told the pup. The pup cried for a second until Itana picked him up and headed outside. Just as she got to the door Itana looked back at her parent�s room and at the note she left on the kitchen table. She went outside and thought if she should take the dog sled or just go running. She finally decided after 5 minutes she hooked the 12 dogs to the sled and put the pup in the extra space on the sled fewer than 2 blankets tightly wrapped around her.
�You know little pup? I should call you something. Hmm what to call you thought.� The seal pup looked up at Itana with those jet black eyes with question in them. �I will call you� Natchiq�s.� She smiled at Natchiq�s and the seal just cried with happiness. Itana noticed it was getting light out and tried with all her might to remember where her father said Natchiq�s came. All she could remember though was that it was farther north so she kept riding. �I hope we get there soon, father will be up soon and I have to be home before he gets up.�
Itana kept riding with all her heart. After 2 hours she was getting tired but when she looked up farther ahead she saw a glacier. �There it is Natchiq�s! We are finally here!� she yelled and pushed on harder so she would get to the glacier and then rest. Just before the glacier she stopped because the dogs were having hard time breathing and just couldn�t run anymore. As Itana let the dogs rest she took Natchiq�s out and put him on the ice. �Here Natchiq�s, lets find your family.�
Itana felt bad for keeping the dogs chained to the dog sled so she unhooked them and told them to stay close to the sled.
�I don�t know what is around the corner. There could be a hunter�s trap or a polar bear. I can�t risk having any of you get hurt.� She tried to get the dogs to stay close and almost all of them did except the lead dog, Nukchuk, ran off in the direction of a fresh new hole in, the ice. The hole made Itana very nervous and suspicious at what made that hole.
�Nukchuk! Get back here NOW!� she scolded but the dog ignored her while he was in his freedom frenzy. Nukchuk ran right to the whole and stood over it until Itana was about 100 feet from him. As soon as Itana reached out for Nukchuk, a huge seal came up through the hole. The seal looked at Nukchuk and the dog ran for he saw that the seal was very angry and it looked as if he had battled with a great polar bear. This big old seal had deep gashed on its back and its eyes were red with fury.
Itana was so freighted that she froze a not dared not to move. He father has told her many times when she went to go play on the ices that if an angry animal comes over to you, do not run. If you run, that shows you are scared and will provoke them to chase you. She had to think of something quick to get rid of this seal but as she looked over it, the seal growled at her and stairs at her for a few minutes then turned around and went back underwater.
Itana could not move until she heard Nukchuk winging for help. She suddenly had the vision of her only lead dog being so hurt that she had to leave him behind. She could not think of a worse thing that could happen. She slowly turned to Nukchuk, she found him sitting on the ground watching her holding his front right paw curled up. �What have you done now you silly dog?� She cooed to the hurt dog. She gently grabbed his paw and lightly lifted the paw and saw that there was a huge gash in his paw pad.
Itana tried to carry Nukchuk to the dog sled but he outweighed her by 30 pounds or more. So she coaxed Nukchuk to limp over to the dog sled slowly. �Now, good boy, very good boy. I am going to wrap up your paw so it will feel better ok?� the dog cried and Itana slowly put some healing lotion on the cut that her mother gave to her a few weeks ago that would help stop infection. She put a long piece of wrap over it and tied it tightly so it would not fall off.
She didn�t like wrapping the dogs paw so tightly but it had to be done. The dog screamed and cried as she wrapped the paw tightly as fast as she could so the dogs crying would stop. She was trapped as a mouse in a box with no hole to escape from. She couldn�t leave Nukchuk here but she also had no room in the sled with him and all the food and blankets.
She had a choice to make. Take the dog in the dog sled and leave half her blankets to make room for the dog, or she could leave the dog or walk. She was warm enough and she thought of how cold the seal was used to being so she took out all her blankets and only put back the 2 blankets that her mother had knitted for her. She could not leave these. She helped the dog in the sled and had to tie up the lead dogs ropes to the second lead dogs. She wasn�t sure if the rope would stay but if it fell she would just have to stop and tie it up again. Then they were off again to find the glacier.
Itana started to wonder if she would get home on time. She knew if she was late her father would be mad and her mother would be in a rage like a wolverine trapped from his dinner. She wanted to push the dogs harder but did not dare for fear of another dog getting hurt or an accident happens.
After they got all the way to the glacier Itana looked around everywhere but only found a few places where it looked were some seals have lay down before and slept. �Natchiq�s, where�s your family?� She looked around for her baby seal but Natchiq�s had run west to there was a great dip in the ice. �Stop Natchiq�s, you don�t know what is over there!� Itana started running for fear that there was a big great polar bear just waiting to gobble her baby seal up. Natchiq�s went over to the dip and disappears and Itana screamed as loud as her lungs would let her.
When she finally reached the dip she found there were over 14 seals hiding in there. Natchiq�s was cuddled up with one large female and looked at Itana. �I hope you�re happy and have a long life Natchiq�s.� Itana squeaked out before she started to cry. She was happy that Natchiq�s was with his family but she loved her so much she didn�t want to let go.
Itana started her way home and just before dark got home. She tied up the dogs, fed them, put everything away as she walked up the stairs to her door and just stood there looking at the door. She wanted to go in and hug her mother and father but she knew they would be angry and hurt that she left without anything but a note.
She finally after 5 minutes got so cold that she just opened the door and walked in. her mother and father was standing in front of the fireplace and Itana leaped into her mothers arms before her mother even knew what was going on.
�I am so happy you come home Itana, are you ok?� her mother asked while she kissed her daughter on the forehead and started over to the kitchen to get Itana some soup. �You know you are grounded for a month, even though we are so happy to have you home.� Itana just looked at her father and her father shrugged in defeat and told Itana he was happy she came home. Next time she took off though, she was ordered to wake her father up and take him with her.
He didn�t want to get another dog hurt he teased Itana. She was happy to be home and warm and even felt better when she looked at the full moon and she closed her eyes and thought about Natchiq�s looking at the same moon at the same time. Both Itana and Natchiq reunited with their families and safe at home.