Spirits in the Sky Page #2

• Short story

								

	Before I had the time to distinguish the meaning of this sensation, the ox emitted a great huff and stepped around me. As it stroud away I looked back after it expectantly, at which the musk ox cast its own gaze back towards me. Our eyes met and I somehow innately recognized that the animal desired for me to follow, and so I did.
	When I reached the great beast’s flank, I slowly touched its shaggy fur and stroked it. The warmth that crept up my arm from my finger-tips caused me to ignore the musk ox’s, admittedly, harsh natural scent and press my body into its fur. I managed to warm to a comfortable degree before the beast huffed once more and began trudging away, and at its prior request, I followed.
	The musk ox guided me through the great Alaskan wilderness until the moon began to near its point of setting, at which point we found ourselves atop a small snowy ridge overlooking a sight that sent my heart into a furious fit of ecstatic palpitations. Below, only about a mile away glowed the lights of a village of quaint cottages.
	In my fit of excitement, I turned to thank the ox only to see that it was nowhere to be seen, and instead in its place stood a woman also of Inuit descent whose name was immediately plucked from my mind; Sakari, meaning sweet. My heart flooded with once long-deceased love, and I staggered over to her and embraced her in my arms. My heart was alight with a flurry of emotions, primarily blazing love, and as I backed away I ventured upon trying to speak to her; however, she didn’t provide a reply to any of my words, only stood there beaming a gleaming smile.
	At length, as the dark of night reached its earliest stage of waning my deceased wife stepped toward me and laid a kiss on me with her familiarly soft, delicate lips. Finally, before my eyes, she began to shift into the wispy semblance of a woman, and drifted up into the sky, becoming one with the aurora borealis. As I gazed at the ribbons of light that waned overhead, I finally noticed the forms of other people dancing with grunting musk ox, prancing elk, howling wolves, and many other animals of the north amongst the lights. I watched amazed as the spirits went seamlessly through the steps of their magnificent waltz through the sky, and as I did all the cold still lingering in my body subsided.
	The spirits persisted in their joyful, magnificent dance until the sparks of the fire that announced the rising sun bid them to rest. And so I stood and watched until they had all departed, bidding them farewell as they went, then started my journey to the village, my body warm and my mind and soul finally found once more.
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