1. On the third night of hunger,

Noni thought of the dog.

Nobody was on the floating ice island except those two.

2. In the breakup of the iceberg, Noni lost his sled, his

food, his furs

and his knife.

3. He saved only Nimuk, his great devoted husky.

4. And now the two, were on the ice island. They looked

at each other

warily and kept distance.

5. Noni loved Nimuk very much. But Noni was also very

hungry, very cold

and he was in pain, because of his injured leg.

6. Noni knew,the men of his village killed their dogs

when they did not have food,

and they did it without thinking twice

about it.

7. Noni also knew that Nimuk, when he was hungry

enough, he would look for food.

and he thought to himself:

“and one of us will soon eat the other,”

8. Noni could not kill the dog with his bare hands.

Nimuk was stronger  than him. So, he needed a knife.

Noni took off his mittens, and he took

off two strings from the brace on his leg.

9. A few weeks ago,when he hurt his leg,

he had a brace with iron strings.

10. Noni knelt on the snow, and began to rub the iron

strips one against the other, to make them sharp.

Nimuk watched him, and his eyes shone more brightly

than ever.

Noni worked on and on, trying not to remember why.

11. Noni completed the task, and his knife was ready.

It shined in the sun,

and it was very bright.

12. “Here, Nimuk,” Noni called his dog very softly. The

dog suspiciously watched him.

“Come here,” Noni called him again, and Nimuk came

closer. Noni saw fear in the dog’s eyes.

He saw hunger and suffering in the dog’s eyes.

13. Noni was very sad, his heart cried.

He did not want to do it.

He hated himself.

14. Nimuk came closer, he knew what Noni was going

to do. Noni wanted to cry.

He saw the dog’s eyes, the dog was suffering.

Now! Now it was the time to strike!

15. Noni could not do it. He cried and cursed the

knife.Then threw the  knife far from him.

Now he was with empty hands, he walked toward

the dog and he fell near him.

16. The dog circled Noni, and Noni was very scared.

He threw the knife,and now he was at Nimuk’s mercy.

And he knew that Nimuk was hungry.

17. The dog circled Noni and stood behind him.

Noni shut his eyes, and prayed to god.

The dog was next to him, near his neck, and his feet

were on his Noni’s leg.

18. Then, Noni felt the dog’s hot tongue. Nimuk licked

Noni’s face.

Noni’s eyes opened, and he cried softly. He hugged

Nimuk and put the dog’s face down against his own.

19. An hour later, the plane came out from the south.

The pilot, looked down but he did not see them.

20. Suddenly, the pilot saw something flashing on the ice.

It was something shiny.

The pilot flew lower and closer to the ice island.

Then he saw a dark shape, one dark shape.

21. Or perhaps, he saw two dark shapes?

22. The pilot set his seaplane down on the water

and investigated.

23. There were two shapes, a boy and a dog.

24. The boy was unconscious but alive.

The dog barked softly but was

too weak to move.

25. The shining object that the pilot saw was the knife.

Noni made it,

but never used it.

The End