Many ages ago, when the earth was younger and still filled with spirits, a young girl named Sungauyak lived in the snowy drifts of Alaska with her family and her tribe. Alaska was cold and harsh, but filled with glorious visions of snowdrifts and glaciers in the winter. In summer, the snows melted and birds sang as they swooped over the meadow flowers and berry bushes. Then the tribe would leave their lodge and walk again over the earth, waiting for the sun to leave his cover of clouds. One day, Sungauyak found a bear cub crying in the woods. “What’s wrong, Bear Cub?” she asked.

Bear Cub shook his head. “Your villagers killed my mother and my father and I am too young to forage for myself.”

“I’m sorry, Bear Cub,” Sungauyak said, stroking the shaggy fur. “But sometimes your people eat mine, and sometimes my people eat yours. It’s the way of things.”

Bear Cub shook his head fiercely. “Your young men of the village didn’t need meat or fur. They killed my parents only for sport.”

“There’s no excuse for what they have done!” Sungauyak said. “It’s my duty to see that you are fed and share our bounty. I’m sorry, but this is all the help that I can give you. The young men are strong and powerful, and would never listen to a child.”

“Then this is enough and I thank you,” Bear Cub said.

Every day, Sungauyak carried salmon and berries to the woods, taking food from her own portion so as not to anger the tribe. She taught Bear Cub how to fish, and where to seek tender roots and bulbs during the summer. Bear Cub taught Sungauyak how to roll in the sun and bathe in the streams. Both of them laughed and played and enjoyed each other’s company.

As the months drew on, the air cooled and prepared for winter. Sungauyak knew that soon her friend would go to hibernate. Already he bulged with fat. One day she rushed into the forest to meet him. “Bear Cub, Bear Cub, there is an odd sound through the forest, like drums in the night!”

“What do your villagers say of this?” Bear Cub asked.

“That it’s the wind, or rocks tumbling in the stream. It must be more than that!”

“It is,” Bear Cub said. He left off his fishing in the river to crouch in front of Sungauyak. “Your brethren continue to kill for sport, more than they can use, and leave the bodies to rot on the ground. Volcano Woman does not allow such acts to go unpunished.”

“Volcano Woman! She’ll destroy my entire village!”

“Perhaps,” said Bear Cub. “And good riddance.”

“But my mother and father, my sisters! I know my brothers would never kill for sport. There must be a way to save them.”

“I suppose there is,” said Bear Cub. “But not for the fainthearted.”

“I’m not afraid,” said Sungauyak. Her voice only trembled a little.

“Good. Then climb on my back.” They traveled for three days and three nights. On the fourth day they came to the lodge of Volcano Woman.

Volcano Woman lived in a magnificent hut of black stone, which gleamed like the ocean of a cloudless day. Her fire pit in the middle of the lodge smoldered, ready to burst into life at a moment’s notice. The drumming was louder here, and the coals flickered with its beat.

Sungauyak knelt down on the ground. “Volcano Woman, I come to beg you to spare my village and those who live there.”

Volcano Woman stared down at Sungauyak. Her gown was thick and black for winter and her hair blazed a dazzling red. “It is not my place to spare them. Your young men haven’t harmed me with their actions.”

“The animals,” Sungauyak realized.

“Yes.”

“Please, isn’t there something I can do?”

Volcano Woman straightened. “If you can convince Raven, Eagle, and Bear to forgive your people, and they all come to me asking me to spare the village, then I will do so. This is my final word.”

Sungauyak bade Volcano Woman a polite farewell and left the black stone lodge. Outside, she asked her friend, “How can I convince the other animals to help me?”

“Raven is foolish; tricks and bribes are all that he understands,” Bear Cub said. “I’ll help you.”

Together they wove a snare of vines and flexible pine branches. Sungauyak hung it around a stump and piled fresh blueberries and salmon on top of it. “Don’t worry, Bear Cub,” she called loudly. “I’ll make sure that Raven doesn’t steal the food and spoil our picnic.”

Now Raven heard this, and always enjoys playing a prank on another. So he dropped branches from a nearby tree so that they made pattering noises on the ground. Sungauyak went to see what the noise was while Bear Cub waited, hidden in the bushes. When Sungauyak returned, Raven was trapped in her snare. “Let me go, let me go!” he cried.

“Only if you promise to travel with me to see Volcano Woman and beg her to spare my village.”

Chagrined at being caught in a trap not his own, Raven finally agreed.

Sungauyak returned to her friend Bear Cub. “Bear Cub, Raven has given me his word. Now how do I get the same from Bald Eagle?”

Bear Cub tilted his furry head. “Bald Eagle soars high above us, and respects daring and compassion above all. Travel to her, and do what seems best to you.”

So Sungauyak climbed up the cliffs and pine trees, scraping her hands and legs on hard stones and rough tree bark. Finally she came to Bald Eagle’s nest. Bald Eagle was away, hunting fish for her children. Sungauyak looked at the helpless little nestlings, and felt sorry for them. She fed them scraps of salmon and shellfish from the pouch that hung at her side, instead of eating the food herself after the long climb. Then she sat beside the nest and waited for Bald Eagle’s return.

Bald Eagle came back with a fat fish for her children. She was surprised to see Sungauyak, and even more surprised that her babies had been fed in her absence. Struck by Sungauyak’s bravery and kindness in climbing so high to feed a few hungry nestlings, Bald Eagle agreed to plead for the village. “If you are any example,” she said, “Your people are worth saving.”

Sungauyak climbed down the tree and met her friend Bear Cub at the bottom. “You’ve done so much to help me, and my villagers have hurt you so badly. I can’t ask you to intercede for them. I’d never trick you, and I gave the last of my fish to the eaglets. How can I persuade you, dearest friend?”

“For friendship alone I will do this thing,” said Bear Cub. “Be assured that I would not do it for any other.” Sungauyak hugged him tightly. Her task was done, since all of the animals had agreed to help her.

Sungauyak hurried off to pick a handful of sweet purple meadow flowers as a gift for Volcano Woman. Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed her arm. “Where have you been, Sungauyak?” asked Talum, one of the young warriors of the village. “Every day you sneak into the forest and now you vanish for two days. Why?” By this time, half of the villagers had appeared.

“We are in terrible danger,” Sungauyak said. “The men of this village have killed far more animals than was needful. Now Volcano Woman drums in her distant mountains and threatens to destroy us all! We must all go to beg her forgiveness before we die!"

All of the young men laughed. Behind them, Sungauyak could see some of the villagers nodding in agreement with her, yet they said nothing. “Lock the foolish girl away,” one of the men called. “We don’t need her stirring up the village with her wild ideas.” Soon all of the villagers echoed the cry. They dragged Sungauyak back to the lodge and bound her hands to a post there. Sungauyak kicked, screamed, fought, but she couldn’t fight half the villagers.

“You’ll stay here while we decide how to bring you back to your senses,” one of the men said.

After they had left, Sungauyak rubbed her arms over and over against the pole behind her. She ignored the tough ropes as they scraped her already-sore wrists. She had to escape soon, or Volcano Woman would take her revenge and destroy the entire town! Finally, Sungauyak was free. The moment the frayed rope broke, she ran for the edge of the village. The drumbeats were louder now, and the earth seemed to pulse with them, dancing to the drums. Before she could reach the forest and safety, she heard a soft footfall.

She spun, and found three of the village elders standing behind her. “We have been silent to the young men’s actions for too long,” one said. “What can we do to save our village?”

“Volcano Woman will listen if Bear Cub, Bald Eagle, and Raven all ask for our lives,” Sungauyak said. “But you should come as well. We can all beg forgiveness for the wrong that our village has done.”

So Sungauyak walked the long way back to Volcano Woman’s obsidian hut, followed by Bear Cub, Bald Eagle, Raven, and the three village elders. As they traveled, Bear Cub licked Sungauyak’s wounds and showed her how to dip them in cooling mud to take away the sting. When they reached the lodge, all of them begged Volcano Woman to spare the village. The elders promised that they would tell the young men what had happened, and see that the animals would never be hunted without reason in the future.

When they returned to camp, Sungauyak’s village built a totem pole to commemorate her story and her heroism. Any of the children would gladly have been her friend. But her closest companion continued to be Bear Cub, as he always had been.

The End

Valerie Frankel wrote her first novel at the age of sixteen, along with poems and short stories that were published in her high school magazine. Since then, her work has appeared in Rosebud Magazine, The Oklahoma Review, The Drexel Online Journal, and sixty other magazines.. Experience her delightful series of children’s novels, set in the magical world of Calithwain, complete with interactive map at www.calithwain.com .

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