· Karasjok, Norway
The bell in the blizzard.
From the journal of the Wolf of the North · a work of fiction
The Halonen family's goat bell rang all night after a herd broke their fence. By morning the youngest girl was missing. I followed the bell, then a line of small footprints barely deeper than my thumb.
She had sheltered the goat in a drifted tool shed and fallen asleep beside it. I brought them both home before the tea cooled. Her father fixed the fence while I held the posts against the wind.