A Flicker of Perpetual Stars

Illu Pituqaq (Good Night)

The wind swept across the fjord. The waves danced; Sedna's voice echoed with every lap against the shore. Do you feel that? whispered Atiqtalik. Her eyes became wide as she looked at the boy.

His face lit up in understanding. Wind, he whispered. Cold wind.

A solitary, spiraling snowflake drifted down between them, slow and carefree. They watched as the flake spiraled down, down, down. The minutes passed, and more and more of them appeared, twirling down from the sky, dancing and drifting through the air in their crystalline forms. They came down in their endless, peaceful dance, falling all around both boy and girl and Uki: the growing, playing bear.

The survivor. 

Atiqtalik's face, as the minutes passed and the snowflakes flew by, slowly lifted into a wide, euphoric smile, the first truly happy smile the boy had seen on her face. She laughed, then smiled again, her soul overflowing with happiness. It was the single most beautiful thing Yuka had ever seen. 

He leaned forward, placing a gentle kiss on her lips.

Nagligivaget, Atiqtalik, he said. His eyes shone with a soft, tremulous light, brimming over with feeling.

In her heart, she felt the truth of the boy's words.

Still, she was surprised to hear them, and at the gentle murmur of his kiss. She touched her lips softly, quiet for a moment. But then she wrapped her arms around him, folding herself into his arms beneath the falling snow. 

Nagligivaget, she whispered.

His lips turned up into a smile, and he softened further into her embrace, his head tucked into her shoulder. She held him tightly, this time not in the agony of grief, as it so often had been. But in the comfort of friendship, and the warmth of love. No matter what the future was to bring, they would be there for each other.

Nagligivaget: I love you.