The Rescue
written by: RR Fry
Sylvie had been walking for hours but in this heavy blizzard, it was hard to say how far she had managed to get.
Hours earlier she had been comfortably riding her ski doo bounding over drifts like a boat on rough water. She was having the time of her life laughing at each mini-jump as the machine flew up and slammed down into the snow over and over again. But in the last jump a very large dog or a wolf appeared out of nowhere, as she was coming down. She made a hard right to avoid hitting the animal but flipped the snowmobile several times and broke one of its skis.
Her parents rented a cabin here in the far north which came with three snowmachines which Sylvie had been riding constantly for the last few days. Sylvie had been in and out of hospital recovering from a brain tumour over the last year, so the trip up north had been a reward for a good prognosis. After a year of hospital, even a trip to the cold north was welcome.
Along with the cancer, she had recently broken up with her boyfriend. She was petite but a very attractive blond of sixteen, but her boyfriend wanted more than she was able to give at this point in her life. In her mind the break-up was way easier than it should have been. It’s like he had been waiting for that for some time. It almost made her laugh at how quickly he got out of there. She was pretty sure he had said ‘bye’ before she finished saying ‘we should break up.’
Back in the snow-covered river, Sylvie didn’t know how far she had travelled that day. She figured she had been sledding for at least twenty miles on the frozen over river when the accident happened. She had been walking for a couple of hours, but the blizzard was getting worse, and she could barely see in front of her face. Her snowmobile suit was warm enough, but the helmet was heavy.
She figured it wasn’t safe to just keep walking in the storm. As luck would have it there was a pile of broken brush on the far bank of the river beside a snowbank. Sylvie used her helmet to dig an igloo of sorts and broke as many pieces of wood as she could and dragged them into the hole. The snowbank was surprisingly spacious, and she made a hole in the ceiling big enough to let the smoke out. She only had a couple of matches and a couple of old flyers in her pocket which she couldn’t remember putting there to get the fire started.
She wasn’t sure how any of that got there but she was glad it did. She made a pile of wood on top of the paper and tried to light it, but the match was too wet. She tried another but it went out right after it caught. The last match didn’t seem to work either. She started to cry thinking she had survived all this time only to die now.
Just as she had given up, the fire caught and she was warm for the first time in a few hours. The door she crawled through was still open but it was not letting the blizzard in so Sylvie just used her helmet as a shovel and cover it in as best she could. She wasn’t sure how long the fire would last so cutting down on the draft just made sense.
She started to fall asleep when bounding through the hole came a giant white wolf.
“Oh, you again, come to finish the job have you?”
The wolf growled and Sylvie pulled back. Then the wolf started digging the snow and covering up the entrance. Then he lay down beside her pushing her closer to the fire. Sylvie was terrified but was starting to think the wolf meant her no harm.
She checked her pockets when she discovered a Jersey milk chocolate bar. She looked at the wolf and said I am sorry, but dogs are not supposed to have chocolate. The wolf growled at her. She reached into her pocket and found some beef jerky. She gave it to the wolf, and he chewed on it for hours.
They cuddled up again until the storm subsided. After the wolf left the make-shift igloo in the morning, Sylvie could swear she heard him say, I have a friend coming who will take you back to your cabin.
The fire burned until Sylvie left and started walking down the frozen river toward the rented cabin. She heard sleighbells and when she turned around there was a red wooden sleigh pulled by four reindeer.
“Hi Sylvie, my name is Deb, and I am here to take you back to your parents’ cabin. My friend Hermie said you’d need a ride.”
“Is Hermie the wolf?”
“Well sort of. He is more of a friend when you need one. I work doing rescues with Hermie and help with manufacturing, distribution and sometimes purchasing.”
“Sounds busy…. actually, it sounds like Santa’s workshop,” Sylvie laughed.
“I think that’s because of the sleigh,” Deb retorted to protect the secret. “Well, here we are…”
Even though it had been hours on snowmobile, it seemed it was just a few minutes by sleigh. When they got there Sylvie’s mom, and dad came bounding out the door of the cabin.
“We were so worried,” her dad said. “But a nice young man named Hermon told us this morning you were fine and not to worry. We thanked him and accidentally shut the door. When we reopened the door there was no one there but in the distance was a white wolf. How did you survive out in the blizzard?”
“A snowbank, a pile of sticks, a wolf and whole lot of Christmas magic,” Sylvie said smiling at Deb when she realized the magic she had experienced. The blizzard was starting to pick up again.
Deb looked at the reindeer and said, “Well guys I guess we should go.” The four reindeer all jumped in unison and the sleigh turned around. Sylvie watched as the sleigh pulled out of sight and seemingly flew up in the air. But before it took off a wolf jumped up beside Deb and transfigured into a boy and then the sleigh just disappeared.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
This is a follow-up story to The Elf.
- The Rescue - December 16, 2024
- The Elf - December 16, 2023
