The season

-“Not yet… not yet…”-

The two boys didn´t take their sight from the bearded man.

-“Almost”-

One of the boys tightened his grasp on the collar of the anxious Husky malamute´s collar.

-“Now!”-

They ran straight to a small cave, the dog caught up with the man and the kids jumped inside just on time to avoid getting covered in snow by the small avalanche.

-“Wow, that was close!”- said Jack as he wiped away some snow from his shoulders.

-“Do you think we are close?’”- said Mike

-“Probably, but it doesn´t matter, let´s enjoy the ride”- Sean smiled and threw a piece of bread in the air, Tusk caught it in mid-air.

-“Look at Tusk, he still got it! Good boy!”-

Jack hugged the dog as it chewed the bread.

-“Okay, next we have to go to the forest near the water fall, I don´t know if it is frozen enough, we have to be careful”-

Sean looked into a map and pointed at a dotted line leading to what looked like an iceberg.

-“Yeah, let´s be careful, remember last year? We almost lost the Crow´s totem on the river´s stream.”-

-“No, we didn´t Mike, I had it in my pocket!”-

-“No you didn´t! You just were lucky enough to caugh it and then acted like nothing happened!”-

- “Well nothing did, or did it?!”-

-“Hey boys, calm down!”- Sean put a hand infront of Mike who took a few steps towards Jack. -“This year is the Hawk´s totem…”- he continued –“…so let´s get going, the blizzard is over”-

He got out of the cave followed by Tusk and the boys, they had walked a little when Jack tripped on a round moss covered rock.

-“Dad, I think we are walking in circles”- he said pointing at the rock.

-“No we are not, I have the map right here, look ahead, instead of keep playing with rocks, it is going to get dark son”-

They kept walking and after a few minutes, Sean made a frown.

-“Shoot! I think I dropped the knife, keep going and stay with Tusk I’ll catch up with you in no time”-

-“Do you want me to…?”-

-“No Mike, keep going and don´t let them get lost”- he pointed at Jack and Tusk walking a little bit ahead.

-“Okay, don´t get lost yourself!”-

Sean nodded and Mike ran to catch Jack and Tusk.

When he saw neither the kids or the dog were around, he fliped the round moss covered rock and put a log on top, then walked until he saw them at the edge of the frozen lake.

-“Look dad! I think it is frozen enough!”-

He scratched his light brown beard and got down on one knee.

-“I think we should go around until we get to the shallow part, it should be super frozen in there”-

-“Race you to the shallow part!”-

Jack ran off

-“Jack you’re supposed to count to three, you cheater!”-

Mike ran after him and Tusk followed them.

 Sean was walking after them when he saw a little bird flying on top of them.

Tusk stopped running and stared at the bird, it landed on the frozen lake.

-“No Tusk! Come here!”-

Tusk ignored Sean and jumped to catch the bird, it flew away and Tusk’s paws slipped on the ice.

-“Easy boy, easy...”-

Sean approached slowly.

-“Tusk! Dad be careful!”- Jack screamed and grabbed Mike from his backpack as he tried to run towards the dog.

-“Stay there, I’ll get Tusk!”-

The ice started to crack under the dog’s weight, it howled and tried to run, the ice broke and both Sean and the dog fell on the water.

-“DAD!!”-

Both kids ran to the edge of the frozen lake, their father managed to take out his head but inmersed again, he looked underwater and saw the dog scratching the ice surface, it was thinner there so a small hole broke open and the kids saw the dog´s snout came out from the ice, then it came down again.

Nothing.

-“I’ll go!”-

-“No Jack!”-

A fist came through the thin ice, then Sean emerged from the icy water dragging the dog.

-“Dad!!”-

The kids ran towards their father, he put the dog on the snowy grass.

Sean fell on his knees and the kids ran to hug him, they look at the dog, it was breathing heavily.

-“Is he…?”-

-“He´s gonna be fine… he´s just tired”- Sean fell on his back –“So am I”-

Jack sat next to his father and Mike went to check on Tusk, he touched his head and the dog opened his eyes, he licked Mike´s hand.

-“He´s okay! He´s fine!”-

The dog stood up in his second try and went to lay down closer to Sean.

After several minutes Sean sat down.

-“Well… we have to keep going”-

-“Are we still going to look for the Totem?”- said Mike

-“We can look for a while to see if we have any luck”-

Sean stood up and sneezed.

-“We should go back, you’ll get sick dad”- Jack took off his scarf and handed it to Sean.

-“Yeah, you’re probably right”- Sean put the scarf on his neck.

They had walked a while when Tusk whined and look at a point not far from where they were.

-“What is it boy?”- Jack took him by the collar and Tusk started to pull.

-“Let him go, we´re not far from the house”- said Sean.

Jack let the dog go and it ran behind some small pines, he came back and then ran to the pines again.

-“He found something!”- Mike ran after the dog.

Sean and Jack followed and saw Tusk scratching on the dirt, Mike got on his knees and dug too, he stopped and turn to his father.

-“He found it”- he lifted a  15cm wooden totem.

Both him and Jack started jumping around and Tusk joined them jumping and barking.

They hugged Sean and ran the remaining distance to the house.

-“Mom!! Look what we found!!”- Mike and Jack pushed the door open and ran to hug Jenna.

-“The totem! Oh wow! what happened?!”- She went to meet Sean who was soaking wet.

-“We just had a little more fun than usual”- He took Jenna’s hands and kissed them

.

-“Okay, enough fun for today, boys, go change your clothes, we’re having dinner”-

They ran to their room giggling and pushing each other, Jenna hugged Sean.

-“I’m wet and cold”-

-“I don’t care”- She rested her head on his chest.

-“Jack noticed we were walking in circles”-

Jenna looked at Sean.

-“I might have to tell him next year”- he sighted.

-“ I love you carving these”- she lifted the totem she still had on her hand.

-“I can still carve them, we’ll just tell them I hid it somewhere and they can go find it”- he smiled and kissed Jenna on the forehead.

-“Sean, he is coming”-

-“Close the curtains”-

They went and closed the curtains of the kitchen and livingroom, just in time for the kids not to see the man took the whole forest, lake and cabin: their whole world in one hand.

Nothing happened though, because the glass bubble protected everything as usual, just a slight blizzard covered the cabin as the man put the snow globe in the box that read: “Christmas stuff”.