The Belt and Beyond | August 13th, 2015

28
Arctic Symphony
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
by Brian Potopowitz
It was the time of endless night, dark, cold, and brutal. But then, it was always
that way, wasn’t it? Oh, who could remember? There were vague flashes of a
different sky, a different ground, and the cold replaced by the penetrating feeling
of warmth. An icy wind blew the flickering memories away and they were
replaced by the feeling of being too exposed in this open space. No bushes to
screen, no trees to shield, and very far to go for cover yet the compulsion to
be in this place at this time was very strong. The wind shifted and a new smell
drifted down from above which triggered an image but the fight or flight instinct
was not activated. It felt strange but at the same time it was right.
The observer sat high above on an outcropping of rock concentrating on
a small object in a large treeless field a short way down from his vantage
point. After a time he allowed his gaze to retract for just a moment and
refocus on the entire landscape about him. The field below surrendered
at the edges to patches of evergreen trees that dotted the foothills and
finally gave way to jagged mountain peaks all around. The left quarter
of the ancient caldera had long crumbled away allowing a spectacular
view of a large valley and more mountains in the distance. A thick layer
of snow blanketed the ground and was only broken by the pine trees that
meandered down to cover the valley below.
Shifting his attention back to the clearing, he zoomed in and refocused his
gaze back onto the object he had been watching for some time now. Not
many would have noticed it there as it was very small and blended in with
the snow quite well. The moonlight cast a shadow and the outline triggered
an image but the basic instinct to hunt was not activated. It felt strange but
at that moment it was right and in a burst of speed he was fluid and moving
quickly down the hillside toward the treeless area below.
In no time the observer was at the edge of the clearing still within the
protection of the shadows of the trees. From his vantage point he could
clearly see the arctic hare sitting in the middle of that empty space. He
became aware of his tongue licking his nose and the smell was not right but
it did not matter as he moved forward. Sensing movement the hare turned
his head slightly to the left to see the pure white alpha male of this regions
wolf pack step out of the shadows and move toward him. The hare’s hearing
was sharp and even at this distance the familiar squeaky crunch of dry snow
depressing under each foot fall could easily be heard. His sleek body and
long angular head were becoming crystal clear and his smell overpowering
with each new step and it was not until the wolf was only inches away did
he stop. The hare did not move and as he watched, the sides of the larger
animal pulsed as mist escaped his nostrils between each breath.
Shadows moved as two more wolves appeared behind the alpha male one
to each side. The left was a darker shade and his head was tilted down,
eyes glaring like his brother. The one on the right was darker still and as her
nose twitched a flash of ivory teeth came into view. As the two remained
perfectly still the alpha male slowly inched forward until he was directly
above the hare and their eyes met in this way for a time as they both sniffed
the air between them. With a huff the alpha male blinked and his eyes
appeared softer, his brow became unfurrowed, and his ears took on a much
less threatening angle on his head. Turning his attention to the female, he
approached and nuzzled her on the neck and the two of them sank into the
snow next to each other. Twelve more were coming out of the woods now to
join the rest. Several sat down together obviously mated pairs while three
wrestled with each other and the last moved, very slowly, to join the pack.
None of them paid any attention to the hare as he watched them all enter
the clearing from the pine forest and so he turned back to the direction he
had originally been facing. He noticed that off to the right near the edge of
the clearing two arctic foxes had arrived and they sat next to each other
touching noses. A lynx was rolling in the snow nearby as a herd of caribou
thundered up from the valley and meandered about for a time pawing at
the snow until their obvious agitation began to ease. As the animals settled
down they all turned their attention toward the sky. The night was punctured
by countless stars of all different sizes shining and sparkling down upon the
land as the crystallized snow was carried up by the wind to try to join them.
The Milky Way spattered itself through the center of the multitude like a
haze high above and as the stars winked and the snow flashed it was hard
to tell where the earth met the sky.
They all knew what was coming as the ethereal green glow began to form
from nothingness. Each creature had been drawn to this place not by what
they could see but by what they felt from within. Long before the light began
to form in the sky there was a sound that no human could ever hear. It always
started very softly as though the wind took on a slightly different pitch and
progressed to a louder static hissing. Later it would take on, in human terms,
the sounds of a groaning, creaking wooden sailing ship. Suddenly there was
a whisper in the wind and the breath of heaven surged as light erupted and
the aurora borealis was awakened. Long, vaporous tendrils formed above
the black fire of the night sky. They moved about as many and then merged
into one, expanded, separated, twisted, formed and deformed by the subtle
breathing of that which is so far away and yet so close. The colors began to
morph from green to yellow to red and back again cascading through the
mist and leaping like static from one ghostly form to the next. Hues changed
from brilliant to subdued, from bright and crisp slashes to dark and writhing
sheets barely visible over the speckled black void of space.
Any human being would have been rendered speechless, hypnotized by
the view of something so uncommon in nature yet every eye in the clearing
was closed. With the onset of the show of lights the noise had changed
becoming louder and less random taking on a much more musical quality.
As each note played out and merged with the rest the biting subzero
temperature could no longer be felt as a blanket of warmth fell upon the
plain and each creature felt a connectedness to all the others that were
there. If any human could have heard the sounds coming down from the
sky they would most likely have described it as whale song. Who knew how
long it lasted for at the time of the endless night it was hard to tell. The stars
had moved and the moon was in a different place. The music had softened
as the lights in the sky faded back to that slight green haze. The creaking
had lowered to a dull static and the wind took on a different pitch.
As the hare’s senses returned to the snow covered mountain he began
to hear the crunching of the snow from many distant footfalls. When he
was content to open his eyes he could tell that the only creature left in the
clearing was the alpha male. He turned his head to the left and saw that
the wolf was sitting upright and looking at him. His eyes were kind and the
corner of his mouth was turned up ever so slightly and as he lowered his
gaze he rose and walked slowly away only to turn for one last quick glance
and then he was fluid, off in a cloud of crystal snow and gone into the forest.
Shortly there after the last of the glow winked out and the all too familiar,
“Ahhooooo” from the alpha male could be heard calling to his brothers the
wolves, the caribou, the lynx, the fox, and the arctic hare. The music that
was heard that night was much more than a series of beautiful sounds. It
penetrated the fiber of each wild creature and brought them together as one.
The music broke the barrier of hunter and hunted and allowed them, for a brief
time, to enjoy the presence of each other. The arctic symphony of the aurora
borealis was nature’s song of peace and that night it did not fall on deaf ears.
As the bitter chill returned the hare shook himself to bring warmth back to
his body. He sat for a time with his paws rubbing the cold from his nose
as the memories of the night began to fade but while some of them still
lingered he looked up one last time into the sky, closed his eyes, and smiled.