Read Online Melt by Robbi McCoy - Free Book Online

cows before them. Then what? No milk. No cheese. They would eat fish, Bjarni said. And seal meat. They already ate fish and seal meat. But without any milk to cook the dried fish in, it would be nearly intolerable. You can live on fish and seal meat, Bjarni insisted to his family. The Skrælings do it. When he had mentioned the wild, dark people, his mother Hild had protested, saying, “We are not Skrælings! We are Norsemen. We must have bread and milk. Have faith. God will provide.”
    They could survive on fish and seal meat like the Skrælings, but even the fishing and hunting didn’t seem as good as they used to be. In days past, according to the elders, there were so many seals and walruses, they could take as many as they could carry back to the village. And no trouble either with the Skrælings. They lived further north. They were hardly ever seen. But now they were seen more often, parties of hunters in their long narrow boats gliding past in the ocean beyond the ice. When they appeared, a ripple of fear and loathing ran through the village and all the men became alert and watchful. There had been recent violence between the two groups. Several months before, a party of men had brought down a walrus. As they butchered it, they were attacked by a half dozen Skrælings who stole the walrus and left two men injured.
    Asa had never seen a Skræling except from a great distance. All she knew about them was that they were brown-skinned savages to be abhorred and avoided.
    Her mother-in-law Hild was bitter and unhappy. Since Bjarni was the only male left of her family, she blamed him for everything that was wrong. Her husband had died years ago. Her other son and his entire family had been taken by the sickness last winter. Her youngest child, a daughter, died in childbirth. Bjarni sometimes got angry at his mother and told her she should have gone with the others, the ones who left last year for Brattahlid.
    “How could I leave my family?” she had answered. At that time, Bjarni’s brother and his family had still been alive. “Besides, you know they never made it.”
    Most of the villagers had assumed the party couldn’t make it. The weather was rarely mild long enough to allow such a journey on foot. It would have taken a miracle, more than one person had declared, for that party to have made its goal. Even some among those who left expected to die. They gave their possessions to those who remained and wished them well, saying farewell with a grim resignation. If they had had dogs and sleds like the Skrælings, Asa reflected, they might have made it.
    But the villagers weren’t past hope. They still hoped for a good summer each year, for healthy crops and animals, for good fishing and hunting. And, most importantly, they were still alive.
    Asa smiled at her daughter with her milky upper lip.
    The sound of excited voices outside drew her attention. She pulled on her coat and opened the door, seeing a group of men nearby. Bjarni saw her and walked rapidly toward her, his towering frame bulky in his layers of clothing. He grinned and pointed toward the shore.
    “We got a whale!” he said triumphantly. “We’ll have a feast!”
    He brushed the hood off his head, letting his ginger hair fall loose. His lined face was rugged, his jaw hard and square, his chin broad. His thin lips were stretched into a seldom seen exultant smile.
    “A whale!” she exclaimed.
    “Big enough to feed everyone for weeks.”
    As the thankful villagers butchered the whale, the story of the hunt was told and retold by each of the hunters to his friends and family members. They had spotted it close to shore and had gone after it in two boats. Halvard had been first to land a clean hit with his harpoon. The wounded animal had put up a fight, but was overwhelmed by several weapons. While they were battling the whale, three Skrælings had appeared in one of their narrow boats. The men had vowed that they would not lose another catch to