Nicsopus

• Ruby Heffernan, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2019

The trees scattered as Taiga ran towards the cliff edge, always alert for the hunters and their traps. Sitting down on the cliff she wedged her feet on a moonkin vine and slipped into her hatch. Slowly, Taiga strode to the corner of the dark, earthen room, to a looming wooden frame where mushrooms with tendrils of different coloured light swirled around it in a whirlwind.


Slowly, Taiga turned the knobs, the machine crackled into life. Worry crossed Taiga’s face in a wave. As she turned the knobs again and again, a voice started to become clear. The colours stopped threading themselves through the air. The voice became clearer and clearer until the buzz became words. The words were definite and obvious. ‘‘Our leader, Esmaria has discovered a hunter base on the far side of the island, she would advise you to stay in your homes...”
Suddenly, the words cut off, Taiga desperately started turning the knobs again but no words came. Taiga walked away, hanging her head sadly as she slid onto a worn piece of caribou hide. Slowly, she drifted off to sleep.


Light drifted lazily through the open windows and glinted on the weaponry stuffed in a corner. Taiga jerked awake and ran to the window, looking out longingly at the endless tundra below, the other Nicsopus happily pranced around the endless meadows. Sighing, Taiga turned, gathered her bow and quiver and slung them over her shoulder. Putting on her deer skin she climbed out the still opened hatch. Taiga pulled herself up onto the cliff and bolted into the trees.


The brisk night air gently pushed Taiga’s fur and the grass tickled her feet as she persevered through the forest. Wolves howled on the horizon and caribou stamped their hooves in the distance. As the night stretched on and the moon dragged itself into the sky, Taiga heard something, something close. Taking her bow and an arrow from her quiver, Taiga drew aim and fired into the thick brush. Someone limped out of the trees… A hunter.


“Who are you?” questioned Taiga, but her captive would not speak. “Well then, I guess we’ll have to do it the hard way.” Taiga snatched up a dagger and pointed it at the throat of the hunter.
“Okay, okay, I’ll talk,” blurted the hunter.
“My name is Makwulf, I work for Ladfose,”
Taiga was suspicious, she knew Makwulf was hiding something.


Taiga questioned Makwulf for hours, until finally she learned Ladfose’s plans. He was intent on capturing the Nicsopus and putting them in cells, making them work for freedom, a freedom they would never find.
Taiga and Makwulf became friends over the next weeks and together they hatched a plan. Makwulf would go to the hunter base and gather information, but Taiga, after Makwulf left he would never return. Taiga was distraught, she had brought him into this! Taiga vowed never to have anything to do with the hunters again, and a Nicsopus is true to their word.