My Adventure in Yukon - Historical Fiction

Terry is a G4 student with Chelsea Kueffer's Kids Canon Advanced 'B'.

Terry wrote this story after reading "The Blue Dolphins", a historical fiction story with the theme of nature.

 

I was stranded in Yukon in the bare cold of that horrible place. Only one day earlier, I was fine in our little cottage hidden through the towering Yukon trees. My father was just finishing his appetizing meal: sauced cabbages, apple sauce and smoked ham that had just been smoked in a log.

“Alex Bond,” he said, “Can you please fetch me my gun and my bullets?”

I got up and went to the glass window and unhooked the gun on the hook with the bullet pouch hanging from a book on the gun.

Our family was very lucky to have a glass window: my father bought nine squares of glass in town, miles and miles away from the free country of Yukon. He got there by riding our new bought horse, a sleek black horse that I named “Storm”, stopping at several of our friend’s cottages: include a Yukon hotel that was made for the town travelers. That window is very important to us. And I was stranded because that window broke.

After I gave Father the gun, he went out to hunt, I, personally tonight was hoping for reindeer or bear steak. My father hunts twice every week and once he hunts, there will always be something in his hands: and not just the guns and bullets in the pouch. He is teaching me how to handle the rifle carefully, including how you can charge the rifle quickly and accurately so that it won’t blow itself up when you fire it. He also bought me a handgun and taught me how to use it though I have not yet mastered it. He kept the guns at the window side and brings both guns when hunting.

That night when my father was not hunting, a bear sneaked to our little cottage to find food and broke about 6 and 2/5 (two-fifths) of the glass. Mother was scared that the bear would get us so we put on our clothes hastily and ran away from the terrifying bear into the deadly cold. Our dog, Epic, ran with us through the forests of the Yukon lands.

When I finally stopped, I looked back. Mother was gone, and I only had Epic with me. Luckily, Epic had found an abandoned tent with a small handgun, a pouch of bullets, Swiss army knife and two boxes of matches, so I started a fire in the tent. It looked like the tent had been savaged by a bear, the owners fled.

I spent my night there not knowing when I will return to my home with Mother and Father.

I spent my second day in the wild, trying to catch a deer that will satisfy me and Epic. I caught a big brown deer on my way to the nearest stream. He was drinking from the stream as I shot him in the head. I made a miniature knife and sliced the deer in pieces. I cooked the deer and ate it with a few spices I found growing near the stream.

I walked at a 3/4 league/per hour rate across the trees and saw a little cottage in the distance. It definitely wasn’t our cottage but it must be someone's cottage. At least, I would get some information about my Mother and Father.

I ran towards the cottage, almost feeling the warmth of the crackling logs on a fire. Tired like a dog, I furiously knocked on the door, waiting for an answer. Immediately, the door sprang open, and I found a kind old man gawking at me.

“Hello,” I said, “I am stranded here, could you help me?”

“This can’t be true!” the man murmured. But in the end, he agreed to let me stay for one night.

He gave me some bread and some ham and cheese and I turned it into a sandwich. I spiked the sandwich with a stick and cooked it under the heat of the fire.

“Did you see my parents?” I asked the man.

“Yes, they were looking for you,” he said, “they asked if I had seen a 10 year old boy with curly black hair with a gray-fur, blue-eyed dog. And with no doubt, this is you.”

“Where did my parents go?”

“They went towards the west, searching for you.”

I slept at the cottage that night and said a quick goodbye and hurried towards the west.

That was a little hard because I had to keep the sun directly at the back of my body. I also had to check for pools of ice and water, but luckily, Epic barked every time I might step into a pool of death.

I walked for many days and nights, trying to find my parents. I used my gun to find prey and my matches to cook my food. I was trying to catch a bear one night when I found out that I had run out of bullets. I searched frantically for a replacement, but nothing came in hand. I was searching for some already killed animals when I found a big fat brown bear lying on the forest ground.

I touched the bear skin, as I touched it, I found it hot. The bear looked like it had been zapped by lightning. Not believing my luck, I sliced the bear meat into pieces and feasted with Epic.

The next day I found a vegetable field. I harvested half of the vegetables and threw the rotten ones. I curled a washed vegetable leaf around a piece of bear meat and sprinkled some salt on it. When I was doing that I saw two figures rushing towards me.

When I finally focused, I saw my mom and dad running towards me. I ran towards them and we were once again reunited.

We began trading stories furiously as I headed towards my cottage. Dad had bought a few new blocks of glass and once piece of colored glass. I fitted the colored glass in the middle of my window and the panes.

I was never again stranded because of the glass.

Ms Kueffer's comments:

As a class we talked about how Terry really started to adopt an appreciation for the genre, and he used the "language of nature" in his writing; how the language of nature (see Robert Macfarlane--my favorite) is disappearing and it is our duty as writers to preserve the specific words that describe our natural environment.

Terry is also inspired by past readings such as Jack London's, "How to Build a Fire" which we read in supplement to the Studio chosen novel, "Boy in The Painted Cave."

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