SFS Chapter 398 The Greatest Prey of My Hunting Career!
Chapter 398 The Greatest Prey of My Hunting Career!
Chapter 396 The Greatest Prey of My Hunting Career!
As the group ventured deeper into the northwest, the surrounding scenery began to become eerie and oppressive.
The once vast, flat ice field has disappeared, replaced by towering icebergs that resemble skyscrapers.
They broke off from the Greenlandic inland ice sheet and fell into the sea, where they were frozen in the frigid waters of the Smith Strait, forming a complex ice palace.
This is what the local hunters call the "Blue Wall".
Here, the world has lost its white innocence. A huge, dark blue ice tower hangs overhead, ready to collapse at any moment due to gravity imbalance, crushing any intruders below into a bloody pulp.
"listen!"
Pita, who had been huddled on the back sled, suddenly shouted, his voice trembling.
Lin Yu'an heard it without him needing to remind him.
It's not quiet here. Huge icebergs, pushed by ocean currents, make a thunderous roar, or the piercing noise of two giant icebergs rubbing against each other.
The sea ice beneath our feet became extremely unstable, occasionally accompanied by a crisp "crack" sound, as if an unseen giant hand was trying to break through the thin eggshell.
"Shut up, Pita. The ice is talking, which means the water is alive."
Although Odak was cursing, he was extremely cautious in his actions. He jumped off the vehicle and gestured for Lin Yu'an to get off and walk as well, to reduce the pressure of the sled on the thin ice.
"We've arrived."
After passing a majestic, arch-shaped iceberg, the view suddenly opened up ahead.
A massive crack, about thirty meters wide and several hundred meters long, stretches across the dark blue ice plain like a wound in the earth.
The seawater in the crack was a deep, inky black, and you could even see tiny ice fragments swirling on the surface with the undercurrent.
Odak quickly directed everyone to stop the sleds in a safe area fifty meters away from the edge of the ice, and secured all the dogs with snow anchors, even muzzling several barking dogs.
Odak lowered his voice, "Narwhals have ears that are sharper than radar. If they hear footsteps on the ice, they'll dive a thousand meters deep, and we might never see them again."
The three men, armed with guns and equipment, lay prone behind a snow ridge at the edge of the ice crevasse, barely daring to breathe.
Time passed second by second, and the cold began to seep into the body through the winter clothes.
For the first half hour, everyone was on edge, staring at the lifeless black water. But nature doesn't give away its treasure so easily.
An hour passed, then two hours passed—and there was nothing on the water's surface except for the occasional ice crystals and bubbles, and ripples stirred up by the cold wind.
The cold began to penetrate the winter clothing, piercing the bone marrow like countless fine needles. Maintaining a prone position for extended periods caused the limbs to become stiff and numb.
Stop staring like that.
Odak rolled over, lying on his back on the snow, and pulled out some dried meat from his pocket, chewing on it. His tone revealed the composure of an old hunter: "Hunting narwhals isn't about marksmanship, it's about who can sit still the longest. Whoever can sit still the longest gets the meat. Sometimes we have to wait here for three days and three nights."
Odak glanced at the sun, which was slowly circling in the sky and showed no sign of setting.
"Sila is testing our patience. It's nine o'clock at night, but the sun is still high. We'll take turns sleeping. Pita, you keep watch for a while, then Lin in two hours, and finally me."
"Sleep here?" Lin Yu'an moved his frozen fingers.
"Yes, right here. It's too far to go back to the car, there's no time."
Odak dragged several thick reindeer hides off the sled and laid them directly behind the sheltered ice rocks.
"That's enough. Reindeer fur is hollow, and its heat insulation effect is better than your air cushions that cost thousands of dollars."
Lin Yu'an didn't stand on ceremony. He wrapped his clothes tighter around himself and lay down on the animal skin that smelled faintly of mutton.
This sleep was incredibly magical.
Although it was nominally "late at night," the sun had just reached its lowest point on the horizon but had not yet set.
Instead, it dyed the entire ice field a strange violet and golden-red color.
The surroundings were not quiet.
Lying on the ice with his ear pressed against the ground, Lin Yu'an heard that this was a "living ice and snow world".
The distant icebergs collapsed with a thunderous roar, and the sea ice beneath our feet creaked and groaned under the rising tide.
Occasionally, a muffled explosion would come from deep within, like a gunshot ringing in one's ear, sending shivers down one's spine.
Peeta huddled to one side, keeping watch, shivering from the cold, while Odak was already snoring loudly, as if he were sleeping in his own warm bed.
Amidst the bizarre polar noises and eternal light, Lin Yu'an endured several hours in a state of half-sleep and half-awake.
I don't know how much time passed.
"Wake up—Li—Wake up—"
A rough, large hand gently shook him.
Lin Yu'an suddenly opened her eyes, instantly waking up from her daze. It was Audak.
He had woken up at some point and was lying on the edge of the icicle. His originally cloudy eyes were now frighteningly bright, and he put his finger to his lips, making a gesture of absolute silence.
—"
Odak pointed to the ice beneath his feet, gesturing for Lin Yu'an to listen.
-
At that moment, the wind stopped.
A strange sound, like a ghost, pierced through the thin layer of black ice and entered Lin Yu'an's ears.
It wasn't the roar of a giant beast, but rather an extremely ethereal, even somewhat eerie, "squeak," "whistle," and "click-clack" sound.
It's like a flock of canaries singing in a cage in the deep sea, or like a rusty iron gate rubbing dully underwater.
"Did you hear that?" Odak lowered his voice, his tone carrying an almost reverent fervor. "That's the choir of the sea god. They've come."
The voice just fell.
"Pfft—! Pfft—!"
The once calm, mirror-like surface of the black water was suddenly shattered. Several powerful jets of mist-like water gushed out, carrying the chill and fishy smell of the deep sea. Then, a scene that Lin Yu'an would never forget appeared.
Amidst the churning water, long horns, as white as ivory and covered with exquisite spiral patterns, pierced the water's surface like sharp swords, pointing straight to the sky.
The tusk was over two meters long, gleaming with a sacred and noble light under the polar sun.
Then, a huge, rounded, smooth spine covered with black and white spots emerged from the water.
Narwhal! The unicorn of the Arctic!
"My God—" Peeta next to him trembled in fright. Faced with that imposing long tooth, humans seemed so insignificant.
"Don't stand there! It's a male whale! Look at those tusks! They're top-notch!"
Although Audak's voice was extremely low, it was filled with murderous intent: "Lin! Get ready! Follow the plan, shoot the lungs! Don't shoot the head! Whatever you do, don't shoot the head!"
Lin Yu'an took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the shock in his heart. He rested the barrel of the Sako 85 on the icicle, pressing his cheek against the cold stock.
Through the scope, the behemoth was leisurely taking a breath. It was unaware that death had already locked onto it.
Lin Yu'an did not aim at the fatal brainstem, but instead lowered the crosshair to the broad back behind the side fin that rose and fell with his breathing, where the lungs were located.
This method of fighting violates the hunter's merciful principle of "one shot, one kill," but it is the cruel iron law of polar hunting.
Narwhals have extremely high body density; once they die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean hundreds of meters deep like a stone within seconds.
If they are killed on the first shot, they will get nothing.
It must be severely damaged first, preventing it from diving deep, then harpooned, before finally being executed.
"Bang!"
The Sako rifle let out a thunderous roar.
The .375H&H Magnum bullet, carrying a massive kinetic energy of over five thousand joules, instantly pierced through the thick layer of fat and muscle behind the narwhal's lateral fin.
"boom!"
A huge cloud of blood mist exploded on the water's surface.
The narwhal let out a shrill cry, like the depressurization of a steam engine, and its huge tail fin slammed against the water, creating a wave half a meter high!
The excruciating pain made it instinctively want to dive deeper to escape, but the pneumothorax caused by the punctured lung prevented it from diving any further.
It could only writhe in agony a few meters below the surface, and the jets of water it spewed out instantly turned pink.
"Now! Let's go!"
Odak, who had been poised to strike, sprang up from behind the snow like an old cheetah. He gripped the heavy harpoon attached to the orange buoy and charged toward the precarious edge of the ice cliff.
Using the momentum of his run-up, Odak exerted force from his waist and abdomen, letting out a loud shout: "Ha!!!"
The barbed steel harpoon head drew a perfect parabola in the air!
With a "plop," it accurately pierced the back of the struggling narwhal, sinking deep into its flesh.
"We've hit it! Quick, drop the buoy! Drop it!"
With a roar from Odak, the huge orange hard plastic buoy attached to the cable was pushed into the water.
The wounded behemoth felt the harpoon pierce it and unleashed its final, frenzied power.
Although it couldn't dive down, it began to run sideways, trying to escape this deadly water.
"Sizzle—!!!"
The nylon cable coiled on the ground seemed to come alive, and began to be pulled out at a speed invisible to the naked eye!
The rope loops bounced rapidly across the ice, emitting a chilling whistling sound.
"Don't grab it with your hands! Your hands will break!"
"We don't have enough rope! It's running too fast!"
Audak's expression changed drastically as he watched the rope coil rapidly thinning. "We have to secure it before the rope runs out of steam! Otherwise, it will disappear along with the buoy and the harpoon!"
This is a race against time.
If you try to grab a rope that's flying at high speed with your bare hands, your palms will be instantly chafed, and you might even get your wrists caught in the rope and dragged into the sea.
"Snow anchor! Use snow anchor!"
Lin Yu'an reacted extremely quickly. Instead of touching the rope, he rushed to the sled next to him and grabbed the heavy metal snow anchor.
Only five meters of cable remain! Four meters!
"Pita! Give me the end of the rope!" Lin Yu'an roared.
Peeta, who had been cowering in the back, finally woke up. Although he was timid, he had an instinctive muscle memory for handling ropes.
He lunged toward the end of the cable, where a pre-installed loop had been made.
Just as the rope was about to fly completely off the ice cliff, Pita grabbed the loop, but he couldn't hold on to the immense force. He was dragged along the ice and slid into the water.
"Catch!"
In a panic, Pita threw the rope loop toward Lin Yu'an.
Lin Yu'an caught the rope ring, quickly put it on the hook of the metal snow anchor, and then slammed the snow anchor into a deep and solid ice crevice, firmly stepping on the anchor handle!
"collapse!!!"
The cable stretched to its limit in an instant, emitting a terrifying bang like a snapping string!
The enormous impact was transmitted through the rope to the snow anchor, tearing a hole in the hard sea ice and sending ice shards flying everywhere!
"We've stabilized!"
On the distant icy sea, the orange buoy resembled a giant brake disc, creating a white wave on the water's surface.
The narwhal's charge was finally halted by the immense resistance of the buoy and the rigid traction of the snow anchor.
It was like a wild horse being reined in, angrily slapping its tail fin on the water's surface, but this was only its last struggle.
"Whoosh—whoosh—"
Pita lay prone on the edge of the ice cliff, half his body dangling in mid-air, his face pale with fright. If he hadn't thrown the rope out earlier, he would be in the icy sea right now.
"Well done, Pita! You saved us 20,000 euros!"
Odak rushed over and pulled Pita back, then excitedly patted the taut cable: "The buoy's working! It can't get away! Once it gets tired, we'll pull it back!"
The three of them collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.
This is the true nature of hunting. Humans never win by brute force, but by tools, rope-tying techniques, and split-second judgment.
The stalemate lasted for a full ten minutes.
The struggle beneath the surface finally weakened; the damage to its lungs, combined with the drag from the buoy, depleted the giant beast's last bit of oxygen.
The narwhal lay on its side on the water, its tusk pointing weakly to the sky. It no longer had the strength to struggle and was simply tossed about by the waves, pulled by the deadly cable.
"Lin! End it!" Odak roared.
"Won't it sink if we kill it now?" Odak pointed to the taut rope. "The hook is already caught, and the buoy is in the water."
"Now it's like meat hanging on a hook, it can't escape! Go ahead and hit it!"
Without further hesitation, Lin Yu'an picked up the Sako 85 rifle again and adjusted his breathing.
This time, there was no wavering, no hesitation. The crosshairs firmly locked onto the head that had emerged from the water.
"Bang!"
The second gunshot echoed through the deep blue icy valley.
The bullet instantly ripped open the narwhal's skull, and the giant beast convulsed violently before completely losing all its life force.
"Splash—"
—
As the last breath escaped from its lungs, the massive body, having lost its buoyancy, began to sink rapidly like a shipwreck.
—!
Just as the corpse was about to sink into the dark abyss, the nylon cable connecting to the snow anchor suddenly taut again, making a taut sound.
The large orange buoy on the water's surface was also suddenly pulled halfway into the water by a tremendous force, creating a ripple.
But it held on.
The body swayed a few times underwater before finally being firmly "suspended" at the end of the cable, hanging in the deep, icy sea.
"Great! It's hooked!"
Odak slapped his thigh excitedly; he knew that the tens of thousands of euros were now completely secured.
"Alright, stop lounging around! The real hell is yet to come!"
Odak stood up and unloaded the sled wheels: "It's impossible for the three of us to pull this ton and a half of dead flesh up from the ice."
"Pita, go and bring the dogs over! All the dogs!"
Half an hour later.
Using pulley systems and the frantic hauling of more than twenty Greenland dogs, this 1.5-ton ocean behemoth was finally dragged onto the solid ice surface amidst a spray of ice shards.
When its enormous body was fully exposed to the sunlight of the midnight sun, the three of them were so shocked that they were speechless.
At this moment, the narwhal lay silently on the deep blue ice field.
Its skin, with its black and white marble-like markings, shimmered with a wet, rock-like sheen under the low-angle sunlight of the polar day.
This is not just a pile of meat, but a biological gold mine radiating intense heat and worth tens of thousands of euros.
Especially that long tooth.
-
It is two meters long, pure white like jade, and covered with exquisite left-handed spiral patterns, like a work of art sculpted by God himself.
Even Odak, who had seen a lot in his life, was trembling slightly as he stroked the long tusk.
"Bless me, Silas—this is the most perfect tooth I've seen in the last ten years."
Odak looked at the tooth with a fascination, as if caressing a lover's skin: "No cracks, no broken tips. This one tooth alone is worth at least 20,000 euros."
As he spoke, he turned to look at Lin Yu'an, his tone becoming serious: "Lin, it's yours now."
"Although this thing is very valuable, rules are rules. Mr. Yepeson paid for this narwhal hunting spot."
Odak patted the long tooth: "I'll take care of the basic preservation for you and get the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) export documents ready."
"You can take it back to China, or hang it on your fireplace in Europe. It's a hunter's trophy."
Lin Yu'an nodded, without refusing. This was the core contract of the commercial hunting agreement.
"As for these tons of meat—"
Odak grinned as he looked at the whale's massive body, which resembled a small mountain. "This is our village's. Apart from Pita's share, I'll take the rest back and distribute it to every household. Tonight, the whole of Karnak will be filled with the aroma of whale soup."
When Pita was mentioned, Odak seemed to remember something.
He took off his gloves and pulled out a roll of slightly greasy Danish kroner banknotes, still warm from his body, from the inside pocket of the sealskin coat he was wearing.
"Hey! You softie!" Odak shouted at Peeta, who was grinning foolishly nearby.
Pita quickly came over.
Without even counting, Odak slapped the thick roll of banknotes into Peeta's hand with a crisp "smack".
"Here you go! This is three thousand crowns! As promised!"
"The extra thousand dollars is a bonus!" Odak pointed to the life-saving snow anchor knot.
"Although you almost wet your pants just now, you tied that knot beautifully at the end. Without that knot, this whale would have sunk to the bottom with my 20,000 euros by now."
Pita held the roll of money, his hands trembling with excitement. In the barren Arctic, this cash, along with the several hundred kilograms of whale meat, was enough for him to stand tall in front of his wife.
"Alright, that's enough with the loot. Now, it's time to enjoy the real rewards."
Odak stopped smiling, drew his sharp Uru knife, and walked to the whale's back.
He cut a palm-sized piece from that black and white skin. It was a layer of whale skin with beautiful marble-like texture, connected to a thick layer of pink fat underneath.
"This is Mattak."
Odak cut the raw, still-warm whale skin into neat small cubes and handed them to Lin Yu'an and Pita: "This is the most precious delicacy from a narwhal, and the highest reward for a hunter's courage. In city restaurants, this stuff is sold by the gram. But here, it's a gift from nature."
"No need to cook, just eat it directly."
Lin Yu'an took a piece; it felt slippery in his hand and still warm from being removed from his body.
Looking at the distinct black and white cross-section, I hesitated for a moment before putting it in my mouth.
This was completely different from the seal meat he had eaten that morning, and it was by no means some kind of delicate delicacy that melted in his mouth.
The moment his teeth snapped shut, Lin Yu'an felt as if he had bitten into a piece of raw rubber soaked in grease or a half-cooked beef tendon.
That thin layer of black skin is extremely tough, making a "crunching" friction sound between the teeth, fiercely resisting chewing. People with weak teeth would probably need to put in some effort.
As the teeth painstakingly cut through the fibers, the thick, pink fat beneath, though not melting in the warmth of the mouth, burst forth with a viscous, slippery oil.
It didn't have a nauseating rotten smell, but it was by no means as sweet as fruit.
It was a mixture of a faint salty taste of seawater, the metallic taste unique to raw meat, and a taste that was indeed similar to plants.
People who are not used to eating raw oil might feel nauseous after just one bite.
But on this icy plain where temperatures drop to minus thirty degrees Celsius, the body's extreme craving for warmth outweighs the discerning palate.
Lin Yu'an forced himself to swallow the rubbery texture, feeling a warm current slide down his esophagus into his stomach.
"Very chewy." Lin Yu'an wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth and gave a fair assessment, "And very oily."
"Ha! Of course! If it weren't oily, how would it keep us warm?"
Looking at Lin Yu'an's complicated expression, Audak laughed and threw a piece into his mouth, chewing it with relish: "Don't try to chew it up, just swallow it. In your stomach, it will burn like coal all night."
After the simple tasting ceremony, Odak clapped his hands, his smile fading and replaced by a stern foreman's expression.
"Alright, picnic over. Now let's get to work."
Audak glanced at the sun overhead, which, though not setting, was already beginning to gleam coldly through atmospheric refraction: "We have to turn this guy into cargo for the sled within an hour. Once the smell of blood spreads, or the body freezes solid, we'll be in big trouble."
He took off the gloves that were worn and frayed by the ropes and put on a pair of waterproof long leather gloves specifically designed for slaughtering.
The first and most important step is tooth extraction.
This 2.4-meter-long spiral tooth is the core value of this journey, and there is no room for error.
Instead of using a rough axe, Odak took out a fine-toothed hand saw from his toolbox.
He didn't saw off the root of the tooth directly, as that would damage the tooth's integrity and reduce its value.
Instead, he instructed Pita to hold down the whale's head and then carefully cut open the soft tissue and skull around the base of the tusk.
"Lin, help me hold it so it doesn't hit the ice."
With the two working together, Odak performed what looked like a delicate surgery, sawing off a small piece of maxilla along with the root of the tooth.
When the pristine white fang finally separated from his body, Odak breathed a sigh of relief.
He quickly wrapped the long tooth in layers of thick sealskin that he had prepared beforehand, and carefully tied it to the top of the sled, a position even more prestigious than that of the expensive rifle.
Audak straightened up and stretched his sore shoulders. "Alright, the most valuable things are stored away. Now let's prepare the best food and cool this big guy down."
Faced with this enormous creature, the small Uru knife was clearly insufficient.
Odak switched to a long-handled skinning knife, which resembled an elongated shovel with a slightly curved blade, specifically designed for cutting whale blubber.
"Peeta! Get the hook!"
Pita took two long-handled iron hooks, similar to those used by dockworkers, from the sled.
"Watch closely, Lin. We're not skinning a rabbit like we would by tearing the skin off the whole thing," Odak gestured on the whale's back. "We're using a grid method."
He made cuts every fifty centimeters on the black and white skin on the whale's back, drawing neat squares.
Each cut was powerful and deep, penetrating the ten-centimeter-thick layer of subcutaneous fat and reaching the red muscle layer.
"Hook this corner!" Odak pointed to the first square.
Pita stepped forward, plunged the iron hook in his hand deep into the edge of the fat, leaned back, and pulled with all his might.
"Sizzle—hiss—"
Accompanied by Audak's precise knife skills and Pita's brute force, a pleasant sound of grease separating echoed across the ice plains.
A square brick weighing twenty or thirty kilograms, with a black outer layer and thick pinkish-white fat attached, was completely peeled off.
"Flip it over! Skin down!" Odak roared.
Pita quickly flipped the square brick over so that the white, fatty side was facing up and the black outer layer was in contact with the ice.
"Why do you have to do this?" Lin Yu'an asked, picking up a spare peeling knife to help.
"Because fat is hot and ice is cold," Odak explained, his knife never stopping.
"If the fat side is pressed against the ice, the outer layer freezes and contracts rapidly, locking in the flavorful oils inside. This is something we're going to eat raw, so it must be absolutely clean!"
The three worked together, with Audak in charge of drawing lines and making the main cuts, while Lin Yu'an and Pita were responsible for using hooks to pull and move the items.
This is a physically demanding task.
As pieces of Mattak were peeled away, the whale's muscles, hidden deep beneath its fat, were gradually exposed to the air.
"call-
—
After a large area of fat was removed, the whale's body resembled a giant humidifier.
Streams of white steam rose from the red muscles, as the imprisoned heat was finally released.
In less than forty minutes, dozens of neat, square fat bricks had been laid on the ice, like a newly paved marble road. The whale itself had transformed into a bright red, muscular giant that had lost the protection of its skin.
"Now, take the meat." Odak pointed to the two raised, dark strips of muscle on either side of the whale's spine.
"This is the spinal column muscle, also known as the longissimus dorsi. This is the tenderest red meat on a whale."
He used the tip of his knife to lift one end of the muscle: "Look at this color, Lin. Deep purplish-red, almost black. This is completely different from the beef you buy in the supermarket."
"Why is it so dark?" Lin Yu'an leaned closer to take a look. The meat was delicate and almost without any fat.
"Because they are deep-diving creatures." Odak said with awe, "Narwhals can dive to a depth of 1,500 meters and hold their breath underwater for half an hour."
"To do this, their muscles store large amounts of myoglobin and oxygen. This meat is full of iron and blood."
"Cut it off! This is top-quality material for making jerky!"
Audak cut down along the spine, and two deep red strips of meat, three or four meters long and as thick as thighs, were completely peeled off. The meat was so heavy that it would be difficult for two people to lift it. It was slippery and warm, exuding a strong smell of rust and the fresh aroma of the sea.
Lin Yu'an felt like he was carrying a giant python. He coiled the meat strips on a sled covered with a waterproof tarpaulin; it was the second most valuable part of the prey after its tusks.
Only after removing all the skin and good flesh did Odak finally turn his attention to the still swollen abdominal cavity.
"Alright, here comes the dirtiest job."
Odak gestured for the two to step back: "Lin, stand upwind. Pita, you too. If you don't want to be nauseated by that smell."
At this point, the whale was nothing more than a red skeleton containing its internal organs.
Audak gripped his longsword and aimed it at the white line on his abdomen.
He took a deep breath, held it like a diver before going underwater, thrust in with all his might, and then swung back.
"Pfft—Hiss!!!"
Even after an hour, the pressure inside the abdominal cavity remained alarming.
With a muffled sound of gas being released, a burst of scalding steam, carrying a strong smell of fermentation, digestive juices, and fishy odor, instantly gushed out from the incision!
"Splash—"
—
The enormous entrails flowed onto the ice like a burst dam.
The scene was extremely shocking and disgusting.
Its coiled intestines were thicker than a fire hose, and its enormous stomach resembled a sack of water-filled soybeans.
The moment these internal organs came into contact with the -30 degree Celsius ice surface, they stirred up a cloud of white mist, reducing the surrounding visibility to almost zero.
"Peeta! Find the heart!" Odak shouted, covering his nose.
Peeta wasn't intimidated; he knew it was valuable. Wearing waterproof pants, he stepped into the slippery, warm pile of entrails, groping through the bloody mist.
A moment later, he held up a dark purple organ, about the size of a basketball, in his hands—the heart of a narwhal.
"This is the only thing we're taking," Odak said, pointing to the heart. "The rest—the liver, lungs, intestines—we don't want any of it."
"Why?" Lin Yu'an asked, "Aren't seal intestines fed to dogs?"
Odak explained, "Seals eat krill and small fish, while narwhals eat flounder and squid, which are deep-sea fish."
"And whales live for so long, fifty or even a hundred years. Their livers and kidneys accumulate too many heavy metals, which are toxic."
"Dogs will lose fur if they eat it, and people will become stupid if they eat it. So let's leave it to the ocean."
Three hours later, the work was completely finished.
All that remained at the scene was a massive vertebral skeleton and scattered, discarded internal organs. The surrounding snow and ice had been completely stained black and red, resembling a cruel abstract painting.
Odak walked up to the pile of entrails, kicked the huge liver, and then whistled at the already restless pack of dogs in the distance.
"It's their buffet time. Although the offal is poisonous and shouldn't be eaten in large quantities, this little bit of scraps of meat and blood is enough for them to feast on."
He untied the dog's leash.
More than twenty Greenland hounds surged toward the wreckage like a black tide. The sounds of tearing, growling, and bones breaking echoed across the icy plains. Odak looked at the two sleds, which were packed full and even bent under the weight of the load, and a tired but extremely satisfied smile appeared on his face.
"We should go now. Today we've reaped teeth, fat, and several hundred kilograms of red meat."
"Lin, you did a great job today. Really. You're not only a good marksman, but also a good butcher."
"In Greenland, a good butcher" is the highest praise for a man. It means you know how not to waste a single gram of food that Sila provides.
"Let's go home."
"Huk!!!"
With a long whistle, the heavily laden convoy, under the ever-present sunlight of the midnight sun, slowly moved towards its southern homeland.
Behind him, several black ravens had already landed and began their feast on the enormous skeleton.
The return journey seemed exceptionally long.
The two sleds were loaded with thousands of kilograms of spoils, so heavy that they seemed to be dragging two small mountains.
Although the return journey was a gentle downhill slope following the glacier, the Greenland hounds still had to keep their bodies low, leaving deep claw marks on the snow with every step in order to maintain their momentum.
Odak sat atop a high pile of meat in the truck bed, his brow furrowed, as if he were engaged in a complex mathematical calculation.
"Lin, look at this pile of meat!" Odak shouted. "To outsiders it's just food, but in Karnak, it's politics."
"Politics?" Lin Yu'an was somewhat surprised to hear the word come from the old hunter's mouth.
"That's right, figuring out how to divide this whale in a way that leaves everyone speechless is harder than killing it."
Audak started calculating the debt of gratitude to Lin Yu'an using his rough fingers.
"First of all, Pita, that coward almost peed his pants while pulling the rope, but he did put in the effort."
"As agreed, the 300 kilograms of the best red meat from the tail, as well as three large pieces of whale skin fat from the back, are his."
"This will shut his snobbish wife up for six months and make him owe me a huge favor. Next time I need manual labor, he'll be there whenever I call."
"Then it's Grandma Aviak's turn." Odak's eyes softened. "I'll save her the softest part of her belly. Her teeth aren't good anymore, and the skin on her back is too tough for her to chew."
"If I gave her the hard skin, all the old ladies in the village would gossip about me behind my back."
"Then there are the church pastor and the Danish teachers at the school. They care for the village children and their souls. They send them two thousand kilograms of red meat."
"Finally, and most importantly—public nursing homes."
"There live a dozen or so elderly people without families there. They're tired of the frozen chicken legs the government provides and are eagerly waiting for fresh meat."
I'm going to send the remaining half of the red meat over there.
As Lin Yu'an listened to the complicated allocation list, he couldn't help but marvel at how a social security network, even more stringent than the law, had been built on this seemingly unmanaged ice field.
"And what about yourself?" Lin Yu'an asked. "What will you leave behind?"
"Me?" Odak grinned, revealing the confidence of a strongman. "I'll keep the fattest pectoral fin meat, enough to eat all winter."
Three hours later, the heavy convoy finally rumbled into Karnak.
This time, the commotion welcoming them was bigger than ever before.
Seemingly drawn by the unique scent of narwhal oil in the air, the dogs throughout the town were barking wildly, and many people were peeking out of their windows.
The sled was parked in front of Odak's house.
Pita couldn't wait to jump off the vehicle and carry his mountain of meat onto his little sled.
His face beamed with the triumphant glow of triumph. Clutching the roll of cash O'Dak had given him, he rode home like a victorious general, herding his dog to share the good news with his wife.
Odak didn't rest. He went inside and went straight to the VHF radio station that was on the console table.
In Greenland, cell phone signals are intermittent, but VHF radio is a standard feature in every household, serving as the nerve center connecting the entire community.
He picked up the microphone, tuned to the town's public channel, cleared his throat, and broadcast in an undisguisedly proud voice: "Calling Kanak, calling Kanak. This is Odak."
"Sila is blessed. We cut open a narwhal at Blue Wall. Now, the best red meat and whale skin are right at my doorstep."
"Apart from what's reserved for the nursing home, the rest is here. Bring your bowls and bags. Come and get your meat! Don't miss out!"
Snapped.
Hang up the microphone.
In less than five minutes, the once quiet street began to bustle with activity.
There was no looting or chaos.
Neighbors came in twos and threes, carrying blue IKEA shopping bags or plastic buckets. Most of them were women and elderly people, but there were also a few young hunters.
Maria stood in the doorway, holding the tireless Uru knife in her hand, like a just judge.
Odak was in charge of carrying the meat off the snow, while Maria was in charge of cutting it.
Each time someone came, Mary would cut off a piece of meat or fat weighing two or three kilograms and put it into their bowl.
"This is for you, Father. I heard your son is growing."
"Give this oily piece to old Peter so he can make soup to warm himself up."
People accepted the meat with genuine smiles, saying "Qujanaq" (thank you) in Greenlandic.
Some would even pull out a pack of cigarettes or a few homemade berry muffins from their pockets as a return gift for Odak.
Lin Yu'an stood aside, watching this distribution ceremony, which is almost extinct in this modern world.
There are no monetary transactions, no weighing or pricing. There is only the hunter's responsibility to the community, and the community's respect for the hunter.
Half an hour later, Odak saw off his last neighbor, closed the door, and let out a long sigh of relief.
He slumped onto the sofa, took the hot coffee Maria handed him, and although his hands were trembling from exhaustion, he was in a state of extreme excitement and satisfaction.
"Alright, Lin. The meat's been divided up, now it's time to talk about your stuff."
Audaq pointed to the long package in the porch: "I'll go and get the export permit for that tooth first thing tomorrow morning."
"But before that, tonight—I think we should throw you a little celebration."
"What kind of celebration?"
Audak smiled mysteriously, "The finest whale skin sashimi, to celebrate an Eastern hunter who, on his first polar expedition, obtained the legendary unicorn!"