I was just about to blow out the gas light when I saw something close to the canvas of the tent. A large looming shadow. I felt my heart start to beat faster. “Matt, there’s something out there and I don’t like it.” I said to my dear brother, who was in a bad mood. “Shut up, Kiddo, and go to sleep!” was his only reply. But I wasn’t going to give up so easily. “Matt, there really is something out there!” My voice started to rise in hysteria. “Katie! For the last time, go to sleep!”
It felt like a long time ago, when Matt and I walked out of our house. We were bundled up in several layers of clothing, hats, gloves, scarves and thick winter snowsuits. We would have been kissed goodbye by our Mother, except she couldn’t find a bare bit of skin. I felt the cold as soon as we stepped outside. Despite all the layers of clothing, the wind instantly chilled me to the bone. My ski goggles gave everything a dark tint, not that it mattered really, I couldn’t see my gloved hand in front of my face. It was said to be the worst snowstorm in a hundred years. Trust my brother to pick exactly this day for an exploration. Matt didn’t seem very frazzled by the weather and set off at a strong march. I followed in his tracks, literally. The snow was so deep that it came up past my knees!
Okay, perhaps I should say something about my house. It is positioned in a beautiful valley in the middle of nowhere. I live there with my parents and two brothers, one of which was Mathew, or rather, Matt. The house itself was white with green trimmings. As is typical of Norwegian houses, it was always kept warm, fresh logs regularly placed in the wood-burning stove. It is placed at the foot of a mountain; in fact the mountain is part of our land. That’s where we were planning to go. Up one side, down the other, over the neighbouring valley, up that mountain, down the other side and we’d see where we ended up. We had a nice tent and six days' worth of supplies.
We started by going up the old track that runs about two hundred metres up. It’s normally used to get the tractor up for bringing down trees. It’s a good thing we knew the path well, since we were still totally blinded by the snow. We hadn’t gone far, but not for the first time did I wonder whether it was really worth it. I mean honestly, what’s the point in getting cold and wet with no proper food, just to satisfy the curiosity of my brother? Then I remembered why I was doing it: I am a nice person and had therefore reluctantly agreed to keep him company. I suppose I might have been a little curious too, but I would at least have waited until summer!
It seemed to take a while to get to the top of the track, where it tapers off into a boulder field. When we finally got there, Matt stopped and waited for me to catch up. It was kind of weird, being two hundred meters from the house, yet feel so far from civilisation. “We’ll have to go over the boulders, follow me and don’t step where I step if my foot goes down a hole.” That seemed fair enough, so rather than wasting breath on replying, I nodded. Part of the sentence reminded me of the children’s book “We’re going on a bear hunt”. I never really liked that book, maybe because they are so uninventive. I mean seriously, who says “Oh no, swishy grass! We can’t go over it, we can’t go under it, we can’t go round it. Oh no, we’ll have to go through it!” Honestly, and then they get to a bog. Apparently you can’t go over that either, okay ... and why not just make a bridge? It would save getting your feet all muddy, and besides, who on earth would go on a bear hunt unarmed? Anyway I followed Matt over the boulders, with my thoughts on bears, dart guns and bogs, when I realised he’d stopped. I would probably have walked straight into him if I hadn’t noticed in time. What was he doing? Under closer inspection I noticed that he was holding a compass. Yeah, well I guess I should have known that he’d be checking our course. He turned slightly to the right, just as a large gust of wind arrived. When I say large gust of wind, I mean it! Seriously, we were in a blizzard, to be called a large gust of wind it would have to be powerful! I ducked down into a ball, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Matt do the same. The compass however, was not so lucky. The last I saw of it, it was hurtling away toward Russia. The sudden gust of wind soon died down and we could continue. I was very grateful that Matt was going first, as I wasn’t sure I could manage the stress of not knowing whether your foot was going to land on firm ground or not.
After a couple of treacherous hours, we finally arrived at the top of the boulder field. I stopped, swung my rucksack off my shoulders and looked for lunch. Matt gave me a funny look, as if to say, in disbelief: You’re hungry? I wafted a bag of sandwiches under his nose and he eventually sat down and found his own lunch. I carefully peeled open one of the sandwiches. I stared in disbelief, my stomach curling at the sight. Well, at least I wasn’t hungry any more. I peered over at Matt’s lunch and saw that he had the same, so it wasn’t a mistake. I, the vegetarian, had been given corned-beef sandwiches! Seriously, what on earth was Mum thinking? I looked through the other sandwiches; just as I’d feared, they were all corned beef too. At least the soup that was for dinner was vegetarian. I knew that if I didn’t eat, I wouldn’t make it to dinner, so I reluctantly closed my eyes and took a bite. A shudder went through my body: it was gross! Matt stood watching me with quiet amusement. He got a knife and scraped off the worst of the corned beef. I thanked him and ate the bread. We set off again as soon as I’d finished. Up, up, up and up, going around cliffs and trees until ... splash, gurgle, gurgle. I’d stepped in a stream! Honestly, I was soaked to the sock; not only that but stuck as well! Matt grinned, picked me up under my arms, and pulled me out. “Keep moving” he yelled over the wind. “If you stop it will freeze and you’ll get frostbite.” Could this day get any worse? Okay, stupid question.
We continued up the mountain, once again reminding me of a children’s book, this time one called A perfect day for it. I really didn’t think it was any perfect day for anything other than sitting in front of the fire with a blanket, some hot chocolate and a book. I was jolted back to reality when Matt poked me with an icicle. “I challenge you to a duel.” He said, putting on a deep booming voice. “Challenge declined.” I replied. To be honest I couldn’t be bothered wasting energy fighting a hopeless battle with icicles. He always beats me in stuff like that. “Fine, boring” he muttered under his breath, before carrying on up the mountain.
At last we arrived at the top. It would have been a nice view, except one couldn’t actually see for all the snow. The track began to slope downwards. I thought that it would be easier that way but found it not to be true. There was nearly no footing and I spent most of the time sliding down into holes. After a while I got the hang of it - all you had to do was adjust your centre of gravity with the decline. Splash, gurgle, gurgle. I’d stepped in another blasted stream. They were everywhere. Once again Matt pulled me out. I was seething by now. Both my socks and shoes were sopping!
Heading down into Austrumdal we stumbled across another boulder field, but this one was smaller and didn’t take so long to climb down. Night was closing in, so we would have to find shelter soon. “Let’s get off this mountain before we pitch the tent!” Matt yelled in my direction. I summoned up all my energy and doubled the pace. After a while we found a clearing somewhere near the bottom. I collapsed in the snow, while Matt pitched the tent. I crawled inside, stripped off my outer layer of clothes and clambered inside my sleeping bag. I was just about to blow out the gas light when I saw something close to the canvas of the tent. A large looming shadow, I felt my heart start to beat faster. “Matt, there’s something out there and I don’t like it.” I said to my dear brother, who was in a bad mood. “Shut up, Kiddo, and go to sleep!” was his only reply. But I wasn’t going to give up so easily. “Matt, there really is something out there!” My voice had started to rise in hysteria. “Katie! For the last time, go to sleep!”
Morning came, and with it, a break in the wind. Something else had come too. It was a long narrow object lying on the roof of the tent. “Matt, there’s something on the roof.” I informed him in a moderately loud voice, but nothing can wake my brother up. Eventually I dragged him out of his sleeping bag and let the cold do the job for me. “Blah, huh, what is it? What did you do that for?” he asked me, bleary-eyed and tired. “There’s something on the roof” I told him. He poked the object. It moved. “Just look outside and see what it is”, he told me in a grumpy voice. When I looked outside I couldn’t believe my eyes. The long narrow object was the slide from our garden. We were pitched outside our house!
The End
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