The Final Journey Page #5

ISHA (CONT’D)

I want to give you the toy my

grandmother gave me when she went

away. I know you like it, you’ve

played with it enough times...

Won’t you take it and say goodbye?

Choko does not turn around.

Tears grow in Isha’s eyes, but she gently smiles.

ISHA (CONT’D)

Anyway, I want you to have it.

Isha puts the toy in Choko’s hand but Choko drops it and

wiggles to be let down.

Sonto lowers Choko who pounces accidentally on the figurine,

cracking it in two, and runs off into the crowd.

ISHA (CONT’D)

Choko!

But Choko does not come back.

Isha looks down at the broken figurine crushed in the snow.

She bends and picks up the two pieces with difficulty.

Embarrassed, Sonto aids her.

Isha stares in disbelief at the broken statuette. She looks

for Choko again but she is gone, leaving only the crowd.

Isha’s family approach one by one and give her stiff hugs.

Sonto steps up last battling mixed emotions. Staring from the

tundra to Isha, he seems to want to say something but can’t.

Isha searches his face, trying to read him, but Sonto becomes

uncomfortable and puts on his old, hardened demeanor.

He hugs Isha in an informal way then steps back.

Isha nods sadly, used to this, then turns to face the vast

ice field awaiting her.

The moment of truth has arrived and numb terror creeps into

Isha’s eyes. She looks at the broken figurine, then once more

for Choko, but Choko is gone.

20.

Isha takes a deep breath and, holding back tears, musters all

her strength and extends a foot, taking her first painful

step away from the tribe.

She takes another, easier step. Then another.

Soon she has left her people and is walking away from

everything she has ever known, step by fearful step.

WHEN ISHA HAS GONE A GREAT DISTANCE, she turns and looks

back. Most of the crowd has dispersed but her family remains.

Choko is still nowhere to be seen. Isha turns away and keeps

moving, never looking back again.

TUNDRA - AFTER SUNSET

On and on Isha walks alone across a white, sparse landscape,

heading towards a sunset fading behind distant mountains.

MOUNTAIN SLOPES - NIGHT

The temperature has dropped as Isha reaches the roots of the

mountains and scrambles up snowy rocks in blue moonlight.

AFTER A BIT OF CLIMBING, Isha is panting and almost falls.

She sits on a rock to catch her breath and takes off her

pack.

Glancing around, as if worried someone might be watching,

Isha reaches deep into her pack and pulls out two small

bundles wrapped in seal hide.

Isha considers the wraps, then puts one back. She opens the

other, revealing a chunk of frozen seal meat.

Isha gnaws on the hard, cold meat as best she can,

occasionally stopping because of pain in her jaw.

The wind picks up a notch. Isha reaches into her parka and,

from beneath her garments, pulls out her new blanket.

Looking around again nervously, as if she is not supposed to

have the blanket, she wraps herself in it.

She notices a rocky alcove behind her with a few scraggly

bushes growing within it.

Isha staggers into it and sits to escape the wind.

She continues eating, looking sad and tired.

21.

LATER:

Isha sleeps, bundled up behind the bushes.

The wind increases and snow blows in on her, growing steadily

worse until Isha wakes in the middle of a STRANGE BLIZZARD.

Alarmed, Isha gets up and steps out of the alcove, realizing

the snow only seems to be attacking her!

IMMANNA APPEARS, glowing before Isha with her hair and

clothes unaffected by the gale.

Isha is unnerved, but Immanna merely smiles.

Immanna removes her clothes, revealing her ancient ghost-body

to the elements. Naked, Immanna turns and, with a wave for

Isha to follow, walks away into the storm and disappears.

Isha shakes her head and backs away, but JOLTS WHEN SHE BACKS

INTO SOMETHING UNEXPECTED.

Turning, she comes face to face with a skeleton wearing

Immanna’s hair and clothes, frozen in the rocks behind her.

THE SKELETON LUNGES AT HER!

MOUNTAIN ALCOVE - NIGHT

ISHA WAKES, still in the alcove-- the skeleton, Immanna, and

storm just a dream in an otherwise peaceful night.

Calming, Isha gets up out of the shelter.

The landscape is still lit a beautiful blue by the moon.

Feeling better, Isha turns, startled to find a LARGE WHITE

SNOW OWL perched on top of her shelter.

The owl regards Isha then takes off with a HOOT, flying

further up the mountain.

Isha watches it fly out of sight. Thinking, she grabs her

pack and starts climbing after it.

MOUNTAIN PASS - DAY

The sun beats down surprisingly strong.

Hot and out of breath, Isha glances up in disbelief at the

sun just as she reaches a high rock valley crossing to the

other side of the mountain.

22.

A SOUND drifts to Isha from that far side-- THE SOUND OF

SOMETHING BIG AND ROARING.

Isha’s eyes light up and she hurries through the pass until

she is greeted by the sight of the mighty ocean stretching

out from a beach far below to the endless horizon.

It is a breath-taking sight:

Just beyond a great border of ice, HUNDREDS OF KILLER WHALES

dive and surface among a flotilla of glaciers breaking up and

floating away in the surprising warmth of the new day.

Isha takes it all in with the awed look of someone who has

stumbled upon an old friend she has not seen in a long time.

Emotions swelling, Isha SINGS A BITTERSWEET SONG TO THE

WHALES as she makes her way down towards the beach.

BEACH - LATER

Exhausted and aching, Isha rests her blanket against a bolder

in a spot where the snow has melted to reveal rocky sand.

Isha sit-collapses and reaches into her pack, unexpectedly

finding the top half of the broken figurine Immanna gave her.

She stares at it a moment, then digs out the other half and

sets them both in the sand.

She pulls out a last bite of seal-meat from the patty she

started the night before and pops it in her mouth.

HUMMING HER SONG, she watches the whales migrate.

BEACH - NIGHT

Isha sleeps against the boulder. THE SOUND OF AN ANIMAL

BLOWING A SPRAY OF WATER wakes her.

As Isha gets her bearings, SHE HEARS THE SOUND AGAIN.

Isha stands and sees a KILLER WHALE fifty feet away, staring

at her just beyond the ice bordering the beach.

Amazed, Isha steps onto the ice and approaches it, but before

she can reach the whale, it ducks back into the water.

Isha hurries to the end of the ice, but the whale is gone.

IMMANNA (V.O)

Isha...

23.

Isha turns to find she is alone. But she realizes the ice has

detached from the beach and is making its way out to sea!

A POLAR BEAR sits on the shore reaching for her as if

beckoning her to come back.

Isha runs to the edge of the ice but the divide is too great

to jump.

The Polar Bear ROARS and stretches out its paws, but Isha can

only watch as the gap widens.

A CRACKING SOUND causes Isha to turn.

The ice is breaking up! The Beluga slips into a crack and

disappears into the dark ocean.

Isha turns back to the beach to find the bear replaced by a

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