The Melting Sea (10 page)

“Best to stay away from them,” he grunted, and took the lead to pass the flat-face dens at a safe distance.

As the sun went down, Toklo began to realize how weary he was. Kallik's and Yakone's paws were dragging, and Lusa kept stumbling as she tried to keep up. The run down the mountain had sapped their energy, and now every pawstep took a massive effort.

“We won't be able to reach the Melting Sea today,” Kallik admitted at last, her voice regretful. “We'd better find somewhere to spend the night.”

Toklo couldn't help wondering if she and Yakone wished they had shared the hares when they had the chance, but he didn't say anything.

Gazing around, Toklo couldn't see anywhere that would be a good place for a den: no deep hollows or rocks big enough to give them proper shelter. They padded on into the gathering twilight and eventually found a clump of scrubby bushes.

“I suppose this is better than nothing,” Kallik said, beginning to scrape the snow away from underneath the outer branches.

Lusa sniffed a spray of shriveled leaves and backed off with a disgusted look on her face. “Yuck! I wouldn't eat those even if I were starving.”

While Toklo and Yakone were helping Kallik to clear the snow away, Toklo noticed that Yakone kept glancing around nervously.

“We ought to keep a watch,” the white male said when the makeshift den was ready. “With all these no-claws around, and those huge firebeasts …”

All
these no-claws?
Toklo thought.
Wait until he sees a really big flat-face denning area!
But he knew that Yakone had a point. Now that they were drawing closer to flat-face places, they would meet all kinds of unexpected dangers. “Good idea,” he said aloud. “I'll take the first watch.”

When his friends had huddled down into the scanty shelter of the bushes and were snoring softly, Toklo sat gazing back at the mountains they had just crossed.

Our journey has been hard
, he thought.
But would it have been better to keep traveling, instead of returning to a place where we'll have to leave our friends behind?

Lusa lay with her muzzle squashed
against the thin trunk of a prickly bush, but in her dreams she was walking through a forest. For so long she had yearned to be back there, to watch sunlight dazzling through the branches and making patterns on the ground, to climb and feel herself rocked in the branches of a tall tree, to stuff herself with luscious berries.

But this forest was dark and forbidding. The trees loomed over her; the faces in their bark were harsh and hostile, and branches reached out to claw at her fur. She tried to push through, but the trees seemed to shift and block her path. The faces drew back their lips and showed snarling teeth.

Eerie voices filled the air, seeming to come from all directions at once, so that Lusa didn't know which way to flee.

“What are you doing here, little bear?” a voice said.

“You don't belong here!” chimed in another.

“This is not your home!”

Lusa woke with a squeak of terror and lay trembling in the den, thankful for the bulk of Toklo and Kallik sleeping beside her. Yakone, outside on watch, poked his head under the branches. “Lusa, are you okay?”

“I had an awful dream,” Lusa confessed, shuddering.

“Why don't you come outside and tell me about it?” Yakone suggested, his gaze friendly. “Let the others sleep for a bit longer.”

Carefully, so as not to disturb Toklo and Kallik, Lusa wriggled underneath the spiky branches and plopped down in the snow beside Yakone. Stars still shone in the darkness, though Lusa thought that the sky was paling on the horizon where the sun would rise. “I thought I was walking through a forest,” she began.

“But aren't forests your home?” Yakone said, puzzled. “Why wasn't it a good dream?”

“This forest was dark and scary,” Lusa explained. “And there were voices wailing at me. I felt like the trees were trapping me.”

“That does sound scary,” Yakone agreed. “But then, I think forests sound scary anyway. I've never even seen a tall tree!”

“Oh, but real forests are wonderful!” Lusa told him. “They're full of interesting scents, and you can find delicious berries to eat and grubs under fallen trees, and the wind rustles in the branches....”

Yakone shook his head. “I'd still feel trapped, just like you did in your dream. I like looking at the sky!”

“You can still see the sky,” Lusa assured him. “In little gaps between the trees. And if you climb high enough, you can see all of it. You can see everything there is!”

“Well, we're obviously very different,” Yakone said, amusement in his tone. “I guess you can't wait to get home to your forests.”

“I guess so,” Lusa replied in a small voice, suddenly remembering what it would mean when she reached the forest, and how she would have already lost Kallik and Yakone. Pushing the thought away, she added, “The forest isn't my real home, though.”

Yakone looked confused. “But I thought …”

“No, I was born in the Bear Bowl,” Lusa told him.

Yakone's bewilderment deepened. “What's a Bear Bowl?”

“It's a place flat-faces made,” Lusa explained. “There are a whole bunch of bears there. My mother, Ashia, and my father, King, and my friend Yogi. And one time I met Toklo's mother, Oka, there.”

“Sounds weird,” Yakone commented. “Why would the no-claws make a place like that?”

“They liked looking at us, I guess,” Lusa said. “We had fun there, Yogi and I. We used to hide like this,” she added, springing to her paws and crouching down behind a snow-covered rock. “And then we'd leap out and pounce!”

Imagining she could see Yogi, his bright mischievous gaze flickering to and fro as he looked for her, she leaped out of cover. The memory had been so clear it was almost a shock when her paws landed in soft, powdery snow.

“Stella was an old bear who told us all about bear spirits,” Lusa went on to the bemused Yakone. “She said that when bears die their spirits go into trees, and if you look closely you can see their faces in the bark.” She peered at the twisted bushes where they had made their den. “I guess bear spirits wouldn't want to make their home here.”

“White bear spirits become stars,” Yakone said. “I'd rather be shining up in the sky than stuck in a tree!”

Lusa gave him a friendly shove. “I guess you would. But trees are best for black bears. King taught me to climb,” she added. “It's just great, racing up the trunk, going higher and higher. Can you climb trees?” she asked Yakone.

The white bear shook his head. “I've never tried. Where would I find trees to practice on?”

“Oh, yeah,” Lusa said, remembering the barren slopes of Star Island. “I can teach you if you want.” She peered up at the bush, then slid between the branches to rest her forepaws against the trunk. “This one's kind of small, but it'll do to start with. Look, put your paws here like this.”

Caught up in her enthusiasm, Yakone pushed his way in until he stood beside her and reached up the trunk, his paws stretching way above Lusa's head. The trunk bowed under his weight and the branches waved around, dumping snow on Toklo's head.

“Uh-oh,” Lusa muttered, realizing this might not have been the best idea she'd ever had.

Toklo sat up, shaking snow off his head and glaring around. “What's going on?”

His movement woke Kallik, who blinked her eyes open and scrambled out into the open. “Yakone, what are you doing?” she snapped.

Looking guilty, Yakone backed out of the bush and padded to Kallik's side. “Sorry,” he said, touching his muzzle to her shoulder.

“It's my fault,” Lusa confessed. “I was telling Yakone about the Bear Bowl and showing him how we used to climb trees.”

“The Bear Bowl?” Toklo growled. “Not that again!”

Kallik let out a sigh. “Since we're all awake, we might as well get going.”

Toklo grunted and crawled out from underneath the bush. With another glare at Lusa, he set off toward the Melting Sea, not even looking back to see if the others were following.

Lusa was aware of the tension in the air as she padded off beside Kallik and Yakone. She wished she hadn't woken Toklo, but it had been fun telling Yakone about the Bear Bowl.

“I wonder if there'll still be ice all the way up to the shore,” Kallik said after a while, trying to put the morning's annoyance behind her.

“I don't mind swimming a little way to reach the ice,” Yakone responded.

“But the ice melts all over, even in the middle of the sea.” Kallik's voice was quiet.

Lusa guessed that she was thinking about her mother, Nisa, who had been killed by orca when she was swimming across a gap between two ice floes. She gave her friend a comforting nudge with her muzzle, and Kallik returned a grateful glance.

Gradually the light grew stronger and the stars winked out. The sun rose into a cloudy sky, revealing the landscape that lay in front of the bears. But now the ground was so flat that they couldn't see very far ahead.

Lusa could feel vibrations through her paws, and with every pawstep the reek of oil in the air grew stronger. “We must be getting close to another BlackPath,” she said.

Yakone halted. “Do we have to go this way?” he asked.

“I don't know,” Kallik responded. “This is the shortest way to the Melting Sea, but we might be able to avoid the BlackPath if we change direction.”

“And spend all day wandering about and getting nowhere?” Toklo swung around to face the white bears. “I'm not scared. Let's keep going.”

“No one's scared,” Kallik said defensively. “BlackPaths just aren't places where bears belong.”

“But we've crossed BlackPaths before,” Toklo argued.

“And we've nearly been killed by firebeasts!” Kallik retorted.

Yakone stepped between the two bears, who were glaring at each other. “There's no need to argue. Why don't we just split up and meet again by the shore of the Melting Sea?”

Lusa winced as Toklo let out a roar. “No! We stay together.”

“I agree with Toklo,” Lusa said hastily. “I know BlackPaths are scary, but we'll probably have to cross them somewhere before we can get to the Melting Sea, so it might as well be now.”

Kallik hesitated a moment, then nodded. “That sounds sensible.”

Yakone still didn't look comfortable, but he didn't protest again, and the bears set out once more.

Soon they spotted firebeasts rushing past in front of them, their roars growing louder as the bears approached the BlackPath. Yakone kept passing his tongue over his jaws, as if he could taste something foul.

“How can any bear breathe this air?” he asked. “I feel like I'm choking.”

“It'll get better once we cross,” Lusa replied.

Drawing near to the edge of the BlackPath, Lusa saw with dismay that streams of firebeasts of all shapes and sizes were passing in both directions, without any gaps that would give them the chance to cross. There was nowhere to hide while they waited; Lusa's heart pounded as she thought of standing in full view beside the BlackPath, where the firebeasts could easily spot them and attack.

“Over here!” Toklo called. “There's a ditch.”

Relieved, Lusa bounded over to him, to see a narrow cleft in the ground, running along a bearlength from the BlackPath.

“We can hide here until it's safe to cross,” Toklo continued, sliding down into the ditch. His head and shoulders still poked out, and he had to crouch down so that only his muzzle and ears showed above ground level.

Lusa jumped down beside him; the ditch was cramped even for her, but it was better than nothing.

“That's too small to hide a newborn cub,” Yakone commented, peering down at Toklo and Lusa.

“Find a better place, then,” Toklo snapped at him.