The Melting Sea (31 page)

Lusa exchanged an amused glance with Kallik. “It's like this piece of wood,” she explained, “only much, much bigger. Trees go right up into the sky, and they have lots of branches—other bits of wood—sticking out of them. They're covered over with this rough coating called bark.”

“Bark? That's what seals do.” Tonraq jumped to his paws and demonstrated. “
Wah! Wah!
Like that.”

“This is a different kind of bark.” Lusa sounded as if she was hanging on hard to her patience. “If you claw it off like I just showed you, the inside of it is good to eat. And sometimes you can find grubs inside. They're good, too.”

“What are grubs?” Pakak asked.

Kallik left Lusa to it and padded across the ice, passing the white bears who were still practicing crouching and stalking. Close by, Toklo had taken Shila and Taqqiq to one side and was drawing something out on the ice with one claw.

“So if the bison herd is
here
,” he pointed out to Shila, “you would need to skirt around them
there
, and Taqqiq could drive a young bison over to you.”

“That should work,” Shila agreed. “Then we can kill it together.” Her tongue emerged and swiped around her jaws. “I had bison once last burn-sky. It was great.”

“They're getting the idea,” Yakone remarked, strolling up to Kallik. “I guess once they get to shore they'll figure out the details for themselves.”

“I think they will,” Kallik said, her gaze traveling over the group of happily occupied bears.

“Is it true that Toklo and Lusa are moving on tomorrow?” Yakone said quietly.

Kallik's jaws dropped open, and she stared at him. She'd been so caught up in the problems on the Melting Sea that she had forgotten their original plan.

Yakone and I can make our homes here, but Toklo and Lusa can't stay on the ice. They have to travel on to find homes of their own...
.

That night, Kallik curled up with Yakone in a small den they had dug for themselves in the snow. But she couldn't sleep. All night she tossed and turned, unable to think of anything but the parting with Toklo and Lusa that was so close now.

Finally she felt Yakone heave himself to his paws. “Come outside with me,” he said.

Kallik followed him into the open, feeling guilty as she realized that her fidgeting had kept him awake, too. “I'm sorry—” she began.

“Kallik,” Yakone interrupted, “I think I know what's making you so unhappy. It's Toklo and Lusa, isn't it?”

Kallik nodded miserably. “We've been together for so long. We've been through so much together....”

“And you don't want them to leave?”

“I know they have to leave,” Kallik said. “This isn't the right place for them. But … oh, Yakone, I'll miss them so much!”

“Do you want to go with them?” Yakone asked.

Kallik blinked. Until Yakone had put it into words, she had never thought that traveling on with her friends was possible. Now she thought,
Could I really …?

Words spilled out of her. “This is where I've always wanted to be. I was afraid I would never see Taqqiq again, and now I've found him. This is my home. And yet …” Doubts crowded in on her. “So much has changed. The sea is melting so fast, the white bears must learn to survive on land as well as on the ice. And more than that, I feel like my journey is unfinished. How can I just let Toklo and Lusa leave, without knowing how their journeys end?”

“It's your choice to make, Kallik.” The look Yakone gave her was warm. “I made
my
choice when I left my homeland,” Yakone continued. “My home is with you now. Wherever we go.”

He touched her shoulder gently with his muzzle, and retreated into the den again.

Kallik was left alone in the open. Starlight glimmered on the expanse of snow; in the distance she could hear the creaking of ice and the faint wash of waves. She gazed up at the sky until she found Ujurak's constellation.

Ujurak, please tell me where my path lies
, she begged.

She waited for Ujurak to speak to her or to appear in some form or another, but all she could hear was a faint whisper on the wind.
Follow your heart. You know where it lies
.

Kallik suppressed a shiver. The voice wasn't Ujurak; it was her mother, Nisa.

I'm so proud of you
, Nisa murmured.

Suddenly Kallik knew what she had to do.

When Kallik and Yakone emerged from their den the next morning, they found the other bears already up, standing in a ragged circle around Toklo and Lusa.

“We'll miss you all,” Toklo was saying. He hesitated as if he couldn't find the right words. “It's been great knowing you,” he ended at last.

“Mind you keep your claws sharp,” Lusa told the little cubs, her voice quivering.

“There aren't enough words to thank you,” Sakari said, dipping her head deeply. “We all owe you our lives, many times over.”

Lusa caught sight of Kallik and Yakone, and nudged Toklo. Together they made their way out of the circle of bears and approached; Kallik could see the pain in their eyes.

“Kallik …” Lusa began, her voice choked.

“We're not saying good-bye,” Kallik announced. “We're coming with you.”

Lusa's eyes stretched wide, and she exchanged a joyful glance with Toklo.

“Just until you find your homes,” Kallik added. “Then Yakone and I will come back here. But we want to finish the journey together. I couldn't stand not knowing where you end up.” Catching sight of Taqqiq hovering a bearlength or so away, she added, “You can come with us, too, Taqqiq, if you want. I hope you will.”

Taqqiq looked tempted, but Kallik could tell he was full of doubts.

Before he could speak, Sakari padded up with Shila at her shoulder. “I admire your courage and spirit—all of you,” she began. “But this is the home of the white bears. I'd like you, Kallik, and Taqqiq and Yakone, to stay here with me and Shila and the cubs, just as you would have with your own mothers, until you're a year or two older and ready to live on your own.”

“Thank you,” Kallik responded. She was truly grateful for the offer, but she knew that Sakari had no idea of how experienced she and her friends already were. “But I've seen so much,” she tried to explain, “and traveled so far, that I know I can survive on my own. Besides,” she continued with a quiver in her voice, “I carry my mother in my heart, always.”

Kallik already knew what Taqqiq's decision would be as she exchanged a sad look with him.

“I want to stay,” he said, with a glance at Shila. “I want to be part of this family. And I'd like you to stay, too, Kallik. You're my only
real
family.” Before Kallik could protest, he went on swiftly, “But I know you've made your decision, and you're traveling on with Lusa and Toklo.”

Kallik nodded. “Yakone and I will be back,” she promised him. “Just as soon as the others are safely settled.”

She knew in her heart that she might not be able to keep her promise. The Melting Sea was so big that there was a good chance she and her brother would never see each other again. It was a miracle she had found him this time. She could see that Taqqiq knew it, too.

She thought that her heart would crack in two as she padded up to Taqqiq and thrust her muzzle into his fur, breathing his scent for the last time. She felt the touch of his snout on her shoulder and heard him murmur, “Good-bye.”

“Good-bye, Taqqiq,” she choked out.

But as she slowly walked away, Toklo's fur brushing hers, with Yakone and Lusa behind them, Kallik knew that she had made the right decision. Her long journey was not over yet.

Lusa lifted her muzzle and breathed
in the scent of pine and water. Needles crunched, prickly beneath her paws, as she trotted through the forest. At the edge, she pushed through thick bushes, blinking against the brightness as she burst into the light. A river crashed past, wide as the sky and white with foam.

“Toklo!”

Her friend was standing at the edge, gazing into the water. It splashed his muzzle, but he didn't move.

“Toklo!” Lusa called again, but Toklo seemed lost in thought.

Lusa padded across the rocks and stopped beside him. “Are you sharing with the river spirits?” she whispered.

Toklo turned his head. “It's good to feel them near me again.”

Lusa scanned the shore. “Where are Kallik and Yakone?”

Toklo nodded upstream. “They went hunting.”

Lusa followed his gaze, still in awe of the churning river. They'd followed it since leaving the Melting Sea, sheltering in the deep woods at night, fishing the shallows by day. “Will this river lead us to the place where you were born?” she asked.

“I think so. I know it must lead us to brown bears,” Toklo replied. “I lived beside rivers that smelled like this when I was young.”

“Why don't we just stay here?” Lusa ventured. “It has everything we need and we're still close to the Melting Sea. Kallik and Yakone would be near to their kin and we could live here.” The forest stretched away on both sides of the river. It filled Lusa with excitement, to be back among trees. She hadn't tried climbing one yet but, even though the trunks were wider than her reach, their bark looked gnarly enough to hook her claws into. “Perhaps we don't need to travel any farther?” she suggested hopefully.

A splash sounded upstream and a moment later Kallik appeared, dripping, on top of a large boulder near the edge of the river. A fish glittered in her jaws. Yakone scrambled up onto the rock beside her, his wet pelt sticking out all over.

“Look!” Kallik tossed the fish down. It landed at Toklo's paws. “I finally caught one!” Kallik had been trying to catch river fish since they left the Melting Sea. But she'd missed every one until now. “I remembered your lessons, Toklo. Back from before we reached the Endless Ice.”

Toklo sniffed the fish. “It's a fine catch, Kallik.”

“It's a dumb way to hunt.” Yakone shook the water from his fur. “How can anyone hook a fish out of the water when it's moving so fast?”

“I'll teach you,” Toklo promised. “Once you've practiced, it'll be easy.”

Lusa remembered Toklo's frustration when he'd first had to learn the patience a bear needed to catch seals on the ice. They were all bears, but each with such different ways of finding food. She flared her nostrils, drinking in the scent of soft brown earth. She didn't have to get her paws wet before she could eat here.

Wind ruffled the undergrowth at the edge of the trees. Yakone turned and bared his teeth. “What's that?”

“It's just the breeze,” Lusa soothed. Yakone had been jumpy since they'd left the ice. He seemed unsettled in the strange world of trees and bushes and rushing water. He ducked out of the forest whenever he could and stared at the sky as though he was checking it was still above them.

Kallik skidded down the boulder and stopped beside the fish. Claws scraped behind her as Yakone followed, half-scrambling, half-falling.

“I can't dig my claws in here,” he grumbled as he landed beside Kallik. “And they sink pawdeep in the soft forest muck.”

Kallik touched his muzzle softly with hers. “I know you miss the ice.”

Yakone snorted. “Who wouldn't?” He sniffed the fish. “Are we going to eat this, or what?”

Toklo tore the fish into four pieces.

Lusa pushed her portion away. “You can have mine.”

Toklo glanced at her anxiously.

“I'm fine,” she reassured him. “I can find food in the forest later.” Her mouth watered as she imagined scratching up pawfuls of juicy grubs and beetles among the tree roots. She'd almost forgotten how rich the forest was, with ant-filled crevices in the tree bark and soft soil where she could dig for sweet roots. But it was still the season of cold-earth. Fruits and berries hadn't flowered yet and there were scant traces of soft green shoots in the undergrowth. Ants and grubs weren't always enough, so most days she was glad the river gave them fish. She'd eat anything rather than be hungry again. They seemed to have been hungry so many times before.