The Melting Sea (7 page)

“That's a great idea!” Kallik told him. “Should we go now?”

“Let's,” Yakone agreed. “Then we'll get to the Melting Sea even faster.”

But reaching the Melting Sea wasn't the first thing on Kallik's mind. Her paws just itched to be moving, to give them all something to do.
There's no point in just standing here worrying
.

“I'll wake Lusa,” she said.

Padding back behind the boulder, she found the black bear curled up in the snow with her paws over her nose. It took a long time to prod her awake.

“What's the matter?” Lusa asked, puzzled. “Are the flat-faces coming after us again?”

“No,” Kallik replied. “We just think it's best to get away from here as quickly as we can.”

“Okay.” Lusa's jaws stretched in a huge yawn, and she scooped up a pawful of snow to rub over her face.

Kallik realized Lusa must still be tired from the frantic chase the day before, but the black bear said nothing more and looked cheerful enough as she padded behind Toklo when they set out up the mountain.

A chilly wind was blowing as Kallik and her friends climbed higher, flattening their fur to their sides and whirling loose snow from the surface into their faces. The moon shone out fitfully as the wind drove the clouds across the sky. The changing light and shadow made it hard for Kallik to know where it was safe to put her paws, and she could see the others were having the same trouble.

Lusa slipped sideways into a drift and floundered about helplessly until Yakone leaned over, gripped her scruff in his teeth as if she was a cub, and hauled her out.

“Thanks!” Lusa gasped.

“You can ride on my shoulders if you like,” Yakone offered.

“No!” Lusa sounded indignant. “I'll be fine.”

“Okay, okay.” There was an edge to Yakone's tone, and Kallik wondered if Lusa had offended him. “Tell me if you change your mind.”

“I'm starving,” Toklo complained when they had trudged on a few more bearlengths. “Kallik, do you know if there's anything to eat up here?”

“How would I know?” Kallik retorted. “I've never been this way before. I—”

She broke off with a squeal of alarm as the ground gave way beneath her paws. She had lost concentration for a couple of heartbeats, and now she was sliding downward in a flurry of snow. A moment later she hit the ground with a thump that jarred every bone in her body.

Kallik gasped to catch her breath and shook the snow out of her ears. Glancing around, she realized she had fallen into a narrow crevice. On both sides and in front of her, sheer stone walls stretched up above her head. Looking up, she could just make out Yakone's pale head as he peered down at her; Lusa and Toklo were dark shapes by his side.

“Help me! Get me out!” Kallik shouted.

Icy fear was creeping through her as she realized that she would never be able to climb the rock face. There was nowhere on the surface for her claws to grip, and the crevice was so narrow that she was almost wedged between the walls.

“Kallik, are you hurt?” Lusa called down to her.

“No,” Kallik replied. “But I'm stuck down here. I can't get out!”

“Kallik, don't panic.” Yakone's voice sounded strong and calm. “Behind you there's a slope leading up to the top. If you can't turn around, you'll have to back up.”

Relief made Kallik's legs shake for a moment, but she forced herself to take careful pawsteps backward, feeling loose grit and snowmelt beneath her pads. Soon she realized that the path was sloping upward, just as Yakone had said. Now and again she slipped on icy patches, but at last she felt the wind again, ruffling her fur. Toklo and Yakone were beside her, steadying her as she emerged from the crevasse.

“Thank the spirits!” she exclaimed. “I thought I was stuck there for good.”

Another fit of shivering seized her as she wondered what it would have been like if she hadn't been able to climb out. Her friends would have had to leave her there. She would have heard their pawsteps and their voices dying away....

No. I won't think of that
.

“Are you okay?” Yakone asked her anxiously.

“I'm fine,” she told him, blinking at him. “Let's keep going. But we need to be really careful.”

Hauling herself to the top of the next ridge, Kallik saw a flatter stretch of ground in front of her, covered with unbroken snow that gleamed silver in the moonlight.

“That looks easier,” Toklo grunted.

“But that doesn't mean we can be careless,” Kallik reminded him, still shaken from the ground giving way under her paws.

Toklo gave her a brusque nod and strode out across the open ground. Kallik and the others followed. The snow was soft and deep; within moments Lusa was struggling, sliding into drifts every few paces, and Yakone stayed close to her to drag her out.

Kallik's belly was rumbling; she paused briefly to see if she could spot any sign of prey, but there was no scent on the wind, and no tracks disturbed the untouched covering of snow. Glancing back over her shoulder, she could see only snow and rock and darkness; the no-claw lights had disappeared, left a long way behind.

At least we don't need to worry about them anymore
.

A sudden roar from Toklo made her whip her head around to face forward again. The brown bear was wallowing deep in snow, only his head and shoulders visible. Kallik dashed toward him, her heart pounding, remembering her own fall. Yakone followed her, with Lusa left floundering along in their pawsteps.

But before Kallik and Yakone could reach Toklo, the brown bear barked, “Stop!” He heaved himself out of the snow again and stood to shake glittering drops of water and ice crystals from his pelt.

“There's a spirit-cursed stream under there,” he snarled across at them. “I had no idea it was there until I felt the ice breaking under my paws.”

Kallik and Yakone approached cautiously. Looking down, Kallik could see the hole Toklo had made, with splintered ice at the edges and dark water running past.

“My fur is soaking,” Toklo grumbled.

“We'll all have to get across,” Yakone said, standing at Kallik's side. “Is it narrow enough to leap?”

Toklo prodded at the snow with one paw, until he felt the place where the ground beneath gave way to the ice that covered the stream. “You can try,” he said. “The edge is just here where I'm standing.”

Yakone backed up to take a run and leaped, aiming to land next to Toklo. But he fell short; his hind paws broke through the ice and he slid backward, water washing over his haunches.

“Seal rot!” he muttered, scrambling out and shaking himself.

Kallik chose to wade across; the ice gave way under her weight and the stream surged up as far as her belly fur. She shuddered at the freezing touch of the water as it soaked through to her skin. Her pawsteps felt unsteady as she slipped on the muddy streambed, but she stayed on her paws and climbed out on the other side with most of her fur still dry.

“I think your way is best,” Yakone commented.

Lusa had come up to the water's edge while Kallik was crossing, and launched herself through the snow a little way upstream. She was so light that the ice held her with only an ominous creak or two.

“Thank the spirits!” she exclaimed as she joined the others on the other side. “At least it's not always bad being small.”

All four bears took a drink from the stream before they continued. The icy water cramped Kallik's belly, but refreshed her and gave her strength to go on.

As Toklo led the way onward and the bears began to climb again, Kallik realized that she could see the peak ahead outlined against the sky. Soon she spotted a pink and golden glow beginning to bloom on the horizon. The sky grew pale, and as the bears took the last weary pawsteps that carried them to the top of the mountain, the sun came up, flooding the snow with dazzling brightness.

Ahead of them Kallik could see a long, smooth slope that ended in a narrow valley. Another mountain reared up on the far side, and beyond that lay peak after peak, a range of mountains as far as the eye could see, snow-covered and shining in the morning sun.

“It's so beautiful!” Lusa exclaimed.

Together the bears lifted their faces to the light. A breeze blew across the summit, and Kallik was sure that she could hear Ujurak's voice whispering within it, bringing her words of encouragement.

Thank you, Ujurak
, she responded silently.

The whispering grew louder, turning to a harsh clatter in the sky. Kallik tensed as she looked up and spotted a metal bird only a few bearlengths above their heads, its whirling wings blotting out the sunlight.

“It's heading straight for us!” she squealed.

Pure panic seized her paws; she spun around and fled back the way they had come, down the mountainside. But she had taken only a few pawsteps when Toklo skidded past her and turned so he was blocking her path.

“What's the matter?” he growled. “Are you bee-brained? It's just a flying flat-face thing, like we saw in the Great Wilderness.”

Kallik halted, struggling to stifle her deep, inward shuddering. She couldn't explain why she feared the metal birds that flew near the Melting Sea. She doubted that her friends would believe what had happened to her and Nanuk.

Toklo shoved her into the shelter of a heap of boulders, where they crouched, looking up at the metal bird. Kallik couldn't see Lusa and Yakone at all; she hoped they were in a safe hiding place beyond the peak. The metal bird swooped low over the mountainside, blasting snow from the surface. Kallik's eyes stretched wide with astonishment as two no-claws leaped out of its belly; they had long pawsticks fastened to their paws.

“It's them again!” Toklo exclaimed, anger in his voice. “They're still chasing us!”

The metal bird rose higher into the air, while the two no-claws began sliding toward the opposite side of the peak.

“They're heading for Yakone and Lusa,” Toklo growled.

Kallik's belly lurched with fear for her friends. “What are we going to do?” she asked.

“I don't know,” Toklo grumbled. “Maybe we should try to distract the flat-faces.”

“Let's go and see what's happening,” Kallik said.

Cautiously she and Toklo crept across the top of the peak, using jutting boulders for cover as much as they could. The two no-claws were gliding along on their pawsticks, and as Kallik watched, they vanished down the slope on the opposite side.

“They've gone!” she exclaimed, relieved.

Toklo grunted.

Kallik looked around, and her feelings of relief died as she saw no sign of Yakone and Lusa on the windswept peak. “Where did they go?” she asked. “Did they run away? The no-claws didn't hurt them, did they?”

“I didn't hear any firesticks,” Toklo responded. “They must be here somewhere.”

Together Kallik and Toklo began to search the peak, but Lusa and Yakone weren't hiding behind any of the boulders, and there were no hollows in the ground big enough to conceal two bears. Here and there the snow was trampled, but the pawsteps didn't lead anywhere. The farther slope swept downward, unbroken by anything except the two no-claws, by now tiny bright dots in their colorful pelts.

“Where are they?” Toklo growled.

Kallik tried to force down her rising panic. “Tell me what any bear could do, to vanish like this!” she snapped.

She spun around to march away from Toklo, but before she could move, her paw struck something solid beneath the snow. She started back in amazement as Yakone and Lusa floundered up out of the snow in front of her.

“Fooled you!” Lusa exclaimed, her berry-bright eyes sparkling with amusement.

“And we fooled the no-claws,” Yakone added. He glanced back to where he and Lusa had been hiding, in a snow-filled dip behind a heap of rocks. “We're lucky there was a good, deep drift.”

“I should have guessed you were using the same trick again,” Kallik confessed, hugely relieved to see Yakone again and to realize that he and Lusa were safe.

Toklo strode across to Lusa's side and shouldered her out of the drift until all four of her paws were on solid ground again. “Are you okay?” he asked, checking her over as he brushed snow from her pelt.

“I'm fine,” Lusa asserted, wriggling away from Toklo and scattering snow as she shook herself. “Yakone knew exactly where to hide. He knows how deep snow is just by looking at it. When those flat-faces appeared, he shoved me into the drift without even having to think!”

Toklo just grunted, and Kallik noticed a shadow of jealousy in his face as he looked at Yakone.

“I think we should get going right away,” she said before Toklo had a chance to speak. “Those no-claws might come back, or there could be others. I'm not sure if they were looking for us, but there's no point in waiting around to find out.”

Toklo hesitated for a moment, then gave her a brusque nod.