Katie and the Snow Babies

by Gillian Shields

  “Um … greetings, Ulrick—I mean, Lord Ulrick,” Katie called up politely. “We have come here on a very important mission, seeking your wise advice.”

  The Chief Walrus peered down his long tusks to where the mermaids bobbed up and down below him in the green sea. A group of heavy walruses gathered clumsily next to him on the ice so that they could listen and watch. Ulrick cleared his throat slowly, then spoke in a rich, rolling voice.

  “It is true that I am the wisest creature in these parts,” he said grandly. “You may tell me your tale, but swiftly! The Chief Walrus cannot waste his time.”

  Katie hurriedly explained all about the theft of the snow diamonds and Mantora’s taunting clues.

  “So we thought the diamond falling from the sky might be a shooting star,” Poppy burst in impatiently. “Do you think we’re right?”

  The Chief Walrus stared down at Poppy’s mop of copper curls.

  “It is not our way to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in the blink of an eye, like a giddy shrimp,” he said disapprovingly. Sammy the fairy shrimp popped his head out of Megan’s pocket. Was this old fellow talking about him? Then he dived out of sight again, alarmed by the sight of Ulrick’s bristling mustache.

  “Besides,” the noble walrus continued, “how could one single mermaid cause so much trouble? Now, if it was a rascally polar bear who wanted to take over Ice Kingdom, I could believe it. But a mere mermaid? Whoever heard of such a thing!”

  He and his walruses began to laugh in a deep, rippling rumble that echoed like thunder over the wide plains of ice. Katie glanced at the other mermaids in dismay. She hadn’t expected this! On all sides, the massive brown creatures were rolling helplessly with mirth, clutching their smooth sides with their waving flippers.

  “But Mantora really is powerful … ,” Katie tried to explain hurriedly.

  The Chief Walrus suddenly stopped laughing. He held himself straight and quivered with pride.

  “No one has any power over what happens in Walrus Point except the Chief Walrus,” he declared, banging his flipper down hard on the frosted ice.

  “But if we don’t get the snow diamonds back, the whole of Ice Kingdom will melt—yes, even Walrus Point!” said Poppy angrily, swimming in front of the other mermaids. She stared up fearlessly into the Chief Walrus’s stern face. “And it’s no good pretending that it won’t happen.”

  Becky and Megan gasped and held hands in the water as Katie looked around at her friends with worried eyes. The walruses would never help them with the clue if Poppy annoyed their leader! But Katie knew in her heart that what Poppy said was right. The Chief Walrus, however, didn’t like it one little bit.

  “How dare you speak to me in this way?” Ulrick glared, his whiskers shaking with disbelief.

  “Because it’s the truth,” Poppy declared.

  Katie swam right up to the ice edge, took a deep breath, and said, “Poppy doesn’t mean to be disrespectful, sir. I’m afraid she is right about the diamonds. Finn told us you were wise and would know what to do …”

  But she never got the chance to finish her sentence. Ulrick rose up on his flippers and his face grew dark with rage.

  “Finn?” he bellowed. “You have spoken to that no-good polar bear? Well, you foolish young creatures, let me tell you that any friend of Finn is no friend of mine. Be off with you at once, and take your silly tales of melting icebergs with you!”

  He turned and waddled slowly away from the ice edge, turning his back on the shocked mermaids.

  Everything was going very wrong, thought Katie. She had to do something—and she had to do it quickly.

  With a sharp flick of her lemon-colored tail, Katie pulled herself out of the sea and onto the ice.

  “Lord Ulrick! Please wait,” she gasped. The others quickly followed her onto the frosty bluff. But at that moment, the mermaids heard a sudden noise of wailing and crying. It was coming from where the mother walruses were huddled together on the flat stretches of ice.

  “Caspar! Oh, my lovely son, Caspar,” sobbed a plump mother walrus as she scrambled clumsily over the ice toward Ulrick. The Chief Walrus spun his heavy head around toward her.

  “Why are you weeping, Inga, my daughter?” he asked anxiously. “What has happened to my dear grandson, Caspar?”

  Inga paused and hid her face with her front flipper.

  “My baby has gone,” she cried. “We can’t find him anywhere!”

  The Chief Walrus’s face seemed to grow haggard in front of the mermaids’ eyes.

  “G-g-gone,” he stammered. “What do you mean?”

  Then a rough, growly voice called out in answer from the sea, “I can tell you, if you will listen.”

  Katie, the other mermaids, and all the walrus folk swung around to see who was speaking. Paddling furiously through the waves toward the ice’s edge was a large, wet polar bear. It was Finn. He soon heaved himself out of the water and onto the ice, shaking his furry coat and scattering rainbow drops everywhere. Then he looked into Ulrick’s dark eyes and spoke.

  “Our babies—they’re both missing.” Finn sighed heavily. “Your Caspar and my Max!”

  Chapter Four

  Katie listened in shock as deep cries of concern echoed around the walrus folk. Ulrick stared at the father polar bear with confusion. “H-h-how can this be?” he stuttered.

  Finn sat down wearily. “Max and I had been talking with these brave mermaids,” he explained. “Then we set off across the ice to go home. Max was dashing around and playing as usual. But when I reached our lair he wasn’t with me anymore. His mother is sick with worry.”

  “And Caspar has gone from our home, too,” cried Inga.

  Katie thought quickly. “Finn,” she said, turning to the father polar bear, “didn’t you say that Max and Caspar were friends? Couldn’t they have gone off together?” Then she turned to Ulrick. “You wouldn’t allow them to play together, so they had to sneak off without telling their families. Your argument has put them in danger.”

  Ulrick hung his head in shame.

  “You said that I was wise, Sisters of the Sea, but I see now that I have been so foolish,” he said humbly. “Oh, Finn, my old friend, how could I let our stupid fight stand in the way of our babies’ friendship?”

  “It was a dark day when our own friendship was broken,” answered Finn quietly. “But maybe it is not too late to fix it.”

  Ulrick looked up with hope in his eyes. “I wanted to make up with you long ago,” he said, “but I was too proud. And now our precious babies are lost in the wild snow—all because of my false pride.”

  “Then let us forgive and forget,” said Finn gruffly. “In the name of friendship, let us work together to get them back!”

  The lordly walrus and the kingly polar bear solemnly embraced each other, good friends once more.

  “And now,” said the Chief Walrus, “we must put aside all that has happened in the past. Mermaids, I was wrong about Finn. Perhaps I was wrong about Mantora, too. But I cannot put my mind to those weighty matters until our young ones are found.”

  “Will you help us to search for them, Sisters of the Sea?” asked Inga with pleading eyes. Katie, Amber, Jess, Megan, Becky, and Poppy nodded in agreement.

  “We’ll help you,” they vowed. “We’ll do everything we can to rescue your lost babies.”

  “But we need to have a plan,” added Amber urgently. All the mermaids knew that it would be difficult for the young creatures to survive alone in the icy wilderness, away from their families.

  “Let’s split up,” suggested Katie, looking around at the creatures sitting expectantly on the ice. “That way we won’t all be searching in the same place at once.”

  “Good idea, Katie,” said Jess. “Finn could search over the ice. Max and Caspar might be wandering far on the frozen plains.”

  The shaggy polar bear rose quickly onto his strong paws.

  “I will call my brothers to help me hunt for them,” said Finn, raising his head and uttering a deep roar
. After a few moments, two other large polar bears bounded into view across the sparkling ice. They hesitated when they saw the Chief Walrus and looked uncertainly at their brother, Finn. But Ulrick spoke up.

  “You are welcome,” he said. “There is no longer any disagreement between the walrus folk and the bears. Speed on your way across the ice and good luck in your hunt!”

  Finn and his brother bears set off swiftly across the wide, level ice, their white coats soon blending in with the horizon of snow.

  “Could your folk swim up and down by the ice shore, looking for the little ones?” Megan asked Ulrick. He waved his flipper at several large walruses as a signal. They instantly dived into the sea to search by the frozen coast.

  “And the seabirds could help us, too, if Katie calls them with her harp,” suggested Becky.

  Katie quickly lifted her delicate mermaid harp from the cord over her shoulders. She began to play a lively tune on its golden strings. The sweet, wild notes rose into the cloudless air. Before long, there was a flutter of wings and a group of gray and white gulls landed on the ice. Katie explained hurriedly what she needed them to do.

  “Will you seek far and wide over the cold sea and fly swiftly to tell us any news?” she asked.

  “We will!” the birds cried huskily as they flapped their strong wings and glided away.

  “And now we must go, too,” Katie explained to Ulrick and Inga. “We are going to swim far from the ice shore to search the open sea. Wait here for us, and we will do our best to find them!”

  One by one, the mermaids dived gracefully from the ice edge, calling their rescue cry: Mermaid S.O.S.!

  As the friends plunged underwater, hundreds of silver bubbles streamed out behind them. Swishing their jeweled tails, they darted away through the deep sea, calling “M-a-x!” and “C-a-s-par!” over and over again. But there was no reply.

  “Be careful,” shouted Jess, who was slightly in front of the others. “Iceberg ahead!”

  Katie looked up and saw the craggy sides of a huge underwater iceberg looming over her. The mermaids surged around it, carefully avoiding its sharp, menacing edges.

  “There are lots of icebergs in this part of the sea,” said Amber.

  “And lots of smaller ice floes, too,” replied Becky thoughtfully, pointing upward to the surface. The mermaids could see several chunks of ice floating above them on the waves, like frozen rafts.

  “Have you noticed something else?” asked Poppy. “The water doesn’t seem as cold as it usually is. And some of those ice floes above us have strange cracks running across them.”

  The mermaids looked up curiously.

  “Let’s go up to the surface and take a quick peek,” said Katie. “There’s no sign of Max and Caspar down here anyway.”

  As the young friends lifted their heads above the waves and shook their shining curls, they saw several jagged white ice floes. These flat lumps of ice jostled into each other on the surface of the swirling sea, like the scattered pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

  “You’re right, Poppy,” said Megan. “These blocks of ice are starting to break up. That must mean the water really is getting warmer!”

  The young friends looked very concerned, as they hovered in the clear waves. Was this cracking ice just due to chance, or did it have something to do with the missing diamonds? Was Mantora’s evil plan to let Ice Kingdom melt starting to work already?

  “We’ve simply got to find those snow diamonds,” said Amber in a determined voice.

  “But first, we’ve got to find those snow babies,” cried Katie. “Caspar! Max! Are you out there?”

  Chapter Five

  The mermaids called the names of the young creatures as loudly as they could. Then they swam farther out to sea, weaving between the glistening ice floes and the tips of the sparkling icebergs. All the time they were calling and searching, searching and calling. But it was no use.

  “Ooof! I’m getting tired,” confessed Megan after a while, her spangled pink and white tail drooping in the water.

  “So am I,” agreed Becky reluctantly.

  “Let’s stop for a moment,” suggested Katie. “We can rest on one of the ice floes and decide what to do next.”

  The friends thankfully chose a large block of ice that was floating near them like a raft, and they gracefully wriggled onto it. Soon they were all sitting with their glittering tails hanging down into the water and the breeze blowing in their hair.

  “Look!” cried Jess, pointing up into the clear sky. “The gulls are swooping over to us. I hope they are coming to tell us that the babies have been found.”

  But the seabirds wheeled over the mermaids’ heads and called out that there was no news of Max or Caspar.

  “So Finn hasn’t found them on the ice, and the walruses haven’t found them by the shore … ,” began Megan sadly.

  “… and we can’t see them anywhere underwater or on the surface of the sea,” continued Becky.

  “Perhaps they really are lost for good,” whispered Amber.

  The mermaids held hands, feeling very sad and worried. Katie began to sing softly:

  “Our mermaid song

  This message sends—

  We want to help

  Two special friends …”

  The others joined in, murmuring quietly:

  “We want to help

  Two special friends …”

  Then a faint sound came floating back to the mermaids on the wind.

  “I can hear something!” said Katie. She listened intently, cupping her hand around her ear.

  “What can you hear?” asked Megan hopefully.

  Katie scrunched up her face and strained to listen. “It’s someone calling!” she exclaimed.

  The mermaids dived into the waves without a second’s delay, racing in the direction of the distant voices. Very soon, they reached a small ice floe that was drifting dangerously fast. It was being dragged out to the open sea by the strong, swirling currents.

  Peering over the edge of this frozen white raft were two scared little faces—a fluffy baby polar bear and a plump baby walrus!

  The mermaids sped forward and crowded around them.

  “You found us, Katie,” murmured Max, smiling weakly at his mermaid friends. “We heard your music and tried to answer. But we’re so tired and hungry after clinging to this ice for so long.”

  “Let’s get you home and find out what happened later,” said Katie brightly. “Can you swim with us?”

  “I c-can’t swim,” cried Caspar. “I’m so cold and tired!”

  “Oh, you poor thing,” said Megan gently. “We’ll help you to swim home somehow. But we must all hurry back to tell your families that you are safe.”

  “We’ve got important business with Mantora to sort out, too,” added Poppy. “And a clue to solve!”

  Just as Katie was wondering how they were going to get the youngsters home, Amber remembered the bag that their friend Ana, the little Inuit girl, had given to them. It was tied loosely around her waist.

  “Ana said this bag contained things we might need,” said Amber, rummaging around and lifting out some braided ropes.

  “I’m sure we could use those ropes to help,” said Becky. “Perhaps Max and Caspar could hold onto them, while we pull them along behind us?”

  “B-b-but I might let go of it and s-s-sink,” said Caspar with chattering teeth. The fright of his adventure had shaken him.

  “You won’t sink if we give you a special touch of stardust magic,” said Katie kindly. “Don’t worry, snow babies.”

  She strummed her golden harp and chanted:

  “Stardust, stardust,

  Make them float,

  Turn these ropes

  Into a boat,

  Stardust, stardust,

  Make them ride

  Over the waves,

  Safe by our side!”

  A stream of glittering sprinkles swooshed out of the mermaids’ silvery lockets and clung to the ropes. The long, supple
ropes began to coil and curl themselves around the snow babies, looping and twisting until Max and Caspar were sitting in two little basket-boats. The boats glowed with stardust sprinkles, which would protect the young creatures from sinking.

  “Come on, snow babies, you’re going to have the ride of your lives!” Katie laughed.

  The mermaids gently towed Caspar and Max through the greeny-blue waves in their magical boats. The seabirds swooped and swirled overhead, and the young friends sang as they pulled the babies along:

  “Our mermaid song

  This message sends—

  We have found

  Two special friends …”

  Soon, they all arrived at Walrus Point, where Ulrick and Inga were waiting anxiously for them.

  Katie and the others carefully pulled themselves and the youngsters out of the water, until they all sat thankfully on the rough ice edge once more. The ropes returned to normal and Amber carefully stowed them away in her bag.

  Ulrick was overjoyed to see Caspar and Max, and Inga covered her son with walrus kisses.

  “But how did you manage to get so far to sea?” wondered Katie.

  Max cuddled up to the mermaids and explained, “I wanted to see Caspar so I ran off to find him. We sneaked down to the ice edge to play without anyone seeing us. Then we met a mermaid lady, like you, but not so pretty. And she was bossy!”

  “That must have been Mantora!” gasped Jess.

  “She makes trouble wherever she is,” said Katie grimly. “What happened next, Max?”

  “The mermaid lady said it would be fun for us to float on the ice floes, so we did,” Max continued. “But they started to melt and break up. The piece of ice we were sitting on got swept out to sea on the currents.”