The Burning Horizon

by Erin Hunter

  They look after each other, Toklo thought, surprised. He had always thought of caribou as stupid and couldn’t imagine how they recognized one another when their herds were so big. Weird . . . But I don’t care what they do, just as long as they guide us to Lusa.

  The caribou started moving at last, and the bears followed. The sun rose higher in the sky, but it wasn’t hot like it had been earlier in their journey. Toklo was relieved to see that the white bears were moving confidently over the icy patches that became more frequent as they headed closer to the glacier. A cold wind swept over them from the ice field; Kallik and Yakone raised their muzzles and sniffed at it happily.

  It was almost sunhigh when they reached the glacier. Toklo eyed it warily, trying to hide how daunted he felt by the wall of ice that loomed above him. It was like a river that had been frozen and cut off midflow. But it was stained and dirty, dotted with stones and boulders. Instead of the sound of water, the vast body of ice creaked and strained, sounding like tree branches rubbing together, or rocks grinding over sand. Toklo hoped they wouldn’t have to go any closer to the ice. He didn’t trust it; it was too much like a living creature, waiting and watching the puny bears pass by.

  He was relieved when the caribou skirted the edge of the glacier, and the bears trekked after them. But before they had gone far, Toklo spotted a long line of flat-faces heading alongside the glacier, their bright pelts standing out against the gray-white of the ice. They were fastened together with long vines, just like the mules had been on the day the bears lost Lusa.

  “What are they doing now?” Toklo muttered.

  “I don’t know,” Kallik responded, “but we’d better avoid them.”

  Toklo let out a low growl from deep in his throat. He knew Kallik was right, but that meant heading away from the caribou’s direct route to find somewhere they could hide. The flat land beside the glacier offered no cover at all.

  The caribou flowed on like a river, unstoppable and single-minded, apparently unaware of the flat-faces, who were much closer to the edge of the glacier. The flat-faces paused to watch the caribou for several moments, then moved on, getting closer and closer to the bears.

  Yakone let out a growl, bunching his muscles as if he was ready to attack.

  “No!” Kallik said sharply. “They might have firesticks!”

  “Do you have a better idea?” Yakone asked.

  Toklo cast a final desperate glance around and came to a decision. “We’ll have to climb onto the glacier.”

  Kallik narrowed her eyes at the massive boulders that edged the creaking river of ice, then turned to look at Yakone. Toklo knew that she was wondering whether he would be able to handle the hard scramble.

  “Fine,” Yakone said firmly, as if he, too, understood what Kallik was thinking. “Let’s go, before the flat-faces get any closer.”

  Giant boulders loomed up in front of the bears as they approached the glacier. For a moment Toklo worried about being able to hoist themselves over the smooth contours, slick with melting ice. Then he spotted a gap between two of the biggest rocks.

  “This way!” he called.

  The gap was narrow, and Toklo felt his fur brushing the rock walls on either side. Ahead of him the ice spilled down in frozen waves with smaller chunks of rock trapped inside it, which provided pawholds for them to climb.

  Toklo clambered up as quickly as he could and turned to fasten his teeth in Yakone’s scruff to help him up the last bearlength. Kallik followed, panting, and all three bears crowded together behind another boulder, listening to the chatter of the flat-faces as they passed by below.

  “That was close,” Yakone breathed out.

  “Now that we’re up here, maybe we should stay,” Kallik suggested as the noise of the flat-faces began to die away. “Yakone and I can travel more easily on the ice, and we’ll be safe from flat-faces.”

  “But what about the caribou?” Toklo asked. “They won’t come up here, and we can’t risk losing them.”

  “We won’t,” Kallik replied confidently. “We’ll be traveling alongside them and can easily keep up.”

  Toklo glanced around. Harsh, dirty ice stretched away beneath their paws, while boulders blocked their path and their sight of the caribou. The surface of the glacier was riven with bottomless cracks, like empty streams with sheer sides. The landscape was tough and unwelcoming, but Kallik was right that they would be safer here on the glacier.

  “Okay,” he said. “Let’s give it a try.”

  They had not been traveling long before Toklo wondered if they had made the right decision. Scrambling over the icy rocks slowed them down, and he began to worry that the caribou would leave them behind. But when he clambered up to the top of a boulder more than three bearlengths high, he saw that the herd was still in sight and the track left by their clicking feet was clear on the ground. The flat-faces were disappearing into the distance.

  Toklo turned to speak to Yakone, who was hauling himself up onto the boulder beside him. “We might be okay to—” he began, but broke off as Yakone’s paws skidded out from under him. Yakone scrabbled frantically at the ice-covered surface, but he couldn’t get a grip.

  “Kallik!” Toklo roared.

  At the same moment he flung himself at Yakone and sank his claws hard into the white bear’s shoulder. But Yakone was still slipping, his eyes wide with fear as he struggled to hold on to the rock.

  A glance down revealed a narrow gap below them between two spiky pinnacles of rock. If he fell, Yakone might be crushed in the gap, or pierced by one of the sharp points.

  Then Kallik was by Toklo’s side, grabbing Yakone by his other shoulder. Together she and Toklo managed to haul Yakone up, paw’s width by paw’s width, until he could collapse safely on the top of the boulder.

  “Thanks!” he gasped.

  “Are you okay?” Toklo asked.

  Yakone flexed his limbs, letting his weight rest on each in turn. His wounded paw was seeping blood again, staining the surface of the rock, but apart from that he seemed okay.

  “I’m fine,” he said firmly. “Just scared out of my fur!”

  As the bears continued, Toklo kept a careful eye on Yakone, who was in the lead, and saw that he was limping again. Worse, he seemed to be finding it hard to keep his balance.

  Did he wrench his shoulder?

  Dropping back to pad along beside Kallik, Toklo leaned close to her and whispered, “I think one of us needs to lead the way, to look for the easiest route for Yakone. But we can’t let him know that’s what we’re doing, because he won’t want us to think that he’s slowing us down.”

  Kallik flashed him a grateful look. “Thanks for understanding,” she murmured.

  Toklo let himself fall a little farther behind, while Kallik trotted ahead to catch up with Yakone and boost him over the next rock that was blocking their path.

  Now Toklo could just barely make out the caribou herd in the distance, beyond the end of the glacier, and though he kept scanning the terrain, he couldn’t see any easy way back to the flatter ground where they were. Boulders blocked his view in every direction, along with dark, jagged cracks in the ice that warned him of rifts where a bear might easily be swallowed up.

  We’ll have to move fast to catch up, he thought. But how can we, when the going is this rough? Maybe we made a mistake, coming up here. . . .

  Toklo made an effort to pick up the pace, but his paws slipped painfully on the ice. This was nothing like walking on the Frozen Sea. The surface was rutted and scored and full of sharp little stones that made Toklo wince as he set his pads down. Gritting his teeth, he struggled to catch up to the others again. “We’re going to lose the caribou at this rate,” he panted. “Do you know anything about dealing with this kind of ice?”

  “I’ve never come across a place like this,” Kallik admitted, shaking her head.

  Both she and Yakone were looking confused, as if they couldn’t imagine how their beloved ice was turning out to be so hostile.

 
; Yakone murmured agreement. “I wonder if there are any other white bears here who can help?”

  “Even if there are, we don’t have time to stop and look for them,” Kallik replied. “We’ve got to keep chasing the caribou. Come on!”

  She lengthened her stride, loping along determinedly. Toklo and Yakone kept pace with her, Yakone trotting along unsteadily but managing to keep up. But the ice grew even more deeply rutted, so they kept stumbling into gullies or hurting their paws on the sharp upper edges.

  Climbing down the side of a ridge, Toklo spotted a deep crevasse at the bottom of it, and at the same moment felt his paws slipping. He let out a roar of alarm and dug his claws hard into the ice, though he still kept sliding. “Stay back!” he bellowed to Kallik and Yakone.

  The yawning gap was less than a bearlength away when Toklo managed to stop himself, his claws gouging furrows into the ice. Peering down, he couldn’t see the bottom of the crevasse, and his pelt grew hot at the thought of plummeting into the dark depths. The rift stretched away in both directions as far as he could see, but it was narrow, less than a bearlength to the other side.

  Toklo let out a growl of frustration, anger pushing away his fear. Why did we take this spirit-cursed path? he asked himself.

  Kallik and Yakone clambered down more cautiously and reached his side.

  “We’ll have to jump,” Toklo said, conscious that all the time the caribou were getting farther away from them. “Yakone, can you make it?”

  “I’ll be fine,” the white male responded grimly.

  “I’ll go first.” Kallik took a run up to the crevasse and launched herself into the air. A moment later she landed safely on the other side.

  “Now you,” Toklo said to Yakone.

  The white bear approached the cleft at a shambling run, while Kallik waited on the other side, ready to grab him if he fell short. Yakone pushed off and staggered as his forepaws struck the ice on the far side. Kallik steadied him, shoving him farther from the crevasse.

  Toklo let out a breath of relief, then lumbered up to the rift and bunched his muscles for the leap. He caught a glimpse of the dizzying depths below him, then landed with a thump on the far side. “Made it!” he exclaimed with satisfaction.

  Kallik headed off as soon as she saw that Toklo was safe. “Come on!” she called over her shoulder. “We have to keep the caribou in sight!”

  Her last words were followed by a roar of alarm. One moment she was bounding over the ice. The next, the glacier had opened beneath her paws and Kallik lurched over the edge of the yawning gap.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Kallik

  Kallik let out a yelp of alarm as the ground vanished from beneath her front paws. Panic surged through her at the sight of sheer ice walls stretching down below her into darkness.

  Another crevasse!

  With a frantic effort she scrabbled at the solid ice behind her with her back paws. Reaching out with her forelegs, she managed to grab the opposite edge of the rift. Desperately she stabbed her claws into the ice and managed to halt her downward slide, but she lost her grip with her hind claws, and her haunches slipped down into the gap. Now her back legs were dangling down into the chasm. Her claws strained from supporting her weight.

  “Help!” she called. “I can’t hold on!”

  “I’m coming!” Yakone’s voice sounded from above Kallik’s head, and she saw him leaping to the other side of the crevasse. A moment later he appeared and leaned over the edge, reaching his paws down toward her. “Hang on!”

  Yakone fastened his claws into Kallik’s forelegs, but his mangled paw couldn’t keep a strong grasp. Kallik saw him gritting his teeth against the pain as he struggled to pull her up.

  A roar from Toklo came dimly to Kallik’s ears. “I’m almost there! Hold on!”

  But Kallik felt Yakone’s claws begin sliding along her flesh and fur. “I’m losing my grip!” he gasped.

  His voice changed to a roar of terror as a clump of fur tore away from Kallik’s leg, and she fell.

  The darkness from below filled Kallik’s vision, and she lost sight of Yakone. Her body thumped against the opposite side of the crevasse, and she slid down it until finally her hindpaws collided with solid rock. Kallik tried to brace herself, but the speed of her fall was too great. She was thrown forward by the impact, and her head struck the wall of ice. A starburst of light exploded behind her eyes, followed by thick, suffocating darkness.

  Kallik blinked and rubbed her eyes. What happened . . . ? Where . . . ? Then memory began to seep back, and she realized that she had fallen into the crevasse.

  Cold terror poured into Kallik as she looked up and saw the narrow stretch of blue sky far above her head. She knew she had to get up and find a way out, but the pain in her head left her dazed and trembling. When she tried to scramble to her paws, she felt so groggy and her legs felt so weak that she sank down again and rested her head on her paws.

  I’ll try to get out in a little while, she told herself. But I need to sleep first. . . .

  “Kallik! Kallik!”

  Frantic cries echoing down into the crevasse tugged her back to consciousness. She recognized Yakone’s and Toklo’s voices, full of fear and anxiety.

  “Kallik, can you hear us?”

  Kallik angled her head upward. “I’m down here!” she called, her voice weak and shaky. “I’m alive. I’ll find a way out, I promise.”

  “Thank the spirits!” Yakone’s voice was full of relief. “We’ve been calling and calling.”

  “I can see the end of the crevasse, over in this direction,” Toklo barked. “We can wait for you there.”

  “Wait! I can’t see you! Can you see me?” Kallik asked as loudly as she could, not sure which direction Toklo meant.

  There was no reply, just a tumble of dirty ice fragments down the wall beside her, which made her lurch back to avoid getting struck. Toklo and Yakone must have backed away from the edge. Kallik knew she had to force herself into action. As her eyes became used to the half-light, she saw the crevasse was very narrow, barely wide enough to hold her. Like the surface above, the walls were made of jagged ice with boulders wedged into it, and beneath her paws were small, loose stones, and grit covering solid rock.

  I’m under the glacier, she thought wonderingly.

  Kallik realized she was facing farther into the ice, but the rift was too narrow for her to turn. For several moments she kept trying anyway, forcing down panic, but all she was able to do was scrape her sides on the rough edges of the rock. At last she gave up, panting.

  Toklo called down to her again. “Kallik, we’ll walk along the crevasse and meet you at the end.” His echoing voice was dying away behind Kallik.

  “No—I can’t go that way!” she cried out.

  But Toklo and Yakone were already moving off. She could feel the vibrations of their pawsteps thudding away.

  Desperately, Kallik did the only thing she could: push herself forward, up toward the source of the glacier. But the dim light made it almost impossible to see where she was going. More than once she tripped and stumbled over loose rocks, or the walls curved unexpectedly and she crashed into them with her muzzle or her shoulder.

  Determined to keep going, Kallik pressed her flank against one of the ice walls. The rough edges of rocks and sharp blades of ice scraped at her fur and bruised her ribs, but she pushed on, refusing to step away and lose track of where she was.

  Without warning, one wall curved sharply toward the other, and the path became only just wide enough for Kallik’s body.

  It’s getting narrower! she realized, horror of being wedged down there flooding through her. Now her fur brushed the walls on both sides, and her face was scratched by jutting shards of ice and stone that scraped perilously close to her injured eye.

  Kallik’s breath came fast and shallow. She made another effort to turn around, but the walls were so much closer here that there was no chance of turning, and she soon gave up. She couldn’t even slide back the way she c
ame, because now that she’d squeezed through, she was unable to force her hips backward through the tiny gap.

  Knowing it was her only choice, Kallik took a deep breath and surged forward, feeling the walls pressing against her from both sides. They had curved together above her head now, blocking out the sky. With every pawstep the crevasse grew narrower, and soon she had to force her way through, with the jagged rocks tearing at her. At last, she found herself completely stuck, unable to move forward or backward.

  No! she thought. This can’t be happening!

  In a panic she began scrabbling at the walls in a desperate attempt to climb out, but all she did was exhaust herself.

  Finally, half collapsing, her chest heaving as she fought for breath, Kallik peered into the dim depths of the passage ahead. I have to get through!

  With a great deal of effort she pushed forward, feeling her pelt ripping on the rocks and her ribs getting crushed by the walls of ice. Breathing in, she took another step and another, forcing her way through inch by inch until the walls suddenly widened again and she stumbled clear.

  Kallik halted, gulping in long breaths. Creaking noises drifted through the air, and a strange, eerie light filtered down through the ice, showing her the passage in front of her. At last there was space enough for her to turn around.

  But I’m not going through there again! she thought, glancing back the way she had come.

  Her sides bruised and scraped, her paws splitting on the sharp stones, Kallik stumbled on. The path led upward, though at the same time she was aware that the walls were getting higher. A wave of despair and fear began to swell inside her.

  I’m buried under the ice!

  Kallik closed her eyes and steadied her breathing, focusing on images of stars and calm ice to see if she could communicate with the spirits, but there were no bubbles or patterns in the ice of the crevasse that might whisper to her of white bears from the past. All she could hear was the ominous creaking, the gigantic moans of a vast creature moving around her.