The Melting Sea

by Erin Hunter

  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.

  “This way,” Kallik said, and took the lead as they headed down the mountainside.

  I need to guide them now, she thought. We’re so close to my home!

  Pausing briefly, she raised her muzzle and gave the air a good sniff, straining to pick up a trace of the Melting Sea on the wind. Delight thrilled through her as she caught a tantalizing whiff of salt water.

  But it smells just like the sea around Star Island and the Island of Shadows, she admitted to herself after a moment. However hard she concentrated, she couldn’t distinguish anything special that made her think of her mother or her home. A claw of anxiety stabbed at her. What if I don’t recognize the place where I was born? I promised to show Yakone my home, but what if I can’t?

  Fear gave strength to her paws, and she forged ahead, striding out determinedly to the bottom of the slope and across the valley to where the next mountain peak reared up ahead of them.

  “Hey, Kallik! Kallik!”

  At the sound of Lusa’s breathless voice, Kallik halted and turned. The small black bear stumbled up to her, puffing so hard that for a moment she couldn’t speak. Toklo and Yakone were still farther back, weaving a course through the boulders that littered the valley floor.

  “What’s the matter?” Kallik asked.

  “Slow down!” Lusa gasped. “Even Toklo and Yakone can’t keep up with you.”

  “Sorry,” Kallik replied, realizing she had been so deep in thought she hadn’t checked where her friends were. “I’m so worried,” she confessed to Lusa, panic welling up inside her again. “I’m afraid that I won’t remember my home clearly enough.”

  Lusa padded to her side and gave her a reassuring nudge. “Of course you’ll remember when we get there. There’s still a long way to go.”

  Kallik’s voice rose to a wail. “But what if I can’t even find the way? What if I’m leading you wrong?”

  “Cloud-brain!” Lusa said affectionately. “We know we’re going the right way because of the sun and the stars. We just have to keep walking until we get to somewhere you recognize. Besides,” she added, “Ujurak would tell us if we were going in the wrong direction, wouldn’t he?”

  Far from reassuring Kallik, Lusa’s words only increased the white bear’s worries. “But how does Ujurak know where I was born?”

  “I’m not sure. But I know that he does.” Lusa’s voice was full of confidence. “He’s not like us. He can see everything now that he’s in the sky.”

  Gratitude for Lusa’s faith in her and in Ujurak flooded over Kallik and revived her spirits a little. While she waited for Yakone and Toklo to catch up, she studied the mountain that lay ahead of them. Almost at once she spotted a path that wound upward among the rocks, zigzagging across the slope.

  “That looks promising,” she said as the male bears padded up. “Let’s go.”

  “Just remember you’re not in a race this time,” Toklo grumbled as he followed her.

  At first the path Kallik had chosen seemed easy, but it was steeper than it looked, and loose grit beneath the snow made their paws slip. After they had plodded upward for many bearlengths, Kallik came to a halt in front of a pile of boulders that completely blocked their way.

  “Now what do we do?” she asked.

  “Can we get around?” Yakone wondered out loud. He began to climb the steepest part of the slope, which would have taken him above the blockage, but almost at once he started to lose ground, scrabbling with his paws and slipping back down in a shower of snow. Lusa let out a startled squeal and jumped out of his way.

  “Sorry,” Yakone said. “There are loose rocks under there. We’ll never get up that way.”

  “Don’t say we have to go all the way down again!” Lusa exclaimed.

  Toklo didn’t speak, but leaped up onto a rocky outcrop and began to survey the land around them. Kallik leaped up beside him; Yakone gave Lusa a boost and then joined the others on the top of the rocks.

  “Look over there,” Toklo said as Kallik reached his side. He jerked his head toward a narrow gully that led up the mountain at an angle. “We might get up that way.”

  “It looks very steep,” Kallik responded doubtfully.

  “It reminds me of the gully that we followed when we first reached the Island of Shadows,” Lusa contributed. “That was a struggle, but we made it okay.”

  Yakone nodded. “It looks like there might be a stream at the bottom of it. We might get a drink there, and there could even be prey.”

  “But how are we going to get up to it?” Kallik asked. The gully opened up several bearlengths above their heads, across the slope where Yakone had discovered the loose rocks under the snow.

  “Look there,” Yakone replied, pointing with one paw. “Where the snow is lumpy? There must be boulders or maybe bushes under there, and that would give our paws something to grip.”

  “Then let’s go!” Lusa said, giving a little bounce.

  Kallik admired her cheerfulness, even though she must be almost exhausted by the difficult journey with little sleep. Her own resolve strengthened. “Okay. Follow me.”

  She set out into the snow, following the line Yakone had indicated. The snow-covered lumps turned out to be tough little thornbushes growing close to the ground. The thorns dug into their paws and the branches rasped against their sides, but at least it was possible to haul themselves upward from one bush to the next until they reached the mouth of the gully.

  Yakone had been right about the stream. Its course was marked by a line where the snow was smoother. Toklo scraped away some of the snow to reveal an icy covering, which he broke with one blow of his paw. He plunged his snout into the hole he had made and took a long drink.

  “That was good,” he said as he raised his head again, shaking water drops from his muzzle. “All we need now is a fat hare or two, and we can walk for days!”

  But as Kallik led the way up the gully, there was no sign of prey. Her belly grumbled, but she ignored it and concentrated on the climb. Though the gully was steep, the ground underpaw was fairly smooth, and they made good progress.

  Looking back over her shoulder, Kallik saw her friends following her in single file. I hope Ujurak is watching us, she thought. The fears she had felt about traveling without Ujurak were slowly fading, as pride in how they were managing the journey took over. “I trust you,” she whispered to Ujurak, hoping he could hear her. “If we get into trouble, I know you’ll be with us.”

  The sun had climbed high in the sky by the time the gully came to an end in a low wall of rock. Sharp, jutting stones made a path for the bears to climb to the top. Ahead of her, Kallik saw a stretch of level ground, many bearlengths wide, with yet another mountain slope at the far side.

  “This would be a good place to stop,” Toklo panted, clambering up beside her. “We need to hunt and rest for a bit.”

  Kallik and the others agreed. While Lusa began digging through the snow in search of roots and grass, the three bigger bears separated to look for prey.

  Following the line of the stream, which meandered across the level ground from a frozen waterfall on the mountainside ahead, Kallik spotted bird prints in the snow. Raising her muzzle, she sniffed the air, and the scent she picked up flooded her jaws with water.

  Goose!

  Glancing around, she saw nothing at first, so she padded forward on silent paws, trying to pinpoint where the scent was coming from. A heap of boulders blocked her view ahead, and as she crept around them, she spotted several geese poking about in the snow at the edge of the stream.

  Kallik paused. The thrill of the hunt was rushing through her, but she knew she mustn’t let herself get careless. She shifted slightly to make sure she was downwind of her prey and picked out a goose at the edge of the group: It was the closest to her, and had its back turned.

  Pawstep by stealthy pawstep, Kallik crept up on the goose. When she was within a bearlength of her quarry, on
e of the other geese spotted her; it let out a raucous cry of alarm and took to the air in a flurry of wings. The rest of the geese followed. But Kallik was already leaping, batting her goose out of the air with a slap of one forepaw. The goose fell to the ground, wings flapping helplessly. Kallik severed its neck with another swift blow.

  Triumph filled her as she picked the goose up in her jaws and turned to carry it back to her friends. Then she halted in surprise as she saw Yakone pacing toward her.

  “I was watching you,” the male bear said as he reached her side. “That was a terrific catch. You looked just like Toklo!”

  Kallik gaped, dropping her prey. “What? Didn’t I look like a white bear?”

  Yakone looked taken aback. “Well, of course. I just think it’s great that you can hunt like other bears.”

  Kallik took a deep breath. “Sorry,” she murmured. “I only want everything to be perfect going home. I don’t want the bears there to think I’m not like them.”

  Briefly Yakone buried his muzzle in her shoulder fur. “Everything will be perfect, because we’re both here,” he told her. “So quit worrying!”

  I wish I could believe him, Kallik thought. There’s still so much that could go wrong.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Toklo

  Toklo nosed his way into the open and stood blinking in the pale dawn light. Behind him, in the den they had scraped out beneath an overhanging rock, he could hear his friends still snuffling in their sleep. From somewhere nearby came the sound of slow dripping, a sign that the snow and ice were starting to melt at last. A faint scent of pine wafted toward Toklo on the breeze, and from high above his head came the cry of a bird.

  Excitement prickled at Toklo like ants creeping through his pelt. The warmer weather is coming. But his excitement couldn’t banish his anxiety as he thought of the time when his little family of bears would split up.

  Kallik and Yakone will stay at the Melting Sea. Lusa and I will have to go on alone.

  Determinedly pushing away the thought, Toklo gazed at the landscape ahead of him and began planning the day’s route. He and his friends had traveled through the mountains for several days, and already they were nearing the end of the range. They had descended a long way from the high peaks; from the ledge where he stood, Toklo could see a flat expanse of land stretching into the distance. The horizon was so misty and blurred that Toklo couldn’t make out any details, but he wondered if he was already gazing out over the Melting Sea.