The Melting Sea

by Erin Hunter

  “I had an awful dream,” Lusa confessed, shuddering.

  “Why don’t you come outside and tell me about it?” Yakone suggested, his gaze friendly. “Let the others sleep for a bit longer.”

  Carefully, so as not to disturb Toklo and Kallik, Lusa wriggled underneath the spiky branches and plopped down in the snow beside Yakone. Stars still shone in the darkness, though Lusa thought that the sky was paling on the horizon where the sun would rise. “I thought I was walking through a forest,” she began.

  “But aren’t forests your home?” Yakone said, puzzled. “Why wasn’t it a good dream?”

  “This forest was dark and scary,” Lusa explained. “And there were voices wailing at me. I felt like the trees were trapping me.”

  “That does sound scary,” Yakone agreed. “But then, I think forests sound scary anyway. I’ve never even seen a tall tree!”

  “Oh, but real forests are wonderful!” Lusa told him. “They’re full of interesting scents, and you can find delicious berries to eat and grubs under fallen trees, and the wind rustles in the branches....”

  Yakone shook his head. “I’d still feel trapped, just like you did in your dream. I like looking at the sky!”

  “You can still see the sky,” Lusa assured him. “In little gaps between the trees. And if you climb high enough, you can see all of it. You can see everything there is!”

  “Well, we’re obviously very different,” Yakone said, amusement in his tone. “I guess you can’t wait to get home to your forests.”

  “I guess so,” Lusa replied in a small voice, suddenly remembering what it would mean when she reached the forest, and how she would have already lost Kallik and Yakone. Pushing the thought away, she added, “The forest isn’t my real home, though.”

  Yakone looked confused. “But I thought …”

  “No, I was born in the Bear Bowl,” Lusa told him.

  Yakone’s bewilderment deepened. “What’s a Bear Bowl?”

  “It’s a place flat-faces made,” Lusa explained. “There are a whole bunch of bears there. My mother, Ashia, and my father, King, and my friend Yogi. And one time I met Toklo’s mother, Oka, there.”

  “Sounds weird,” Yakone commented. “Why would the no-claws make a place like that?”

  “They liked looking at us, I guess,” Lusa said. “We had fun there, Yogi and I. We used to hide like this,” she added, springing to her paws and crouching down behind a snow-covered rock. “And then we’d leap out and pounce!”

  Imagining she could see Yogi, his bright mischievous gaze flickering to and fro as he looked for her, she leaped out of cover. The memory had been so clear it was almost a shock when her paws landed in soft, powdery snow.

  “Stella was an old bear who told us all about bear spirits,” Lusa went on to the bemused Yakone. “She said that when bears die their spirits go into trees, and if you look closely you can see their faces in the bark.” She peered at the twisted bushes where they had made their den. “I guess bear spirits wouldn’t want to make their home here.”

  “White bear spirits become stars,” Yakone said. “I’d rather be shining up in the sky than stuck in a tree!”

  Lusa gave him a friendly shove. “I guess you would. But trees are best for black bears. King taught me to climb,” she added. “It’s just great, racing up the trunk, going higher and higher. Can you climb trees?” she asked Yakone.

  The white bear shook his head. “I’ve never tried. Where would I find trees to practice on?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Lusa said, remembering the barren slopes of Star Island. “I can teach you if you want.” She peered up at the bush, then slid between the branches to rest her forepaws against the trunk. “This one’s kind of small, but it’ll do to start with. Look, put your paws here like this.”

  Caught up in her enthusiasm, Yakone pushed his way in until he stood beside her and reached up the trunk, his paws stretching way above Lusa’s head. The trunk bowed under his weight and the branches waved around, dumping snow on Toklo’s head.

  “Uh-oh,” Lusa muttered, realizing this might not have been the best idea she’d ever had.

  Toklo sat up, shaking snow off his head and glaring around. “What’s going on?”

  His movement woke Kallik, who blinked her eyes open and scrambled out into the open. “Yakone, what are you doing?” she snapped.

  Looking guilty, Yakone backed out of the bush and padded to Kallik’s side. “Sorry,” he said, touching his muzzle to her shoulder.

  “It’s my fault,” Lusa confessed. “I was telling Yakone about the Bear Bowl and showing him how we used to climb trees.”

  “The Bear Bowl?” Toklo growled. “Not that again!”

  Kallik let out a sigh. “Since we’re all awake, we might as well get going.”

  Toklo grunted and crawled out from underneath the bush. With another glare at Lusa, he set off toward the Melting Sea, not even looking back to see if the others were following.

  Lusa was aware of the tension in the air as she padded off beside Kallik and Yakone. She wished she hadn’t woken Toklo, but it had been fun telling Yakone about the Bear Bowl.

  “I wonder if there’ll still be ice all the way up to the shore,” Kallik said after a while, trying to put the morning’s annoyance behind her.

  “I don’t mind swimming a little way to reach the ice,” Yakone responded.

  “But the ice melts all over, even in the middle of the sea.” Kallik’s voice was quiet.

  Lusa guessed that she was thinking about her mother, Nisa, who had been killed by orca when she was swimming across a gap between two ice floes. She gave her friend a comforting nudge with her muzzle, and Kallik returned a grateful glance.

  Gradually the light grew stronger and the stars winked out. The sun rose into a cloudy sky, revealing the landscape that lay in front of the bears. But now the ground was so flat that they couldn’t see very far ahead.

  Lusa could feel vibrations through her paws, and with every pawstep the reek of oil in the air grew stronger. “We must be getting close to another BlackPath,” she said.

  Yakone halted. “Do we have to go this way?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Kallik responded. “This is the shortest way to the Melting Sea, but we might be able to avoid the BlackPath if we change direction.”

  “And spend all day wandering about and getting nowhere?” Toklo swung around to face the white bears. “I’m not scared. Let’s keep going.”

  “No one’s scared,” Kallik said defensively. “BlackPaths just aren’t places where bears belong.”

  “But we’ve crossed BlackPaths before,” Toklo argued.

  “And we’ve nearly been killed by firebeasts!” Kallik retorted.

  Yakone stepped between the two bears, who were glaring at each other. “There’s no need to argue. Why don’t we just split up and meet again by the shore of the Melting Sea?”

  Lusa winced as Toklo let out a roar. “No! We stay together.”

  “I agree with Toklo,” Lusa said hastily. “I know BlackPaths are scary, but we’ll probably have to cross them somewhere before we can get to the Melting Sea, so it might as well be now.”

  Kallik hesitated a moment, then nodded. “That sounds sensible.”

  Yakone still didn’t look comfortable, but he didn’t protest again, and the bears set out once more.

  Soon they spotted firebeasts rushing past in front of them, their roars growing louder as the bears approached the BlackPath. Yakone kept passing his tongue over his jaws, as if he could taste something foul.

  “How can any bear breathe this air?” he asked. “I feel like I’m choking.”

  “It’ll get better once we cross,” Lusa replied.

  Drawing near to the edge of the BlackPath, Lusa saw with dismay that streams of firebeasts of all shapes and sizes were passing in both directions, without any gaps that would give them the chance to cross. There was nowhere to hide while they waited; Lusa’s heart pounded as she thought of standing in full
view beside the BlackPath, where the firebeasts could easily spot them and attack.

  “Over here!” Toklo called. “There’s a ditch.”

  Relieved, Lusa bounded over to him, to see a narrow cleft in the ground, running along a bearlength from the BlackPath.

  “We can hide here until it’s safe to cross,” Toklo continued, sliding down into the ditch. His head and shoulders still poked out, and he had to crouch down so that only his muzzle and ears showed above ground level.

  Lusa jumped down beside him; the ditch was cramped even for her, but it was better than nothing.

  “That’s too small to hide a newborn cub,” Yakone commented, peering down at Toklo and Lusa.

  “Find a better place, then,” Toklo snapped at him.

  “Come on, Yakone. Get in!” Padding up, Kallik gave Yakone a shove so that he half fell into the ditch, and then followed him. “With any luck, we won’t have to stay here long.”

  But luck wasn’t with them. The stream of firebeasts seemed unending. Lusa’s legs started to ache from her uncomfortable crouching position, and she knew it must be even worse for the others, because of their size. Lusa kept worrying that some firebeast would spot them sooner or later.

  “I can’t stand this,” Yakone said after a while. “The firebeasts will come for us, and we’ll be too stiff to put up a fight. I’m leaving.”

  He started to stand, but Kallik fastened her jaws in his shoulder and tugged at him. “No,” she mumbled around her mouthful of fur. “We can’t split up! That’s even more dangerous.”

  “I don’t think so,” Yakone retorted, though to Lusa’s relief he stopped trying to climb out of the ditch.

  “We just need to wait quietly,” Kallik told him, letting go of his shoulder. “Please, Yakone.”

  “Yeah, both of you be quiet,” Toklo snapped. “You’re asking for trouble.”

  While the argument was going on, Lusa noticed that the noise from the firebeasts had faded. Cautiously raising her snout above the edge of the ditch, she saw that the BlackPath was empty.

  “Look!” she gasped, prodding Toklo hard in the side. “We can cross!”

  Toklo heaved himself out of the ditch, and the others followed. After the continual noise of the firebeasts, the land seemed eerily quiet without them. When Lusa scanned the BlackPath, no firebeasts were moving in either direction.

  “It could be a trick,” Yakone muttered.

  As he spoke, Lusa spotted a tiny glittering speck in the far distance and heard the faint whine that warned of an approaching firebeast.

  Toklo noticed it at the same moment. “Now!” he growled.

  Together the bears sprang forward and rushed across the BlackPath. The distant firebeast grew closer, and others joined it, until a whole herd of them was bearing down on the bears.

  “Keep going!” Toklo ordered. “It’s too late to turn back!”

  Lusa’s whole world seemed filled with the roars of firebeasts. Some of them were letting out a weird hooting noise, like the call of an angry bird, but far louder than any bird she knew.

  She let out a gasp of relief as her flying paws left the hard surface of the BlackPath and landed on the rough grass at the opposite side. Kallik, Toklo, and Yakone had reached safety, too, the firebeasts sweeping past behind them.

  But Lusa’s relief was short-lived. She heard an even louder hooting noise and looked back to see a firebeast veering off the BlackPath and bouncing over the rough ground as it headed straight for her.

  “It’s chasing us!” she wailed.

  Desperately she tried to put on a spurt of speed to escape from the firebeast. Her friends ran beside her, but when she looked back, the firebeast was still pursuing. It had a squat shape with huge paws that carried it easily over the bumps in the ground, and its pelt was battered, so Lusa knew it must have been in lots of fights.

  Glancing back, Lusa didn’t see where she was going, and felt her paws skid out from under her as she fell into a dip in the ground. She rolled over, terrified that the black paws of the firebeast would catch her and crush her. But Kallik hauled her to her paws, scarcely breaking stride, and they ran on.

  “It’s no good!” Toklo panted at last. “We can’t outrun it—we have to stop and fight!”

  Bears fighting a firebeast? Lusa thought, admiration for Toklo’s courage warring with her terror.

  Toklo halted, spun around, and took a pace back toward the firebeast. Rising onto his hindpaws, he splayed out his forepaws and let out an enormous bellow. “Come here and fight if you dare!”

  Lusa’s heart was pounding so hard she thought it would burst out of her chest. She expected to see the firebeast batter Toklo to the ground and snap his limbs with its giant paws. Then, to her amazement, the firebeast swept around in a huge circle, let out one last hooting call, and fled back toward the BlackPath.

  Toklo dropped to all four paws. “I scared it away!” he barked.

  “Thank the spirits!” Kallik heaved a huge sigh of relief. “And thank you, Toklo. That was so brave!”

  Yakone nodded, looking too stunned to speak. Even now that the danger was past, the white male still looked scared, continually casting glances around as the bears headed away from the BlackPath.

  “It’s okay now,” Kallik tried to reassure him.

  Yakone grunted, seeming unconvinced. Lusa felt sorry for Kallik, knowing how much Yakone meant to her. What will Kallik do if Yakone decides to go back to Star Island? She felt sorry for Yakone, too. It must be so strange and frightening for him, to find himself among so many flat-faces.

  As they headed toward the Melting Sea, Toklo, Kallik, and Yakone started to look for traces of prey, but they didn’t find anything.

  “Not even a pawprint!” Kallik said disgustedly.

  “I guess the flat-faces have scared all the prey away,” Toklo responded. “My belly thinks my throat’s been clawed out.”

  Lusa tried digging down under the snow, to find some leaves she could share with her friends, but there was hardly anything fit to eat. She found a few green shoots and chewed them up, wrinkling her nose at the lingering taste of firebeasts. Her paws hurt from running, and her mouth felt weird after breathing in so many firebeast fumes.

  They still hadn’t found any food when the sun began to go down, leaving them in darkness. There wasn’t even a good place to make a den. Finally Kallik spotted a pile of grass and broken sticks, and although they were wary of the flat-face scent that hung around it, they were all too tired to look any longer.

  Lusa curled up beside her friends, but she was too hungry to sleep. She knew that the others must be even hungrier; at least she had eaten the few shoots to keep her belly quiet.

  I hate this place, she thought. I hate feeling so scared and helpless the whole time. We’re acting more like prey than bears!

  Then she remembered that flat-faces weren’t all bad. She pictured the silver cans outside their dens, where more than once she had found food.

  Checking that her three companions were all asleep, Lusa crept into the open and looked around. In the distance she spotted some tiny lights, too close to the ground to be stars.

  Those could be flat-face dens!

  Casting a glance back at the sleeping mounds of fur that were her friends, Lusa set out, padding through the darkness toward the lights. The sky was covered with cloud, so she had no way of knowing if Ujurak was watching her.

  I hope you are, she thought. Help me find some food to take back to the others.

  On her way to the dens she had to cross some small BlackPaths, but this time it wasn’t so difficult. There weren’t as many firebeasts as there had been earlier, and their eyes glowed so brightly that she could see them coming from a long way away.

  It’s really weird traveling alone—so quiet!

  More than once she found herself turning her head to say something to Toklo or Kallik, and realized with a shock that they weren’t with her.

  This is how it will be when we’ve all separated to find our
own homes, she thought. I’m not sure that I like it.

  As she drew closer to the lights, Lusa made herself concentrate, imagining how surprised and delighted her friends would be when she returned to them with food. She had been right that the lights came from flat-face dens: There were several of them, clustered together on either side of a BlackPath. As she crept closer, she thought the yellow squares of light were like eyes watching her, but she reminded herself that they were just gaps in the walls of the dens.

  A chill ran through her, colder than the snow, when she remembered their last attempt to get food from flat-faces, when Toklo had gotten stuck inside one of the shiny metal cans. Later they had almost been killed for trying to steal food.

  But it won’t be like that this time, she reassured herself. I’ll be so quiet the flat-faces won’t even know I’m here. And I’m small enough that I won’t get stuck inside a can.

  A long time had passed since Lusa had ventured this close to flat-face dens. Her confidence grew as she sniffed around, recognizing the scents of flat-faces and their food.

  Outside one of the dens a firebeast was crouching, but it was cold and quiet, so Lusa knew it must be asleep. Skirting around it, she kept her eyes open for the silver cans, heading behind the den where she knew flat-faces usually kept them. A burst of flat-face noise and laughter came from inside the den; Lusa froze with fear, then headed on even more quietly that before.

  They must not hear me!

  There were no lights around the back of the den. Lusa peered through the darkness, creeping forward pawstep by pawstep as she searched for the cans. Then her next step brought her up against something solid. She felt the smooth surface of a can and grabbed at it in a near panic as it started to tilt, managing to stop it from crashing over.

  As her eyes grew used to the darkness, she saw that there was a whole group of cans clustered together near the entrance to the den. Balancing on her hindpaws, Lusa tried to pry the lid off the first can, wishing her friends were with her; it was so much easier to open up the cans when two or three of them were working together.