The Melting Sea

by Erin Hunter

  “We’d better find somewhere to sleep,” Toklo said.

  He took the lead, and the others followed, stumbling over the rough ground. After a few pawsteps, Lusa sensed the surface beneath her paws grow suddenly smooth.

  Hey, we must be on a BlackPath!

  She was about to call out and warn her friends to get off it when she heard the sudden deep-throated roar of a firebeast. Looking up, she saw it erupt out of a gap between the dens opposite and head straight for them.

  Lusa stared into its glaring eyes. Her mind was screaming at her to jump out of the way, but her body wouldn’t obey her. It was as stiff and still as a tree.

  Bracing herself for the impact, Lusa closed her eyes. Oh, Ujurak, help me!

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Kallik

  As Kallik sprang toward Lusa, the firebeast swerved madly and hurtled around the corner of the nearest den on two round black paws. There was a huge bang, and a yellow flame flashed out of the mouth of the narrow path where the firebeast had disappeared.

  Kallik raced around the corner to see what had happened. The firebeast had smashed into a large den built of pale stone and lay on its side, its black paws spinning helplessly while flames leaped from its head. Two no-claws were scrambling out, backing away from the wave of heat that rolled out of the firebeast.

  Kallik’s belly lurched in alarm as she spotted a den made of mesh lying beside the firebeast; it looked as if it had fallen off the firebeast’s flat back. It reminded Kallik a little of the cages where she had been kept after the no-claws captured her. Inside the cage a white bear was lying very still.

  The fire started licking at the sides of the building. Kallik stared at it in horror. This is the place where the captured bears are taken! Bellows of fear and fury were coming from inside; Kallik could picture the bears and imagined their terror as they caught the scent of smoke and flame.

  Three or four no-claws were running back and forth around the firebeast, shouting incoherently at one another. One of them suddenly let out a bellow of pain and fear as flames leaped across from the burning firebeast and caught on his outer pelt. Two of the other no-claws jumped on him and pushed him to the ground, rolling him over to crush out the flames.

  The other bears surrounded Kallik, staring at the cage.

  “Look—it’s broken,” Toklo said, pointing his muzzle at a spot where the metal sides were gaping open.

  Kallik and Yakone raced to Toklo’s side and thrust their paws between the sides of the cage, prying it farther open. A white she-bear lolled out of it, so deeply unconscious that she had no idea what was happening. She lay on the ground in an unmoving heap.

  Toklo and Yakone grabbed the she-bear’s fur in their teeth and heaved, dragging her away from the burning firebeast. They made it just in time, for in the next heartbeat it exploded in a ball of flame. The bears and the no-claws were driven back as the flames seemed to reach out for them. Kallik gagged on the scent of scorched fur.

  The frightened bellowing still came from inside the den, louder and more desperate than ever.

  “There are bears inside!” Kallik told her friends. “This is where I was held. I know my way around. Follow me!”

  Gathering all her courage, Kallik plunged through the flames. A vast wave of gratitude surged over her as she realized that her friends were following. I can always trust them!

  A gap loomed up in the side of the den, and Kallik raced through it. Inside, the heat was less intense, but thick smoke wreathed around her, stinging her eyes and catching in her throat until she choked. She led the way along a narrow passage and through another gap. Through the smoke she could just make out the white walls and straight gray columns that formed the cages where once she had been imprisoned. It was all just as she remembered it.

  Inside the nearest cage were two young male white bears. They were pressed up against the gray columns, staring out with wide, terrified eyes.

  “Help us!” they pleaded when they spotted Kallik. “Get us out of here!”

  Kallik examined the door of the cage. She could see that it was fastened by a bar of metal, but she couldn’t see how to open it. She clawed at the bar, but it wouldn’t move.

  “Hurry!” one of the young males gasped.

  Toklo pushed Kallik aside and tried to work the bar loose with his teeth. While he struggled with it, the two captive males threw themselves at the columns again and again, while Kallik, Yakone, and Lusa yanked at the barrier with their paws and teeth.

  But it was no use. The door remained firmly closed. Kallik reared up on her hindpaws and tried to batter it down by sheer strength, but all she did was bruise her paws.

  The heat was growing more intense. Kallik could see the dusky glow of the flames through the thickening smoke. She knew that she and her friends had only heartbeats to get out, but she couldn’t bring herself to abandon the two young males.

  Suddenly she heard a high-pitched shout. A no-claw came battling his way through the smoke, flailing his arms. To her amazement, Ujurak’s voice sounded in Kallik’s head. Get back!

  “It’s Ujurak!” she choked out, shoving Lusa in front of her toward the outer door. “Come on!”

  Glancing back as she and her friends bundled out of the den, Kallik saw the no-claw unfasten the door of the cage, then turn away and vanish into the flames.

  No! Ujurak! Come back!

  She raced back into the den, the flames singeing her fur, until Yakone seized her shoulder in his jaws and dragged her away. The no-claw was gone.

  The two male bears in the cage staggered out, breathless with smoke and fear. Toklo and the others got behind them and urged them out into the open.

  The no-claws who were standing around the fire backed away as the bears emerged, staring at them in horror, wide-eyed and silent. Kallik gazed at each one; none of them was the no-claw who had opened the cage. It was Ujurak, then.

  Kallik and Yakone shoved the two bears they had rescued into the shadows. “Run!” Toklo growled. “Get out of here!”

  “Thanks!” one of them gasped as they disappeared at a stumbling run.

  “I don’t think there are any more bears left inside,” Kallik choked out through the smoke in her throat. “Where’s that she-bear?”

  The bear who had been in the wrecked firebeast was still lying on the ground where they had left her. Kallik bounded over to her with the other bears hard on her paws. She was beginning to stir.

  Lusa nuzzled the sleepy bear. “Come on, wake up,” she pleaded. “We don’t want to leave you behind!”

  “Uh-oh!” Yakone exclaimed. “Time to go.”

  Following his gaze, Kallik spotted two new no-claws rounding the nearest corner, with firesticks in their forepaws. Oh, no—not now!

  The bear raised her head a little, blinked, then flopped back onto the ground.

  Kallik’s desperation spilled over. “Get up!” she roared.

  Looking terrified, the she-bear scrambled to her paws, dazed and wobbly. Kallik and the others surrounded her, supporting her as they fled. Behind her Kallik heard the crack of a firestick, but none of the bears stumbled and fell.

  Another explosion sounded behind them. Glancing back, Kallik saw more flames billowing up; the no-claws who were chasing them turned back. The air was full of noise; wailing firebeasts were converging on the fire from all directions as the flames crackled and roared.

  Blinded by the glaring eyes of the passing firebeasts, the bears stumbled along narrow paths, their paws slipping on the hard stone. Kallik’s ears felt as though they were on fire; she paused to scoop up a pawful of snow and rubbed them, making them sting.

  Yakone turned back toward her. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  Kallik nodded. “I’m fine, thanks.” Her throat was sore from coughing in the smoke, and her voice sounded hoarse.

  Yakone took the lead as they staggered on a little farther. Then he halted. “Look over here!” he called, jerking his head toward a dark den with a wide gap in the wall. “We coul
d shelter there for the night.”

  “Let’s check it out,” Toklo growled, brushing past him.

  The two male bears paused for a few heartbeats in the gap, then vanished inside the den. Kallik and Lusa waited, supporting the white female, who was still barely able to stand.

  A moment or two later Yakone reappeared. “It’s okay!” he called. “Come on!”

  Inside the den was a vast empty space, dark and silent. A ragged hole gaped in the roof, and underneath it was a puddle of water. As Kallik and Lusa entered, almost carrying the white bear, Toklo raised his dripping muzzle from the pool.

  “Come and drink,” he said. “It’s clean for once.”

  Kallik felt some of her tension leave her as she gulped down the cool water. Exhaustion overwhelmed her, and she tottered over to the white female, who had already sunk to the den floor and was sound asleep again. Kallik collapsed beside her, with her friends huddling around her. Darkness was rushing into her head, and with a sigh of relief she gave in to it.

  Light slanting through the gap in the den wall woke Kallik. For a moment she couldn’t remember where she was or how she had come there. Her ears were stinging, and her head felt strange and heavy. Her fur was black with ash, and all she could smell was fire.

  This overwhelming scent, and the sight of the strange white female asleep beside her, brought Kallik’s memory back with a rush. She shuddered as she remembered the smoke and flames, and the panicked bears trapped in the den.

  Around her, the others were beginning to wake. Lusa raised her head and looked around, blinking; then her eyes widened in sudden understanding, and she gasped, “The fire!”

  “I thought we were dead for sure,” Yakone said, hauling himself to his paws.

  “And those poor bears …” Lusa whispered. “What if we hadn’t come?”

  “Don’t think about it,” Toklo grunted.

  But Kallik, shaken as she was, couldn’t stop thinking about it. “I was so scared when the firebeast exploded.”

  “And being inside the den, when we couldn’t free the trapped bears …” Yakone pressed his muzzle into Kallik’s shoulder.

  “I think it was Ujurak who freed them,” Kallik announced. “He came as a no-claw. I heard him speaking to me inside my head, telling me to get out.”

  Toklo and Lusa exchanged a wondering glance.

  “It must have been,” Lusa agreed. “Ujurak would never let bears die if he could save them.”

  A scrabbling sound distracted Kallik, and she turned her head to see the white she-bear trying to get up, her claws scraping on the hard floor of the den. Her eyes were wide with fear.

  “It’s okay,” Kallik told her. “Just rest.”

  But the white bear’s gaze was horrified as she scanned the group of bears, and she flinched away from them. “Your pelts are weird colors!” she exclaimed. “What sort of bears are you? Bears should be white!”

  “Your own pelt is pretty weird right now,” Kallik pointed out, glancing down ruefully at her filthy fur. “Lusa here is a black bear, and Toklo is brown, but they’re both okay. No bear here will hurt you.”

  The she-bear looked slightly reassured, though her gaze flickered into the dark recesses of the den. “How did I get here?” she whimpered.

  “Just relax; we’ll explain everything,” Kallik told her. “My name’s Kallik,” she went on, “and this is Yakone. Do you remember anything?”

  “I’m Shila,” the white bear responded. “I swam ashore when the ice started to break up, and almost at once a firebeast came, filled with no-claws who shot me with a firestick. And then I woke up here.”

  “The no-claws put you in a cage on the back of a firebeast,” Yakone told her. “Then the firebeast crashed, and the cage broke, so we were able to get you out.”

  “The firebeast caught fire,” Lusa added. “That’s where all the yucky stuff on our fur came from.”

  Shila’s eyes stretched wide with wonder. “Then you saved my life!” she exclaimed. “Thank you!”

  Excitement had begun to rise inside Kallik as she heard Shila’s story. “What was it like where you came to shore?” she demanded. “Were there other bears there? A bear named Taqqiq?”

  Shila turned toward her, looking confused and scared. “My head hurts.... I’m sorry, but I don’t remember anything.”

  Kallik let out a grunt of impatience. “I have to know!”

  Yakone took a pace forward, giving Kallik a warning glance. “Shila, this is important,” he began, his voice gentle. “Can you remember anything at all, even something that you heard before the no-claws came?”

  Shila began to shake her head, then stopped. “I think … I think I remember walruses.... Yes, I was listening to the barking of walruses! There was a huge colony of them where I came ashore, and I had to go inland to avoid them.”

  Joy flashed inside Kallik, bright as flames. “I know where that is!” she exclaimed.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Toklo

  Shila staggered to her paws. “Take me there!” she begged Kallik. “I have to get back!”

  Toklo could see the gleam of excitement in Kallik’s eyes as she replied, “Okay. Let’s go! Tell me when you remember some more.”

  It seemed like Kallik hadn’t noticed the note of desperation in Shila’s voice, but it was clear to Toklo. He gave the white she-bear a wary glance.

  Something isn’t quite right about Shila. I’m sure she hasn’t told us everything.

  As his friends headed for the gap in the den wall, Toklo hung back. “Hang on a moment,” he said. “Do we really want to travel with another bear when there are so many flat-faces around? It will be so much harder to hide.”

  “It’s not far.” Kallik sounded as if she was trying to suppress her annoyance. “We’ll be at the shore in no time.”

  “Come on, Toklo.” Lusa gave him a friendly shove. “At least we’ll get away from all these flat-face dens.”

  Yakone nodded. “Right. And it’s the same place Kallik wants to go.”

  Toklo realized that no bear was going to listen to him, and he wasn’t ready to voice his doubts about Shila. “Okay,” he said. “But we’re not leaving now. Wandering around a flat-face place in daylight? Are you all bee-brained?”

  Kallik let out a sigh. “You’re right. And we all need to rest some more, especially Shila.”

  Scouting more carefully around the den, Toklo discovered some sheets of metal leaning against one wall; he hadn’t noticed them in the dark the night before.

  “It doesn’t look as if flat-faces come here much, but they might. This would be a good place to hide,” he announced, beckoning the others over.

  Together the bears squashed into the cramped space behind the metal sheets. Toklo crouched with his head sticking out so that he could keep an eye on the gap in the wall.

  “I wish my fur didn’t sting so much,” he grumbled as they settled down. “Kallik, are your ears still hurting?”

  “A bit,” Kallik replied.

  Toklo guessed she was in more pain than she admitted. She was really brave last night, leading us into the den.

  “I’ll go out and fetch some snow,” Lusa said, wriggling out of her hiding place again. “It’ll be nice and cool on your burnt places.”

  “Lusa, no!” Kallik exclaimed, alarm in her voice. “It’s not worth the risk.”

  “Don’t worry.” Lusa sounded cheerful as she padded off toward the gap in the wall. “I’ll be careful.”

  Toklo was pleased that the small black bear was managing to be patient with Kallik in her protective mood. She really does treat Lusa like a cub sometimes. He lay with his nose on his paws, wishing he could sleep, but knowing that some bear had to stay alert. It wasn’t hard; the pain of his burns kept him awake, along with the rumble of firebeasts and the shouting of flat-faces.

  “Maybe they’re looking for me,” Shila said nervously.

  Fear tingled through Toklo as he realized the white bear might be right, but he pushed it down.
“If they find us, we’ll get you out,” he promised, hoping that was true. “Just do as we tell you, and you’ll be okay.”

  Shila sighed, as if she didn’t quite believe him, but she said nothing else, and shortly her snores told him that she had gone back to sleep.

  “Lusa’s taking an awfully long time,” Kallik muttered.

  Almost as soon as she had spoken, the black bear staggered back into the den on three legs, carrying a huge scoop of snow with her fourth leg pressed against her chest.

  “Here you are,” she announced. “Spirits, it’s cold! It’s soaking right through my fur.”

  She gave some snow to Kallik, some to Toklo, and some to Yakone for a scorched place on his leg. As Toklo pressed the snow onto his burned skin, the pain ebbed, and he started to relax.

  “That feels great,” he said. “Thanks, Lusa.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Now that Lusa was safely back, and the stinging in his fur had eased, Toklo felt that he could have slept, but the disturbing sounds of flat-faces still came from outside. He could feel his friends’ tension, too, and he was glad when the daylight began to fade and at last the noises started to die away.

  “Time to go,” Toklo announced, crawling out from underneath the metal sheets. “Kallik, wake Shila. Maybe she can tell us which way to go.”

  But when the bears ventured out of the den, the white she-bear seemed confused and frightened. “I can’t remember anything about the journey on the firebeast!” she protested.

  “It’s okay.” Kallik’s voice was soothing. “I know you were asleep.” She glanced up and down the path outside the den. “We’ll go this way.”

  Toklo let Kallik take the lead as they moved off. He could pick up the tang of the sea beneath the stale reek of firebeasts, and he knew that Kallik would feel a powerful instinct pulling her onward.