The Melting Sea

by Erin Hunter

  Taqqiq hung his head. “We didn’t kill any bears,” he insisted, obviously taken aback that he hadn’t been forgiven right away. “Please don’t hate me. I can’t stand it.”

  Kallik took a pace backward; her gaze was full of pain, but her voice still sounded as cold as the ice. “I don’t know you,” she said. “You are not my brother! I should have realized that at Great Bear Lake.”

  The silence dragged out. Toklo wanted to claw Taqqiq’s ears off for hurting Kallik, and for all the trouble he had caused, but he kept his paws fixed to the ice.

  At last Taqqiq turned to Shila. “I think I know where your family is,” he told her. “They ran away when we attacked the den.”

  Shila drew in her breath in a rough gasp, gazing at Taqqiq as if she wanted to believe him but didn’t dare.

  “I know which way they went,” Taqqiq added. “I’ll help you find them.”

  “No, you won’t,” Toklo growled, taking a step forward. “Go away. We don’t want anything from you.”

  “No—no, wait.” Shila pushed her way past Toklo to stand facing Taqqiq. “Are you telling the truth?” she demanded.

  Taqqiq nodded his battered head. “I am, I promise.”

  “Then prove it,” Shila challenged him. “Take me to them.”

  Kallik gazed at Shila as if she could hardly believe what she had just heard. “You can’t trust him!” she protested.

  Shila turned her head and gave Kallik a sorrowful look. “What choice do I have?” she asked. “If he’s lying, I’ll just have to start searching again.”

  “Okay,” Toklo said decisively. “We’ll come with you,” he told Taqqiq, “but put one paw wrong and I’ll scatter your guts from here to the Endless Ice.”

  Shila turned and limped away beside Taqqiq.

  Toklo gathered the others together with a jerk of his head and trudged after them. He doubted they were ever going to find one little den in all that empty, snowy space. I just hope Taqqiq really is ashamed of what he did and isn’t leading us into a trap.

  As they plodded along, Toklo stayed alert, stretching all his senses to spot bears creeping up on them through the mist. He saw that Kallik was keeping well away from her brother, still looking very upset. Yakone padded close beside her, his concern clear in the gentle looks he gave her and the way he was talking quietly to her, his words inaudible to Toklo.

  When they set off, Lusa had refused to ride on any bear’s back, and was trudging sturdily along, but Toklo could tell she was exhausted. The injured Shila was just as bad, stumbling as she forced her paws across the ice.

  Toklo halted. “This is ridiculous,” he asserted. “We’re all so tired we can hardly shift our paws. We have to stop and rest.”

  “I can’t,” Shila protested. “My family needs me.”

  “What help do you think you can be to them if you fall over from exhaustion?” Toklo asked.

  Shila held his gaze for a moment more, then reluctantly nodded. “Okay.”

  “Hey, there’s a seal hole over there!” Yakone pointed with his snout. “We can rest here, and Kallik and I will hunt.”

  “Good idea,” Kallik agreed at once. “Come on, Yakone. You others, keep back.”

  She and Yakone padded over to the seal hole and crouched down beside it to wait for a seal to appear. Meanwhile, Toklo helped Shila to settle with her weight off her injured leg, and flopped down in the snow beside her. After a moment, Taqqiq limped across and sat beside them.

  “So, Kallik’s replaced me with a new brother,” he growled with an unfriendly look at Yakone.

  Toklo guessed that Taqqiq felt threatened by the presence of another male white bear in their group. “Er … no,” he said. “I don’t think Yakone wants to be Kallik’s brother.”

  Taqqiq’s eyes widened. He made no comment, but hostility was rising from him as clearly as mist from the surface of a lake. “So,” he went on after a few heartbeats’ silence, “what happened to the weird little brown bear that was with you—what’s his name—Ujurak? Did you finally get tired of following him around?”

  Fury started to swell up inside Toklo, and it took all his self-control to stop himself from giving Taqqiq a blow across the ear. “Ujurak’s dead,” he snapped.

  “Oh … sorry.” Taqqiq blinked in embarrassment, as if that was the last thing he had expected to hear. “I didn’t know, or I’d never—”

  A yelp of alarm from Kallik cut off his words. Whipping his head around, Toklo saw that Kallik had lunged for a rising seal. But as she moved, the ice around the seal hole crumbled away under her weight. Frozen with shock, Toklo watched as Kallik scrabbled vainly at the disintegrating edge of the hole. Yakone grabbed for her, but he was too late, and Kallik, still struggling, slipped down into the sea.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Kallik

  As Kallik plunged down into the water, she tried to push with her paws and thrust herself back up again. But somehow her body wouldn’t obey her. I’m a strong swimmer, she tried to tell herself. But panic was shrieking inside her head.

  All she could think of was that Nisa had died in these waters. Now Kallik was certain that an orca was surging toward her from behind, its jaws gaping to tear her flesh.

  Still she couldn’t move. Black spots bloomed in front of her eyes, and the pale smudge of light that showed her where the seal hole was seemed to dwindle and fade with every heartbeat. She was sinking to the bottom; above her was only the ice, translucent and suffocating.

  A shape swirled in the distance, heading toward her. It is an orca! Kallik felt a moment of pure despair.

  Then she realized that another bear was in the water beside her. At first she thought it was Ujurak in white bear shape, and listened for his voice inside her head. But as her panic eased, she recognized who it really was.

  Taqqiq! He dived in to save me!

  Taqqiq’s body pressed against Kallik’s, urging her up toward the surface. Her fear ebbed as she realized she wasn’t alone, and she began to swim, pushing herself upward through the water.

  Kallik’s head broke the surface, and she gasped in air. Behind her, Taqqiq gave her an enormous shove, boosting her over the edge of the ice, where she lay panting. When Taqqiq tried to pull himself out of the hole, the edge started to crumble away again; Yakone leaned over and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, helping him to haul himself to safety.

  “Are you okay?” Yakone asked Kallik anxiously.

  Kallik nodded, but most of her attention was for Taqqiq. “I remembered how our mother died,” she whispered. “It was like I couldn’t move down there.”

  Taqqiq nodded jerkily. “I feel her here, too,” he responded, his eyes sad as he leaned forward to touch his nose to Kallik’s. “And when I saw you fall through the hole … it was like I was losing you all over again.”

  “And you saved me,” Kallik murmured. “Thank you, Taqqiq.”

  “I couldn’t stand it if you died, too,” Taqqiq told her. “You’re the only family I have.”

  A sea of emotions surged inside Kallik. Taqqiq’s my brother. He saved me—but he stays with Salik and those other fish-breaths. “I know Nisa watches over me,” she murmured. “She watches over you, too.”

  “I know she’d hate to see how I live,” Taqqiq admitted. “But I have no choice. You saw how the ice cracked beside that seal hole,” he added defensively. “It’s breaking up sooner than it ought to. That’s why they—why we—felt we had to claim the territory. There’s not going to be enough ice for every bear.”

  “But that’s no excuse,” Kallik growled, determined not to let Taqqiq get away with justifying what he had done. “There is no reason for terrifying these bears.” She paused, pinning Taqqiq with her gaze until he looked away. “You’re going to help us put things right,” Kallik went on. “First by helping us to find Shila’s family.”

  Taqqiq nodded. “I will, I promise,” he said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Lusa

  Lusa padded across the forest fl
oor. Sunshine angled through the branches of tall, leafy trees, and delicious fruit dangled from vines in front of her watering jaws. She enjoyed the feeling of good, warm dirt under her paws.

  This is great, she thought. So why are my paws and my nose freezing?

  Opening her eyes, Lusa let out a long sigh of resignation, wishing that the dream could continue. But the warmth and the scents of fruit vanished as she woke fully. Instead of wandering through the sunlit forest, she was still stuck on the ice, which was creaking alarmingly around her. Even the white bears were looking worried.

  “Come on,” Kallik said. “It’s time to get moving.”

  The air was gray and misty; Lusa needed a moment before she realized that dawn was breaking. The night before, after Kallik’s plunge into the seal hole, they had huddled together on the ice to sleep. But as Lusa rose to her paws, she still felt exhausted, her muscles aching, and she guessed that the others were suffering in the same way.

  As they started off, Lusa noticed that Taqqiq looked especially tired, haunted, and sad. But she found it hard to feel sympathetic. It’s great that he saved Kallik yesterday, but I can’t forgive him for what he did to the other white bears. It’s no excuse that he and his friends didn’t have enough food.

  Lusa turned away from Taqqiq, not wanting to encourage him to talk to her. Shila clearly didn’t trust him, either: She kept well away from him, on the other side of Toklo. The whole atmosphere was tense and anxious, and Lusa plodded along unhappily.

  Before they had been walking for long, Lusa noticed that Taqqiq was moving very slowly across the ice, often stopping to look around. Lusa still couldn’t see any landmarks, and wondered what Taqqiq had seen that needed studying so intently.

  “Taqqiq, can’t you hurry?” Kallik asked after a while.

  Taqqiq turned to gaze at her. “You want me to get it right, don’t you?” he snapped.

  Kallik let out a hiss of annoyance but said no more. Part of Lusa was glad that Kallik was distracted from fussing over her for the time being.

  As they followed Taqqiq, Lusa spotted some other white bears, watching their progress from a distance. She nudged Toklo. “Look over there.”

  Toklo followed her gaze, then let out a growl, alerting the others. They bunched more tightly together, though the other bears didn’t make any attempt to come closer.

  “They look like a mother bear and two cubs,” Yakone pointed out. “Shila, are they …?”

  “No,” Shila said with a sad shake of her head. “Those cubs are too old to be Pakak and Tonraq.”

  Even though they left the strange bears behind them, Lusa couldn’t shake off the feeling of being watched. She stuck close to Toklo as she slipped and slid over the rutted ice.

  We’ve been walking for ages, she thought, trying not to think about how sore her paws were. Shila’s limping even more from that shoulder injury, and my belly’s aching. Lusa thought longingly of the lush forest of her dream, with plenty of fruit and leaves for the picking. But all around her stretched the misty, inhospitable ice.

  After another long time of trekking with no end in view, Taqqiq paused. Ahead, the ice had broken apart, leaving a broad stretch of open water. Lusa’s heart sank at the prospect of having to swim again.

  I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to be warm!

  But instead of launching himself into the water, Taqqiq veered aside, heading along the edge of the ice.

  “Are you sure we shouldn’t go straight across?” Kallik challenged him.

  Taqqiq turned to look at her. “I don’t think so.”

  Kallik snorted. Lusa could tell she suspected that the ice was changing all the time, and Taqqiq wasn’t certain anymore of where he was going.

  “We’re lost!” Shila exclaimed, her forepaws clawing against the ice. “I’ll never see my family again!”

  “Taqqiq, you promised!” Kallik hissed. “So get on with it.”

  “I’m doing my best!” Taqqiq snapped back at her.

  While the others bickered about which way to go, Lusa flopped down on the ice, taking the chance for a brief rest. The ice creaked and gurgled beneath her, and she put her ear to it, listening.

  Are those the spirits Kallik talks about? Weird! Lusa felt glad that her own ancestors were encased in warm, living trees.

  The other bears were still arguing, so Lusa went on listening to the murmurs. Then she heard a faint scratching sound, like pawsteps. Do spirits walk around inside the ice? Lusa wondered. There it is again.

  Lusa sat up and looked around. A little way off she spotted a pile of snow. For a moment she watched it thoughtfully. I’m pretty sure spirits don’t move around in the ice, she decided. Bear spirits don’t move around in their trees, after all.

  Determinedly she rose to her paws and went to investigate the snow pile. Sniffing around, she found a hole; warm bear scents drifted out of it, and tiny scrapes of paws came from inside.

  Lusa paused, gathering her courage, then poked her nose into the hole.

  Instantly, a furious growl erupted from inside the snow pile. “Get away from my cubs!”

  A she-bear leaped out, sending Lusa tumbling back onto the ice. Lusa braced herself for attack, only to see the she-bear halt as she loomed over her with one paw extended for a blow.

  “What are you?” she asked, her eyes stretching wide in astonishment.

  “I—I’m Lusa,” Lusa stammered. “I’m a black bear.”

  The other bears were gathering around, Toklo in the lead. Then Lusa heard a gasp from behind her.

  “You found them!” Shila exclaimed, her voice full of joy.

  The she-bear backed away from Lusa, jaws gaping. “Shila! Is it really you?” Her voice was happy and astounded all at once, as if she could hardly let herself believe what she was seeing.

  “It really is,” Shila replied, limping up to her mother and pressing herself closely to her side.

  The snow pile heaved again, and two small cubs pushed their way into the open.

  “Shila! Shila!” they squeaked.

  “Pakak! Tonraq!” Shila lowered her head to touch noses with her brothers, who bounced around her, letting out squeals of excitement. They butted their foreheads into her fur and tried to scramble all over her, as if they couldn’t wait to play with her again.

  Lusa scrambled to her paws and shook snow off her pelt. A wave of satisfaction swept through her as she watched Shila’s reunion with her family.

  “I’d given up hope of seeing you again,” Sakari told her daughter. “It’s been so long....”

  “The ice broke up, and I was cut off,” Shila explained. “I had to go to land, and some no-claws caught me and put me in a firebeast. It crashed, and these bears rescued me.”

  Sakari’s wondering gaze turned to Lusa and her friends. Toklo stepped forward. “You’ve met Lusa,” he said. “I’m Toklo, and the white bears are Kallik and Yakone.”

  Sakari dipped her head to them. “Thank you for saving my daughter and bringing her back to me.” Then the joy faded from her face as she realized there was one bear Toklo had not introduced. “I know him,” she growled, glaring at Taqqiq. “He’s one of the bears who destroyed my den and stole the seal I caught.” Bristling with hostility, she turned back to Toklo. “What’s going on?” she demanded. “Is this a trap?”

  It was Kallik who replied. “This is my brother, Taqqiq. He brought us here. He’s sorry for what he did, and he wants to help.”

  “But it was Lusa who found you in the end,” Toklo put in.

  Sakari glanced from Kallik to Taqqiq and back again. Lusa could see she was still very suspicious. “Those bears caused so much trouble,” she said.

  Taqqiq did not respond, only stood a little way off, staring at Sakari sullenly.

  Sakari pointedly turned her back on him. “Where is your family?” she asked Kallik.

  “Taqqiq is the only family I have,” Kallik explained. “My mother, Nisa, died saving me from orca.”

  Sakari drew in her breath s
harply. “You’re young to be out on your own,” she said.

  Kallik exchanged a wry glance with Lusa, who could read her friend’s thoughts, If only Sakari knew how far we’ve traveled!

  “I knew your mother, Nisa, when we were young,” Sakari went on. “It grieves me to hear that she has gone to join the spirits.”

  Lusa felt a stab of sadness that she would never meet bears who had known her family. Ashia and King were so far away from the wild, in the Bear Bowl. Kallik has come home, but I’ll never be able to do the same.

  While her mother talked with Kallik and the others, Shila had been poking around the collapsed den. “There’s hardly room enough for one bear in here, let alone three!” she exclaimed. “We need to build it up again.”

  Sakari shook her head, gently stopping her daughter with a paw on her shoulder. “There’s no point,” she said. “No she-bears build dens for their cubs anymore, because it gives away where they are. You know, to his friends,” she added with a nod toward Taqqiq.

  “That’s terrible!” Shila’s voice was full of dismay. “So you have to live in ruins?”

  “I’ll do anything to keep my cubs safe,” Sakari told her.

  Kallik stepped forward. “Well, that’s going to change,” she asserted. “Taqqiq, you have to tell those bears they can’t keep doing this. They can’t terrorize other bears!”

  “I’ve already told you!” Taqqiq’s anger flared up, though Lusa thought she could make out a trace of fear in his voice. “I can’t change what they do. They think they have good reason for chasing bears away from their prey. How do you think I can stop them?”

  “That’s enough!” Toklo snarled at Taqqiq. “You’re not even going to try to protect other bears from your friends, are you?”

  “What can I do?” Taqqiq repeated, bristling as he faced the brown bear. “They think they’re right to challenge other bears. Even if I was willing to fight them, they outnumber you and your friends.”

  “Hang on.” Lusa felt a twinge of excitement as an idea struck her. “What if they didn’t outnumber us?” Turning to Shila, she went on, “Didn’t you say that Salik and his bears were bullying and harassing all the bears around here? What if they banded together to stand up for themselves and one another?”