Polar Distress

by Sheila Grau

  “The tide is out,” she said. “The monster is gone. Come here.”

  She dumped everything off the sled, then motioned for me to help her lower it into the hole. The sled had a slat-like base, like a ladder.

  “We must be quick,” she said, climbing down the ladder.

  I was thinking this might be a one-person job and that I could wait up here and not enter that hole of doom. But Alasie had another idea.

  “You hold the flashlight; I hold the weapons.” She’d reached the bottom. “Come on—hurry.”

  I climbed down and landed in a shallow layer of water. It was dark under the roof of ice. I shivered, thinking that a giant tentacle could reach through the darkness and grab me. It was so eerie and quiet. No longer was the wind howling past my ears, but there were other sounds: drips and creaks that echoed in the enclosed space. I thought I heard something that sounded like a moan.

  “This way,” Alasie said. She started off, ducking under a low swoop of the ice roof.

  If my heart wasn’t hammering in my chest with panic, I might have taken a moment to think, “Wow, I’m walking on the ocean floor, beneath a roof of ice. This is so cool.” Instead, all I could think about was how we needed to get out of there as quickly as possible.

  The ice that was flat on the surface above drooped down on us when we were below, like when you build a blanket fort and the blankets aren’t tight. Some of the drooping parts reached the sea floor, creating walls of ice that looked so smooth and shiny in the beam of the flashlight. Alasie followed a narrow passageway that curved between the bulges. Wider passageways split off in all directions.

  “We have to hurry,” she said, “before the tide comes back.”

  Every sound made me jump with fear. Clicks and cracks echoed in the tight space. I stayed as close to Alasie as I could.

  “The people who gather mussels here must be very brave,” I said.

  “They are. I love the people here. So brave and strong and kind. They are the only ones who stand up to the white woman. I don’t want to leave. That’s why you taking the blame meant so much to me.”

  Little pools of deeper water dotted the ground. We made our way around them to reach a dark cave. I let Alasie go in first. She pulled herself up the steep slope while I shined the flashlight ahead of her. Then I tossed it up to her, and she scanned the cave with it. She turned and nodded for me to come up, which I did in a flash, because I was terrified of what might be waiting in the darkness behind me.

  I crawled in next to Alasie and looked at the wide cave. The ceiling was low, claustrophobically low.

  The container that Alasie’s people had used to store the rocks sat in the back of the cave. It had toppled on its side, and the rocks had spilled out. “Let’s grab some and go,” I said.

  “Take them all,” Alasie said.

  “Really?”

  “Yes, I’ll tell them I gave you some and the tentacle beast took the rest.”

  It took a few minutes to transfer the rocks to my backpack. My pack was heavy, but it felt great. Professor Murphy was going to faint with shock! Rufus would hang his head in shame! The guys were going to be so happy! And not only that, but this had to be enough for us to catch up with Dr. Pravus.

  I couldn’t believe how amazing this was, how awesome I felt. I bumped into Alasie, who had stopped at the entrance to the cave.

  “Let’s move,” she said. “The tide’s coming back in.” It was true, a thin layer of water had snuck in to cover the ocean floor while we were inside. “Come, hurry!”

  She left with the flashlight, and the darkness in the cave immediately smothered me. I watched the bobbing light disappear around a drooping wall of ice as she ran for the ladder.

  I knew that if the water was coming back, something else was probably coming with it. Panic squeezed me tight as I hustled after Alasie. I couldn’t lose her down here or I’d be stuck in the darkness with a homicidal giant squid.

  “Alasie! Wait for me!”

  I splashed through water, the roof of ice creaking above my head. I followed what I thought was the twisty path we’d taken to the cave, but things looked so different coming from the opposite direction. Alasie had heard me, though, and she turned around to shine the light. Once I caught up, she shined the flashlight forward. It was such a relief to see the ladder, hanging in its spotlight of sunlight coming through the hole.

  But then I had to rub my eyes because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

  The ladder was moving. Somebody, or something, was lifting it out of the hole.

  Most mussel hunters post a lookout to watch for the returning tide.

  —OOPS

  The water was creeping up around my boots. We splashed through it toward the ladder, which zipped up out of reach just as we got there.

  “Oh, hey—look who it is,” Rufus said as he shined his flashlight beneath the ice. “I knew you were up to something.”

  “Rufus, put the ladder back,” I said. “The water’s getting higher.” I thought I heard some splashes coming toward us in the darkness.

  “Toss up your backpack first,” he said.

  I shook my head, grabbing the straps a little tighter. “Rufus, there’s a monster down here! Put the ladder back!”

  “Toss up the pack, and I’ll put the ladder back.”

  I looked at Alasie. She shook her head and said, “We could go back to the cave and stay there until the tide goes out again, but this hole will freeze over. We’ll be stuck down here.”

  I didn’t want Rufus to take the sudithium, but I was not going to stay down here waiting for that tentacled monster to grab me. I heaved the backpack out. Rufus put the ladder back.

  I climbed out and saw Rufus and Jud huddled over my opened pack. The sky had grown darker, and the wind was whipping up loose snow and ice, making it hard to see very far.

  “I knew these villagers were hiding something!” Rufus said. He lifted a handful of rocks out of the bag. Out in the open, I could see how green they were.

  “They’re mine,” I said as I climbed out. “I found them.”

  “Yeah, sure you did!” Rufus yelled over the wind. “Nobody’s going to believe that. It’s just so easy to outsmart you, Runt.” He stood up and laughed. “So easy! Come on, Jud. Let’s go show Professor Murphy what I found.”

  A thunderous rumble filled the air. It felt like the stormy skies were echoing my rage at Rufus, but it wasn’t the approaching storm. Two snowmobiles rounded the far edge of the cliffs. The riders were wearing red parkas.

  “The Pravus team,” Rufus said. He smacked Jud. “You said they weren’t following us!”

  “They weren’t,” he said. “They followed Lapso, like we planned.”

  “It’s that useless tree girl,” Rufus said. He turned to me. “Your traitorous ex-BFF has ratted us out! She’s their lookout in the cliffs. She must have seen us ride over here. Let’s go!”

  Rufus and Jud jumped on their snowmobile and sped off, but the Pravus snowmobiles were closing fast. Alasie and I watched the chase as we hustled back to our own snowmobile.

  Rufus and Jud were getting farther and farther away. The snowmobiles following them seemed to slow down. From behind I could tell that they weren’t trying to catch Rufus and Jud; instead, they were herding them. Rufus and Jud didn’t seem to realize it. They kept speeding straight for the gap in the mountains that would take them back to camp. It was a narrow gap, the perfect place for a—

  “Trap!” I screamed, but it was useless. Between the roar of the engines and the rush of wind, my words never reached them.

  Just as they entered the gap, a giant net sprang up out of the snow. It must have been a really strong net, because Rufus’s snow-mobile didn’t bust through. The Pravus snowmobiles approached carefully from behind, and so did we.

  We watched as the Pravus trolls, who’d been waiting by the net, wrapped up their prize. Rufus and Jud were now completely trapped. They morphed into werewolves, using their teeth and claws to try a
nd free themselves from the net. Unfortunately, when they did this, they no longer had hands with which to hold onto the sudithium-filled backpack, and while they struggled with the net, a member of the Pravus team managed to grab the backpack from beneath the net while the others distracted Rufus and Jud.

  Victus.

  Now stupid Victus had the backpack of sudithium. I was sure he was smirking beneath all those layers covering his face.

  The two Pravus snowmobiles edged slowly around the squirming net. Victus jumped on the back of one snowmobile, and they took off through the gap, leaving my classmates struggling to get free. Alasie and I quickly pulled the net off Rufus and Jud before we chased after the Pravus team. Rufus and Jud, unable to remorph into humans because their clothes had been shredded, ran after us.

  “We have to stop them!” I told Alasie.

  Rufus stealing the sudithium was bad, but the Pravus team getting it was a complete disaster. I couldn’t believe that Syke would betray us like that, but when I looked to the mountain, it made sense that she’d been the one who had spotted us, or had spotted Rufus and Jud, and sent the Pravus team after us. If my heart hadn’t already been in pieces after losing the sudithium, it would’ve been shattered by that betrayal.

  The snowmobiles had to slow down as they edged around crevices in the ice, but soon they’d hit the land and be able to zip away. And even if we caught Victus—then what? How could Alasie and I take on two snowmobiles and four Pravus minions? On the Vlag-whatever scale, we were clearly out-monstered.

  Make that the whole team of Pravus minions, because as we approached land, I saw one of their big black snow vans coming our way. It was easy to spot, an SUV-type car churning up snow with its rolling track.

  What wasn’t easy to see was the white jaguar crouching on the ice. I didn’t even see Meztli until he sprang. He crashed into Victus with enough force to throw him from the snowmobile.

  Frankie popped up next, shaking off the snow he’d covered himself with. He ran straight for the SUV and knocked it on its side. Then he ran to help Meztli with the trolls on the snowmobiles.

  “Grab my backpack!” I yelled at Meztli. He looked at me, gave me a short nod, then stared at Victus, who was hiding behind the trolls, clutching the backpack.

  Frankie lifted one of the snowmobiles—with the troll still on it!—and threw it across the ice and into one of the crevasses. He charged the next troll while Meztli closed in on Victus and tore the backpack from his grip.

  Other Pravus team members tried to climb out of the sideways van, but they took one look at Frankie, who now held Victus’s snowmobile over his head, and ducked back inside.

  “Take my backpack to camp!” I yelled at Meztli, and he took off. Frankie and Alasie and I stood ready to keep the Pravus team from following. I felt good, because their snow transport wasn’t going anywhere, stuck on its side, and Frankie had broken both snowmobiles by throwing them. I relaxed, knowing we had this covered.

  But then I saw Jud and Rufus racing after Meztli. Meztli was probably faster, but he was slowed down by the heavy backpack.

  Frankie saw it too. He jumped on the back of the snowmobile, behind me and Alasie, and we took off after the rest of my team.

  We made it back to camp and through the electrified fence. Meztli, Jud, and Rufus got there before us, because the snowmobile wasn’t as fast over the rough terrain. I headed for Professor Murphy’s hut.

  Rufus and Jud were with him, smiling wide because Professor Murphy was holding a backpack filled with sudithium.

  “This is incredible, Rufus!” he shouted. “More than I thought we’d ever get!” He jumped up to hug Rufus.

  That was my hug. Rufus had stolen everything from me—the sudithium, the credit, and the hug.

  “Runt, what are you still doing here?” Professor Murphy said. He wasn’t even angry with me—that’s how happy he was to have the sudithium.

  “That’s my backpack,” I said, pointing. “I’m the one who found all that sudithium. Alasie, the yeti girl you hired to be my babysitter, showed me where it was after I took the blame for waking Amaruq.”

  “Pathetic,” Rufus said. “Always trying to take credit for other people’s achievements.”

  Professor Murphy waved a hand. “Right now we have to get this out of here—fast. Before the Pravus team gets back. We have to split it up. I’ll head for the hangar with Frankie and Meztli for protection. Rufus, I want you, Jud, and Lapso to take a snowmobile south to the next town and see if you can catch a dragon from there.”

  “What’s the third plan?” I asked. I knew that Professor Murphy would follow Dr. Critchlore’s motto: Always have at least three plans.

  “I was going to send a team to the icebreaker waiting in the open water,” he said. “It’s positioned at the edge of the floe, just past the iceberg, but Rufus told me we’ve lost a snowmobile.”

  “I’ll take it,” I said. “Alasie, can you kite-ski me past that iceberg?”

  She nodded.

  Professor Murphy looked doubtful.

  “Let him go—but don’t give him any sudithium,” Rufus said. “He’ll make a good distraction, because Syke will see him from her spying spot. They won’t be able to chase all of us, because we’ve destroyed two of their snowmobiles and one transport.”

  “We?” I said, because now he was taking credit for Frankie’s work.

  Professor Murphy ignored me and divided the sudithium into three bags. He handed one to Rufus. “Go,” he said. Then he handed one to me. “You never know.” He shrugged.

  “Alasie? Where’s your kite-ski?”

  “We keep it in a shed by the edge of town.”

  At the sound of Alasie’s voice, Meztli’s gaze shot over to me and his jaw dropped open. I wiggled my eyebrows in victory and laughed. He shook his head, mouthing, “You win.”

  I looked at my friends. “Good luck, guys. And thanks for coming after me.”

  “We saw Rufus take off and knew he was up to no good,” Frankie said. “We had no idea the Pravus team was going to be there too.”

  “Let’s get moving,”

  Professor Murphy said, and we ran outside. Professor Murphy, Frankie, and Mez raced for the van. Rufus and Jud were already far away, zipping along on the snowmobile. Two Pravus snowmobiles peeled out of their camp to follow.

  Professor Murphy sped off before the van doors were shut.

  Alasie and I headed for the ice, where a shed held the kite-skiing supplies. She unfurled her kite, attached the safety harness around her waist, and hooked the kite to the harness. She put on goggles and boots, then clipped the boots onto her skis. I climbed on her back, wearing the backpack with my bag of sudithium, and we took off. The gusting wind yanked us forward. I clung to her shoulders, trying to not get bounced off as we sped over clumps of snow.

  “Hang on!” Alasie yelled. She held on to a bar, which she used to steer the kite, guiding us toward the smoother ice of the bay. As we neared it, we saw three Pravus snowmobiles moving to cut us off. It seemed like each Pravus kid had his own snowmobile. Jerks. Alasie turned the kite to catch more wind, and we picked up speed, swooping ahead of them.

  The snowmobiles followed, and even though the wind was strong, they were faster. One got ahead of us, and the rider pulled out a knife. He was going to try and cut the kite free, but as he swerved toward us, Alasie pulled back on the harness and we went airborne over him. We landed and zipped off, heading for the iceberg.

  The snowmobiles closed in from both sides. One raced ahead of us, and I thought he was going to try to cut us off, but instead, he splattered a can of orange paint all over us.

  I covered my eyes before the paint hit, so my goggles remained clear. Alasie couldn’t do the same, and now she couldn’t see through the paint. We jerked around a bit as she used one furry arm to clear her goggles.

  We were nearing the iceberg. It looked like that giant fist was going to punch us hard. The wind roared in my ears. I held on, hoping Alasie could see. A Pravus snowmob
ile zipped in front of us again.

  “Alasie!” I screamed.

  Again she pulled back on the bar and we were airborne. We went higher this time, terrifyingly high. The wind was fierce and unpredictable, and I knew we could crash to the ice easily.

  But then I felt something grab me from behind and yank me off Alasie’s back.

  “Alasie!” I yelled. She turned and screamed.

  I was being lifted away by the giant gyrfalcon.

  “Giant gyrfalcons are lactose-intolerant. If one grabs you, try to look like a block of cheese.”

  —GUIDEBOOK TO UPPER WORB

  “Hey, there, buddy,” I said. “Thanks for the lift. You can put me down by that ship over there.”

  A part of me was hoping that this majestic bird had decided to save me from the Pravus kids. But then I realized, as we rose higher and higher, that she was planning on feeding me to her chicks.

  She dropped me into her nest, right next to the sleeping babies. There were three of them, each one as big as me, with sharp beaks and claws. The mother’s twitchy head looked from them to me, as if she was wondering whether to wake them up or not. Realizing I couldn’t go anywhere, she left to get more food.

  I was high up—really high up. I could see everything—the bay, the hangar, the crater, even the gap in the cliffs where Alasie and I had gone. No wonder Syke had positioned herself here as lookout.

  Syke! She had to be nearby.

  “SYKE!” I screamed.

  A head appeared above me, leaning over the cliff.

  “Syke! Help me!”

  She disappeared. I saw a rope fly over the edge of the cliff and dangle just out of my reach. Syke’s body followed, as she rappelled down the cliff face. She dropped into the nest just as the baby birds were waking up.

  “Thank goodness,” I said. “Can you get us out of here?”