The Melting Sea
Authors: Erin Hunter
ERIN
HUNTER
Special thanks to Cherith Baldry
Excerpt from Seekers: Return to the Wild #3: River of Lost Bears
Toklo
Toklo's paws churned up snow as
he hurtled across the ground, ice clogging his belly hair. He could feel his heart pounding. His breath came in hot gasps.
Glancing over his shoulder, Toklo saw Kallik on his tail. A wild light shone in her eyes as she pounded along. Yakone was racing after her shoulder, less than a snout-length behind. Forcing his aching legs to move even faster, Toklo faced forward again. A steep, rocky outcrop loomed up in front of him.
If I can only reach that
⦠he thought.
Somewhere behind him he heard Lusa stumble and let out a yelp that was quickly muffled by snow. Toklo was sure the small black bear had fallen into a drift, but he didn't stop or even look back.
Lusa will have to look after herself. I need to keep going
.
One set of the thundering pawsteps behind Toklo halted, and he realized that Yakone had dropped back to help Lusa.
The rocky outcrop was just ahead. With a mighty leap, Toklo flung himself at the lowest ledge, but his paws slipped on the icy surface and he fell back, rolling over in the snow in a tangle of flailing legs.
Kallik sprinted past him and sprang onto the rock, scrambling to the summit and sending a shower of yet more snow down onto Toklo.
“I won!” she roared.
Toklo hauled himself to his paws, shaking clotted snow out of his fur. “No, you didn't,” he retorted, annoyance welling up inside him. “I got to the rock first. It's not my fault my paw slipped.”
“First to the top of the rock, that's what we said.” Kallik slid down to join him, giving him a friendly poke with her snout. “Don't be a sore loser.”
Toklo just grunted. He was angry with himself more than with Kallik.
I
should
have won! If I'd just been a bit more careful â¦
“Well done, Kallik!” Yakone called as he came puffing up with Lusa. “You're really fast. You too, Toklo.”
“Thanks for checking on meânot!” Lusa added.
Toklo stifled a snort of amusement as he looked at the little black bear. She was covered in snow; even her ears were filled with it. “I know how much you like falling into snowdrifts,” he said to her. “Besides, it could have been a trick to make me slow down.”
Lusa shook her head from side to side, trying to dislodge the snow from her ears. “I never had a chance of winning,” she murmured sadly. “My legs are so short.”
Seeing her beginning to shiver, Toklo padded over to her and started to lick the snow out of her ears. “Cheer up,” he comforted her. “You'd win in a tree-climbing race.”
“I'm not sure I would.” Lusa looked dejected. “I'm so out of practice. I can't remember the last time we saw a real tree!”
“True,” Kallik agreed. “There's not much of anything on this island, and it seems to just go on forever. Are you
sure
this is the right way to the sea?”
“This is the way Nanulak's family told us to go,” Toklo replied.
“And we trust them?” Yakone muttered. “After what Nanulak did?”
Yakone's words revived the pain of betrayal, as sharp as a thorn piercing Toklo's heart. He had believed that Nanulak was his friend, that he could teach and take care of the young bear just as he had taken care of Ujurak.
But all Nanulak wanted was to use me, to get revenge on his family
.
The memory of Nanulak's father flashed into Toklo's mind so vividly that he almost thought that the huge white bear was looming over him. He saw blood patching the bear's white fur, and remembered the pain of his own wounds.
I could have killed him because Nanulak lied to me. How could I have been so wrong about Nanulak?
Kallik gave Toklo a gentle nudge, drawing him away from his hurtful memories. “Why don't we hunt?” she suggested. “It won't be light for much longer.” Her eyes gleamed with amusement as she added, “I won the race, so I think you should all bring food for me!”
“In your dreams!” Toklo exclaimed, relieved that she hadn't mentioned Nanulak. He gave her a harder nudge in return. “You're so fast, you should be the one chasing prey!”
Toklo took the lead again as the bears headed onward, making for the crest of a low range of hills that lay across their path. His belly was bawling with hunger, but so far there was no sign of any prey. Snow-covered slopes rolled into the distance on every side, broken occasionally by jutting rocks or a few stunted thorn trees. For days they had been heading toward the setting sun, meeting scarcely any other bears. Even traces of flat-faces were rare in this desolate landscape: only the occasional small den, or thin tower poking into the sky.
Pushing the thought of Nanulak to the back of his mind, Toklo tried to relax and enjoy the company of his friends. The race had been fun, even though he had lost. Yakone, the reddish-pelted white bear they had met on Star Island, was settling into the group. And they had directions now that would take them to a narrow stretch of sea that divided this island from the mainland. Everything was looking good.
But the parting that was soon to come nagged at Toklo's mind like a rough pieces of ice between his toes. The whole point of this journey was to reach the Melting Sea, where Kallik and Yakone would stay with the other white bears who made their homes there. The little family they had created through so many difficulties and dangers would be broken up. Soon Lusa, too, would find bears like herself and live with them among the trees that were her true home.
If only Nanulak â¦
Toklo cut off the thought, stifling a sigh. Everything seemed to lead back to Nanulak. Once Toklo had believed that he would build a new life with the young mixed bear, living in adjoining territories so that he could teach Nanulak the ways of brown bears.