The Melting Sea (11 page)

“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.

The lid was so tight that Lusa couldn't even smell what was inside. Her paws felt too big and clumsy, and they were still sore from walking so far.

She froze for a moment as she heard louder voices from the den, and a light went on in a gap above her head. But she was so close to food now that she kept on levering at the can lid, thinking of how hungry the other bears were.

The lid flew off unexpectedly, clattering to the ground. A shout came from the den.
They've spotted me!
Not caring about the noise anymore, Lusa tipped the can over and raked through the contents that spilled out over her paws. Her jaws watered as she scented all kinds of tasty things. Grabbing some in her mouth, she turned to flee.

At the same moment, the door of the den swung open, and Lusa found herself facing two snarling dogs. From inside the den the flat-faces shouted encouragement, and a thin beam of yellow light shone out, making Lusa screw up her eyes. She started to back away, still gripping the food in her jaws.

The dogs crept closer, and one of them leaped for Lusa. She had to drop her mouthful and snarl, rearing up and thrashing her forepaws in the air. But the dog kept coming, and Lusa knew she would have to fight. Panicked, she lashed out one paw, striking the dog across its head. It let out a howl of pain but turned faster than she thought possible and snapped at her leg with sharp teeth. Lusa sprang backward, pulling her leg free, but now the second dog was upon her, leaping up and trying to close its jaws on her throat.

Lusa tried to remember how Toklo would fight.
Duck away … now twist … strike that dog on its shoulder … snap at the other … whirl and strike again
. But she didn't have Toklo's strength and skill, and she couldn't fight both dogs at once. She felt teeth meet her ear and let out a squeal of pain as she swung her head around with the dog still holding on. It didn't let go until she slammed it against the wall of the den. Blood began to run into her eyes so she couldn't see clearly.

Then Lusa heard another snarl and a deep-throated barking.
Another dog!
She closed her eyes and tried to picture her mother and father and her friends in the Bear Bowl. But all she could see was Toklo and Kallik and Yakone, searching endlessly for her, blaming themselves for letting her sneak off alone.

“I'm so sorry,” she whispered.

The deep-throated bark sounded beside her ear, and Lusa braced herself for pain. She could hear vicious snarling and snapping—but felt nothing.

Am I dead already?

Opening her eyes, Lusa gaped in astonishment. There was a battle going on! A third dog was fighting the others, snapping at first one and then the other, darting out of range before they could retaliate.

New energy flowed into Lusa, and she sprang to fight alongside her new ally, not asking herself where he had come from. Together they beat the other two dogs back toward the door of the den. The flat-faces took them in and they vanished, whining, their tails drooping.

The third dog turned to face Lusa. “Come on,” he said in a familiar voice.

Lusa drew in a breath of pure astonishment. “Ujurak!”

Without saying any more, the lean brown Ujurak-dog began to lead the way back through the flat-face dens. Lusa ran behind. Her wounds were still hurting badly, but she felt desperately glad to be alive.

Once they were well away from the dens, the lights receding into the distance, Ujurak halted. “Are you okay?” he asked, giving Lusa's wounded ear a lick with his long pink tongue. He nosed down her sides, checking her injuries. “There's an herb you can use,” he told her. “It grows close to the ground, with narrow, grayish leaves. You'll find it beside streams, under the soil. It has a bitter taste, but it should take the pain away and help the wounds heal.”