The Melting Sea (12 page)

His slightly frantic tone told Lusa how worried he was. She took a pace back to stop his desperate examination of her injuries. “I'm fine, really,” she assured him. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

Ujurak's expression grew somber. “You shouldn't have been there,” he said. “Bears don't need flat-face food! Didn't you learn that from our journey? You can find your own food now, you and all the other bears.”

Lusa backed away even farther, shocked by how stern Ujurak sounded. “Okay, I'm sorry,” she said. “I just wanted to help the others.”

Ujurak's voice softened. “You can help by finding leaves they can eat and signs of prey. You won't help them if you go off and get attacked by dogs.”

Lusa nodded. “I know.”

She followed Ujurak as he led her back across the plain, halting when the pile of grass and sticks came into sight.

“Come with me,” she begged Ujurak. “Kallik and Toklo will be so happy to see you!”

Ujurak shook his head, making his long, thin ears flap. “No, not like this,” he said. “I am with you all, always. Remember that.”

Lusa let out a long sigh. She wanted Ujurak to be with them in his old bear shape, just as he had been on their first journey, but she knew that was impossible now. “Good-bye, Ujurak,” she said. “And thank you so much.”

“Good-bye.” Ujurak touched his wet nose to Lusa's ear. “We will meet again.”

Reluctantly Lusa turned away and limped toward the pile of sticks where her friends were sleeping. When she looked back, there was no sign of the dog, and no pawprints in the snow where it had walked.

“Don't leave us, Ujurak,” she whispered into the air.

Kallik sprang to her paws, shaking
, as a roar sounded close to her ear. Sleep still clung to her, and it took her a moment to realize the fearsome sound had come from Toklo. “What's happening?” she asked.

“Wake up, Kallik. It's Lusa.” Toklo was standing by the pile of sticks with Lusa beside him. “Look at her—she's covered in blood!”

Morning had come while Kallik slept, though the sun was hidden behind clouds. The ground was covered with wisps of white mist. Through them Kallik stared at Lusa; her fur was matted with blood, and one of her ears was torn. The tang of blood hit Kallik's throat. “Lusa, what happened?” she gasped.

“I tried to find some food by the flat-face dens,” Lusa explained, her head bowed miserably. “You know, like we used to. But the flat-faces sent dogs to attack me.”

“I'll mangle them!” Toklo exclaimed, tensing his muscles as if he was about to dash off across the plain. “I'll spread their guts from here to the Melting Sea!”

“No!” Lusa stood in front of Toklo, blocking him. “Ujurak came in the shape of a dog, and he helped me to fight them off.”

“Ujurak!” Toklo's eyes lit up. “He's here?” Calling Ujurak's name, he ran out onto the plain.

Kallik chased after him, with Lusa by her side and Yakone, just struggling out of sleep, bringing up the rear.

“Toklo, wait!” Lusa called. “He isn't here anymore.”

Toklo halted and turned back. Sympathy pierced Kallik like a thorn as she saw his downcast expression. “Why didn't he stay?” Toklo asked angrily. “He didn't even say good-bye!”

Lusa padded up to him and reached up to touch his shoulder with her muzzle. “He wants you to know that he's always with us,” she said.

Toklo grunted. “It's not the same.” Hesitating, he added more fiercely, “Do you promise you're telling the truth?”

Lusa drew in a shocked breath. “Of course! Ujurak is watching over us all,” she insisted. “But I was the one who got into trouble and needed his help.”

Yakone nudged Kallik and drew her a little ways away. “Do you believe Lusa?” he asked.

“Of course I do,” Kallik replied. “Ujurak would never abandon us.”

Yakone looked doubtful. “He wasn't there when the no-claws chased us on their pawsticks.”

“We saved ourselves that time, didn't we?” Kallik retorted, determined not to hear a word said against Ujurak.

Yakone sighed, nodding. “I know how important Ujurak was to you. I liked him too. I just don't want you to put yourself in danger because you think he'll save you every time.”

“I won't,” Kallik promised.
And I hope the others won't either
, she added silently to herself.

Toklo padded back to the white bears with Lusa limping by his side. “It's time we headed for the Melting Sea,” he announced.

“We can't,” Kallik objected. “Lusa needs to rest.”

Toklo glanced at Lusa, clearly realizing that Kallik was right, though he said nothing.

“We need food, too,” Yakone pointed out, “or none of us will be strong enough to travel. Look, suppose Kallik and I—”

“I told you before, we're not splitting up,” Toklo interrupted, a trace of aggressiveness in his tone. “Come on, Lusa, I'll carry you.”

Lusa looked embarrassed, but she didn't object as Kallik gave her a boost onto Toklo's shoulders. “I'll be fine soon,” she insisted, “and maybe you could find this herb that Ujurak told me about. He says it grows beside streams under the snow and will help me feel better.”

“What does it look like?” Yakone asked.

“It's a low-growing plant, with narrow, grayish leaves,” Lusa told him, remembering how Ujurak had described it.

“Sure, we'll find that for you,” Yakone promised. “Come on, Kallik. Let's look.”

“Just don't go wandering off and get lost,” Toklo warned them.

“We won't,” Kallik assured him as she followed Yakone, glad that there was something she could do for Lusa.

Yakone halted when they had padded several bearlengths away from Toklo and Lusa. “We have to find a stream running through the snow. Do you know how to do that?”

“You're the expert,” Kallik replied.

“But you're learning.” Yakone's eyes were filled with amused affection. “Try to show me what you know.”

“Okay.” Kallik raised her head and tried to pick up the scent of running water, but the scent of snow, firebeasts, and the distant salt tang of the Melting Sea drowned out anything else she might have smelled.

So I need to look at the surface of the snow. There have to be signs...
.

Glancing at Yakone, she padded forward, keeping pace with the distant Toklo, who was trudging onward with Lusa on his shoulders. At first she thought the ground all looked the same under its covering of snow, except for humps that meant there were buried rocks or bushes.

Yakone was watching her expectantly, and Kallik realized that he had already spotted what they were looking for.
He knows I can find it
, she thought with a twinge of excitement.

Beginning to enjoy the puzzle, Kallik scanned the ground more carefully. At length she noticed that some of the humps in the snow formed a curving line.
Bushes often grow on the banks of a stream
… Beyond the humps was a swath of flat snow, about a bearlength wide, smoother than the surrounding ground and following the same curve.

“Over there!” she exclaimed, pointing with her muzzle.

Yakone nodded and let Kallik take the lead as the two white bears raced toward the frozen stream. Kallik pushed through the line of bushes, dislodging snow from their branches, and began scraping away at the water's edge.

At first she only found grass, and some small plants with round, dark leaves that obviously weren't what Lusa needed. Yakone was searching on the opposite bank, but he hadn't found anything either.

Suddenly worried that they might lose Toklo and Lusa, Kallik glanced up. Her friends were still visible in the distance; the brown bear had halted and let Lusa slide to the ground, where she sat slumped in a heap. The sight of Lusa so obviously miserable made Kallik search even harder. Her paws thrust the snow aside, and eventually she found the plant she needed, straggling over stones at the very edge of the stream. It had the grayish leaves Lusa had described, and a sharp, pleasant scent.

“I think I've found it!” she told Yakone.

He came to join her and bent his head to sniff the plant. “That looks like it,” he commented. “Let's take some to Lusa.”

Very carefully, so as not to crush the juices from the leaves, Kallik picked several of the stems and bounded back across the snow with them gripped firmly in her jaws.

“Here!” she exclaimed, coming to a halt by Lusa's side. “Are these right?”

Lusa raised her head, her eyes weary and pain-filled. “They look right,” she said, giving the leaves a cautious sniff. “And they smell good. Thanks, Kallik.”

“You took your time,” Toklo remarked impatiently while Lusa chewed up the herbs.

“Well, that's how long it took!” Kallik retorted, fed up with Toklo's grumpiness.

Before Toklo could say any more, Yakone interposed, “Anyway, we can get going now. Lusa, do you want to ride on my back?”

“
I'll
carry Lusa,” Toklo insisted with a glare, crouching down to let the small black bear scramble onto his shoulders.

As they plodded on across the plain, Kallik could see that the herbs were working for Lusa; she visibly relaxed as the pain ebbed, and finally sank into a doze as she lay splayed out on Toklo's back. She didn't even wake when they had to cross a couple of small BlackPaths, and only stirred uneasily as they skirted a no-claw den where a couple of dogs were barking.

“I wonder if those are the dogs Lusa had to fight,” Kallik murmured to Yakone.

“I've no idea. We'd best stay well away from them to be on the safe side.”

The sun was sliding toward the horizon by the time that Lusa woke up. She looked much brighter and more alert, sitting bolt upright on Toklo's back. “Look over there!” she whispered after a few moments. “Aren't those tracks in the snow?”

Kallik looked where Lusa was pointing. At once she spotted the pawprints, leading in a straight line toward a clump of bushes several bearlengths away.

Toklo bent his head to sniff. “A snow hare,” he said. “And the tracks are fresh. Come on, Yakone.”

Lusa slid down from Toklo's back, and the two males set out, creeping cautiously toward the bushes. Meanwhile Lusa started to dig down into the snow. Kallik could see that her legs were still stiff and her paws painful after the fight; she was too clumsy to dig effectively.

Kallik crouched down beside her and began to help, thrusting the snow aside until she uncovered some plants.

“Thanks.” Lusa tore off a mouthful of leaves and chewed. “I'm sorry, Kallik,” she went on. “It was stupid of me to go off on my own like that.”

“It's okay,” Kallik told her, giving her a friendly touch on the ear with the tip of her muzzle. “You were very brave....”

Her voice trailed off, but Lusa seemed to understand what Kallik hadn't wanted to say and finished Kallik's thought. “One day, I'll be on my own all the time.”

Kallik felt a stab of sadness. “I'll miss you, Lusa,” she whispered.

“I'll miss you, too,” Lusa responded.

A sudden shriek broke the silence between them. Kallik looked up to see a scuffle in the snow where Toklo and Yakone had gone to stalk the hare. A moment later Yakone straightened up with the white body of a hare dangling from his jaws.

“They got it!” Kallik exclaimed.

With Toklo hard on his paws, Yakone returned and dropped the hare beside Kallik. “It's a big one,” he said. “And we wouldn't have caught it if you hadn't spotted the tracks, Lusa.”

Lusa's eyes shone at his praise.

By the time Toklo, Kallik, and Yakone had shared out the prey, the sun had gone down. With no obvious denning place in sight, Kallik and Yakone piled up the snow to make a windbreak, and all four bears settled down in its shelter.

Kallik dreamed of wind scouring across the ice, and woke in the cold light of dawn to see Yakone standing at the top of the hollow, staring at the horizon. Careful not to disturb the sleeping Toklo and Lusa, Kallik scrambled up to join him.