The Melting Sea (16 page)

It was Kassuq, jumping up and down and waving his paws at the two male bears.

“No, Kassuq!” Lusa cried, even while she admired the little cub's bravery. “Go and hide, like I told you.”

But it was too late. One of the white males veered over to Kassuq, and Lusa had a horrible vision of him tearing at the cub's flesh with his sharp fangs. Instead, the huge bear thrust his muzzle out at Kassuq, sniffing him curiously, then pushed him back with short jabs of his snout until he was pressed up against the outcrop of rocks where Lusa had hoped to hide.

The second white male padded up to Lusa and Iluq, who was still helplessly stuck. “What have we here?” he rumbled, sniffing at Iluq. “Three cubs?” His cold, beady stare rested on Lusa. “What's wrong with you? You're not a white bear!”

Lusa shoved her way between the white male and Iluq, desperately trying to remember the fighting moves Toklo used when he confronted enemies.
Scratch their noses … go for their eyes and throat … stay out of reach of their paws … Oh, Arcturus, they're so big!
Pushing down her panic, she reared up on her hindpaws, her forepaws splayed out and her claws ready.

“I'm not afraid of you!” she growled.

Before any bear could move, a roar of fury erupted from the pine trees. Lusa glanced over her shoulder to see Toklo and Akna exploding into the open and racing down the shore.

“Get away from my cubs!” Akna snarled, heading for Kassuq.

Toklo thrust Lusa aside to take her place in front of the white male that was menacing Iluq. A fierce flame of battle burned in his eyes. “If you want them, you'll have to come through me first,” he barked.

The male bears swayed backward. Lusa could see that they were still too unsteady for a fight, and not really in the mood to match Toklo's and Akna's aggression.

“We weren't doing anything,” the first bear said, padding over to join his companion. “Keep your fur on.”

“You'll have to move on,” Toklo told them brusquely. “There are other white bears living here.”

The two white males exchanged a glance. Lusa could still feel tension like sharp thorns in her throat, and she knew that as the bears' heads cleared and they recovered from their flight, they could still attack.

“Why do we have to do what
you
say?” one of the white males asked. “You're a brown bear!”

“Yeah,” his companion added.

“
I'm
a white bear,” Akna snapped, padding over with Kassuq hard on her paws. “And I'm telling you to get out of here!”

“We don't want to fight you,” Toklo said. “But we will, if you stay here to make trouble.”

The two white males hesitated, then turned and shambled off along the shore; one of them glanced back to give Toklo a furious glare.

“There's hunting on the ice for now!” Toklo called after them. “Maybe you should look there for food.”

“I can't believe you'd help them after what they did!” Akna exclaimed.

Toklo shrugged. “Better they eat seals than your cubs, right? Lusa, are you okay?” he continued. “I can't believe how brave you were, standing up to those two fish-breathed idiots!”

Lusa had started to shake, really understanding for the first time how easily she and the two cubs could have been torn to pieces. “I'm so sorry, Akna,” she said. “I put your cubs in danger.”

“But you were great,” Toklo insisted. “You held off two bears much bigger than you. If you hadn't, they might have hurt the cubs before Akna and I got here.”

Lusa shook her head, finding it hard to accept Toklo's praise, but wondering if he might be right.
I
did
help save them
. … “I should have gotten the cubs away sooner,” she said.

“It wasn't your fault, Lusa,” Akna responded. “I didn't realize there would be more white bears here. I'll have to be more careful. At least I have you and Toklo to help me look after the cubs.”

Toklo grunted, flashing a sidelong glance at Lusa, but didn't say anything. Lusa guessed he was wondering how long Akna expected them to stick around.

“Please,” Iluq asked plaintively, “could some bear get me out from under this driftwood?”

When Akna had freed her cub, easily heaving aside the boulder that was jamming the wood, the bears headed back to their temporary den at the edge of the pine trees. Kallik and Yakone were there, calling out their names.

“We were so worried about you!” Kallik exclaimed, bounding forward to meet her friends. “We saw the metal bird bringing those other bears.”

“We dealt with them,” Toklo replied. “I sent them farther up the shore.”

“Come and share the seal we caught!” Yakone called.

The cubs ran toward him, while Akna and the others followed more slowly. Lusa saw that Akna looked much more relaxed now.

“It was so hard to find food when we first came ashore,” she said as they settled down to share the seal. “I didn't know where to look, and there were so many other bears, and no-claws everywhere. I'm lucky to have found you,” she finished, tearing hungrily into the seal.

Lusa noticed that Toklo seemed unusually quiet as they ate. When every bear was full, and Akna took her cubs into the shelter of the trees to sleep, Toklo rose to his paws.

“I want to make sure that those bears haven't come back,” he announced.

Kallik and Yakone withdrew to the makeshift den with Akna, but Lusa followed Toklo down the slope.

“We're not going to stay here much longer, are we?” she asked, guessing that Toklo would want to keep going.

“This isn't where our journey ends,” Toklo replied. “It's good to help other bears figure out how to find food on land, but Kallik still has to travel farther on to the Melting Sea. And our homes are still far away.”

Lusa heaved a deep sigh. “I wish we didn't have to leave Kallik and Yakone behind.”

“We always knew it would happen one day,” Toklo pointed out.

“I know, but …” Lusa hesitated, then went on, “If there are trees, we could stay beside the Melting Sea, couldn't we?”

Toklo glanced down at her. “You know we don't belong here,” he told her. “We still have a long way to go.”

Stars glittered above Kallik's head as
she stood on the shore. Behind her, Yakone was sleeping in the makeshift den, along with Akna and her cubs. Farther down the shore, Toklo and Lusa were padding along side by side, Toklo bending his head down to Lusa as they talked.

I think I know what they're talking about
.

Looking up at the stars, Kallik felt comforted by the spirits of her ancestors shining down on her. She knew that Nisa was among them, and remembered how she had seen her mother dancing in rivers of fire above the ice.
“I'm coming home,”
she whispered.

At last Lusa and Toklo turned back toward the trees. Kallik padded out a few paces to meet them. “We leave at dawn?” she asked.

Toklo nodded; there was nothing to discuss. All of them knew that they had to keep moving.

“Akna won't like it,” Kallik commented after a moment, glancing back to where the mother bear was sleeping with her cubs in a heap of white fur.

“Akna will understand eventually,” Toklo said.

For several heartbeats they stood looking at the horizon, where the next stage of their journey lay. Ujurak's stars twinkled icily above the snow-covered landscape.

“The four of us are still together,” Lusa whispered.

Kallik woke as dawn light filtered through the pine trees, and slipped out of the den. Yakone, Toklo, and Lusa were stirring, too, though Akna and her cubs still slept.

Toklo came to stand beside her. “I think you should be the one to break the news to Akna,” he said quietly.

Yakone blundered out of the den, blinking. “What news?”

“We're leaving now,” Toklo told him.

“Why?” Yakone's eyes widened in surprise as he turned to Kallik. “There's food here, on the ice and on the land, and more bears are arriving every day. What if Taqqiq comes?”

A worm of uneasiness gnawed at Kallik's belly, because she knew that Yakone might be right. “I want to go back to the place where I first left the Melting Sea,” she replied. “Even if the ice doesn't last long enough to go out to where Taqqiq and I were born,” she added, desperately hoping that Yakone would understand. “We just have to hope that Taqqiq is still there.”

Yakone bowed his head. “If that's what you want.”

Kallik could see that he was still doubtful. “You have to trust me,” she said.

“I do,” Yakone responded, touching his muzzle gently to her shoulder. “I want to see all the places that you remember. But I'm worried that the ice is breaking up so soon, when burn-sky has hardly begun. I don't want to walk into starvation.

“We have to risk it,” Kallik replied. “I must find Taqqiq.”

A rustle came from the den as Akna rose to her paws, along with drowsy squeaks from the cubs. Kallik turned to her.

“Akna, why don't we go for a walk along the shore?” she suggested, fighting uneasiness at the thought of what she was about to say. “I'll show you the nearest ice floe, where you can go hunting for seals.”

Akna nodded. “Good idea.”

“Can we come?” Iluq asked, bouncing with excitement. “Please?”

“No, not this time,” Lusa told her, emerging from the den and rounding her up with her brother, Kassuq. “You've got to get some practice lifting bigger sticks. There are lots here under the trees. You want to grow big and strong, don't you?”

“And we'll look for black bear spirits!” Kassuq said.

“There's something I have to tell you,” Kallik began when she and Akna were padding along the water's edge. She hesitated and then continued. “We're leaving today.”

“What?” Akna halted, dismay in her eyes. “But how will I survive on my own? What about my cubs?”

“You'll be fine,” Kallik told her, hoping that was true. “Toklo tells me you're getting really good at hunting on land, and soon Iluq and Kassuq will be big enough to help.”

Akna sighed, then gave an understanding nod. “I know the four of you are on a long journey,” she murmured, “and that you haven't reached the end yet. But please—will you hunt with me on the ice just once, before you go?”

Kallik glanced back to where Toklo, Lusa, and Yakone were standing at the edge of the pine trees. She knew that they were waiting to leave, but she also felt that they owed one more hunting expedition to Akna. She had a long, hard burn-sky ahead of her, with two hungry cubs to provide for.

Hoping her friends would understand, Kallik launched herself into the sea with Akna beside her. The pale light of dawn shone on the ruffled water, growing gradually brighter as they swam.

At last Kallik reached an ice floe and scrambled onto it, waiting for Akna to join her. She relished the feeling of ice under her paws, but the floe felt incredibly fragile; the slap and gurgle of the sea was so noisy after the silence and solidity of the Endless Ice. And the ice was disappearing much earlier than when Kallik had been forced onto the shore when the last burn-sky came. This truly was the Melting Sea. The ice—along with Kallik's memories of her mother and Taqqiq—was vanishing into the black water.

“Is this the first time you've been back on land?” she asked Akna as the mother bear shook water out of her pelt.

Akna shook her head. “No, I was born three suncircles ago. I was my mother's only cub then, and I lived with her.... I still see her, and her younger cubs, but every burn-sky they get thinner, and more desperate for food.”

Kallik murmured understanding as she turned and padded away from the edge of the ice floe, beginning to search for a seal hole.

“I had two cubs one suncircle ago,” Akna continued, her voice tight with grief. “But they both died of hunger.”