The Melting Sea (26 page)

“Taqqiq, can't you hurry?” Kallik asked after a while.

Taqqiq turned to gaze at her. “You want me to get it right, don't you?” he snapped.

Kallik let out a hiss of annoyance but said no more. Part of Lusa was glad that Kallik was distracted from fussing over her for the time being.

As they followed Taqqiq, Lusa spotted some other white bears, watching their progress from a distance. She nudged Toklo. “Look over there.”

Toklo followed her gaze, then let out a growl, alerting the others. They bunched more tightly together, though the other bears didn't make any attempt to come closer.

“They look like a mother bear and two cubs,” Yakone pointed out. “Shila, are they …?”

“No,” Shila said with a sad shake of her head. “Those cubs are too old to be Pakak and Tonraq.”

Even though they left the strange bears behind them, Lusa couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched. She stuck close to Toklo as she slipped and slid over the rutted ice.

We've been walking for ages
, she thought, trying not to think about how sore her paws were.
Shila's limping even more from that shoulder injury, and my belly's aching
. Lusa thought longingly of the lush forest of her dream, with plenty of fruit and leaves for the picking. But all around her stretched the misty, inhospitable ice.

After another long time of trekking with no end in view, Taqqiq paused. Ahead, the ice had broken apart, leaving a broad stretch of open water. Lusa's heart sank at the prospect of having to swim again.

I've almost forgotten what it's like to be warm!

But instead of launching himself into the water, Taqqiq veered aside, heading along the edge of the ice.

“Are you sure we shouldn't go straight across?” Kallik challenged him.

Taqqiq turned to look at her. “I don't think so.”

Kallik snorted. Lusa could tell she suspected that the ice was changing all the time, and Taqqiq wasn't certain anymore of where he was going.

“We're lost!” Shila exclaimed, her forepaws clawing against the ice. “I'll never see my family again!”

“Taqqiq, you promised!” Kallik hissed. “So get on with it.”

“I'm doing my best!” Taqqiq snapped back at her.

While the others bickered about which way to go, Lusa flopped down on the ice, taking the chance for a brief rest. The ice creaked and gurgled beneath her, and she put her ear to it, listening.

Are those the spirits Kallik talks about? Weird!
Lusa felt glad that her own ancestors were encased in warm, living trees.

The other bears were still arguing, so Lusa went on listening to the murmurs. Then she heard a faint scratching sound, like pawsteps.
Do spirits walk around inside the ice?
Lusa wondered.
There it is again
.

Lusa sat up and looked around. A little way off she spotted a pile of snow. For a moment she watched it thoughtfully.
I'm pretty sure spirits
don't
move around in the ice
, she decided.
Bear spirits don't move around in their trees, after all
.

Determinedly she rose to her paws and went to investigate the snow pile. Sniffing around, she found a hole; warm bear scents drifted out of it, and tiny scrapes of paws came from inside.

Lusa paused, gathering her courage, then poked her nose into the hole.

Instantly, a furious growl erupted from inside the snow pile. “Get away from my cubs!”

A she-bear leaped out, sending Lusa tumbling back onto the ice. Lusa braced herself for attack, only to see the she-bear halt as she loomed over her with one paw extended for a blow.

“What are
you
?” she asked, her eyes stretching wide in astonishment.

“I—I'm Lusa,” Lusa stammered. “I'm a black bear.”

The other bears were gathering around, Toklo in the lead. Then Lusa heard a gasp from behind her.

“You found them!” Shila exclaimed, her voice full of joy.

The she-bear backed away from Lusa, jaws gaping. “Shila! Is it really you?” Her voice was happy and astounded all at once, as if she could hardly let herself believe what she was seeing.

“It really is,” Shila replied, limping up to her mother and pressing herself closely to her side.

The snow pile heaved again, and two small cubs pushed their way into the open.

“Shila! Shila!” they squeaked.

“Pakak! Tonraq!” Shila lowered her head to touch noses with her brothers, who bounced around her, letting out squeals of excitement. They butted their foreheads into her fur and tried to scramble all over her, as if they couldn't wait to play with her again.

Lusa scrambled to her paws and shook snow off her pelt. A wave of satisfaction swept through her as she watched Shila's reunion with her family.

“I'd given up hope of seeing you again,” Sakari told her daughter. “It's been so long....”

“The ice broke up, and I was cut off,” Shila explained. “I had to go to land, and some no-claws caught me and put me in a firebeast. It crashed, and these bears rescued me.”

Sakari's wondering gaze turned to Lusa and her friends. Toklo stepped forward. “You've met Lusa,” he said. “I'm Toklo, and the white bears are Kallik and Yakone.”

Sakari dipped her head to them. “Thank you for saving my daughter and bringing her back to me.” Then the joy faded from her face as she realized there was one bear Toklo had not introduced. “I know him,” she growled, glaring at Taqqiq. “He's one of the bears who destroyed my den and stole the seal I caught.” Bristling with hostility, she turned back to Toklo. “What's going on?” she demanded. “Is this a trap?”

It was Kallik who replied. “This is my brother, Taqqiq. He brought us here. He's sorry for what he did, and he wants to help.”

“But it was Lusa who found you in the end,” Toklo put in.

Sakari glanced from Kallik to Taqqiq and back again. Lusa could see she was still very suspicious. “Those bears caused so much trouble,” she said.

Taqqiq did not respond, only stood a little way off, staring at Sakari sullenly.

Sakari pointedly turned her back on him. “Where is your family?” she asked Kallik.

“Taqqiq is the only family I have,” Kallik explained. “My mother, Nisa, died saving me from orca.”

Sakari drew in her breath sharply. “You're young to be out on your own,” she said.

Kallik exchanged a wry glance with Lusa, who could read her friend's thoughts,
If only Sakari knew how far we've traveled!

“I knew your mother, Nisa, when we were young,” Sakari went on. “It grieves me to hear that she has gone to join the spirits.”

Lusa felt a stab of sadness that she would never meet bears who had known her family. Ashia and King were so far away from the wild, in the Bear Bowl.
Kallik has come home, but I'll never be able to do the same
.

While her mother talked with Kallik and the others, Shila had been poking around the collapsed den. “There's hardly room enough for one bear in here, let alone three!” she exclaimed. “We need to build it up again.”

Sakari shook her head, gently stopping her daughter with a paw on her shoulder. “There's no point,” she said. “No she-bears build dens for their cubs anymore, because it gives away where they are. You know, to
his
friends,” she added with a nod toward Taqqiq.

“That's terrible!” Shila's voice was full of dismay. “So you have to live in ruins?”

“I'll do anything to keep my cubs safe,” Sakari told her.

Kallik stepped forward. “Well, that's going to change,” she asserted. “Taqqiq, you have to tell those bears they can't keep doing this. They can't terrorize other bears!”

“I've already told you!” Taqqiq's anger flared up, though Lusa thought she could make out a trace of fear in his voice. “I can't change what they do. They think they have good reason for chasing bears away from their prey. How do you think I can stop them?”

“That's enough!” Toklo snarled at Taqqiq. “You're not even going to
try
to protect other bears from your friends, are you?”

“What can I do?” Taqqiq repeated, bristling as he faced the brown bear. “They think they're right to challenge other bears. Even if I was willing to fight them, they outnumber you and your friends.”

“Hang on.” Lusa felt a twinge of excitement as an idea struck her. “What if they didn't outnumber us?” Turning to Shila, she went on, “Didn't you say that Salik and his bears were bullying and harassing all the bears around here? What if they banded together to stand up for themselves and one another?”

Shila shook her head doubtfully. “It would never work. White bears are solitary. They don't meet up like that.”

Yakone padded up to stand beside Lusa. “The white bears where I come from live and work together as a group,” he told Shila. “I know the bears here don't, but it's possible.”

“Yakone is right,” Toklo agreed. “When they have to, any bear can find the will to fight in the best way to make sure they survive.”

“But the ice is breaking up too fast,” Taqqiq argued. “The hunting grounds are shrinking, and that forces the white bears to fight over the seals. There's no way around it. Every bear faces starvation once they have to go onto the land, so we have to eat while we're here on the ice!”

“No,” Kallik said decisively. “That's not true. There's another way for white bears to survive when the ice melts. I've learned to use brown bear hunting skills to catch prey on land. When the ice melts, you can all do the same. Toklo can teach you.”

“Yes,” Lusa put in, her excitement growing. “And I'll show you how to find bark and leaves that you can eat. We did it for Akna; we can help you, too!”

“And if you're going to band together to stand up to Salik,” Kallik went on, “Toklo can teach you how to fight, too.”

“We
know
how to fight, thanks,” Taqqiq said brusquely.

Kallik turned to give her brother a hard stare. “It hasn't done you much good so far, has it?”

“And brown bears fight in a different way,” Lusa added, gazing around at all the white bears. Optimism was flooding through her from her ears to the tips of her claws. “If Toklo teaches you that, you'll be able to beat Salik and his gang, because you'll have tricks they won't be expecting.” She turned to where the brown bear was standing in silence. “What do you think, Toklo?”

Toklo realized that every bear was
staring at him. Kallik's and Lusa's eyes were shining trustingly, but the other bears looked more doubtful. He almost backed away from that intense regard.

Do I really hold all the answers for the white bears? It feels like a lot of responsibility—much more than just teaching Akna to stalk a snow hare
.

Toklo's mind was whirling so much that he didn't want to make any promises. He remembered how Nanulak had tricked him into fighting on the Island of Shadows.
I could have killed Nanulak's father, and he'd never done anything wrong!
He knew that Salik and his friends' aggression had to be stopped, but he was still uncomfortable with the idea of teaching anything to the white bears—especially fighting.

“Let's just see what happens,” he mumbled.

“I'm going to find a seal hole,” Yakone announced. “Kallik, do you want to come and hunt with me?”

“Sure,” Kallik replied, falling in beside the white male as he padded away.

“I'll look after the cubs if you and Shila want to hunt, too,” Lusa offered to Sakari. Her eyes glimmered with amusement as she watched Pakak and Tonraq burrowing into the snow and leaping out at each other with mock growls.

Toklo saw that the mother bear was looking doubtful. “You can trust Lusa,” he assured her. “She's good at taking care of cubs.”

After another moment's hesitation, Sakari nodded. “Okay, thank you,” she said to Lusa, and headed off with Shila.