The Melting Sea (9 page)

Toklo and the others padded forward to stand at her side and looked down at the flat stretch in front of them. Peering through the mist, Toklo could just make out a difference between the farthest expanse and the land closer to the foot of the mountains.

“That's the Melting Sea,” Kallik insisted, turning to Yakone. “We're home!”

Yakone's eyes lit up with joy, and he leaned closer to Kallik, who pressed her muzzle into his shoulder.

Toklo turned aside with a grunt, trying to pretend he didn't feel a hollow place opening up inside him.

“It's going to be weird, leaving them behind, isn't it?” Lusa said, coming to join Toklo and brushing her pelt against his.

“No, it'll be fine,” Toklo responded, trying to sound confident. “We're all going home, right? That's the whole point of this journey.”

Before Lusa could reply, Kallik leaped from the ledge and hurtled down the snowy slope. “We did it!” she called out, and Yakone let out a triumphant roar as he followed her.

Toklo launched himself forward and slid down the slope with outstretched legs and belly, exhilarated by the feeling of the wind whipping through his fur. Lusa rolled past him, waving her paws and squealing with excitement, coming to a halt half-buried in a snowdrift.

“This is fun!” she exclaimed as Toklo hauled her out. “Race you to the bottom!”

“Hey, be careful!” Toklo called out, as Lusa took off again, tucking in her head and paws and rolling down, collecting snow on her fur until she looked more like a white bear than a black one.

Toklo scrambled after her, slipping and sliding through the snow until he caught up with Yakone.

“Can you do this?” Yakone asked, flipping himself over to turn a complete somersault and landing back on all four paws. He grimaced slightly as the shoulder he had injured a few days before took his weight, but stood firmly.

“That's great!” said Kallik. She tried a somersault of her own, only to land flat on her back in the snow.

Yakone worked his uninjured shoulder underneath her to help her up. “All it takes is practice.”

“Yes, but can you do
this
?” Toklo asked, scooping up a pawful of snow and flicking it into Yakone's face as he turned around.

Yakone let out a roar of mock rage, and Toklo fled, throwing up fountains of snow with his hindpaws to shower over the pursuing white bear. Joy and excitement were bubbling up inside him.

We're coming home! We survived the Endless Ice and we didn't get lost!

Toklo let out a muffled grunt as Yakone caught him up and rolled him over into the snow. “Fish-breath!” Toklo gasped out, half-choked on a mouthful of freezing crystals. “You'll be sorry!”

He scrambled to his paws and shook snow out of his pelt. Kallik and Yakone were standing side by side in front of him, while Lusa sat half-buried in the snow underneath a tall outcrop of rocks, her eyes sparkling with laughter.

Toklo glanced around. Sliding and tumbling, they had descended most of the slope, and the flat land lay in front of them. Suddenly Toklo was unwilling to head out toward the Melting Sea, wanting this time of fun and excitement to go on a little longer.

“See those rocks?” he said to Yakone, nodding toward the outcrop where Lusa was sitting. “Dare you to climb up and jump off!”

“Sure.” Yakone loped across to the outcrop and clambered up until he stood on a jutting ledge. “Watch this!”

“Be careful!” Kallik called.

Yakone launched himself into the air and landed on his belly, scattering snow all around him. “See?” he said to Toklo. “Is that high enough for you?”

“High?” Toklo snorted. “You call that high? Watch
me
!”

Without hesitation he lumbered over to the outcrop and hauled himself upward until he stood on the topmost rock of all. On the opposite side from where Yakone had jumped, there was a flat stretch of snow that seemed to be inviting Toklo to land on it. “Here I go!” he shouted.

From below he heard Yakone's voice. “Toklo, wait! That's—”

But Toklo took no notice, pushing off from the edge of the rock and hurtling downward with his paws splayed out. A moment later he landed on snow so hard-packed and densely frozen that it felt like stone. All the breath was driven out of his body, and his head was filled with glittering light and darkness.

From close by he heard Lusa shrieking. “Toklo! Move!”

Toklo's senses swam back. He could hear a deafening rumble and see a dark shape looming over him. Blinking, he made out a firebeast bearing down on him, its yellow eyes glaring and its round black paws churning the snow.

With a yelp of terror Toklo scrabbled at the hard surface, thrusting himself to one side as the firebeast roared past. He felt a blast of hot air wash over his fur and collapsed in a heap as the firebeast vanished into the distance.

Kallik, Yakone, and Lusa came slithering down to join him. Their eyes were wide with shock, their playful mood of a few moments before vanished completely.

“Oh, Toklo!” Lusa gasped. “I was so scared …”

“Are you completely bee-brained?” Kallik snarled, standing over Toklo. “You could have hurt yourself badly, jumping from way up there, even if there hadn't been a firebeast.”

Toklo was too stunned to retort, vaguely aware that Kallik was only angry because she had been terrified for him.

“You can tell that there's a BlackPath under the snow here,” Yakone began. “It's too flat, for a start. And the surface is really hard-packed ice if you look closely … it reflects the light differently.”

“Yeah, well, we're not all snow experts, okay?” Toklo growled, trying to conceal his fear and embarrassment. “And I'm fine, so what's the problem?”

“You nearly weren't fine,” Lusa reminded him, and added, “It could have been any of us, straying onto the BlackPath without noticing. We've been away from firebeast trails for so long, we aren't used to looking for them.”

Kallik nodded, scraping at the layer of frozen snow on the BlackPath with one paw. “This one's well hidden,” she murmured. “Maybe the firebeasts don't want anyone to know it's there?”

Toklo scrambled to his paws and looked around, alert for any more firebeasts or flat-faces. His friends did the same; he could sense the tension behind their wary glances.

Lusa crouched down and put her ear to the ground. “There's another firebeast coming!” she announced.

All four bears dashed for the cover of the huge outcrop of rocks. Moments later a huge firebeast loomed up out of the distance and roared past on vast round paws, scattering snowmelt onto the side of the BlackPath.

Yakone's eyes were bulging as his gaze followed it. “They're so big!” he exclaimed. “Back on Star Island, the firebeasts were really tiny.”

“You're not on Star Island now,” Toklo reminded him.

Yakone ignored him. “You're so brave!” he said to Kallik. “I had no idea what you had to go through on your journey.”

Somehow the white bear's words annoyed Toklo. “The firebeasts are no threat if you know how to handle them,” he pointed out. “They mostly keep to their trails.”

“It's the flat-faces in their bellies that you have to worry about,” Lusa added.

Yakone gaped. “They have flat-faces in their bellies? Have the firebeasts eaten them?”

Kallik shook her head. “Not exactly. They seem fine when they get out. They're not chewed up or anything. Just like when we hid inside the firebeast when the flat-faces on pawsticks were chasing us.”

“It's time we were moving,” Toklo said, his paws itching with impatience to get as far away as possible from the BlackPath. “Line up beside me, and don't try to cross until I tell you.” To his relief, the others did as he told them without arguing. Toklo stood with ears pricked, making sure that all was silent. There was no sign of firebeasts in either direction.

“Now!”

All four bears launched themselves across the BlackPath, slipping and sliding on the hard-packed snow. Memories flashed into Toklo's mind of how he and his mother and Tobi used to cross BlackPaths all the time. They often walked along them through the woods, ducking into cover at the edge when firebeasts came by. Back then, the BlackPaths hadn't seemed so terrifying, but Toklo couldn't remember why they'd stayed near them.

Surely Oka should have realized that BlackPaths and flat-faces are nothing but trouble?

Once across the BlackPath, Kallik took the lead, heading away from the mountains and into the plain. “Come on!” she urged, looking back. “I want to get to the edge of the Melting Sea. It's my home!”

Toklo felt a stab of jealousy. He had no idea how to find the sunlit woods where he had wandered with Oka and Tobi. He just knew that they were a long, long way away. The hollow place inside him opened up again as he wondered whether he would even recognize the valleys and forests where he grew up.

Will I be as certain as Kallik when I get there?

For the rest of the day the bears trekked across the plain, pausing just after midday to hunt. Determined to show what he could do, Toklo stalked cautiously toward a clump of thornbushes and reeds around a frozen pool. Before he reached them, he spotted two black spots against the snow and realized that he was looking at the ear tips of a hare. His belly cramping with hunger, Toklo crept up on the telltale black specks. The scent of the hare reached his nose and he imagined sinking his teeth into the warm flesh.

Just a bit closer …

With a roar, Toklo leaped. His claws sank into the hare before it was even aware of him. He crushed its neck with one paw.

As he gazed down at his prey, breathing hard with satisfaction, a flicker of movement caught his eye. A second hare sprang out from behind the thornbushes, clearly alarmed.

Toklo raced after it, enjoying the sensation of his muscles bunching and stretching as he chased it across the snow. The frightened hare changed direction, dodging from side to side, but Toklo was determined it wouldn't escape. Guessing which way it would run next, he intercepted it and killed it with a blow to the head.

Pride filled Toklo as he headed back to his companions with the two dead hares gripped in his jaws. When he reached them, Lusa had uncovered a bushy plant and was chewing the leaves, while Kallik and Yakone stood close together a little way away. They didn't seem to have caught anything.

Toklo was pleased that he was able to provide for them. Padding over to them, he dropped the hares at their paws. “Here,” he said. “You can have one of these.”

Kallik and Yakone exchanged a glance.

“Thanks, Toklo,” Kallik responded awkwardly. “But Yakone and I decided that we'll wait and hunt on the ice when we reach the Melting Sea. We want to start fresh there.”

Toklo thought that was bee-brained, but he tried to conceal his rising annoyance. “The ice is too hard on Lusa,” he pointed out. “We agreed to stay on land.”

“I know,” Kallik replied. “We won't go far, just out enough to catch a seal, and then we'll come back, I promise.”

“But we've always hunted together before!” Toklo protested.

“Well, maybe we don't have to now,” Kallik told him.

Lusa looked up from where she was munching leaves. “It's fine, Toklo,” she said. “I think it's a great idea if they hunt on the ice. I can find food here, and we can wait for them.”

Toklo glared at the white bears.
Will they really come back?
he wondered.

Yakone dipped his head. “We'll be back before you know it,” he said, as if he had guessed what was bothering Toklo. “Our journey isn't over yet.”

“That's settled then,” Lusa said comfortably. “Come on, Toklo, eat up. I want to see the Melting Sea!”

“I'm not hungry anymore,” Toklo grunted, turning his back on his catch and stalking away.

He heard pawsteps behind him and realized that Kallik had followed him. “You must eat, Toklo,” she said gently. “You need your strength.
We
need your strength. There's still a ways to the shore.”

Feeling slightly ashamed, Toklo returned and devoured his catch, feeling full-fed for the first time in days. When he had finished, Kallik took the lead again and they headed once more toward the Melting Sea.

From here the plain was crossed by more small BlackPaths. Yakone was good at spotting them under the snow, and Toklo tried not to feel jealous of his skill. They crossed cautiously, listening for firebeasts, and hiding behind rocks and bushes when they roared past.

They hadn't gone much farther when Lusa halted, gazing into the distance. “Look!” she exclaimed. “Flat-face dens!”

Toklo followed her gaze and saw a few dens clustered beside one of the BlackPaths. A couple of firebeasts were crouched outside, and he picked up the harsh tang of oil on the air.

It feels weird, seeing their denning places again
, he thought.
It's been so long since we've been near that many flat-faces
.