Seekers #6: Spirits in the Stars Read Free Page A

really am.
    His friends shrank to three tiny shapes at the foot of Walrus Rock. Higher still, and Ujurak could see that they were on an island, surrounded by the frozen sea. He couldn’t tell exactly where the land ended and the ocean began, but he spotted exposed cliffs, and places where it looked as if the snow had been blown to a thin layer. There were no trees, but a few scrawny bushes clung to the cliff face.
    Ujurak circled the whole island; at the far side he spotted the walruses, a whole mass of them on a plain near the sea, packed tighter together than grubs under a rock. Swooping down, Ujurak let his gaze travel over their glistening brown bodies, their whiskered faces and curving fangs. He went so low that some of them jerked back their heads and snapped at him.
    Oh, no, Ujurak thought, gaining height again with a single flap of his wings. You’re not going to eat cormorant today!
    The walruses’ smell gusted over him; he looked down in disgust as they slithered fatly over one another like huge slugs. The babies never stopped squawking, and the bellowing of the full-grown males filled the air like thunder.
    Yuck! I’ll make sure I never turn into a walrus!
    As Ujurak flew back over the cliffs, another cormorant dove at him, her wings folded back as she let out a loud alarm call.
    “All right! All right, I’m going!” Ujurak called back, guessing that she had a nest somewhere close by.
    Swiftly he flew back inland, pushing down panic for a moment as he wasn’t sure of the way back to Walrus Rock. Then he spotted the familiar twisted shape, with his three friends waiting patiently beside it.
    The sun was setting as Ujurak landed in the lee of the rock and let himself change back into bear shape. At first he felt heavy and clumsy, and he missed the soaring freedom of flight, until the comfort of his brown bear shape flowed over him: This was the body he belonged in.
    The other bears clustered around him excitedly.
    “What did you see?” Lusa demanded.
    Ujurak noticed that snow was sifted in her black pelt again. “What have you been doing, rolling in it?” he asked.
    Lusa looked shamefaced, not meeting his gaze. “I fell into another drift,” she admitted.
    “Never mind that.” Kallik pushed forward eagerly. “Tell us what you saw.”
    Ujurak described the island and the cliffs, and the stinking pack of walruses. “Far too many for us to think of hunting them,” he said.
    Toklo looked disappointed, but he didn’t argue. “What do you think we should do, then?”
    “Make for the center of the island, the highest part,” Ujurak replied, jerking his head in that direction. “We might find some bushes there and be able to scrape down to the ground. But it’s getting dark. Maybe we should stay here tonight and set off in the morning.”
    “I’m sick of that den,” Toklo growled. “Let’s get going now.”
    “Yes!” Lusa added with an excited little bounce. “We’ll be okay traveling by night.”
    Ujurak glanced at Kallik, then nodded. Toklo charged off in the lead as they set out for the middle of the island. Privately Ujurak felt that his friends were more confident about journeying in darkness because there was ground beneath the snow now, not ice or water.
    “They feel they’ve come home,” Kallik remarked as she fell in beside him.
    But they haven’t. Ujurak couldn’t shake off his misgivings. None of us has. Maybe we don’t even know where home is anymore.

Chapter Two
    Toklo
    Toklo felt new energy tingling in his legs as he bounded up the slope toward the middle of the island with Lusa panting along beside him. There was still deep snow under his paws, and nothing broke the unrelieved white of the landscape, but it felt different, knowing there was land beneath the snow.
    No more of that endless salt water with seals and whales floating around, he told himself with satisfaction. There’s firm, solid ground that we can dig into dens. There’ll be prey for the taking. I can feel