The Melting Sea Read Free

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    Lusa shook her head and scrabbled in the snow until she found more of the grayish leaves she had eaten the night before. Energy started to flow back into her body as she crunched up the twigs.
    â€œAll right, let’s go,” Toklo said at last, heaving himself up and padding reluctantly away from the remains of the carcass. “I wish we could take the rest of the meat with us, but we can’t.”
    â€œNever mind.” Kallik rose and followed him. “The foxes will have a feast, and at least we’ve had two good meals.”
    Yakone took a last mouthful and joined Toklo and Kallik; Lusa bounded after them as they set off down the hill toward the stretch of ice that separated the island from the mainland.
    â€œOnce we’re across there, we’ll be almost at the Melting Sea!” Kallik announced excitedly, picking up the pace until she was racing down the slope. Yakone let out an eager bellow and raced after her.
    Lusa followed more slowly, unable to share her friends’ enthusiasm. I hate traveling across ice. It’s so cold it burns my paws, and I can’t find the right black bear food . She shivered, remembering how the wind sweeping across the ice would make her ears burn and chill her to the bone. But she knew there was no point in protesting. This was the way they had to go. Besides, Kallik looked so happy to be nearing her home, and Lusa didn’t want to spoil that by complaining.
    At any rate , she told herself, it sounds like it’s not so far to cross. Surely it won’t be so bad this time .
    When she and Toklo caught up with the white bears at the edge of the ice, Kallik and Yakone were talking together.
    â€œâ€¦ keep an eye open for seal holes,” Yakone was saying, his eyes gleaming with enthusiasm. “There are bound to be plenty out there.”
    Yuck! Seal meat! Lusa thought, but said nothing aloud. She knew there would be times ahead when she might be glad of seal, even though it weighed heavily in her belly and made her feel sick. I’m going to be tough about this , she decided. I’m not a cub anymore!
    Spotting a thornbush growing in the shelter of a rock at the very edge of the land, she bounded over to it and gulped down the leaves. There were even a few shriveled berries clinging among the twigs.
    Kallik led the way out onto the ice. Padding along in her pawsteps, Lusa paused to glance over her shoulder at the island they were leaving. The shadowy shape, dark against the brightening sky, seemed like a huge animal, hunched up as if it were about to spring.
    I knew there’d be trouble before we ever set paw there , Lusa reflected, sighing with relief that they were leaving it behind. She would never forget her fear of the underground tunnels where Toklo had been lost, or the shock and disgust she had felt when they discovered Nanulak’s treachery. I don’t ever want to come back here .
    Glad to turn her back on the troubled island, Lusa fixed her gaze on the hills she could see ahead of her, at the other side of the ice. They seemed so close. But almost at once she realized that reaching them wouldn’t be as easy as she had hoped. The surface was rougher than she was used to, as if sheets of ice had rubbed against each other and thrust up ridges that were hard to clamber over and dug painfully into Lusa’s paws.
    â€œLook at this!” Kallik called from up ahead.
    Struggling across the uneven ice to join her, Lusa saw a much smoother stretch reaching into the distance on either side, parallel with the hills on the distant shore; on its edges the ice was even more broken, like tiny mountain ranges with jagged peaks.
    â€œWhat did that?” she asked.
    â€œI think it must have been one of those flat-face firebeasts,” Toklo replied after a moment. “It pushed its way through here, smashing up the ice, and then the water froze again after it left.”
    Lusa shuddered, remembering the