The Melting Sea Read Free Page A

firebeast they had encountered after they left Star Island, when they had been forced to swim in the freezing water while flat-faces shot at them with firesticks. “I hope it doesn’t come back.”
    Toklo nodded. “Those things are dangerous. We’d better get moving.”
    Still nervous, Lusa kept looking around as she clambered over the spiky ice at the edge of the firebeast track. There was no sign of the huge creature, with its glittering, unnatural colors and its deep-throated roar, but she couldn’t relax until they had left the weird trail far behind.
    Her paws hurt even more as she tried vainly to pick a path through the rutted ice. Toklo was limping badly, she noticed, and even Kallik and Yakone were having trouble.
    I wish my legs were longer , Lusa grumbled to herself as she struggled up the side of a steep ridge and let herself flop down the other side. At this rate, it will take days to cross .
    She realized that she was dropping back, sometimes losing sight of the others in the dips between the ridges. But the broken ice dug into her paws, and however hard she tried, she couldn’t go any faster.
    Then Kallik stopped to wait for her. “Come on,” the white bear said. “Climb on my back. I’ll carry you for a bit.”
    â€œI’m not a baby!” Lusa protested indignantly. “I don’t need you to take care of me.”
    Kallik sighed. “I know. But this is a lot tougher for you than the rest of us. Let me help you.”
    Lusa wanted to refuse, but she felt so exhausted, and her paws hurt so much, that instead she found herself climbing onto her friend’s back. “Thanks, Kallik,” she murmured as she crouched down into her thick white fur.
    Even with Lusa’s weight on her back, Kallik loped much faster across the ice than Lusa could, climbing the ridges with hardly any hesitation until she caught up with Toklo and Yakone. For a while they made good progress, and the hills ahead seemed to be drawing nearer, but gradually Lusa became aware that their outlines were becoming blurred. At the same time the air was growing colder.
    â€œFog,” Toklo muttered. “That’s all we need.”
    As the mist swirled around her, growing thicker with every pawstep they took, Lusa realized that she had never seen fog like this before. The air was full of tiny ice crystals that stung her eyes and settled on her pelt, striking deep into her fur like frozen thorns.
    â€œWhat’s happening?” she whimpered.
    â€œI’ve seen this kind of fog a few times on Star Island,” Yakone remarked. “It happens when it’s really cold. There’s nothing any bear can do about it, except shelter until it’s over.”
    â€œLike we can do that out here,” Toklo grumbled.
    The fog rapidly grew thicker, blotting out their view of the mountains ahead. Lusa wasn’t even sure that they were moving in the right direction anymore, though Kallik and Yakone strode on confidently, less worried by the stinging ice than Lusa and Toklo.
    Still perched on Kallik’s shoulders, Lusa thought she had never been so cold in all her life. “I’ll be an ice bear if this goes on,” she whispered under her breath.
    Hoping for some shelter near the ground, she slid down from Kallik’s back and plodded along beside her friend. For a short while the going seemed easier, but ice crystals began clogging in Lusa’s pelt, weighing her down like stones, and it became harder and harder to put one paw in front of another.
    She paused for a moment to catch her breath and try to scrape some of the ice crystals off her fur. But as fast as she scraped, they settled again. I really look like a white bear now .
    Looking up, she realized that she couldn’t see Kallik or the others; their shapes had melted into the thick fog. Listening closely, she thought she could hear pawsteps; then they, too, faded. Lusa wasn’t even sure