The Melting Sea Read Free Page B

which direction they had been traveling.
    She opened her jaws to call out to her friends, then stopped herself. If I do that, they’ll know I’m lost. They’ll know I need help. They already think I’m just a cub, and I’m not !
    Remembering all the times she had needed help from the other bears, Lusa was determined that this time she would cope by herself. When we reach Kallik’s home by the Melting Sea, we’ll be splitting up. Before that happens, I have to prove that I’m their equal .
    But when Lusa set out again, the fog was so thick that she could hardly see her paws. Every breath felt like thorns in her throat. She wasn’t sure whether her friends even knew that she had fallen behind. If they think I’m still with them , she thought, pushing down panic, they could be way ahead by now .
    Before she had gone many pawsteps, Lusa came up to an ice ridge with a deep crack running from top to bottom. I’m sure I’ve seen that before! Am I going in the completely wrong direction? She was so scared that she hardly dared move.
    While Lusa still stood there, her paws frozen to the ground with fear, she heard a clicking sound. A caribou appeared out of the fog and loomed over her. Lusa was so close to panic that she barely realized how weird it was to meet a caribou out on the ice.
    Oh, no! Has it come to take revenge on me, because I was part of the hunt?
    Lusa braced herself for a fight, hoping desperately that she stood a fair chance against a caribou. It doesn’t have any sharp teeth or claws. How dangerous can it be?
    Then a voice spoke inside her head. “Follow me.”
    Lusa could hardly believe what she was hearing. Blinking ice crystals out of her eyes, she stared up at the caribou.“Ujurak?” she whispered.
    The voice spoke again. “Yes, I’m here. Follow me, and we’ll find the others again. Keep close to me.”
    â€œBut I can hardly see you through this fog,” Lusa protested.
    â€œThen follow the sound of my feet,” Ujurak responded.
    He lowered his mighty antlered head and began to shoulder his way through the fog. Lusa followed, sometimes losing sight of Ujurak’s huge shape, but always able to hear the sharp, distinctive clicking of his feet as he paced over the ice.
    â€œI don’t want to slow the others down,” Lusa confessed out loud, trying not to sound self-pitying. “But I’m worried they might go on without me if they think I’m lost.”
    â€œThey would never leave you.” Ujurak’s voice sounded reassuringly in her head. “You’re a family. You belong together, and they all know that.”
    Gradually the fog was thinning out, and Ujurak led Lusa to a place where there was no more than an icy mist. Ahead she could hear voices, and see shapes circling anxiously.
    â€œLusa! Lusa, where are you?”
    â€œHere!” Lusa ran forward to her friends. “I got lost, but Ujurak found me. He’s a caribou—look!” She whirled around, to see nothing but the wall of ice fog. The caribou had vanished.
    â€œAt least you’re safe,” Toklo grunted.
    â€œAnd it’s good to know that Ujurak is still with us,” Kallik added, her eyes shining.
    â€œHe shouldn’t have to watch over us,” Toklo snapped back at her. “We should be able to look after ourselves!”
    Feeling guilty because she was the one who had needed Ujurak’s help, Lusa wondered what Toklo was so angry about. She thought he would be glad to know that Ujurak still cared about them, even though he had gone back to his starry home.
    â€œIt’s too tough out here,” Toklo went on, glaring at Kallik. “Maybe we should have crossed somewhere else.”
    â€œBut maybe somewhere else the ice is starting to break up,” Kallik retorted, beginning to sound exasperated.
    â€œYeah, this is the way Nanulak’s family told us to go,” Yakone added,