The Quest Begins Read Free Page B

mean there’s no burn-sky? We could hunt all the time?”
    â€œNo burn-sky, no melting ice, no eating berries or living on the land,” Nisa said. “The bear spirits dance for joy across the sky, all in different colors.”
    â€œWhy don’t we go there?” Taqqiq asked. “If it’s so wonderful?” Kallik nodded. She felt a tingling in her paws, as if she could run all the way to this place where they would be safe forever.
    â€œIt is a long way away,” Nisa rumbled. “Much too far for us to travel.” Her black eyes stared into the distance, silvery glints of the moon swimming in their depths. “But perhaps we may have to make the journey…one day.”
    â€œReally? When?” Kallik demanded, but her mother rested her head on her paws and fell silent. She obviously didn’t want to answer any more questions. Kallik curled into a ball in the curve of her mother’s side and watched the ice shimmering under the moon until she fell asleep. In her dreams, bear spirits rose from the ice and began to dance, their paws light as fur as they romped and slid across the frozen landscape.
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    A strange creaking noise woke Kallik the next morning. It sounded like a bear yawning loudly, or the wind howling from underwater, but the air was still, and the noise came from the ice, not the sky. Her mother was already awake, padding in a circle around them with her nose lifted.
    Kallik scrambled to her paws and shook herself. Her coat felt heavy with moisture, and the air was damp and soft instead of crisp and clear like it had been the night before. She turned to her brother, who was lying on the ice beside her, apparently still asleep. She nudged him with her muzzle.
    â€œWalrus attack!” Taqqiq bellowed, suddenly leaping to his paws and knocking her over. Nisa spun around with a snarl, but stopped when she saw that her cubs were just playing.
    â€œQuiet,” she growled. “Taqqiq, stop acting like a wild goose. There is no time for playing. We have to get moving.” She started across the ice without looking back. Kallik and Taqqiq scrambled to catch up. Nisa’s grouchiness made Kallik nervous. Why would she scold them for playing now, when she’d let them roll around having fun the day before?
    The creaking began again as they traveled across the ice. Nisa paused and swung her head around to listen. It seemed like the sound of the ice groaning and yawning underpaw was getting louder. Kallik could tell that her mother knew what this sound was—and that it meant something very bad.
    Suddenly there was a loud crack and a horrible sucking noise, and Kallik felt the ground tilt below her. She was thrown off her paws and found herself sliding along ice thatwas no longer flat but sloped down steeply toward dark water. With a terrified squeal, Kallik scrabbled on the ice, her claws sliding helplessly on the slick surface.
    A giant paw grabbed her and hauled her backward onto solid ice again. Kallik stumbled as Nisa bundled her away from the crack in the ice, where waves slapped hungrily against the new edge.
    â€œWow!” Taqqiq yelped. “The ice just snapped in two! Kallik, I thought you’d be swallowed up by the sea and we’d never see you again!”
    Nisa hissed with frustration. Kallik peered around her mother’s legs and saw that the ice in front of them had broken into two large chunks that were drifting apart on the sea.
    â€œAlready?” Nisa muttered. “But we’ve had no time at all on the ice! How are we supposed to survive on land if we can’t hunt for long enough before?” She paced along the jagged edge of the ice, snarling at the waves that lapped at her paws.
    â€œMother?” Kallik whimpered. “What’s happening? Is it…is it burn-sky?”
    â€œIt’s too early for burn-sky,” Nisa said. “But the ice-melt is coming earlier each season. We have less and less