The Melting Sea Read online

  Shila shook her head doubtfully. “It would never work. White bears are solitary. They don’t meet up like that.”

  Yakone padded up to stand beside Lusa. “The white bears where I come from live and work together as a group,” he told Shila. “I know the bears here don’t, but it’s possible.”

  “Yakone is right,” Toklo agreed. “When they have to, any bear can find the will to fight in the best way to make sure they survive.”

  “But the ice is breaking up too fast,” Taqqiq argued. “The hunting grounds are shrinking, and that forces the white bears to fight over the seals. There’s no way around it. Every bear faces starvation once they have to go onto the land, so we have to eat while we’re here on the ice!”

  “No,” Kallik said decisively. “That’s not true. There’s another way for white bears to survive when the ice melts. I’ve learned to use brown bear hunting skills to catch prey on land. When the ice melts, you can all do the same. Toklo can teach you.”

  “Yes,” Lusa put in, her excitement growing. “And I’ll show you how to find bark and leaves that you can eat. We did it for Akna; we can help you, too!”

  “And if you’re going to band together to stand up to Salik,” Kallik went on, “Toklo can teach you how to fight, too.”

  “We know how to fight, thanks,” Taqqiq said brusquely.

  Kallik turned to give her brother a hard stare. “It hasn’t done you much good so far, has it?”

  “And brown bears fight in a different way,” Lusa added, gazing around at all the white bears. Optimism was flooding through her from her ears to the tips of her claws. “If Toklo teaches you that, you’ll be able to beat Salik and his gang, because you’ll have tricks they won’t be expecting.” She turned to where the brown bear was standing in silence. “What do you think, Toklo?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Toklo

  Toklo realized that every bear was staring at him. Kallik’s and Lusa’s eyes were shining trustingly, but the other bears looked more doubtful. He almost backed away from that intense regard.

  Do I really hold all the answers for the white bears? It feels like a lot of responsibility—much more than just teaching Akna to stalk a snow hare.

  Toklo’s mind was whirling so much that he didn’t want to make any promises. He remembered how Nanulak had tricked him into fighting on the Island of Shadows. I could have killed Nanulak’s father, and he’d never done anything wrong! He knew that Salik and his friends’ aggression had to be stopped, but he was still uncomfortable with the idea of teaching anything to the white bears—especially fighting.

  “Let’s just see what happens,” he mumbled.

  “I’m going to find a seal hole,” Yakone announced. “Kallik, do you want to come and hunt with me?”

  “Sure,” Kallik replied, falling in beside the white male as he padded away.

  “I’ll look after the cubs if you and Shila want to hunt, too,” Lusa offered to Sakari. Her eyes glimmered with amusement as she watched Pakak and Tonraq burrowing into the snow and leaping out at each other with mock growls.

  Toklo saw that the mother bear was looking doubtful. “You can trust Lusa,” he assured her. “She’s good at taking care of cubs.”

  After another moment’s hesitation, Sakari nodded. “Okay, thank you,” she said to Lusa, and headed off with Shila.

  “As for you—” Kallik halted as she passed Taqqiq, swinging around to face him threateningly. “Stay here at the den and start rebuilding it. And I’d better see some progress when I get back.”

  Toklo realized that even though Kallik had defended Taqqiq to Sakari, she was still furious with her brother.

  Taqqiq was clearly fuming, but he just trudged resentfully over to the collapsed den and started to scrape at the snow. As Toklo watched him shove the heaps around, he felt a stab of sympathy for the white bear.

  Hunger drives bears to do crazy things, he thought. What Taqqiq and the others did was wrong, but I can’t be sure I wouldn’t have done something stupid, too, if I were starving.

  Turning away from Taqqiq, Toklo gazed around at the ice, hostile and white and creaking. He couldn’t imagine wanting to live out here forever. But then, I’m not a white bear.

  Tonraq and Pakak bounced up to Lusa, their eyes wide with curiosity as they stared up at her.

  “You’re a funny color,” Pakak said.

  “Yes, we’ve never seen a bear like you before,” his brother added.

  “Well, where I come from, there are lots of bears like me,” Lusa told them, with an amused glance at Toklo.

  The little cubs gave her an interested sniff, then seemed to accept what she said. “Are we going to fight the bad bears?” Tonraq asked.

  “You’re not,” Lusa told them. “You’re too little. But the rest of us—yes, we’re ready to fight.”

  “We’re not too little!” Tonraq protested.

  “We want to fight now!” Pakak agreed. “We’re fierce!”

  Lusa exchanged another glance with Toklo. “Okay, I’ll teach you a move or two,” she said, adding in a lower voice to Toklo, “If things go badly, they might need to defend themselves.”

  Toklo didn’t think there was much hope for the cubs if Salik and his bears won the fight, but he didn’t say so. He settled down to watch as Lusa began to teach the cubs.

  “The first thing you need to learn,” Lusa began, “is how to dodge your enemy. You have to watch very carefully so you know which side the first blow is coming from.” She pointed with her snout at Tonraq. “Run at me and try to hit me.”

  The little cub gave a bounce of excitement and then dashed straight at Lusa. Toklo could see that he was signaling quite clearly with the curve of his body and the direction of his gaze which paw he would strike with. Lusa sidestepped quickly so the blow never landed.

  “You moved!” Tonraq protested.

  “Yes, that’s the point,” Lusa said with a huff of laughter. “You’ll soon get the idea. Pakak, now you try.”

  Pakak had learned from watching his brother, and Toklo could tell that he was trying to hide his intentions as he charged at Lusa, but she was still able to dodge.

  “Now I’ll show you,” she went on.

  As she ran at the cubs, feinting before striking out at them—though she checked herself before her blow could fall—Toklo realized that she was copying moves he always used. Has she really learned how to fight from watching me? She was using her weight in the same way that he did, and balancing in the same way to give herself the best use of her forepaws. She almost looks like a brown bear!

  “You need to remember white bears are bigger than you,” he called out to Lusa. “Try diving in under the blow and attacking that way.”

  “Thanks, Toklo!” Lusa responded.

  “We can do that!” Tonraq squealed. “We’re really small!”

  Both of the cubs at once rushed at Lusa, who staggered backward, her paws slipping on the ice.

  “You’re a big white bear!” Pakak growled. “We’re going to get you!”

  Suppressing laughter, Toklo thought it was just as well that the hunters returned at that moment. Kallik and Yakone were dragging a seal, while Sakari had a huge fish clamped in her jaws. As soon as the cubs saw their mother, they bounded over to her, and Lusa was able to get up, shaking snow off her pelt.

  “Save me from the fierce little bears!” she laughed.

  That night, Toklo found it hard to sleep. However he lay down, there seemed to be a hard lump of snow or a spike of ice underneath him. He tossed and turned but couldn’t get comfortable.

  I guess I’d be okay teaching the white bears how to hunt on land. But there’s so much they need to learn.

  “Hey, you’re squishing me!” Lusa complained.

  “Sorry,” Toklo grunted.

  He rested his nose on his paws and forced himself to stay still, resigning himself to a sleepless night.

  The next thing he knew, Toklo found himself in a sunlit forest clearing. Something ab
out the way the trees grew seemed familiar, and so was the gurgling of the stream that ran along in front of his paws.

  A rustling in the undergrowth made Toklo draw back into the shade of a clump of bushes. A moment later a brown bear cub emerged into the open, followed by a smaller cub. It took a couple of heartbeats for Toklo to recognize himself and Ujurak.

  I look so young!

  Ujurak was gazing happily around the clearing, following the flight of a butterfly and jumping up in a vain attempt to catch it.

  “Concentrate!” Young Toklo growled. “I’m supposed to be teaching you stuff.”

  “Okay.” Ujurak looked up expectantly.

  “You have to keep your claws sharp,” Young Toklo told him. “You do it by scratching a tree, like this.” He stood on his hindpaws and scored his claws down the bark of the nearest tree. “Now you try.”

  Ujurak tottered a bit as he got up on his hindpaws, but he clawed vigorously at the bark, and Young Toklo gave him an approving nod. “When you’re a full-grown bear,” he went on, “you’ll mark your territory like this, by making clawmarks on the trees.”

  I remember this, Toklo thought. It was soon after I met Ujurak. We didn’t have Lusa or Kallik with us then.

  “Okay,” Young Toklo said. “Are you hungry?”

  “Starving!”

  “Then we’ll catch a salmon. Do you remember what I told you last time?”

  Ujurak nodded. “We stand in the water and wait.”

  “Right. Let’s do it.”

  Toklo watched as both cubs waded into the stream and stood facing upstream, concentrating hard on the glittering water.

  “Remember to pounce on the fish where it’s going to be, not where it is,” Young Toklo said.

  “But how do I know that?” Ujurak asked.

  “You watch the direction it’s moving,” Young Toklo explained patiently. “It takes practice, but you’ll soon get the idea.”

  Suddenly Ujurak gave a bound, as if he had spotted a fish. But as he leaped he changed, his body shrinking, his brown fur giving way to glittering scales, until he plunged back into the water as a salmon.

  Young Toklo let out a groan. “Oh, no! Not again!” He waded over to a rock in the middle of the stream and clambered onto it. “Ujurak!” he bellowed.

  Toklo stifled a snort of amusement, remembering how irritated he’d been. A few moments later the foliage overhanging the stream rustled wildly and Ujurak emerged, dripping wet, his fur plastered to his body. “Sorry,” he said.

  Young Toklo gave an exasperated sigh. “Honestly, Ujurak, you deserve to be caught and eaten, the way you go on.” As the younger cub looked dejected, he added, “Never mind. Come over here, and we’ll try again.”

  As his younger self slid back into the water, to meet Ujurak in the middle of the stream, Toklo heard a voice behind him. “You were an excellent teacher.”

  Toklo turned away from his dream vision. Though he still stood on the edge of the clearing, the older Ujurak had appeared among the bushes. Stars glimmered in his fur, and his eyes were warm and loving. For a moment the longing for the past, when Ujurak was alive and by his side, rose up and almost choked Toklo. He couldn’t speak.

  “You saved me,” Ujurak said. “I didn’t know who I was, and you taught me how to be a brown bear. You can help these white bears, too.”

  Toklo blinked in surprise. “But you were always a brown bear.” When Ujurak didn’t respond, he went on, “It’s not the same, teaching brown bear skills to other bears,” he confessed. “You said we had to learn to be truly wild,” he reminded Ujurak. “Surely that means being true to our own nature?”

  For a few moments Ujurak was quiet, his eyes deep and reflective. At last he said, “Let’s walk.”

  At first the two bears padded side by side through the trees. But soon Ujurak picked up the pace until they were racing along. Then Toklo realized that his paws had left the ground. The trees dropped away beneath him. With a thrill of terror and excitement he mounted higher and higher into the sky; the sun had gone and stars glittered around him, blazing with an icy fire against the darkness of the night. Faster and faster, until he and Ujurak were pounding along, the wind rushing through their pelts.

  At last Ujurak halted. Toklo found himself standing on the air, gazing down at a remote view of the world. The flat-face invasion was revealed in vast tracts of bright light, joined by hot BlackPaths where firebeasts crawled, their glaring eyes shining like beetles. The noise seemed to blast Toklo’s fur and ears, even at such a great distance. The dark patches that indicated the unspoiled wild were pitifully small; Toklo imagined they were shrinking as he watched.

  “Wildness is a rare and precious thing now,” Ujurak said softly. “All bears must hold on to it, even if that means sharing the wildness of other bears. Or it will be lost like water running into sand.” He touched Toklo’s shoulder affectionately with his muzzle. “Sharing skills is a way to survive in spite of the flat-faces. Your spirits can be strong if you stand together.”

  Toklo gazed in astonishment as Ujurak’s starry body swelled until it filled the sky. Then his bear shape faded, leaving Toklo standing alone beside the flaring stars of his friend’s constellation. Air was rushing all around him.

  I’m falling!

  A jolt ran through Toklo’s body; he opened his eyes and found himself in the rebuilt den. An icy wind was blowing through a gap in the wall, ruffling his fur. Toklo gathered together a pawful of snow and shoved it into the hole.

  That fish-breath Taqqiq can’t even build a decent den! he thought irritably.

  Around him, the other bears were just beginning to stir. Toklo let his gaze travel over each one of them. Yes, I can help you, he decided.

  “I’m going to find more bears who will help us against Salik,” Sakari announced when all the bears had emerged from the den. She padded off in the pale dawn light, new energy in her pawsteps and the set of her shoulders.

  “The rest of us had better hunt,” Kallik said when she had gone. “Lusa, will you look after the cubs again?”

  “I’ll be glad to,” Lusa replied, while Tonraq and Pakak let out squeaks of excitement. “Just come back quickly, before I end up as a few bits of black fur!”

  Toklo joined the hunters, striding out confidently across the ice. He had spent so much time here, he had hunted seals so many times, that he knew he could do this.

  Kallik taught me well, just as I taught her.

  Spotting a seal hole in the distance, Toklo padded up to it and crouched at the edge of the ice. As he waited, the ice rumbled and creaked in his ears, sending tingles of alarm through his fur.

  Time isn’t on our side, he thought. How long before we’re forced back onto land?

  At last a seal nose emerged from the water. Toklo flashed out a paw, sinking his claws into the seal and hauling it out onto the ice, where it flopped helplessly until he killed it with a blow to the head.

  “Good catch,” said a voice close behind him.

  Toklo whipped around to see two white males standing a bearlength away, watching him closely. For a moment Toklo tensed, wondering if they were about to steal his catch, then relaxed as the bigger of the two dipped his head and spoke.

  “Hi. I’m Tartok, and this is my brother, Olikpok. Sakari told us about the brown bear who’s going to teach us how to fight and hunt on land. That’s you, right?”

  Toklo nodded. “Yes, that’s me.”

  Tartok let out a snort. “I told Sakari I’d come, but I still think she’s cloud-brained.” His voice was defiant, and he raised his head proudly. “We don’t need any help. Generations of white bears have survived without hunting on land. What’s so different now?”

  Olikpok shook his head. “The Melting Sea doesn’t want us anymore,” he said despairingly. “So what’s the point of anything?”

  Toklo was taken aback at the white bears’ lack of energy. Then he realized that it must be so difficult for them to accept that things were changing.

  �
��I can’t argue with you,” he said. “I don’t belong here the way you do. But I’ll teach you what I know, and it might help.”

  “Well … I guess we can give it a try,” Tartok grunted.

  Hauling his seal along, Toklo returned to the den, followed by Tartok and Olikpok. As he approached, he realized that several other bears had gathered there. He recognized the she-bear and her cubs who had watched them as they crossed the ice.

  “I only came because you asked me to,” the mother bear was telling Sakari as Toklo padded up. “But I really don’t think we’ll be able to fight off Salik and his bears. They’re so strong!”

  There was a murmur of agreement from some of the others.

  “I think we should move on,” a younger she-bear suggested. “I’ve heard there are other places where the ice doesn’t melt so quickly, and there aren’t as many bears competing for prey.”

  “Try it if you like, Nukka,” Olikpok told her. “But how do you know Salik wouldn’t follow us?”

  Tartok gave his brother a shove. “You’re always moaning, Olikpok! I’m all for fighting off Salik, but I don’t see why we need a brown bear to tell us how to do it.”

  Toklo saw some of the other bears nodding, as if they agreed with Tartok. If you can fight off Salik, why haven’t you done it already? he wondered. He narrowly avoided speaking the words aloud. Instead, he said, “I’m not trying to tell any bear what to do. But my friends and I have had experience—”

  “You’re not even a white bear,” an older white male interrupted. “What do you know?”

  “Yeah,” Tartok growled. “Why do you get to boss us around?”

  Toklo glared at Tartok. A few heartbeats ago, you agreed to give it a try. Why are you changing your mind now?

  Before he could speak, Yakone stepped forward. “I know the bears I’ve traveled with are an odd group,” he began, nodding at Toklo, Kallik, and Lusa, “but I’ve seen them fight off bears and other animals, and hunt together, and you wouldn’t believe how successful they’ve been!”