The Quest Begins (4 page)

“Come on, Toklo!” Oka called. “It's time to go!” She was already halfway up the next slope, shoving Tobi along in front of her.

“But I was eating!” he protested, clawing at the dirt.

“Toklo! Now!”

He ran after her, across the SilverPath, which stung his paws with cold sharpness. They galloped up a slope flecked with snow until they reached the edge of the woods.

Toklo sat down and looked back at the crossing place. The male bear was helping himself to the pile of grain, scooping it into his mouth with his paws. Toklo seethed with fury. It was not fair that they should be driven off so easily. It wasn't fair that he was so much smaller than that bear. He'd come all this way and found the grain on his own. He should get to eat it all!

He wished Oka would stand up for them. Why didn't she challenge that bear down there and scare
him
off instead? Maybe if she fought a bit more and nagged a bit less, she wouldn't have to spend so much time worrying about finding their next meal.

He glanced over at her and saw that she was pacing back and forth, growling to herself and shaking her head. Toklo padded over to the snowbank where Tobi was huddled and sat down next to his brother. Oka looked pretty angry. Perhaps she really was thinking about going down there and fighting that bear. Toklo felt a prickle of excitement in his paws. He could help her fight! He'd be happy to use his claws for something more exciting than digging in the dirt.

Suddenly Oka rounded on them. “You're both skin and bones!” she spat. Toklo stared at her in astonishment. It wasn't
his
fault he was so thin.

“Skin and bones,” she growled again. “Living on grain and dandelions. You need fresh meat!”

Toklo nearly blurted out, “That's what
I've
been saying!” but he thought better of it. Given the look in his mother's eyes, he could almost imagine her feeding him to his brother.
She prob
ably would one day,
he thought bitterly. That way precious Tobi could live, at least.

Oka clawed at the snow, ripping up tufts of grass and flinging them in the air. An uneasy feeling crept through Toklo's fur. He didn't know why, but it frightened him to see her like this. What was she doing to the grass? She didn't expect him to eat it, did she?

Finally she stopped and looked at them again. With a heavy sigh, she sat down under a tree. “We must go over the mountains,” she said quietly. Tobi and Toklo glanced at each other. This was strange enough that even Tobi was paying attention now.

“Over the mountains?” Toklo echoed. Where she had always said they couldn't go because Tobi wouldn't make it?

“There's a river over there,” Oka explained. “A wide river, filled with salmon. That is what we should be eating, not grain and leaves. You'll starve if we stay here any longer.”

Toklo shivered with excitement. He didn't know why his mother looked so worried. This sounded like the best idea she'd had in ages—a great adventure, a journey over the mountains, a chance to find out what a salmon looked like—
and
tasted like. Oka had told him about the plump, juicy fish that leaped out of the water into your mouth, begging to be eaten. At last his mother was making the right choice. And finally he would catch salmon like a real grizzly bear.

Kallik followed her mother away from
the broken edge, back onto the ice, watching the bubbles and shadows swirling below the surface. The water gurgled behind her, and she wondered what happened to the spirits of the bears when the ice shattered instead of slowly melting. Were they washed into the sea to swim with the seals?

She wanted to ask her mother, but she could tell that it wasn't the right time. Nisa was tense and alert, testing the ice carefully as she walked on it, her nose low to the snow to sniff for signs of thawing. Even Taqqiq was quiet for once, walking behind Kallik without whining for a ride on Nisa's back or jumping at snowflakes.

They walked all day and saw no sign of seals. Nisa explained that it was harder to find breathing holes once the ice started to break up, because the seals could get to the air from anywhere in the water and didn't need the holes anymore.

Suddenly she paused. Kallik held her breath. Was the ice
breaking up here, too? Were they about to be plunged into the freezing water?

Nisa gave a grunt and broke into a run, speeding across the snow with her muzzle stretched out. Kallik and Taqqiq exchanged a puzzled glance and galloped after her. Nisa skidded to a halt at a small mound of snow and started sniffing it.

Kallik was disappointed. It was just a pile of snow. There was nothing to eat here.

Then Nisa reared up on her back legs and pounded on the snowbank with her front paws. She reared up again and again, smashing her massive forelegs into the snow. To Kallik's surprise, a pair of fluffy white seal cubs spilled out of the mound of snow. Nisa killed them quickly, and her cubs rushed over to say the words of thanks and then eat.

“That was a seal's BirthDen,” Nisa explained, her muzzle dripping with blood. “They have to have their cubs on the ice, so they leave them buried in heaps of snow while they hunt for food in the water.”

Kallik felt much better with juicy mouthfuls of seal fat in her. Suddenly it seemed like everything was going to be all right, even when burn-sky came. Her mother could look after them just like always.

Taqqiq batted at one of the seal flippers, sending it flying across the snow to Kallik's paws. Cheerfully she batted it back, and they chased it around for a while, feeling happy and full.

“Stop that!” Nisa called. “Show more respect for your prey, little ones. Remember it was given to us by the spirits of the ice.”

As she spoke, two young male bears appeared over the nearest snowbank. They were at least a snow-sky and burn-sky old, more than twice the size of Kallik and Taqqiq. They bared their teeth and charged down the hill toward the dead seals.

Nisa raced over to her cubs. “Hurry!” she said. “They probably aren't the only bears who smelled this prey.”

The three ran across the frozen landscape. At one point, Nisa lifted her head and roared a warning—another large bear was coming from the sunup direction. They switched course to avoid him. Alarm and excitement gave an extra burst of speed to Kallik's paws, but she wasn't really afraid. She knew she was safe with her mother and brother, and she loved the feel of the wind in her fur and the ice thudding below their paws. As long as she had her family, she could survive anything.

 

Kallik felt herself growing bigger and stronger the longer they stayed on the ice. The air felt warmer and warmer all the time, and each night when she looked for the Pathway Star she saw the moon changing shape—first getting bigger and fatter like a milk-fed seal cub and then shrinking down to a thin curl of hair floating in the sky.

One day, Nisa spotted a young seal lying on the ice, basking in the sun. She signaled the cubs to be quiet with a flick of her ears, and they crept forward on silent paws. Nisa nudged Taqqiq with her muzzle and pointed her nose toward the seal.

“Quietly,” she whispered. “Like we practiced.”

Taqqiq placed one paw cautiously in front of the other, sliding across the snow as silently as he could. Kallik stayed frozen, trying not to make a sound. Was her brother about to make his first catch?

The seal lifted its head and spotted the white bear cub sneaking up on it. With a startled bark, it pushed itself on its flippers toward its breathing hole in the ice. Kallik jumped to her paws. It was going to escape!

Taqqiq hurled himself forward, but he wasn't quite fast enough. Nisa bounded past him and sank her claws into the seal just as it hit the water. She dragged it back onto the ice and fastened her teeth in its neck, shaking it.

“Hooray!” Kallik called, scampering up to her. “You got it, Mother! That was amazing!”

Taqqiq shuffled his paws in the snow. “I nearly had it,” he grumbled.

“You did really well,” Kallik told him. “You got much closer than I could have.”

“And you have plenty of time to learn,” added Nisa. “You'll make great hunters one day, both of you.”

After they ate the seal, Kallik stretched out on the ice, panting. The sun beat down, making her almost wish she could shed her thick fur and warm skin. She felt like every whisker on her head was burning. She tried to press herself closer to the ice to cool down. Next to her, Taqqiq and Nisa were doing the same, slumbering drowsily in the heat. If burn-sky was any hotter than this, she thought she would melt like a chunk of ice.

Kallik was glad when the sun finally sank below the edge of the sky. It was much cooler at night, with the ice spots twinkling in the darkness above them. The moon's light made the snow gleam, stretching for skylengths in every direction as far as a bear could see.

“Tomorrow we will leave the ice,” Nisa said with a sigh.

Kallik rested her chin on her mother's leg. “Already?” she asked. “Can't we stay a bit longer?”

“It's too dangerous,” Nisa murmured, her black eyes sad. “We must get to land before all the ice is gone.”

“What is the land like?” Taqqiq asked. “Is the snow deeper there?”

“In some parts there is no snow at all,” Nisa rumbled.

Kallik wondered what else there could be. “Then is it just water?”

“There's something called dirt, and stones and rocks and grass. Dirt is like brown snow, but it isn't cold, and it goes down and down forever, no matter how far you dig. And the grass is like green whiskers growing out of the ground, which you can eat if you have to.”

“What is green?” Kallik asked.

Nisa paused, twitching her nose. “It is one of the colors in the sea,” she answered finally. “Like blue, but different. You'll see.”

“Are there other bears there?” Taqqiq asked. “And seals? And geese?”

“There are all kinds of animals you haven't seen yet,” Nisa said. “Like foxes—they're even smaller than cubs, and they
have sharp pointy noses and fur the color of fog. And there are beavers, who have large flat tails and big flat teeth. And caribou, big animals that travel in large groups. They have long skinny legs, and some of them have antlers.”

“What's—” Kallik began.

“Antlers look like big claws growing out of their heads,” Nisa said.

Kallik clamped her jaw shut, astonished and a little bit terrified. Animals with flat teeth? Animals with claws growing out of their heads? Whiskers growing out of the ground?

She didn't think she was going to like the land very much.

All night Kallik had strange dreams about odd-looking creatures and brown snow. She was relieved when her mother nudged them awake early, just as the first pale beams of sunlight began to ripple across the ice.

“We have to start now,” Nisa said, her voice filled with urgency. “We must get to land as quickly as possible.”

“But I'm hungry,” Taqqiq complained. “I want more seal skin.”

“We don't have time to hunt,” Nisa said. She nudged both cubs to their paws with her muzzle and set off across the snow at such a rapid pace that they could barely keep up. Kallik could hear the ice creaking below her paws again, and in places it felt frighteningly thin and slippery. She stuck close to her mother, wondering what would happen to them if they didn't make it to land.

All at once Taqqiq let out a howl of terror. Kallik spun around and saw him vanish into a black river that had opened
up under his feet. With a loud crack, the ice beside her snapped off as well, and her paws slid out from under her as the whole chunk she was on tilted sideways. She sank her claws in and managed to stay on as it bobbed upright, but with horror she saw Taqqiq's paws flailing in the dark water as he lifted his nose into the air with a terrified cry.

A jagged line like a claw scratch in the snow sliced along the surface in front of them, and the ice split in two, leaving Kallik floating on a small island in the middle of a tiny sea. She couldn't believe how quickly it had happened—one moment they were on solid ice, and the next they were floundering through dark ocean.

Nisa plunged into the water and dug her teeth into the loose skin at Taqqiq's neck. Shivering with fear, Kallik watched from her island as her mother paddled strongly to a large, free-floating chunk of ice and dragged Taqqiq up onto it. He lay panting for a moment, then shook his head, sending out a spray of sparkling water droplets.

“Come on, Kallik!” Nisa called. “Swim over to us!”

“You mean get in the water?” Kallik gulped. “On purpose?”

“You can do it!” her mother said encouragingly. “It's not far.”

Kallik sniffed the edge of the ice. The water smelled salty and fishy and very cold. She splashed a paw in the freezing water and drew back with a shiver. The only other times she'd been in water had been to splash through narrow channels between blocks of ice. This was really swimming, and she didn't know if she could do it. It didn't feel natural like
walking on the ice—there was nothing to hold her up in the water. And she couldn't help thinking of all the bear spirits that had melted into it. Would she be swimming in spirits?

“Kallik, come on, hurry!” Nisa called again. “We have to keep moving toward the land.”

Kallik knew she had to be brave. She couldn't stay on her little island until it melted. She needed to be with her mother and brother, wherever they went. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and leaped into the sea with a giant splash.

Sharp, salty water poured up her nose and she opened her mouth to gasp for air, but instead more water rushed in. Gagging and spitting, she swallowed what felt like half the ocean. Beating her paws against the current, she struggled to the surface and stuck her nose into the air, inhaling a quick breath before the waves swamped her again.

I can do this,
she told herself.
I can swim over there because Mother is waiting for me, and Taqqiq needs to see that I am just as tough as he is.

The force of the current was strong, trying to drag her back to her island, and she could barely see the edge of the ice in front of her as she paddled. Salty waves splashed in her eyes, and her sense of smell was overwhelmed by the sting of the sea in her nose. But she pressed on, keeping her mother's face in sight. She couldn't hear anything over the splashing of the waves, but she could see that Nisa and Taqqiq were both shouting encouragement. Finally she felt her mother's teeth sink into her neck fur and drag her onto the ice.

Gasping for breath, she shook herself as hard as she could and huddled closer to Taqqiq, who was lying flat on his belly
again. It had been freezing in the water, but it was even colder now that she was back in the wind with wet fur.

“Swimming is horrible!” Taqqiq whispered to her.

“It's worse than being chased by giant bears,” Kallik agreed.

“Unfortunately,” said their mother, overhearing them, “we will have to swim to get to land.” They looked at her in horror. “It'll be short swims, wherever we run into water,” Nisa explained. “We'll rest in between as much as we can.”

“Is it always like this?” Kallik asked. “Do you have to swim so far every ice-melt?”

Nisa didn't answer for a while. Then she touched her muzzle to Kallik's. “No, it's not always like this,” she admitted. “Usually we can get much closer to land before we have to start swimming. But we can swim, and we will. If you do as I say and stay close to me, we will make it to land soon.”

Kallik pressed her nose to her mother's muzzle, then reared up and wrapped her paws around her mother's neck. “I will always stay close to you,” she whispered in her mother's ear.

“And always do what I say?” Nisa teased. “Can I have that promise on the Great Bear?” She prodded Taqqiq, nudging him to his paws. “All right, little cubs. See that large piece of ice over there? That's where we're going. Be brave, and move quickly.” She stood up, shaking herself off, and stepped gingerly down to the water's edge.

The chunk of ice they were on was not very large, and it rocked unsteadily below them as Nisa moved. Kallik dug in her claws, feeling a little seasick.

“Whee!” Taqqiq spread out his paws to balance himself. “Come on, Kallik, this is fun. It's kind of like riding on Mother's back.”

“Except if you fall off her back, you're not going to drown,” Kallik pointed out.

“We won't drown,” Taqqiq said, padding to the edge and peering in. Nisa had slipped into the water and was starting to paddle ahead. “I'll protect you, whatever happens. We may be small, but don't forget there's two of us.”

“That's true,” Kallik said, feeling a little better. She followed him down to the water and dabbed at it nervously with her paws. Taqqiq scrunched himself into a ball and leaped in with a huge splash, showering Kallik with water.

“Hey!” she squealed.

“You have to get wet anyway!” he called. “I'm just helping!”

“I'll help
you
!” Kallik spluttered, jumping in after him.

She managed to splash him back, but then the current began tugging at her fur, and she had to paddle her front paws furiously to keep up with her mother. By the time they got to the next piece of ice, her legs felt as if they were going to fall off. She wondered if this was how Silaluk felt, racing around the Pathway Star forever and ever.