Free The Melting Sea by Erin Hunter

topmost rock of all. On the opposite side from where Yakone had jumped, there was a flat stretch of snow that seemed to be inviting Toklo to land on it. “Here I go!” he shouted.
    From below he heard Yakone’s voice. “Toklo, wait! That’s—”
    But Toklo took no notice, pushing off from the edge of the rock and hurtling downward with his paws splayed out. A moment later he landed on snow so hard-packed and densely frozen that it felt like stone. All the breath was driven out of his body, and his head was filled with glittering light and darkness.
    From close by he heard Lusa shrieking. “Toklo! Move!”
    Toklo’s senses swam back. He could hear a deafening rumble and see a dark shape looming over him. Blinking, he made out a firebeast bearing down on him, its yellow eyes glaring and its round black paws churning the snow.
    With a yelp of terror Toklo scrabbled at the hard surface, thrusting himself to one side as the firebeast roared past. He felt a blast of hot air wash over his fur and collapsed in a heap as the firebeast vanished into the distance.
    Kallik, Yakone, and Lusa came slithering down to join him. Their eyes were wide with shock, their playful mood of a few moments before vanished completely.
    â€œOh, Toklo!” Lusa gasped. “I was so scared …”
    â€œAre you completely bee-brained?” Kallik snarled, standing over Toklo. “You could have hurt yourself badly, jumping from way up there, even if there hadn’t been a firebeast.”
    Toklo was too stunned to retort, vaguely aware that Kallik was only angry because she had been terrified for him.
    â€œYou can tell that there’s a BlackPath under the snow here,” Yakone began. “It’s too flat, for a start. And the surface is really hard-packed ice if you look closely … it reflects the light differently.”
    â€œYeah, well, we’re not all snow experts, okay?” Toklo growled, trying to conceal his fear and embarrassment. “And I’m fine, so what’s the problem?”
    â€œYou nearly weren’t fine,” Lusa reminded him, and added, “It could have been any of us, straying onto the BlackPath without noticing. We’ve been away from firebeast trails for so long, we aren’t used to looking for them.”
    Kallik nodded, scraping at the layer of frozen snow on the BlackPath with one paw. “This one’s well hidden,” she murmured. “Maybe the firebeasts don’t want anyone to know it’s there?”
    Toklo scrambled to his paws and looked around, alert for any more firebeasts or flat-faces. His friends did the same; he could sense the tension behind their wary glances.
    Lusa crouched down and put her ear to the ground. “There’s another firebeast coming!” she announced.
    All four bears dashed for the cover of the huge outcrop of rocks. Moments later a huge firebeast loomed up out of the distance and roared past on vast round paws, scattering snowmelt onto the side of the BlackPath.
    Yakone’s eyes were bulging as his gaze followed it. “They’re so big!” he exclaimed. “Back on Star Island, the firebeasts were really tiny.”
    â€œYou’re not on Star Island now,” Toklo reminded him.
    Yakone ignored him. “You’re so brave!” he said to Kallik. “I had no idea what you had to go through on your journey.”
    Somehow the white bear’s words annoyed Toklo. “The firebeasts are no threat if you know how to handle them,” he pointed out. “They mostly keep to their trails.”
    â€œIt’s the flat-faces in their bellies that you have to worry about,” Lusa added.
    Yakone gaped. “They have flat-faces in their bellies? Have the firebeasts eaten them?”
    Kallik shook her head. “Not exactly. They seem fine when they get out. They’re not chewed up or anything. Just like when we hid inside the firebeast when the