Free The Melting Sea by Erin Hunter Page B

Toklo,” she said. “I think it’s a great idea if they hunt on the ice. I can find food here, and we can wait for them.”
    Toklo glared at the white bears. Will they really come back? he wondered.
    Yakone dipped his head. “We’ll be back before you know it,” he said, as if he had guessed what was bothering Toklo. “Our journey isn’t over yet.”
    â€œThat’s settled then,” Lusa said comfortably. “Come on, Toklo, eat up. I want to see the Melting Sea!”
    â€œI’m not hungry anymore,” Toklo grunted, turning his back on his catch and stalking away.
    He heard pawsteps behind him and realized that Kallik had followed him. “You must eat, Toklo,” she said gently. “You need your strength. We need your strength. There’s still a ways to the shore.”
    Feeling slightly ashamed, Toklo returned and devoured his catch, feeling full-fed for the first time in days. When he had finished, Kallik took the lead again and they headed once more toward the Melting Sea.
    From here the plain was crossed by more small BlackPaths. Yakone was good at spotting them under the snow, and Toklo tried not to feel jealous of his skill. They crossed cautiously, listening for firebeasts, and hiding behind rocks and bushes when they roared past.
    They hadn’t gone much farther when Lusa halted, gazing into the distance. “Look!” she exclaimed. “Flat-face dens!”
    Toklo followed her gaze and saw a few dens clustered beside one of the BlackPaths. A couple of firebeasts were crouched outside, and he picked up the harsh tang of oil on the air.
    It feels weird, seeing their denning places again , he thought. It’s been so long since we’ve been near that many flat-faces .
    â€œBest to stay away from them,” he grunted, and took the lead to pass the flat-face dens at a safe distance.
    As the sun went down, Toklo began to realize how weary he was. Kallik’s and Yakone’s paws were dragging, and Lusa kept stumbling as she tried to keep up. The run down the mountain had sapped their energy, and now every pawstep took a massive effort.
    â€œWe won’t be able to reach the Melting Sea today,” Kallik admitted at last, her voice regretful. “We’d better find somewhere to spend the night.”
    Toklo couldn’t help wondering if she and Yakone wished they had shared the hares when they had the chance, but he didn’t say anything.
    Gazing around, Toklo couldn’t see anywhere that would be a good place for a den: no deep hollows or rocks big enough to give them proper shelter. They padded on into the gathering twilight and eventually found a clump of scrubby bushes.
    â€œI suppose this is better than nothing,” Kallik said, beginning to scrape the snow away from underneath the outer branches.
    Lusa sniffed a spray of shriveled leaves and backed off with a disgusted look on her face. “Yuck! I wouldn’t eat those even if I were starving.”
    While Toklo and Yakone were helping Kallik to clear the snow away, Toklo noticed that Yakone kept glancing around nervously.
    â€œWe ought to keep a watch,” the white male said when the makeshift den was ready. “With all these no-claws around, and those huge firebeasts …”
    All these no-claws? Toklo thought. Wait until he sees a really big flat-face denning area! But he knew that Yakone had a point. Now that they were drawing closer to flat-face places, they would meet all kinds of unexpected dangers. “Good idea,” he said aloud. “I’ll take the first watch.”
    When his friends had huddled down into the scanty shelter of the bushes and were snoring softly, Toklo sat gazing back at the mountains they had just crossed.
    Our journey has been hard , he thought. But would it have been better to keep traveling, instead of returning to a place where we’ll have to leave our friends behind?

CHAPTER EIGHT
Lusa
    Lusa lay