The Melting Sea by Erin Hunter Page B

she exclaimed, pointing with her muzzle.
    Yakone nodded and let Kallik take the lead as the two white bears raced toward the frozen stream. Kallik pushed through the line of bushes, dislodging snow from their branches, and began scraping away at the water’s edge.
    At first she only found grass, and some small plants with round, dark leaves that obviously weren’t what Lusa needed. Yakone was searching on the opposite bank, but he hadn’t found anything either.
    Suddenly worried that they might lose Toklo and Lusa, Kallik glanced up. Her friends were still visible in the distance; the brown bear had halted and let Lusa slide to the ground, where she sat slumped in a heap. The sight of Lusa so obviously miserable made Kallik search even harder. Her paws thrust the snow aside, and eventually she found the plant she needed, straggling over stones at the very edge of the stream. It had the grayish leaves Lusa had described, and a sharp, pleasant scent.
    â€œI think I’ve found it!” she told Yakone.
    He came to join her and bent his head to sniff the plant. “That looks like it,” he commented. “Let’s take some to Lusa.”
    Very carefully, so as not to crush the juices from the leaves, Kallik picked several of the stems and bounded back across the snow with them gripped firmly in her jaws.
    â€œHere!” she exclaimed, coming to a halt by Lusa’s side. “Are these right?”
    Lusa raised her head, her eyes weary and pain-filled. “They look right,” she said, giving the leaves a cautious sniff. “And they smell good. Thanks, Kallik.”
    â€œYou took your time,” Toklo remarked impatiently while Lusa chewed up the herbs.
    â€œWell, that’s how long it took!” Kallik retorted, fed up with Toklo’s grumpiness.
    Before Toklo could say any more, Yakone interposed, “Anyway, we can get going now. Lusa, do you want to ride on my back?”
    â€œ I’ll carry Lusa,” Toklo insisted with a glare, crouching down to let the small black bear scramble onto his shoulders.
    As they plodded on across the plain, Kallik could see that the herbs were working for Lusa; she visibly relaxed as the pain ebbed, and finally sank into a doze as she lay splayed out on Toklo’s back. She didn’t even wake when they had to cross a couple of small BlackPaths, and only stirred uneasily as they skirted a no-claw den where a couple of dogs were barking.
    â€œI wonder if those are the dogs Lusa had to fight,” Kallik murmured to Yakone.
    â€œI’ve no idea. We’d best stay well away from them to be on the safe side.”
    The sun was sliding toward the horizon by the time that Lusa woke up. She looked much brighter and more alert, sitting bolt upright on Toklo’s back. “Look over there!” she whispered after a few moments. “Aren’t those tracks in the snow?”
    Kallik looked where Lusa was pointing. At once she spotted the pawprints, leading in a straight line toward a clump of bushes several bearlengths away.
    Toklo bent his head to sniff. “A snow hare,” he said. “And the tracks are fresh. Come on, Yakone.”
    Lusa slid down from Toklo’s back, and the two males set out, creeping cautiously toward the bushes. Meanwhile Lusa started to dig down into the snow. Kallik could see that her legs were still stiff and her paws painful after the fight; she was too clumsy to dig effectively.
    Kallik crouched down beside her and began to help, thrusting the snow aside until she uncovered some plants.
    â€œThanks.” Lusa tore off a mouthful of leaves and chewed. “I’m sorry, Kallik,” she went on. “It was stupid of me to go off on my own like that.”
    â€œIt’s okay,” Kallik told her, giving her a friendly touch on the ear with the tip of her muzzle. “You were very brave....”
    Her voice trailed off, but Lusa seemed to understand what Kallik hadn’t