Great Bear Lake Read Online Free PDF Page B

the ice returned, where the bears were gathering.
    â€œMaybe Taqqiq will be waiting for me,” she said aloud.
    She set out, facing into the wind, following the scent of thewater. The dim light faded until she was walking in darkness, but the smell still guided her pawsteps.
    She was tiring as she plodded up an endless slope, with no trees to shelter her from the wind, and scratchy grass under her paws. Her legs felt too heavy to lift, and there was an ache between her shoulders. Hunger had begun to gnaw at her belly again. But she kept going, sure that the water she was seeking was not far away.
    At last she reached the crest of the hill and looked down. In front of her paws, the ground fell away steeply; a few bearlengths below her lay a dark stretch of water.
    But this was not the place Kallik had been hoping to find. There was no sign of ice, no sign of other bears. The only sound was the water lapping gently among the reeds that fringed it. And she could just make out the shore on the other side of the water. It was as if the bay had reached a paw into the land. She remembered the vast stretches of glittering ice where she had been born, and thought that her heart would break in two from longing to be back there.
    â€œWhere am I?” Kallik cried, but there was no bear to answer her. “What’s happening to me?”
    She looked up into the night sky, hoping to see the Pathway Star hanging in the darkness to guide her. But all she could see was the mist. Terror and confusion swept over her again; she felt as helpless as a fish flapping out of the sea. She could smell salt and seaweed, but no trace of the ice she craved. She would have to struggle on even farther before she found it, and she didn’t know which way to go.
    Stumbling with weariness, she made her way down the slope, weaving among scrubby plants and rocks until she reached the water’s edge. She climbed onto a dark rock that poked out over the water and crouched there, gazing into the indigo depths.
    The wind picked up, shaking the reeds and rippling the surface of the water. Her mother had told her that all water was melted ice, but Kallik felt no sense of familiarity with this strange place. Instead, the darkness seemed to beckon to her, and she remembered how her mother, Nisa, had slipped away, saving Kallik from the orca. Kallik fought the temptation to slide into the water like her mother, to let it close over her head and cover her. Then she wouldn’t have to struggle anymore, and maybe she would find her mother’s spirit somewhere below the restless surface.
    Kallik stretched out her paw, reaching down to touch the ripples.
    Taaaaa…qqiiiiq .
    She snatched back her paw and pricked her ears.
    She could hear the lapping of water against the rocks, and the wind stirring the reeds. It sounded like the whispering of the ice spirits.
    Taaaa…qqiiiiq, it came again.
    Hot shame swept over Kallik. She had been within heartbeats of giving up. In her dream her mother had told her that she was strong, and Nanuk had said the same. Kallik didn’t feel strong, but she knew she had to keep going. The sound of her brother’s name on the wind made her realize that shecouldn’t leave this life without knowing what had happened to him.
    â€œIce spirits, where should I go?”
    She looked up. The night sky was muddy looking and starless, and offered no guidance. She closed her eyes and tried to picture the Pathway Star. Her memories of the harsh sound of the metal bird and the roaring flames clouded her thoughts. She opened her eyes, but there was still no sign of the star.
    â€œWhere are you?” Kallik called. “I need you.”
    She dropped her head and stared at the water as the wind shook the reeds. As she stared, a tiny speck of light appeared on the water. The Pathway Star . She didn’t dare to look up, but she knew it was shining above her, beyond the spur of water, guiding her paws along the edge