Smoke Mountain by Erin Hunter

again? What if the sun keeps eating the night until all the stars are gone?’
    Kallik was shocked. ‘That can’t happen!’ she said. ‘The night always comes back, and so does the ice. It’s just like Mother told us in the story of Silaluk and the hunters. Don’t you remember?’ She swerved around a jagged-looking rock in her path.
    â€˜Then why hasn’t it come back yet?’ Taqqiq challenged. ‘I haven’t seen any ice in moons.’ He splashed his paw down hard in a puddle beside the river, soaking his fur with muddy water.
    â€˜It
will
come back,’ Kallik said, wishing she could sound as sure as their mother always had. ‘Nisa said so.’
    â€˜She didn’t know,’ Taqqiq said bitterly. ‘I think the ice spirits have abandoned us. They have gone intothe sky and are hiding their faces behind the sun. They’re ashamed because they have no power to help us and there’s nothing they can do to save the ice.’
    â€˜Taqqiq . . .’ Kallik began, openly pleading now. She glanced at the dim shapes of the other bears up ahead, their lengthening shadows reaching across the water as they plodded forward. She hoped they couldn’t hear Taqqiq’s anger and despair.
    â€˜Don’t
you
remember?’ Taqqiq said, echoing her words, and now she could hear the deep sadness buried in his voice. ‘Remember the night skies when we were cubs? How bright the stars were, how dark the sky was, and how it went on forever? The snow sparkled under the moon. And we would lie curled up on the clean, cold ice, our noses buried in Mother’s warm fur, listening to her stories –’ His voice cracked and he turned his head away from her.
    â€˜I do remember,’ Kallik said softly, pressing closer to share her warmth with him. ‘It was beautiful and safe on the ice. And we played in the snow while Mother watched – you would be the angry walrus chasing me.’
    They stopped walking, and Taqqiq twisted around to bury his nose in her fur. Kallik felt as though her heart were breaking and filling up at the same time. She had never seen him so sad – but her funny, sweet brother was still inside Taqqiq somewhere.
    The water gurgled over pale, flat stones beside them. With a huff, Taqqiq quickly stepped back. His large white paws splashed in the stream. ‘It’s not like that any more,’ he said gruffly. ‘Those days are over. The ice is gone.’ He hunched his shoulders and shambled away, following the other bears.
    Dismayed, Kallik watched him go. Why couldn’t he be glad that at least they had each other? Toklo’s mother
and
brother had died; Lusa had left her family a long, long way behind to find the brown bears; and she’d never heard Ujurak talk about any family, so perhaps they were all dead too. She and Taqqiq were lucky compared with them. And they also had friends – good friends, not like Salik and those awful cubs Taqqiq had been travelling with before. Surely now things could only get better, and they’d be together when they reached the Endless Ice?
    I wish Mother were here
.
She’d be able to tell us if burn-sky is supposed to be this long
. She started walkingagain, hurrying to catch up with the others.
    A cool breeze ruffled Kallik’s fur, bringing strange smells with it – smells of firebeasts and no-claws and their odd, burned food. A shiver of anxiety trailed through her fur. Nothing good came from being near no-claws. She saw that Lusa had stopped up ahead, sniffing the air with her twitching black nose. The little black bear must have recognised the scents as well.
    Lusa trotted back and circled around Kallik, sniffing some more before she fell into step beside her. ‘I’m pretty sure there’s a flat-face den nearby,’ the black bear huffed. ‘A big one – did you notice all the smells? And either some really big firebeasts or lots of