The Quest Begins by Erin Hunter Page A

don’t forget there’s two of us.”
    â€œThat’s true,” Kallik said, feeling a little better. She followed him down to the water and dabbed at it nervously with her paws. Taqqiq scrunched himself into a ball and leaped in with a huge splash, showering Kallik with water.
    â€œHey!” she squealed.
    â€œYou have to get wet anyway!” he called. “I’m just helping!”
    â€œI’ll help you !” Kallik spluttered, jumping in after him.
    She managed to splash him back, but then the current began tugging at her fur, and she had to paddle her front paws furiously to keep up with her mother. By the time they got to the next piece of ice, her legs felt as if they were going to fall off. She wondered if this was how Silaluk felt, racing around the Pathway Star forever and ever.
    Kallik gripped the ice with her front paws, churning her back paws in the water as she tried to shove herself up. A firm nudge from behind boosted her up and out onto solid ice; then Kallik turned around and sank her teeth into Taqqiq’s fur, helping to drag him out as well.
    Nisa pulled herself out beside them, looking pleased. “See?You’re swimming like seals already!” But Kallik noticed that her mother was shaking, and she wasn’t sure that it was just with cold.
    At least this piece of ice was much larger than the last one. Here they could walk for a while over the snow, which was easier than swimming. But the sky was cloudy and gray, and for once Kallik wished that the sun was shining, because the freezing wind seemed to tug at each one of her wet hairs with fierce little teeth. She kept her head bent low so that snow wouldn’t blow up her nose, and she pressed her flank to her mother’s to shield herself from the wind as much as she could. On her other side, Taqqiq pressed close, so they could share their body warmth.
    Kallik hadn’t even noticed when the sun had gone away, but now there were masses of clouds above them again. She could tell from the smell of them that they weren’t snow clouds; it was too warm for that, although she didn’t feel warm right now. Those were rain clouds, and if they opened up, things would get even worse. The only time Kallik had seen it rain, everything got very slippery, and with the ice already melting, she knew that walking would be much harder in a storm.
    The sun was beginning to set when Nisa paused at another wide channel of water. She sniffed the air and stared across to the blue-white sparkle of ice on the other side. To Kallik it looked skylengths away.
    â€œDo we have to swim again already?” she whimpered. “Can’t we keep walking along the ice?”
    â€œWe have to go in this direction,” Nisa said. “The land isthat way. Can’t you smell it?”
    Kallik tried, but the scent of the water was too strong. “But I’m so tired,” she protested.
    â€œMe, too,” Taqqiq complained. “I just want to lie here until I can feel my paws again.”
    â€œI’ll take you across one by one,” Nisa said. “Stay close to me, and I’ll help you.”
    Kallik knew she had to be brave. Her mother would have to make the trip three times to take them both across, and if she could do that, Kallik wanted to show that she could be strong, too.
    â€œYou go first,” Taqqiq said, flopping down on the ice and resting his head on his paws.
    â€œOkay,” Kallik said. “I can do it, I know I can.”
    â€œI’m very proud of you,” Nisa whispered, her breath warm on Kallik’s ear. “Everything will be all right once we get to land, I promise.”
    Kallik and Nisa plunged in. Kallik let out a puff of glee at the giant splash they sent up together. She tried to copy her mother’s graceful pawstrokes, gliding through the sea like her, but the water kept washing up her nose, making her cough and splutter.
    The ocean stretched away in every