Page 20 of Polar Fates
“But first, we need to work. Maybe we’ll be luckier today. Is everybody ready to headout?”
Torben is being the voice of reason. The leader. I sigh. Breakfast would have been nice, but I assume Alis will catch something for us.Yuck.
* * *
Four hours later,we still haven’t seen anything. I let Alis do her thing, adding scents and landmarks to her mental map. I snooze while watching the grey landscape around us. A thick fog is beginning to drift from the sea, giving everything an eerie feel. Alis’s fur is slowly getting wet, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She was right about the mud though. Her feet are cloaked in it and her legs are an ugly brown instead of her usually pristine whitefur.
She complains about it every few minutes, but I’m learning to tune her out. I’m grumpy enough already without having to listen to a just as grumpy bear. I mentally lean back, preparing tosleep.
Pelja! Alis suddenly shouts and takes off, running inland, away from the coast we’d justapproached.
What’s wrong with Húnn’sbear?
He’s called for help. He’s inpain.
Worry fills my mind. If Pelja is in trouble, so is Húnn. They’re one, bound even closer than Alis andI.
Alis is running as fast as she can, but I still have to fight the urge to tell her to hurry up. Húnn has to be okay, he has to. Did he fall? Was he attacked? But there’s nobody on this island besidesus.
Except for that girl. The servant of the Fates. She didn’t look very strong though. Húnn could kill her with one swipe of hispaw.
My head is spinning. I can feel Alis’s worry filter through our bond, increasing my own. Even though she’s not romantically involved with the bears, she sees them as her sleuth. Her males who she’s responsible for. I’m not sure if she’s even friends with them yet, but they definitely see her as one of them. She could be their leader if she decided to challenge Torben; we all know she’d win. But she hasn’t done that and for that, they all respecther.
Alis stops without warning, slithering on the muddy ground before coming to ahalt.
He’sgone.
What do you mean, he’sgone?!
I can’t feel him anymore. He was there and now he...disappeared.
Cold dread fills me. Gone. How can he be gone? That’simpossible.
I don’t know where to go. Without ourconnection...
Alis sounds just as helpless as Ifeel.
We’re standing at the foot of a small hill, with nothing around us but moor, grass and the occasional moss-covered boulder. The fog is beginning to reach this part of the island too, clinging to the ground with wispy fingers. There’s no sign of Húnn. No sign ofanyone.
Alis shouts out for Pelja; a pulsing, deep-throated noise that would make me shiver if I was in my own body. There’s so much pain and anxiety in thatcry.
The fog almost swallows the reply of another bear, but we just about hear it. Alis starts running towards the sound, her paws whirling up mud high into the air. I don’t know the bears well enough to tell them apart by their calls - they only make those when they’re distressed - but despite the anguish in it, it’shope.
Whoever is calling might know what happened to Húnn. Maybe they even sawit.
We run faster than we’ve ever run before, but somehow, the fog is faster than us. Within minutes, everything around us is white. It’s thick mist that looks almost solid. Alis stops and I can feel herconfusion.
This isn’tnatural.
I completely agree. The fog is muffling all sounds and scents around us. I can feel Alis’s fear. She’s not used to having her senses dampened like that. Even to me, the sudden absence of the usual animal scent marks around us isworrying.
Alis huffs, her breath leaving slight distortions in the fog. I’ve learned that bears communicate silently most of the time; they rarely growl or make louder noises. Usually, her huff would travel far and tell other bears that she wants their attention. In this fog, I doubt anyone will hear her. If I was in my human form, I’d shout at the top of my lungs, but I don’t think it’d be wise to shift now. Alis is a lot stronger than I could ever be. If we’re in danger, she’s the one who’s most likely tosurvive.
Urgh, am I actually thinking of survival? That would mean we’re really in danger. Actual, deadly danger. That’s something... unreal. That doesn’t happen to people. But after Húnn disappeared just likethat...
Alis sniffs the air, but I can sense her frustration. There’s nothing. No sound, no scent, not eventaste.
She begins to run again and I’m hoping she remembers where the other bear’s call came from. It’s so foggy that I can’t even see the ground we’re running on. It’s like we’re inside a cloud that is moving along with us, not letting us out of its clutches. I’m beginning to feel claustrophobic. Living on a Scottish island, I’m used to foggy mornings, but this is different. This feels bad. Evil.Ominous.
