Page 21 of Polar Fates
I’m sure we should have reached the other bear by now. It didn’t sound that far away and Alis is fast. She seems to come to the same conclusion and comes to ahalt.
I don’t know what to do and I assume Alis is thinking the same - but of course she’d never admit that. She’s tooproud.
She gets up onto her hind legs, making herself as tall as possible, before bellowing a loud call. It’s a desperate sound, one I never hope to hear again. Alis is calling forhelp.
Slowly, she sinks back onto all fours. There is no reply. We’re on ourown.
Alis continues to walk, carefully putting one paw in front of the other. She’s cautious and I can feel how her muscles are tense, ready to jump and fight. She’s not even thinking of fleeing. No, she’s hoping to fight whoever is doing this. Someone is behind this. Someone took Húnn, or hurt him, or .... no, I won’t think about that. The same someone may have summoned this strangefog.
She sniffs the airagain.
Someone’scoming.
Suddenly, I’m almost glad for the fog. With our white fur, it camouflages us perfectly, even better thansnow.
Alis sniffs once more and breathes a sigh ofrelief.
It’sOrson.
She steps forward and almost bumps into the dark brown bear looking at us in surprise. Ràn’s bear is breathing hard; he must have been running here as well after hearing his brother’s call forhelp.
Alis is talking to him, but I can’t hear it. That’s the unfair thing about our situation: when I’m human, she can hear what I’m saying to the guys, but when we’re shifted, I have no clue what she’s discussing with the bears. I’m relying on her to tell me what’s goingon.
I wait impatiently, tempted to nudge her. But I know she’s going to give me an update as soon as she knowsmore.
Orson wasn’t the one who called, so it must have been Torben or Mahon. And he felt the same loss of connection with his brother as I did.She pauses for a moment.He’s very upset. I think humans would hug now, but... Ican’t.
Do you want toshift?
No, it’s too dangerous. Let’s do the touchy-feely stuff later. We need to find theothers.
As one, the two bears stand up and roar into the fog. Together, they may be loud enough to be heard by Finn and Torben. I hope. But they may still be on the other end of the island, where they were scouting their assigned areas. It might take them ages to get here. Too long to just stand here and wait. We need to find out what happened toRàn.
My heart hurts at the thought ofhim.
Honey, Alis suddenly says.I can smellhoney.
Huh?
Alis doesn’t reply and starts walking, sniffing the ground as she goes. Orson follows her, just as entranced at the scent asAlis.
Alis! What are youdoing?
Again, no reply. What’s going on? Is this some kind of spell they’re under? Is this atrap?
Snap out of it, Alis! Don’t follow thescent!
She’s not listening. I pound against the barrier between our minds, trying to get her attention, but she simply swats me away like a fly. She’s far too strong for me to take over. But she’s walking into danger. This can’t begood.
Alis breaks into a run, following the invisible lure. Honey. Of course it’s honey. All bears love that stuff. Howironic.
I don’t even notice that the fog is getting less until the first ray of sun hits the ground in front of us, illuminating a... crack. A rip. That’s the only way I can describeit.
It’s as if there’s a piece missing. A piece of everything. It’s about as long as I am and several times as wide. I’d call it a hole but it’s not. If it was a hole in the ground, there’d be a tunnel down and darkness. There’d be an end to it. Beyond this crack there’s nothing. No colour, no light, no darkness. Its cragged edges are like cuts in the earth: harsh and violent. And there’s nothing beyondthem.
I just can’t get my head around it. There’s alwayssomething, even if it’s just air and light. But this… It’sempty. Devoid of life. It makes me dizzy just looking at thecrack.
I want to turn around and run as fast as I can, away from this unnatural hole-that-isn’t-a-hole. I shout at Alis to run, to leave this place, but she does the opposite: she jumps into thecrack.
