Page 9 of Polar Fates
I get up on my knees sink into Torben’sarms.
“She’s so sad,” I whisper. “But there’s nothing I can say to make itbetter.”
He gently rubs my back and I welcome the comfort he gives me. The others are quiet, giving us some space. Slowly, my feelings return back to normal. I’m still sad for Alis, but it’s my own sadness, nothers.
When I leave Torben’s embrace, I notice that Húnn is no longer in theroom.
“Where did hego?”
“He was worried he might set Alis off further so he decided to leave. Want me to call him backin?”
I nod. All Húnn did was state how sceptical he is about it all. Which I would have done too had I not seen some of Alis’s strangememories.
I sit back down on the sofa next to Ràn who hesitantly puts an arm around my shoulders. I lean against him, smelling his scent. Even before I turned bear, I recognised each of their individual scents, but now it’s even stronger. I can smell them from another room – not in a bad way. They don’t stink. I smile. What would they say if they knew that I’m thinking about theirscents?
Húnn returns, giving me a smallsmile.
“It’s okay, it wasn’t your fault,” I tell him and pat the sofa next to me, inviting him to take a seat there. I like sitting between the two brothers. It makes my ovarieshappy.
“I’ll try and keep an open mind,” is all he says and I’m okay with that. He puts an arm around my waist and everything is okay again. Except for the low wails in my head. Alis is still crying. I shut it out, it’s nothelping.
“So everyone agrees that we should go to the beach and see what happens?” I ask and everybody nods. EvenHúnn.
I hesitate before I voice my suspicion. “That girl who was there with the traders this morning. She was strange, she didn’t seem to fit in with them. And her eyes… I don’t know, I found hercreepy.”
“The redhead?” Finn asks and I nod. “I didn’t notice anything special about her, except that her hair wasamazing.”
Igrowl.
“Not as amazing as yours, of course,” he hastens toadd.
“Besides of her hair, did any of you get a strange feeling from her?” I ask but it seems I’m the only one with that premonition. “Well, I think it might be her meetingus.”
“A girl? She didn’t seem older than fifteen perhaps?” Bertie issceptical.
“I know but her eyes… they were older. Much older. I don’t know how to describe it… anyway, my bets are onher.”
“We’ll see in a moment. It’s sunset in less than twenty minutes, we should leave,” Arnold says with a glance at hiswatch.
As much as I hate leaving the warmth of the two bears sitting on either side of me, I’m also excited about what’s going to happen. Time to go and findout.
Four
There’s nobody to be seen when we reach the beach. The sun is setting to our right, turning the gently lapping waves a beautiful shade of orange. The trading ship is anchored far out and there’s no boat in sight. It doesn’t look like anyone will be coming from the ship, but maybe they’relate.
Torben looks like he’s anticipating a threat. He’s in a defensive stand, ready to shift any second. The other bears are similar, except for Húnn and myself. I trust Alis to come out and shift us if the need arises. She can shift faster than the guys, but it’s her doing the shifting, not me. All I do is open my mind to her and let her take over. It still goes against all my instincts, but it works. And if I expect her to let me have full control while we’re human, I better give her the steering wheel when we’re a polarbear.
I chuckle to myself. Yup, we’re a polar bear, occasionally. Life isstrange.
“Yes, it is,” a melodious voice says behind us, making me jump. It’s the girl from earlier, as I predicted. She looks the same, except that her green eyes are glowing now. Like cat’s eyes that are hit by light.Creepy.
Torben takes a protective stance in front of me. Silly man, I know how to protect myself. I can feel Alis watching, close to the surface, ready tojump.
“Thanks for coming,” the girl says, looking at us curiously. That makes her even creepier. She looks at us as if we’re strange, unusual, even though she’s the one with the glowingeyes.
“Isla, would you mind calling off yourbears?”
“They’re not mine to call off,” I reply coldly, but I notice that Torben’s claws retract at mywords.
