Wikal

CALLI Snow crunched underpaw.Stars lit the night sky.Calli padded across the frozen landscape.She twisted her head to watch the sun rising on the horizon.Another day would come.It would go.Calli would still be alone.

Calli saw a seal hole a few bearlengths away.Walking slowly,careful not to make a sound on the creaking ice,she neared the hole.Closer,closer...

As she sat by the hole,she watched it.In her mind she could see the seal popping up.She could see it hanging in her jaws.Preparing to catch the prey,Calli sat stone still.

A seal popped its brown head above the water.Seeing Calli,it prepared to dive.Stretching out a paw,she tried to pull the prey onto the ice,so she could give it a killing bite.

The seal ducked quickly,escaping the outstretched claws.Calli grunted in frustration and went to keep walking endlessly across the Frozen Sea.



Calli yawned,sunlight sparkling on the snow.Getting to her paws,she continued walking.And walking.And walking.

She never kept track of how far she walked.All she knew was she had to keep going.She didn't know why she kept going.But she did.

“Cub,Where's your mother?"Calli turned to see a cub flying towards her across the snow covered ice.

“I have no mother.I'm alone."Calli stated,saying no more.

The cub looked at her curiously,then began speaking once more.“I have no mother,either.She....she died when..."The cub left the sentence hanging.Calli knew what she meant.Her mother had died in the same accident.

Ice had cracked and snow drifts caved in,trapping many bears.Some where pushed underwater,unable to swim up,and they drowned.Some couldn't breath under the snow.Calli still remembered her mother's face as she struggled to make it towards Calli.Then the snow had covered her head,and Calli never saw her again.

“Who are you?"The cub asking,bringing Calli back to the present.

She didn't trust this cub.She had been on her own long enough to know white bears traveled alone.“Calli."

“I'm Wikal."



Wikal and Calli padded slowly across the ice.Calli didn't know why the cub had joined her,but Calli was content to let her,at  least for a while.

“I'm going to the place where the sun sets."Wikal murmured.

Calli looked at her.Why would any bear want to go there?She knew there wasn't ice that way.Just land,and she didn't know how any proper bear could live there.

Wikal stopped walking and turned to Calli.“Would you come with me?"