The Polar Bear Explorers' Club by Alex Bell (books for 8th graders TXT) 📕

‘But is that all you have?’ Ethan demanded as Beanie zipped the dogs back up in their case.

‘No, I have plasters too.’ Beanie held up a packet, and Stella was pleased to see that it was blue and had polar bears printed on it.

‘Oh, good,’ the magician said. ‘If one of us does get an arm bitten off by a yeti then I can see you’ll be totally in control of the situation.’

‘Oh, well, actually, you know, a plaster would be no use at all if you were to get your arm bitten off—’

Before Beanie could finish, Ethan dramatically pointed a finger and cried, ‘Great Scott, what in the blazes is that devilish creature?’

They all turned to see Koa, sat a little way off, and regarding them with a cool, calm expression on her handsome face.

‘That,’ Shay said, between gritted teeth, ‘is my shadow wolf, Koa.’

‘Is it rabid?’ Ethan asked with an affronted expression. ‘It looks rabid to me.’

‘Of course she’s not rabid!’ Shay snapped. ‘She’s a shadow animal, you prize idiot.’

‘I thought shadow animals were a fairy tale made up to scare children,’ the magician replied dubiously.

‘Well, guess again,’ Shay responded. ‘For there one sits before you.’ He shook his head, ran his hand through his long hair and said, ‘We’ve wasted enough time squabbling. Let’s load up and be on our way.’ He gave Ethan a look. ‘Before someone says something they might regret.’

‘We have to fix the flag first,’ the magician said, folding his arms over his chest stubbornly.

Stella hadn’t even realised they were carrying the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club flag until now. It had been attached to their sled as the one in front, and still hung limply from the pole at the back.

‘What do you mean fix it?’ she demanded.

‘That’s a Polar Bear club flag,’ Ethan said, pointing at the explorers’ crest. It showed the symbol for all four explorer clubs, but only the polar bear was picked out in gold thread. ‘Well, I’m a member of the Ocean Squid Explorers’ Club.’ He pulled off his glove, snapped his fingers and the black line around the many-tentacled squid turned slowly gold.

‘The first joint expedition in history,’ Shay said, although he didn’t sound too happy about it.

They repacked everything as best they could and Ethan, Beanie and Stella piled into the sled, whilst Shay hopped onto the back to control the wolves. They set off – more slowly this time – deeper into the mountain.

A few hours later they reached the end of the tunnel, a moonlit snowy landscape stretching out beyond. Night had fallen whilst they’d been inside, so the explorers decided to make camp within the shelter of the tunnel for the night and get moving again first thing in the morning. They were all feeling a little unnerved, and Stella couldn’t help wishing Felix was with them. There was a brief argument when Beanie emptied out one of his jars of jellybeans and tried to offer the empty container to Ethan for him to put his teeth into, but once Stella got Beanie to understand that the magician didn’t really have false teeth, and once Ethan had stopped sulking at the suggestion that he did, the junior explorers bedded down in their blankets and sleeping bags, and finally went to sleep.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

That night, Stella had the dream again.

She was sitting on a massive bed, playing with a beautiful tiara. It was covered in crystals and gems and ice-white stones that sparkled and shone in her hands. It was the prettiest thing she had ever seen.

But then the dream shifted, turning into a nightmare. The tiara disappeared and Stella was hiding underneath the bed, staring out at a pair of horribly burnt feet that were slowly walking up and down the room, looking for her. The ruined feet were shrivelled with blackened skin and red, open sores. Every shuffling footstep must have been agony. There were huge angry blisters and crusty old scabs where the toenails ought to be. They were the most terrifying feet that Stella had ever seen.

Don’t cry, Stella told herself. Don’t cry. She’ ll hear you …

And then she was outside in the snow, and there were drops of blood all around, shockingly scarlet. Something bad had just happened. Something really, really bad …

Stella sat up with a gasp, and found herself face to face with Koa, who was peering at her in a concerned kind of way. Shay stood just behind the shadow wolf. ‘Wow,’ he said. ‘That must have been some dream. You were thrashing around hard enough to put your foot through the blanket.’

Stella glanced down and realised that the blankets were indeed in a terrible tangle. Beanie and Ethan were still sound asleep in their own blanket piles, snoring contentedly.

‘Are you all right?’ Shay asked, still looking at her intently.

‘Yes,’ Stella said quickly. ‘It was only a dream.’

She couldn’t help shivering as she remembered it. The burnt feet had never been there before. That had been new. And quite horrible. For some reason she couldn’t put into words, she didn’t want the others to know about her nightmare. She’d never mentioned it to anyone, not even to Felix. She wasn’t sure why. Only that it felt like something she should keep to herself.

So she was relieved when Shay shrugged and said, ‘All right, Sparky. Whatever you say. Let’s wake the others. We ought to be on our way anyway.’

After a hasty and unsatisfying breakfast of tinned Spam, the four junior explorers emerged from the tunnel only to squint and sneeze in the bright light that reflected blindingly off the snow all around them.

‘Snow,’ Ethan complained. ‘Just nothing but snow as far as the eye can see. I knew polar exploration was a waste of time. We’re not going to make any fantastic discoveries here. Absolutely none.’

The others ignored him and proceeded to get out the maps strapped to the back of the sled. Unfortunately, it looked as if