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

‘The compass says to go this way,’ she said, holding it up. ‘And it’s not like anyone’s got any better ideas.’

And so, with the lack of any better ideas, they piled all the blankets they had on top of Ethan – because that rather seemed the thing to do for someone with frostbite – then Shay hopped onto the back of the sled and they set off in the direction of the frozen rainbow. Ethan’s black Ocean Squid cloak didn’t have a furred hood like the Polar Bear ones did, so Beanie tried to offer him his striped pom-pom hat, but Ethan sneered at the offending article with such a look of disgust that Beanie hurriedly replaced it on his own head.

The snow eased a little as they went, and Stella was able to see the rainbow properly. It soared high in the sky, its many colours sparkling in the sunlight that had started to shine through the snow. Stella was pretty sure that she’d read somewhere – probably in one of the scientific journals Felix left lying around the place at home – that a rainbow was not a physical object at all, but an illusion that could not be reached or touched. And yet here they were travelling below a solid, frozen rainbow that definitely could be reached and, presumably, touched. Stella made a mental note to try. It would, she felt, be a very fine thing to return from an expedition having touched an actual rainbow.

As the last snowflakes ceased to fall and the sunlight shone stronger, the snow all around them changed colour, from blue to pink to green and back again. Stella thought the rainbow was one of the most magnificent, beautiful things she had ever seen, and probably would have been quite excited about it if she hadn’t been so worried about Ethan. She really would feel terrible – and at least partly to blame – if he lost all his fingers and toes. Plus, his lips were turning blue, and that couldn’t be a good sign at all, even if he was too vain to wear Beanie’s narwhal hat.

They carried on travelling for the rest of the afternoon, until the sky began to turn a dusky shade of purple velvet. Stella could clearly see the end of the rainbow diving down into the ground, but she couldn’t spot the Yak and Yeti and, for a moment, she felt a deep panic that perhaps there was no such place at all. Perhaps the frosties really had been making it up. After all, who ever heard of a luxurious hotel in the middle of the Icelands? The more she thought of it, the less likely it seemed.

But then she spotted a little hut, huddled in the frozen landscape. An orange sign was lit up against the darkening sky, clearly spelling out the words: Yak and Yeti – only the bulb in the ‘k’ and ‘i’ had gone so, in fact, it read: Ya and Yet. It was not a large place but it did at least look inhabited – there were several sleighs and sleds parked outside it, light spilling from the windows and smoke puffing from the chimneys.

‘It’s there, look!’ Stella said, pointing it out to Shay.

‘That’s not a hotel,’ Shay replied. He squinted at it dubiously. ‘Looks more like a shack.’

‘Well, there’s obviously people in there so it’ll do.’ Stella nudged Ethan, who was huddled in the corner with his eyes closed. Stella really hoped he wasn’t dead or anything. ‘Ethan, we’re there,’ she said, giving him a poke and trying to sound cheerful and reassuring and not at all scared. ‘We’re there.’

The magician groaned and pushed her hand away. ‘Quit p-p-poking m-me,’ he stuttered through frozen lips.

Stella scrambled out of the sled the moment it stopped and hurried around to the side. Ethan stood up but he was slow and unsteady on his feet, and when he tried to get out of the sled he staggered forwards and would have fallen face-first into the snow if Shay hadn’t caught him.

‘I c-c-can’t f-feel my t-t-toes,’ Ethan struggled out the words through his chattering teeth.

‘Let’s get you inside, Prawn,’ Shay replied, draping one of the magician’s arms around his shoulders. Stella took the other arm and they half carried, half dragged him along, with Beanie hurrying behind them.

Stella kicked the door to the Yak and Yeti open with her boot, and for a moment the four of them stood framed in the doorway of what was clearly some kind of tavern. A fire blazed in a large fireplace that took up most of one wall, and there were candles placed on rickety wooden tables, but no electric lights like back home. A smell of pine needles, wood smoke and spilled beer hung about the place – but it was dry and warm, and that alone made it inviting.

The occupants of the tables went instantly silent at the sight of the explorers, and with just the crackle and pop of the fire in the background, you could have heard a pin drop. Or a goose honk. Stella had forgotten about her, but not wanting to be left behind, the goose had followed them into the tavern and promptly waddled across the room where she settled herself quite happily in front of the fire, fluffing her feathers and making herself comfortable.

There were perhaps ten or fifteen men sat at the tables in the Yak and Yeti, and they all looked rather terrifying. Stella saw a lot of facial scars, glass eyes and grim tattoos. She also saw an awful lot of weapons lying about. She gulped and then winced at how loud that noise sounded in the silent room. She tried to compensate by glaring at the men instead.

‘Are you outlaws?’ one of them asked. He had a great big black beard and a tattoo of a skull on his right cheek.

‘What?’ Shay said. ‘No, of course not! We’re