This week's prompt:
The Last Glacier
"I'm telling you, I saw one."
"Stop lying, Joey. Everybody knows there aren't any left."
"Honest! It was big and white and crawled right out of the water."
Kathy just shook her head and kept walking. But a hint of a smile curled the corner of her mouth.
"Joey, there's nothing you can say that will make me believe you."
"But--"
"Nothing you can *say*."
Joey stopped in his tracks. He stood for a moment, then pulled his phone from his pocket.
"I'll prove it!" He waved his phone at the remnant of the glacier. The last glacier on Earth floated in the lake formed by its melt water.
Kathy barked a laugh. "From here? With that? It'll just be a dot on the picture."
"No. I'll get up close. I'll climb up on top like we used to."
"The glacier's a protected site now. No one's allowed up there anymore." Her tone was more cajoling than recriminating.
"We...I know how to sneak on."
***
Hunger. Hunger. Hunger weakened her. Hunger took her children. Hunger ruled what few thoughts she had.
***
Joey pulled himself up to the top of the crevasse. It had taken all night to paddle his kayak across to the mountain of ice and find the passage he and Kathy had discovered before half of the glacier had disappeared into the surrounding waters.
The low-angled rays of the rising sun shone up through the ice, turning it into a pale pink landscape. Just as Joey's eyes adjusted to the light, a shadow fell across him and a set of four inch claws sank into his back.
***
With her last strength the last polar bear dragged the strange-looking seal up onto the ice. It was skinny and tough, but she might last another day.