The Last Wilderness

‘Oh, Ujurak!’ Kallik whispered. ‘Come and find us, and then we can all get out of here.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE:

  Toklo

  Toklo peered cautiously out from the shelter of the firebeast. Loud noises were still coming from the white building, but for the moment he couldn’t see any flat-faces.

  ‘We can’t go yet,’ he muttered. ‘We’d better wait until things quieten down, and then we’ll look for Ujurak.’

  He tensed as he spotted movement above them. Something with large wings fluttered down from the sky, and a few moments later a small brown bear cub crept out from the shadows, blinking nervously. He spotted Toklo’s head poking out from hiding, and bounded across to him.

  ‘You found me!’ Ujurak yelped. ‘Oh, it’s so good to see you again!’

  Toklo stared at him. Relief flooded through him, making his pelt tingle, coupled with sheer exasperation at Ujurak’s cheerful tone. After all we’ve been through, he turns up as if we’re in the middle of the forest chasing beetles for fun!

  ‘Get behind here,’ he snapped, reaching out a paw to give Ujurak a cuff around his ear. ‘Do you want the flat-faces to take you away again?’

  ‘It’s so great that you came to find me!’ Ujurak chattered as he squeezed into the narrow space beside Toklo.

  ‘Where have you been?’ Toklo growled. ‘The flat-faces almost caught us in there!’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Ujurak said. Toklo could see he was trying to look penitent, but his eyes were shining. ‘I was being an owl, looking around this place, and then I saw you come out of the hospital. I’m so glad to see you.’

  Kallik and Lusa pressed up to him and thrust their snouts into his fur.

  ‘Welcome back,’ Kallik murmured.

  ‘I was scared we’d never find you,’ Lusa confessed.

  ‘I knew you would! Did you find the little bears I left for you? Did you –’

  ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re in danger, bee-brain,’ Toklo interrupted. ‘There’s no time to stand around. Flat-faces are hunting us.’

  Ujurak glanced over his shoulder as a flat-face ran past with a firestick in his hands, never noticing the four bears huddled in the gap between the firebeast and the wall. ‘Oh, these are good flat-faces,’ he assured Toklo. ‘They won’t hurt us.’

  ‘They’re firing darts at us, Ujurak,’ Toklo pointed out.

  ‘That’s right,’ Kallik added. ‘They won’t kill us, but they’ll put us to sleep and take us to the place where the hungry bears are kept. I know; I’ve been there. And then we won’t be together any more.’

  ‘We have to get out of here now.’ Toklo shoved past Ujurak and peered around the end of the firebeast. He could hear voices in the distance, but there were no flat-faces nearby. ‘Come on; it looks quiet.’

  ‘Wait,’ Ujurak said. ‘I need to tell you something. I’ve found out what the flat-faces are doing. They’re taking oil from the land.’

  ‘So what?’ Toklo grunted. ‘What’s oil, anyway? Will it help us find prey? If not, they can have it, as far as I’m concerned.’

  Ujurak turned to face him, the fur on his shoulders standing on end and the light in his eyes replaced with something harder and colder. Toklo had never seen him like this before; he only just stopped himself from taking a step back.

  ‘Oil is stinking black stuff,’ Ujurak snarled. ‘I can smell it on your pelt, Toklo. The flat-faces want it, so they built all this to help them get it.’

  ‘But Ujurak –’ Kallik stammered, coming up to stand beside him. ‘It’s flat-face stuff. It doesn’t have anything to do with bears.’

  ‘Oh, no?’ Ujurak swung round to face her, quiet fury in his voice. ‘You’ve seen what it’s like here. Filthy, noisy, reeking . . . Well, the flat-faces want to make everything like this. They want to put their stinking structures where the caribou come to feed.’

  ‘Why?’ Kallik blinked, her gaze troubled. ‘What harm have the caribou done to them?’

  ‘The flat-faces take oil from the ground,’ Ujurak told her. ‘That’s what all this is for. The towers pump up the oil and the pipes carry it to where the flat-faces want it. I don’t know why, but they need it badly. They’re prepared to sacrifice the wild to get it. Not just here, Kallik, but on the ice too.’

  ‘They can’t!’ Kallik’s eyes stretched wide with alarm. ‘Flat-faces can’t live out on the ice.’

  Ujurak pressed closely against her side. ‘I’m sorry, Kallik, but they can.’

  ‘Then what can we do about it?’ the white bear asked.

  ‘I don’t know. But we must have faith.’ Ujurak’s voice quivered. ‘We have come all this way for a reason. I think we have been sent here to stop it all.’

  ‘I can’t believe you just said that,’ Toklo stated flatly. Does the squirrel-brained cub really think that anything we do will stop the flat-faces? ‘We have to leave here, and go into the mountains. You said that they’re going to build their structures on the plain, so the mountains will be safe.’

  Ujurak shook his head; there was such certainty in his expression that Toklo gulped.

  ‘No,’ the smaller cub hissed. ‘Once it starts, nowhere is safe. The caribou flat-faces have been protecting this place until now, but they cannot protect it any longer. Nowhere is safe,’ he repeated. ‘Oil will destroy everything you know. Flat-faces will break the ice and tear down the trees to find it. Now do you understand why we have to do something?’

  Suddenly Lusa started forward; she had listened in silence until now, her gaze fixed on Ujurak. Toklo stepped back with a huff of irritation as she brushed past him and buried her snout in Ujurak’s shoulder.

  ‘We have to save the wild,’ she whispered.

  Briefly Toklo wondered what would happen if he refused to go one step further with Ujurak. Would any of the others follow him if he turned round and walked away? Remembering the days he had spent alone in the woods, he didn’t want to put it to the test.

  The sound of the firebeast with the wailing call, growing louder still, made up Toklo’s mind for him.

  ‘We can’t stand around here,’ he growled. ‘Does anyone know how to get out of here?’

  ‘I’m really confused,’ Lusa complained. ‘This way, maybe?’

  Before they could move, two flat-faces appeared around the corner. One of them carried a firestick, and he let out a yell of amazement as he spotted the bears.

  ‘Go!’ Ujurak growled.

  As the bears emerged into the open, more shouts broke out from further down the BlackPath, and another firestick made a cracking sound.

  ‘There are more of them!’ Lusa gasped. ‘Run!’

  The barking of dogs echoed behind them as they fled. Another wailing firebeast was bearing down on them, its eyes glaring; Toklo skidded round a corner into a narrow alley to avoid it, his friends hard on his paws.

  ‘Why are the flat-faces chasing us like this?’ Ujurak panted, trying to keep pace with the bigger cub. ‘Do they hate us?’

  ‘Not all of them do,’ Lusa responded. ‘Hey, Kallik and Toklo, remember the little cub who looked out of her den and waved at us? She looked as if she liked bears.’ Lusa began to slow down. ‘I wonder . . .’

  ‘Absolutely not,’ Toklo snapped. ‘If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, we can’t trust any flat-faces, not even cubs.’

  ‘What choice do we have?’ Lusa asked. ‘The forest is far away and we’re lost. We don’t know how to get out of here. We have Ujurak, who can talk to flat-faces, who can turn into a flat-face. What else are we going to do?’

  ‘Asking flat-faces for help?’ Kallik yelped. ‘Lusa, that’s cloud-brained!’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Ujurak argued, his eyes bright. ‘It might be worth a try. Do any of you know where to find her?’ he asked.

  Toklo thought back to when he had seen the female cub. They had run away from her den, afraid that they would be pursued. He wasn’t sure of the direction they had taken.

  Lusa prodded him in the side with her
snout. ‘Quick, Toklo! The flat-faces are catching up!’

  As she was speaking, Toklo heard a shout behind him and glanced back to see flat-faces appearing at the other end of the alley. They had a dog with them; it let out a full-throated baying sound. What difference would it make if they found the cub? At worst, they would be caught by flat-faces – and it looked like that was going to happen anyway.

  ‘This way!’ Toklo snapped, heading off in what he hoped was the right direction. ‘But let me remind you: the last flat-faces you thought were nice were just letting off firesticks at us.’

  ‘There’s the big white den!’ Lusa exclaimed a moment later. ‘I can smell the bins we knocked over. Now it should be this way . . .’

  The bears weaved their way among the Black-Paths. Twice they had to crouch in the shadows while the wailing firebeast passed them, and once they ducked under a low-growing tree to hide from a metal bird.

  Toklo began to feel as if he couldn’t run any more. He knew he was lost. The BlackPaths all looked the same. The den where he had seen the female cub was just like all the other dens in this horrible place. His legs ached from running and his chest heaved as he tried to gulp in air.

  ‘It’s no good . . .’ he gasped.

  ‘Toklo!’ Kallik had drawn a few paces ahead, to the corner of another BlackPath. ‘I can smell our scent! We can follow it back the way we came.’

  ‘Brilliant!’ Lusa put on a spurt of speed to join the white bear, with Ujurak hard on her paws. Toklo forced his legs to go on pounding after them.

  Kallik led them round another corner. For the moment they seemed to have shaken off the pursuit.

  Then Toklo spotted a den with a crooked tree growing beside it. The roof came right down over the door, like shaggy fur almost covering a bear’s eyes. ‘This is the place!’ he barked. ‘We can try, but I still think it’s a bad idea.’

  Glancing from side to side, he led the way across the BlackPath and darted into the shadows beside the house. Padding along the wall, he reached the gap where he remembered seeing the cub. Rearing up on his hind legs, he tried to look in. There was a light in the den beyond, but pelts covered the gap.

  Toklo nudged the shiny stuff with his snout. Almost at once a pink paw appeared, sweeping the pelt aside. The little female cub was gazing back at him.

  ‘Help! Help us!’ Lusa begged. ‘Flat-faces are chasing us.’

  The cub looked alarmed, backing away from the window.

  ‘No!’ Toklo roared.

  ‘Stop it, you’re frightening her,’ Lusa said, pushing him aside.

  Toklo shook his head impatiently. ‘We can’t make her understand.’

  In the distance dogs were barking and the shouts of flat-faces were becoming clearer again. Toklo knew that soon they would have to start running again.

  There was a faint scuffling noise behind him. Toklo turned his head in time to see Ujurak rearing up on to his hindpaws. His limbs grew thinner and his brown fur melted away. His snout shrank and his ears slid into the side of his head.

  ‘Let me try,’ Ujurak said, stepping forward in the shape of a flat-face.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO:

  Ujurak

  Ujurak shivered in the icy wind as he tapped on the window, giving the little cub inside a friendly smile. Her eyes widened and she stepped forward again, pressing her face and hands against the glass as she peered out.

  ‘Open the window, please!’ Ujurak called to her.

  The cub hesitated. She still looked scared, but after a moment she reached out, unfastened the window, and pushed it open.

  ‘Who are you?’ she asked curiously.

  ‘My name’s Ujurak,’ he began. ‘I’m – I’m visiting here.’

  ‘I’m Maria,’ the cub responded. She let out a giggle, covering her mouth with one paw. ‘Shouldn’t you have some clothes on? You must be frozen. Here, you can have this.’

  She stripped off a pink outer pelt and handed it to Ujurak through the window. Underneath it she wore soft pelts like the ones the flat-faces in the hospital had given to him.

  Ujurak put on the pink pelt, pulling it tightly around him. Meanwhile, Maria leaned out of the window, her eyes wide as she gazed at Toklo, Lusa and Kallik. ‘Are those your bears?’

  ‘Yes,’ Ujurak replied. ‘And we’re being chased by flat-faces – I mean people – who think the bears are dangerous. But they’re not, I promise. Look!’

  Lusa, Kallik and Toklo were watching him carefully, trying to guess from his gestures what he and the flat-face cub were saying. Ujurak waved a hand at them and growled softly in bear, ‘Down! Look friendly!’ At his side, his three friends crouched down; Ujurak could tell they were trying to look small and harmless. Lusa waved her paws in the air.

  Suddenly Maria vanished from the window. Ujurak’s heart sank. Had she gone to get full-grown flat-faces? But she reappeared a moment later around the side of the house with a small black-and-white dog in her arms. ‘This is Piper,’ she said, holding him out. ‘Piper, say hi.’

  The little dog wagged his tail and stretched out his neck to lick Ujurak’s hand, giving him a good sniff. Ujurak felt Toklo stiffen next to him. It’s not prey, Toklo, Ujurak warned him silently. The dog drew back, looking puzzled. He doesn’t know what to make of my scent, Ujurak thought.

  ‘I think he likes you,’ Maria said happily. She looked at the bears. ‘Can I touch them?’ she asked. ‘I’ve never seen bears this close before.’

  ‘Er, sure,’ said Ujurak.

  Maria stretched out and pressed her hand against Toklo’s thick brown fur. Ujurak was sure he saw his friend roll his eyes.

  ‘I wish I had pet bears,’ Maria whispered.

  ‘Can you help us?’ Ujurak asked. ‘We need somewhere to hide. I – I don’t want the flat-faces to take my bears away.’

  Maria grinned. ‘I know a perfect place! Follow me. Piper, stay!’

  She led the way around the side of the house. At the back, a stretch of grass led down to a small wooden den beside a fence. Maria flung open the door and beckoned them inside.

  Ujurak stood back to let his friends go first. He spotted lights from a firebeast turning on to the BlackPath and heard the sound of voices. A dog barked.

  ‘They’re still looking for us,’ he muttered.

  Inside the den smelled of apples and dry earth. Flat-face things made of wood and metal hung on the walls. At one side were shelves stacked with containers. Ujurak shook his head.

  ‘We can’t hide in here,’ he said. ‘They’ll see us if they look through the window.’

  ‘Not in the shed, silly!’ Maria told him. ‘Down here, in the cellar.’

  She pulled open a little door that lifted up from the floor of the den, revealing a small square space lined with flat slabs of stone. Ujurak wasn’t sure there was enough space to fit the four of them. A damp chill rose out of the hole, and he shivered.

  ‘I’m not going down there!’ Toklo protested, peering down from the edge of the hole.

  There was panic in Kallik’s eyes. ‘We won’t be able to breathe!’

  ‘Yes, we will. It’ll be OK.’ Lusa’s voice was coaxing. ‘We won’t have to stay there for long.’ She jumped down into the cellar and looked back up at her friends. ‘See? It’s fine.’

  Outside, the voices of the pursuing flat-faces suddenly got louder. Ujurak jumped at the baying of a dog. ‘They’re following our scent!’ he exclaimed.

  ‘Quick!’ Maria urged them.

  Toklo and Kallik were still hesitating on the brink of the hole.

  ‘Get down there, now!’ Ujurak’s impatience spilled over. ‘This is our only chance to escape. Do you want them to find us?’

  Maria let out a gasp, her eyes round with shock. ‘You just roared! Can you speak bear?’

  ‘Yes,’ Ujurak replied.

  He gave Kallik a shove and she half jumped, half fell into the cellar beside Lusa. Toklo opened his jaws as if he was going to argue, but a howl from a dog outside stopped him. He leaped down,
landing on top of Kallik. The hole seemed full of a heaving mass of black, brown and white fur.

  ‘Are you from a circus?’ Maria asked eagerly. ‘Are your bears magic?’

  There was no time to answer her. Ujurak bundled down into the cellar, squeezing himself into a space among his friends, and Maria dropped the door on top of them. Thick darkness fell. Ujurak couldn’t even see his own paws. The furry pelts of his friends squashed up against him and their mingled scents flooded over him.

  ‘I don’t like this,’ Kallik said in a trembling voice.

  ‘You’ll be OK,’ Lusa whispered.

  ‘Shh!’ said Ujurak. ‘I want to listen.’

  He could hear Maria’s voice coming faintly from a distance and realised she must be speaking to the flat-faces outside the den. ‘Yes, the bears came through here. They went that way!’

  Then Ujurak heard a male flat-face’s voice, but this time he couldn’t make out the words. Nearer, and more worrying, was the snuffling and whining of dogs; they sounded as if they were right up against the wall of the den.

  ‘They can scent us,’ Toklo growled. ‘They know we’re in here.’

  ‘Inside the shed?’ Maria’s voice came again. ‘Oh, no, they couldn’t be. It’s always kept locked.’

  Please don’t try the door, Ujurak thought.

  ‘Ujurak.’ Kallik’s voice came again, quavering with terror. ‘I can’t breathe! I’ve got to get out!’ She raised her paws and started scrabbling frantically at the stone wall, shoving Ujurak into a corner.

  ‘Not now!’ Toklo protested.

  ‘Just a moment or two longer,’ Lusa begged. ‘We can’t let the flat-faces find us now!’

  ‘I can’t – I can’t . . .’

  Ujurak could feel Kallik shaking and hear her rapid, panting breaths. He strained to hear what was going on outside. Flat-faces were shouting to one another, and a dog was barking; to his relief, after a moment, the sounds began to die away.

  ‘I think they’re leaving,’ he said.

  A moment later Maria pulled open the door; moonlight filtered down into the cellar. Kallik exploded upward with a roar, and Toklo and Lusa scrambled out after her. Ujurak pulled himself up to see Maria pressed back against the wall of the den, trying to keep out of the way of the panicking white bear.