‘Who told you that?’ Toklo challenged. ‘Your ice spirits?’
‘No, it must have been Lusa’s spirits – the spirits of the black bears who live in these trees,’ Kallik said. She had felt so sure, but after she explained herself to Toklo, her fur prickled with doubts. Would the black bear spirits really speak to her?
Well, there was no ice here – this was the best she could do.
Toklo opened his mouth to argue some more, but Kallik cut him off. ‘Just trust me,’ she said. ‘I’ll get us back to the cave.’ She bounded in front of him, leading the way out of the pine forest and on to the wide, flat rocks. She hoped she sounded confident. Thank you, tree spirits. I put my faith in you.
The rocks were slippery underpaw, and the bears had to move carefully, stepping from boulder to boulder. Kallik kept searching the blank rocky terrain in front of her for more signs. Help me, please. She was beginning to worry that she’d gone the wrong way when she spotted something else.
‘Aha! See that?’
‘No,’ said Toklo.
‘That little black stone!’ Kallik said. Tucked in among the giant grey boulders was a tiny, perfectly round, dark black stone. It looked as if it were sparkling with speckles of starlight – as if an ice spirit were trapped inside. Kallik trotted up to it and pointed with her nose. ‘Don’t you get it? That’s Lusa. She’s a little black bear, but she isn’t like any other bear around her. It’s like she’s sparkling on the inside.’
Toklo rolled his eyes. ‘So we go that way.’
‘We go that way,’ Kallik agreed. It was encouraging that ‘that way’ was downhill, since they’d gone uphill from the cave. She picked up the stone in her mouth and brought it with her. She wanted to show Lusa. If they got back safely, Kallik thought it would be a powerful sign that the good spirits here were stronger than the bad spirits, as long as bears were willing to listen to them.
The rocks ended at a scrabbly stretch of earth and dry grass with ragged bushes clinging to it. Tall peaks surrounded them, and wind whistled up from the canyons, driving the rain into their eyes. A few lone trees were scattered near the cliff walls.
Kallik squinted at the cliffs rising up some distance to their right. Were those the ones they’d followed the stream through? She put the little black stone on the ground to speak. ‘I think –’
‘Hang on!’ Toklo said. And suddenly he was bounding away, racing across the dirt towards one of the trees. His powerful shoulders propelled him forward at a startling speed. Kallik blinked after him in surprise.
Then she saw what he’d spotted: a moving ball of fur pelting across the rocks to the safety of a tree. She held her breath as Toklo got closer and closer. And then . . . he pounced!
When he turned round, she saw the animal hanging limply from his jaws. It looked like a long, low fox with a bushy tail and a face like a weasel. Kallik padded closer. ‘Nice catch,’ she said. ‘What is it?’
He gave her an odd look and put the animal down to say, ‘It’s a pine marten, of course.’
‘Don’t you “of course” me,’ Kallik said. ‘We don’t have pine martens on the ice.’
Toklo snorted. ‘Well I suppose at least now we have something to take back for Lusa.’
‘We’re going this way,’ Kallik said, pointing with her nose to a gully that led downhill and dipped between two large, blocky boulders. Rainwater was running along the bottom of it, but they could follow it along the top.
‘Why?’ Toklo asked. ‘Because there are four big rocks over there?’
‘Well . . . yes,’ Kallik said. ‘But not just any four rocks! Look how they’re leaning against one another. It’s like the way the four of us have to support one another too.’ Right, spirits? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?
Toklo heaved a sigh. ‘I hope you’re right about this.’ Toklo picked the pine marten up again. Kallik could tell he thought she was being seal-brained. She sent another prayer to the spirits. Please let this work.
They edged along the lip of the gully, peeking down at the river that was starting to form below them. Suddenly Kallik felt the mud crumbling under her paws. The ground was giving way underneath her! She let out a yelp of terror, dropping the black stone from her jaws as she scrabbled for a pawhold. Toklo dropped the newkill, lunged forward, and sank his teeth into her scruff as the bank collapsed into the stream and her paws were left dangling in space.
With a heave, Toklo dragged her back to safety. Kallik was shaking.
‘I dropped Lusa’s stone,’ she said. ‘Maybe we’re going the wrong way. This could be a bad sign.’
‘Don’t think like that,’ Toklo said quietly. He picked up the marten again and poked her side with his snout. ‘Let’s keep going,’ he mumbled.
Kallik plodded on, staying on the rocks now, even though their hard surface scratched the pads of her paws. Doubt churned inside her. She shouldn’t have lost Lusa’s stone! Was she taking them the wrong way?
But a few steps later, the ravine turned and slanted downwards, and the water raced through it to merge with a fast-flowing stream that ran down the mountain. Kallik lifted her nose. Now she smelled familiar scents. She even thought she could pick up the warm, furry smells of Lusa and Ujurak.
‘That’s our stream!’ she said. ‘That’s the one that runs by the cave! Come on, Toklo; we’re almost there!’ She wasn’t being led by bad spirits after all!
She sprinted ahead, slipping and sliding down the muddy slope with the rain pattering around her. Sure enough, soon she spotted the dark mouth of the cave overlooking the river.
Kallik stumbled into the semidarkness and inhaled the comforting scents of Lusa and Ujurak. The brown bear trotted forward to greet her.
‘You made it back!’ Ujurak said. ‘We were worried when the storm got so bad.’
Toklo crowded in behind Kallik and dropped the pine marten on the floor of the cave. ‘For Lusa,’ he mumbled. His stomach growled loudly, as if it were arguing with him.
‘She’s asleep, but I’ll wake her,’ Ujurak said. ‘And then we can share this.’ He dragged the newkill to the back of the cave.
Toklo and Kallik stood in the entranceway for a moment, catching their breath. Kallik realised how exhausted she was. Her heavy fur seemed to be pulling her down to the ground.
‘You believe me now, don’t you?’ she said to Toklo. ‘There are spirits looking out for us. Lusa’s tree spirits rescued us from the evil spirits of the mountains.’
Toklo grunted. ‘Well, I suppose something worked,’ he admitted, and stalked after Ujurak.
Despite her tiredness, Kallik felt a flutter of happiness in her chest. The spirits had brought them home to Lusa and Ujurak. Maybe they’d even helped to save Lusa’s life.
Will they be strong enough to help us cross Smoke Mountain?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Toklo
It rained for days. Toklo lost track of time; it was hard to tell what was morning and what was night, between the constant grey fog of the storm and the dripping, still darkness of the cave. Whenever he went hunting with Kallik, they were swallowed up by a blur of smoke and strange shapes in the mist, although they were careful not to go as far as they had the first time.
Lusa was awake more often now, but Toklo felt as though something were missing. She didn’t tease him the way she had before, and he kept finding her staring into space with a tired, thoughtful look.
Kallik had noticed too. ‘I’m worried about Lusa,’ she said as they picked their way back to the cave one evening.
Two rabbits were dangling from Toklo’s jaws; they’d had a lucky hunt. ‘Why?’ Toklo mumbled around them.
‘She’s just not the same. I’m afraid the firebeast hurt her more badly than we can tell. It’s like something is still hurting her.’
‘Maybe it’s just her leg.’ Toklo put down the rabbits to speak. ‘I’m sure she’ll be fine.’
He picked up the rabbits and followed Kallik into the cave and padded to the back, where Lus
a was resting on a pile of leaves. He dropped one of the rabbits at her paws.
‘Thanks, Toklo,’ Lusa said quietly. She didn’t lift her head off the floor or reach for the rabbit. Toklo glanced around at Ujurak, who was scraping herbs into piles nearby, and put down the other rabbit.
‘How’s your leg?’ Toklo asked Lusa.
‘All right,’ Lusa said. ‘I mean . . . it still hurts.’ She shifted on the leaves and peeked back at the wound. Toklo hated seeing the sharp cut like a lightning strike through her fur.
Ujurak shook his head. ‘I can’t find anything wrong with it. It should be feeling better.’
‘You need to exercise it,’ Toklo said. ‘Come on; I’ll exercise with you.’
‘Oh dear,’ Lusa said, wrinkling her snout at him. ‘That sounds like a bunch of fun.’
Toklo was encouraged by even this faint glimmer of her old sense of humour. ‘Here we go!’ he said. ‘Stretch your front toes!’ He slid his front paws far out in front of him and wiggled his claws.
‘Hmm,’ said Lusa, but she heaved herself up to a sitting position and did the same thing.
‘All right, now your back toes,’ Toklo said, flexing his hind paws.
Lusa copied him and winced. Toklo felt a stab of guilt, but he was sure she needed to get her leg moving again. It was the only way to heal it.
‘Now lie down and kick your paws like you’re swimming,’ he said.
Lusa looked at him as if feathers had just sprouted from his nose. ‘Without any water?’
‘Yes,’ Toklo said. ‘Like this.’ He lay down on his belly and began paddling in the air.
When he looked up, he caught Kallik and Ujurak exchanging amused glances. ‘Go ahead and laugh,’ he grumbled. ‘But it might help! Go on, Lusa.’
Reluctantly, Lusa lay down and imitated his movements. ‘Ow,’ she grunted between clenched teeth. ‘That hurts.’
‘It won’t if you keep doing it,’ Toklo said encouragingly.
‘I’m tired,’ Lusa complained.
‘OK, when did you two switch brains?’ Kallik asked.
That made Lusa chuff with laughter a little bit, and Toklo decided that was enough for the day.
But he tried again the next day and the next. He couldn’t understand why sweet, enthusiastic Lusa was resisting so hard. He nudged her to her paws and helped her take a few pawsteps, leaning against him. They took a few more each night before Lusa had to lie down again. He was sure she was getting stronger. But she wasn’t getting happier, and that was what worried him the most.
Several days later, shortly after sunrise, Ujurak padded back from the front of the cave and sniffed Lusa from ears to tail. Toklo watched him anxiously.
‘Is she all right?’ he asked. Lusa looked up at Ujurak with bright eyes.
‘Yes,’ Ujurak said. ‘I think it’s healed. You should be OK to travel, Lusa.’
‘No!’ she said with such force that Toklo blinked in surprise. ‘It’s not healed, Ujurak; really it’s not. I think . . . I think you should all go on without me.’ She looked down at her claws.
‘No way!’ Toklo said.
‘We’re not going anywhere without you,’ Kallik said, sitting up from her sleeping spot and shaking off the moss that clung to her fur.
‘You’re one of us, Lusa,’ Ujurak said. ‘If you don’t think you’re ready, we’ll wait some more.’
Lusa scuffed her front paws on the cave floor and didn’t say anything.
That night, Toklo woke up in pitch darkness. He sat up, pawing at his face and wondering what had woken him. A cool breeze drifted in through the cave opening; the rain had slowed to a delicate drizzle. He glanced around, and a shock ran through his fur when he realised that Lusa’s pile of leaves was empty. Lusa was gone!
He jumped to his paws and hurried outside, hoping she hadn’t fallen into the gully. He snuffled at the ground outside the cave and picked up her scent, heading back down the mountain. Where could she be going?
Padding soundlessly across the rocks, he followed her scent trail along the stream for a few bearlengths, but then it disappeared. Toklo glanced around. A few stars twinkled through the clouds above him. Tiny water droplets clung to his fur and chilled his nose.
A few steps from the stream was a large bush with wide green leaves. Toklo peered at it and realised there was a small shape huddled under the shelter of the leaves.
‘Lusa?’ he whispered, creeping closer.
She jumped, and he saw the gleam of her bright eyes as she peered out at him. ‘Oh, no,’ she said, and her voice broke. ‘Oh, Toklo. I can’t even run away properly.’
‘Run away!’ Toklo stared at her in disbelief. ‘Why would you do that?’ He crawled under the bush and pressed himself close to her. He felt the warmth of her tiny shape leaning against his fur, and realised that she was trembling with fear. Lusa turned her head and buried her nose in his thick neck fur. Toklo touched her paw with his, awkwardly trying to comfort her.
‘Lusa, what’s wrong?’
‘I can’t do it,’ Lusa said. ‘I can’t save the wild.’
Toklo tipped his head to one side. ‘Save the wild?’
‘I had this dream before I woke up, after the firebeast crushed me,’ Lusa said. Words spilled out of her as if she were relieved to be telling someone the truth at last. ‘I saw my mother, Toklo – I saw Ashia. And she told me that I have to save the wild. Me!’
‘It was just a dream,’ Toklo said.
Lusa shook her head. ‘No, Ujurak said it wasn’t. He said it’s true. But he won’t tell me what it means! I’m not sure he even knows. Toklo, I’m scared. I–I’m sorry – the truth is, my leg is better. I’m sure I could keep going. But I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, and Kallik told me about the bad spirits and everything that happened to you while you were hunting, and all about the burning rocks, and what am I supposed to do about any of that? And what if we’re not supposed to keep going through the mountains – Qopuk said it was dangerous! I’m afraid we’re making all the wrong choices, and I’m afraid I’ll fail, whatever I decide to do, and mostly I’m afraid something will happen to you . . . All of you, I mean –’
Toklo touched her snout with his. ‘Listen, you know I don’t believe in these stories about evil spirits. But if there were bad spirits trying to hurt me and Kallik, they didn’t succeed, did they? The good spirits helped us back to the cave. If you believe in the bad ones, you have to believe in those too. Right?’
The branches pressed closely around them. Toklo wondered if black bears believed that there were spirits in the bushes as well. Could Lusa hear voices in the whisper of the rain on the leaves?
‘I’m just one cub,’ Lusa said softly. ‘A useless little black bear cub. I can’t save the wild.’
‘You’re not useless,’ Toklo said. ‘You came all the way into the wild to find me, even though you’d never been outside the Bear Bowl before and you had no idea where you were going. And you’re not alone. We’re all on this journey with you – if you need to save the wild, or whatever, we’ll be there to help you. Isn’t that better than running away and trying to do it on your own?’
Lusa rested her head on his paws. ‘I . . . I suppose you’re right.’
‘Come back, Lusa,’ Toklo said. ‘Come with us.’
‘OK.’ She wriggled closer to him for a moment, and the warm scent of her, smelling like honey even though they hadn’t seen any in moons, filled his nose. ‘Thank you, Toklo. I’m not sure I could have left you anyway. I was lying here wondering if I really wanted to go. I’m so glad you came to get me.’
They climbed out from under the bush and padded back through the rain the way they’d come. Ujurak and Kallik were standing in the mouth of the cave, wide awake, peering anxiously into the darkness and rain.
‘We woke up and you were gone!’ Kallik exclaimed, stepping aside to let them hurry into the dry cave.
‘Sorry,’ Lusa said. ‘That was my fault. I–I woke up feeling restless and decided to go for a wal
k to see if my leg was OK.’ She glanced at Toklo, blinking nervously. He gave his head a tiny shake, letting her know that he wasn’t about to tell them what really happened. ‘Toklo came looking for me, that’s all. But guess what? My leg does feel stronger.’ She turned to Ujurak. ‘Thanks to you, Ujurak. I think you’re right. I’m ready to move on.’
Ujurak’s eyes sparkled. ‘Then we’ll leave in the morning,’ he said, poking his nose outside the cave and blinking as raindrops splashed in his eyes.
Toklo wasn’t sure how to feel as he settled back down to sleep on the sandy floor with Lusa curled up beside him. He was very, very relieved that Lusa hadn’t left them. But it worried him that she was talking about dreams. She was sounding more and more like Ujurak every day. And one Ujurak was enough for any journey. More than enough.
It was the smoke, he thought, putting thoughts into their minds. The sooner they were out of these mountains, the better for everyone.
He slept badly that night. He could tell that Kallik was also having bad dreams, because whenever he woke up her claws were flexing and she was growling in her sleep. Once when he jerked awake, he saw Ujurak sitting silently at the mouth of the cave, staring out at the smoke-clouds covering the moon.
The mountains seemed to loom higher at night. He thought about the journey ahead, and dread prickled his fur. He shook his head, then rolled on to his side, facing the back of the cave. He must have smoke in his brain too.
Giant flat-faces eating bears, he thought. It’s just a stupid story.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Toklo
When Toklo woke up the next morning, he couldn’t feel Lusa curled beside him. Cold with worry, he sat up and glanced around the cave. Had she run away again?
Then he heard her voice outside the cave, chattering to Kallik down by the stream. Ujurak was just waking up too. He stretched and nodded to Toklo as they padded outside.
The rain had stopped, and glints of sunshine were peeking through the heavy clouds. For the first time since they’d come to Smoke Mountain, the breeze smelled fresh. It ruffled their fur, and Toklo could detect only a faint scent of smoke in the air. A good sign, he thought wryly, glancing at Lusa. She was wading in the stream with Kallik, pouncing on the tiny flickers of fish that shot past their paws.