The Longest Day

  “What’s the biggest prey you’ve caught?” Akocha bounded toward him as Toklo ducked into the shadow of the trees.

  “A moose.”

  “A moose?” Akocha sounded impressed. “Did you catch it by yourself?”

  “My friends helped.”

  “What does moose taste like?” Akocha chattered. “Does it taste like deer? Or more like rabbit? I hope it didn’t taste like fish. I don’t like fish much. Mother says I’ll get used to it, but I like furry prey, not slimy prey.” The ferns rustled ahead. “Is that prey?”

  By the time Toklo had caught up to him, the fronds were trampled beneath Akocha’s paws.

  “It must have been the wind making them rustle,” Akocha decided.

  Toklo sniffed the crushed leaves. Rabbit scent bathed them. “Smell this.” He moved to let Akocha smell the ferns.

  “What is it?”

  “Don’t you recognize it?” Toklo prompted. He suddenly thought of Ujurak and how helpless the young bear had been when they’d first met.

  Akocha lifted his head, frowning. “Is it rabbit?” he guessed.

  Toklo nodded. “It must have been hiding among the ferns. Your pawsteps were so heavy, they frightened it away.”

  Akocha tipped his head on one side. “Will you show me how to creep up on prey quietly?”

  Toklo rolled his eyes. Was he going to have to give this energetic cub a hunting lesson as well? “We’ll see.” He jumped up a short, steep slope and began to climb the hill.

  Akocha scrambled after him. “When Mother says ‘we’ll see,’ it means she doesn’t want to and hopes I’ll forget.”

  Toklo felt a pang of sympathy for Tayanita. He pushed uphill, weaving between the thickly growing trees. Light showed at the top, and he wondered what lay on the other side.

  “Do you want to see how fast I can run?” Akocha puffed. “I’m really fast. I collected a whole pile of sticks for the ceremony. Have you ever collected sticks for the ceremony?”

  Without waiting for an answer, he charged ahead. Bounding up the hill, the cub swerved easily between the trees, his small paws making him nimble. Toklo broke into a trot. By the time he reached the hilltop, the young bear had disappeared.

  Toklo scanned the trees. Ahead the land sloped steeply downward. Twisted brambles grew between the pines. Light showed through the trunks. Was it a clearing? Toklo sniffed the air but smelled nothing but pine sap. Perhaps it was a gap for a BlackPath. Toklo’s heart lurched. Had Akocha gone hurtling into the path of a firebeast?

  Panic flaring through his pelt, Toklo leaped down the hill. Tearing through brambles, bouncing off trees, he half skidded, half bounded down the slope, bursting from the forest hot and scared. “Akocha!”

  Instead of a BlackPath, the trees gave way to a riverbank. The water swirled fast and clear, a bearlength below his paws. Had Akocha fallen in? Toklo hurried to the edge and gazed downstream.

  “Toklo! Look!” Akocha’s bark sounded behind him. Toklo turned and saw the young bear staring wide-eyed at a pool where the river opened up between steep banks. The pool ended in a stony cliff, twice the height of the trees around it. A sunlit waterfall poured down the cliff, making rainbows where it plunged into the pool.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” Akocha shouted over the noise.

  The roar of water stung Toklo’s ear fur. “I thought you’d fallen in.”

  Akocha frowned at him. “Why would I do that?”

  Toklo growled softly to himself. He should be sleeping on the shore now. And yet the river was beautiful. Enclosed by dark-green forest, it glittered in the burn-sky sunshine.

  “Let’s swim,” Akocha suggested.

  Toklo surveyed the smooth water. The pool looked cool and peaceful, despite the thundering of the falls. “Okay.” Slithering down the bank, he plunged in and let the cold water fold around him.

  Bubbles exploded next to him, fizzing around a small brown shape that bobbed swiftly upward, shaking droplets from its muzzle. “Let’s see who can swim to the other side first!” Without waiting, Akocha struck out across the pool.

  Toklo swam after him, pushing slowly through the water as Akocha raced ahead. As they neared the far bank, Akocha veered toward the falls.

  “I want to swim through a rainbow!” Akocha called, paddling for the frothing water where the spray made colorful arcs in the air.

  “Be careful!” Toklo warned. “Akocha, stop!” His bark was drowned by the bellow of the falls. Toklo stiffened with alarm as Akocha vanished beneath the foam. The current had sucked him under!

  Gulping in a deep breath, Toklo dove beneath the churning water, eyes wide as he searched for the cub. The waterfall hit his back like a stone and pushed him down farther. Tumbling, he struck out with all four paws, fighting for calmer water. And then, as suddenly as the falls had grabbed him, they let him go. Bobbing up, he broke the surface, gasping with relief.

  “Akocha!” Was the cub still swirling in the depths, pinned by the force of the falls? Toklo whipped his head around, scanning the surface. Taking another gulp of air, he prepared to dive again.

  A brown head popped up beside him. “That was fun!” Spitting out water, Akocha huffed with delight. Then his eyes stretched wide. “Whoa! Look where we are!”

  Toklo shook away droplets from his head and blinked with surprise. The falls had pulled them into another world. Here, screened from the forest by the silver waterfall, a huge cave stretched deep beneath the hillside. Akocha was already swimming for a broad stone ledge at the back of the cave. He heaved himself out of the water and barked with excitement. His call echoed around the stone walls.

  Toklo climbed onto the ledge beside the cub and shook his drenched pelt. The watery light that shone through the falls rippled on the sides of the cave.

  “Let’s explore!” Akocha darted into the shadows.

  Toklo followed more slowly, sniffing the cool, wet air as the cave darkened around him. The scents of moss and stone filled his nose. “How far back does it go?” he called.

  Akocha’s echoing bark replied. “It stops here.” He was just visible at the back of the cave, a solid black shape in the half dark.

  This would have made a great den on our journey, Toklo thought. Kallik and Yakone would have loved the huge, cool space. Lusa would have stared in wonder at the falling water as it made patterns of the sunlight beyond.

  “Can this be our secret place?” Akocha begged. “I don’t want the other bears to know about it.”

  “Okay,” Toklo answered absently. A breeze swirled in from one side of the falls, carrying the scent of pines. It jolted him from his memories. “We should go back to the lake,” he murmured. “Your mother will be wondering where you are.”

  Akocha was sniffing the wall. “I don’t think anybody has ever been here before us.”

  Toklo wondered if that was true. There were no other scents beyond wind and water here. “Come on.” He walked toward a pillar of sunlight where a ledge curved around the edge of the falls and led out to the bank.

  Akocha trotted after him, raising his voice as they skirted the wall of water. “We found the best place in the world!”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Kallik

  Kallik slept. Dreams rushed in and out like waves lapping the shore. Black bears flashed in her thoughts, trapped and bleeding, their faces contorted with pain. Firebeasts streaked past her. The heat of their wind blasted her muzzle. She could see Lusa darting one way, then the other, eyes wild. Ujurak! Fear lifted her to the surface of sleep, and she broke momentarily into wakefulness before slumping back, black bears and firebeasts crowding in again. She knew Ujurak was there, skirting the edge of her dream, just out of reach.

  Come and help us! As Kallik wailed out loud, she saw Lusa on the BlackPath. A firebeast thundered toward her. Run! Kallik tried to shriek, but no sound came out. Lusa!

  A large, wet snout snuffled at her ear. “Kallik?”

  She raised her head, shaking herself awake. Relief swamped her as she saw t
he barren shore sloping down to the lake. No firebeasts, no Lusa.

  Yakone nudged her cheek. “A nightmare?”

  “Yes.” Kallik heaved herself to her paws and shook out her pelt. “I dreamed Lusa was in danger.”

  “Lusa’s safe,” Yakone soothed. “We brought her home with the injured bears, remember? She’ll be curled in her nest.”

  “I hope so.” Kallik gazed across the shore to the black bears’ wooded hillside. “I’m worried she stayed up all night looking after the wounded. She seemed to be the only bear who knew what to do. She’ll be exhausted.”

  “Lusa can take care of herself,” Yakone reminded her. “She’ll rest when she needs to.” He nodded to the group of white bears gathered at the water’s edge. Taqqiq, Iqaluk, and Salik were among them. “They’re planning to swim out to that island.” A small rocky hump lay a short way from the shore, hazy in the morning sunshine. “Why don’t we go with them? It looks like there will be birds to catch.”

  Kallik gazed across the sparkling water. Gulls wheeled and fought above the island. “I can’t,” she told Yakone. “Lusa will need fresh herbs. I want to collect some.” The forest beyond the ridge looked green and lush. She felt sure there would be plenty of useful plants growing among the trees.

  Yakone’s eyes rounded with sympathy. “She has other bears to help her now, Kallik. She doesn’t need us anymore.”

  Kallik looked at him sharply. “Lusa will always need us! We’re her best friends.”

  “We’ll always be special to her,” Yakone agreed. “But she must make her own life now.”

  Kallik snorted. “Maybe. But that doesn’t mean we can’t help her. If you want to swim to the island with the others, then go. I can look for herbs by myself.”

  “No,” Yakone murmured. “I’ll come with you.”

  Kallik wasn’t sure whether to feel grateful or annoyed that she’d had to persuade him to help. Don’t you care about Lusa anymore? She brushed the thought away.

  “Are you coming?” Taqqiq called.

  Kallik shook her head. “We’re going to the woods.”

  “The woods are for brown bears!” Salik called.

  “And black bears!” added Iqaluk.

  Taqqiq hurried up the shore toward Kallik. “What do you want to go to the woods for?” he hissed.

  “We need to find herbs,” Kallik told him.

  Anxiety glittered in her brother’s gaze. “White bears don’t find herbs! They swim and hunt!” He glanced over his shoulder at Iqaluk and Salik, then looked back at Kallik. “Stop being so different! Please!”

  “Lusa’s friends were hurt in the accident,” Kallik explained. “They need help.”

  “You’re with us now!” Taqqiq snapped. “You have to forget about Lusa and Toklo.”

  “I can’t walk away from my friends!”

  “You walked away from me!” Taqqiq didn’t give Kallik time to respond. Spinning around, he marched toward the others.

  Kallik began to clamber up the ridge, feeling numb with sadness. Taqqiq was right. She had left her brother to follow her friends. Distracted, she slipped and bumped back down the jagged rock face. Landing heavily on her hindpaws, she began to scramble up again, irritated at herself for being so clumsy and at Taqqiq for making her feel guilty.

  “Are you okay?” Yakone called behind her.

  “I’m fine!” Kallik heaved herself up the rocks. Trees grew at the top, their trunks matted with lichen.

  Yakone climbed after her. “Do you know what herbs to look for?”

  She turned to face him. “Do you agree with Taqqiq?” she challenged. “Do you think I care too much about my old friends?”

  Yakone calmly met her gaze. “I think you care about everyone. It’s one of the things I love about you.” Kallik blinked as he slid past her and began sniffing at a clump of leaves sprouting between the roots of a tree. “Are these any good?” he called.

  Kallik padded to his side, feeling guilty about her temper. “I’m sorry.” She didn’t look at the leaves. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you. You’re the only bear on my side.”

  “There aren’t any sides.” Yakone looked up. “There are old friends and friends still to be made. Choosing one doesn’t mean you must stop caring about the other. We are all facing the Longest Day together. It’s why we’re here.”

  Kallik dropped her gaze. She knew he was right, but she wasn’t ready to agree.

  By the time the sun was high in the clear blue sky, they both carried wads of fragrant green leaves. Following the forest around the lake, they skirted the stone tower and wove between mossy trees until they reached the lighter, leaf-strewn stretch where the black bears had made their camp.

  “Where are you going?” A black bear blocked their path.

  Kallik squinted at him, the scent from the herbs stinging her eyes.

  Another black bear appeared. “This isn’t your land!”

  Kallik smelled fear scent; it was strong. They’re scared of me!

  Yakone laid his leaves on the ground. “We’ve brought herbs for Lusa.”

  Kallik tipped her head, hoping to look friendly.

  The first bear curled his lip. “We’ll make sure she gets them.”

  “Kallik!” Lusa’s bark sounded through the trees. “Yakone? Is that you?” She pushed her way between the two males. “You brought herbs.” Her eyes shone, but Kallik could see she was exhausted.

  She put down her leaves and stretched forward to touch Lusa’s muzzle. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Lusa told her. “The swelling on Chula’s leg is going down. I think it’s just a sprain and not broken.” She glanced at the herbs. “You found big leaves! That’s great! I need lots. Oh, and we found Miki! Toklo helped.”

  Kallik stared at her in surprise. “Toklo?”

  “He came looking for me,” Lusa explained. “He was worried I’d been hurt in the accident. He searched the woods with me last night until we came across Miki.”

  Kallik felt a twinge of jealousy. She didn’t like the idea of Toklo and Lusa having adventures without her.

  Lusa went on. “Miki’s had a bump on his head, but these leaves will soothe it.”

  “You sound worn out,” Kallik told Lusa. “Have you had any rest?”

  “I was going to have a nap when we got back from finding Miki, but Chula was complaining of pain and I needed to find herbs to make poultices for everyone’s cuts and bruises and—”

  Kallik cut her off. “Let me help.” She stepped forward.

  The male black bears backed away, growling.

  “It’s okay,” Lusa told them. “Kallik and Yakone are friends.”

  “White bears should stick to their own side of the lake,” muttered one.

  Yakone dipped his head. “We can leave if you want.”

  “No!” Kallik shot him a look. “Not until we’ve helped Lusa. She’s exhausted.” She turned to the black bears. “Has anyone been helping her treat the injured bears?”

  “We didn’t know how,” one growled defensively.

  “We eat leaves, we don’t use them for wounds,” protested the other.

  Kallik moved briskly past them. “Perhaps it’s time you learned how.”

  She made her way to the dip at the edge of the clearing, relieved to smell herbs, not infection. “You’ve done well,” she congratulated Lusa as her friend caught up, Yakone just behind her. “Tell me what I can do to help.”

  Chula was lying on her side, her leg wrapped in leaves. Rudi was propped against a bank of earth, his muzzle resting on his belly as he dozed. Sheena stared blankly into the trees while Tibik nestled beside her, his pelt ruffled and full of leaf scraps.

  Rudi’s nose twitched. He opened his eyes and looked at Kallik, huge-eyed. “I was beginning to think I dreamed you yesterday.”

  A male bear sat up beside him and blinked at the white bears. His head was swathed in leaves. “Why are they here?” he asked Lusa.

  “They’re my friends, Miki,” Lusa e
xplained. “Do you remember the white bears I told you about?”

  Miki shifted backward, his pelt bristling.

  Kallik snorted. Behind her, she could hear anxious growls as the other black bears gathered to see what was going on.

  “Quick! Climb a tree,” a she-bear whispered.

  Leaves rustled above Kallik. She looked up and saw a male cub gazing at her in terror.

  Did he think she would eat him? “Lusa needs to rest,” Kallik announced. “She looks like she hasn’t slept in days. While she has a break, I’m going to look after the wounded bears.”

  Disapproving murmurs rippled behind her.

  Chula shifted on her bed of leaves. “I think you should go,” she told Kallik.

  “No.” Lusa stared wearily at Chula. “Don’t you understand? Kallik and Yakone will take care of you.” She turned to Kallik. “All their wounds need re-dressing. With this hot weather, they could easily turn sour.” Swaying on her paws, she poked the herbs that Yakone had dropped. “These will make good poultices once you’ve chewed them. Save the largest leaves to wrap Chula’s leg and Miki’s head.”

  Kallik nodded. “We’ll wake you when we’ve finished.”

  Lusa looked at her gratefully through bleary eyes and stumbled away. Kallik peeled a leaf from the pile and began chewing it into a poultice. She could feel the stares of the other black bears burning through her pelt, but she ignored them. Spitting out the green goo, she nudged the rest of the pile toward Yakone. “Chew these. Save the big leaves to wrap wounds.” Lapping up a tongueful of goo, she leaned down and began sniffing Rudi.

  The old bear jerked away. Kallik ignored his fear scent. She was going to help him, not hurt him. If Rudi wanted to be afraid, then let him. Smelling a bloody patch of pelt, Kallik began licking sap into it. Rudi growled but held still.

  As Kallik turned to fetch more leaf-pulp, she saw Ossi. He was dragging a branch, heavy with cloudberries, into the clearing.

  Yakone hailed him with a jerk of his snout. His muzzle was green from chewing leaves. “Ossi!”

  Ossi dropped the branch. “You came back!”