“No!” Kallik pulled away. Yakone slumped to the ground.
Toklo glanced back at the coyotes. “Would you rather be eaten by them?”
“We might be able to fight them!” Kallik growled. “We can’t fight a firebeast, or snake, or whatever it is. It’ll crush us.”
“If you jump onto its back, it’ll carry you like we carry Lusa.” Toklo willed Kallik to understand that they had no choice. “We can protect ourselves from the coyotes. But we can’t protect Yakone. Not forever! The coyotes will keep coming back until we can’t fight them off anymore.”
“He’s right, Kallik.” Lusa’s voice wavered.
“But what if we jump and miss the firesnake’s back?” Kallik’s eyes were white-rimmed with terror.
“You can’t miss.” Toklo fought to stop himself trembling.
“I’ll try it.” Lusa’s voice was barely a whisper.
Kallik dipped her head. “We’ll all try.” She ducked down and nosed Yakone to his paws. “Yakone!” she barked sharply. “You have to wake up!”
He blinked open his eyes and stared at her blearily.
Kallik glared at him. “Coyotes are chasing us. We have to jump onto a firesnake.”
“Okay,” Yakone mumbled thickly.
Lusa paced around them. “He thinks he’s dreaming!”
“I don’t care,” Toklo growled. “As long as he does it.”
Slowly, Yakone padded forward.
“That’s it!” Kallik urged him on. “Keep going!”
“Lusa, find a way onto that ledge,” Toklo ordered.
Lusa scrambled off the track and led them through scrubby bushes. She threaded her way up the hill, around boulders and over rocks. “Is Yakone okay?” she called over her shoulder.
“He’s still walking.” Toklo watched the white bear follow Kallik blindly up the slope. The coyotes padded after them.
At last, the stony slope leveled out and turned to rock beneath Toklo’s paws. We made it! They were on the ledge. He hurried to the edge of the rock and looked over. The tracks shone many bearlengths below, but when the firesnake rumbled past, they’d be able to reach its back.
Toklo looked along the SilverPath. Smoke billowed in the distance. A screech split the air as a huge creature thundered toward them like an avalanche.
The firesnake!
“Get ready.” Toklo turned to his friends. His pelt bushed as he saw the coyotes. They had reached the ledge and were lined up, teeth bared, just waiting for a moment to strike. “Quickly!” he called.
Kallik crossed the stone, nudging Yakone ahead of her.
“Lusa!” Toklo’s heart lurched. The black bear seemed rooted to the rock. She was staring, frozen, at the coyotes.
“Don’t look at them, Lusa!” Blood roared in Toklo’s ears.
The coyotes lowered their heads and crept nearer.
“Lusa!” Toklo pounded past Kallik and grabbed Lusa’s scruff in his teeth. “Come on!” His growl was muffled by her fur as he hauled her backward.
She came to life and struggled free. “I’m coming!”
“How do we get on?” Kallik stared over the edge as the firesnake thundered closer. “It’s so tall!”
“Wait for a part of its back that is lower than the rest,” Toklo ordered. “Then leap on as it passes.”
Kallik swung her head from side to side, moaning. “I can’t believe we’re going to do this.”
Lusa flattened her ears. “It’s so loud!”
“Don’t think about it, just do it!” Toklo urged.
Kallik looked at him. “What about you?”
“I’ll be right behind you.” The ledge trembled beneath his paws. The acrid tang of the firesnake billowed around his nose.
The coyotes crept closer. With an ear-piercing clatter, the head of the firesnake reached the ledge. Its long, silver body started to stream past, glinting as it rocked in the sun.
“There’s a low back coming!” Lusa yelped.
Toklo didn’t take his eyes from the coyotes. “Can you make the jump?”
“I think so!”
Lusa’s pelt flashed at the corner of Toklo’s vision. He heard a yelp, then a thump, and looked over his shoulder. Lusa had landed on a long, flat section in the firesnake’s body. She scrambled to her paws. “Come on!”
Kallik shoved Yakone forward, and he hurled himself at the firesnake’s back. Kallik flung herself after, landing beside Yakone a bearlength from Lusa.
“Come on, Toklo!” she bellowed.
Toklo leaped.
Pain shrilled through his pelt as teeth sank into his rump. He flailed wildly. A snarling coyote was dragging him backward. Bodies jostled against his flanks. Jaws snapped beside his ears.
Spirits, save me! Toklo tore free, blind with fear, and hurled himself at the firesnake’s back. He slammed against it with a thump that knocked the breath from his body. His paws hung over the side, the wind dragging at them as the firesnake rocked beneath him.
“I’ve got you!”
Teeth clamped into Toklo’s scruff. Splinters grazed his nose as Kallik hauled him up. Her warm, fishy smell washed his muzzle as he rolled onto the firesnake’s back. Gasping, he lay limp and stared at the sky.
We made it!
Something thumped down beside him. A snarl sounded by his ear.
“Watch out!” Lusa wailed in terror.
Toklo scrambled to his paws. A coyote faced him, jaws dripping, eyes wild with rage. Toklo staggered as the firesnake swayed beneath him. The coyote leaped. It hit him with such force that he fell backward. A sharp wind snatched him and flung him aside as the coyote sank its teeth into his neck. Pain seared though his body and the SilverPath blurred as his head dangled over the edge. The coyote snarled at his throat.
“Help!” Toklo was fighting for every breath now. His vision began to fade.
White fur flashed above him. With a yelp, the coyote disappeared.
Toklo stared as Yakone loomed over him. As the white bear grabbed his scruff and hauled him to his paws, a hideous wail screeched below. Toklo glanced down and saw the SilverPath below turn red. Blood smattered the stones, and far behind, six coyotes raised their howls to the sky.
“Toklo!” Kallik and Lusa clustered around him.
Toklo staggered to his paws, weak with fear. The firesnake swayed beneath him. His rump stung like fire. Kallik gazed at him with wide, frightened eyes while Lusa pressed against him, trembling. Yakone sat down heavily. His injured paw was wet with fresh blood.
“We made it,” Toklo breathed.
“I thought you were going to die!” Lusa’s voice choked.
Toklo blinked at Yakone as the white bear caught his breath. “You saved me! You all saved me!” He stared at his friends as the forest slid past. They were on their way to the mountains, riding a firesnake, and heading home.
About the Auhotr
ERIN HUNTER is inspired by a fascination with the ferocity of the natural world. As well as having great respect for nature in all its forms, Erin enjoys creating rich mythical explanations for animal behavior. She is also the author of the bestselling Warriors and Survivors series.
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Other Books
Book One: The Quest Begins
Book Two: Great Bear Lake
Book Three: Smoke Mountain
Book Four: The Last Wilderness
Book Five: Fire in the Sky
Book Six: Spirits in the Stars
RETURN TO THE WILD
Book One: Island of Shadows
Book Two: The Melting Sea
MANGA
Toklo’s Story
Kallik’s Adventure
Credits
Cover art © 2013 by Wayne McLoughlin
Copyright
River of Lost Bears
Copyright © 2013 by Working Partners Limited
Series created by Working Partners Limited
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rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-0-06-199640-5 (trade bdg.)
ISBN 978-0-06-199641-2 (lib. bdg.)
EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780062202994
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First Edition
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Toklo is overjoyed when the four bears reach the mountains where he spent his cubhood. But with Yakone still gravely injured and aggressive wolves driving them away from their temporary den, Kallik, Yakone, Toklo, and Lusa are forced to part ways for the first time since their journey began. While the white bears gravitate toward the snowy mountaintops, Lusa tries to help Toklo establish a territory of his own, until he encounters a figure from his past—and quickly realizes that he may not be welcome in his former home.
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Erin Hunter, River of Lost Bears
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