Lusa, who was standing beside him, caught her breath in terror. “We have to hide!”
Toklo glanced around, but there was no cover nearby, only a few rocks far too small for them to hide behind. The white bears’ pelts stood out, pale against the dirty ground.
“Quick!” Toklo said to Kallik and Yakone as the leading firebeast roared up the BlackPath, closer with every passing moment. “Roll in the dust to hide your white fur!”
Kallik opened her jaws as if she was about to protest.
“Just do it!” Toklo growled, launching himself at Kallik and carrying her off her paws.
To his relief, Yakone flopped down beside Kallik and began to roll. Kallik did the same, until both their pelts were smeared with dirt. Then all four bears crouched behind the small rocks, just as the firebeast herd swept past.
“Oh, spirits, let them not see us!” Lusa breathed out.
Toklo peered out from behind his rock and watched the firebeasts growling past, their glaring eyes lighting up the devastated landscape. He breathed a sigh of relief as the last one vanished into the distance, leaving the bears in darkness once again.
“They’re gone,” he said, getting to his paws.
Kallik rose to stand beside him. “You were right, Toklo,” she told him, “we blended in better covered in dust. But I’ve never felt so filthy!”
Toklo understood. They were all getting dirtier with every pawstep, and his own pelt itched from ears to tail.
“We can all wash our fur in the lake,” Lusa puffed. “I can’t wait!”
“We don’t know how close we are,” Toklo reminded her. “We could have a few more sunrises of traveling.”
Lusa twitched her ears impatiently. “But we’ll get there soon, won’t we?”
“Yes,” Toklo replied heavily. “We will.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Lusa
The bears kept on walking after the short night had passed and the sun had risen over the ruined expanse of land. They all wanted to put as much space as they could between themselves and the unnatural chasm in the earth. Lusa could still feel the ground rumbling beneath her paws, and her heart beat faster whenever she pictured the massive line of firebeasts roaring past them while they were trying to hide.
Ahead the landscape was flat and barren, with no promising spots to hunt or forage. Lusa tried digging around a couple of straggly bushes, but the roots there were dry and brittle.
“Yuck!” she exclaimed, coughing on the tough fibers. “That’s horrible!”
The other bears didn’t talk much, just slogged on with their heads down, lost in their own thoughts.
At last a small copse of pine trees appeared on the horizon, growing larger as the bears trekked toward them.
“Why don’t we rest there for a bit?” Lusa suggested. “We’ve been traveling since nightfall.”
The others agreed, and they headed for the clump of pines, where they lay down in the shade on a thick covering of pine needles. But although Lusa was tired to her toes, her belly was growling too much for her to sleep. The others were shifting restlessly, and she thought hunger was keeping them awake, too.
After a while, Toklo rose to his paws and went to peer out at the flat land from the other side of the cluster of trees. “There’s no prey around here—there’s not enough cover,” he reported over his shoulder. “But I can see a flat-face area. Just a few dens. We might be able to find food there.”
“You want to look for food near flat-face dens?” Lusa asked, surprised.
“You should have seen us steal chickens right out from under some flat-face noses, Lusa. You would have been proud!” replied Toklo.
Maybe, thought Lusa. But that’s not how wild bears are meant to do things.
Lusa’s pelt prickled as they set off again. Although in daylight she couldn’t see the Pathway Star, she knew that by heading for the flat-face dens they were turning away from their route to Great Bear Lake. We don’t have time for any more detours. We might miss the gathering! How could our journey have become so twisting and difficult so close to the end?
At the edge of the flat-face dens, Lusa crouched with the others behind a row of wooden slats. Farther along she could hear dogs snuffling, and she picked up their rank scent.
“I’ll create a diversion,” Toklo whispered to her, “while you see if you can find anything to eat.”
Lusa knew he meant that she should look in the shiny silver containers where flat-faces sometimes kept food. Every hair on her pelt was bristling from being so close to a denning place again. Even though her belly was still growling, she felt a spurt of rebellion rising up inside her.
“Why am I always the one to get flat-face food?” she demanded.
“We’ll keep you safe,” Toklo assured her, touching her shoulder with his snout.
Lusa shrugged him off. “That’s not the point! I’m a wild bear now! I forage for roots and berries like a real black bear.”
The others stared at her in astonishment.
“Of course you’re a wild bear,” Kallik told her. “I’ve never thought of you any other way. But you’re the best at this, and we need your help.”
Her soothing words didn’t impress Lusa. “We’re so close to the end of our journey,” she said, “and we’re never going to live with flat-faces again. We can’t rely on their food.” Turning back to Toklo, she added, “I’m not doing it, and that’s that.”
Though Lusa tried to sound determined, she was also fighting back a sense of rising panic. Images of being trapped in her cage next to the angry coyote flooded into her mind. Crushed by the fear of cage bars surrounding her again, she felt desperate to run anywhere, in any direction except toward the flat-face dens.
“Come on, Lusa,” Yakone coaxed. “It’ll be okay. Sure, we’re wild bears, but that doesn’t mean we can’t steal from flat-faces now and then.”
Lusa glared at him. “I said no, and I meant it.”
“We can’t force her,” Toklo said, shrugging.
He looked closely at Lusa, and she wondered if he had any idea what she was feeling. It wasn’t just the certainty that she was a wild bear now, a long way from the bear she used to be who was comfortable around flat-faces and happy to eat their cast-off food. Memories of being captured were too fresh in her mind, and she could feel herself freezing with terror being this close to flat-faces again. I can’t let them catch me again. I might never make it to Great Bear Lake.
“Okay,” Kallik said at last. “Let’s go.”
Lusa’s belly was rumbling as they headed into the open again, away from the flat-face dens. She knew her friends must be just as hungry, and guilt crept up on her.
We’re wild bears; we’ll find our own food! And I can’t take the risk of being caught again. They don’t understand what that feels like.
Gradually the barren scrub gave way to grassland again, and Lusa hoped they had returned to the right path. Her nose twitched at prey-scents in the air.
Toklo picked them up, too, and paused, snuffling happily. “This is better,” he growled. “We’ll find some prey here.”
As the bears waded into deeper grass, suddenly Kallik darted to one side. There was a scuffle, and a moment later she returned with a ptarmigan in her jaws.
“Excellent!” Yakone huffed.
The bears stopped to eat, hungrily gulping down the prey. Some of Lusa’s guilt eased along with her hunger.
“Was that wild enough for you?” Toklo asked gruffly, giving her an affectionate cuff around her ear.
“Absolutely,” Lusa responded. A warm feeling spread through her, and the rest of her guilt disappeared as she realized Toklo had forgiven her.
The prey gave the bears fresh energy, and they traveled on briskly until they reached the crest of the next hill. Stopping for a quick rest, Lusa gazed down on a shallow, rocky valley and tried to remember if she and Toklo had passed this way on their previous trip to Great Bear Lake.
“I don’t recognize this, do you?
” she asked him.
Toklo shook his head thoughtfully. “Maybe not . . . but see that mountain over there, the one shaped like a fish head? I think we traveled on the other side of it.”
“You could be right,” said Lusa, reassured that they had returned to the right path.
Searching the landscape for more familiar features, she spotted two brown bears in the distance, walking side by side.
“Look down there,” she barked. “More bears! Why don’t we join them?”
She noticed that Yakone was looking closely at Toklo, as though his reply was immensely important.
“No,” Toklo replied. “Let them travel alone.”
Kallik gave a firm nod. “I agree.”
“But they must be going to Great Bear Lake!” Lusa protested. “We should at least follow them.”
“What if they’re not friendly?” Toklo asked. “We’ve had trouble with grizzlies before, remember?” He pointed in a slightly different direction from the one the brown bears were taking. “We’ll go that way.”
“Good idea,” Kallik said. “We don’t want any trouble so close to arriving at the lake.”
“Going that direction will take us off course again.” Lusa looked at her friends, scanning each of their faces. “Any bear would think you don’t want to get to Great Bear Lake,” she said. Then a horrible thought struck her. “Wait . . . is that it? You don’t want to arrive?” Her frustration surged up inside her and spilled over. “Toklo, you have Aiyanna waiting for you. Kallik and Yakone, you have each other. But what about me? Once our journey ends, I’ll be all alone unless I can find some other bears to settle in with. And our journey will end. We can’t keep on walking forever!”
For a moment her friends were silent, looking guiltily at one another, and Lusa’s heart beat faster. “This could be my only chance of finding other black bears,” she said quietly. “How many have we met since . . . since Chenoa? I can’t make a home on my own; that’s not how black bears live. You have all found someone, a bear of your own kind, and a territory to call home. But I haven’t, and I can’t miss this chance.”
Toklo was the first to speak. “I’m sorry, Lusa. You’re right. Maybe we have been dragging our paws. But I promised I’d get you to Great Bear Lake in time for the Longest Day, and I’ll keep my promise.”
“I’m sorry, too,” Kallik added. “It’s just that I know we’ll be splitting up when we get to the lake, and I’m not looking forward to it.”
“Me either,” Yakone agreed. “Not one bit. But we know what the gathering means to you, Lusa, and we’ll get you there.”
Lusa drew a long breath. “Thank you,” she said. She felt a wave of sadness well up inside her as she gazed at her friends. She understood why they had been delaying. I don’t want to say good-bye, either. “Maybe we should let those other bears go on ahead,” she added, understanding how precious their remaining time together was for everyone.
Continuing their trek, the bears crossed the shallow valley, heading farther away from the other two brown bears. At the opposite side of the valley they began climbing up to the next ridge, though boulders and patches of loose scree drove them away from the direct route.
Toklo halted, panting, after a particularly hard scramble. “How much longer are we going to be stuck on this spirit-cursed hill?” he demanded to no bear in particular.
I wonder if the brown bears found an easier route, Lusa thought. Maybe we should have followed them after all. But she didn’t dare say that to Toklo.
At last they struggled up to the ridge and found that they were looking across a stretch of barren ground to a lake. Bushes and a few scrubby trees surrounded it. Islands rose from the water here and there, dark against the glimmering surface, and the far shore was just visible through a haze.
Lusa stared down at it. She hadn’t expected to come to the end of their journey quite so soon.
“Is this it?” Yakone asked.
“I think so,” Toklo said hesitantly. “It’s big enough, and there are islands dotted all over it.”
“There are bear scents everywhere, too,” Kallik added, sniffing the air. “But I can’t see any bears. Where are they all?”
“Maybe they haven’t arrived yet,” Yakone suggested.
“Lusa, what do you think?” asked Toklo.
“It’s not quite how I remember it,” she began, “but it probably looks a little different because we’re coming at it from a different direction. Right, Toklo?”
Toklo just grunted and led the way down the slope toward the shore. Lusa’s mind whirled as she followed. They had arrived! And yet she didn’t feel triumphant or excited or relieved. She felt scared. What if the other black bears don’t want me around? Will I ever find friends as good as Toklo, Kallik, and Yakone?
The bears crunched over small, sharp stones as they neared the water. The lake was almost completely still, barely rippled by the warm breeze. Suddenly Kallik and Yakone bounded forward and flung themselves into the water. In a spume of white foam, they dove under the surface and vanished for several long moments, emerging farther into the lake with a toss of their heads. Their fur already looked several shades whiter.
Toklo waded into the shallows, head tilted down as he searched for fish swimming around his paws. Lusa watched him for a little while, then splashed into the lake until the water was deep enough for her to swim. Cool water soaked into her fur, and she relished the feeling of dirt washing out of it. She had almost forgotten what it felt like to be clean.
But even though she was enjoying her swim, Lusa began to feel more and more uneasy. Something’s wrong. When they had all returned to shore, she could see that the others were troubled, too. Kallik’s ears were flat, and Yakone’s eyes looked serious.
“Why are there no other bears here?” Kallik asked again.
Forcing the fur on her neck to lie flat, Lusa gazed up and down the shoreline. It was empty in both directions, apart from a few birds pecking near the edge of the waves.
“Maybe they’re just not in this part,” Toklo said. “We should check farther along.”
Lusa took the lead as they padded along the water’s edge. Her pawsteps grew more and more urgent as she looked around the lake and searched among the trees for bears and other recognizable signs of Great Bear Lake. But nothing was familiar to her. Lusa couldn’t see the stretch of woodland where she had met Miki and the other black bears, and she didn’t recognize the pattern of islands. And though she could pick up bear scents, they were all stale, as if bears had paused here briefly and were now long gone. She stared across the lake, letting her ear fur blow in the wind. Whichever direction she looked, nothing fit her memories from the previous Longest Day.
At last she turned to the others. Toklo raised his head, reading the look on Lusa’s face. “There’s no denying it,” he growled. “This is the wrong lake.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Kallik
Kallik braced herself to keep walking. It was a shock to find they had still more traveling to do. But inwardly she couldn’t deny a pang of relief that they hadn’t arrived at Great Bear Lake yet.
I’m not ready to say good-bye.
When they set out, Yakone drew up alongside her and leaned close to murmur in her ear. “You’ll have to say good-bye soon.”
“I know,” Kallik responded, grateful that Yakone understood her so well. “But not yet.”
“Lots of bears have clearly passed this way,” Toklo announced, giving the air a good sniff. “Great Bear Lake must be close.”
“If we were birds,” Lusa said, sounding discouraged. “Look at the size of this lake! We can’t even see the ends of it. And look, Toklo—those hills on the other side . . . didn’t we cross them last time to get to Great Bear Lake?”
Toklo squinted into the distance. “You could be right,” he grunted. “I didn’t notice them before.”
“So we need to get to the other side of the lake?” Yakone asked.
Kallik nodded. “It looks
like it. But there’s nothing to tell us which direction is best to go,” she added. “The scents don’t help.”
“Then let’s look for tracks,” Lusa suggested. “The bears who passed through here might have known the route better than we do.”
All four of the bears walked alongside the lake, spread out from the water’s edge to the bottom of the ridge they had crossed earlier. But tracks didn’t show up on the pebbly shore and the short, tough grass. The slight traces of other bears they found didn’t tell them anything useful.
“This is hopeless,” Toklo said, halting at last. “What do we do?”
“Maybe if we wait for dark we can follow the Pathway Star,” Yakone suggested.
Kallik dug her claws into the ground in frustration. “But the days are so long!” she objected. “Think of all the time we’ll waste.”
“I think I remember the Pathway Star is in that direction,” Lusa said, pointing with her snout.
Toklo let out a grunt. “Not even close! Look, the sun’s over there, and that means the Pathway Star would be . . .” He let his voice trail off, staring up at the sky.
“You’re not sure, are you?” Lusa challenged him.
“How about wind direction?” Yakone asked, facing into the breeze that blew off the lake. “Does that help?”
Kallik shook her head. “We’ve just got to choose a direction and go.”
“What if we pick the wrong one?” Toklo snapped.
“Well, there’s one way that is definitely the shortest,” Kallik retorted, stung. “Across. We can swim.”
Lusa’s eyes flew wide open in alarm. “It’s so far!” she protested.
“It is. But we don’t have much time,” Toklo reminded her. “The nights are so short now that the Longest Day must be close. Kallik’s idea might be best.”
“I know it’s a long way,” Kallik said, hoping to reassure Lusa. “But there are islands all the way across where we can stop and rest. And I’ll help you,” she added. “We promised to get you to Great Bear Lake, and we will.”