The Burning Horizon (26 page)

Lusa looked up to study the sky. “I'm trying to remember where the Pathway Star is,” she said. “I wonder how far out of our way we'll have to go.”

“We'll be okay,” Kallik told her. “All the bears who're coming this way will have to change direction, just like us.”

Lusa nodded, though she still looked worried and went on gazing up into the sky, as if she could make out the stars beyond the blue.

“I think we should wait here on the cliff until it gets dark,” Toklo said. “It'll be safer to travel then.”

“But we're losing time!” Lusa protested.

“We've made good progress up until now,” Toklo pointed
out. “And in the meantime we can go back down to the river and hunt in the undergrowth. It doesn't look like we'll find anything to eat up here.”

Lusa shrugged miserably.

“I'll go with you to hunt,” Yakone offered. “Kallik, you stay here with Lusa and try to get some rest.”

Kallik nodded and gave Lusa a gentle push into the shade of a nearby rock.

Toklo led the way as he and Yakone scrambled down the hill again to the bushes that bordered the river.

“We'll still get to Great Bear Lake, won't we?” Yakone asked quietly. “Even though we're on a different route from the one you took before?”

Toklo bristled at the question. “Of course we will! The stars are guiding us.”

Yakone was silent for a moment as they approached the river and began scenting the air for prey. “Those other bears we saw . . .” he began. “Don't you think we should try to catch up to them and travel together for the last part of the journey?”

A flash of defensive anger rose up in Toklo, but he quickly calmed himself and said, “We might not be welcome to join their group. Besides,” he added, “we're different. We've seen more, and traveled farther. Other bears won't understand that.”

“But in the end we'll need to mingle with other bears, and go back to living with our own kind, won't we?” Yakone
persisted. “That's the whole point of the journey. To find a home for each of us.”

At that moment, Toklo picked up the scent of a goose somewhere in the foliage beside the river. Tracking it was a welcome distraction, and he didn't reply to Yakone's question.

By the time the bears had eaten, night had fallen. They set out along the edge of the chasm, casting glances down at the hordes of yellow-pelted flat-faces, who seemed to be churning up the ground with huge firebeasts and lifting stones out of it.

“Weird,” Toklo muttered, but he had seen too much of the strange ways of flat-faces to pay them much attention now.

Harsh, unnatural lights illuminated the canyon, and massive firebeasts growled in and out. The bears had to slink along the flat, dusty ground at the top of the cliff, making the most of the scanty cover. Now and then a bright white glare lit them up.
How can the flat-faces not see us?
Toklo wondered uneasily.

They crouched down when they came to a BlackPath and waited until it was safe to scuttle across. At first Toklo thought this wouldn't be too difficult. The BlackPaths were narrow, and as they approached there hadn't been that many firebeasts passing by.

But then a harsh rumble filled the air. Gazing in the direction of the chasm, Toklo's heart began thumping as he saw a whole herd of firebeasts heading their way, one after the other, their glaring yellow eyes slicing through the darkness.

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.”

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!”