The Last Wilderness
Read The Last Wilderness Online
Authors: Erin Hunter
Other books by Erin Hunter
SEEKERS
Book One: The Quest Begins
Book Two: Great Bear Lake
Book Three: Smoke Mountain
MANGA: Toklo’s Story
WARRIORS
Book One: Into the Wild
Book Two: Fire and Ice
Book Three: Forest of Secrets
Book Four: Rising Storm
Book Five: A Dangerous Path
Book Six: The Darkest Hour
WARRIORS: THE NEW PROPHECY
Book One: Midnight
Book Two: Moonrise
Book Three: Dawn
Book Four: Starlight
Book Five: Twilight
Book Six: Sunset
WARRIORS: POWER OF THREE
Book One: The Sight
Book Two: Dark River
Book Three: Outcast
Book Four: Eclipse
Book Five: Long Shadows
Book Six: Sunrise
WARRIORS: OMEN OF THE STARS
Book One: The Fourth Apprentice
WARRIORS MANGA
Book One: The Lost Warrior
Book Two: Warrior’s Refuge
Book Three: Warrior’s Return
The Rise of Scourge
Tigerstar and Sasha #1: Into the Woods
Tigerstar and Sasha #2: Escape from the Forest
Tigerstar and Sasha #3: Return to the Clans
Ravenpaw’s Path #1: Shattered Peace
WARRIORS SPECIALS
Warriors Super Edition: Firestar’s Quest
Warriors Field Guide: Secrets of the Clans
Warriors: Cats of the Clans
Warriors: Code of the Clans
ERIN HUNTER
First published in Great Britain 2010
by Egmont UK Limited
239 Kensington High Street
London W8 6SA
Text copyright © 2010 Working Partners Limited
The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted
First e-book edition 2011
ISBN 978 1 7803 1030 5
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
With special thanks to Cherith Baldry
The Bears’ Journey: Bear View
The Bears’ Journey: Human View
Ujurak
W
ind buffeted Ujurak’s fur as he plunged down the mountain slope towards the rolling foothills below, where the caribou were grazing.
It was late burn-sky, and after the recent rains the air was filled with delicious smells. Ujurak drew them in with every breath: scents of prey, of green growing plants, and underlying it all the salt tang of the sea.
As he bounded down the slope he glanced round at his friends. The white bear Kallik raced beside him, her stride as smooth as flowing water, her twitching nose sniffing the air. After so many moons of travelling through dark forests and over sunbaked rocks, Ujurak wondered if she could smell the sea-ice at last, the smell of her home.
He heard a
whoomph
and glanced back just in time
to see the black bear Lusa tripping over her own paws in her haste to keep up. She rolled several bearlengths before scrambling up and continuing to pelt downward. She was the smallest of the four bears by a lot now, and she seemed to run two strides for every one of theirs, but she was never outpaced for long.
And charging ahead, his tufty ears flattened by the wind, was the brown bear Toklo – always out in front, always the first. Warmth welled up inside Ujurak. Toklo had trusted him enough to come with him all this way, so far that Ujurak could hardly remember the mountains where he had met Toklo and then Lusa. Suddenly he wanted to be able to remember every pawstep, picture every day they had spent walking, walking, walking, all the way to the edge of the world.
Because finally they had reached their journey’s end. They’d found the Last Wilderness.
Down on the grassy hills, the caribou raised their heads as the bears hurtled towards them.
‘Watch out!’ Ujurak snarled. ‘Here we come!’
Toklo glanced over his shoulder. ‘They’re too big to hunt, feather-brain!’ he called.
Ujurak huffed at him. He wasn’t really going to
hunt the giant caribou; strong as he was, he knew he was still small enough to run right under the bellies of the longest-legged creatures. He was just enjoying the feeling of unstoppable running, his paws skimming over the grass with a satisfying hiss, the fur along his flanks slicked down and rippling in the breeze he had created.
They had reached the foothills now, swerving down the gently swollen slopes until they rushed straight into the herd of grazing caribou. Close up, the horned beasts were huge, and they swung their heavy heads to glance lazily at the bears, unafraid of Ujurak and his companions. There were so many of them, Ujurak couldn’t see to the other side of the herd once he was on their level. All he could see was a forest of legs as thin as sticks, topped with pale, hairy bellies. The caribou’s pelts gave off a powerful musky scent that made Ujurak puff and wrinkle his nose.
Toklo darted to one side and led the bears out of the herd, sending the caribou scattering. The valley opened up in front of them again, and Ujurak blinked in the bright sunshine. A vast green plain unrolled at his paws, dotted here and there with clumps of dark spiky grass with still, silvery water just visible
between the stalks. Through his wind-watering eyes, Ujurak could see patches of white where flocks of geese had landed to feed in the damp grassland.