The Last Wilderness (26 page)

U
jurak shivered in the icy wind as he tapped on the window, giving the little cub inside a friendly smile. Her eyes widened and she stepped forward again, pressing her face and hands against the glass as she peered out.

‘Open the window, please!’ Ujurak called to her.

The cub hesitated. She still looked scared, but after a moment she reached out, unfastened the window, and pushed it open.

‘Who are you?’ she asked curiously.

‘My name’s Ujurak,’ he began. ‘I’m – I’m visiting here.’

‘I’m Maria,’ the cub responded. She let out a giggle, covering her mouth with one paw. ‘Shouldn’t you have some clothes on? You must be frozen.
Here, you can have this.’

She stripped off a pink outer pelt and handed it to Ujurak through the window. Underneath it she wore soft pelts like the ones the flat-faces in the hospital had given to him.

Ujurak put on the pink pelt, pulling it tightly around him. Meanwhile, Maria leaned out of the window, her eyes wide as she gazed at Toklo, Lusa and Kallik. ‘Are those your bears?’

‘Yes,’ Ujurak replied. ‘And we’re being chased by flat-faces – I mean people – who think the bears are dangerous. But they’re not, I promise. Look!’

Lusa, Kallik and Toklo were watching him carefully, trying to guess from his gestures what he and the flat-face cub were saying. Ujurak waved a hand at them and growled softly in bear, ‘Down! Look friendly!’ At his side, his three friends crouched down; Ujurak could tell they were trying to look small and harmless. Lusa waved her paws in the air.

Suddenly Maria vanished from the window. Ujurak’s heart sank. Had she gone to get full-grown flat-faces? But she reappeared a moment later around the side of the house with a small black-and-white
dog in her arms. ‘This is Piper,’ she said, holding him out. ‘Piper, say hi.’

The little dog wagged his tail and stretched out his neck to lick Ujurak’s hand, giving him a good sniff. Ujurak felt Toklo stiffen next to him.
It’s not prey, Toklo
, Ujurak warned him silently. The dog drew back, looking puzzled.
He doesn’t know what to make of my scent
, Ujurak thought.

‘I think he likes you,’ Maria said happily. She looked at the bears. ‘Can I touch them?’ she asked. ‘I’ve never seen bears this close before.’

‘Er, sure,’ said Ujurak.

Maria stretched out and pressed her hand against Toklo’s thick brown fur. Ujurak was sure he saw his friend roll his eyes.

‘I wish I had pet bears,’ Maria whispered.

‘Can you help us?’ Ujurak asked. ‘We need somewhere to hide. I – I don’t want the flat-faces to take my bears away.’

Maria grinned. ‘I know a perfect place! Follow me. Piper, stay!’

She led the way around the side of the house. At the back, a stretch of grass led down to a small wooden den beside a fence. Maria flung open the
door and beckoned them inside.

Ujurak stood back to let his friends go first. He spotted lights from a firebeast turning on to the BlackPath and heard the sound of voices. A dog barked.

‘They’re still looking for us,’ he muttered.

Inside the den smelled of apples and dry earth. Flat-face things made of wood and metal hung on the walls. At one side were shelves stacked with containers. Ujurak shook his head.

‘We can’t hide in here,’ he said. ‘They’ll see us if they look through the window.’

‘Not in the shed, silly!’ Maria told him. ‘Down here, in the cellar.’

She pulled open a little door that lifted up from the floor of the den, revealing a small square space lined with flat slabs of stone. Ujurak wasn’t sure there was enough space to fit the four of them. A damp chill rose out of the hole, and he shivered.

‘I’m not going down there!’ Toklo protested, peering down from the edge of the hole.

There was panic in Kallik’s eyes. ‘We won’t be able to breathe!’

‘Yes, we will. It’ll be OK.’ Lusa’s voice was coaxing.
‘We won’t have to stay there for long.’ She jumped down into the cellar and looked back up at her friends. ‘See? It’s fine.’

Outside, the voices of the pursuing flat-faces suddenly got louder. Ujurak jumped at the baying of a dog. ‘They’re following our scent!’ he exclaimed.

‘Quick!’ Maria urged them.

Toklo and Kallik were still hesitating on the brink of the hole.

‘Get down there,
now
!’ Ujurak’s impatience spilled over. ‘This is our only chance to escape. Do you
want
them to find us?’

Maria let out a gasp, her eyes round with shock. ‘You just
roared
! Can you speak
bear
?’

‘Yes,’ Ujurak replied.

He gave Kallik a shove and she half jumped, half fell into the cellar beside Lusa. Toklo opened his jaws as if he was going to argue, but a howl from a dog outside stopped him. He leaped down, landing on top of Kallik. The hole seemed full of a heaving mass of black, brown and white fur.

‘Are you from a circus?’ Maria asked eagerly. ‘Are your bears magic?’

There was no time to answer her. Ujurak bundled
down into the cellar, squeezing himself into a space among his friends, and Maria dropped the door on top of them. Thick darkness fell. Ujurak couldn’t even see his own paws. The furry pelts of his friends squashed up against him and their mingled scents flooded over him.

‘I don’t like this,’ Kallik said in a trembling voice.

‘You’ll be OK,’ Lusa whispered.

‘Shh!’ said Ujurak. ‘I want to listen.’

He could hear Maria’s voice coming faintly from a distance and realised she must be speaking to the flat-faces outside the den. ‘Yes, the bears came through here. They went that way!’

Then Ujurak heard a male flat-face’s voice, but this time he couldn’t make out the words. Nearer, and more worrying, was the snuffling and whining of dogs; they sounded as if they were right up against the wall of the den.

‘They can scent us,’ Toklo growled. ‘They know we’re in here.’

‘Inside the shed?’ Maria’s voice came again. ‘Oh, no, they couldn’t be. It’s always kept locked.’

Please don’t try the door
, Ujurak thought.

‘Ujurak.’ Kallik’s voice came again, quavering with
terror. ‘I can’t breathe! I’ve got to get out!’ She raised her paws and started scrabbling frantically at the stone wall, shoving Ujurak into a corner.

‘Not now!’ Toklo protested.

‘Just a moment or two longer,’ Lusa begged. ‘We can’t let the flat-faces find us now!’

‘I can’t – I can’t . . .’

Ujurak could feel Kallik shaking and hear her rapid, panting breaths. He strained to hear what was going on outside. Flat-faces were shouting to one another, and a dog was barking; to his relief, after a moment, the sounds began to die away.

‘I think they’re leaving,’ he said.

A moment later Maria pulled open the door; moonlight filtered down into the cellar. Kallik exploded upward with a roar, and Toklo and Lusa scrambled out after her. Ujurak pulled himself up to see Maria pressed back against the wall of the den, trying to keep out of the way of the panicking white bear.

‘It’s OK, Kallik, it’s OK.’ Lusa followed Kallik to the door of the den and stood close beside her while the white bear calmed down. Toklo headed outside, and a moment later Kallik and Lusa followed him.

‘Thanks, Maria,’ Ujurak said to the cub. ‘We owe you a lot.’

‘You’re welcome,’ Maria replied. ‘Where are you going now?’

Ujurak drew a deep breath. ‘Out of this place. Which is the quickest way?’

‘I’ll show you.’ Maria took them back to the BlackPath. ‘That way, if you want to avoid the oil fields,’ she said, pointing. ‘Head for the tall black building.’

‘Thanks,’ Ujurak said.

As he beckoned to his friends, he saw that Maria was looking disappointed. ‘Can’t you stay?’ she pleaded. ‘I’ll bring you all food. None of my friends are going to believe that I had three bears in my backyard!’

Ujurak shook his head. ‘I’m sorry. We have to keep going.’ He turned to leave; Toklo was already heading down the BlackPath in the direction Maria had pointed.

‘D
on’t go yet,’ Maria said. ‘You can’t go around with no clothes on! Just wait here a minute.’ She disappeared, scrambling back through her window. Ujurak fidgeted on the spot, while Toklo fretted impatiently a few paces further down the BlackPath, and Lusa and Kallik stood close together, talking in low voices.

A few moments later Maria came back. She had a thick pelt bundled in her arms, and two heavy things the shape of flat-face feet clutched in one paw.

‘Put these on,’ she ordered. ‘They’ll keep you warm.’

Ujurak stripped off the pink pelt she had given him earlier and put on the new one. It was too big for him, covering his paws and almost trailing on the
ground, but it was heavy and warm, and he huddled gratefully into its folds. It was so much
colder
being a flat-face!
But I’d better stay a flat-face while we’re here
, he thought.
I can protect the others if the flat-faces think I’m one of them
.

‘Now the boots,’ Maria said, putting the foot-pelts on the ground. ‘No,’ she added as Ujurak picked one up and tried to stick his foot into it. ‘The other way round!’

Ujurak didn’t like the feeling of the foot-pelts on his feet. They were stiff and clumsy.
How can flat-faces feel the earth if they go around in these all the time?
he wondered. But he had to admit that his feet didn’t feel so cold inside them.

Flat-faces need so much . . .
stuff.
It’s much better to be a bear
.

‘Thank you, Maria,’ he said. ‘We’ll never forget what you’ve done for us.’

To his surprise, Maria stepped up close to him and gave him a hug. ‘Whoever you are, good luck,’ she murmured.

Ujurak smiled awkwardly and nodded. ‘Goodbye,’ he said.

Lusa padded up and nosed Maria’s hand in a
friendly way. Maria patted her on the snout. ‘Goodbye, bears. Take care.’

‘Come on!’ Toklo called.

Ujurak turned and began trudging down the Black-Path, his steps feeling heavy in the foot-pelts. Kallik and Toklo flanked him on either side, while Lusa brought up the rear. Before they turned the next corner, Ujurak glanced back to see Maria still standing outside her house, looking after them. She raised a paw and waved, and Ujurak waved back to her before they rounded the corner and lost sight of her.

They headed towards the tall building Maria had pointed out. The wind had strengthened, blowing into Ujurak’s face, its bitter cold even penetrating the thick pelts Maria had given him. As he shivered, Toklo and Kallik moved closer to him, warming him with their fur.

Though the BlackPath was quiet, Ujurak stayed alert for sounds of pursuit, wishing for a bear’s sharper senses of scent and hearing. The tall building was still a long way off when he heard the roar of a firebeast rapidly growing louder. Glancing back, he saw it sweeping towards them, a whirling blue light shining from the top of its back.

‘Not again!’ Toklo growled.

‘Quick, hide!’ Ujurak ordered. ‘Down there!’ He pointed to the end of an alleyway a few bearlengths ahead.

The bears bounded forward and disappeared into the darkness. Ujurak was running after them when he heard a shout behind him. ‘Hey, you! Boy!’

His heart sinking, Ujurak halted and turned. The firebeast had drawn to a halt and a male flat-face was climbing out of its belly. He had a small firestick clipped to a tendril around his waist.

At least he’s not pointing it at me!

‘Boy! Come here!’ the flat-face ordered.

‘Me?’ Ujurak tried to sound innocent. Resisting the impulse to look round and make sure that his friends were out of sight, he walked back towards the flat-face.

‘What are you doing out so late?’ the flat-face asked as he approached. ‘Don’t you know bears have been spotted in town?’

‘Bears?’ Ujurak widened his eyes in pretend surprise. ‘Really?’

‘Really. So it’s no time to be wandering about on your own.’

‘I . . . er . . .’ Ujurak tried to think what excuse a flat-face would accept. ‘I had to get some medicine for my baby sister,’ he said at last, hoping that the flat-face wouldn’t ask to see it. ‘She’s sick.’

The flat-face grunted. ‘Were you at the hospital? Did you see anything of a runaway boy? Or any bears?’

Ujurak shook his head. ‘I didn’t go to the hospital. I had to get the medicine from . . . from Maria’s house. Just down there.’ He gestured wildly in the direction they had come.

To his astonishment, the flat-face smiled and nodded. ‘Dr Green, huh? He’s very good to his patients. I’m sure his daughter, Maria, will make a great doctor too.’

Ujurak returned the smile, relief washing over him. ‘I guess she will.’

‘OK, get yourself home quickly,’ the flat-face went on, his tone friendlier now.

He turned away and got back into the firebeast. Ujurak waited until it had roared off, then headed for the alley.

Toklo, Kallik and Lusa appeared from the shadows as he approached, their eyes anxious.

‘What happened?’ Toklo demanded. ‘What did the flat-face want?’

‘He asked me if I’d seen any of you,’ Ujurak replied. ‘We’ve got to get out of here as quickly as we can.’