The Last Wilderness (28 page)

‘You’re welcome,’ Lusa replied, shaking herself so that shining droplets scattered from her pelt.

‘Hey!’ Toklo leaped backwards and slapped one paw down hard on the surface so that water showered into Lusa’s face.

‘I’ll get you for that, you big lump!’ Lusa retorted.

‘Come on!’ Ujurak had climbed on to a sandbank a little way ahead. ‘There’s no time for playing around.’

As Kallik waded through the water to join him, she thought how strange it was that Ujurak should be the one to interrupt his friends’ high-spirited fun. Usually he was the first to get distracted.

He’s changed since he was taken away by the flat-faces
, she thought.

At last all four bears splashed their way up the shelving bed of the river and stood on the far bank. A few pawsteps further, the grass gave way to shingle, scattered with spiky bushes. Kallik could hear the swish of water and the rattle of pebbles as waves
washed in and out. The line of foam was only a few bearlengths away.

‘We’ve reached the sea!’ Toklo panted, flopping on to the ground.

Kallik and the others tumbled around him, their breath sounding harsh after their long trek. Kallik looked back to see the flat-face place they had left; she could just make out the tall building where Maria had directed them. She pressed herself to the ground as she heard the growling of a metal bird and spotted the speck of light swooping over the distant flat-face dens.

‘It’s not looking for us,’ she said as she watched it sinking down into its nest.

‘No, we’re safe now,’ Lusa murmured. ‘They won’t come looking for us here.’

For a few moments, all of them were silent, huddling together in the comforting darkness. The lights and noise seemed far away; Kallik wanted nothing more than to rest for a while, listening to the soft surge of the sea and breathing in the scent of the endless ice.

‘I have the answer,’ Ujurak announced. ‘I know why we were brought here.’

‘I might have known you wouldn’t let us rest for long!’ Toklo muttered. ‘I know why
we
were brought here,’ he added, jerking his snout at Lusa and Kallik. ‘We came looking for you.’

Ujurak pushed his snout into Toklo’s shoulder. ‘I know you did, and I’m really grateful. But that’s not what I mean. Something has been guiding me,’ the small brown cub went on, his eyes glinting in the starlight. ‘Until we came to this place, I didn’t know why. I thought I was trying to find a place where bears can live safely. But it’s more than that.’

‘Something guiding you?’ Lusa echoed. ‘Is it bear-spirits?’ She raised her head to gaze up at where the Bear Watcher blazed in the cold sky. ‘Did they bring us here?’

Ujurak nodded, his gaze following Lusa’s to the stars. ‘The Great Bear, Arcturus, watches over us always,’ he whispered. ‘She has brought us here to save the wild.’

‘We’re really going to do it,’ Lusa whispered. ‘We’re going to save the wild.’

Toklo glanced from Lusa to Ujurak and back again. ‘I’ve got this awful feeling that I’m about to find out what you’re talking about.’

Lusa turned to him. ‘Toklo, you remember when I was hurt on Smoke Mountain, and we all thought I was going to die?’ Toklo gave her a curt nod. ‘Well, I had a dream. I thought I was back in the Bear Bowl, with my mother and King and Yogi.’

Toklo let his breath huff out. ‘Not the Bear Bowl again!’

‘My mother said I couldn’t die. I had to come back because I had a task to do. I had to save the wild.’

‘You?’ Toklo said disbelievingly. ‘All on your own?’

Lusa ducked her head. ‘I know . . . I thought it was impossible too. But I’m
not
alone now. And if the bear spirits are helping us, there’s nothing we can’t do!’

Kallik gazed in awe at her friend. She envied her courage and her certainty.
I can’t feel it like you do
, she thought to herself.
But if there’s any way I can help you, I will
.

‘The wild is in great danger,’ Ujurak went on. ‘The flat-faces are so desperate for oil that they’ll spread their buildings and their BlackPaths everywhere. The flat-faces won’t stop until everything is destroyed.’

A cold wind whispered over the shingle, making them all shiver. Toklo fluffed out his fur, as if he was
trying to deny that the cold outside had awoken the icy touch of fear within.

I know how he feels
, thought Kallik.

‘So where do we go now?’ Lusa said. ‘What should we do?’

‘I don’t know,’ Ujurak admitted. ‘We wait for a sign.’

Kallik took a step back as Toklo’s fear and impatience erupted. ‘A sign!’ he barked scornfully. ‘Oh, really? And what sort of sign are we looking for, Ujurak? Are those four big rocks over there a sign? Are these leaves a sign?’ He tore a mouthful from one of the spiky bushes and shoved the sprays of foliage into Ujurak’s face.

‘Toklo, don’t –’ Kallik began.

Toklo swept on, ignoring her. ‘Oh, look, there are four mountain peaks over there! Does that mean four bears? Oh, yes, that must mean we’re supposed to go that way!’

He reared up on his hindpaws and glared up at the stars. ‘Hey, spirits!’ he roared. ‘Are you there? Are you listening, star-bear? What are we supposed to do? Where should we go?’

Kallik and the others looked upward to see if his
challenge would be answered. But the stars went on twinkling silently as before. There was no response from the spirits, no sign to tell them whether Ujurak was right.

Toklo slumped down on the shingle. Lusa padded over to him and touched her snout to his shoulder, but he jerked away from her. ‘I think we should just go to the mountains,’ he muttered. ‘Leave the plains and the sea for the flat-faces to poison as much as they want.’

‘I don’t think you mean that,’ Lusa murmured.

‘Look!’ Ujurak whispered.

Kallik glanced up, following the brown bear’s gaze. Something was happening in the sky. At first it looked like a plume of smoke swirling above the ice, but it was the colour of forest berries. It billowed upward, sweeping across the sky, the colours changing from red to the deep green of pine trees, then to gold and icy blue.

‘So beautiful . . .’ Lusa murmured.

Kallik’s heart pounded. The whole sky was pulsing with light, as if rivers of colour were cascading towards her, like the wings of vast birds drawing the air around them into fantastic shapes. The spirits of
her ancestors were dancing above the endless ice, beckoning her towards them.
Are you with them, Nisa?
she asked.
Are you looking down at me now?

‘Kallik, you must lead us now.’ Ujurak’s voice broke into her thoughts.

Kallik stared at him. ‘Me?’

‘Yes. The spirits are telling us to go on to the ice. You must show us the way.’

Kallik looked up at the fires in the sky, felt the salt breeze tugging at her fur, and breathed in the scent of the ice that lay ahead.

‘Oh, yes,’ she whispered. ‘I will lead you on to the ice. I will show you my home. And the spirits of the bears who have lived before – the spirit of my mother – will be watching over us with every step.’

One journey – to find the Endless Ice – had ended. The journey to save the wild had begun.

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 behaviour, shaped by her interest in astrology and standing stones. She is also the author of the Warriors series.