River of Lost Bears

by Erin Hunter

  “You’re not the only bear who’s lost someone!” he snarled back. “I left my entire family for you.”

  Kallik’s fur spiked. How dare he throw that at her? Don’t you know how important this journey is to me? “Don’t make me choose, Yakone,” she warned. “Taqqiq made me choose once, and I nearly lost him forever.” She remembered with a pang how she’d left Toklo and Lusa to travel home with Taqqiq. But she hadn’t been able to carry it through. She’d had to return to her friends. And she’d do the same this time.

  Yakone’s eyes widened. “You’d choose them over me?”

  Pain seared Kallik’s heart. “I’m sorry, Yakone. I care for you, truly. I’d hate being here without you. But I have to see Toklo and Lusa to the end of their journey.”

  “Even if you die trying?” Yakone’s question was hardly more than a whisper.

  Kallik closed her eyes. “Yes.”

  Yakone dove into the water and headed for shore.

  “They’d do the same for me!” Kallik called. “I know they would!” As she watched him pad ashore, fear sparked beneath her pelt. “Are you leaving?” She stared at him as he shook the water from his pelt. “Are you going back to the Melting Sea?”

  Yakone gazed at her across the water. His eyes shone like stars. “No, Kallik. I’ll stay with you.”

  Her shoulders drooped with relief.

  “For now.” Yakone turned away and padded back to their nest.

  Kallik stayed on the boulder until dawn lit the distant horizon. Then she swam back to shore and settled quietly on the bracken beside Yakone. Ears pricked, she listened to him sleep. His breath rose and fell steadily, rumbling as he snored. She rested her muzzle on her paws, her eyes drooping as tiredness pulled at her. What if Yakone left while she was sleeping? He mustn’t go back to the Melting Sea without her. But how could she leave Toklo and Lusa? They were more than friends now; they were family. She wriggled, fidgeting in the nest, trying to get comfortable until finally, she slid into sleep.

  She awoke with a start. Sun streamed onto the shore. Lusa was beside her, nibbling leaf dust from her pelt while Toklo stretched at the side of the nest.

  Yakone?

  Kallik jerked up her head. There he was. Sheltering in the shade of the trees.

  “Are you okay, Kallik?” Toklo’s growl surprised her. She turned and saw worry in his gaze.

  “I’m fine.” She sat up briskly. “Who’s hungry?”

  She fished, catching enough for them all. Yakone ate in silence, then trekked upriver without a word. Toklo and Lusa exchanged looks as they padded a few bearlengths ahead. They had to know that something was wrong. Kallik wished she could explain, but what would she say?

  Anger surged through her. I want to go home, too! She kicked at the pebbles as she walked. I hate this stupid terrain. I hate the trees and the sun. We’re so far from the ice, and I don’t know how far we have to go! Every day they were moving farther from where she belonged. But she belonged with Toklo and Lusa. Her mind whirled. How could she leave them?

  As the shore narrowed, Toklo halted. The river was curving away toward sunset-sky. Lusa hurried on, heading to where the forest reached the water’s edge. She climbed over the line of rocks edging the trees and peered farther around. “There’s no shore for ages,” she called back. “Just forest.”

  Kallik scraped her claws against the ground. They were going to have to travel through the woods. She glanced at Yakone. He’ll hate it. She bristled. What can I do about it? Was she supposed to apologize? It wasn’t her fault the shore disappeared!

  Huffing, she followed Toklo through the sedge and into the forest. Lusa trotted ahead. The two woodland bears moved easily between the trees, following trails as though they’d traveled this way every day of their lives.

  Yakone pushed through a bramble, leaving hunks of white fur snagged in its thorns. “I’m sure I can smell firebeasts.”

  “You’re imagining it.” Kallik could only smell sickly sap scent. She followed him through the thorns, growling as a tendril tore her pelt.

  Yakone’s back dipped suddenly, and he lurched. “Great spirits!” His paws had disappeared into watery peat. Scrambling out of the boggy soil, he tripped on a tree root. Kallik darted forward to steady him.

  “If firebeasts or flat-faces don’t kill us, the forest will!” he complained.

  A pine twig jabbed Kallik’s sore flank. She gasped with pain. “There are no firebeasts here,” she hissed through gritted teeth. “The forest is too thick.”

  “We should be swimming upriver, not trekking through this stuff,” Yakone growled.

  Kallik swallowed back anger. Yakone was miserable. She’d chosen her friends over him. “We can’t swim all the way,” she reasoned gently. “Lusa wouldn’t be able to fight the current for that long.” She froze as a distant rumbling touched her ear fur. Yakone pricked his ears.

  Lusa came charging toward them. “There’s something big ahead.” She skidded to a halt, Toklo at her heels.

  Kallik listened harder. Had Yakone been right about the firebeasts? A deep, ominous rumbling throbbed through the forest. She opened her mouth. Sour air touched her tongue.

  Toklo struck off into thicker undergrowth. “We should head around it.”

  “Great,” Yakone growled.

  Kallik plunged into the bushes, screwing up her eyes as twigs lashed her snout.

  Ahead, Lusa slowed her pace. “It’s getting louder.”

  The rumbling shook the air. The trees seemed to tremble around them.

  “I thought we were avoiding it,” Yakone muttered.

  “It’s everywhere.” Fear edged Toklo’s growl.

  Kallik barged through a clump of bracken. Suddenly the air was thick with firebeast stench. The roaring came from every side. Her belly tightened as the ground shook beneath her paws.

  Lusa’s fur stood on end. “What’s happening?”

  Toklo swung his head, scanning the forest.

  Trees creaked, howling through the thunder of firebeasts. Lusa’s eyes widened in terror. “The trees are screaming!” she wailed. “They’re all screaming!”

  Yakone marched ahead. “Let’s find out what’s going on.”

  “Be careful!” Kallik hurried behind him. Toklo and Lusa crowded at her heels. Light streamed through the trees. The noise was coming from a clearing.

  Yakone stopped, and Kallik slid in beside him. In front of them, tree stumps rose like a bed of thorns, stretching away toward the riverbank. Flat-faces pointed and shouted, signaling to massive firebeasts.

  Kallik swallowed. The firebeasts were huge—bigger than she’d ever seen. They churned through mud on fat, black paws. Their long, flat backs were heavy with the bodies of trees, stacked high like fresh prey. Rumbling like thunder, one rolled toward the riverbank. With a terrifying roar, it lifted its shoulders and let the trees slide from its back. The trees tumbled into the river, crashing together as they splashed down into the water.

  Lusa moaned in horror. “They’ll drown.” Her words were no more than a gasp. “The bear spirits will drown and be lost forever!”

  Kallik closed her eyes. Was this how their journey was going to be forever? This world was filled only with horror and grief. She longed for the ice more desperately than ever, wishing she were back there, with Yakone beside her.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Lusa

  Lusa charged forward, her mind blurring with panic.

  Teeth snagged her scruff. “Lusa! No!”

  She gasped as Kallik hauled her back.

  “Get off!” Lusa scrabbled at the ground, struggling to free herself. “I have to save the trees!”

  Toklo loomed over her. “Lusa! How are you going to fight that many flat-faces? Look at those firebeasts! They’d crush you! And what if the flat-faces have firesticks?” His eyes blazed.

  Lusa stopped struggling and fell limp in Kallik’s grip. “But the spirits,” she wailed. “The flat-faces have cut down their trees, and now they are drowning!�
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  Kallik gently let her go. “We can’t help them.”

  Lusa stared at her friends. Were they really going to let the spirits drown?

  Yakone headed away. “Let’s look from the shore.”

  “Will that help?” Lusa hurried after him. Did he have a plan? Toklo and Kallik swished through the undergrowth behind her.

  They skirted the clearing and emerged from the forest a little way downstream. The riverside sloped away from them, sandy underpaw, with great boulders lying here and there. Yakone padded past them, slowing as he reached a stretch of beach where the flat-face clearing opened onto the river.

  A firebeast was turning at the top. It hunched its back and tipped another haul of logs down the slope. They rolled into the water, clattering against the mass already jammed between both shores. Lusa stared, horrified. The river was hidden under countless logs.

  “Why don’t they wash downstream?” Kallik wondered.

  “They’re trapped.” Yakone pointed his snout toward a gleaming vine, as thick and shiny as a water snake. It looked like a silvery strand of whatever firebeast pelts were made of. One end was fastened to a boulder on the shore, snagged by a fat, shimmering claw that had been driven into the stone. The other end spanned the river.

  “It’s holding a web!” Lusa could see tight silver mesh flashing beneath the surface, as though woven by a giant swimming spider. It held the floating mass of trees in place, stopping them from being carried downriver by the current.

  The logs creaked as they pressed against the web. “They’re trying to break free!” Lusa gasped. She scanned the bark. Faces showed among the knots. How many bears’ spirits were trapped here? She glanced from one log to another, seeing faces everywhere. Their eyes pleaded with her, their jaws gaped wide in noiseless terror. Lusa’s pelt prickled with alarm. “We have to help them!”

  Before she could dart forward, another firebeast emptied its load at the top of the bank. The logs tumbled down, spraying her pelt with bark chips as they clattered past.

  Kallik pulled her away. “We need to get out of sight.”

  “What about the spirits?” Lusa wailed.

  Toklo steered her toward the trees and pushed her through a clump of ragwort. In the shadows beyond, she stared at her friends. Their pelts were ruffled. The firebeast roar thundered behind them. “What are we going to do?” Lusa demanded.

  Toklo shook his head. “I don’t know. We’ve got to think of a way to get past the floating trees.”

  “Get past?” Lusa tried to ignore the shrieking of the bear spirits as it shrilled through her ear fur. “We’ve got to save them!”

  Toklo curled his lip. “Impossible!”

  “Is it?” Kallik tipped her head. “There’s only vine holding that web in place. If we could break it, the trees would be free.”

  Lusa nodded frantically. “Oh, please, please, set the trees free. The bear spirits need us!”

  “But it’s flat-face vine,” Toklo pointed out. “How are we meant to break it?”

  “At least we could try,” Yakone rumbled. “We haven’t tested its strength yet.”

  Hope sparked in Lusa. “What if we all pushed against the vine? We might snap it.”

  Toklo seemed to flinch. “You want us to wade into the river? Did you see how many trees are pushing against the web? We’ll get crushed or drowned. Besides, if the trees can’t break through, how can we? I’m sorry, Lusa, but the flat-faces have trapped them for whatever reason, and we can’t change that.”

  Lusa stared at him. Wasn’t Toklo even going to try to save the bear spirits? He was usually ready to try anything. She noticed his gaze glitter as he eyed the water. “Are you scared?” she snapped.

  Toklo looked at his paws. “Of course not.”

  Kallik narrowed her eyes. “The current’s not fierce here, Toklo. It’s not like when we rescued the flat-face cub. Couldn’t we try?”

  “With the place full of flat-faces?” he argued.

  Yakone shifted his paws. “Let’s get away from this noise and wait until dark,” he suggested. “Perhaps we can take a closer look when the flat-faces are sleeping.”

  Kallik nodded. “Good idea.”

  Lusa flattened her ears against the screaming of the bear spirits. “Okay,” she agreed, trembling.

  Toklo headed back through the forest. He wove between pines, following the path of the river, which glittered beyond the trunks. Lusa followed Kallik and Yakone, dragging her paws. Every hair in her pelt screamed at her to run back to the bear spirits, but she forced herself to keep up with her friends. She let out a sigh of relief when Toklo stopped in a clearing. The roaring had eased to a distant grumble. Kallik sat down while Yakone sniffed the undergrowth.

  How can they carry on like nothing’s happening? Lusa paced beside a clump of brambles, the shrieks of bear spirits echoing in her ears. She couldn’t believe so many were suffering, bobbing helplessly in the water. Why were the flat-faces trying to drown them?

  “Are you hungry?” Yakone asked her.

  Lusa continued pacing, hardly hearing him.

  “Let’s fish,” Kallik suggested.

  As the two white bears headed for the river, Lusa glanced up through the branches. The sun was still high. Such a long time until dark! Impatience pricked in her paws. When Kallik and Yakone returned with fish, she wrinkled her nose at the smell. Her gaze flicked toward the sky, tracking the sun as it slid with agonizing slowness toward the horizon.

  At last, day eased to dusk and dusk turned to night. “Can we go and look now?” she demanded.

  Toklo cocked his head to listen. “It sounds like the flat-faces are still awake.” The air trembled with the distant roaring of the firebeasts. Harsh white light flashed through the trees.

  “I’m going to look.” Lusa marched toward the shore. She wouldn’t let anyone stop her this time. Her heart twisted in her chest. The bear spirits must be terrified, trapped in the river, not knowing what was happening to them. What if their faces had disappeared from the bark? Where could they go? Who would watch over the forest? She heard pawsteps behind her and flexed her claws. “You can’t stop me,” she growled. “I have to see the spirits. I have to know if they’re still there.”

  “I know.” Kallik caught up with her. “I’m not going to stop you.”

  Lusa padded onto the shore and headed upstream. Kallik fell in beside her. “When I was a cub, I used to worry about white bear spirits trapped beneath the ice. I wanted to help them find their way out.”

  “But you knew they’d find their way to the stars eventually,” Lusa pointed out. “Black bear spirits aren’t supposed to be in the water. They need to feel roots beneath them and know they are still part of the forest.”

  Kallik’s fishy breath billowed in the night air. “Every creature needs to feel connected to the land they were born in,” she murmured. Her pelt glowed like the moon against the dark shore.

  Moving closer to Kallik, Lusa padded on in silence as they neared the flat-face clearing. A firebeast rumbled at the top of the slope as it tipped a fresh load of logs into the river. Lights flared so brightly that Lusa had to screw up her eyes to see. “Don’t they ever stop?”

  “They may, if we wait.” Kallik sat down.

  Lusa flinched as more logs tumbled down the slope. Bark screeched as it ripped away from the soft heart of the trees. “Look!” With a fresh jolt of horror, she spotted a firebeast on the far bank. A spindly leg lifted from its spine. Its spiked paw reached for the logs. With a howl, it snatched a bunch out of the water and scooped them into the air. The whole leg swung around and dropped the trees onto the flat back of another firebeast. There was a deafening rumble, and the newly laden firebeast pulled away into the forest.

  Kallik leaned forward. “This must be how flat-faces move trees across the water when there’s no bridge.”

  “Move trees?” The words choked in Lusa’s throat: “They’re stealing spirits! We can’t let them do this!”

  Kallik jump
ed to her paws. “Let’s get the others.”

  Lusa shook her head. “I’m not leaving them.”

  Kallik held her gaze for a moment, then turned away. “Wait for me to get back,” she warned. “Don’t do anything fish-brained.”

  As the white bear charged away, Lusa crept forward. Her eyes were adjusting to the harsh glare of the flat-face lights. She squinted up the slope, watching a firebeast roll away. Leaning forward, she noticed how long it took for another to appear and fling its load into the river. They were slowing down. The gaps between were longer each time. Were the flat-faces and firebeasts growing tired at last?

  Bear spirits, I’m going to save you. I promise. Lusa pelted forward and ducked under the silver vine. Splashing into the river, she lunged for a log and hauled herself onto it, wobbling as it spun beneath her paws. She ran with the roll, keeping upright, heart pounding as she scrambled onto the next trunk, then the next. A knot in the bark frowned up at her. “I’m sorry!” Lusa landed too close to the end of the log and bobbed down into the water. Her pelt fluffed up in alarm as water washed her paws. She threw herself forward, clinging to the next log.

  “Forgive me!” she wailed to the bear spirits. She was trampling all over them. But she had to see them for herself, and let them know that she was here, that she hadn’t abandoned them to the flat-faces. She dodged out of the glare of the white lights as she headed across the logs. They were jammed tighter here, near the middle of the river; it was easier to keep her balance. The river swirled, black, beneath them, whispering as it lapped the logs.

  “I can hear you!” Lusa called to the spirits. They sounded frightened, their anxious sighs lifting into the breeze.

  Lusa felt a jolt run through the pack. She turned as another load crashed into the river. The trees around her creaked and moaned. “I’ll save you!” Lusa bounded back toward the shore. Her paw slid from a log and splashed down into the water. She crashed, muzzle-first, onto the bark. Pain jabbed through her jaw and she clung on, dizzy with shock. The log held still beneath her. “Thank you!” she whispered to the spirit inside. The log held firm as she heaved herself to her paws and stepped gingerly onto the next log. She blinked as she reached the flat-face light. No one must see her. She hurled herself forward and managed to scramble to shore.