Smoke Mountain

by Erin Hunter

  Her paws wobbled a little as she leaped to the next tree, and she had to wrap her forelegs tightly around the branch to make sure she didn’t fall. Leaves tickled her nose as she scrambled up several branches. She fell into a rhythm: check branch, launch, close eyes, land, balance. Even in the shadows of the forest, she could sense the shapes of the trees in front of her. She felt as if the bear spirits were calling to her, reaching out and catching her as she jumped.

  She stopped halfway up a pine tree and perched for a moment, listening. Everything was silent. There were no more firesticks going off, no flat-faces shouting, no cries for help from her friends. She didn’t know whether that was a good or a bad sign. What had happened to them? They could have been caught while you ran away, she thought, her fur prickling with shame. But we all ran away. Wasn’t that the idea? She started to climb, getting as high as she could. At least I didn’t hold anyone back. That’s something.

  At the top of the tree she wrapped her paws around the trunk and peered out at the valley. Nothing was moving out there. Only the last fading rays of the moon slipped through the clouds to flicker across the grass. There were no bears – not even slumped on the ground, bleeding and dying from the firesticks. Toklo and Kallik must have made it to the trees. Maybe they were already waiting for her at the pine tree, worrying about her.

  As she scrambled back down the tree, she heard the firebeast roar in the distance, out of sight beyond the trees. She froze, straining her ears. The hunters sounded like they were whooping. A few more shots rang out. Had they found the others?

  Lusa’s paws were quaking, but she forced herself to climb up again. The whoops and rumbling were getting fainter. From the top she spotted the firebeast bumping away up the valley, moonlight gleaming on its flanks.

  Have they gone?

  Are we safe?

  Lusa persuaded her paws to let go of the tree and clambered down to the ground. She raced through the trees, searching for her friends.

  ‘Please be safe,’ she whispered. ‘Please be alive.’

  What if she was the only one who made it? Would she have to find the Last Great Wilderness by herself?

  Don’t think about that, she ordered herself. You’re not alone. They will be here.

  Lusa paused to catch her breath. The trees were silent all around her. Pain shot along her shoulder as she flexed her front leg. Her fur felt hot and sticky; she hoped the pellet wasn’t inside her.

  Something moved in the bushes.

  Lusa froze. ‘Toklo?’ she whispered. ‘Kallik? Ujurak?’ She braced herself to escape up the nearest tree.

  A white furry head, streaked with mud, poked out of the bushes.

  ‘Lusa!’ Kallik cried. ‘You made it!’ She leaped out of the undergrowth and raced up to Lusa, huffing in relief.

  ‘You’re all muddy!’ Lusa said. ‘Did you fall and hurt yourself? Are you all right?’

  ‘I was hiding my fur,’ Kallik explained, craning her neck to look at the thick mud caking her white fur. ‘I suppose it worked. I lost the no-claws back there.’

  ‘Have you seen Toklo or Ujurak?’ Lusa asked.

  Kallik looked up. Lusa followed her gaze up to the sky and saw an owl plummeting out of the clouds. It dived towards them, and for a moment Lusa thought it might crash headlong into the ground, but at the last moment it veered up again and landed neatly on its claws. Fur and whiskers and a wet black nose sprouted from the feathers, and soon Ujurak was standing in a cloud of feather fluff, shaking his pelt.

  ‘Oh, Ujurak, I’m so glad you’re all right,’ Lusa said, pressing against his comfortingly warm side.

  He stared at his paws. ‘Changing into a bird to escape is a cowardly thing to do,’ he said.

  ‘That’s stupid,’ Kallik said, sounding like Toklo for a moment. ‘If the rest of us could do it, don’t you think we would?’

  ‘In a heartbeat!’ Lusa agreed. ‘Without even thinking about it! I’d have wings and be gone before the flat-faces could even find the noses on their flat faces!’

  ‘Toklo wouldn’t,’ Ujurak said glumly. ‘He’ll fight anything as a bear, and be proud of it.’

  Lusa and Kallik exchanged uneasy glances. ‘You don’t think he tried to fight them, do you?’ Lusa asked. ‘To protect us?’

  They all glanced around at the quiet forest.

  Where was Toklo?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:

  Toklo

  Toklo watched Ujurak take off into the sky on snowy white feathers, then turned to race after Lusa. He saw Kallik pelting away across the grass; there was nothing he could do to help her. She was already the fastest bear of all of them. But Lusa might need protecting.

  He spotted her running towards the boulders that lined the valley and chased after her. The hot, burning smell of the firebeast was in his nose, and he stumbled on rocks that he thought were shadows. His muscles screamed with agony as he drove his paws into the ground.

  Suddenly the firebeast roared across his path. The blazing light in its eyes blinded him, and Toklo skidded to a halt. One of the hunters gave a yell, and Toklo heard the bang of a firestick.

  He couldn’t get to Lusa. The best he could do was lead the flat-faces away. Toklo turned and fled across the valley in the opposite direction. The light had dazzled his eyes and he shook his head as he ran, trying to see clearly again. Blinking, he spotted long, marshy grass ahead of him and ran for it.

  Toklo’s paws crashed through tussocks as he ploughed through the long, brittle grass, shouldering tall reeds out of his way. He growled with frustration as prickly weeds caught on his fur. With a violent wrench, he tore himself free and dived into a clump of thick grass. Hidden by the tall reeds, he lay still with his belly fur in the mud, listening. Was he being followed?

  He sniffed deeply and a powerful, pungent smell filled his nostrils. To his dismay, he realised he was lying in a patch of wild garlic. He’d crushed the plants under his paws, and now the smell was all over him. He couldn’t pick up any other scents; the odour of garlic was too strong.

  He couldn’t smell the flat-faces coming. They could be right behind him and he wouldn’t know.

  Something went crack! behind him and he jumped, peering into the shadows. Should he stay here, or should he run for it?

  He crawled backwards, deeper into the grass, letting the long stems close around him. Maybe he could sneak away without being noticed. He wasn’t sure how well the flat-faces could smell, but if they used their noses for hunting, it wouldn’t do them much good now that he smelled so strongly of garlic, disguising his bear scent.

  Toklo crept through the grass, wincing at the splash of marshy puddles under his paws. He stayed close to the ground, hoping to blend into the knobbly, shapeless shadows around him. Across the open valley plain ahead of him, he could see the grove of pine trees. There was no sign of Lusa or Ujurak, but he spotted Kallik racing towards the trees with a pair of hunters right behind her.

  Toklo leaned forward, trying desperately to smell anything over the stench of garlic. Suddenly a strong whiff of something hit his nose: a sour, stale smell . . .

  Flat-faces!

  Toklo whirled, ready to run.

  A giant shiny cobweb flew towards him and knocked him to the ground. His paws became tangled in barbed vines that scraped his face as well as he thrashed and fought.

  He was caught in a flat-face trap!

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:

  Kallik

  Dim grey morning light slowly spread across the valley as Kallik and the others waited. Lusa climbed up the tree to see if she could see Toklo coming. Ujurak paced around the trunk, looking more and more agitated as he clawed the earth and bared his teeth.

  Kallik didn’t know what to do. Her stomach churned with worry. Should they go on without Toklo? If he was dead . . . it wouldn’t be safe to go look for him, because they’d be putting all their lives at risk.

  But if he wasn’t dead, then they had to go find him. They couldn’t abandon Toklo, who had been so brav
e and struggled so hard to take care of them all.

  ‘I’m going back,’ Ujurak said, stopping in front of her. He looked her right in the eyes, as if challenging her to argue with him.

  ‘Yes. I’ll go with you,’ Kallik said. Ujurak dipped his head in agreement.

  Branches swayed and rustled above them as Lusa scrambled down the trunk. ‘I’m coming too!’

  ‘No, Lusa, you should stay here,’ Kallik told her, sniffing her worriedly. She could smell the blood on the black cub, and a smell of burned fur. Had she been shot by a firestick?

  ‘What?’ Lusa protested. ‘No way! I want to look for Toklo too!’

  ‘But you’re still injured,’ Kallik said. ‘One of your wounds must have opened up – I can smell the blood on you, Lusa. Did a firestick get you? I know you’re hurting right now, even if you won’t admit it.’

  Lusa was quiet for a moment. ‘A death pellet hit my shoulder,’ she admitted. ‘But that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t hurt that much. And I’m the best at being quiet. I can hide and I can sneak through the woods better than any of you. You might need me!’

  Kallik wondered if she should point out that Ujurak could be any animal in the forest – he could definitely change into something quiet and sneaky if he needed to. But then Lusa went on.

  ‘Don’t leave me alone here,’ she said, touching Kallik’s paw. ‘I’d rather die helping to save Toklo than sit in a tree by myself and lose you forever and never know what happened. It’d be like you and Taqqiq, when you were separated and you didn’t know if he was even alive. Remember? Remember how awful that was? Please don’t leave me like that.’

  Kallik sighed. She looked at Ujurak.

  ‘I say we let her come,’ Ujurak said. ‘If a bear wants to be brave, I don’t think it’s anyone’s place to stop her.’

  Lusa blinked gratefully at him.

  ‘All right,’ Kallik said. ‘Let’s go. But be careful. And, Lusa, if you start bleeding any more, you’ll have to stop.’

  They stayed at the edge of the trees as long as they could before venturing back into the valley. The pine needles above them scraped against each other in the wind, and Kallik felt like she could hear voices whispering in them. Maybe Lusa’s bear spirits were watching over them. Kallik peeked up at the sky, which was mostly covered by clouds. The sun was a line of golden fur on the edge of the mountains. But she could still see the twinkle of a few ice spots . . . so maybe her spirits were with her too.

  What about the spirits who watch over Toklo? Where are they?

  ‘Ujurak,’ Lusa said, ‘do you know why the flat-faces hunt us?’

  Ujurak looked uncomfortable, shifting his shoulders so his fur rippled and settled. ‘I . . . I think they do it for fun,’ he said finally. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Fun!’ Lusa cried. ‘That’s horrible!’

  ‘Well, I think hunting is fun,’ Kallik said, trying to understand. ‘When there’s something good to hunt, I mean, like a seal. But I do it to feed myself. And we still don’t know if flat-faces eat bears.’ They had to cross into the open now, and she lowered her head to sniff for any sign of Toklo.

  ‘I wish I had a firestick!’ Lusa growled. ‘Is there a special forest where they grow? If I had a firestick, you can bet I’d make them leave us alone!’

  ‘Lusa, we wouldn’t know what to do with a firestick if we found one,’ Kallik said. ‘Firesticks aren’t for bears. We’d probably just end up hurting ourselves with them.’ They found the stream where Kallik had rolled in the mud and splashed across to the other side.

  ‘Well, I wish I had one anyway,’ Lusa said.

  ‘No, you don’t,’ Ujurak said quietly.

  Lusa opened her mouth to speak, but just then Kallik caught a scent in the churned-up mud. ‘I smell the no-claws!’ she whispered. She bounded ahead, keeping her nose close to the ground.

  The cubs tracked the scent across the grass. Mud was caked into Kallik’s fur, which gave her a sort of heavy, sticky feeling. Bits of it flaked off as she walked, but she was still more brown than white, which made her feel safer as they slunk through the open space. Even though they’d heard the firebeast leave, she couldn’t shake the fear that a hunter might still be lying in wait for them.

  At a huddle of rocks near the middle of the valley, they picked up the scent of more hunters. All four of them had been here. And there was something else as well . . .

  ‘Is that garlic?’ Lusa asked, wrinkling her nose.

  ‘It smells like Toklo too,’ Kallik realised. ‘I think he was here.’

  ‘Maybe he’s still here,’ Lusa said hopefully. ‘Maybe he’s just hiding until he’s sure they’re gone.’

  They all stood still for a moment. It was eerily quiet, as if they were the only living creatures in the mountains. There was no sound from a brown bear hiding close by.

  Without saying anything, Ujurak padded forward into the long, marshy grass. Tussocks of earth squished under Kallik’s paws as she paced behind him, trying to puzzle out all the smells. They came to a dip in the marsh where all the grass for a bearlength was trampled down and there were broken reeds all around it. It looked – and smelled – like there had been a struggle here. Kallik could pick out the scents of no-claws, Toklo . . . and blood. Her heart sank.

  ‘Oh, no,’ Lusa whispered. Ujurak pressed against her silently, his head drooping.

  Kallik found a trail of smashed grass leading away from the spot, heavy with the same tangled smells. ‘They must have dragged him away.’ She followed it cautiously, wincing at the tufts of brown fur and spots of blood along the trail. Lusa and Ujurak stayed close behind her, trusting her nose to lead them.

  The trail led back to where the firebeast had waited. Its paws had left deep gouges in the grass as it surged back on to a muddy dirt path. Kallik stepped on to the bare dirt and sniffed; it smelled like a BlackPath. And it looked like it ran around the mountain they’d just climbed. Kallik could see the firebeast’s prints heading up the path, back the way they’d come.

  ‘Oh, no,’ Lusa squeaked again, her voice rising in panic. ‘Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no. Did . . . did the firebeast eat Toklo? Kallik, did the flat-faces feed Toklo to the firebeast?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Kallik said.

  She stared at the muddy tracks and the faint traces of blood splattered on the grass nearby. The acrid smell of metal and fear made her nose hurt and her eyes water. She could also smell rain in the air. Another storm was coming.

  Kallik planted her paws firmly in the churned-up dirt. She remembered feeling like this when she first lost Taqqiq, when she realised that the most important thing in the world was finding him again. ‘If there’s even a chance he’s still alive,’ she said, ‘then we’re going after him.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:

  Toklo

  W ham! Toklo slammed into the hard side of the firebeast as it skidded around a corner. His claws scraped painfully on the slippery floor. He tried to push himself upright, but the flat-faces had tied his paws together. They’d wrapped their prickly vines around his muzzle as well, so he couldn’t fight back with his teeth. They tied him so tightly that the barbs dug into his skin until he bled, leaving red smears on the grass as they dragged him to the firebeast.

  The more Toklo saw of firebeasts, the less he understood them. This one had a large, flat, hollow back with two flaps, one above and one below, that opened like a mouth to swallow him up. The flat-faces dragged him over to the firebeast; it took all four of them to lift him in, especially since he thrashed and kicked and fought as hard as he could.

  You wouldn’t dare to fight me one-on-one! he thought furiously. Cowards – I’d rip your skin off!

  The flat-faces slammed the door flaps shut, bellowing at one another, and climbed into the front part of the firebeast. The firebeast roared to life and charged off down the muddy track.

  Toklo couldn’t tell how far they’d gone. The firebeast moved very fast, raging loudly. The ground was rough and muddy, and the firebeas
t kept slipping around and bouncing. Under Toklo’s paws the floor bucked and rolled every time they hit a bump. He could feel the firebeast’s power thrumming up through his legs. He gave up trying to stand and wedged himself in a corner, facing backwards. He didn’t know if they were still in the valley. He didn’t know if he’d ever see his friends again. He didn’t know how much longer he would be alive.

  A rumble of thunder shook the sky, and the clouds opened up. Rain poured down, splattering against the transparent squares on the sides and back of the firebeast. Toklo huddled miserably in the corner, trying to brace himself so he wouldn’t hit the sides so hard every time the firebeast swerved.

  The firebeast pulled on to a winding trail that sloped down and around the mountain at the head of the valley. Toklo scooted himself over to peer out the back and saw the cliff yawning below him. The firebeast’s paws churned frighteningly close to the edge of the steep drop. Far below, Toklo could see a brown river foaming with rapids and whirlpools.

  The flat-faces whistled and hollered every time the firebeast skidded on the mud. Toklo closed his eyes tightly. He had never felt so terrified or so sure that he was about to die . . . or so alone. How would the flat-faces kill him? With a firestick or with claws? Would they kill him before they took his skin, or peel it off while he was still alive? How long would it take him to die? His body shook with horror.

  For the first time, Toklo could understand the way Lusa saw the stars. The other animals up there weren’t taunting the lonely bear in the sky – they were his friends. They kept him company. They kept him safe and gave him something to live for.

  Toklo missed his friends. His heart ached; he wished he could see them one more time before he died. He hoped Ujurak wasn’t still angry at him – at least changing into an owl meant that Ujurak had escaped and was safe now. He hoped they all found one another and made it to the Last Great Wilderness without him. Kallik was getting better at hunting all the time . . . Maybe she could protect the others now that he was gone . . . Maybe she could keep Lusa safe.