Island of Shadows

by Erin Hunter

  “She has to,” Toklo snapped, anxiety for the small black bear making him brisk.

  “I’ll carry her,” Yakone said, surprising Toklo with the offer. “She’s not much bigger than a cub, anyway.”

  Kallik nudged Lusa awake and explained to her what they were going to do.

  “Whatever,” Lusa muttered blearily, clambering onto Yakone’s back. She blinked several times; Toklo could see her determination to stay awake. “Thanks, Yakone.”

  Toklo took the lead as they left the den and started trekking through the snow. Dawn light was beginning to trickle over the landscape. The bitter cold probed deep into his fur with icy claws, and he sank into the freshly fallen snow, which reached almost up to his belly fur. Kallik and Yakone plodded along behind him, with Lusa drowsing on Yakone’s shoulders.

  Before they had been traveling for long the wind rose, whipping snow into their faces. Toklo had a pang of regret for the den they had left behind, but he knew they had made the right decision. They would have starved to death if they had stayed there much longer.

  Hunching his shoulders, he headed into the depths of the blizzard. Snow clotted in his fur and weighed him down. The mountain slopes stretched in front of them, higher and higher, the ridge invisible now beyond the eddying snow. There was no sign of shelter. Toklo began to think they would go on forever, trudging into the featureless white. Then he spotted something disturbing the surface of the snow, a couple of bearlengths to one side. Curious, he veered over and peered at the marks.

  “Look at this!” he called to Kallik and Yakone, his excitement rising as he realized what he was seeing. “Pawprints!” he continued, as the two white bears waded through the snow to his side. “I’d guess they were made by brown bears.” He made a pawprint of his own beside the ones he had just found, and demonstrated how alike they were.

  “Brown bears, here?” Yakone sounded dubious. He bent his head and sniffed at the marks in the snow. “You could be right,” he admitted.

  Looking more closely, Toklo realized that there were several sets of pawprints. A whole group of brown bears had passed this way, and not long before, or the snow would have covered the prints.

  “We ought to follow them,” he said eagerly. “These other bears might know where to find food.”

  “But who knows if they’ll want to share it with us?” Yakone pointed out. “They might be hostile.”

  Toklo felt a sudden stab of irritation, partly because he was afraid Yakone might be right. He had fought before with brown bears who were angry that he was invading their territory. But his excitement was stronger. Finding bears like himself in this desolate place was worth the risk.

  “I’m following them,” he told Yakone. “You can do what you want.”

  “You know we can’t split up,” Kallik said.

  “I agree with Toklo,” Lusa put in, peering down from Yakone’s shoulders. “At least it gives us something to aim for. It’s better than just wandering around in all this snow.”

  Yakone hesitated, then shrugged. “Okay. But if we all get our fur ripped off, don’t blame me.”

  Toklo immediately set off in the direction of the pawprints. As if at a signal, the wind died away and the snowfall faded to a few drifting flakes. The prints stood out clear against the white ground. They led straight on, over a gentle hill, across a frozen stream, and up a steeper slope beyond. Toklo’s hopes rose; it looked as if the bears knew where they were going. At every pawstep he hoped to see familiar brown shapes ahead of him, but as the light of the short day died, he had seen nothing moving in the landscape.

  “We’ll have to stop,” he said reluctantly, as it grew so dark he couldn’t see the pawprints anymore. The sky was still covered with cloud, too thick for the light of moon or stars to penetrate. “We’ll carry on in the morning.”

  “Stop here?” Yakone sounded disgusted. “We should be looking for somewhere to make a den.”

  “If we do that, we might not be able to find the pawprints again,” Toklo pointed out.

  Kallik let out a sigh and flopped to the ground. “All right. I’m too tired to argue. But this had better be worth it, Toklo.”

  Lusa rolled off Yakone’s back, shivered as she huddled down beside Kallik, and was asleep almost at once. Toklo felt another pang of anxiety; what the black bear needed was warmth and the right sort of food, and she wasn’t getting either out here.

  Maybe the brown bears will be able to help, when we catch up to them, he told himself as he settled down on Lusa’s other side. Yakone stood looking at the others for a moment, then let out a snort and lay down beside Kallik.

  Toklo slept fitfully, worried that another fall of snow would wipe out the pawprints. But as the sky gradually grew pale and he woke from his troubled sleep, he saw they were still there, a clear line stretching across the snow.

  “Come on!” he urged the others, giving Lusa and Kallik a prod. “It’s time we were on our way.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Kallik yawned, stumbling to her paws and shaking snow off her pelt. “Following brown bears who might be friendly or might not. I can’t wait.”

  Ignoring the grumbling, Toklo headed off, tracking the line of pawprints. Kallik and Yakone came after him, with Lusa once more riding on Yakone’s back.

  All the bears were cold, hungry, and bleary-eyed, but rising excitement was spurring Toklo on. He stood waiting when the others insisted on stopping to rest, his paws shifting impatiently. He didn’t even want to make time to hunt, though he chased a hare that happened to cross their path, and he helped Yakone creep up on a flock of geese and bring one down. All the while the dark line of pawprints seemed to be beckoning to him.

  Toklo wasn’t sure how many days they spent following the trail. He was afraid that snow would fall again and blot it out, but the sky stayed clear. Only the wind swept across the snow, blurring the edges of the pawprints. Once or twice, trekking across bare rock, Toklo thought that they had lost the trail, but he managed to pick it up again, always leading upward.

  His companions didn’t even protest anymore; he could see in their eyes that they were resigned to following him. And why not? One way is as good as another. Besides, I want to see my kin.

  The trail was leading up a steep hillside now, zigzagging across the slope. A stronger wind was rising, blowing down from the ridge ahead, carrying flakes of snow with it. As the snow grew heavier, it began to fill the pawprints, and the wind erased the last of them.

  “Now what do we do?” Yakone asked. “We’ve lost the trail.”

  Toklo raised his muzzle and sniffed. “I can pick up their scent on the wind,” he reported. “It’s telling me what I’ve known all along: Brown bears are at the end of the trail. Come on—I don’t need the pawprints anymore.”

  Gathering the last of his strength, Toklo leaped and scrambled through the whirling snow, up the last few bearlengths to the top of the ridge. Kallik and Yakone kept pace with him, gripped by the same urgency.

  Panting, Toklo reached the peak and looked down the other side. He was aware of Kallik next to him, her pelt brushing his. A rocky slope led down to a narrow, snow-covered valley. At its foot, crouching behind a boulder as if he was trying to hide, was a small brown bear. He was shaking, and his eyes were wide with fear as he gazed up at Toklo and the others.

  “Great spirit!” Toklo exclaimed. “What’s a brown-bear cub doing all by himself out here?”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Kallik

  Kallik followed Toklo as he headed down into the valley. Lusa and Yakone brought up the rear. The small brown bear tried to back away as they approached, pressing himself against the boulder.

  “No!” he squealed. “Don’t hurt me!”

  Toklo halted, well out of range; Kallik could see that he didn’t want the younger bear to feel threatened. “Don’t be afraid,” he said.

  But the bear wasn’t looking at Toklo. His terrified gaze was fixed on her and Yakone. “White bears!” he whimpered. “Big white bears! Keep the
m away from me!”

  Blinking in bewilderment, Kallik stopped just behind Toklo and exchanged a glance with Yakone. She had no idea why the young bear should be so afraid of white bears. Looking at him closely, she realized he wasn’t the cub she had thought at first. He was smaller than Toklo, but looked only a little younger than the rest of them.

  As he stood shivering in the snow, Kallik began to think that there was something different about him; something about his head and shoulders didn’t look quite right for a brown bear. I’m probably imagining things, she told herself with an inward shrug. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen any brown bears other than Toklo and Ujurak.

  The strange bear was slowly backing away, sidling around the boulder as if he was about to make a run for it.

  “The white bears won’t hurt you,” Toklo reassured him. “None of us will. We’ll give you help if you need it, but we can’t do that if you run away from us.”

  The brown bear stopped, his fearful glance flickering from one bear to the next. Kallik saw his eyes widen in shock as he spotted Lusa; she guessed he had never seen a black bear before.

  Behind her Kallik heard Lusa mutter, “What’s made him so scared? He doesn’t look hurt….”

  Toklo slowly padded forward. The smaller bear trembled, but he stood his ground, until Toklo was close enough to bend down and touch him on the shoulder with his muzzle. “Why are you so frightened?” he asked softly.

  Kallik’s heart beat faster as she heard the protective tone in Toklo’s voice. He sounded like that with Ujurak….

  “Tell us your name,” Toklo went on.

  “It’s … it’s Nanulak.”

  “And what happened to you? Did you get lost in the blizzard?”

  Nanulak blinked up at Toklo. “White bears chased me and attacked me,” he whimpered. “I had to hide to get away from them.”

  “Why would they do that?” Yakone’s voice was a deep rumble. “Did you steal their prey?”

  Kallik saw Toklo shoot a reproving glance at Yakone.

  “No!” Nanulak glared indignantly at Yakone. “I would never do that. They just came out of nowhere and jumped on me!”

  Kallik felt a stab of guilt and discomfort. She knew that white bears could be fierce, but she found it hard to imagine they would attack another bear without being provoked. Then she remembered how Taqqiq and his friends had kidnapped the black-bear cub at Great Bear Lake. She knew not all white bears were as honorable as Yakone.

  “You poor thing!” she murmured. “I’m so sorry. No wonder you were scared of me and Yakone.”

  “But why are you all by yourself?” Toklo asked. “What happened to your family? Why couldn’t they protect you from the white bears?”

  Nanulak shuffled his forepaws in the snow, not looking at Toklo. “My family doesn’t want me,” he explained in a small voice. “My mother and my half brother and sister drove me away because there wasn’t enough prey for all of us.”

  Kallik heard an outraged gasp from Lusa, and she saw Toklo stiffen. Of course, he knew exactly what it was like to be driven away by your mother. But before Toklo could speak, Yakone stepped forward.

  “What about your father? Didn’t he help you?”

  Nanulak shook his head. “No. He’s a white bear, you see.”

  “What?” Kallik stared at Nanulak for a moment, hardly understanding what he had told them. If his father was a white bear and his mother was a brown bear, did that make him half of each? She hadn’t realized that brown bears and white bears could have cubs together. But now that she looked more closely at Nanulak, she could understand the puzzlement she had felt earlier. His head and shoulders were shaped more like hers and Yakone’s, even though his pelt was brown.

  “Where’s your father now, Nanulak?” she asked.

  “I don’t know.” Nanulak sounded desolate. “He doesn’t live with us anymore.”

  Kallik stretched out her neck, intending to press her snout gently against the young bear’s shoulder, but Nanulak flinched away, and Kallik left the movement unfinished, unable to show how much she sympathized with him. She felt much closer to him now that she knew he was half white bear.

  “Then you can come with us,” she announced. “We’ll look after you. We won’t let the other white bears harm you.”

  Toklo nodded. “You can trust us.”

  Nanulak stared at them, his brown eyes round like Toklo’s. “Do you really mean that?”

  “Of course we do,” Lusa said.

  “And you’ll really protect me if the white bears come back to get me?”

  “Just let them try,” Toklo growled.

  “Thank you.” Nanulak took a step forward, so he was standing close beside Toklo. “The white bears hate me because I’m half white bear and half brown bear.”

  A low rumble came from Toklo’s throat. “That’s ridiculous!”

  “Even before my family drove me away, the white bears used to attack us,” Nanulak went on. “All my family, but especially me. And now that I’m on my own, I’m too small to fight them.” He gave Toklo a long look and stretched up as if trying to make himself equal size. “I’ll be fine now that I’m with you.”

  “Who were these white bears?” Yakone prompted. “Do you know where they are now?”

  “No.” Nanulak’s voice quivered. “I ran away and hid. I don’t know where they went.”

  “Can you describe them?” Yakone persisted. “So we have some idea what to watch out for?”

  “I told you, I don’t know!” Nanulak’s voice rose to a high-pitched squeal of terror. “I was too busy hiding. They were white bears! Big white bears!”

  “But—”

  “Back off!” Toklo snarled, pushing himself between Yakone and the cowering brown bear. “Can’t you see you’re upsetting him?”

  Yakone stepped backward. “Okay, okay. I just want to find out what happened. If we’re going to protect him, we need to know what we’re protecting him from. I’ll never believe that any white bear would just attack a cub.”

  Toklo pressed his muzzle comfortingly against Nanulak’s shoulder. “Ignore Yakone,” he said. “No bear is going to hurt you.”

  Kallik stood watching the two brown bears close together for a moment, surprised to see how quickly Toklo had leaped to the smaller bear’s defense. Yakone was only trying to help. She felt a light touch on her shoulder and turned around to see Yakone. There was a doubtful look in his eyes.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” he murmured, too softly for any bear but Kallik to hear him. “Do we really want to take responsibility for this bear? There must be other bears around here—his kin—who can look after him better than we can.”

  “His mother drove him away,” Kallik pointed out. “And his father has gone off somewhere. He doesn’t have any bear to take care of him.”

  Yakone shook his head slowly. “I don’t know…. We’ll have to take him all the way to the Frozen Sea … or farther.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll do,” Kallik retorted.

  “But only white bears live on the Frozen Sea, or so you’ve always told me. Would Nanulak even want to travel there?”

  “When we get there, he’ll go with Toklo.” Kallik forced herself not to add “cloud-brain.” She was disappointed that Yakone would even consider leaving Nanulak behind, when the small bear needed help. And she was exasperated by the way that Yakone and Toklo always had to argue with each other. “He’s coming with us, and that’s that.”

  Toklo set out, the younger bear still huddling close to his side. Yakone crouched down for Lusa to scramble onto his shoulders, and Kallik brought up the rear. Even though she had spoken so firmly in favor of taking Nanulak along, she realized that Yakone had a point. Another member of the group, especially one as needy and vulnerable as Nanulak, might be more than they could handle.

  Then she remembered her own family, how Nisa had cared for her and Taqqiq, and how she and her brother had played together on the ice. It had felt so wonderf
ul to belong to them and be part of a family.

  “We’re a kind of family,” she murmured to herself. “A strange one, but a family all the same. Nanulak will fit in. We can’t possibly leave him behind.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Lusa

  Lusa glanced around uneasily, wondering if the white bears who had attacked Nanulak were still in the area. The snow was falling so thickly their white pelts would be almost invisible until they were up close. Though she couldn’t imagine abandoning the small bear, she knew that they were all in danger while he was with them.

  Her mind was in a whirl. I can’t believe this! Bears attacking Nanulak for no reason, except that he’s half white and half brown? She knew about bears fighting for territory or prey, but this was completely different. And his family driving him away into a blizzard! Thank the spirits we found him before the white bears did.

  I wonder what Ujurak would do, she asked herself. I’m sure he would want to look after Nanulak. But she wasn’t certain that she and her friends would be able to fight off the hostile white bears if they came back and attacked them as well.

  Looking down from Yakone’s shoulders at Nanulak trotting beside them, she tried to push these worries out of her mind. “I’m Lusa,” she called down to him. “The white bears are Kallik and Yakone, and the brown bear is Toklo.”

  Nanulak just gave her a brief nod. Lusa guessed that she was still too unfamiliar for him to be friendly. She didn’t suppose he had ever seen a black bear before. He wouldn’t even look at her.

  “We’re traveling to the Frozen Sea,” Toklo told Nanulak. Lusa was surprised at how gentle he sounded, his voice full of concern. “Is that okay with you?”

  Nanulak looked confused. “I don’t know where that is,” he replied, “but I guess it’s okay. All I want is to get off this island. I don’t care where I go after that, so long as the white bears can’t find me.”

  “Wait—we’re on an island?” Kallik pressed up to Nanulak, making the little bear flinch away into the shelter of Toklo’s flank.