River of Lost Bears
Read River of Lost Bears Online
Authors: Erin Hunter
Special thanks to Kate Cary
Maps
Lusa
Lusa dreamed that a breeze was
whispering through the treetops. She pressed her paws into the soft, warm earth and stretched, rejoicing to be back in the forest. Sunshine sliced through the branches and pooled on her black pelt. Birds chattered overhead, sending leaves showering down. They danced in a shaft of light, and Lusa lifted her forepaws and swiped at them playfully.
“Lusa?”
Toklo was calling her.
“Lusa!”
“Go away.” Lusa buried deeper into her nest. “I want to dream some more.” She didn't want to wake to the freezing wastelands of the Melting Sea. She hated the thought of crawling out onto rough ice that scraped her pads. She didn't want to fight her way through biting wind that froze her ears and pierced her pelt.
Not another day chewing bitter seal blubber!
“Leave me alone,” she mumbled, trying to slide back into her warm forest dream.
“Wake up, sleepyhead.”
A paw prodded her ribs.
Lusa blinked open her eyes.
Toklo was standing over her. She could see his broad, brown-furred face through the branches. His eyes were gleaming. “We need to get moving.”
Lusa sighed. “I'm coming.” How could she leave her friends waiting in the cold while she slept warm in her nest? She hauled herself to her paws and screwed up her eyes, ready for the glare of endless ice.
Branches scraped her back.
Why am I sleeping under a
bush
?
Earth shifted beneath her paws. Lusa looked around. Trees crowded on every side, slender, dark-brown trunks stretching as far as she could see.
Trees!
She'd forgotten that they'd reached the forest at last! Relief flooded her, and she shook her head to clear it. Of course! It had been a quarter moon since they'd left the shores of the Melting Sea and headed inland. But they'd been on the ice so long, the memories of biting cold and savage sunshine refused to fade.
“I'll meet you by the river.” Toklo was already lumbering away through the trees.
Lusa lifted her muzzle and breathed in the scent of pine. She knew she didn't truly want to forget her time in the snow. It had been their destination for so long, after all. Guided by the mysterious brown bear Ujurak, Lusa, Toklo, and Kallik had trekked for moons to reach the Place of Endless Ice, where the sea never melted. After Ujurak had left them, the three bears had been joined by another white bear, Yakone, for the long journey home. They had reached Kallik's birthplace first, the Melting Sea, where they'd fought alongside Kallik's brother, Taqqiq, to drive away the gang of mean bears who'd been bullying Shila, another white bear, and her brothers. Taqqiq had decided to stay behind with Shilaâhis new family. But Yakone had come with them, loyally joining Kallik as she insisted on traveling farther, until they found homes for Toklo and Lusa, too. Lusa pictured the white bear's shaggy pelt as he shambled along beside Kallik. Perhaps having another white bear to travel with had made it easier for Kallik to leave her brother behind.
Lusa shivered. Why did Taqqiq
want
to stay on ice? It was so cold. It had taken her days to warm up after the long swim from the ice to the shore. Her heart had quickened each day as the scent of bark and pine needles grew stronger, and when they'd finally reached the forest, she'd broken into a run, overjoyed to feel its precious earth beneath her paws once more.
A drop of water splashed onto Lusa's nose. She shook it away and looked up. Through the branches of the towering pines, she saw flecks of blue. Snow still weighed down the topmost branches, but it was melting. A steady thaw was finally pushing away the harsh days of cold-earth. Prickly needles crunched beneath her paws as she padded between the trees. Meltwater dripped from every branch. At the edge of the forest, Lusa pushed through thick bushes, blinking against the brightness as she burst into the light. A river crashed past, wide as the sky and white with foam.
“Toklo!”
Her friend was standing at the edge, staring into the water. It splashed his muzzle, but he didn't move.
“Toklo!” Lusa called again, but Toklo seemed lost in thought.
Lusa padded across the rocks, weaving between stubborn piles of snow, and stopped beside him. “Are you looking for the river spirits?” she whispered. Brown bears believed that their spirits shifted into the nearest running water when they died, to swim with the salmon out to sea.
Toklo nodded. “It's good to feel them near me again.”
Lusa scanned the shore. “Where are Kallik and Yakone?” She wondered what the two white bears thought of the dark-green trees and white frothing water. Did they regret leaving the ice, the place where they belonged, and coming with her and Toklo on their journey home?
“They went hunting.” Toklo twitched his ears upstream.
Lusa followed his gaze, still a little nervous of the wide, churning water. They'd followed this river since leaving the Melting Sea, sheltering in the deep woods at night, fishing the shallows by day. “Will Big River lead us to where you were born?” she asked.
There was silence for a while. Then Toklo said quietly, “I hope so. I mean, I walked by a river that smelled like this when I was with my mother.” His voice faded, and Lusa winced, knowing how sad he had been as a cub. Then Toklo shook his fur and straightened up. “There is something inside me that pulls me toward the setting sun,” he declared. “The noise this river makes, the scent of the trees, everything tells me this path will take me where I need to go.”
“But we could stay right here, couldn't we?” Lusa ventured. “It has everything we need, and we're still close to the Melting Sea. Kallik and Yakone would be close to their kin, and we could live in these trees.” The forest stretching away beyond the river filled her with excitement. She hadn't tried climbing a tree yet, but even though the trunks were wider than her reach, their bark looked gnarled enough to hook her claws into. She was sure she could make it as far as the lower branches. “Wouldn't it be great to stay in one place instead of traveling all the time?”
Toklo stared at her blankly. “But I'm not home yet.”
A sudden splash sounded upstream, and a moment later Kallik appeared, dripping, at the top of a tall boulder, with a fish glittering in her jaws. Yakone scrambled up onto the rock beside her, his wet pelt slicked flat.
“Look!” Kallik tossed the fish down. It landed at Toklo's paws. “I finally caught one!” Kallik had been trying to catch river fish since they'd left the Melting Sea. She'd learned moons ago, but she was out of practice; she'd missed every one until now. “I remembered your lessons, Toklo.”
Toklo sniffed the fish. “It's a good catch, Kallik.”
“It's a dumb way to hunt.” Yakone crossly shook the water from his fur. “How can anyone snatch a fish out of water when it's moving so fast?”