Smoke Mountain (19 page)

‘No way!' Toklo said.

‘We're not going anywhere without you,' Kallik said, sitting up from her sleeping spot and shaking off the moss that clung to her fur.

‘You're one of us, Lusa,' Ujurak said. ‘If you don't think you're ready, we'll wait some more.'

Lusa scuffed her front paws on the cave floor and didn't say anything.

That night, Toklo woke up in pitch darkness. He sat up, pawing at his face and wondering what had woken him. A cool breeze drifted in through the cave opening; the rain had slowed to a delicate drizzle. He glanced around, and a shock ran through his fur when he realised that Lusa's pile of leaves was empty. Lusa was gone!

He jumped to his paws and hurried outside, hoping she hadn't fallen into the gully. He snuffled at the ground outside the cave and picked up her
scent, heading back down the mountain. Where could she be going?

Padding soundlessly across the rocks, he followed her scent trail along the stream for a few bearlengths, but then it disappeared. Toklo glanced around. A few stars twinkled through the clouds above him. Tiny water droplets clung to his fur and chilled his nose.

A few steps from the stream was a large bush with wide green leaves. Toklo peered at it and realised there was a small shape huddled under the shelter of the leaves.

‘Lusa?' he whispered, creeping closer.

She jumped, and he saw the gleam of her bright eyes as she peered out at him. ‘Oh, no,' she said, and her voice broke. ‘Oh, Toklo. I can't even run away properly.'

‘Run away!' Toklo stared at her in disbelief. ‘Why would you do that?' He crawled under the bush and pressed himself close to her. He felt the warmth of her tiny shape leaning against his fur, and realised that she was trembling with fear. Lusa turned her head and buried her nose in his thick neck fur. Toklo touched her paw with his, awkwardly trying to comfort her.

‘Lusa, what's wrong?'

‘I can't do it,' Lusa said. ‘I can't save the wild.'

Toklo tipped his head to one side. ‘Save the wild?'

‘I had this dream before I woke up, after the firebeast crushed me,' Lusa said. Words spilled out of her as if she were relieved to be telling someone the truth at last. ‘I saw my mother, Toklo – I saw Ashia. And she told me that I have to save the wild. Me!'

‘It was just a dream,' Toklo said.

Lusa shook her head. ‘No, Ujurak said it wasn't. He said it's true. But he won't tell me what it means! I'm not sure he even knows. Toklo, I'm scared. I–I'm sorry – the truth is, my leg is better. I'm sure I could keep going. But I don't know what I'm supposed to do, and Kallik told me about the bad spirits and everything that happened to you while you were hunting, and all about the burning rocks, and what am I supposed to do about any of that? And what if we're not supposed to keep going through the mountains – Qopuk said it was dangerous! I'm afraid we're making all the wrong choices, and I'm afraid I'll fail, whatever I decide to do, and mostly I'm afraid something will happen to you . . .
All of you, I mean –'

Toklo touched her snout with his. ‘Listen, you know I don't believe in these stories about evil spirits. But if there were bad spirits trying to hurt me and Kallik, they didn't succeed, did they? The good spirits helped us back to the cave. If you believe in the bad ones, you have to believe in those too. Right?'

The branches pressed closely around them. Toklo wondered if black bears believed that there were spirits in the bushes as well. Could Lusa hear voices in the whisper of the rain on the leaves?

‘I'm just one cub,' Lusa said softly. ‘A useless little black bear cub. I can't save the wild.'

‘You're not useless,' Toklo said. ‘You came all the way into the wild to find me, even though you'd never been outside the Bear Bowl before and you had no idea where you were going. And you're not alone. We're all on this journey with you – if you need to save the wild, or whatever, we'll be there to help you. Isn't that better than running away and trying to do it on your own?'

Lusa rested her head on his paws. ‘I . . . I suppose you're right.'

‘Come back, Lusa,' Toklo said. ‘Come with us.'

‘OK.' She wriggled closer to him for a moment, and the warm scent of her, smelling like honey even though they hadn't seen any in moons, filled his nose. ‘Thank you, Toklo. I'm not sure I could have left you anyway. I was lying here wondering if I really wanted to go. I'm so glad you came to get me.'

They climbed out from under the bush and padded back through the rain the way they'd come. Ujurak and Kallik were standing in the mouth of the cave, wide awake, peering anxiously into the darkness and rain.

‘We woke up and you were gone!' Kallik exclaimed, stepping aside to let them hurry into the dry cave.

‘Sorry,' Lusa said. ‘That was my fault. I–I woke up feeling restless and decided to go for a walk to see if my leg was OK.' She glanced at Toklo, blinking nervously. He gave his head a tiny shake, letting her know that he wasn't about to tell them what really happened. ‘Toklo came looking for me, that's all. But guess what? My leg does feel stronger.' She turned to Ujurak. ‘Thanks to you, Ujurak. I think you're right. I'm ready to move on.'

Ujurak's eyes sparkled. ‘Then we'll leave in the morning,' he said, poking his nose outside the cave and blinking as raindrops splashed in his eyes.

Toklo wasn't sure how to feel as he settled back down to sleep on the sandy floor with Lusa curled up beside him. He was very, very relieved that Lusa hadn't left them. But it worried him that she was talking about dreams. She was sounding more and more like Ujurak every day. And
one
Ujurak was enough for any journey. More than enough.

It was the smoke, he thought, putting thoughts into their minds. The sooner they were out of these mountains, the better for everyone.

He slept badly that night. He could tell that Kallik was also having bad dreams, because whenever he woke up her claws were flexing and she was growling in her sleep. Once when he jerked awake, he saw Ujurak sitting silently at the mouth of the cave, staring out at the smoke-clouds covering the moon.

The mountains seemed to loom higher at night. He thought about the journey ahead, and dread prickled his fur. He shook his head, then rolled on
to his side, facing the back of the cave. He must have smoke in his brain too.

Giant flat-faces eating bears
, he thought.
It's just a stupid story
.

W
hen Toklo woke up the next morning, he couldn't feel Lusa curled beside him. Cold with worry, he sat up and glanced around the cave. Had she run away again?

Then he heard her voice outside the cave, chattering to Kallik down by the stream. Ujurak was just waking up too. He stretched and nodded to Toklo as they padded outside.

The rain had stopped, and glints of sunshine were peeking through the heavy clouds. For the first time since they'd come to Smoke Mountain, the breeze smelled fresh. It ruffled their fur, and Toklo could detect only a faint scent of smoke in the air.
A good sign
, he thought wryly, glancing at Lusa. She was wading in the stream with Kallik, pouncing on the
tiny flickers of fish that shot past their paws.

Toklo looked sideways at Ujurak. ‘When you said that we'd leave this morning, did you know the rain was going to stop?' he asked.

Ujurak shrugged. ‘Maybe.' He headed off, trotting along the stream.

Toklo huffed.

‘Are you ready?' Kallik asked Lusa, splashing in a circle around her. ‘Are you sure your leg will be all right?'

‘Oh, my goodness,' Lusa huffed. ‘I'm just a big pile of wet, useless fur, aren't I?'

‘No, you're not,' Kallik said, bumping Lusa's shoulder with her nose. ‘You're our ray of sunshine. See, you came outside, and the sun just had to come back out.' She looked up at Toklo, and he dipped his head in agreement.

‘Hmm – a heavy, dopey, limping ray of sunshine,' Lusa said with a sigh.

‘You
are
surprisingly heavy,' Toklo teased. ‘I think you must've been sneaking blueberries when we weren't looking.'

‘Hey!' Lusa yelped, batting a spray of water at him. ‘I wish!'

‘Come on, let's catch up with Ujurak,' Toklo said, his spirits feeling lighter than he'd expected after the long, fretful night.

They climbed all morning, stopping often so that Lusa could rest. The days of rain had damped down the smoke, so the air smelled clearer than it had in a while. For a long time they stayed by the stream, but when it wandered off between some tall cliffs, Ujurak insisted on leaving it. They needed to keep going straight ahead; he was sure of it. They scrambled away up some sharp rocks, beneath trees that were twisted by the wind. Toklo kept a sharp eye out for prey, but the only thing he caught was a mouse, which was barely a mouthful for Lusa.

When the sun was high, they stopped in the shade of an enormous boulder and lay down to rest. They had climbed to a point where they could see a wide view of the ridge stretching ahead of them. To Toklo's surprise, he could see swathes of tall green trees and swaying grasses in the valley meadows. Not all of Smoke Mountain was as dark and rocky as Qopuk had described.

He sat down beside Lusa and noticed she was
breathing heavily. ‘You're sure you're OK?' he murmured.

‘I am,' Lusa said, resting her head on her paws. ‘Truly.'

Toklo wasn't convinced. ‘Can we stop to hunt?' he called up to Ujurak. The smaller brown bear was pacing along the edge of the boulder, staring out at the mountains. He looked down at Toklo with a startled expression, as if he'd forgotten about eating.
He probably did just that
, Toklo thought.

‘Oh . . . sure,' Ujurak said. ‘I was just trying to remember where the Pathway Star is. Qopuk said to follow it beyond the mountain.' He lapsed into silence again, gazing at the sky.

Toklo shrugged, deciding to leave Ujurak to it. He sniffed the air for prey. The scent of smoke was coming back now that the rains had passed.

‘Toklo!' Kallik called from behind the boulder. ‘What's this over here?'

He traipsed over the rattling pebbles to the white bear, who was sniffing along a trail. Something had come through here, something big enough to leave prints and flattened grass behind it, and Toklo could
tell that it had gone up the steep, rocky slope to their left.

‘Is it prey?' Kallik asked, her ears pricked. ‘I don't recognise the smell.'

Toklo shook his head. ‘That's the scent of lynx,' he told her. ‘They're too big for us to eat, and they've probably eaten what little prey there is around here.'

Pebbles crunched underpaw as Ujurak trotted over to join them. He lowered his head and sniffed along the trail.

‘We'll hunt somewhere else,' Toklo said. He glanced at Ujurak and saw two odd tufts of black fur fluttering at the top of his ears. ‘Ujurak,' he said, ‘there's something wrong with your ears.'

Then he realised that Ujurak's ears were also getting longer and pointier. His face was getting flatter, and his eyes were turning yellow and catlike.

Toklo sighed. ‘Again?' he said.

‘
Mrrrrrowrt
,' Ujurak answered. He picked up one furry paw and studied it with interest as the rest of him changed into a large grey wildcat.

‘What is that?' Kallik asked curiously, looking Ujurak up and down.

‘It's a lynx,' Toklo said. ‘I mean he – he's a lynx.'

Ujurak blinked and crouched low, glaring at the bears as if he didn't recognise them. Then he spun around and disappeared up the slope into the rocks, sprinting on silent paws.

‘Well, that's useful,' Toklo grumbled, stamping his feet. ‘What is he
doing
?'

‘Should we wait for him?' Kallik asked.

‘No, let's keep looking for food,' Toklo said, heading back around the boulder to Lusa. ‘Ujurak can follow our scent trail – it's not like there's much else to smell around here.'

‘Except smoke,' Kallik said, coughing as a breeze brought the acrid smell up from the rocks behind them.

‘Lusa? Are you ready to go on?'

The black bear got to her paws and stretched. ‘I've been doing my exercises,' she said. ‘See?' She wiggled her toes at him, and he chuffed with amusement.

‘I think our best chance is to head down into a valley,' Toklo said. ‘Where there's grass and trees, there's more likely to be prey.'

‘There are trees down there,' Lusa said, nodding
at the slope below them. Toklo could see a small stand of dark pine trees huddled close together near the centre of a yellow meadow.

‘And it doesn't smell like smoke in that direction,' Kallik pointed out.

‘Maybe that's because the fire is inside the rocks,' Toklo said, trying to puzzle it out. ‘So there's less smoke in the grassy parts of the mountain.'