Smoke Mountain (6 page)

Taqqiq snorted. ‘The mad ramblings of an old
fur lump. Had he ever actually been there?' He slurped his blue-black tongue in the lake water, squinting at Lusa.

‘Well . . . no,' Lusa admitted. ‘But he told us all about it. He warned us about Smoke Mountain.' She looked at Kallik, who nodded in agreement.

‘Seal-brained stories and cloudfluff legends,' Taqqiq growled. ‘No sane bear would believe any of that.'

‘I believe it,' Ujurak said.

‘Me too,' Kallik said.

‘Well, that's a surprise.' Taqqiq snorted, scattering water droplets as he tossed his head.

‘So we just have to find the Big River and then follow that to the Ice Sea and the Last Great Wilderness,' Toklo said, ignoring him.

‘I agree,' Lusa said.

‘It sounds right to me,' Kallik said. ‘Taqqiq? Please?'

Her brother huffed loudly. ‘Fine. If that's what you all want. I don't care.' He ripped a large chunk of flesh off one of the hares and lay down under a tree, gnawing on it with his back hunched.

Lusa's pelt prickled with excitement. She wasn't
bothered by Taqqiq. Suddenly a real path lay before them, to a place where they would be safe. Forests full of prey, enough room for all the bears, and not a flat-face in sight . . .

If only Qopuk could have lived to see it too.

K
allik waited until Toklo, Ujurak and Lusa had gone down to the lake to drink before padding over to her brother. Taqqiq was flopped on the ground, chewing noisily and opening his jaws unnecessarily wide.

‘Rabbits are so tough,' he complained as she sat down beside him. ‘Nothing like seals. The newkill this far from the ice is terrible. A bear would have to be stupid to actually
want
to live among dirt and trees.'

Kallik glanced nervously at Toklo, who was following Ujurak to a stream that wound away from the lake. ‘Shh,' she said. ‘The others might hear you.'

‘I don't care if they do,' Taqqiq said, even louder.
Lusa glanced up at them from the lake, where she was cleaning her paws.

‘Taqqiq,' Kallik warned, ‘if you don't act respectfully, they might ask us to leave – or sneak off without us. I don't want to be alone any more! I like travelling with other bears instead of being lonely and scared and lost all the time.'

‘You wouldn't be alone,' Taqqiq snarled. ‘You'd have me. And what in the name of Silaluk makes you think these bears aren't lost?'

Kallik was quiet for a moment. ‘But Taqqiq . . . we're going to the Place of Endless Ice. Nisa said that is the only safe place left for bears. Isn't that what you want too?'

‘Sure, fine,' Taqqiq said, ‘but that should be
our
journey. You and me! Why would these dumb tree-living bears care about sea-ice?'

‘They care about us,' Kallik said, hoping that was true. ‘And from what Qopuk said, the Endless Ice is part of the Last Great Wilderness, where all bears can live safely. We're all going to the same place.'

Taqqiq snorted and shoved aside the last of the hare. ‘Our journey has nothing to do with them. They are nothing like us. Especially that one.'
He jerked his head at Toklo. ‘And there's something weird about that other brown bear too.'

Kallik followed her brother's gaze along the lakeshore to where Ujurak was standing in the stream. The bubbling water washed over his claws while he gazed into the silver reflections. Taqqiq didn't realise just how different Ujurak was from other bears. She was suddenly very glad that her brother hadn't seen Ujurak turn into something else.

She sighed. ‘Well, please try to be nicer to them,' she said. ‘For me. OK, Taqqiq?'

He grunted and stood up. ‘Fine. Whatever.'

They headed down the hill and joined Lusa and Toklo by the side of the stream.

‘Ujurak? Is everything OK?' Kallik asked.

The brown cub looked up. ‘This stream,' he said. ‘This stream will lead us to the Big River.'

‘Oh, really?' Taqqiq sneered. ‘What happened to going the other way, like you wanted to before?'

Kallik poked her brother sharply with her nose.

‘If what Qopuk told us is true,' Ujurak said, ‘this is the way we have to go.'

‘
Oh
,' Taqqiq muttered. ‘And how can you be so sure?'

Ujurak didn't say anything. He just stared at a tree that had long branches hanging over the stream.

‘I see it!' Lusa cried suddenly, making Kallik jump. The little black bear padded over to the tree. She reared up on her back paws and touched a twisting pattern on the bark of the trunk.

‘What is it?' Kallik asked. All she saw was an ordinary tree. Her heart sank at the look on Taqqiq's face. This wasn't the way to make him cooperate – he'd just think the other bears were even crazier.

‘Can't you see it?' Lusa prompted. She dropped to her paws again and tilted her head at the bark. ‘It's a bear spirit looking at us from inside the tree. That's what you saw, isn't it, Ujurak?'

Ujurak nodded.

Kallik peered at the knobby bits of wood, trying to see any sort of face in it. Beside her, Toklo had squinted, as if that would make the pattern clearer. There were lumps and whorls in the bark, but to Kallik they just looked . . . treelike.

‘Here,' Lusa said, touching a dark patch of the wood. ‘This is the face of the bear spirit that lives in this tree. I bet it's very old. And look how it's watching over the stream.' She waved one paw at
the long branches that hung over the burbling water. ‘Maybe it's a she-bear who once had cubs. Now she has something else to take care of.'

Kallik stepped back, trying to see the tree the way Lusa did. It was true that the branches hanging over the stream looked a bit like a mother bear protecting her cubs. Thin green leaves trailed in the water like rippling fur. And maybe that patch of darker wood could be an eye . . . and those flecks could be whiskers . . . or more fur . . . or tufty ears.

‘It's a sign,' Lusa whispered. ‘Isn't it, Ujurak? The spirit of this bear wants us to follow this stream. She's guiding us to the Last Great Wilderness!'

Ujurak dipped his head. ‘I think that's what I see too.'

Taqqiq shoved Kallik aside and stalked up to the tree. He narrowed his eyes at the bear face, which was much closer to his eye level than Lusa's. Next to him, Lusa looked as small as the Arctic fox that had followed Kallik to Great Bear Lake. But Lusa didn't seem afraid. She dropped to all paws and looked up at the big white bear cub.

‘You see it, don't you?' she said earnestly. ‘Now do you believe that we must go this way?'

Taqqiq didn't speak for a moment. Then a low growl rumbled in his throat. ‘There's nothing here at all,' he said. ‘Bear spirits don't live in trees. Trees are just stupid things that get in the way when you want to run.'

He stepped forward, twisted around, and started scratching his back against the tree. His lip curled back to show his teeth as he sneered at Lusa. Bits of bark flaked off and fell to the ground around him.

‘No! Stop!' Lusa shrieked. ‘Leave it alone!' The tiny black cub threw herself at Taqqiq, battering him with her paws as she tried to push him away from the tree. It was like trying to move a mountain. He snorted as she clambered on to his back and tried to wrestle his head aside.

‘Taqqiq!' Kallik barked. ‘Leave the tree alone!'

Toklo came running up from the stream, his teeth bared. But before he could get to them, Lusa lunged forward on Taqqiq's back and buried her teeth in one of his ears.

‘Ow!' Taqqiq roared. He swung around so fast that Lusa lost her grip and went flying into a pile of leaves further up the bank. Taqqiq reared up on his hind legs, bellowing, but Kallik threw herself in
front of him before he could pounce on Lusa. With his powerful front legs, built for digging seals out of snowbanks, he could easily crush the smaller bear – whether he was trying to or not.

‘Taqqiq, leave her be!' she snarled. Her fur was standing on end and her breathing was fast and angry. Why was Taqqiq always picking fights? ‘And don't you go near that tree again either! Lusa wouldn't make fun of our ice spirits, and you should have some respect for her beliefs. Plus she's half your size! You won't impress anyone by hurting her!'

‘And it might be the last thing you ever do,' Toklo growled from behind Kallik. She turned to look at him. She had never seen a bear looking so angry, and for a moment she was scared for her brother. Toklo's long claws raked the earth as he glared at the white bear.

Taqqiq held his gaze for a moment, then dropped to all fours. He shook his shaggy head, looking disgusted. ‘She
bit
me,' he protested.

‘You deserved it!' Lusa yelped, sticking her head out from behind Kallik's leg.

‘Lusa and Ujurak see the same thing in that tree,' Kallik told her brother. ‘We'll follow this stream
until we reach the Big River.
Together
. No more fighting. All right?'

Taqqiq grumbled something under his breath. He touched his paw to his ear, which wasn't even bleeding. With a snort, he turned his back on the cubs and marched down to the stream. Splashing through the water, he headed in the direction Ujurak had pointed to, out of the woods.

Ujurak breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Thanks, Kallik.' The brown fur on Toklo's back slowly flattened. He shook himself and trotted down to walk beside Ujurak. ‘Maybe next time he'll be brave enough to pick on a bear his
own
size,' Toklo said, just loud enough for Taqqiq to hear. The white cub's ears twitched, but he kept pacing ahead without looking back.

‘Are you all right?' Kallik asked Lusa when he was out of earshot. She craned her head around to sniff the black cub.

‘I'm f-fine,' Lusa said through chattering teeth. ‘I can't believe I attacked him! He just made me so mad! I'm sorry, Kallik . . . I didn't mean to hurt your brother.'

Kallik understood that Lusa was sorry only
because it was Kallik's brother she had bitten. If Taqqiq weren't Kallik's family, Lusa wouldn't want him here either. Nobody liked Taqqiq, not even friendly little Lusa.

‘I don't know why he's so awful sometimes.' Kallik sighed. ‘He wasn't like this when he was a cub. We used to have fun together.' She shook her head. ‘It must have been terrible for him when he thought Mother and I were both dead. I'm sure that's what changed him. At least I still had the hope of finding him alive to keep me going.'

Lusa leaned into Kallik's side. ‘But he has you now,' she said. ‘Maybe that will help him become a better bear.'

‘I hope so,' Kallik said. ‘I suppose we should catch up with them.'

‘Bye, tree,' Lusa said, touching the roots lightly with her paw.

Kallik looked back up at the tree and felt something behind her eyes shifting. A dark bump on the bark suddenly looked just like a bear's nose. She followed the line of the whorl to where an eye should be and saw a delicate shape in the trunk, lined with flecks that looked like eyelashes. She felt
a surge of excitement. ‘Lusa, I can see it! I can see the bear's face!' The nose and the eyes and the ears all seemed to emerge from the bark, and Kallik looked straight at the face watching them intently through the brown flakes rubbed off by Taqqiq.

‘I hope she isn't angry with us,' Lusa whispered.

‘She won't be angry with
you
,' Kallik pointed out. ‘You defended her. You were really brave!'

‘We have to protect the spirits in the trees,' Lusa said. ‘Just as the tree spirits protect black bears. We owe it to them.' She looked up at the sunlit leaves. ‘I wish we didn't ever have to leave them. I like having the sound of leaves around me.'

‘There will be lots of trees in the Last Great Wilderness,' Kallik said. ‘I'm sure of it.'

Lusa wriggled. ‘I hope so! I hope we get there soon.'

Me too
, Kallik thought as the two she-bears hurried down the slope and followed the others along the stream and out of the trees.