Smoke Mountain (8 page)

‘There's nothing here!' Taqqiq snarled, digging through piles of shiny, soft, flabby stuff and broken no-claw things. He dropped to all paws and scraped his claws along the ground in a frustrated gesture.

‘It's all right,' Kallik said. ‘We'll find something.'

‘Hrrmph,' Taqqiq grumbled. He looked around at the den and the firebeasts, then back at her. ‘I'm not just a useless lump of fur, you know.'

Kallik blinked at him, surprised. ‘I know that.'

‘You think those other bears are so great, like they're the only ones who can find food and figure out which way to go.' He swiped the metal box with his paw. ‘I survived on my own for a while, just like you did, remember? But you treat me like you think I can't do anything.'

‘That's not true!' Kallik said with a pang of guilt. ‘I mean . . . this isn't the right world for us – of course it's harder for us to hunt when we're off the ice.'

‘And all you do is complain about my friends,' Taqqiq persisted, ‘and then drag me off on some other bears' journey, and then get all mad when I complain about
your
friends. They're not even white bears! What do they care about the Endless Ice?
Sometimes I think you've forgotten that
you're
a white bear.'

Kallik glanced at the reeds near the edge of the denning place. The light from the den was blindingly bright, making it hard to see into the darkness, but she thought she saw the gleam of the other bears' eyes watching them. She hoped they couldn't hear this conversation from where they were.

‘See!' Taqqiq snarled. ‘You're not even listening to me! You're thinking about
them
!'

‘I'm sorry!' Kallik protested. ‘I am listening, really.'

‘You say you came all this way to look for me, but now that you've found me you ignore me and act like I'm some stupid nuisance.'

‘Taqqiq,' Kallik said. She stepped forward to press her nose into his fur, but he jumped away from her, glaring. ‘I'm sorry you feel that way. I don't mean to treat you badly. I really do want you on this journey with me – and I'm sure our mother does too.'

Taqqiq snorted. ‘Nisa is dead,' he growled. ‘We don't know what she would think.'

‘I think she would like them,' Kallik said, jerking her head at the shadows where her friends were
all waiting. ‘They're brave, like she was.'

This was the wrong thing to say. Taqqiq's fur fluffed up all across his shoulders and he bared his teeth. ‘You keep saying how brave they are! How great and perfect and wonderful they are! Well, I'm just as good as them! I'm brave too! Here, I'll prove it!'

‘No, don't!' Kallik cried, trying to hold him back, but he marched out of the shadows and headed for the nearest firebeast. Kallik peeked out to watch him go. ‘Taqqiq, come back! Leave them alone!' She looked at the firebeasts' enormous round black paws and thought how easily they could crush her brother if they wanted to.

She looked back towards the others again. Were those Lusa's bright eyes watching from the tall reeds? Were the other bears scared for her brother? Or were they secretly glad that he might not be able to travel with them any more if he got hurt by a firebeast?

It didn't matter. She couldn't let Taqqiq face the firebeasts on his own. He was wrong if he thought they couldn't guess what Nisa would want. She most definitely wouldn't want Kallik to abandon her
brother now. Digging up every bit of courage she had, she crept after him.

Taqqiq was standing almost nose-to-nose with the nearest firebeast. It loomed over him, all shiny and hulking and dreadful-smelling. Its two round, blank eyes stared back at Taqqiq.

Kallik edged up beside him, sniffing the air. The firebeast didn't move. ‘Is it dead?' she whispered. ‘But if it's dead, why doesn't it fall over?'

‘You don't know anything,' Taqqiq scoffed. ‘It's sleeping. That's what they look like when they sleep. Hey, firebeast! Where's your fur? Did something claw it off while you were sleeping? You're so stupid, maybe you haven't even noticed that you don't have any fur!'

‘Oh, shhh, don't make it mad!' Kallik cried.

‘It doesn't even notice,' Taqqiq said. ‘Firebeasts are so dumb, a seal could probably trick them.' He said this really loudly, but the firebeast didn't blink. It stayed perfectly still.

‘OK, I believe you, Taqqiq,' Kallik said. ‘You're very brave.' Her paws were trembling. A crash from the den behind them made her jump. She could hear the constant murmur of no-claw noises
through the open door. Even if the firebeast stayed asleep, she knew that no-claws could come out with firesticks at any moment. They had to get out of this open space.

‘You think
that's
brave,' Taqqiq said. ‘Watch
this
.' To Kallik's horror, he reared up on his hind legs and slammed his front paws into the firebeast's face.

‘ARRF ARRF ARRF ARRF ARRF ARRF ARRF!' the firebeast bellowed.

Kallik pelted back behind the metal box. Her fur felt as if it were about to fly off her skin, and her heart was thundering almost as loudly as the firebeast. She crouched there, shivering, for a long moment. Slowly she realised that Taqqiq was huddled up with her, his nose pressed into her fur. He was shaking as badly as she was.

She could still hear the firebeast roaring, but it didn't seem to have come any closer. ‘Is it going to find us and eat us?' she asked.

Taqqiq jumped away from her and took a deep breath. ‘I've never heard a firebeast do that before,' he said. His voice was all wobbly and high-pitched. ‘They never woke up when Salik hit them.'

‘Why isn't it coming after us?' Kallik whispered.

Taqqiq shook himself. ‘Maybe it's scared of us too,' he said. His voice was lower now, as if he were getting over being startled.

‘I don't think that's it,' Kallik said. ‘We didn't look very scary when we were running away.'

Taqqiq slid over to the edge of the box and poked his nose around the corner. Kallik held her breath. Would the firebeast spot him?

Her brother sat down with a thud. ‘We're seal-brains,' he said.

‘We are?' Kallik said. Seal-brain or not, Taqqiq wasn't about to persuade her that firebeasts were safe.

‘It's not the firebeast making that noise. Come on, look.' He stood up and trotted back out into the open. Reluctantly, Kallik followed him.

‘ARRF ARRF ARRF ARRF ARRF!' The fierce roaring certainly
sounded
as though it were coming from the firebeast. But the enormous creature was still and unmoving. Its eyes weren't even lit up, the way they were when they ran along the BlackPaths at night.

‘Look,' Taqqiq said, jerking his snout at a clear square in the front of the firebeast. Something was
jumping up and down
inside
the firebeast. Kallik suddenly remembered the white firebeast she had seen on the beach. It had been full of no-claws trapped inside. This one had something inside it too – two somethings – but they weren't no-claws.

‘Oh!' she said. ‘I've seen those kinds of animals before. They look like wolves, but they live with no-claws.'

‘I know,' Taqqiq said. ‘They're called dogs. You didn't know that?'

‘How would I know that?' Kallik argued. ‘I've been by myself for moons, remember? No one told me anything. I had to figure it all out myself.'

Taqqiq shifted uncomfortably. ‘Well, Salik said they were dogs,' he said. ‘Some of them bite, but mostly they're all noise.'

He strutted around to the side of the firebeast, where he could see the dogs more clearly. They were as big as Lusa, both black and brown, with fat snouts and small ears and very sharp teeth. They threw themselves against the inside of the firebeast, barking and howling at the white bear cub. One of them shoved his nose against a small crack in the side of the firebeast, sniffing the air furiously.

‘What's the matter?' Taqqiq taunted them. ‘Are you stuck in there? You have to do what the no-claws tell you to, don't you? You're no better than a newborn cub, mewling and whining for food. I bet you couldn't catch your own, not even if you tripped over a dead seal.'

‘Taqqiq, let's get out of here,' Kallik said, taking a step backwards. ‘They look really angry.'

‘They can't do anything,' Taqqiq sneered. ‘They're trapped in there like snails in a shell. All noise and no fight. Salik and I have scared off dogs bigger than these two before. I bet even if they could get out, they'd be too scared to –'

One of the dogs slipped and hit something on the inside of the firebeast. All at once a whole piece of the firebeast's skin popped open sideways, like it had opened its mouth. As it slowly swung wide, Kallik realised that there was nothing to keep the dogs inside the firebeast.

And the dogs were really, really big. Saliva dripped from their jaws, and their sharp white teeth glistened as they snarled.

With a roar of fury, the two dogs leaped out of the firebeast and hurled themselves at Taqqiq.

‘T
oklo!' Lusa shrieked. ‘Do something! They're going to kill Taqqiq!'

We should be so lucky
, Toklo thought, but already his paws were sprinting across the hard black stuff towards the two white cubs. From their spot hidden in the bushes, he and Lusa had watched Taqqiq strutting around the firebeast. Toklo didn't know where Ujurak had gone off to, but he was glad he was well away from the danger here. Toklo wasn't a bit surprised that Taqqiq had got himself in trouble. He just wondered if he was doing the right thing by going to his rescue.

One dog had sunk his teeth into Taqqiq's front leg while the other went for his head, snarling. Taqqiq stood up with a roar, flinging the first dog off him
and clawing at the second one with his other paw. The dog dodged his attack and lunged forward again. His teeth snapped shut only a hair's breadth away from Taqqiq's nose.

The first dog rolled back on to its paws and charged at Taqqiq again. This time Kallik jumped forward and slammed into the dog with her body. It yelped as it fell over, but quickly it twisted around and tried to bite her leg. Kallik stumbled back away from it and it missed, but only barely.

Toklo didn't know which dog to fend off first. Which cub was in more trouble? Then he saw the second dog lunge for Taqqiq's neck. Taqqiq was still reeling from the last attack and didn't see it coming fast enough to dodge away.

Just before the dog's jaws closed on white fur, Toklo's massive paw slammed into the side of its head. The dog was knocked several bearlengths across the black earth. At the same moment, Toklo whirled and sliced at the other dog as it leaped towards him. The dog tumbled to the ground. With a whimper, it climbed to its paws and limped away.

Toklo turned and saw that the first dog was also on its paws, shaking its head as if it were stunned.
He took one step towards it, and the dog fled into the flat-face den.

‘We've got to go,' Lusa urged, racing from the bushes to his side. ‘The flat-faces will be out here with their firesticks any moment!'

‘Come on!' Toklo ordered the white bear cubs. Kallik started to limp towards him, but Taqqiq just glared at him.

‘I could have taken care of those dogs myself,' he snarled.

‘Yeah, you were doing a great job!' Toklo retorted.

There was a clatter from inside the flat-face den, and the sound of their high-pitched noises got louder.

‘Quick!' Lusa cried. ‘Run!' She pelted away into the marsh.

‘Come
on
, Taqqiq!' Kallik said, ramming her brother in the side.

Well, I don't care if the flat-faces get him
, Toklo thought. He turned his back and ran after Lusa. His paws squished heavily in the mud as he dived off the flat black earth.
Ungrateful, selfish, stupid . . .

Lusa tore through the swampy grassland ahead of him. Toklo would have preferred to run straight across
the BlackPath, in the direction of the Big River, but he had to follow her so they didn't lose her. He realised she was heading for a thin grove of trees several bearlengths away, beside the BlackPath.
Typical black bear response, running for trees
, he thought, but it wasn't a bad idea. Hopefully the trees would hide the bears from flat-face eyes – as would the growing darkness now that the sun was all the way down.

He caught up with her as they dived between the first few tree trunks. A firebeast roared as it charged by on the BlackPath, only a bearlength away. Lusa shot up the nearest tree and clung to a branch, panting. As the noise of the firebeast faded, there was a thundering of paws, and Toklo realised that both white bears had followed him after all. Kallik and Taqqiq ran into the trees and collapsed beside a clump of leafy bushes. Toklo spun around, looking anxiously for Ujurak. There was no sign of the other brown bear.