Smoke Mountain (9 page)

He peered out between the bushes and saw flat-faces running around the den with the dogs, pointing at the big firebeast and shouting. But they weren't looking towards the trees. Perhaps they hadn't seen the bears.

An odd chittering noise startled him, and he turned to see a squirrel staring at him from the roots of the nearest tree. Its eyes were very bright, like little berries, and instead of running, it stood there looking at him.

‘Ujurak?' he asked. Had he changed shape to hide better?

Suddenly a flash of white fur flew past him. Taqqiq snatched the squirrel up in one huge paw. Before Toklo could move, Taqqiq's jaws closed over the squirrel's head with a devastating crunch.

‘
No!
' Toklo howled. He threw himself at Taqqiq. ‘No! Stop!' It was bad enough risking his fur to rescue the dumb white bear from the dogs, but there was no way he was going to watch him eat Ujurak.

Startled, Taqqiq dropped the squirrel and spun around, roaring and lashing out at Toklo with his claws. The squirrel fell on to the ground and lay there without moving. Then Taqqiq's claws raked across his snout and Toklo lunged to bury his teeth in the other cub's neck. Taqqiq's powerful shoulder muscles knocked him over, and Toklo lashed out with his back paws, leaving streaks of blood on Taqqiq's white fur.

He could hear Lusa and Kallik roaring at them, but their voices were only a buzz in his ears. Rage pounded through him. If Taqqiq had killed Ujurak . . .
if he had killed Ujurak
. . . His despair and anger rose to a frenzy. He slashed and bit and tore into Taqqiq as if the white bear were the reason for every terrible thing that had happened in Toklo's life.

‘Toklo! Taqqiq!' Lusa screamed from the tree branch. ‘Stop it! Stop!'

Hot pain seared through Toklo's skin as Taqqiq's claws sank into his back. He rolled free and kicked, smashing Taqqiq's skull into a tree with a vicious thud. The white bear bellowed and cuffed Toklo across the ears. It felt as if a firebeast had slammed into his head. Ears ringing, Toklo crouched and tensed to spring with his claws extended. If he could pin down Taqqiq, just one swift bite to his neck would end this battle.

Kallik threw herself between them, and for one moment Toklo, blinded by rage, thought he was seeing two of Taqqiq. But before he could pounce, a cold bear nose shoved his snout aside, and somebody muscled into his way. Somebody bigger and heavier than Lusa, with brown fur . . .

‘Toklo, what are you doing?' Ujurak barked. ‘Why are you fighting? What happened?'

‘Ujurak!' Toklo yelped. Exhausted, he collapsed on a pile of leaves. ‘You're alive!'

‘Alive?' Ujurak echoed, looking puzzled. ‘Why wouldn't I be? I was just scouting ahead.'

Over by the tree, Kallik was holding her brother back, standing in his way and murmuring in a low voice. Taqqiq's eyes were still blazing with anger.

Toklo's muscles ached all over, and he could feel trails of sharp pain where Taqqiq and the dogs had clawed him. But Ujurak was alive, and that was the only thing that mattered.

‘I thought . . . I thought . . .' he stammered. He glanced up, searching for a way to explain, and saw Lusa's bright, horrified eyes watching from a high branch. She looked terrified, as if Toklo had suddenly turned into a firebeast.

‘You could have had the stupid squirrel!' Taqqiq yelled. ‘I would have shared it with you!'

‘He just . . . The dogs got you both angry,' Kallik said. ‘It's all right; it's over now.' She laid one paw on Taqqiq's shoulder, but he shrugged her off.

‘And that's another thing!' Taqqiq shouted.
‘I could have handled those dogs! I would have smashed them and clawed them and torn them to shreds without you getting in the way! You don't always have to interfere! Always telling us what to do and where to go and acting like we don't know anything. Bossing everyone around like you're the king of all the bears – who made you so special? You're not even a white bear. You're just a stupid brown bear!'

Guilt prickled through Toklo's pelt. He could see the dead squirrel lying on the ground nearby; it hadn't been Ujurak after all.

But anger flared up in him too. How had he got into this mess? No other bear had to constantly watch out that he didn't eat his best friend!

‘I thought it was Ujurak, all right?' he snapped. ‘I thought you had killed Ujurak.'

Taqqiq glared at him for a long moment, his sides heaving. Then, very slowly, as if he really thought Toklo had no brain at all, Taqqiq said, ‘What . . . are . . . you . . . talking about?'

Toklo nodded at the squirrel. He didn't know how to even start explaining.

‘That's a
squirrel
,' Taqqiq said. ‘Not a bear.
Squirrel
.
Small, noisy, edible? Nothing
like
Ujurak!'

‘I know!' Toklo growled.

‘Taqqiq,' Kallik said, ‘there's something we haven't told you about Ujurak.'

Her brother turned his head towards her. ‘What?' he snarled sarcastically. ‘Sometimes he looks like a squirrel?'

There was an awkward pause.

‘Well . . . yes,' Lusa's voice said from above them.

‘Not often,' Ujurak offered helpfully.

‘Sometimes he's a bird. Or another kind of bear. Or a flat-face,' Toklo said. He was almost enjoying the baffled look on Taqqiq's face. ‘Once he was a mosquito. That was probably my least favourite.'

‘Mine too,' Ujurak agreed.

Taqqiq hunched his shoulders, his hackles rising. ‘You are all out of your minds,' he said. ‘Bears don't turn into other animals.'

Kallik looked pleadingly at Ujurak and Toklo. ‘We don't know that for sure, right?' she said. ‘We haven't met
that
many bears. Maybe there are lots of others like Ujurak.'

‘I doubt it,' Toklo muttered.

‘But
why
?' Taqqiq demanded. ‘Why would you
turn into anything else? Why would you want to be anything but a bear?' He pawed at his nose. ‘And if you
can
be anything in the world, why wouldn't you be a white bear?'

‘Hey,' Toklo growled.

‘I don't know why,' Ujurak said. ‘It just started happening. At first I didn't do it on purpose . . . Now I only try to change when it'll be helpful.'

‘Is that what you were doing just now?' Toklo asked.

‘No, I was still a bear. I was following the stream to see if we could crawl under the BlackPath with it,' Ujurak said, pointing with his snout at the spot where the stream disappeared under the BlackPath. ‘But it's barely a trickle clogged with thornbushes under there. There's not enough room for us to squeeze through. We have to cross over the top instead.'

‘We should do that soon,' Toklo said, ‘while it's still dark. The firebeasts are more active in the day.'

‘Wait,' Taqqiq snarled. ‘This doesn't make any sense. I think you're all lying to me about Ujurak.'

‘Taqqiq, we wouldn't do that,' Kallik said.

‘Just show him, Ujurak,' Lusa said, inching down
the tree. ‘It'll be faster than talking about it.'

That was true, but Toklo didn't like it. Every time Ujurak changed, Toklo was afraid he'd forget about being a bear and never change back. Being a bear could be so hard; they were all tired, and hungry, and dirty. What if it was easier being something else?

Ujurak raised his head, thinking. All at once his fur started to ripple, like wind blowing across grass, and black speckled patterns appeared as the fur turned to feathers. He lifted his front paws, and wings sprouted along his forelegs. His neck stretched longer and longer while his body shrank. A beak appeared where his nose had been, and suddenly Ujurak was gone. A long-necked goose blinked dark, beady eyes at them.

With a loud honk, the Ujurak-goose flapped its wings and soared into the air. Much too fast for Toklo, the goose disappeared into the dusk-coloured clouds.

Kallik and Lusa watched him go with their eyes shining. They clearly thought Ujurak's abilities were amazing, but Toklo just wanted to jump on the goose and sit on him until he was a normal bear
again. He clawed at the earth. Why couldn't Ujurak just stay a bear?

Taqqiq had his back pressed against a tree. His lips were curled in a snarl, and he kept whipping around as if he thought Ujurak was going to pop out and scare him.

‘I don't like it,' he growled. ‘Why do you all stay with him?'

‘What do you mean?' Kallik asked. ‘Don't you see how wonderful it is? Ujurak's special. That's why he's the right bear to lead us to the Place of Endless Ice.'

He's special, all right
, Toklo thought.
Especially irritating
. But deep down he agreed with Kallik. He just wanted Ujurak to come back so they could get on with their journey.

‘It's unnatural,' Taqqiq said, shaking his head. ‘It's wrong and it's creepy. What if he turned into a walrus and ate us?'

‘He wouldn't do that,' Toklo said, adding pointedly, ‘just like we wouldn't eat him while he's a squirrel.'

Taqqiq snorted. ‘Well, I think someone might have
warned
me instead of trying to claw my ears off for no apparent reason.'

There was a fluttering sound overhead and Ujurak landed in the clearing, turning into a bear again as he rolled across the grass. He shook himself, panting. A few long goose feathers lay on the leaves where he had landed. Taqqiq sniffed them, then glowered at Ujurak.

‘They just smell like goose,' he said accusingly. ‘How are we supposed to know it's you when you're not being a bear?'

‘I'll try not to change again unless I have to,' Ujurak promised.

‘And we'll just be careful whenever he does,' Kallik said.

‘Let's get moving,' Toklo growled. He could hear one of the firebeasts by the den rumbling. The further they could get from that den and this BlackPath, the better Toklo would feel.

Lusa slid down the tree to join them as they all padded out of the woods. ‘Are you OK?' she asked Toklo quietly.

‘Yeah,' he said with a wince, feeling a stab of pain in his shoulder. A trickle of blood was running down his neck, but he didn't want to stop and lick his wounds. He didn't want Taqqiq to know that he was
hurt. The white bear cub was pacing along briskly, as if he couldn't feel any of the marks Toklo had left on him.

Toklo was also determined to stay in front. He didn't want Taqqiq getting any ideas about who could lead this group. That meant he had to trot faster than he wanted to, to stay ahead of the white bear cub, but he pressed on, ignoring his aching muscles.

He stopped at the edge of the BlackPath, waiting for everyone to catch up. One of the enormous firebeasts whipped by, bellowing and roaring the way they always did. Toklo had to shield his eyes from the bright light blazing from the firebeast's eyes. They were able to light up the ground in front of him, like a harsh yellow stream that picked out the BlackPath as clearly as day.
How do they do that?
he wondered.

Ujurak bumped him lightly as they stood there, and Toklo knew that his friend was trying to tell him that he wasn't mad at him for jumping on Taqqiq.

‘Can you turn into a firebeast?' Lusa suddenly asked Ujurak. ‘That would be amazing! Then you
could tell us what they're thinking and what they eat – gosh, I hope it's not bears – and why they stay on the BlackPaths all the time and how to keep really, really far away from them and –'

‘Oh, shush,' Taqqiq snapped. ‘Don't encourage him. We don't want a firebeast appearing in the middle of us.'

Toklo hated agreeing with him, but he did not want to see Ujurak turn into a firebeast either.

‘I–I don't think I can anyway,' Ujurak said, thinking it over. ‘It's like . . . it's as if they're not really
alive
. I can't get any life-feeling from them at all.'

‘Not alive!' Taqqiq barked. ‘Well, that's plain stupid, isn't it? Obviously they're alive! They run and roar and attack just like bears do!'

‘Not just like bears do,' Ujurak said. ‘I don't know how to explain it.'

‘Well, I'm still not afraid of them!' Taqqiq announced. He bounded out on to the BlackPath and trotted to the other side.

‘Come on,' Toklo said to the others. He sniffed the BlackPath carefully and listened with an ear close to the ground. He couldn't hear any rumbling.

‘Lusa, you first,' he said.

Lusa set one paw cautiously on the BlackPath, and then, taking a deep breath, she sprinted across at full speed. She tumbled into a patch of weeds and lay there, catching her breath. She covered her nose with her paws. ‘I really hate BlackPaths,' she called back. ‘They smell horrible! And you can always tell that firebeasts have killed other animals there. They're like paths of death. I wish the spirits could get rid of them!'

Taqqiq snorted. ‘Like any spirits have that kind of power.' He shifted his paws at the edge of the hard black earth.

‘Wait a moment,' Toklo warned Ujurak and Kallik. ‘I think a firebeast is coming.' He could feel the earth quivering under his paws. The bear cubs ducked back into the bushes. Toklo saw Kallik's eyes gleaming in the light from the firebeast's eyes as it hurtled past.

‘All right, come on!' he called once it was gone.

Ujurak, Kallik and Toklo bolted out of the bushes. Ujurak made it across first, and Lusa butted him happily with her head.

Toklo kept an eye on Kallik; he wasn't sure how
many BlackPaths she'd crossed when she was travelling alone, or whether this one would frighten her. He was pleased to see that she ran steadily beside him, barely flinching when a firebeast roared in the distance.

They stumbled on to the grass on the far side, rejoining the others.

‘Good job,' Toklo said to Kallik. ‘You stayed so calm. I suppose you're really one of us now.'