The Longest Day
Authors: Erin Hunter
Special thanks to Kate Cary
Lusa
Sunshine scorched Lusa's back. Hot wind
whisked around her paws. From up on the hilltop, she could see across the top of the pines, and beyond them, at the foot of the slope, the lake glittered like stars.
Great Bear Lake.
Lusa had forgotten how big it was. It stretched all the way to the horizon, reaching long, shimmering paws into wooded valleys on either side.
“Look at all those bears!” Yakone's gasp snapped Lusa from her thoughts. Beside her, the white bear was staring at the shore, where a group of brown bears moved across the stones.
They look so small from here!
Lusa thought. Farther along, white bears lay at the water's edge, clearly limp in the heat.
The bears were gathering for the Longest Day.
There aren't as many as last year.
Then Lusa realized that they must be among the first arrivals for the gathering.
We're early!
On the far shore, a white bear plunged into the water. Nearer, a brown bear lounged on a rock. Lusa's heart quickened.
Where are the black bears?
She strained to see along the
shore.
They must be among the trees.
Excitement tingled in her paws. Would Miki be there? Chula? Or any of the other black bears she'd met here a suncircle ago?
It was hard to believe that so many moons had passed since they were here. Lusa glanced at Toklo and Kallik. They'd grown.
So have I!
And that wasn't the only thing that had changed. Last time, Ujurak had been with them. Grief tugged at Lusa's heart. Was he watching them now?
Of course he's still with us.
She knew his spirit traveled with them.
And now we have Yakone, too.
She glanced fondly at the broad-shouldered white bear. He was standing close to Kallik, his eyes wide.
“Why aren't they fighting?” Yakone's gaze flicked to Toklo. “I thought brown bears didn't like sharing territory, especially not with white bears.”
“The white bears, brown bears, and black bears keep to their own parts of the shore,” Toklo explained.
“There is peace between everyone during the Longest Day gathering,” Kallik explained. “We come to honor our spirits.”
Not always!
Lusa scowled, remembering last time they were here. Kallik's brother, Taqqiq, and his friends had tried to take over the black bears' territory. “Let's hope that there's nothing to fight over this time,” she muttered.
“Come on!” Toklo began to head down the slope.
Lusa stiffened. “Wait!”
“What's wrong?” Kallik must have heard the alarm in Lusa's bark.
“We can't just go down there!” Lusa blinked at Toklo.
Didn't he want to say good-bye before he joined his own kind?
Toklo misunderstood. “You're right. I guess it would look strange for a brown bear, a black bear, and two white bears to arrive together.”
“We should go down separately,” Kallik agreed.
“Do you think they'd really mind?” Yakone was watching the groups on the shore.
Lusa struck the ground with her forepaw. “That's not what I meant!” She remembered last night with a pang; the berries Yakone had brought her as they shared prey one last time. She could still taste the juice on her tongue.
Our final meal together.
Didn't this moment mean anything to them? They had journeyed farther than any other bears at the lake. They had protected one another over forest, mountain, and ice. “Is this the end of our friendship?” she whispered, looking from Toklo to Kallik and Yakone.
Kallik's eyes widened. “Of course not!”
“We'll see each other before we leave the lake.” Toklo padded over and rested his muzzle on top of Lusa's head. “We'll always be friends.”
Yakone gazed at her gently. “We came here for you, Lusa,” he reminded her. “So you could meet other black bears and find a real home.”
“Like I've found mine.” Toklo had already staked out his territory in the mountains where he had been born. He would return there after the Longest Day was over.
“And we know where we'll find ours.” Kallik glanced affectionately at Yakone. The two white bears would be traveling
together to Yakone's island on the Endless Ice.
Lusa's eyes felt hot.
Kallik touched her nose to Lusa's ear. “We can't keep traveling forever, little one.”
Kallik's right.
This was why they'd come. Lusa looked down at the shore, imagining the black bears waiting in the trees. She remembered the deep longing she'd felt in the cave on Star Island all those moons ago as she stared at the picture of herself marked on the cave wall; the longing to go
home
ânot to the Bear Bowl, but to a place where she would truly belong, with trees and sunlight and berries and grubs, and
other black bears.
She pushed away her sadness. She'd already proved she could live beyond the Bear Bowl. This was her chance to have a life like a real black bear, among bears who knew what it was like to find the juiciest root and relish the taste of leaftime berries. Yakone and Kallik could feast on seal fat. Toklo could chase deer through the forest. They all had so much to look forward to.
Lusa lifted her snout, forcing her eyes to brighten. “Then what are we waiting for?” Breaking into a run, she slipped past Toklo and plunged down the grassy slope.
As she reached the pines, cool shadows swallowed her.
Kallik's call sounded behind her. “Good luck, Lusa!”
Lusa ran on.
Where are the black bears?
The sharp scent of sap filled her nose. Pine needles crunched beneath her paws. As the slope steepened, she veered sideways, racing along it, her ears pricked. She remembered from last time where the black bears made their temporary home for the Longest Day. If she
followed the woods around the shore, tracing the curve of the lake, she would find them at the point where pines gave way to birch, spruce, and rowan.
She quickened her pace. Through the trees, she could hear the rippling of the lake against the shore. Heavy paws crunched on pebbles. Bears muttered gruffly to one another. She must be skirting the brown bears' gathering place. Toklo would be on his way there now. She glanced up at the trees, searching for black pelts among the branches. As the pines thinned and pale birch bark showed among the dark trunks, Lusa's heart leaped. This was the place!
Sun dappled the forest floor. The scent of freshly dug earth washed her muzzle. She hurried past a patch of uprooted ferns. A black bear had been foraging here recently. She could smell his scent. She scanned the forest ahead, happiness surging in her chest as she spotted black pelts moving between the trunks. Craning her neck, she saw bears clinging to branches overhead. A furry black face stared down at her, gnawing on a pawful of leaves.
Lusa slowed to clamber over a tangle of tree roots that crossed her path. A bramble bush swished beside her, and she turned to see a black bear peering curiously at her over the top. Two more bears were digging at the base of a spruce, scooping out pawfuls of wriggling grubs.
Lusa halted and gazed around. Brilliant shards of sunlight sliced through the branches. Black bears moved through them, their pelts gleaming. Lusa gasped. It was strange to be surrounded by bears her own size. She'd been a cub last time
she was here, and she'd spent so long traveling with bears so much bigger than her. Suddenly she felt like a giant!
“Dustu!” A happy grunt sounded through the trees. A female bear scrambled down the slope, her gaze fixed on a grizzled black male who was ambling across a clearing.
The male bear looked up. He narrowed his eyes as though trying to see into the shadow. “Dena? Is that you?”
“Yes!” Dena chuffed as Dustu hurried to greet her. “How was your journey?”