The Burning Horizon

by Erin Hunter

  After a while they left the trees and undergrowth and reached an area of sheer rock, with stretches of scree that rolled away from under their paws as they tried to climb. Toklo’s spirits rose a little as he picked up the scent of a mountain goat, though his heart sank when he realized the scent led straight up almost sheer cliffs where it was difficult for the bears to follow.

  The white bears had picked up the scent, too. “Do we really have to go all the way up there?” Kallik asked with a sigh.

  “We’ll get a good view of the area,” Yakone reminded her. “And a goat would keep us going for a long time.”

  Toklo took the lead again as they followed the scent, hauling themselves up steep rock faces and over boulders. But after all their efforts, they lost the scent in a patch of sharp stones and scree.

  “Seal rot!” Yakone snapped.

  “It’s okay,” Kallik responded, clearly trying to hide her disappointment. “We’ve climbed a long way, and if we go on to the ridge, we might spot Lusa and the goat.”

  As they continued, Toklo realized that Yakone was struggling to make progress with his mangled paw, stumbling and veering toward the edge of a precipice. As the white bear’s paws slipped under him he let out a yelp of alarm, scrabbling to regain his balance.

  Toklo lunged forward, crossing the scree slope in three strides to block Yakone from the sheer drop. Bracing his paws against the slippery stones, he used all his weight to shove Yakone back to the safety of stable ground.

  Yakone ducked his head in embarrassment. “Thanks, Toklo.”

  The sun was going down as they reached the crest of the climb and stood looking down at the BlackPath with wind buffeting their fur. The dark swath of the forest stretched below them, the branches swaying slightly in a chill breeze. Beyond the trees, firebeasts charged back and forth on the BlackPath, shafts of light from their eyes piercing the gathering twilight. There was no sign of Lusa, and seeing the land stretched out all around them was overwhelming. She could be anywhere.

  “We should rest,” Kallik said. Her flanks were heaving and her swollen eye had started to weep. “We can’t go on all night.”

  Toklo quivered with frustration. “We have to keep looking,” he insisted. “You didn’t give up on me when I was taken by a firebeast, did you? We’re not going to give up on Lusa.”

  He let his voice trail off as he struggled against black despair. If the firebeast was still moving, every passing moment was drawing Lusa farther away from them. But they were all tired and injured from the fight with the mules. And getting back down to the forest again would be even more treacherous in the dark. Toklo didn’t let himself think about how impossible their situation was. He knew that if he did, he might feel so hopeless that he would give in and turn his back on his friend.

  And I’ll never do that.

  “Okay,” he sighed. “Let’s stop for the night.”

  The bears found a sheltered spot in the lee of a rocky outcrop and huddled together in the dark.

  “I know we’ll do everything we can to find Lusa,” Yakone said quietly, his hesitant voice telling Toklo how hard he found it to speak his thoughts. “But what if we don’t find her? If she was taken by a firebeast, she could be anywhere.”

  “I’ll never give up looking for her!” Toklo snarled.

  “It’s not what I want,” Yakone responded, a slight edge creeping into his tone. “But Toklo, you seem to be forgetting—the Longest Day won’t wait for us.”

  To Toklo’s relief, Kallik spoke up in his defense. “We can’t give up on Lusa, and we won’t—even if it means missing the Longest Day Gathering. After all,” she added, “the main reason we’re going to Great Bear Lake is so Lusa can find some other black bears. We all have homes waiting for us. It’s only Lusa who doesn’t.”

  As she spoke, Toklo thought of Aiyanna and the territory waiting for him back in the mountains, and his heart ached even more for Lusa. She didn’t know where her home was going to be, and now she had lost the three bears who were her family in the wild. Ujurak’s words echoed in his mind as well, that there was a particular reason why Toklo needed to be at Great Bear Lake this fishleap. Toklo pushed his curiosity out of his mind. Nothing was more important than finding Lusa.

  Finally the bears fell into an uneasy sleep, the cold wind probing deep into their fur.

  Dawn light woke Toklo; he forced his eyes open to see Kallik and Yakone stirring beside him.

  “We have to hunt.” Yakone’s words were interrupted by a giant yawn. “We can’t travel on empty bellies.”

  Toklo’s paws were itching to continue the search for Lusa, but he knew Yakone was right. “Okay,” he agreed, his stomach rumbling at the thought of the mountain goat he had scented the day before.

  The three of them headed off in different directions. Toklo couldn’t imagine why any creature would want to live among the bare rocks, but satisfaction flooded through him when he rounded a boulder to see a mountain goat no more than a couple of bearlengths away.

  You thought you could escape us, did you?

  The goat bounded off, surefooted in the stony landscape, with Toklo in pursuit. Seal rot! I’m losing it, he thought frustratedly as his paws skidded on loose scree and he dropped farther back.

  Just then Toklo heard a roar from somewhere ahead of him. Yakone surged out from a gap between two rocks and brought the goat down almost before it realized he was there.

  “Great catch!” Toklo panted as he padded up to join Yakone.

  “A lucky catch,” Yakone corrected him with a nod of satisfaction.

  They dragged the goat back to the rocky outcrop where they had spent the night, in time to meet Kallik, who was returning empty-pawed. Her eyes brightened when she spotted the prey.

  “Hey, good job!” she exclaimed. “I’m so hungry I can feel my belly flapping.”

  The goat provided ample food for all of them, and Toklo was feeling comfortably full as they set off again, heading down toward the forest once more.

  “We need to get back to the BlackPath,” Toklo said. “We’re pretty sure what direction the firebeast went. Sooner or later it’ll have to stop to feed or sleep.”

  Kallik and Yakone exchanged a doubtful glance. “At least the BlackPath is going in the right direction for Great Bear Lake,” Kallik commented.

  “For now,” Yakone added.

  “We’ve got to find Lusa,” Toklo insisted. “We’ll follow the BlackPath wherever it leads.”

  They were close to the tree line when Toklo paused to sniff the air and froze, every hair on his pelt beginning to rise.

  That’s bear scent!

  Glancing around, he spotted a familiar shape: a small black bear prowling alone across the flat, rocky ground. For a moment his heart swelled with joy. “It’s Lusa!” he exclaimed. “We found her!”

  He was about to leap forward to join his friend when Kallik blocked him with her shoulder. “No, Toklo.” Her voice was full of disappointment. “It’s not Lusa.”

  At the same moment Toklo realized that the scent wasn’t Lusa’s. This wasn’t his friend, but another black she-bear.

  “You’re right,” Toklo said. “But she might have seen something. We need to talk to her.”

  With Kallik and Yakone a pace behind him, Toklo began padding up to the strange bear. But when the black bear glanced up and saw them, she let out a screech of terror and scurried for the nearest tree, scrambling up to hide herself in the branches. Toklo blinked at the strength of her fear-scent.

  Signaling to the white bears to keep back, Toklo approached the tree by himself. “My name’s Toklo,” he called, trying to make his voice sound quiet and friendly. “I’m looking for a black bear who’s a stranger around here like me. Have you seen her?”

  The bear peered down at him, her face poking out from a cluster of leaves. “I’m Enola,” she replied. “Why are you with those white bears?” Her voice shook with fear. “I’ve heard about white bears, but I’ve never seen them. What are they doing here
?”

  “We’re looking for our friend Lusa,” Toklo told her. “We lost her yesterday when we ran into some mules. She might have been trapped in a firebeast.”

  Enola’s eyes were huge among the shadowy branches. “Taken away by a firebeast?” Her voice rose to a shrill squeak. “You’ll never find her!”

  “We have to try,” Toklo responded, keeping his voice calm and gentle.

  Enola blinked, her panic seeming to recede a little. Maybe she can see we’re not going to hurt her, Toklo hoped. She even lowered herself by a couple of branches, though she was careful to stay out of the reach of Toklo’s paws.

  “Are you sure she was taken by a firebeast?”

  “No,” Toklo admitted. “But Lusa vanished into thin air after she ran from the mules. Her trail ended by the BlackPath, where there were marks from a firebeast’s paws.”

  “I’m really sorry you lost her,” Enola continued. “I’ll keep an eye out and let you know if I see her.”

  “Thanks, but we probably won’t stay around for much longer,” Toklo told her. “We’re on our way to Great Bear Lake, for the Longest Day Gathering.”

  Enola’s eyes were bright with interest. “I’ve heard about that,” she said, “but I’ve never been. It’s too far to go alone,” she added regretfully. For a moment, she sounded very lonely and young, but cheered up almost immediately. “Is that where you met Lusa? At Great Bear Lake?” she asked.

  Toklo shook his head. “No, Lusa met up with me and . . . another friend, long before that,” he told Enola. “I met Kallik at Great Bear Lake—that’s the white she-bear,” he finished with a glance at Kallik and Yakone, who were still waiting a few bearlengths away.

  Once more Enola let herself down to a lower branch, looking much more confident now. “You’re lucky to have traveled so far,” she said.

  “Oh, our journey took us much farther than that,” Toklo responded, beginning to feel friendly toward the eager young she-bear, who reminded him so strongly of Lusa. “We traveled right up to the Endless Ice and saw the spirits dancing in the sky.”

  Enola’s eyes widened, and she let out a wistful sigh. “That must have been wonderful! I wish I could come along with you to Great Bear Lake,” she added, giving Toklo a speculative look. “I know all the places where black bears might hide!”

  For a moment Toklo was tempted to invite her to travel with them. But then he glanced back toward Kallik and Yakone, thinking how far they had come together, and how close they were to the end of their journey. I can’t take the risk of having a young, inexperienced bear joining us now.

  Toklo remembered Chenoa, too, the other black she-bear who had shared their journey for a while.

  Chenoa died when she was swept over the waterfall. If we hadn’t taken her with us, she might still be alive.

  A shiver ran through Toklo as he realized afresh that now he had lost Lusa, too. “Thanks for the offer,” he said to Enola. “But we need to finish our journey alone.”

  “Okay.” Enola was visibly struggling with disappointment. “Maybe I’ll get to the lake one day.”

  “I hope so,” Toklo said, feeling sorry for her, but knowing he had made the right decision. This is Enola’s home. Not all bears need to travel forever to find a place to live.

  “And I’ll look out for your friend,” Enola added. “If I see her, I’ll tell her which way you went.”

  “Thank you,” Toklo said. “Good-bye, and may the spirits be with you.”

  “Good-bye,” Enola responded. “I hope you find Lusa.”

  Toklo rejoined Kallik and Yakone, who pressed up to him eagerly.

  “What did she say?” Kallik asked. “Has she seen Lusa?”

  “No,” Toklo replied, feeling disappointed all over again as he saw the hope die from his friends’ faces. “But she said she’d keep an eye out for her.”

  “That doesn’t help us much,” Yakone grunted. “What were you talking about for so long?”

  “She wanted to come to Great Bear Lake with us. But I didn’t think it would be a good idea.”

  “You were right,” Kallik said. “We can’t take care of her and look for Lusa.”

  As the three of them padded away together, Toklo was aware of Enola watching him from her tree, but when he glanced back over his shoulder, her small black shape was already out of sight among the branches. He felt a moment’s regret, followed by a fiercer determination.

  There’s one black bear who does need to get to Great Bear Lake. We have to find Lusa!

  Plunging farther down the hill, Toklo and the others came back within sight of the BlackPath and followed it in the direction they figured the firebeast must have gone, while remaining a couple of bearlengths away, under cover of the trees.

  “We don’t even know if we’re going the right way,” Kallik said after a while.

  “But this is our best guess,” Toklo reminded her. “There’s nothing else we can do. Keep your eyes open for any firebeast tracks leaving the BlackPath.”

  But though the bears plodded along through the suffocating heat of the day until the sun slid down the sky and cast long shadows through the trees, they saw no firebeast tracks, and no places near the BlackPath where a firebeast might have taken Lusa.

  I wonder if Ujurak knows where Lusa is, Toklo thought. I wish he were here now. If he took the shape of a bird, he could help us look for her. “Where are you, Ujurak?” he asked aloud, wishing he could understand why the star-bear had abandoned them when they needed his help so much.

  “I wish he were here, too,” Kallik said softly.

  “Then why isn’t he?” Toklo asked, slashing angrily at a clump of long grass as he trudged past it.

  “I don’t know,” Kallik admitted. “Maybe he knows that we can find Lusa on our own.”

  Toklo grunted.

  The long day was drawing to an end when the bears reached a place where the BlackPath swooped down the mountain until it reached the edge of a vast plain.

  By the time they were halfway to the plain, night had fallen. The bears paused in a gap among the trees; Toklo gazed down at the constant stream of firebeasts. In the darkness their fierce, glowing eyes lit up the ground in front of them.

  Is Lusa really in one of those? Toklo wondered. He tore his gaze away from the rushing firebeasts and gazed up at the night sky. Above his head Ujurak’s shape blazed out, cold and expressionless. Why don’t you help us? he asked despairingly.

  Behind Toklo, Kallik began trampling down the undergrowth in the shelter of a thorn thicket, dragging in ferns to make a temporary den. Yakone vanished and reappeared a short time later with a grouse dangling from his jaws.

  “Thanks, Yakone,” Toklo said. It seemed like a long time since they had feasted on the goat.

  “You’re welcome,” Yakone grunted.

  Almost too tired to eat, the three of them gathered around to share the prey. Toklo could barely choke down the meat; he missed Lusa too much, happily crunching fern roots beside them. He hated that while they were resting they were doing nothing to find her.

  But we can’t keep going all day and all night.

  While Kallik gathered more leaves—which she hoped would help treat Yakone’s injured paw—Toklo settled down to sleep. His mind kept whirling with images of Lusa being attacked by a firebeast, or lying injured and frightened in the forest, but he was so exhausted that nothing could stop him from drifting off to sleep. He dreamed that he was standing on the edge of a great plain. A herd of caribou was moving across it, covering the ground as far as Toklo could see. The clicking sound of their feet echoed around him.

  Then a small black bear emerged from the middle of the herd, while the caribou walked calmly around it without showing any fear.

  “Lusa!” Toklo whispered.

  But as the black bear drew closer, Toklo realized that it wasn’t Lusa. This bear was gazing at him with the warm brown eyes of Ujurak.

  Toklo bounded forward to meet his friend at the edge of the herd. “Ujurak! Can y
ou tell me where Lusa is?” he called.

  Ujurak shook his head. “I can sense her,” he replied. “I know she’s alive, but she has been taken far away.”

  “Can you speak to her for me?” Toklo begged.

  But Ujurak was already beginning to fade away. “Look for the place where the caribou walk,” he whispered, “beneath the stars that shine where the sun will rise.”

  “Is that where Lusa is?” Toklo asked. “With the caribou?”

  Ujurak’s voice seemed to come from a distance now, echoing through the night. His figure was no more than a faint outline on the edge of the caribou herd. “Find the caribou. . . .”

  His voice became one with the wind that swept across the plain, over the crisscrossing BlackPaths lined with flat-face dens, and then the last traces of his form vanished. Toklo woke into a gray dawn, with Kallik and Yakone still sleeping beside him.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Lusa

  “Lusa! Lusa!”

  Her mother’s voice was calling to her, and Lusa realized that she was back in the Bear Bowl, crouching at the foot of the tree. She tried to focus on Ashia’s voice, but she could hardly hear it over the roaring of an angry bear.

  Her heart thumping in panic, Lusa looked around and spotted the huge, ragged figure of Oka, throwing herself at the fence over and over again as she tried to break through it in a frenzy of grief and fury.

  “It’s okay!” Lusa barked to her. “I found Toklo! He’s alive—he’s fine.”

  But Oka didn’t seem to hear her. She just went on bellowing and raging against the fence. Then all the black bears surrounded Lusa: King and Ashia, Stella and Yogi, all of them roaring, too, until Lusa thought that her ears would burst.

  She started to panic. “Help me!” she squealed, flailing her paws because she felt something enfolding her tightly. “Let me go!”

  Pain stabbed through her head, making her lie still again, and with a growing feeling of horror she realized that she wasn’t in the Bear Bowl at all. Instead she was lying on the back of a firebeast, wrapped in some kind of thin, shiny pelt that trapped her paws and pressed against her flanks. The bellowing of bears in Lusa’s dream was really the noise of the firebeast as it rumbled over the BlackPath.