The Burning Horizon

by Erin Hunter

  He kept bumping into the flat-face stuff and brought another of the shiny cans clattering down, striking him on the shoulder. His eyes watered from the weird flat-face smells.

  There has to be another way out.

  Toklo blundered on, searching along the walls, sniffing for a current of fresh air that would lead him to a gap. He could hear Kallik and Yakone padding around on the other side of the den as they, too, searched for a way out.

  As Toklo fumbled his way along the last side of the den, dispirited and dizzy from the stench, two pale shapes loomed in front of him. Yakone and Kallik had returned to the door and were talking to each other in low, worried tones.

  “This is the only way out,” Toklo declared roughly. “So we’d better get it open before we’re stuck in here forever.” He braced his shoulders and launched himself at the door again.

  But as he hurled himself forward, Toklo tripped on something, and he ended up crashing sideways into the wall. His body hit something small that clicked under his weight. There was a flicker like lightning, a loud buzzing noise, and then the whole den was flooded with a harsh, white light.

  Toklo let out a yelp of alarm, wincing at the sudden brightness. For a moment he stayed where he was, sprawled on the ground, frozen with shock. Kallik and Yakone looked just as astonished.

  “What happened?” Kallik whispered after a moment. She had screwed up her eyes against the dazzling light. “Did the roof blow off? Is it the sun?”

  “No, it’s coming from inside the den,” said Yakone, squinting upward. “I don’t know what it is, but we need to hide. The flat-faces must have realized we’re here.”

  The bears ran back toward their hiding place, their pawsteps echoing in the large space. They wedged back into the narrow gap where they’d spent the day. After a few moments Toklo tilted his head to one side.

  “Listen!” he urged.

  Kallik pricked her ears. “I don’t hear anything.”

  “Exactly,” said Toklo. “I don’t think there are any flat-faces here, and I haven’t heard any firebeasts outside.” He looked around the brightly lit den. “I don’t know what made this place light up,” he began, “but at least we can see now.” He slid out into the open again. “Let’s search for another way out.”

  “But the flat-faces—” Yakone protested.

  “Toklo’s right,” Kallik interrupted. “If they were coming, they’d be here by now. Let’s search!”

  The bears split up to investigate the inside of the den further, padding along the narrow passages between the piles of flat-face stuff. Now that they could see where they were going, it was much easier to be quiet and not knock over the piles.

  Not finding a way out, Toklo’s optimism was just beginning to die away when he heard Yakone’s voice from the other side of the den.

  “I found something!”

  Toklo trotted over and found Yakone standing in front of a door that had a bar across it made of some black flat-face stuff. Kallik joined them a moment later. Her white fur was smeared with dark, sticky grease, and her injured eye looked red and sore. Toklo wondered what state they’d be in by the time they found Lusa. Because we will find her. Ujurak won’t let us down.

  “Does it open?” Kallik demanded. She gave the door a push with her head, but it didn’t move.

  Yakone nosed around the edges of the door. “It doesn’t have a fastening like the other one,” he reported after a while.

  “What’s this for?” Kallik wondered, touching the black bar with one paw.

  Toklo swallowed an angry growl. Every hair on his pelt bristled as he thought of the night passing and being trapped inside for another day. Suddenly his frustration spilled over, and he hurled himself at the door with a mighty bellow. To his astonishment, as he put his weight on the bar it lurched downward with a loud click, and the door flew open. Toklo tumbled out of the den and rolled into the cold night air.

  At the same moment a horrific, earsplitting shriek exploded around them, making all three bears stagger back in shock. Glaring red eyes flashed along the outside of the den, rolling madly as if they were trying to find who had made the noise.

  “What’s happening?” Kallik cried.

  “I don’t know,” Toklo snapped. “But we have to get out of here. Come on!”

  Kallik and Yakone stumbled into the open and began to run. Toklo galloped alongside them, rejoicing in the breeze against his fur and the sense of freedom. The terrible shrieking and the swirling red eyes faded into the distance. Shadows enveloped them as they fled from the lights of the big den, leaving the denning place far behind. As Toklo felt the dusty ground give way to cool grass beneath his paws, he pulled up, his chest heaving. Kallik and Yakone panted to a halt beside him.

  “Thank the spirits that’s over!” Toklo said. “Now we can keep looking for Lusa.”

  But when he looked up to find the stars, he was dismayed to see nothing but a glow from the moon as clouds scudded across it. There were only a few glimmers from the stars, and he couldn’t make out Ujurak’s or Ursa’s star-shapes.

  “Now what do we do?” he wailed.

  “Well, we know we have to go around the denning place,” Kallik reminded him.

  Toklo sighed. “Yes, but how far around? Without Ursa, how will we know when we need to head toward the horizon again?”

  Kallik turned back to study the lights of the denning place. “I think we’re quite a ways around already,” she said. “I bet we could start heading away from it now.”

  “Don’t be cloud-brained!” Toklo’s irritation spilled over. “Leaving the denning place now is nowhere near the same direction we were headed before.”

  “I’m pretty sure it is,” Kallik insisted.

  “Arguing isn’t going to help,” Yakone growled. “Look, there’s that tower with the red light on top of it. We saw that when we arrived, remember? If we skirt the dens until we’re close to that, and then head away, I think we’ll be on the right track.”

  Toklo pictured his first sight of the denning place. Back then the tower had been on the far side, looking almost like a glowing paw pointing the way.

  Is it one of Ujurak’s signs?

  “You’re right,” he said to Yakone. “Let’s go.”

  Toklo’s frustration faded once they were on the move again, but his empty belly was aching with hunger. He still felt nauseous and light-headed from the fumes inside the den, and he could guess that his friends weren’t any better off. We really need to hunt, he thought, but there was no sign of prey.

  Before long, as they trekked across a stretch of scrubland, Toklo spotted a cluster of flat-face dens that was several bearlengths away from the main denning area. His ears pricked as he picked up the sounds of squawking.

  “Chickens!” he hissed, halting.

  Kallik turned to him, looking surprised. “But they’re so close to flat-faces! We can’t risk it,” she protested.

  “I’m so hungry I’ll eat you if we don’t find some prey soon,” Toklo replied.

  “We could take a look,” Yakone suggested.

  Kallik didn’t object again, so Toklo led the way closer to the dens. Lights were showing through the square gaps in the walls, and he realized the flat-faces inside must be awake.

  “Don’t make a sound,” he whispered.

  The bears crept around the side of one of the dens until they came to a mesh enclosure. Light from the den showed the chickens flapping around a small wooden shelter. As the bears approached, the birds squawked madly and tried to cram themselves into a small, square hole in the wall of the shelter.

  “What’s the plan?” Yakone hissed.

  Toklo’s paws tingled as he wondered if the noise from the chickens would alert the flat-faces, but there were no signs of movement from the flat-face den. “We have to get into the pen,” he decided.

  Kallik padded up to the door of the enclosure and nosed around the edge of it. She found that the door was closed with a loop of metal links. When Kallik tugged at it,
it didn’t give way.

  “We can’t get in through there,” she said.

  “And the fence is too high to jump,” Yakone added.

  The scent of chicken was making Toklo’s jaws water, and every hair on his pelt stood on end with the thrill of the hunt. I wish Lusa was here, he thought. She was always the best at planning raids near flat-face dens. A pang of grief for the missing black bear shot through him, but for now he had to ignore it.

  “If all of us charge the mesh together, we should be able to knock it down,” he said to the others. “Then each of us can grab a chicken and run.”

  “What if we get separated?” Kallik asked.

  “Then we’ll meet near the tower with the red light,” Toklo replied. “Are you ready?”

  Kallik and Yakone got in position alongside Toklo.

  “Go!”

  Together the bears hurled themselves at the mesh, rearing up and pushing it with their forepaws. After a brief moment of strain, the mesh buckled beneath their weight and crumpled to the ground. With his friends beside him, Toklo bounded through, the sharp edges of the mesh scraping his belly, and raced for the shelter where the terrified chickens were still trying to hide.

  The simple wooden shelter splintered apart with a few swipes from the bears’ paws, and the chickens practically exploded upward, their wings flapping as they let out panic-stricken screeches. Feathers whirled around Toklo’s head. Then a chicken flew straight at him; Toklo grabbed it out of the air and crushed its neck with a snap of his teeth.

  As he looked around for the others, Toklo heard shouting from the flat-face den. Somewhere a door banged.

  The flat-faces are coming!

  “Run!” he choked out around his prey.

  Toklo scrambled back over the mesh, half-blinded by the flapping birds, and raced into the darkness. Kallik and Yakone flanked him on either side, each of them also carrying a chicken. He expected to hear the explosions of firesticks, but nothing happened. The shouting and squawking died away behind them.

  Toklo felt a surge of elation as he and his friends bounded away. We did it! At last they reached a dip in the ground and halted, their sides heaving as they caught their breath. Around them everything was dark and silent.

  “Good call, Toklo,” Yakone said, tearing into his chicken.

  Feathers tickling his throat while he ate his prey, Toklo felt massively relieved that his plan had worked. “It was a big risk,” he mumbled.

  “But it paid off,” said Kallik. “We can’t travel without food.”

  After a time, still coughing on feathers, the bears set out again. To Toklo’s relief, a wind sprang up, blowing the clouds away, so that Ursa could shine down on them again. Toklo felt a spring in his step as they walked onward, and he could see that Kallik and Yakone were feeling more positive, too.

  The scrubland gave way to a huge expanse of wheat, the prickly yellow stalks stretching halfway up the bears’ flanks as they pushed through. Toklo glanced back at the three distinct trails of crushed wheat they left behind them; they were lucky nothing was trying to track them, because they couldn’t be easier to follow.

  On the other side of the wheat there was a narrow river, and beyond it the ground sloped steeply upward, with rocks poking through the thin soil. All three bears plunged through the water; it was so shallow they didn’t need to swim, but they took the chance to duck beneath the surface and wash the dust and flat-face odor from their fur. They drank deeply at the water’s edge before pushing on up the slope.

  As they climbed, Toklo realized that the short night was coming to an end; the horizon was already edged with milky-pale light. “We need to find another place to hide soon,” he warned.

  There were no trees in sight, but halfway up the slope they came to a large, crumbling hole tucked below one of the rocks. Sniffing, Toklo picked up traces of flat-face scents, but they were faint and stale.

  “This reminds me too much of the Island of Shadows, Toklo, when you fell down into the earth,” Kallik commented uneasily, pausing at the mouth of the hole and craning her head inside to look around.

  Yakone murmured agreement, touching Kallik’s shoulder with his snout.

  Though Toklo said nothing, he went cold at the memory of being trapped underground, struggling through the tunnels while surrounded by sharp rocks and choking earth. He could see a tunnel leading from the back of this hole, and he shuddered at the thought of forcing his paws to carry him down it.

  But we don’t have to go down there! he scolded himself. We can stay in the entrance, and we’ll be perfectly safe.

  “We’re not on the island now,” Toklo argued, bracing himself to take a step inside the hole. “There’s nothing here: no wolves, no flat-faces, no hostile bears. And we won’t find anywhere better to hide before dawn.”

  Reluctantly Kallik followed him inside, with Yakone bringing up the rear. They settled down close to the entrance. From the others’ uneasy expressions, Toklo could see they shared his fear of being trapped if they went farther in.

  As the day dawned Toklo dozed fitfully, knowing that he needed rest, but too anxious to let himself sleep deeply. He kept an eye on the slope leading up to their shelter, but nothing stirred under the hot sun. The day seemed to stretch on forever.

  We must be close to the Longest Day, he thought. And only the spirits know how far away we are from Great Bear Lake. His paws itched with the need to be on the move again, though not for fear of missing the gathering. Have we missed Lusa somehow? Where is she? Is she making her own way to Great Bear Lake?

  When he became aware of Kallik and Yakone shifting restlessly beside him, Toklo rose to his paws. “I know it’s not dark yet,” he said, “but I think we should get going. The nights are so short now, we’re not making much progress.”

  “Okay,” Yakone agreed with a glance at Kallik, who nodded as well. “We’ll have to keep a sharp eye out for flat-faces, though.”

  Toklo’s pelt tingled as he and the others left their refuge and climbed to the top of the slope. Something was telling him he had to move, and move fast. He didn’t understand his sudden urgency, but he knew he had to obey the inner voice.

  “Which way?” Kallik asked as they left their shelter behind.

  Toklo paused, feeling the breeze nudging his fur, and swung into the direction he sensed it wanted him to go. “Follow me,” he said confidently.

  Kallik gave him a bright, questioning look. “Do you know this place? Or is Ujurak guiding you?” she asked.

  Toklo hardly dared to reply. “I think he is.”

  As they crested the ridge, a vast stretch of grassland unrolled in front of them. It seemed deserted; as they padded on they saw only a few flat-face dens, and a couple of narrow BlackPaths here and there. The air was clear, with only the faintest tang of flat-faces or firebeasts, and they could walk undisturbed. When darkness fell, the bright shape of Ursa blazed out ahead of them, confirming their course and beckoning them on.

  In spite of the peaceful landscape, Toklo felt strangely anxious. His friends were clearly on edge, too, and all three of them jumped when a bird flew up unexpectedly from a clump of long grass. Even then, no bear commented on their strange mood. Instead, they picked up their pace into a steady lope, faster than they were used to traveling.

  The ground rose gently to the crest of another hill. Beyond it, Toklo looked down onto a stretch of dense forest. Along the foot of the nearest trees he made out a dark, muddy swath of earth, as if the grass had been trampled by countless hooves.

  Yes!

  Toklo raced down the hill and spun around at the edge of the forest to wait for Kallik and Yakone, who galloped down after him. “Look!” he exclaimed. “Caribou tracks! We’ve found them again.”

  Kallik’s eyes shone. “It’s as if Ujurak wants us to know we’re still going the right way.”

  The tracks followed the edge of the forest for a short distance, then swerved into the trees. Their unspoken urgency growing stronger, the bears plunged afte
r them.

  On and on they went, pushing between the trees, flattening undergrowth and leaving tufts of their fur on brambles. As they paused briefly in a starlit clearing, Toklo caught Yakone’s gaze.

  “This is it,” he said. “I feel it now, more than ever. We’re going the right way to find Lusa.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Lusa

  Lusa plodded along the caribou tracks, her head down and her paws aching. She had been traveling through the night, and her legs were feeling heavy. I’ve traveled like this nearly all my life, she told herself. I can do it.

  But traveling was different on her own, without her friends to distract her when the horizon felt as far away as ever and her legs were heavy with weariness. Is this what Ujurak meant? Will this trail really lead me to my friends?

  The ground here undulated almost like waves of the sea, and as she trekked to the top of each rise, Lusa peered into the distance to see if she could spot three familiar figures: two white and one brown. But each fold of the land only revealed more of the scrubby wasteland, dotted with occasional flat-face dens and crossed by narrow, almost deserted BlackPaths.

  At least I won’t have much trouble from flat-faces or firebeasts, she thought, trying to cheer herself up. And there’s enough food. The roots of these bushes are quite juicy.

  As Lusa traveled on, her mind drifted back to the flat-face den where she had been imprisoned. It had felt wrong, uncomfortable, and threatening there, compared with the wide-open spaces she had discovered on her journey.

  I could hardly breathe, she thought, pausing to take a few deep gulps of the warm air around her. But Taktuq is happy there . . . or at least, he’s content.

  Lusa knew how difficult it would be for a blind bear to survive in the wild. She figured you might be able to find roots or berries with only your sense of smell to depend on, but it would be almost impossible to find shelter or escape from enemies. It would even be hard to know where to walk safely! She closed her eyes and tried to walk while sniffing the air, only to stub her paw on a large rock that was in her path.