River of Lost Bears

by Erin Hunter

  “Toklo!” Lusa’s call made him jump.

  “What is it?” He couldn’t see her through the dense greenery. “What’s wrong?” Heart thumping, he veered from the trail, leaving Yakone and Kallik to find their own way though the undergrowth.

  Lusa had stopped in a clearing. “That smell’s here.”

  Toklo sniffed. He stiffened as the musky odor bathed his tongue.

  “I’m scared, Toklo,” Lusa whimpered.

  “We’ll be okay,” he promised, hoping it was true. “We just need to keep moving.”

  “But it feels like we’re being hunted.” Lusa’s eyes were wide with fear.

  “Of course we’re not,” Toklo huffed. “We’re bears.” He dodged her gaze. She was right. It felt like something was tracking them.

  A roar ripped through the air.

  Toklo whirled around. “Yakone!”

  Lusa charged past him, heading back along the trail. Toklo pelted after Lusa. His belly tightened as he heard the pain in Yakone’s howl. The stone tang of blood filled the air. He skidded to a halt as he spotted Kallik and Yakone. “What happened?”

  Yakone was writhing on his feet, kicking out with his hindpaws.

  “Stay still!” Kallik ordered. “You’ll make it worse.” She stared down at his forepaw with white-rimmed eyes.

  Toklo followed her gaze. He blinked, shock hollowing his belly.

  One of Yakone’s forepaws was clasped between gleaming, jagged silver jaws. Blood welled where they dug into his flesh and drenched his white fur.

  Yakone’s eyes rolled in agony. “Get it off me!”

  “Hold still!” Kallik roared.

  Lusa backed away.

  “Stop!” Toklo ordered. “Everyone stand still. There might be more.”

  “What is it?” Lusa croaked.

  “I don’t know,” Toklo growled. “But it looks like a flat-face left it here. It’s made of the same stuff as that shiny vine.”

  Yakone was trembling.

  “It’s okay,” Kallik soothed. “We’ll get it off you.”

  “Why doesn’t it let go?” Yakone hissed through gritted teeth.

  “Don’t move your paw,” Toklo warned.

  “There’s another one over here!” Lusa called from behind a tree.

  As Toklo turned his head, he spotted a pair of yellow eyes watching from the bracken, unblinking and cold. Toklo’s pelt lifted along his spine. The musky odor that had scared them on the shore washed over him as the creature slid from the bracken, its brown-and-gray fur well camouflaged against the stalks. It was the size of a large dog, almost as big as Lusa, with a long back and scrawny, springy legs. Its narrow, pointed snout twitched toward Toklo. Its ears were pricked with excitement, and saliva glinted on its sharp teeth.

  Coyote.

  Toklo backed toward Lusa. She was sniffing the ground. “Come and look, Toklo.”

  Toklo checked Kallik. She was crouched over Yakone, soothing him. No one else had seen the coyote. He flinched as more shapes moved beyond the bracken, pacing low to the ground. Toklo could make out their pelts, thick as a wolf’s. They’ve been stalking us. Toklo’s throat tightened. But we’re bears! Surely the coyotes didn’t believe they could win a fight with bears?

  The coyote lifted its snout and met his gaze boldly. Toklo saw confidence in its eyes, the same confidence he’d felt when facing up to Hakan. It must belong to a big pack. Toklo felt sick. They know they can win. How many were there?

  He stared as the coyote turned away and disappeared through the bracken. Toklo hurried toward Lusa, blood thumping in his ears. “We’ve got to free Yakone.” Trapped in the silver jaws, he’d be easy prey for the coyotes. Even if the bears stayed to protect him, they couldn’t fight a whole pack forever. But if they pulled him from the silver jaws while they were still shut, Yakone might lose his foot. Then all the blood would drain out of him, and he’d die for sure.

  Lusa was sniffing a bedraggled shape in the jaws she’d found behind a tree. “Look at this, Toklo.”

  The stench of death reached his muzzle. He slid past her and looked down at the rotting body of a raccoon. It was thoroughly mangled in the clamped silver teeth. “Flat-faces must put them here to kill things,” Toklo said.

  Lusa stared at him with round eyes. “Why?” She stared at the decomposing raccoon. “They can’t want to eat it, because they haven’t come to get it. So why kill it?”

  Behind them, Yakone groaned.

  “We have to get him out.” Kallik’s growl was tight with panic. “Before that thing bites his paw off.”

  Or the coyotes get him.

  “There has to be a way of opening these things.” Fighting back fear, Toklo sniffed at the jaws holding the raccoon. His snout wrinkled. It smelled foul. Maggots crawled through its pelt. Warily he put out a paw and touched the edge of the jaws. A shiny twig jutted out either side. Toklo pushed down on one and the jaws started to tip toward him. Without thinking, he steadied them by putting his other paw on the opposite side. As he pressed both jutting pieces, the raccoon twitched.

  “The jaws are opening!” Lusa gasped.

  Toklo jumped backward, heart lurching.

  “Press it again!” Lusa urged. “It was opening, I promise.”

  Gingerly Toklo put his paws on the hard sticks on either side of the jaws and pushed down. The jaws creaked open and the raccoon slithered out and flopped onto the pine needles.

  Toklo let go. The jaws snapped shut. “I know how to free him!” He raced back to Yakone. “Lean back,” he ordered. The white bear’s eyes were glazing. He swayed away from Toklo, a tortured growl rumbling in his throat. Kallik stared at Toklo, her gaze sharp with terror.

  “It’s okay,” Toklo said. “I know how to open it.” He put his paws on either side of the teeth that had bitten into Yakone’s paw. Steadying his breath, he pressed down slowly.

  Yakone gasped as the jaws ripped from his flesh. Toklo pushed down harder. The shiny sticks jabbed, cold and hard, into his pads. “Get him out!” he hissed, straining to stop the jaws from snapping shut. Spirits, don’t let my paws slip!

  Kallik grabbed Yakone’s scruff and dragged him backward. Yakone whined through gritted teeth. Toklo ducked as Yakone’s bloody paw flashed past his nose. He let go of the trap and hopped out of the way as it snapped shut.

  Lusa raced over. “Is he okay?”

  Yakone lay on his side, flanks heaving. Kallik peered at his paw. Her muzzle wrinkled. “It’s worse than any bite I’ve seen,” she murmured, sounding ill.

  Toklo sniffed at the silver jaws, which were clenched tight again. Sickness rose in his throat as he spotted two bloodied toes gripped between the shiny teeth. He told himself that it could have been worse; Yakone could have lost his whole foot. But would he be able to walk without those toes? And catch prey with fewer claws?

  Kallik nudged the white bear. “Yakone? Can you hear me?”

  Yakone struggled to sit up. “How is it?” he asked thickly. “My paw? Is it okay?”

  “You’ve still got it,” Kallik told him. Toklo could tell she was making an effort to stay calm. “But we need to clean it up and stop the bleeding.”

  Toklo pictured the coyote’s eyes, flashing through the shadows. “We don’t have time,” he growled. “We have to keep moving.”

  Kallik’s eyes widened. “Yakone can’t walk!”

  “He’s going to have to.” Toklo scanned the undergrowth, ears alert for the sound of pawsteps. We’re prey now.

  Toklo crouched beside Yakone and heaved his shoulder beneath the white bear. Straining, he pushed Yakone to his paws. Kallik raced to prop him up on the other side.

  “Okay?” Toklo turned his snout toward Yakone. The white bear’s breath was coming in gasps.

  “Okay,” Yakone croaked.

  Lusa popped up in front of Toklo. “Shouldn’t we let him rest?”

  “There’s no time,” Toklo repeated. Yakone was going to slow them down as it was. He flicked his muzzle forward. “Lead the way, Lusa,
” he ordered. “Find the smoothest path and hold back any branches or brambles so we can pass easily.” Lusa scampered ahead, sniffing for trails. She leaned against a bramble, pushing it clear as Toklo and Kallik helped Yakone past.

  Toklo glanced down. Blood dripped, hot and fragrant, leaving a trail behind them on the forest floor. Toklo’s heart sank. It’ll sharpen the coyotes’ hunger and show them exactly where we are. He fixed his gaze ahead. There was nothing they could do now but keep moving.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Kallik

  Panting, Kallik heaved Yakone past Lusa as the black bear held back another bramble.

  Yakone was mumbling, his voice slurred with pain. “Stupid bushes. Stupid trees. Can’t see where I’m going.”

  Pain shot through Kallik’s bruised flank, but she ignored it. Her mind was whirling. Just this morning, they’d been fine. Toklo had been nervous, but they’d been happy and healthy. We just rescued Chenoa’s spirit! Yakone had made his jaws bleed trying to break the flat-face vine. Watching him fight to help their friends had made her heart soar.

  Ujurak, why didn’t you warn us? She glanced up through the branches. Yakone doesn’t deserve this. The smell of his blood clogged her nostrils. Her fur was sticky with it. Yakone’s mangled paw was still dripping. Kallik felt sick. On the ice, injured bears died quickly. Is it the same in the forest?

  “Great spirits!” Toklo cursed as he tripped.

  “Why don’t we walk along the shore?” Kallik suggested. They were shadowing the river; she could see it through the trees.

  “There’s more cover here,” Toklo puffed.

  “Why do we need cover?”

  As she spoke, Yakone lurched between them. Lusa rushed to help, ducking under Yakone’s muzzle as it jerked forward.

  Kallik could hardly breathe for the pain shooting through her flank. “We have to rest,” she growled to Toklo.

  “We can’t stop,” he hissed.

  “But we’re both exhausted!”

  Yakone was growling under his breath, lost in a world of pain.

  Please don’t let him die. Guilt swamped Kallik. It was okay to risk her own life for her friends. But she’d asked Yakone to risk his, and now he might never make it home.

  Yakone fell silent and slumped heavily between them. He was unconscious.

  “We can’t carry him any farther,” Kallik grunted.

  Toklo swung his head toward the trees. “There’s a thicket over there.” He jerked his muzzle to a bramble tangled between two pines.

  Lusa ran ahead and sniffed it. “The earth’s soft and clean.”

  Panting, Kallik guided Yakone toward it. Toklo pressed on, and between them, they hauled the white bear across the needle-strewn forest floor.

  “Clear a path to the middle of the brambles,” Toklo ordered Lusa.

  Kallik frowned. “How are we going to get him in there?” She flicked her nose toward a tree a bearlength away. The earth was hollowed out between the roots. “He’d be much more comfortable there,” she puffed. “And it’d be easy to lie him down.”

  “He’ll be safer in here.” Toklo shifted to let Lusa past.

  “Safer from what?” Lusa asked as she tugged at the branches and pressed them aside with her rump.

  Kallik narrowed her eyes. “Are you scared there will be wolverines?”

  Toklo’s gaze darkened. “The scent of blood might attract scavengers,” he mumbled. “Help me get him in.”

  Kallik stumbled forward with Yakone. She could see a space just beyond the passage Lusa had made. Toklo squeezed into it and turned to grab Yakone’s pelt in his jaws. He dragged the white bear inside, hissing with the strain. Screwing up her eyes against the twigs, Kallik shouldered her way in after him, shoving Yakone past the snagging thorns.

  Inside the bramble thicket, they let him fall. The white bear collapsed on the soft earth, his head lolling sideways, his flanks barely moving. The branches closed around them, Lusa shut outside.

  “Kallik?” Lusa called through the thorns. “Is he going to be okay?”

  “I don’t know!” Kallik smelled Yakone’s breath. It had a sour tang. Blood was still pulsing from his paw. “We have to stop the bleeding.”

  Toklo blinked at her. “How?”

  Lusa’s black snout appeared under the branches. “We could pack it with mud.”

  “Mud might turn the wound bad,” Kallik pointed out.

  Lusa scowled, then brightened. “I know!” She began to squeeze out of the thicket.

  “Wait!” Toklo’s bark was sharp with fear.

  Lusa froze. Kallik jerked her muzzle around. Toklo had sounded like he was scared to let Lusa go out alone. He’d always been protective of the young bear, but he knew better than to treat her like a helpless cub.

  “I’m just going to get herbs,” Lusa told him.

  “I’ll come with you.” Toklo followed as she burrowed her way out. “Stay out of sight,” he warned Kallik before he disappeared.

  Kallik blinked. Why was Toklo being so cautious? Was there something he wasn’t telling them? She curled around Yakone and began lapping the fur on his flank in long, smooth strokes. Hang on, Yakone, she begged. We’ll take care of you. She listened to his shallow breathing, willing his flank to keep rising and falling. Lusa and Toklo were taking ages. Sunshine glittered through the branches, dappling Yakone’s grubby pelt.

  Hurry up!

  Pawsteps sounded outside the bush. Kallik sat up, tasting the air.

  “Toklo!” She pulled aside a pawful of branches, wincing as thorns pricked her pads. “Lusa!”

  The black bear pushed through the thicket, herb scent rolling ahead of her. Kallik recognized it at once. “Chenoa’s leaves!”

  Lusa was clutching a bunch between her jaws. She spat them onto the floor of the makeshift den as Toklo squeezed in behind her. “They fixed my wounds.” Lusa’s eyes sparkled. “There was lots of it by the shore. We can grab as much as we need.”

  “We’re not staying here longer than we have to,” Toklo warned.

  Kallik looked at him in surprise. “Why not?”

  “We’re just resting, then moving on.”

  Why was he in such a hurry to get them away from here?

  Lusa was busy chewing up leaves. She spat the pulp onto Yakone’s paw and began pressing it into the wide gap where his toes used to be. Kallik flinched away, feeling queasy.

  Lusa lifted her head. “It’s still bleeding.” Her eyes glittered with worry. “The leaves aren’t stopping it.”

  Kallik’s belly tightened. The floor of the den was already red with Yakone’s blood. If he lost much more, he would be dead.

  Toklo nosed Lusa out of the way and inspected Yakone’s paw. “We have to stop it flowing.”

  Lusa tipped her head. “Like blocking a river?”

  Toklo narrowed his eyes. “But instead of stopping it flowing out, we can block it farther upstream.”

  Kallik blinked. “Like a beaver dam! But how?”

  Toklo barged out of the bush and returned a moment later with a long, soft tendril of knotweed between his teeth. He lifted Yakone’s leg with a front paw and felt along it with the other. “This is the softest place,” he announced when his paw was halfway to Yakone’s knee. He draped the knotweed over it. “Hold that,” he told Kallik.

  She pressed the stem in place, feeling it rigid under her pad, and watched curiously as Toklo used his free paw to wrap the trailing end around Yakone’s leg. He drew the tendril up the other side, grabbing it with his teeth. “Keep pressing, Kallik,” he mumbled. Kallik pressed harder, leaning out of the way as Toklo tugged the stem taut. Hooking it with his paw, he wrapped the tendril around Yakone’s leg again. It flopped from his grasp.

  “Stay still,” Toklo ordered, reaching for the dangling end of the knotweed. He snagged it with a claw and pulled hard. The stem tightened, cutting into Yakone’s pelt. Toklo leaned close and nipped the loops he’d made with his teeth, pulling hard enough to push the trailing end underneath
with his claw. “That should hold.” He sat back and cocked his head. “I hope.”

  Lusa leaned forward and peered at the white bear’s paw. “The bleeding is slowing!” she barked triumphantly. Quickly, she chewed more pulp and wadded it into the wound.

  Yakone stirred. “Where are we?” He tried to lift his head but fell back, panting.

  Kallik lapped his cheek. “We’ve made a den for you,” she murmured. “We’re just fixing your wound.”

  He fell against her, his eyes closing as he drifted back into unconsciousness.

  “Has it stopped bleeding?” Kallik asked Lusa.

  Lusa looked up from his paw. “Yes.”

  Kallik felt her pelt smooth. Yakone was going to be okay. For now.

  Toklo lifted his muzzle. Kallik could see him sniffing the air. Was he checking for something? “We’ll give it time to dry,” he growled. “Then we’d better get moving.”

  Get moving? He had bees in his brain! Walking might start the bleeding again! Kallik got to her paws. She had to find out what was bugging him. “Lusa, stay here with Yakone. I’m going hunting with Toklo.”

  Lusa stared at her. “Hunting?”

  “We won’t be much use to Yakone if we’re half-starved.” She began to push through the thick bramble wall. “Come on, Toklo.”

  “But—” He started to object.

  She cut him off. “Come on.”

  Outside the thicket, Kallik shook out her pelt. It was specked with thorns. She’d be picking them out for days. “What’s going on?” she demanded as Toklo nosed his way from the bush. “Why are we hiding in the world’s prickliest den? And why do you want us to keep moving? Yakone’s badly hurt!”

  Toklo stalked away between the trees. “Keep your voice down!”

  Kallik hurried after him. His gaze flitted over the undergrowth. He looked hunted. “Toklo,” she began. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  He lowered his head. “I don’t want to scare Lusa,” he murmured.

  “You’re scaring me!” Kallik snapped.

  Toklo swallowed. “We’re being tracked by coyotes.”

  “Coyotes?” Shock jolted through her. “I didn’t know there were coyotes in the forest.” She recalled seeing them in the distance when they were traveling across open plains, before they reached the Endless Ice. But never under trees.