River of Lost Bears

by Erin Hunter

  “I’ve seen them,” Toklo told her. “They look like wolves, and they’re traveling in a pack.”

  “You’ve seen them? When?”

  “When Yakone was stuck in the trap.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Alarm raged though Kallik.

  “You had enough to deal with.” Toklo met her gaze. “I didn’t think it would help.”

  Kallik scanned the undergrowth, suddenly aware of every trembling leaf and twitching branch. “How many?”

  “I couldn’t tell, but one of them looked right at me.” Toklo shivered. “I’m nearly twice as big as it was, but it just stared at me. It wasn’t scared at all.”

  Kallik fought down a howl of panic. “There must be a lot of them.”

  “Yes.” Toklo’s gaze glittered with fear. “Normally, we could take them on. But Yakone can’t fight and—” He hesitated.

  Kallik understood. “We’d have to protect him.”

  “We couldn’t fight properly with one eye on Yakone.”

  “So we have to keep moving.”

  Toklo nodded. “If we can get out of their territory, they might leave us alone.”

  Kallik glanced back toward the brambles. They’d left Lusa and Yakone. “We should get back.”

  As she turned, Toklo touched her shoulder with his muzzle. “They’re safe for now.”

  “You can’t be sure.”

  “We should hunt,” Toklo pressed. “Like you said, we’re not much use to Yakone if we’re half-starved.”

  “Okay.” Kallik wasn’t hungry, but they had to keep their strength up. “Do you think we can outpace the coyotes?”

  Toklo shifted his paws. “I hope so.”

  “What about Yakone?” She tried to read Toklo’s gaze. “He can hardly walk.” She knew that if it weren’t for the wounded white bear, they could be clear of the coyotes’ territory by sunup.

  “We’re not leaving him behind,” Toklo growled. “We stay together until the end.”

  Kallik scuffed through pine needles, sniffing for prey. Budding leaves brushed her pelt. Trees blocked her view. Every bush might hide a coyote. Or a flat-face trap like the one that had hurt Yakone.

  She pushed the thought away, tasting prey-scent. Toklo’s brown back moved through bracken nearby. Kallik was anxious about losing sight of him, but she knew she must hunt. She forced herself to focus, spotting orange feathers flickering between waving fronds of quillwort. Partridge. Treading softly, she stalked it, her heart beating so loud she was sure it must hear her.

  She stopped a bearlength away, scanning the ground for traps. The partridge strutted through stripes of sunlight, pecking among the needles. Hunkering down, Kallik fixed her gaze on its back. She tensed, and lunged. With a squawk of terror, the partridge fluttered into the air. Kallik reared and swiped it down with a paw. It fell, stunned, to the ground. She nipped its neck between her teeth and carried it to Toklo, slowing as she saw him digging into the earth, his rump swaying as he rooted out prey.

  “Toklo?” she hissed.

  He turned, a dead rabbit in his jaws. “Wait!” He dropped his catch and began scooping rabbit kits from the hole, killing each with a bite. When he’d finished, he straightened and picked up the limp bodies in his teeth.

  Kallik tensed. Prey-scent filled the air. What if it brought the coyotes? “Come on.” She hurried for the den.

  “Slow down!” Toklo’s muffled growl sounded behind. “We need to make sure we aren’t followed.”

  Heart lurching, Kallik scanned the undergrowth. Forcing herself to walk slowly, she kept her ears open. Partridge scent filled her nose. A coyote could be a bearlength away, and she wouldn’t know. Or they might have sniffed out the den. Her heart quickened, and she broke into a run as she caught sight of the brambles. Panic rising, she burst through the branches.

  Lusa jumped up, her pelt bristling. “What’s wrong?”

  Kallik dropped the partridge. “Nothing.”

  Lusa sat down again. “You scared me.”

  “How’s Yakone?” Kallik touched her nose to his pelt. He felt warm, but his breathing had relaxed and deepened.

  “The wound’s drying,” Lusa reported.

  “Good.” They’d be able to move him. Kallik nosed the partridge toward Lusa. “Eat this.”

  Lusa blinked at her. “I’m not hungry.”

  “You need to eat,” Kallik told her. “We have to start walking as soon as we can.”

  Lusa’s pelt rippled. “Why?”

  Kallik paused. What could she say? Toklo pushed through the thorns behind her. He dropped his catch. There was no use keeping the secret any longer. “We’re being tracked by coyotes.”

  Lusa leaped to her paws, ears flat. “Coyotes!” She glanced down at Yakone, sleeping. “We have to protect him!”

  “We will,” Toklo promised.

  Kallik leaned down and touched Yakone’s cheek with her muzzle. “Wake up,” she whispered.

  Lusa reached out with a paw and touched Kallik. “Don’t tell him about the coyotes.” Her eyes were round with fear.

  Kallik shook her head. “I won’t.” She didn’t want Yakone to know he was slowing them down. “Yakone?” He opened his eyes. “How are you feeling?” Kallik asked gently.

  Yakone lifted his head. “My paw hurts.”

  He sounded lucid. Kallik nudged a rabbit kit toward him. “Eat this.”

  “I’m not hungry,” he croaked.

  “You need to get strong.” Kallik’s heart ached. “We have to leave.”

  “Already?” Yakone’s eyes were misted.

  “Yes.” Softly, Kallik nosed the rabbit closer. Yakone snatched it up and swallowed it, groaning. Kallik tore a piece from the partridge and gave it to Lusa, eating a mouthful herself. Beside them, Toklo bit into a rabbit.

  When they’d eaten, Kallik nodded to Lusa and Toklo. “Wait outside,” she murmured. “I’ll get Yakone to his paws.” As they pushed through the brambles, she slid her nose under Yakone’s shoulder. Heaving, she propped him up. “Come on, Yakone. It’s time to go.”

  “Go?” he echoed groggily, letting her nudge him up. He winced as he put his injured paw on the ground.

  “Try to use your three good legs,” Kallik urged. She held the brambles aside and guided him out of the den.

  He limped out, lurching heavily against her. Kallik braced herself against his weight, relieved as Toklo stepped forward to support his other side. Holding Yakone between them, they helped him hobble forward.

  Lusa ducked into the lead. “Which way?” she asked.

  Toklo scanned the trees. “Follow the moss,” he ordered.

  Lusa frowned at him. “Moss?”

  “The mossy side of the trunks shows where we’ve been; the clear side will show where we’re heading,” Toklo told her.

  Kallik glanced up at a trunk. Sure enough, one side was mossy, the other clear. “Where did you learn that?”

  Toklo pushed Yakone forward. “Ujurak.”

  “What’s the rush?” Yakone’s words were slurred.

  “It’ll be sunset before we know it.” Kallik tried to keep her voice light. “We need to cover some territory before then.” What if the coyotes caught up?

  Yakone lurched forward, holding his injured paw up and stumbling on three legs.

  Lusa sniffed out the clearest path. “Deer track!” she called, finding another straight trail through the undergrowth. Her ears were pricked as she scooted ahead. Her eyes flicked from tree to tree, her pelt bristling along her spine. Kallik’s belly churned. As a twig cracked behind them, she stiffened.

  Toklo glanced across Yakone at her. “It was just a raccoon,” he murmured. “I saw its tail.”

  The scents here were strange, each one new. Kallik walked with her mouth open, trying to tell one from the other, alert for the musky odor that meant the coyotes were closing in. The undergrowth darkened and grew lusher. The ground grew boggy underpaw. “Are you sure we’re going the right way?” she hissed to Toklo.

  “
If we follow the moss on the trees, we’ll be okay.”

  “Wouldn’t it be better to follow the river?” Kallik longed to see open sky and hear the murmuring of the water.

  “The shore is too open,” Toklo told her.

  Lusa called over her shoulder, “Yakone would never make it over the rocks.”

  Kallik’s heart sank. They were both right.

  “There’s a clearing!” Lusa called.

  Kallik looked up and saw the black bear waiting in a pool of light beyond the trees. She quickened her pace, shoving Yakone forward, until they broke into a clearing where budding shrubs and ferns crowded for the light.

  Yakone suddenly shouldered her away. “I’ll walk by myself for a while,” he mumbled. He tested his wounded paw, placing it gently. He growled through clenched teeth. Kallik leaned down, stiffening as she waited to see if it started bleeding.

  Lusa’s pulp held firm. No red showed through the green.

  “I think I can use it.” Yakone swallowed and began to limp forward. Kallik exchanged glances with Toklo. Would Chenoa’s herbs work on such a big wound?

  Kallik watched him. He’s being so brave. “You don’t have to prove yourself,” she barked as he began to totter across the clearing.

  “I’m giving you a rest,” Yakone growled back.

  Kallik followed, her pelt brushing Toklo’s as they padded after Yakone. Lusa dashed across the clearing, glancing at the sky. The sun was beginning to sink toward the trees. “Night’s coming.”

  Kallik shivered at the thought of darkness. The coyotes could stalk them easily through a forest wrapped in shadow. She longed for the ice, where the sun never set in burn-sky; where she was the hunter, not the hunted.

  Then the wind sharply changed direction, drifting over Kallik’s fur and pulling her head toward a line of trees, just behind them on the edge of the clearing. Her heart lurched.

  Eyes flashed from the shadows.

  “Lusa, come here!” Her growl cracked with alarm.

  Lusa charged toward them, stopping in front of Kallik. “What?”

  Kallik whirled, scanning the undergrowth. Eyes glittered from behind every tree. “They’re here,” she murmured softly. She didn’t want Yakone to realize the danger. Not yet.

  Toklo bristled beside her. “There are four of us,” he whispered. “And we’re bigger than they are.”

  The eyes blinked around them. The coyotes didn’t move.

  Lusa slid in beside Kallik. “They’re just watching,” she hissed.

  Had Yakone seen them? The white bear lumbered blindly on, head low.

  “Let’s just keep moving.” Toklo hurried to catch up.

  Kallik glanced over her shoulder. The eyes watched them leave.

  “Why don’t they attack?” Kallik flexed her claws. “Cowards!”

  “Just keep moving,” Toklo hissed over his shoulder.

  They crossed the clearing and headed into the woods. Lusa peered back. “I can’t see them.” She hurried a little way ahead and disappeared up a tree, scrambling down a few moments later. “They’re still following,” she whispered in Kallik’s ear. “They’re like shadows in the bushes.”

  Kallik searched for shapes among the bracken. She saw nothing but jagged stalks. “What are they waiting for?” she growled. She smelled blood. Stiffening, she saw red staining the trail. “Yakone, you’re bleeding again.” She rushed to him. “Help me, Toklo!” She tucked her shoulder beneath Yakone’s, taking his weight. Toklo did the same.

  Yakone grunted but didn’t argue. Lifting his paw, he limped onward.

  The ground grew wetter, with boggy pools of peat tugging at their feet with every step. Kallik’s paws sank deeper and deeper. The trees thinned, and sedges sprang up on every side. Before long they were trudging through a marsh, dotted sparsely with pine trees.

  “Keep your wound out of the mud,” Kallik warned Yakone. The stinking peat sucked at her paws, as if the earth were trying to swallow her. Every step was exhausting. She was burning beneath her pelt, struggling for breath. Yakone grew limper, finding each step harder until Kallik and Toklo were hauling the white bear along between them.

  “I’ll be okay if we just rest,” Yakone grunted.

  “There’s no time,” Toklo told him. He jerked his muzzle to a lightning-blasted tree rising from the marsh ahead of them. “Climb it, Lusa,” he panted. “Tell us what you can see.”

  Kallik knew that he wanted her to check for the coyotes. Pain throbbed through her flank. Yakone was as heavy as stone. And silent. Was he unconscious again?

  “I see them,” Lusa whispered as she returned.

  “How close?” Toklo asked.

  “Same as before,” Lusa told him.

  “No closer?” Kallik frowned. A chill swept through her pelt as she realized what the coyotes were doing. She glanced at Toklo. His gaze looked haunted. He must have guessed the predators’ plan, too. “They don’t need to attack us,” Kallik breathed. “They’re waiting for Yakone to die.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Lusa

  Lusa whipped around. “He’s not going to die! I won’t let him.”

  She saw Yakone hanging like dead prey between Kallik and Toklo. Drool dangled from his jaws. Turning back, Lusa heaved herself through the marshy soil. Why do I have to be so small? Gritting her teeth, she pushed on harder. “I’ll find herbs! I’ll get him well!” Please, spirits, don’t let him die! With Chenoa and Ujurak gone, she’d have to save him herself. She plunged into a clump of sedge, sniffing the leaves. Is this an herb? She remembered the strange tang of the grass that Chenoa had shown her beside the river. This wasn’t the same. Besides, what could grass do for a wound as bad as Yakone’s?

  A bright green weed sprouted beyond the sedge. Pushing her way through, Lusa grabbed a mouthful and splashed back to Kallik and Toklo. The leaves were fragrant and sharp on her tongue. They must be good for something.

  She spat the leaves out at Toklo’s paws. “Here!”

  He halted and stared down at them, his ears twitching. “What’s that?”

  “Herbs for Yakone!” Lusa barked. “To make him better.”

  Kallik gazed at the pile of bruised leaves. “What are they?”

  “I don’t know.” Lusa swallowed down a flutter of uncertainty. “But they smell like the sort of leaves Ujurak used to find.”

  Toklo gazed at her gently. “We can’t give him stuff we don’t know about.”

  “I’ll find something else.” Lusa bounded away. A prickly plant sprang from the mossy earth. Then a fresher scent touched her nose. A white-flowering bush was spilling over the soggy soil less than a bearlength ahead. “What about that?” she called back to Toklo. She darted toward it, the earth sinking beneath her paws. Mud seeped around her belly. Fighting her way up, she leaped forward, and sank deeper. She struggled to heave out her forepaws, but the mud sucked her down. Frustration surged through her. She had to get the leaves. They might save Yakone.

  “Wait!” Pawsteps squelched behind. She glanced around. Toklo had left Yakone leaning against Kallik and was padding gingerly toward her. “You’re doing great, Lusa, but let’s wait until we’re out of this marsh before we start collecting herbs.” He leaned forward and grabbed her scruff in his jaws, dragging her from the bog.

  She scrambled to find her paws as he gently lowered her onto firmer ground. Yakone’s gaze was glazed and empty, and she could smell the hot tang of sickness. “But he needs herbs now!”

  Toklo pointed his muzzle toward a tree-filled slope a little way ahead. Hills rolled behind it. “We can climb up there,” he told her. “We won’t be so exposed, and there’ll be plenty of herbs.”

  Lusa’s body tingled with hope. “I might be able to recognize one that Ujurak used, or find more hornwort.”

  “Can you find a safe path for us?” Toklo looked warily at the sodden peat stretching on all sides.

  “Yes!” Lusa promised. She glanced past Kallik and Yakone. Had the coyotes gone? Perhaps they’d given up
. She sniffed for them, stretching onto her hindpaws to taste the air. A faint musky scent touched her tongue, but she couldn’t see any pelts in the shadows.

  “Let’s hurry.” Toklo headed back to the white bears. “It’ll be dark soon.”

  Lusa dropped onto all fours and snuffled the earth. The firmer soil had a sandy smell. She followed its scent, pressing with each pawstep to make sure it would take the weight of Toklo, Kallik, and Yakone. Where the trail threaded between clumps of sedge, she felt thin stems crisscrossing beneath her pads. The channels between them were firm underpaw where their roots knotted to make smooth walkways over the boggy ground.

  She sniffed out a path, darting one way, then the other, until the peat turned to soil and sedge gave way to grass. The ground sloped up into woodland. Trees stretched toward the sky, bright with budding leaves. Birds twittered in the branches, announcing the coming of dusk.

  Lusa scampered higher. Behind her, the other bears stumbled. “Can I help?” Lusa called.

  “Just keep finding the easiest trail,” Kallik puffed. Her paws were thick with mud from the marsh. Her belly fur was spiked and filthy.

  The hill was short and steep. Panting at the top, Lusa peered back down, scanning the undergrowth for coyotes. She could see the marsh through the branches and narrowed her eyes as she spotted shadows moving at the edge.

  Panic sparked beneath her pelt as her friends caught up with her. “They’re still following us,” she breathed.

  “I know,” Toklo growled. “Can you see the river?”

  Lusa scrambled up a rowan tree and peered from the branches. Ahead rolled hill after hill, glowing orange in the setting sun. But there was no sign of the silver river threading between them. “I can’t see it,” she called down. She searched the horizon for Toklo’s mountains. There was nothing but forest and sky.

  Were they even headed in the right direction?

  She looked back across the marsh. Beyond it, the sun was sliding toward the trees. We must be going the right way. She scooted down the tree and landed beside Toklo. “Follow me.” She trotted over the crest of the hill, shivering as the forest descended into dusky shadow.