Smoke Mountain

by Erin Hunter

  She glanced around, wondering if she could see it slip into one of the trees. Surely it would take a very big tree to hold the spirit of a bear like Qopuk. But it was different for white bears, wasn’t it? They weren’t born under trees. What if they died, like Qopuk, so far from the frozen world that they loved? Was there room in these trees for a bear like him?

  ‘What happens to a white bear’s spirit?’ Lusa asked Kallik. ‘Black bears go into the trees. Sometimes you can see their faces in the bark.’

  Kallik lowered her muzzle and met Lusa’s gaze. Her eyes were troubled. ‘They become part of the ice,’ she said. ‘And when the ice melts, they go into the sky to join the ice spirits. But I don’t know what happens if there’s no ice for them. Maybe he goes straight into the sky.’ She glanced up at the sky, where the sun was blazing beyond the tree cover.

  ‘That would make sense,’ Ujurak said.

  Lusa thought so too. ‘It’s so sad,’ she said. ‘All his life Qopuk wanted to go to the Last Great Wilderness – and then he died on the way. He never got to see it, after dreaming about it for so long.’

  Kallik stood up and paced around the dead bear. ‘I don’t know what to do,’ she confessed. ‘I feel like we should say something, but I don’t know the right words. Mother never had time to teach me.’ Her voice went croaky and she buried her nose in Qopuk’s fur.

  ‘Do you know, Ujurak?’ Lusa asked.

  He shook his head. ‘Brown bears cover dead bears with leaves and earth,’ he said, ‘to help their spirits find their way back to the Great Salmon River. Maybe we could do that?’

  Kallik nodded. ‘We can’t leave him like this. He looks . . . lonely.’

  Lusa knew what she meant. She picked up a twig that still had leaves clinging to it, and reached up to lay it on Qopuk’s back.

  Kallik scooped a pile of leaves up with one paw and spread them over Qopuk’s front legs. ‘I’m sorry it isn’t snow,’ she said softly. ‘I’m sorry you didn’t get to see the ice again before you died.’

  Lusa pawed the leaves higher around Qopuk’s head, but she couldn’t bear to cover his face. ‘Goodbye,’ she whispered. ‘I hope your spirit watches over us while we finish your journey. We’ll try to find the Last Great Wilderness for you.’

  ‘Go well, spirit of Qopuk,’ Kallik said solemnly. ‘I hope the ice spirits find you. I hope we see you again, dancing in the Place of the Endless Ice.’

  Ujurak put some moss on Qopuk’s flank, where it quivered like feathers in the wind. He dipped his head. ‘Farewell, Qopuk,’ he murmured. ‘May your spirit travel safely, wherever it goes.’

  He hooked his claws in a leafy branch that had fallen to the ground and dragged it over to the white bear’s body. Lusa and Kallik helped him lay it gently over Qopuk’s back.

  ‘We were so lucky to meet you, Qopuk,’ Lusa said.

  Kallik tilted her head to the side and gave Lusa a thoughtful look. ‘You know, if we hadn’t come down here,’ she said, ‘we wouldn’t have met Qopuk. We wouldn’t have heard about the Last Great Wilderness.’

  ‘True,’ Lusa said cautiously. She could guess where Kallik was going with this.

  ‘So it’s a good thing we listened to Taqqiq, isn’t it?’ Kallik went on. ‘Maybe he’s meant to be with us after all?’

  Lusa winced. She definitely did not want Taqqiq to start making more suggestions. If he started arguing with Ujurak over everything, this journey would become more difficult than getting honey out of her fur.

  Lusa heard Toklo’s pawsteps behind her and turned. The brown bear was carrying another hare in his jaws. Toklo glanced at the earth and leaves covering the old bear’s fur and lowered his head. Lusa knew he recognised what they’d tried to do for Qopuk.

  Beneath the tree where they’d slept, Taqqiq stretched and yawned, climbing slowly to his paws. He trotted over and blinked at the other bears.

  ‘Is that old whale-breath dead yet?’ he demanded. He peered around them at the large shape of Qopuk. ‘Looks like it. Smells like it too.’

  ‘Taqqiq, show some respect,’ Kallik scolded him. ‘He was a kind, wise old bear, and he told us where we need to go next.’

  ‘Old doesn’t always mean wise,’ Taqqiq snapped. ‘Sometimes it means nothing but melting snowballs are left in your head.’

  ‘He knew so much about the journey,’ Kallik pointed out.

  ‘We’re going to listen to that mangy old rotfood eater?’ Taqqiq objected.

  Can we leave Qopuk’s body in peace, please?’ Lusa begged. Her fur was heavy with sadness for Qopuk, and she hated hearing Taqqiq talk like that when the old bear had just died. She turned and headed down to the lakeshore.

  Toklo caught up with her as she splashed into the water. He dropped his newkill on the stones and said, ‘Are you all right, Lusa?’

  She drew her claws across the pebbly lake bottom, watching the marks disappear in a swirl of sand and water. ‘I just . . . I feel sad that he didn’t get to finish his journey. It’s hard to believe someone could die in the middle of something like that and never get to the end. It never occurred to me that any of us might not get there . . . you know?’

  ‘We will get there,’ Toklo promised. ‘All of us together.’

  ‘But not Qopuk,’ Lusa pointed out. ‘How will his spirit know where to go? What if he never finds the ice again?’ The water eddied and rippled around her paws, tinged with streaks of yellow from the sun that was peeking through the tree branches.

  ‘At least he didn’t die alone,’ Toklo told her. ‘And maybe he was happy because he had a chance to tell us where to go, so we can finish his journey for him.’

  ‘Maybe,’ Lusa said. She waded back to shore and bumped him with her nose. ‘Thanks, Toklo.’

  As the bears ate, Kallik and Lusa explained what Qopuk had told them.

  ‘Don’t you see?’ Lusa said to Toklo, her eyes shining. ‘We know where to go now. Qopuk told us the way to the Last Great Wilderness! This is exactly what we needed.’

  Taqqiq snorted. ‘The mad ramblings of an old fur lump. Had he ever actually been there?’ He slurped his blue-black tongue in the lake water, squinting at Lusa.

  ‘Well . . . no,’ Lusa admitted. ‘But he told us all about it. He warned us about Smoke Mountain.’ She looked at Kallik, who nodded in agreement.

  ‘Seal-brained stories and cloudfluff legends,’ Taqqiq growled. ‘No sane bear would believe any of that.’

  ‘I believe it,’ Ujurak said.

  ‘Me too,’ Kallik said.

  ‘Well, that’s a surprise.’ Taqqiq snorted, scattering water droplets as he tossed his head.

  ‘So we just have to find the Big River and then follow that to the Ice Sea and the Last Great Wilderness,’ Toklo said, ignoring him.

  ‘I agree,’ Lusa said.

  ‘It sounds right to me,’ Kallik said. ‘Taqqiq? Please?’

  Her brother huffed loudly. ‘Fine. If that’s what you all want. I don’t care.’ He ripped a large chunk of flesh off one of the hares and lay down under a tree, gnawing on it with his back hunched.

  Lusa’s pelt prickled with excitement. She wasn’t bothered by Taqqiq. Suddenly a real path lay before them, to a place where they would be safe. Forests full of prey, enough room for all the bears, and not a flat-face in sight . . .

  If only Qopuk could have lived to see it too.

  CHAPTER FIVE:

  Kallik

  Kallik waited until Toklo, Ujurak and Lusa had gone down to the lake to drink before padding over to her brother. Taqqiq was flopped on the ground, chewing noisily and opening his jaws unnecessarily wide.

  ‘Rabbits are so tough,’ he complained as she sat down beside him. ‘Nothing like seals. The newkill this far from the ice is terrible. A bear would have to be stupid to actually want to live among dirt and trees.’

  Kallik glanced nervously at Toklo, who was following Ujurak to a stream that wound away from the lake. ‘Shh,’ she said. ‘The others might hear you.’

  ‘I don’t car
e if they do,’ Taqqiq said, even louder. Lusa glanced up at them from the lake, where she was cleaning her paws.

  ‘Taqqiq,’ Kallik warned, ‘if you don’t act respectfully, they might ask us to leave – or sneak off without us. I don’t want to be alone any more! I like travelling with other bears instead of being lonely and scared and lost all the time.’

  ‘You wouldn’t be alone,’ Taqqiq snarled. ‘You’d have me. And what in the name of Silaluk makes you think these bears aren’t lost?’

  Kallik was quiet for a moment. ‘But Taqqiq . . . we’re going to the Place of Endless Ice. Nisa said that is the only safe place left for bears. Isn’t that what you want too?’

  ‘Sure, fine,’ Taqqiq said, ‘but that should be our journey. You and me! Why would these dumb tree-living bears care about sea-ice?’

  ‘They care about us,’ Kallik said, hoping that was true. ‘And from what Qopuk said, the Endless Ice is part of the Last Great Wilderness, where all bears can live safely. We’re all going to the same place.’

  Taqqiq snorted and shoved aside the last of the hare. ‘Our journey has nothing to do with them. They are nothing like us. Especially that one.’ He jerked his head at Toklo. ‘And there’s something weird about that other brown bear too.’

  Kallik followed her brother’s gaze along the lakeshore to where Ujurak was standing in the stream. The bubbling water washed over his claws while he gazed into the silver reflections. Taqqiq didn’t realise just how different Ujurak was from other bears. She was suddenly very glad that her brother hadn’t seen Ujurak turn into something else.

  She sighed. ‘Well, please try to be nicer to them,’ she said. ‘For me. OK, Taqqiq?’

  He grunted and stood up. ‘Fine. Whatever.’

  They headed down the hill and joined Lusa and Toklo by the side of the stream.

  ‘Ujurak? Is everything OK?’ Kallik asked.

  The brown cub looked up. ‘This stream,’ he said. ‘This stream will lead us to the Big River.’

  ‘Oh, really?’ Taqqiq sneered. ‘What happened to going the other way, like you wanted to before?’

  Kallik poked her brother sharply with her nose.

  ‘If what Qopuk told us is true,’ Ujurak said, ‘this is the way we have to go.’

  ‘Oh,’ Taqqiq muttered. ‘And how can you be so sure?’

  Ujurak didn’t say anything. He just stared at a tree that had long branches hanging over the stream.

  ‘I see it!’ Lusa cried suddenly, making Kallik jump. The little black bear padded over to the tree. She reared up on her back paws and touched a twisting pattern on the bark of the trunk.

  ‘What is it?’ Kallik asked. All she saw was an ordinary tree. Her heart sank at the look on Taqqiq’s face. This wasn’t the way to make him cooperate – he’d just think the other bears were even crazier.

  ‘Can’t you see it?’ Lusa prompted. She dropped to her paws again and tilted her head at the bark. ‘It’s a bear spirit looking at us from inside the tree. That’s what you saw, isn’t it, Ujurak?’

  Ujurak nodded.

  Kallik peered at the knobby bits of wood, trying to see any sort of face in it. Beside her, Toklo had squinted, as if that would make the pattern clearer. There were lumps and whorls in the bark, but to Kallik they just looked . . . treelike.

  ‘Here,’ Lusa said, touching a dark patch of the wood. ‘This is the face of the bear spirit that lives in this tree. I bet it’s very old. And look how it’s watching over the stream.’ She waved one paw at the long branches that hung over the burbling water. ‘Maybe it’s a she-bear who once had cubs. Now she has something else to take care of.’

  Kallik stepped back, trying to see the tree the way Lusa did. It was true that the branches hanging over the stream looked a bit like a mother bear protecting her cubs. Thin green leaves trailed in the water like rippling fur. And maybe that patch of darker wood could be an eye . . . and those flecks could be whiskers . . . or more fur . . . or tufty ears.

  ‘It’s a sign,’ Lusa whispered. ‘Isn’t it, Ujurak? The spirit of this bear wants us to follow this stream. She’s guiding us to the Last Great Wilderness!’

  Ujurak dipped his head. ‘I think that’s what I see too.’

  Taqqiq shoved Kallik aside and stalked up to the tree. He narrowed his eyes at the bear face, which was much closer to his eye level than Lusa’s. Next to him, Lusa looked as small as the Arctic fox that had followed Kallik to Great Bear Lake. But Lusa didn’t seem afraid. She dropped to all paws and looked up at the big white bear cub.

  ‘You see it, don’t you?’ she said earnestly. ‘Now do you believe that we must go this way?’

  Taqqiq didn’t speak for a moment. Then a low growl rumbled in his throat. ‘There’s nothing here at all,’ he said. ‘Bear spirits don’t live in trees. Trees are just stupid things that get in the way when you want to run.’

  He stepped forward, twisted around, and started scratching his back against the tree. His lip curled back to show his teeth as he sneered at Lusa. Bits of bark flaked off and fell to the ground around him.

  ‘No! Stop!’ Lusa shrieked. ‘Leave it alone!’ The tiny black cub threw herself at Taqqiq, battering him with her paws as she tried to push him away from the tree. It was like trying to move a mountain. He snorted as she clambered on to his back and tried to wrestle his head aside.

  ‘Taqqiq!’ Kallik barked. ‘Leave the tree alone!’

  Toklo came running up from the stream, his teeth bared. But before he could get to them, Lusa lunged forward on Taqqiq’s back and buried her teeth in one of his ears.

  ‘Ow!’ Taqqiq roared. He swung around so fast that Lusa lost her grip and went flying into a pile of leaves further up the bank. Taqqiq reared up on his hind legs, bellowing, but Kallik threw herself in front of him before he could pounce on Lusa. With his powerful front legs, built for digging seals out of snowbanks, he could easily crush the smaller bear – whether he was trying to or not.

  ‘Taqqiq, leave her be!’ she snarled. Her fur was standing on end and her breathing was fast and angry. Why was Taqqiq always picking fights? ‘And don’t you go near that tree again either! Lusa wouldn’t make fun of our ice spirits, and you should have some respect for her beliefs. Plus she’s half your size! You won’t impress anyone by hurting her!’

  ‘And it might be the last thing you ever do,’ Toklo growled from behind Kallik. She turned to look at him. She had never seen a bear looking so angry, and for a moment she was scared for her brother. Toklo’s long claws raked the earth as he glared at the white bear.

  Taqqiq held his gaze for a moment, then dropped to all fours. He shook his shaggy head, looking disgusted. ‘She bit me,’ he protested.

  ‘You deserved it!’ Lusa yelped, sticking her head out from behind Kallik’s leg.

  ‘Lusa and Ujurak see the same thing in that tree,’ Kallik told her brother. ‘We’ll follow this stream until we reach the Big River. Together. No more fighting. All right?’

  Taqqiq grumbled something under his breath. He touched his paw to his ear, which wasn’t even bleeding. With a snort, he turned his back on the cubs and marched down to the stream. Splashing through the water, he headed in the direction Ujurak had pointed to, out of the woods.

  Ujurak breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Thanks, Kallik.’ The brown fur on Toklo’s back slowly flattened. He shook himself and trotted down to walk beside Ujurak. ‘Maybe next time he’ll be brave enough to pick on a bear his own size,’ Toklo said, just loud enough for Taqqiq to hear. The white cub’s ears twitched, but he kept pacing ahead without looking back.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Kallik asked Lusa when he was out of earshot. She craned her head around to sniff the black cub.

  ‘I’m f-fine,’ Lusa said through chattering teeth. ‘I can’t believe I attacked him! He just made me so mad! I’m sorry, Kallik . . . I didn’t mean to hurt your brother.’

  Kallik understood that Lusa was sorry only because it was Kallik’s brother she had bitten. If Taqqiq weren’t Kallik�
�s family, Lusa wouldn’t want him here either. Nobody liked Taqqiq, not even friendly little Lusa.

  ‘I don’t know why he’s so awful sometimes.’ Kallik sighed. ‘He wasn’t like this when he was a cub. We used to have fun together.’ She shook her head. ‘It must have been terrible for him when he thought Mother and I were both dead. I’m sure that’s what changed him. At least I still had the hope of finding him alive to keep me going.’

  Lusa leaned into Kallik’s side. ‘But he has you now,’ she said. ‘Maybe that will help him become a better bear.’

  ‘I hope so,’ Kallik said. ‘I suppose we should catch up with them.’

  ‘Bye, tree,’ Lusa said, touching the roots lightly with her paw.

  Kallik looked back up at the tree and felt something behind her eyes shifting. A dark bump on the bark suddenly looked just like a bear’s nose. She followed the line of the whorl to where an eye should be and saw a delicate shape in the trunk, lined with flecks that looked like eyelashes. She felt a surge of excitement. ‘Lusa, I can see it! I can see the bear’s face!’ The nose and the eyes and the ears all seemed to emerge from the bark, and Kallik looked straight at the face watching them intently through the brown flakes rubbed off by Taqqiq.

  ‘I hope she isn’t angry with us,’ Lusa whispered.

  ‘She won’t be angry with you,’ Kallik pointed out. ‘You defended her. You were really brave!’

  ‘We have to protect the spirits in the trees,’ Lusa said. ‘Just as the tree spirits protect black bears. We owe it to them.’ She looked up at the sunlit leaves. ‘I wish we didn’t ever have to leave them. I like having the sound of leaves around me.’

  ‘There will be lots of trees in the Last Great Wilderness,’ Kallik said. ‘I’m sure of it.’

  Lusa wriggled. ‘I hope so! I hope we get there soon.’

  Me too, Kallik thought as the two she-bears hurried down the slope and followed the others along the stream and out of the trees.

  CHAPTER SIX:

  Kallik

  The stream widened into a small river shortly after it left the wood. The bears followed it for several days, across stretches of bare rock and then through grassy meadows dotted with purple wildflowers. Sometimes the river doubled back and they found themselves walking in the wrong direction for a day. Prey was scarce, and the leaves and berries they found to eat only left their bellies grumbling.