Smoke Mountain

by Erin Hunter

  ‘OK, I believe you, Taqqiq,’ Kallik said. ‘You’re very brave.’ Her paws were trembling. A crash from the den behind them made her jump. She could hear the constant murmur of no-claw noises through the open door. Even if the firebeast stayed asleep, she knew that no-claws could come out with firesticks at any moment. They had to get out of this open space.

  ‘You think that’s brave,’ Taqqiq said. ‘Watch this.’ To Kallik’s horror, he reared up on his hind legs and slammed his front paws into the firebeast’s face.

  ‘ARRF ARRF ARRF ARRF ARRF ARRF ARRF!’ the firebeast bellowed.

  Kallik pelted back behind the metal box. Her fur felt as if it were about to fly off her skin, and her heart was thundering almost as loudly as the firebeast. She crouched there, shivering, for a long moment. Slowly she realised that Taqqiq was huddled up with her, his nose pressed into her fur. He was shaking as badly as she was.

  She could still hear the firebeast roaring, but it didn’t seem to have come any closer. ‘Is it going to find us and eat us?’ she asked.

  Taqqiq jumped away from her and took a deep breath. ‘I’ve never heard a firebeast do that before,’ he said. His voice was all wobbly and high-pitched. ‘They never woke up when Salik hit them.’

  ‘Why isn’t it coming after us?’ Kallik whispered.

  Taqqiq shook himself. ‘Maybe it’s scared of us too,’ he said. His voice was lower now, as if he were getting over being startled.

  ‘I don’t think that’s it,’ Kallik said. ‘We didn’t look very scary when we were running away.’

  Taqqiq slid over to the edge of the box and poked his nose around the corner. Kallik held her breath. Would the firebeast spot him?

  Her brother sat down with a thud. ‘We’re seal-brains,’ he said.

  ‘We are?’ Kallik said. Seal-brain or not, Taqqiq wasn’t about to persuade her that firebeasts were safe.

  ‘It’s not the firebeast making that noise. Come on, look.’ He stood up and trotted back out into the open. Reluctantly, Kallik followed him.

  ‘ARRF ARRF ARRF ARRF ARRF!’ The fierce roaring certainly sounded as though it were coming from the firebeast. But the enormous creature was still and unmoving. Its eyes weren’t even lit up, the way they were when they ran along the BlackPaths at night.

  ‘Look,’ Taqqiq said, jerking his snout at a clear square in the front of the firebeast. Something was jumping up and down inside the firebeast. Kallik suddenly remembered the white firebeast she had seen on the beach. It had been full of no-claws trapped inside. This one had something inside it too – two somethings – but they weren’t no-claws.

  ‘Oh!’ she said. ‘I’ve seen those kinds of animals before. They look like wolves, but they live with no-claws.’

  ‘I know,’ Taqqiq said. ‘They’re called dogs. You didn’t know that?’

  ‘How would I know that?’ Kallik argued. ‘I’ve been by myself for moons, remember? No one told me anything. I had to figure it all out myself.’

  Taqqiq shifted uncomfortably. ‘Well, Salik said they were dogs,’ he said. ‘Some of them bite, but mostly they’re all noise.’

  He strutted around to the side of the firebeast, where he could see the dogs more clearly. They were as big as Lusa, both black and brown, with fat snouts and small ears and very sharp teeth. They threw themselves against the inside of the firebeast, barking and howling at the white bear cub. One of them shoved his nose against a small crack in the side of the firebeast, sniffing the air furiously.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Taqqiq taunted them. ‘Are you stuck in there? You have to do what the no-claws tell you to, don’t you? You’re no better than a newborn cub, mewling and whining for food. I bet you couldn’t catch your own, not even if you tripped over a dead seal.’

  ‘Taqqiq, let’s get out of here,’ Kallik said, taking a step backwards. ‘They look really angry.’

  ‘They can’t do anything,’ Taqqiq sneered. ‘They’re trapped in there like snails in a shell. All noise and no fight. Salik and I have scared off dogs bigger than these two before. I bet even if they could get out, they’d be too scared to –’

  One of the dogs slipped and hit something on the inside of the firebeast. All at once a whole piece of the firebeast’s skin popped open sideways, like it had opened its mouth. As it slowly swung wide, Kallik realised that there was nothing to keep the dogs inside the firebeast.

  And the dogs were really, really big. Saliva dripped from their jaws, and their sharp white teeth glistened as they snarled.

  With a roar of fury, the two dogs leaped out of the firebeast and hurled themselves at Taqqiq.

  CHAPTER SEVEN:

  Toklo

  ‘Toklo!’ Lusa shrieked. ‘Do something! They’re going to kill Taqqiq!’

  We should be so lucky, Toklo thought, but already his paws were sprinting across the hard black stuff towards the two white cubs. From their spot hidden in the bushes, he and Lusa had watched Taqqiq strutting around the firebeast. Toklo didn’t know where Ujurak had gone off to, but he was glad he was well away from the danger here. Toklo wasn’t a bit surprised that Taqqiq had got himself in trouble. He just wondered if he was doing the right thing by going to his rescue.

  One dog had sunk his teeth into Taqqiq’s front leg while the other went for his head, snarling. Taqqiq stood up with a roar, flinging the first dog off him and clawing at the second one with his other paw. The dog dodged his attack and lunged forward again. His teeth snapped shut only a hair’s breadth away from Taqqiq’s nose.

  The first dog rolled back on to its paws and charged at Taqqiq again. This time Kallik jumped forward and slammed into the dog with her body. It yelped as it fell over, but quickly it twisted around and tried to bite her leg. Kallik stumbled back away from it and it missed, but only barely.

  Toklo didn’t know which dog to fend off first. Which cub was in more trouble? Then he saw the second dog lunge for Taqqiq’s neck. Taqqiq was still reeling from the last attack and didn’t see it coming fast enough to dodge away.

  Just before the dog’s jaws closed on white fur, Toklo’s massive paw slammed into the side of its head. The dog was knocked several bearlengths across the black earth. At the same moment, Toklo whirled and sliced at the other dog as it leaped towards him. The dog tumbled to the ground. With a whimper, it climbed to its paws and limped away.

  Toklo turned and saw that the first dog was also on its paws, shaking its head as if it were stunned. He took one step towards it, and the dog fled into the flat-face den.

  ‘We’ve got to go,’ Lusa urged, racing from the bushes to his side. ‘The flat-faces will be out here with their firesticks any moment!’

  ‘Come on!’ Toklo ordered the white bear cubs. Kallik started to limp towards him, but Taqqiq just glared at him.

  ‘I could have taken care of those dogs myself,’ he snarled.

  ‘Yeah, you were doing a great job!’ Toklo retorted.

  There was a clatter from inside the flat-face den, and the sound of their high-pitched noises got louder.

  ‘Quick!’ Lusa cried. ‘Run!’ She pelted away into the marsh.

  ‘Come on, Taqqiq!’ Kallik said, ramming her brother in the side.

  Well, I don’t care if the flat-faces get him, Toklo thought. He turned his back and ran after Lusa. His paws squished heavily in the mud as he dived off the flat black earth. Ungrateful, selfish, stupid . . .

  Lusa tore through the swampy grassland ahead of him. Toklo would have preferred to run straight across the BlackPath, in the direction of the Big River, but he had to follow her so they didn’t lose her. He realised she was heading for a thin grove of trees several bearlengths away, beside the BlackPath. Typical black bear response, running for trees, he thought, but it wasn’t a bad idea. Hopefully the trees would hide the bears from flat-face eyes – as would the growing darkness now that the sun was all the way down.

  He caught up with her as they dived between the first few tree trunks. A firebeast roared as it charged by on the BlackPa
th, only a bearlength away. Lusa shot up the nearest tree and clung to a branch, panting. As the noise of the firebeast faded, there was a thundering of paws, and Toklo realised that both white bears had followed him after all. Kallik and Taqqiq ran into the trees and collapsed beside a clump of leafy bushes. Toklo spun around, looking anxiously for Ujurak. There was no sign of the other brown bear.

  He peered out between the bushes and saw flat-faces running around the den with the dogs, pointing at the big firebeast and shouting. But they weren’t looking towards the trees. Perhaps they hadn’t seen the bears.

  An odd chittering noise startled him, and he turned to see a squirrel staring at him from the roots of the nearest tree. Its eyes were very bright, like little berries, and instead of running, it stood there looking at him.

  ‘Ujurak?’ he asked. Had he changed shape to hide better?

  Suddenly a flash of white fur flew past him. Taqqiq snatched the squirrel up in one huge paw. Before Toklo could move, Taqqiq’s jaws closed over the squirrel’s head with a devastating crunch.

  ‘No!’ Toklo howled. He threw himself at Taqqiq. ‘No! Stop!’ It was bad enough risking his fur to rescue the dumb white bear from the dogs, but there was no way he was going to watch him eat Ujurak.

  Startled, Taqqiq dropped the squirrel and spun around, roaring and lashing out at Toklo with his claws. The squirrel fell on to the ground and lay there without moving. Then Taqqiq’s claws raked across his snout and Toklo lunged to bury his teeth in the other cub’s neck. Taqqiq’s powerful shoulder muscles knocked him over, and Toklo lashed out with his back paws, leaving streaks of blood on Taqqiq’s white fur.

  He could hear Lusa and Kallik roaring at them, but their voices were only a buzz in his ears. Rage pounded through him. If Taqqiq had killed Ujurak . . . if he had killed Ujurak . . . His despair and anger rose to a frenzy. He slashed and bit and tore into Taqqiq as if the white bear were the reason for every terrible thing that had happened in Toklo’s life.

  ‘Toklo! Taqqiq!’ Lusa screamed from the tree branch. ‘Stop it! Stop!’

  Hot pain seared through Toklo’s skin as Taqqiq’s claws sank into his back. He rolled free and kicked, smashing Taqqiq’s skull into a tree with a vicious thud. The white bear bellowed and cuffed Toklo across the ears. It felt as if a firebeast had slammed into his head. Ears ringing, Toklo crouched and tensed to spring with his claws extended. If he could pin down Taqqiq, just one swift bite to his neck would end this battle.

  Kallik threw herself between them, and for one moment Toklo, blinded by rage, thought he was seeing two of Taqqiq. But before he could pounce, a cold bear nose shoved his snout aside, and somebody muscled into his way. Somebody bigger and heavier than Lusa, with brown fur . . .

  ‘Toklo, what are you doing?’ Ujurak barked. ‘Why are you fighting? What happened?’

  ‘Ujurak!’ Toklo yelped. Exhausted, he collapsed on a pile of leaves. ‘You’re alive!’

  ‘Alive?’ Ujurak echoed, looking puzzled. ‘Why wouldn’t I be? I was just scouting ahead.’

  Over by the tree, Kallik was holding her brother back, standing in his way and murmuring in a low voice. Taqqiq’s eyes were still blazing with anger.

  Toklo’s muscles ached all over, and he could feel trails of sharp pain where Taqqiq and the dogs had clawed him. But Ujurak was alive, and that was the only thing that mattered.

  ‘I thought . . . I thought . . .’ he stammered. He glanced up, searching for a way to explain, and saw Lusa’s bright, horrified eyes watching from a high branch. She looked terrified, as if Toklo had suddenly turned into a firebeast.

  ‘You could have had the stupid squirrel!’ Taqqiq yelled. ‘I would have shared it with you!’

  ‘He just . . . The dogs got you both angry,’ Kallik said. ‘It’s all right; it’s over now.’ She laid one paw on Taqqiq’s shoulder, but he shrugged her off.

  ‘And that’s another thing!’ Taqqiq shouted. ‘I could have handled those dogs! I would have smashed them and clawed them and torn them to shreds without you getting in the way! You don’t always have to interfere! Always telling us what to do and where to go and acting like we don’t know anything. Bossing everyone around like you’re the king of all the bears – who made you so special? You’re not even a white bear. You’re just a stupid brown bear!’

  Guilt prickled through Toklo’s pelt. He could see the dead squirrel lying on the ground nearby; it hadn’t been Ujurak after all.

  But anger flared up in him too. How had he got into this mess? No other bear had to constantly watch out that he didn’t eat his best friend!

  ‘I thought it was Ujurak, all right?’ he snapped. ‘I thought you had killed Ujurak.’

  Taqqiq glared at him for a long moment, his sides heaving. Then, very slowly, as if he really thought Toklo had no brain at all, Taqqiq said, ‘What . . . are . . . you . . . talking about?’

  Toklo nodded at the squirrel. He didn’t know how to even start explaining.

  ‘That’s a squirrel,’ Taqqiq said. ‘Not a bear. Squirrel. Small, noisy, edible? Nothing like Ujurak!’

  ‘I know!’ Toklo growled.

  ‘Taqqiq,’ Kallik said, ‘there’s something we haven’t told you about Ujurak.’

  Her brother turned his head towards her. ‘What?’ he snarled sarcastically. ‘Sometimes he looks like a squirrel?’

  There was an awkward pause.

  ‘Well . . . yes,’ Lusa’s voice said from above them.

  ‘Not often,’ Ujurak offered helpfully.

  ‘Sometimes he’s a bird. Or another kind of bear. Or a flat-face,’ Toklo said. He was almost enjoying the baffled look on Taqqiq’s face. ‘Once he was a mosquito. That was probably my least favourite.’

  ‘Mine too,’ Ujurak agreed.

  Taqqiq hunched his shoulders, his hackles rising. ‘You are all out of your minds,’ he said. ‘Bears don’t turn into other animals.’

  Kallik looked pleadingly at Ujurak and Toklo. ‘We don’t know that for sure, right?’ she said. ‘We haven’t met that many bears. Maybe there are lots of others like Ujurak.’

  ‘I doubt it,’ Toklo muttered.

  ‘But why?’ Taqqiq demanded. ‘Why would you turn into anything else? Why would you want to be anything but a bear?’ He pawed at his nose. ‘And if you can be anything in the world, why wouldn’t you be a white bear?’

  ‘Hey,’ Toklo growled.

  ‘I don’t know why,’ Ujurak said. ‘It just started happening. At first I didn’t do it on purpose . . . Now I only try to change when it’ll be helpful.’

  ‘Is that what you were doing just now?’ Toklo asked.

  ‘No, I was still a bear. I was following the stream to see if we could crawl under the BlackPath with it,’ Ujurak said, pointing with his snout at the spot where the stream disappeared under the BlackPath. ‘But it’s barely a trickle clogged with thornbushes under there. There’s not enough room for us to squeeze through. We have to cross over the top instead.’

  ‘We should do that soon,’ Toklo said, ‘while it’s still dark. The firebeasts are more active in the day.’

  ‘Wait,’ Taqqiq snarled. ‘This doesn’t make any sense. I think you’re all lying to me about Ujurak.’

  ‘Taqqiq, we wouldn’t do that,’ Kallik said.

  ‘Just show him, Ujurak,’ Lusa said, inching down the tree. ‘It’ll be faster than talking about it.’

  That was true, but Toklo didn’t like it. Every time Ujurak changed, Toklo was afraid he’d forget about being a bear and never change back. Being a bear could be so hard; they were all tired, and hungry, and dirty. What if it was easier being something else?

  Ujurak raised his head, thinking. All at once his fur started to ripple, like wind blowing across grass, and black speckled patterns appeared as the fur turned to feathers. He lifted his front paws, and wings sprouted along his forelegs. His neck stretched longer and longer while his body shrank. A beak appeared where his nose had been, and suddenly Ujurak was gone. A long-necked goose blinked dark,
beady eyes at them.

  With a loud honk, the Ujurak-goose flapped its wings and soared into the air. Much too fast for Toklo, the goose disappeared into the dusk-coloured clouds.

  Kallik and Lusa watched him go with their eyes shining. They clearly thought Ujurak’s abilities were amazing, but Toklo just wanted to jump on the goose and sit on him until he was a normal bear again. He clawed at the earth. Why couldn’t Ujurak just stay a bear?

  Taqqiq had his back pressed against a tree. His lips were curled in a snarl, and he kept whipping around as if he thought Ujurak was going to pop out and scare him.

  ‘I don’t like it,’ he growled. ‘Why do you all stay with him?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Kallik asked. ‘Don’t you see how wonderful it is? Ujurak’s special. That’s why he’s the right bear to lead us to the Place of Endless Ice.’

  He’s special, all right, Toklo thought. Especially irritating. But deep down he agreed with Kallik. He just wanted Ujurak to come back so they could get on with their journey.

  ‘It’s unnatural,’ Taqqiq said, shaking his head. ‘It’s wrong and it’s creepy. What if he turned into a walrus and ate us?’

  ‘He wouldn’t do that,’ Toklo said, adding pointedly, ‘just like we wouldn’t eat him while he’s a squirrel.’

  Taqqiq snorted. ‘Well, I think someone might have warned me instead of trying to claw my ears off for no apparent reason.’

  There was a fluttering sound overhead and Ujurak landed in the clearing, turning into a bear again as he rolled across the grass. He shook himself, panting. A few long goose feathers lay on the leaves where he had landed. Taqqiq sniffed them, then glowered at Ujurak.

  ‘They just smell like goose,’ he said accusingly. ‘How are we supposed to know it’s you when you’re not being a bear?’

  ‘I’ll try not to change again unless I have to,’ Ujurak promised.

  ‘And we’ll just be careful whenever he does,’ Kallik said.