Island of Shadows

by Erin Hunter

  “Ujurak always knew which way to go,” she went on at last. “He could read signs in the landscape.”

  “What sort of signs?”

  “Oh … like the way bushes were growing, or how rocks were placed.” Lusa guessed that Nanulak would find that hard to believe, too. She didn’t mention the stranger signs Ujurak could interpret, like the way the wind blew the clouds. “He taught me how to do it,” she added, “but I was never as good at it as he was.”

  “Weird,” Nanulak commented. “I guess Toklo didn’t like that.”

  Lusa let out a little snort of amusement. “Not at first,” she admitted. “But he learned to trust Ujurak, just like Kallik and I did.” Then her amusement faded as she realized something was strange about Nanulak’s remark.

  “Why do you think Toklo wouldn’t like it?” she asked curiously.

  Nanulak shrugged. “Signs and stuff … it’s not what brown bears do. But then, it sounds like Ujurak wasn’t really a brown bear.”

  “Yes, he was!” Lusa retorted, stung. “I told you, most of the time he was a brown bear, and that’s the way he felt most comfortable.”

  “Okay…” Nanulak kicked a shower of snow behind him from the hollow where the den was taking shape. “How did Toklo meet Ujurak?”

  “I’m not sure,” Lusa replied. “I wasn’t with them then. But I think he helped Ujurak when he was … when he was in another shape.” I won’t tell Nanulak that he was a flat-face! “Ujurak was quite young then.”

  “I see.” For some reason Nanulak sounded pleased. “I guess Toklo was sorry for him.”

  Lusa wasn’t sure what to say. She knew that Nanulak had it wrong. Toklo had felt protective toward Ujurak, but never sorry for him. Angry, exasperated, worried … but never sorry. But she didn’t know how she could explain that to a bear who had never known Ujurak.

  “Ujurak wasn’t helpless,” she said. “Sometimes he got into stuff he couldn’t handle, but we’ve all done that. Sometimes I think Ujurak was the strongest of all of us.”

  Nanulak let out a snort, as if he wasn’t about to accept that. “Maybe he made you think so.” He paused, then added, “A creature like that couldn’t be Toklo’s real friend.”

  Lusa stopped digging and gazed at Nanulak, biting back an angry response. She didn’t know what to say in reply; she wanted to defend Ujurak, but she could tell that Nanulak wasn’t going to believe her. Awkwardly she scuffled her paws in the snow.

  A tide of relief washed over her as she heard pawsteps behind her, and Toklo padded up with a hare in his jaws. Several minutes later, Kallik and Yakone appeared at the top of the outcrop; Kallik was carrying a goose.

  “Toklo, great catch!” Nanulak exclaimed, bounding over to the brown bear and gazing at the hare with admiring eyes.

  Lusa couldn’t help noticing that he completely ignored Kallik and Yakone. “That’s a good catch, too,” she told Kallik as the white bears padded down to join the others. “We’ll eat well for once.”

  “I’m sorry we didn’t find any plants for you, Lusa,” Kallik said, dropping the goose.

  “Never mind. I can eat meat.” Lusa tried to sound cheerful, although her belly heaved.

  Part of her wanted to tell her friends about the odd conversation she had shared with Nanulak. But after a moment’s thought, she kept it to herself. I might not understand either if I hadn’t known Ujurak.

  Crouching down to take a mouthful of the goose, gagging on the fatty meat, all Lusa really wanted was to keep going until she could find some trees, more black bears, and a place that felt like home. She imagined sunlight on her fur, and the fresh taste of berries bursting in her mouth.

  I never want to see another snowflake for the rest of my life!

  When they had swallowed the last mouthfuls of prey, the bears curled up in the den. Lusa slept uneasily, dreaming in snatches about the Bear Bowl. Then she found herself on the mountainside on Star Island once again, with the avalanche thundering down toward her.

  “Ujurak!” she squealed.

  Terror jerked her awake, and she realized that she was alone in the den. Red light was angling through the entrance, turning the snow outside the color of blood.

  Lusa scrambled to her paws and padded out into the open. Kallik and Yakone stood close together a couple of bearlengths away, sniffing the air. Toklo and Nanulak were talking together a little farther off.

  Toklo broke off as he spotted Lusa. “Good, you’re awake,” he grunted. “Now we can get going.”

  Feeling a bit guilty about how often she had traveled on Yakone’s back, Lusa padded along beside Kallik as they set out. The sun was going down into a mass of ragged cloud. The cold air was like claws in Lusa’s throat, but it didn’t look as if there was more snow to come.

  The red light of sunset was still in the sky when the bears reached the rim of a shallow valley on the edge of the ice cap. Thornbushes were thickly massed in the valley bottom; Lusa guessed there might be a stream or a pond down there, frozen and covered with snow.

  “I’m going to run ahead for a bit,” she told Toklo. “I want to get some bark off those bushes, and there might even be a few berries.”

  Toklo nodded. “Okay. But be careful.”

  Lusa headed off, kicking up the snow as she bounded through it. Then she remembered how she had been trapped in ice after not looking where she was going, and slowed her pace to a brisk trot.

  A scatter of feathers on the snow slowed her still further. It looks as if a bird was killed here, she thought. Maybe there are bears around. Should I go back and warn the others?

  But the bushes were quite close now, and Lusa’s jaws were watering. Just a few mouthfuls, she promised herself, padding up to the nearest one and beginning to strip off the bark.

  Then movement caught her eye; beyond the thorns she spotted a white bear loping along with a half-grown cub by her side. Lusa froze, thankful for the bushes that concealed her from them. I should never have left the others. I was so bee-brained!

  Then another smaller cub bounced out of the thicket and ran after the she-bear. Lusa stifled a gasp of astonishment. That cub is brown!

  Looking more closely, Lusa realized that the small cub could have been Nanulak’s younger sister, with the sloping shoulders and muzzle of a white bear. And now she noticed that the mother bear had the shorter snout of a grizzly, while the older cub had patches of brown fur on his white pelt.

  They’re all mixtures, just like Nanulak!

  When the bear family had passed by, Lusa emerged from hiding and pelted back to her companions, who were still making their way slowly down into the valley.

  “There you are!” Toklo exclaimed as she dashed up to them. “You need to stay with us now. We—”

  “There are white bears around!” Nanulak announced, wide-eyed with fear. “We saw their droppings.”

  “I’ve seen the bears,” Lusa replied. “They’re not white bears; they’re mixtures, just like you. Three of them: a mother bear and two cubs.”

  To her surprise, Nanulak didn’t look pleased at her news, though Kallik and Yakone exchanged an interested glance.

  “We should go meet them,” Kallik suggested. “They might know your family, Nanulak.”

  Nanulak shrugged uneasily. “I don’t want to meet them. I’m a brown bear now.”

  “Well, if we head this way, we’re likely to come across them,” Toklo said. His voice was decisive, as if he was nipping a possible argument in the bud. “There’s nothing to worry about, Nanulak. It was white bears who attacked you, right?”

  “Right,” Nanulak muttered, with a sulky look.

  Yakone led the way down into the valley, tracking Lusa’s pawsteps. Before they reached the bushes at the bottom, Lusa spotted the mother bear and the two cubs examining something in the snow a little way off.

  “Hello there!” Yakone called out, veering in their direction. Lusa and the others followed, though Lusa could see that Nanulak was dragging his paws.

  The mixed bears lo
oked up at the sound of Yakone’s voice and trotted over to meet them, the small cub keeping very close to his mother.

  “Hi.” Toklo spoke warily, stepping in front of Yakone so he was the first to encounter the new bears.

  “Hi.” The mother bear spoke first. Her gaze traveled over the others with friendly interest, though her eyes widened with surprise when she spotted Lusa. I don’t suppose she’s ever seen a black bear, Lusa thought.

  “I don’t think we’ve met before,” the she-bear went on.

  “No, we’re just passing through.” Kallik stepped forward to Toklo’s side and dipped her head politely. “We’re on our way to the Frozen Sea.”

  “Oh, I’ve heard about that!” the she-bear said. “It’s supposed to be a really good place for white bears.”

  “You know it!” Kallik looked overjoyed. “Is it far?”

  The mother bear shook her head. “That I couldn’t tell you. I don’t travel much,” she added apologetically. “I’m happy here in this valley. My mate is always traveling, though. We don’t see much of him during snow-sky. I don’t think he’s ever visited the Frozen Sea himself, but he’s met other bears who have.”

  “We know we have to get off this island and cross the sea again,” Yakone said. “Are we going in the right direction?”

  “Yes, you’re fine,” the brown bear told him. “Keep going along the ridge, and when you get to the end, veer in that direction.” She gestured with a paw. “Pretty soon you’ll come to a deep gully, and that leads to a slope that takes you right down to the coast. Or so my mate tells me.”

  “Great, thanks,” Yakone replied.

  While the other bears were talking, Nanulak kept to the back of their group, as if he didn’t want to be seen. Lusa was still surprised that he wasn’t more excited to see bears who were mixtures like him.

  “Hey, look!” She gave Nanulak a shove forward. “We’re traveling with a bear who’s just like you!”

  Nanulak’s paws skidded in the snow as he resisted, and he gave Lusa a glare. Lusa blinked back in astonishment. What did I do?

  The she-bear padded up to Nanulak and gave him a sniff. “It’s good to meet you,” she said.

  Nanulak grunted something inaudible in reply.

  “Nanulak’s had a bad time,” Toklo explained. Lusa thought he sounded defensive, as if he wanted to apologize for Nanulak’s unfriendliness. “His brown-bear mother drove him away when there wasn’t enough prey, and then white bears attacked him.”

  “That’s really tough!” the older cub exclaimed.

  The little cub let out a growl. “If I got my paws on them, they’d be sorry.” She reared up on her hind paws and batted fiercely at the air.

  “Nanulak, I’m so sorry that happened to you.” The she-bear bent her head to touch Nanulak on the shoulder. “We’re lucky, I suppose. No bear has ever treated us badly.” She hesitated, glancing at her cubs, then added, “If you want, you can come and live with us. There’s not much room, and not much prey this time of year, but you’re welcome to share what we have.”

  The little cub let out a squeak and gave a bounce of excitement, spraying up snow, but Lusa saw that the older cub was looking sulky, as if he didn’t agree with his mother’s offer. He looked about the same age as Nanulak; maybe he saw Nanulak as a rival.

  Nanulak’s eyes widened with shock, and he opened his jaws to reply. Lusa was certain he was going to say something rude and maybe antagonize these friendly bears.

  But before Nanulak could speak, Toklo gave him a warning shove. “No, thank you,” he replied, as if the she-bear’s invitation had been extended to all of them. “We won’t take up any of your territory. I’m sure you need all the prey you can catch for your own family.”

  “Stay for tonight, at least,” the mother bear suggested. “Our den is in the thicket over there.”

  Toklo hesitated. Lusa guessed he was unwilling to tell the she-bear they were traveling by night, in case she asked why. “Okay, thanks,” he said at last. “We’ll help you hunt first, though. You shouldn’t have to feed so many extra mouths.”

  “Great!” The older cub looked a bit less sulky now that he wasn’t expected to share his food. “We found traces of a hare over there; we were going to follow its scent.”

  Lusa stayed among the thorns as the other bears set off on the hunt. She had managed to eat her fill of leaves and bark by the time they returned through the darkness. The mother bear was carrying a hare, while Kallik was dragging along an Arctic fox, and Toklo had caught a small bird with speckled brown and white feathers. For once every bear had a full belly by the time they settled down for the night.

  Maybe Nanulak should stay here, Lusa thought drowsily as she curled up in the mixed bears’ den. These bears are friendly, and just like him. Feeling a bit guilty, she admitted to herself, And we wouldn’t be responsible for him anymore.

  A ray of sunlight angling through the thorns woke Lusa the next morning. Blinking, she lifted her head to see that Kallik and Yakone had already left the den. The mixed-bear family was still sleeping in a heap of mingled brown and white fur. On the other side of the den, Toklo and Nanulak were awake, their heads close together as they talked.

  “You could stay here,” Toklo murmured. “It’s okay… I’ll understand if you’d rather be with them.”

  “No!” The word burst out of Nanulak, and he pressed himself closer to Toklo’s side. “I’m not like these bears! I’m like you. I’m a brown bear now. I want to stay with you.”

  “But—” Toklo began.

  “Please don’t leave me here!” Nanulak’s voice rose to a shrill wail. “Brown bears don’t belong on the ice. We belong in the forest, like you said!”

  His loud voice had roused the mixed bears, who looked up with expressions of mingled surprise and hurt.

  “Whoa, have it your way, then,” the older cub growled. “I didn’t want you to stay, anyway.”

  Lusa felt her belly cramp at the awkwardness of the moment. She thought she ought to apologize for Nanulak, when the mixed bears had been so welcoming, but she didn’t know what to say.

  “It’s all right, Nanulak.” Toklo rested a paw on the younger bear’s shoulder to calm him.

  The mother bear nodded. “The little one knows his own mind,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to stand in his way.”

  “We’d better go,” Toklo muttered.

  He and Nanulak pushed their way out through the thorns into the open, and Lusa followed. Kallik and Yakone were sitting a bearlength away, and they rose to their paws as Toklo and the others emerged.

  “Thank you for letting us stay,” Lusa said to the mother bear, as she joined them outside. “I’m sorry that—”

  The she-bear raised a paw to interrupt her. “There’s nothing to be sorry for, small one. I understand.”

  With a few words of farewell Toklo led the way farther across the valley. Lusa turned to look back at the she-bear and her cubs, feeling rather sad as their shapes dwindled into the distance. They were nice. I wish we could have been friends.

  “Hey, Lusa!” Toklo had paused to look around for her. “Are you coming?”

  “Isn’t it odd about these mixed bears?” Kallik was saying as Lusa bounded up to join them. “We’ve never met any before, and now we’ve seen four of them.”

  Toklo shrugged. “Not so strange,” he replied. “We haven’t been in many places where brown bears and white bears live together.”

  “I hope we don’t see any more,” Nanulak said in a resentful tone as all five bears padded on. “Those bears back there should make up their minds what sort of bear they want to be. Anything else is just stupid. I’m a brown bear; isn’t that right, Toklo?”

  “If that’s what you want,” Toklo responded.

  Lusa was shocked that Nanulak was so dismissive of the bears, when they had been so kind and offered him a place to live. “But that’s no excuse for being rude,” she told Nanulak, her exasperation spilling over. “When you’ve traveled as far as we h
ave, you’ll learn that you can’t afford to turn down friendliness, wherever you find it.”

  Nanulak halted, glaring at her. “Are you saying you want to get rid of me?”

  “I’m fine with you staying with us if that’s what Toklo wants,” Lusa replied. “Just don’t do anything to offend other bears.”

  “She’s right,” Kallik said firmly. “Now let’s keep moving.”

  Ujurak could be anything he wanted to be and was often unsure about what he was, Lusa thought. But he never let it make him angry and bitter like Nanulak.

  I feel bad when Nanulak has had such an awful time, she added silently to herself, but I’m not at all sure that I like him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Kallik

  The bears returned to traveling by night as they trekked along the ridge. Kallik’s excitement began to rise. With the information the mixed bears had given them about the direction they should take, she was certain it wouldn’t be long before they could leave the island.

  “I can’t wait to show you the Frozen Sea!” she said to Yakone. “I just hope we can get there before the ice melts.”

  “Yeah, I want to see it, too,” Nanulak broke in, surprising Kallik by the enthusiasm in his voice. “Anywhere, so long as it’s off this island!”

  “There’ll be a lot of white bears at the Frozen Sea,” Yakone warned him. “Are you sure you won’t be scared?”

  “I’m a brown bear,” Nanulak informed him loftily. “I’m not scared of anything.”

  Kallik thought back to the day when they had found Nanulak. He had been scared then, and later terrified that the white bears would spot him. Even though she wanted to take care of Nanulak and make sure that he found a safe place to live, she didn’t like the way he was lying, or the thinly veiled hostility with which he spoke to Yakone.

  “Besides,” Nanulak went on, before Kallik could decide if she wanted to respond, “we won’t be staying there long, will we, Toklo? We’ll travel on and find the right place for brown bears to live.”