The Last Wilderness Read online

  Toklo and Kallik stood up at once, ready to set out, but Ujurak didn’t seem as eager. Still, he didn’t object as they trotted through the long, whispering grass, keeping to the line of the foothills. Geese fluttered up from patches of shallow water as the bears went past, only to settle again almost at once. Lusa’s belly was comfortably full; there was no need to hunt now. When they were hungry again, there would be plenty of prey to be caught, and hopefully some tasty leaves and berries for her. She didn’t like eating meat all the time, and her mouth watered as she thought of picking fruit from the trees on the mountains.

  It seemed strange to think about having a choice of what to eat. I’d almost forgotten what it was like not to have to worry where the next meal’s coming from.

  There were plenty of places to make dens too. Trees for her, holes between rocks or under tree roots for Ujurak and Toklo, and soon there would be the ice for Kallik. Lusa let out a long sigh, letting go of the tension from the many moons of fear and anxiety.

  ‘Race you to that rock!’ Toklo exclaimed suddenly, pointing with his snout towards a rounded grey boulder half-buried in the ground. He propelled himself forward, powerful muscles pumping under his thick brown fur; Kallik raced after him, hard on his paws, but Ujurak hesitated, his head tilted back as he studied the clouds.

  ‘Hey, Ujurak!’ Lusa called. ‘Are you going to let those bigger bears beat you?’

  Ujurak jumped, as if his thoughts had been far away, then turned and pelted after his friends.

  Lusa scampered behind them, knowing she didn’t have any hope of winning but enjoying the sensation of strength in her muscles and the certainty that they wouldn’t have to travel any more. She was a wild bear now, and this was her home. If only Ashia and Yogi could have come with her.

  Toklo reached the rock a snout-length before Kallik. ‘I’ve won!’ he yelled. ‘I’m the fastest!’

  ‘You had a head start!’ Kallik leaped on the young grizzly and pushed him over; brown and white pelts wrestled, grunting and slapping each other with their paws.

  Meanwhile Ujurak scrambled up on to the boulder and gazed around, towards the distant sea and over the rolling hills they had just left. Lusa thought he looked anxious, as if he was searching for something and couldn’t find it.

  What’s got into his fur? We’ve finally made it to the place he’s been searching for. He should be happy!

  ‘Ujurak, are you OK?’ she asked.

  Ujurak blinked at her, almost as if he didn’t recognise her. ‘What? Oh, sure, Lusa, I’m fine.’

  Lusa wrinkled her nose. There was a tasty scent hanging in the air, something plump and juicy mixed with the cold tang of stone. She rested her front paws on a smooth round rock at the foot of the boulder and pushed until it started to shift. ‘Help me out here, Ujurak! This is a trick that Miki showed me in the forest beside Great Bear Lake.’

  Ujurak leaped down and helped Lusa turn the stone over. They both jumped back as it rolled away to expose a nest of fat, wriggling grubs.

  ‘Try them,’ Lusa invited, taking a mouthful. They were much nicer than meat, which felt heavy in her stomach. One quick bite and juices flooded her mouth. There were enough grubs here for a moon! Perhaps she could find a sleeping tree with friendly bear spirits nearby.

  She was distracted from planning her new home by a bark of surprise from Toklo as he and Kallik rolled over and slammed into a low-growing thorn-bush. An Arctic hare that had been sheltering under the branches sprang out of cover and fled; Toklo broke away from Kallik and pounded in pursuit. He cornered the hare against an outcrop of rock and killed it with a single expert blow.

  Lusa bounded up with Kallik and Ujurak, and stood looking down at the limp body of the hare. Its dark chestnut pelt was flecked with white, reminding her that leaftime was drawing to a close; soon the snows would return.

  ‘Good catch,’ said Kallik. ‘But I’m still full from that goose.’

  ‘It’s OK, we can bury the hare until we’re ready to eat it,’ Toklo pointed out. ‘That’s what brown bears do. I once found a stash that another bear had left in the woods.’

  Kallik nodded. ‘That makes sense.’

  It felt strange to Lusa that they had to decide what to do when they had too much food. But it’s a good problem, she decided. Much better than looking for food and not finding any.

  Toklo had just begun to scrape a hole in the ground when the Arctic fox reappeared and darted forward, right under his paws, and snatched up the hare.

  ‘Hey!’ Toklo swung around threateningly. ‘That’s ours!’

  The fox was already racing away, the prey dragging on the ground between its front paws. Toklo set off in pursuit, but the fox squeezed down a hole and vanished with a flick of his brown-and-white tail. Toklo jabbed his front paw into the burrow, but the fox was obviously out of reach because Toklo soon came padding back. ‘Stupid creature,’ he grumbled.

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Lusa said, giving Toklo’s shoulder a friendly poke with her snout. ‘We’ll catch more when we’re ready.’

  Dark clouds had begun to gather above the sea, and an icy wind whipped in, bringing with it the tang of snow. Kallik drank it in deeply, raising her muzzle and taking powerful long breaths.

  ‘The ice is coming,’ she murmured.

  Lusa and the others followed Toklo as he padded over to a pool. Lusa dipped her snout to drink from the ice-fresh water. It tasted different from the water further inland: sharp and salty, with a trace of fish. Lusa wasn’t sure she liked it, but Kallik gulped it down.

  ‘This feels almost like home,’ she said. Her voice grew eager. ‘Come on, let’s go to the shore. I want to dip my paws in the sea!’

  Toklo lifted his dripping snout from the pool. ‘You mean you want the water to freeze your fur off?’ he teased.

  ‘Cold is good,’ Kallik insisted. ‘Please come! I really want to go down to the sea today.’

  ‘Come on, Toklo,’ Lusa put in. She could see the longing in Kallik’s eyes. ‘It’ll be fun.’

  Toklo shrugged. ‘OK. It’s not like we have anything else to do.’

  The bears set off with Kallik leading the way, her pace quickening as they neared the glimmering line of the ocean. The wind grew stronger as the land flattened in front of them, sweeping in from the sea with a spatter of sleet that stung Lusa’s eyes.

  Kallik still kept on going, her head lowered into the blast, but Toklo stumbled to a halt, and after a moment’s hesitation Lusa and Ujurak joined him.

  ‘Hey, Kallik!’ Toklo called out. ‘We can’t go down to the sea now. This wind is too cold. And it’s blowing my fur off.’

  Kallik paused, looking back over her shoulder. ‘The wind is great!’ she protested. ‘Can’t you smell the ice in it?’

  ‘But we’re not like you,’ Lusa told Kallik. ‘The ice isn’t our home. Let’s stay here in the hills for a while, until the weather’s better.’

  ‘But –’ Kallik began.

  She broke off as Lusa touched one paw to her shoulder. ‘Just for now,’ Lusa whispered. She knew what was going to happen: the bears would split up, each finding their own perfect place to live, and she might never see the others again. They had reached the end of their journey, but Lusa didn’t want it to be the end of their friendship too. ‘Wait until the ice comes back,’ she pleaded.

  Kallik hesitated, then gave a reluctant nod. Lusa saw her glance longingly back at the sea before she followed her friends toward the hills once more.

  There weren’t many trees in this direction, Lusa noticed sadly, but there were plenty of low-growing bushes and outcrops of rock that could provide shelter from the freezing wind. The caribou grazed on the tough moorland grass, throwing up their heads and snorting with dismay as the four bears padded past.

  ‘They’re really restless,’ Lusa commented. ‘I wonder if something’s disturbed them.’

  ‘We’ve disturbed them,’ Toklo responded, baring his teeth.

  ‘No, I think it’s something else,’ K
allik murmured.

  The whole herd was shifting like waves rolling over a beach, but they didn’t seem to be going in any particular direction. They would feed for a while, then raise their heads, pace away for a few bearlengths, then settle to feed again. A weird clicking noise came from them every time they moved.

  ‘What’s that funny noise they’re making?’ Lusa asked.

  ‘They do it every time they walk.’ Ujurak eyed the caribou with interest, distracted from the uneasy brooding that had worried Lusa earlier.

  ‘It’s coming from their feet!’ Kallik exclaimed, after watching for a moment longer. She raised one of her paws and flexed it curiously. ‘Why do caribou’s feet click when bears’ don’t?’

  ‘Who cares?’ Toklo asked. ‘Maybe it’s so we can creep up on our prey without them noticing. Their prey is grass. You don’t have to sneak up on grass.’

  They wandered on, while the sun hauled itself almost to the height of the mountains before it slowly began to sink again. Days didn’t last long here – not like when they’d been by Great Bear Lake, where the sun had barely dipped below the horizon before rising again.

  ‘Hey, Toklo!’ Lusa called. ‘How do you like the idea of sinking your teeth into a caribou? We’d never be hungry again!’

  Toklo halted and scanned the nearest of the herd with a gleam in his eye. ‘No, I already said they’re too big . . .’ he muttered. His claws scraped the ground as if he was imagining how it would feel to rake them across a caribou’s hide.

  ‘I think you could do it,’ Ujurak told him.

  Toklo blinked as a look of pride spread across his face. ‘Well, maybe a small one . . .’

  Lusa noticed that he was eyeing the herd with much more interest now as they padded on. There were caribou calves among the herd, grazing beside the full-grown adults. I bet Toklo could catch one of those.

  On the other side of the caribou, the ground sloped up more steeply and vanished into a dark growth of trees. The branches rippled in the wind, as if the whole hillside were the pelt of a huge animal.

  ‘Look at the forest!’ she exclaimed, jerking her snout in that direction. ‘Please can we go and check it out? Please?’

  ‘Looks good,’ Toklo agreed. ‘I could find my own territory there.’ His eyes focused with a gleam of determination. ‘Any bear who crossed my border had better watch out!’ He gave Lusa a playful nudge. ‘I might let annoying black bears visit, though. Just to make sure they didn’t starve.’

  ‘You can be annoying yourself!’ Lusa bared her teeth at him in a mock snarl. ‘I can look after myself, thank you very much. Miki showed me lots of tricks in the forest beside Great Bear Lake.’

  ‘That scared little cub? The one the white bears took?’ Toklo’s voice rose in disbelief.

  ‘Miki knew a lot,’ Lusa assured him. She shot a sidelong glance at Kallik, trying to warn Toklo not to remind the white bear of how her brother Taqqiq and his friends had stolen the little black bear. Kallik still loved Taqqiq, whatever he had done. ‘He showed me what sorts of berries were the best, and how to find grubs underneath stones . . .’

  ‘Berries . . . grubs?’ Toklo growled, though his eyes still shone with amusement. ‘That’s no sort of food for a bear.’

  ‘It’s the best!’ Lusa argued. ‘And ants . . . I never imagined that ants could taste so delicious.’

  ‘I’ll settle for goose, thanks,’ Toklo said. ‘Or caribou.’ He eyed one of the herd that was clicking nervously past. ‘You’re right, that would really fill our bellies.’

  ‘I’m hungry for seal,’ Kallik murmured, gazing back down the hill to where the white sea-ice glimmered on the horizon. ‘You don’t know how exciting it is, crouching beside the hole in the ice and waiting for the seal to come up for a breath!’

  ‘Exciting?’ Toklo muttered into Lusa’s ear. ‘If sitting all day freezing your fur off is exciting, then I’m a goose!’

  Lusa gave him a stern look. ‘Doesn’t the seal know you’re there?’ she asked Kallik.

  ‘Not if you’re really quiet,’ the white cub replied. ‘Then when it appears, you have to be so quick, to drag it out and kill it before it can get away.’ She heaved a long sigh. ‘Seal meat is the best thing ever . . . I can taste it now. I can’t wait for the ice to come back!’

  Seeing the glow in her eyes, Lusa knew she had to feel happy for her, though a prickle of apprehension ran down her spine. The day when they would follow their separate paths couldn’t be far away.

  ‘I love building a snow cave and curling up inside it,’ Kallik went on. ‘It’s so cosy to listen to the wind whistling outside and know you’re warm and safe. And swimming with beluga whales –’

  ‘Swimming with whales?’ Lusa’s fur bristled with alarm. ‘Isn’t that how your mother died?’

  ‘No, it was an orca whale that killed Nisa. Belugas are different.’ Kallik’s eyes clouded with memories, making Lusa sorry she had asked the question. Bee-brain! Think before you open your big mouth! ‘The beluga won’t hurt you,’ Kallik went on, brightening a little. ‘I wish I could show you the ice, Lusa. You’d love it.’

  I doubt it, Lusa thought, gazing out at the silver shimmer on the edge of sight. Just the idea of all that emptiness made her ache inside. How could that ever feel like home? Not a tree in sight! I’d get blown away like a leaf, if I didn’t freeze into an icicle first!

  ‘I think forests are best for black bears,’ she told Kallik.

  ‘They’re certainly better for brown bears,’ Toklo declared. ‘I’ll mark out my territory before the snow comes, and then I’ll dig myself a nice warm den and settle down to wait for the sun to come back.’ He yawned as if he was ready to close his eyes right now. ‘Then I’ll wake up and find a river, and catch all the fish I can eat. That’s the best way for bears to live – isn’t that right, Ujurak?’

  The smaller brown cub jumped. ‘What?’

  Lusa realised that Ujurak hadn’t said a single word while the rest of them were remembering their homes and making plans for the future. ‘Is something wrong?’ she asked.

  Ujurak’s puzzled brown gaze rested on her. ‘I . . . I don’t know,’ he began uncertainly. ‘I mean, yes, something is wrong, but I’m not sure what it is.’

  Toklo gave an exasperated sigh. ‘Ujurak, your brain’s full of fluff! We’re here, we’ve made it. This is a good place, with all the prey we can eat and not a flat-face in sight. This is the end of the trail.’

  Ujurak straightened up, raising his snout. ‘No,’ he replied; his voice was stronger now and more certain. ‘I don’t know exactly what is wrong, but I know one thing for sure. This isn’t the end of our journey.’

  Lusa remembered uneasily that when Ujurak had first looked down at the plain from the slopes of Smoke Mountain, he hadn’t been sure that this was the place they were looking for. Now he seemed to have made up his mind. She felt even more uneasy when she remembered the dream that had come to her in the mountains, the dream that told her that she must save the wild. She had managed to push it out of her mind for a while, but Ujurak’s doubts had brought it back.

  ‘It is the end, Ujurak,’ Toklo protested. ‘It has to be. There’s nowhere else to go.’ He gestured with one paw at the sea below. ‘This is as far as we can travel without getting our paws wet.’

  Ujurak gazed down at the stretch of wrinkled grey water with the encroaching ice glistening on the horizon. Then he looked back at Toklo. His brown eyes were pleading for one of them to understand what he was saying. ‘I know you must be right . . . but if this is the end, then why don’t I feel it?’

  CHAPTER THREE:

  Toklo

  Toklo let out a huff of exasperation. ‘Stop being such a worry-face!’ he exclaimed, giving Ujurak an affectionate shove that almost carried the smaller bear off his paws.

  ‘I’m not a worry-face,’ Ujurak protested. ‘It’s just . . .’

  His voice trailed off. Toklo shook his head in confusion. He had never truly understood Ujurak’s impulse to keep
travelling, following his invisible path past places that would make great territories.

  ‘You know what?’ Toklo snorted. ‘You’ve never known anything but travelling. So you can’t imagine what it’s like to settle down.’ Ujurak had never talked about his BirthDen or his mother, and something had stopped Toklo from asking about them. Did he even have a mother? And if he did, was she a bear or something else? ‘It’ll feel good, I promise,’ he assured Ujurak. ‘Just think – we can make our own territories here and catch a tasty caribou, or a goose, any time we want. We won’t be hungry ever again.’ Surely that was what mattered most of all, after they’d nearly starved in the mountains and been hungry enough to steal flat-face food that Lusa found? Had Ujurak already forgotten what hunger was like?

  ‘Maybe you’re right,’ Ujurak muttered, not meeting Toklo’s gaze. ‘But I can’t help what I feel. There’s something tugging at me, telling me that we have to go on.’

  ‘Well, tell it to go on its own!’ Toklo huffed. ‘Can’t you see how great this place is?’

  ‘We don’t have to talk about this now,’ Lusa broke in. ‘It’s more important to decide where we’ll make our dens for the night. If we don’t hurry up, it’ll be too dark to see where we’re going.’

  Toklo let out an irritated snort; it was especially annoying because he had to admit Lusa was right. The sun was going down; this wasn’t the time to stand around arguing. ‘OK, let’s go,’ he said.

  He led the way to the top of a ridge in the foothills. Beyond it the ground sloped down into a wide valley. At the valley’s head he could just make out a waterfall, tumbling down from the mountains. On the floor of the valley the waterfall split into countless narrow channels flowing swiftly past a scattering of rocky islands.

  ‘That looks like a good place,’ said Kallik. ‘If we swam out to one of those islands, nothing could sneak up on us.’

  ‘And there might be fish,’ Ujurak added hopefully.

  Once they reached the edge of the river Toklo could see that they wouldn’t have to swim. The fast-flowing stream ran clear over brown pebbles; when Toklo waded out, it came scarcely halfway up his legs.