The Last Wilderness Read online

  Kallik nudged his shoulder with her snout. ‘Now do you know how wonderful it is to have your paws in the ocean?’

  Ujurak wrinkled his nose. ‘The water doesn’t taste very nice,’ he commented, licking droplets from his muzzle.

  Kallik snorted. ‘You don’t have to drink it!’

  Gradually they veered inland, heading back towards the hills, stopping where the pebbly beach gave way to scrub so they could strip a thornbush of its berries. Halfway through her second mouthful, Lusa realised she could hear a tremendous rattling and clacking coming from beyond the ridge.

  ‘What’s that?’ Kallik barked.

  ‘Let’s go and see!’ Ujurak bounded ahead, halting at the top of the slope. ‘Look!’ he exclaimed as Lusa and Kallik scrambled up beside him.

  Lusa stared down into the next valley at the moving river of caribou, massed so close together that she could hardly see the ground they were walking on. The loud rattling was coming from their feet as they headed away from the coast, many times louder and faster than the rattling from the lazily ambling caribou they’d seen the day before.

  ‘Where are they all going?’ Kallik asked, putting her head on one side. ‘There’s nothing chasing them.’

  Lusa shrugged. She had no idea what could have prompted the herd to move off all together like this. Did they feel Ujurak’s urge to travel, or the powerful pull that was drawing Kallik back to the ice?

  ‘Toklo will be disappointed,’ she said. ‘He wanted to hunt them.’

  While she was speaking, she spotted a flat-face den at one side of the valley. It was built of tree trunks, and it blended so well into the landscape that Lusa hadn’t noticed it until now. Her heart began to race. She gave Kallik a nudge with her snout. ‘Look over there.’

  Kallik’s eyes stretched wide with dismay. ‘That’s a flat-face den! There aren’t supposed to be any flat-faces here.’

  Looking more closely, Lusa spotted flat-face pelts strung on a line at one side of the den, and a wisp of smoke coming from a round thing like a tree stump on the roof.

  ‘There’s something odd . . .’ she muttered.

  Snuffing the air, she figured out what was different about this den. There was no smell of BlackPaths around it, or the heavy scent of the flowers flat-faces grew in their gardens. The den didn’t just blend into the valley because it was made from tree trunks; it didn’t even have a distinctive flat-face scent. ‘Maybe these flat-faces aren’t dangerous,’ Ujurak suggested hopefully.

  ‘Aren’t flat-faces always dangerous?’ Kallik huffed.

  As they stood peering down at the den, the door was flung wide and a young flat-face cub burst into the open. He was pointing at the caribou herd and yelling something in a high-pitched voice. An older female flat-face followed the cub outside, along with a broad-shouldered flat-face male. All three of them wore pelts made of the same grey-brown fur as the caribou; the little cub had a brightly coloured pelt on his head.

  The female flat-face called the cub back to her, and all three of them watched the herd as they walked past. Lusa, Ujurak and Kallik crouched side by side in the long grass, their gaze fixed on the little group.

  ‘They haven’t seen us,’ Kallik whispered. ‘Do you think we should go?’

  ‘I can’t see any firesticks –’ Lusa began, breaking off when she noticed a familiar shape lying in the shadow of a rock not far from the flat-face den. Toklo!

  Ujurak spotted him at the same moment. ‘There’s Toklo,’ he announced cheerfully. ‘Let’s sneak up on him and surprise him.’

  ‘Not in front of the flat-faces, fluff-brain,’ Lusa retorted.

  At first she thought that Toklo was asleep, but then she noticed that his ears were alert. He was watching the caribou, muscles tensed, ready to spring into the hunt. But before he could move, Lusa noticed the little flat-face cub running towards the rock where the brown bear was hiding. With his gaze fixed on the caribou, Toklo hadn’t seen him.

  ‘Ujurak, look!’ Lusa exclaimed, her heart beginning to thump with panic. She remembered the time when Toklo had been so desperate for food he had almost attacked another flat-face cub. What would he do now, if the little flat-face interrupted his hunt? ‘We’ve got to do something!’ she went on. ‘Ujurak –’

  She swung round towards her friend, only to see a young caribou hurrying down the slope to join the herd, his feet clicking briskly. Horns were sprouting from his head as he trotted away.

  ‘Oh, no!’ she exclaimed, annoyance mingling with her fear. ‘Ujurak’s done it again!’

  Turning back to the rock, Lusa saw that the young flat-face had scampered up to Toklo and was reaching out to him. Toklo looked up in surprise, then stretched out his muzzle towards the cub. Was he preparing to launch himself forward? Lusa and Kallik were too far away to do anything. Lusa dug her claws into the ground, flinching at the thought of Toklo’s jaws closing on the cub’s paw, but all the grizzly did was to sniff suspiciously at the little flat-face’s fur coat. The flat-face cub didn’t look scared at all.

  ‘Toklo doesn’t know what to make of him,’ Kallik commented, amusement in her voice.

  Lusa’s heartbeat steadied as she realised that Toklo wasn’t going to hurt the cub. He was pressing himself back against the rock while the little flat-face patted him with one paw, letting out happy cries. Lusa snorted as she imagined Toklo huffing with vexation. He was trapped, helpless as a rabbit, by a tiny flat-face!

  At the same time, the last of the caribou herd disappeared up the valley; the clattering sound died away and only the trampled ground showed where they had passed. Toklo had missed his chance of prey.

  The flat-face cub turned away from Toklo and scrambled up to the top of the rock. Suddenly he tottered and fell over, letting out a loud cry. Lusa could see a rip in the pelt that covered his hind legs, and blood trickling out of it. Toklo leaped backwards in alarm.

  Panic surged up in Lusa. ‘Oh, no – the flat-faces will think Toklo hurt him! They’ll get their fire-sticks and –’

  She broke off as the male flat-face sprinted over to the squalling cub and swung him up into his arms. He glanced at Toklo, but didn’t shout at him or try to hurt him. Instead he carried the cub over to the old flat-face female and spoke to her for a few moments while the young one’s howls grew quieter. Then he carried the cub away, around the corner of the den.

  ‘Now what’s he doing?’ Lusa wondered out loud. She found out a moment later when the two flat-faces reappeared, riding on top of a very small firebeast with a spindly body, like the skeleton of a deer, and two very thin round paws; the big flat-face sat up straight, holding the antlers of the firebeast, while his cub clung on behind. Lusa could see blood soaking into the pelt around his leg, and she could smell the scarlet salty tang on the breeze. The male waved to the older female; then he and his cub disappeared up the valley in the wake of the caribou.

  ‘Great stars! What was that?’ Kallik gasped, her eyes wide with astonishment.

  ‘It looks like a . . . a sort of a firebeast without the fire,’ Lusa replied, aware that it wasn’t much of an explanation.

  Kallik shook her head. ‘Flat-faces are weird.’

  The female flat-face had gone back into the den and closed the door. Once she had gone, Lusa and Kallik bounded down the hill to join Toklo.

  ‘Well done!’ Lusa yelped as she bounced up to the big grizzly cub. ‘You were really kind to that young flat-face.’

  Toklo huffed in embarrassment. ‘Little pest. I was about to catch a caribou, but the cub messed things up. He smelled of caribou,’ he added. ‘He’s lucky I didn’t eat him instead!’

  ‘You don’t mean that,’ Lusa said, hoping she was right. ‘Though I was a bit worried you might mistake the cub for a caribou at first.’

  ‘No chance,’ Toklo muttered. ‘He was far too noisy. Definitely a flat-face!’

  He rose to his paws and stood facing towards the head of the valley, in the direction the caribou had gone. Taking a deep sniff of the air, he
growled, ‘We should follow them. One of those would feed us for days!’

  ‘But you can’t –’ Lusa began, remembering that Ujurak had joined the herd.

  ‘Why not?’ Toklo interrupted. ‘We should go after them while there’s still a chance of catching up. What if they’re leaving here for good?’

  Lusa exchanged a glance with Kallik. ‘You can’t hunt the caribou,’ she explained patiently, ‘because Ujurak is one of them.’

  Toklo let out a snort of disgust. ‘Then he’d better watch out!’

  Without waiting for a response, he charged off up the valley after the caribou.

  CHAPTER SIX:

  Toklo

  Snuffing up the enticing scents of the caribou, Toklo followed their trail along the valley. Steep mountain slopes reared up on either side, while in the valley bottom the trail wound between ponds and stretches of marshy ground. Toklo gazed around him and breathed in the mountain air. This is the right sort of place for bears! He was aware of Lusa and Kallik padding after him, but he didn’t wait for them to catch him. He was concentrating too hard on his prey.

  Soon the trail joined another river, the bank heavily rutted with caribou hooves. The valley twisted and turned; sometimes Toklo caught the sound of the caribou’s clicking hooves and thought he was about to see them at last, only to find that around the next bend the sound faded again.

  Pausing briefly, Toklo studied the caribou hoofprints, trying to judge the speed of the herd from the depth of the prints and the distance between them. In the heart of the herd he spotted smaller prints; water flooded his jaws as he imagined bringing down a young caribou and feasting on it.

  Toklo set off again, bounding faster in pursuit of the herd. Rounding yet another bend, he halted at the sight of a flat-face denning area: a group of dens made from the same neatly lopped tree trunks as the one further down the valley where he had met the little cub.

  ‘More flat-faces!’ he growled, a shock of disappointment running through him. ‘I thought there weren’t any here in the wilderness. But they get everywhere.’

  Trotting briskly down the track towards him was another brown bear; Toklo breathed a sigh of relief as he recognised Ujurak. No matter what he had said to Lusa and Kallik, he didn’t want to mistake his friend for a caribou and kill him.

  ‘Hi!’ Ujurak called as he came into earshot. ‘Did you see all the caribou? Aren’t they amazing?’

  Toklo ignored the question. ‘How far away are they?’ he demanded, bounding forward to meet Ujurak. ‘When did they pass through?’

  ‘Oh, they’re long gone,’ Ujurak replied. His eyes were sparkling; he had obviously enjoyed his brief journey with the herd. ‘You’ll never catch up with them now.’

  Weasel-brain! Toklo thought to himself. We’re not just here to have fun. Don’t you want a good meal?

  ‘That pesky flat-face cub,’ he grumbled. ‘If he hadn’t got in the way, I would have caught a caribou.’

  ‘Ujurak, you’re back!’ Lusa greeted the smaller brown cub as she and Kallik padded up. ‘What was it like, travelling with the caribou?’

  ‘Great!’ Ujurak replied, with a little bounce of excitement. ‘The whole herd of us, on the move together. Did you hear the sound we made?’

  Toklo gave an exasperated snort. ‘Tell us something useful. Where are they going? Will they come back?’

  Ujurak shook his head. ‘Not until next fishleap. They come here when the days grow longer, to feed up and have their calves on the plain. The cold winds from the sea keep insects away, but just lately flies have been bothering them. I think that’s what sent them off into the mountains.’

  ‘I don’t know why we can’t follow them,’ Toklo complained; he still felt furious that he had been cheated of the juicy prey. ‘They weren’t going that fast when we saw them.’

  ‘Some flat-faces appeared with firesticks –’

  ‘Firesticks?’ Kallik interrupted, looking around worriedly. ‘Then we’re not safe here!’

  ‘They’re a long way up the valley,’ Ujurak reassured her. ‘The herd stampeded, with the hunters after them. That’s when I decided I’d better turn back into a bear, and I let them leave me behind.’

  ‘You have some sense, then!’ Toklo butted the smaller cub with his snout, still irritated, but glad that his friend was safe.

  ‘But what about these no-claw hunters?’ Kallik still sounded anxious. ‘They’ll be just like the ones who chased us on Smoke Mountain. We’d better get away from here.’

  ‘But I don’t think these flat-faces were interested in hunting bears,’ Ujurak explained, sounding a little uncertain. ‘They weren’t like those others. These had . . . animal spirits!’

  Toklo stared at Ujurak. What’s the fluff-brain going on about now? Flat-faces don’t have animal spirits!

  ‘What do you mean?’ Lusa asked, tipping her head on one side.

  ‘I’m not sure. I could just feel it,’ Ujurak replied, shrugging. ‘Come on, I’ll show you.’

  He led the way to the top of a gentle rise from where they could look down on the flat-face denning area. Toklo followed the others reluctantly. If the caribou were out of reach, it was time to start looking for other prey, not to wander about close to flat-faces. From the crest of the hill he could see a large firebeast sleeping outside one of the dens, and a number of the weird little firebeasts, like the one the male flat-face and the cub had used. Maybe they’re firebeast cubs? he guessed.

  Beyond the firebeasts, several flat-face cubs were kicking something round back and forth to one another. Toklo twitched his ears at their high-pitched cries.

  ‘What spirits have they got?’ he muttered. ‘Mosquitoes?’

  Ujurak ignored him. ‘Look down there,’ he said, pointing with his muzzle to where a female in a shiny red pelt was sweeping the patch of ground in front of her door. She pattered to and fro on flat paws, darting out her head as she jabbered in flat-face talk to an old male flat-face sitting outside the den next to hers.

  ‘She has a goose spirit,’ Ujurak announced. ‘And the old male has a brown bear spirit.’

  Toklo stared at the male flat-face. He was plump, hunched up on his seat; his hair and face were covered in curly brown fur.

  ‘He’s not a bear!’ Toklo exclaimed, thoroughly offended.

  He would never have admitted it to the others, but privately he sensed an air of peace enfolding this place, something he had never felt before around flat-faces. There was no trace of the threat they had experienced from the flat-faces on Smoke Mountain.

  Or maybe they’re just good at hiding it, he thought suspiciously.

  ‘We shouldn’t be here,’ he said aloud. ‘It’s time to go. Bears and flat-faces shouldn’t be around each other.’

  ‘Don’t be such a grump, Toklo!’ Ujurak shouldered Toklo playfully. ‘This is fun!’

  ‘No, Toklo’s right.’ Kallik’s eyes were wary. ‘Haven’t we had enough trouble with flat-faces? We should go.’

  ‘But there’s nothing to be afraid of here,’ Lusa put in. ‘I know there isn’t. These flat-faces remind me of the kind ones who looked after us in the Bear Bowl.’

  ‘Oh, you and your Bear Bowl!’ Toklo huffed.

  Before any bear could reply, the door of one of the dens opened and the little flat-face cub from further down the valley trotted out.

  Lusa’s eyes danced with amusement. ‘There’s your friend, Toklo!’

  Toklo glared at her. I’ll never hear the last of this. I almost wish I’d eaten the little nuisance!

  The cub looked happy again. His injured leg must have been treated, because he ran quickly over to the older cubs and started to chase after the round thing they were kicking between them. The male who had brought him there – his father, Toklo supposed – appeared out of the same den, with an older male flat-face following him. He was tall, with long grey head fur, and wore a caribou pelt fringed at the edges. The two males talked together, pointing at the playing cubs.

  ‘I could watch the
m all day!’ Lusa murmured. ‘I like the sound of their voices. Look at the little one – he’s got hold of the ball! Now he’s throwing it!’

  The ‘ball’, Toklo realised, must be the round thing the cubs were kicking. He wondered what it was for; it didn’t look as if you could eat it. Memories came back to him of playing with Tobi before his brother became too weak. Oka had made up all their games to teach them things they needed to know. Maybe this flat-face game was like that. He tried to remember if he had ever seen full-grown flat-faces doing something with balls.

  As they watched, the door of a larger den opened and another adult female appeared. She shook some flat-face thing that made a loud clanging noise, and called to the bigger cubs. At once they ran across to the den and filed inside. One of them scooped up the ball and took it in with him. The little cub ran back to his father, pointing upward at a squawking flock of geese that swirled overhead before flying across the valley.

  ‘Let’s go now,’ Toklo said as the last of the cubs disappeared and the door of the den closed behind them. ‘I’ve had enough of this. And I’m hungry!’

  CHAPTER SEVEN:

  Toklo

  Toklo glanced back at Ujurak as he began padding down the hill, away from the flat-face dens, in the direction the geese had taken. The smaller cub looked reluctant to leave.

  ‘Come on, Ujurak,’ he growled, sounding harsher than he meant to. ‘It’s time to be brown bears, remember, hunting and building dens. Looking after ourselves.’

  ‘But I want to watch these flat-faces,’ Ujurak protested. ‘They’re different, somehow.’

  ‘For stars’ sake, flat-faces are flat-faces!’ Toklo retorted. ‘We’re wasting time!’

  ‘OK.’ Ujurak took one last glance at the flat-face dens, then bounded down the hill to Toklo’s side. ‘Let’s hunt.’

  Toklo gave him a friendly shove before leading the way through the valley, back in the direction of the coast. The lingering scent of caribou on the trail made it harder to detect other prey, but as they rounded a jutting spur of the hillside he spotted the geese again, feeding around a lake, their white feathers standing out against the tough grass.