The Last Wilderness Read online

  ‘We’d better get out of here,’ she murmured to Lusa and Toklo. ‘We don’t want to risk the other flat-faces finding us.’

  ‘I think these flat-faces are OK,’ Lusa responded, padding up beside her. ‘The healer is helping Ujurak. He knows we’re here, and he doesn’t seem worried.’

  Toklo snorted. ‘Who knows what a flat-face is thinking?’

  ‘Besides, all the flat-faces might not be the same,’ Lusa added.

  But whatever Lusa said, Kallik found it hard to believe that they could be safe in the middle of a flatface denning area. She shook her head.

  ‘OK, we’ll go.’ Lusa sounded untroubled. ‘Not too far, though. We’ll need to check on Ujurak later.’

  Kallik padded after Lusa as she took the lead to the edge of the village and further up the caribou trail. The white bear’s legs were aching and, now that she wasn’t so anxious about Ujurak, she realised how tired and hungry she was. They needed to find a place to rest and something more to eat.

  As they trudged past a thicket of thornbushes, an Arctic ground squirrel sprang out of the branches, almost under Kallik’s paws. She launched herself after it, and managed to bring it down with a swift blow to the head.

  ‘Well done!’ Toklo exclaimed, trotting up to give the prey a sniff.

  ‘Thank the spirits,’ Kallik said. ‘They knew what we needed.’

  She picked up the squirrel and carried it into the shelter of a rocky outcrop that jutted from the hillside at the edge of the trail. Lusa followed her a few moments later, carrying a couple of thorn branches that still bore some late berries. Her eyes were sparkling. ‘It’s a feast!’ she said, dropping the branches beside the body of the squirrel.

  ‘Maybe for you, small one.’ Kallik gave her friend an affectionate nudge. ‘Toklo and I are getting so big, it’s harder to fill our bellies.’

  Looking around for the brown bear, Kallik spotted him a few bearlengths away, gazing up at the treecovered mountain slopes. ‘Hey, Toklo!’ she called. ‘Aren’t you hungry?’

  The young grizzly jumped, then galloped to the side of the trail and crouched down with Kallik and Lusa to share their prey. The night was growing colder, and though the rocks sheltered them from the worst of the wind, Kallik could still pick up the scent of ice, blown from the ocean. Peace spread through her as she ate her share; Ujurak was safe, and she knew that soon she would be able to return to the ice.

  ‘We did it,’ Lusa said when they had finished the squirrel and were nibbling on the last of the berries. ‘We’ve saved Ujurak, working together. We’re a great team!’

  Kallik murmured agreement, but Toklo was silent. Faint apprehension tingled in Kallik’s paws when she saw the distant look in his eyes.

  ‘Ujurak isn’t our responsibility any more,’ he announced.

  Lusa looked puzzled. ‘But he’s still our friend.’

  ‘I know, but . . .’ Toklo let his voice trail off, then took a deep breath. ‘Ujurak is safe now,’ he said. ‘His life isn’t in danger any more, and we have reached the end of our journey. This is a place where we can live safely, with plenty of food and shelter. It’s time that I followed my own path.’

  ‘What?’ Lusa yelped, her eyes wide with dismay. ‘You can’t leave us now, Toklo. You can’t!’

  ‘I have to,’ Toklo replied.

  Hesitating slightly, he reached forward and touched his nose to Kallik’s, then to Lusa’s. Then he turned towards the trail the caribou had followed, long before, winding up to a pass that led into the mountains. With a panicky squeal, Lusa scrambled in front of him and blocked his path.

  ‘Toklo, please don’t go,’ she begged.

  Kallik sat frozen, watching. She didn’t want Toklo to go, but she understood what was driving him. He felt the pull of the forest, just as she was drawn toward the ice.

  Lusa doesn’t see that, she thought sadly. Anxiety clawed at her as she wondered what would happen to Lusa when they said goodbye to one another. How will I tell her that I must go back to the ice?

  Lusa and Toklo still faced each other on the trail, their gazes locked together.

  ‘Please,’ Lusa repeated. ‘We don’t know that Ujurak will get better.’

  Toklo swung round, as if he was going to head up toward the pass without any more argument. Then his shoulders sagged and he turned back.

  ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’ll stay for a while.’

  ‘Great!’ Lusa gave a little bounce of happiness and pushed her snout affectionately into Toklo’s shoulder. ‘Thanks, Toklo.’

  But it’s not over, Kallik thought, as the three of them settled down to sleep under the rocky outcrop, huddled together for warmth. Sooner or later, Toklo will leave, and nothing Lusa can say will stop him.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

  Ujurak

  Sunlight on his face woke Ujurak. With one hand he explored the unfamiliar pelts covering him and sat up in alarm when he realised that he didn’t know where he was. Then as he took in the flat-face healer’s den, with the fire still burning, a pot bubbling on it, and the masks hanging on the walls, he remembered what had happened: his flight as a goose, and the agony in his throat when he swallowed the fishhook. And he remembered the healer who had cared for him when he woke up here in the shape of a flat-face. Tiinchuu, who had known all along that Ujurak was a bear.

  His throat still hurt and shivers ran through him every time he took a deep breath. He felt hot and cold by turns. He pulled the coverings more tightly around himself and lay back.

  I have to get out of here and find Lusa and Kallik and Toklo.

  A door opened in the wall opposite the fire and the flat-face healer came in. He smiled when he saw Ujurak. ‘You’re awake,’ he said. ‘How do you feel?’

  ‘Better, thanks.’ Ujurak’s voice sounded like claws scraping on rock, and pain stabbed his throat as he spoke.

  ‘Good. I’ve made you some more wintergreen tea.’ Crossing to a table by the fire, Tiinchuu poured liquid from a jug into a cup and brought it over to Ujurak. Deftly he slid an arm around Ujurak’s shoulders and helped him to sit up.

  ‘There,’ he murmured, holding the cup for Ujurak to drink. ‘We’ll soon bring your fever down and have you up and about again.’

  Ujurak thought that the healer’s eyes looked kind, and the touch of his hands was strong and sure. Gradually he relaxed, growing more confident that the flat-face didn’t mean him any harm.

  ‘What’s your name, little bear?’ Tiinchuu asked.

  ‘Ujurak.’

  ‘And how did you come here?’ The healer tilted the cup so that Ujurak could swallow the last drops of tea, and set the cup aside. He rearranged Ujurak’s pillows so that he could sit back supported by them.

  ‘I was certainly surprised when I found you lying naked on my doorstep,’ he went on. ‘Did you fall from the stars?’

  Ujurak’s eyes flew wide with astonishment. Does he really think so? Then he recognised the amusement in Tiinchuu’s eyes and managed to smile.

  ‘Where did you come from?’ the healer asked, growing more serious.

  Ujurak hesitated. ‘I don’t know where I’m from,’ he confessed. ‘I . . . I don’t remember.’

  ‘Hmm . . .’ Tiinchuu moved away to get a cloth soaked with some fresh-smelling liquid. He sat down on the side of the bed and used the cloth to wipe Ujurak’s face and throat. Ujurak let out a grateful sigh at the cool touch.

  ‘You’re not a boy, are you?’ the healer said, with a sudden piercing look.

  Ujurak thought of the dark cave that had filled with golden light, and the Arctic hare that had pulled him forward, dragged him out of the shadows to the light and the warmth. The spirit of the hare was here now, he could feel it in the man sitting beside him. He’s a hare as well as a flat-face . . .

  ‘No,’ Ujurak said. ‘I’m a bear.’

  He braced himself for the healer to leap away in fear, or tell him that he was lying, but Tiinchuu just blinked. ‘And were you a bear when you swallowed the fishhook?’r />
  ‘No, I was a goose.’

  Tiinchuu’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘You have the spirit of more than one creature?’

  Ujurak nodded. ‘Mostly I’m a bear. But I’ve been a goose, and an eagle, and a mule deer –’

  ‘Then you’re a shape-shifter?’ the healer interrupted. His gaze was fixed on Ujurak’s face and there was a look of fascination, almost of hunger, in his dark eyes.

  ‘I . . . I guess so.’ Ujurak put his head on one side. ‘What about you? That hare in the cave . . . that was you, wasn’t it?’

  Tiinchuu nodded. ‘You have many shapes, but I have just two: a man, as you see me now, and an Arctic hare. Most of the time I live as a man, but in my dreams I become the hare and learn things I could never know in my human shape.’

  Ujurak remembered the feeling of peace in this denning place, the certainty he had that they would not be hunted. ‘Can all the flat-faces here do that?’

  The healer smiled. ‘Flat-faces? Well, I guess that makes sense. No, little bear. I am the only flat-face here who possesses the spirit of an animal.’

  Tiinchuu sat back, examining Ujurak’s face. ‘Why are you here?’ he asked.

  Ujurak found that question more difficult to answer; he wasn’t even sure himself. ‘I . . . I hear voices sometimes,’ he stammered. He didn’t feel as if he could tell the healer that he thought the voice belonged to Arcturus; surely even Tiinchuu wouldn’t believe that the mighty star-bear would speak to a brown bear cub.

  To his relief, Tiinchuu didn’t ask him where the voices came from. Instead he got up again, went over to the fire, and ladled a thick, delicious-smelling liquid into a bowl.

  ‘What do the voices tell you?’ he prompted as he returned to the bed.

  ‘They say . . . they say I should save the wild.’

  Tiinchuu let out a long breath, shaking his head. ‘That’s a huge task,’ he murmured.

  He sat down, dipped a spoon into the bowl, and began to feed Ujurak. The liquid was hot and comforting, tasting of caribou and herbs. Its warmth spread throughout Ujurak’s body, and he began to feel sleepy again. But he didn’t want to sleep; he wanted to ask some questions of his own, and find out more about where he was and the man who was caring for him.

  Maybe it was Arcturus who brought me here.

  ‘What place is this?’ he managed to say when he had swallowed another mouthful.

  ‘This is Arctic Village,’ Tiinchuu replied, holding the spoon for Ujurak again. ‘We are the Caribou People. We like to live here among the animals in the Valley of the Caribou. This is the Last Great Wilderness.’

  Ujurak was beginning to feel a little stronger and finding it easier to talk. ‘I’ve heard that name before,’ he said. ‘Some . . . someone I met told me about it.’ No need to mention that Qopuk was a bear.

  Tiinchuu nodded. ‘The people here – ’ he began, and broke off at the sound of a loud, drawn-out clattering from outside.

  Ujurak sat up again, his heart beginning to pound. What’s that? It’s louder than a firebeast!

  Tiinchuu calmed him with a hand resting briefly on his shoulder. ‘I have to leave you for a while,’ he said, rising to his feet. ‘You should try to sleep.’

  ‘Where are you going?’ Ujurak asked.

  ‘Today the village is expecting visitors from far away,’ the healer replied. ‘And it sounds as if they’ve arrived. I have to go and meet them.’ His tone was grim; Ujurak realised that he wasn’t looking forward to the meeting.

  ‘Visitors?’ he echoed.

  ‘There are people who respect our ways,’ Tiinchuu explained. His dark eyes were sombre. ‘But there are others who don’t want the wilderness to stay wild.’

  ‘What others?’ Ujurak asked hoarsely.

  ‘Hunters who do not respect the animal spirits as my people do,’ Tiinchuu said. ‘Men who want to cover the wilderness with roads and houses. And others . . .’ He frowned. ‘Others who want to rip the heart out of the earth for their own profit.’

  Ujurak’s eyes widened. He didn’t understand what Tiinchuu meant, but it sounded terrifying.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Tiinchuu said. ‘While there is breath in my body I will fight the change that is coming, and I’m not the only one.’

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN:

  Toklo

  In his dreams, Toklo found himself in a thick forest. Branches arched overhead and rustling in the undergrowth betrayed the presence of prey. He let out a growl, rearing up to score his claws down the trunk of a tree.

  This is my territory! Better not mess with me!

  A mule deer stepped out of the bushes and stood in a clearing just ahead of him. Toklo bunched his muscles, ready to hunt it down, but as he bounded forward he seemed to fall over his own paws. He woke to find himself underneath the rocky outcrop with Lusa and Kallik beside him and a faint dawn light seeping across the sky.

  Toklo sat up, yawning and giving himself a vigorous scratch with one paw. That was a weird dream!

  Beside him, Kallik huffed out a breath and opened her eyes. When she saw Toklo, she heaved herself to her paws.

  ‘I’m glad you’re still here,’ she murmured.

  Toklo nodded. ‘For now.’

  He was relieved that Kallik seemed to understand that he couldn’t stay forever. Soon he would have to take the path of a brown bear into the forest, but he knew that however much he tried to explain, he would never make Lusa see that it was the only choice he could make.

  ‘I’m hungry. Let’s hunt,’ he said out loud.

  Padding out into the valley, he snuffed at the air for the scent of prey, and spotted a rabbit nibbling at the long grasses on the edge of a pool. Kallik saw it too; with a brief nod she glided forward, skirting the rabbit in a wide circle so that she could come at it from the other side.

  When she was in position she jumped forward with a fearsome growl. The rabbit started up, saw her, and fled straight into Toklo’s paws. He killed it with a blow to its spine.

  ‘Great kill!’ Kallik said, bounding up. ‘We should try that again some time.’ Then her eyes grew shadowed, as if she remembered that they wouldn’t have many more chances to hunt together.

  Toklo picked up the rabbit and carried it back to where Lusa was still sleeping. As he approached, the little black bear grunted, stirring, and passed her paws over her face. ‘Morning already!’ she yawned, scrambling up. ‘We’d better go back to the flat-face dens and see how Ujurak is doing.’ Her eyes shone as she turned to Kallik. ‘Maybe he’ll be ready to come back with us today!’

  ‘Hang on,’ Toklo said. ‘Eat first.’

  ‘Oh, thanks. I’m starving!’ Lusa’s eyes shone as she tore a mouthful from the rabbit. Toklo could see that she had put their argument of the night before out of her mind. He guessed she had managed to forget that he was going to leave.

  When they had finished eating, Toklo and Kallik followed Lusa as she bounded eagerly back down the trail towards the flat-face denning area. Toklo’s belly churned as he worried about being spotted by the flat-faces, and he was relieved when Lusa slackened her pace as they approached the dens.

  ‘We know that we can trust the healer,’ she murmured, ‘but –’

  ‘You trust the healer,’ Toklo interrupted. ‘I’m not so sure.’

  ‘I think Toklo’s right,’ Kallik put in. ‘He helped Ujurak because he’s in the shape of a flat-face. But how does he feel about bears?’

  Lusa shrugged. ‘I suppose you could be right. In any case, it’s true that we can’t be sure about the other flat-faces. We’d better make sure they don’t see us.’

  It was not long past sunrise, but already one or two of the flat-faces were walking between the dens. Toklo, Lusa and Kallik ducked into the shadows under an overhanging roof as a flat-face walked past with a large, shiny object dangling from one paw. Loud noises issued from it, and a high-pitched sound was coming from the flat-face’s mouth. As he passed another of the dens the door opened and the female who Ujurak had said had a goose spi
rit appeared and called out to him.

  While they were talking, Toklo, Kallik and Lusa slipped quietly around the back of the dens and headed towards the one where the healer lived. Toklo crept up to the window and stretched up his paws to brace himself so that he could peer through. Lusa squeezed up beside him and Kallik joined him on his other side.

  Inside the den Toklo saw that Ujurak was sitting up, propped against the flat-face pelts. The healer sat on the bed beside him, feeding him something from a bowl. Toklo could hear that they were talking to each other, though he couldn’t understand the flatface words.

  ‘Look, he’s better!’ Lusa yelped. ‘He’ll be able to come back to us soon.’

  ‘Yes, he’s fine now,’ Toklo agreed. With a long sigh he stepped away from the window of the healer’s den, dropping down on to all four paws. ‘Ujurak is safe,’ he said as Lusa and Kallik followed him. ‘His life isn’t in danger any more. It’s time that I followed my own path.’

  ‘What?’ Lusa’s eyes stretched wide. ‘Last night you said you would stay!’

  ‘I said “for a while”,’ Toklo reminded her. ‘But now that I know Ujurak’s OK, I can leave. I’m not responsible for him any more.’ Toklo knew he had done more than enough by bringing them this far. Now it was time to do what his mother had said, and live on his own.

  ‘But . . .’ Lusa’s voice choked. ‘I’ll miss you.’

  Kallik padded up and rested her muzzle on the little black bear’s shoulder. ‘A time always comes for parting,’ she murmured. ‘I had to learn that when Taqqiq left. It’s no use trying to hold on to someone when they want to be somewhere else.’ Looking deep into Lusa’s eyes, she added, ‘Let him go.’

  Lusa said nothing, her dark eyes still full of misery, but she stepped back and stood at Kallik’s side.

  ‘Thank you, Kallik,’ Toklo said. His heart ached at the thought of leaving his friends, but he knew this was what he had to do. ‘The spirits go with you both,’ he added.

  ‘And with you,’ Kallik responded.