The Last Wilderness (4 page)

T
oklo 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.

The others followed. ‘The water’s freezing!’ Lusa squealed, bounding through it and throwing up fountains of spray.

Toklo veered away from her. ‘Watch it! You’re soaking my fur.’

They headed for one of the biggest islands, a grassy stretch in the middle of the river with a ragged circle of large boulders covering the upstream end. Toklo flopped down gratefully in the shade.

‘Let’s rest. We can fish in the morning. And explore
the woods,’ he added when he saw Lusa looking expectantly at him.

His friends settled down around him. Lusa was soon snoring, her paws wrapped over her nose. Ujurak yawned, flattened the grass to make a smoother spot to lie on, then followed her into sleep. Kallik stayed awake longer, her snout raised and her gaze fixed on the sky, but at last her head drooped and her eyes closed.

Toklo found that he couldn’t sleep. He watched the river turn to red as the sun sank towards the horizon, then fade to the colour of storm clouds as the last rays of light shrank behind the mountains. He wriggled, trying to find a position that would send him to sleep. But the ground beside the rocks was soft and grass-covered; there weren’t any loose pebbles digging into him to keep him awake. No, it was the scent of the caribou herd, still trailing tantalisingly from the hills they had crossed, that was stopping him from going to sleep. So much food, all in one place, clicking their way into his thoughts.

I’d be fine on my own
, he thought. He could picture himself as a full-grown bear, striding across his own territory, marking the trees to warn off other bears.
He could almost hear himself roar as he challenged his rivals and hunted down prey. He couldn’t lie still a moment longer, trying to sleep. He needed to prowl! This was his home now – he could go wherever he wanted, hunt whatever he chose. Careful not to rouse his sleeping companions, he rose to his paws and waded out into the river.

The surface of the water was a sheet of rippling silver touched with white foam where the river splintered against rocks. The only sound was the gurgling of the current. Toklo took in deep breaths of the clear mountain air, enjoying the icy touch of water against his legs. He felt exhilarated to see night falling again, after so many moons without true darkness. He could feel his dusty pelt being washed clean by the river, his pads soft and cool on the smooth round stones so that the moons of journeying faded away.

His grumbling belly brought him back to reality. Bending his head, he studied the water and soon spotted the dark grey flicker that betrayed the presence of a fish. He settled himself more comfortably, legs braced against the current, and waited.

The flicker came again. This time Toklo struck,
plunging his snout into the water a little downstream of the glimmering shadow. His teeth met in a plump, cold body, and he straightened up with a wriggling fish in his jaws. Toklo gulped it down where he stood, remembering that other river – a single great tongue of water, much wider than this one – skylengths away from here, where he had been swept off his paws trying to catch his first salmon and nearly washed up in the jaws of Shoteka. So much had changed since he had been abandoned by his mother and had met the strange cub Ujurak. He wasn’t the same bear any more.

Swiping his tongue around his jaws, he looked up at the sky and spotted the star-bear, shining alone in the dark sky.

I felt like him once
, Toklo thought.
The other animals fought with me or drove me away. I was lonely and miserable, just like he is
.

But not any longer
, he told himself. He was bigger and stronger now. He had proved himself at Great Bear Lake, where he had accepted the challenge to swim to Paw Print Island and defended his territory there against his old enemy. Toklo’s claws rasped against the pebbles on the riverbed as he remembered
how Shoteka had fled, defeated and disgraced. Having the island as his territory had made Toklo feel proud and strong and independent. He wanted that feeling again.

He glanced over his shoulder to where Ujurak was sleeping at the foot of a boulder, his nose resting on his paws.
I promised him I would look after him, and I have
, Toklo thought with satisfaction.
We made it together, all the way to this place where we can live well and safely, just like brown bears should
.

Even so, Toklo couldn’t help feeling slightly uneasy. Ujurak kept insisting that the journey wasn’t over. Would he be able to survive if he continued the journey on his own? Toklo shrugged.
He’ll get over it, once he understands what a good place this is. I couldn’t save Tobi, but I have saved Ujurak
. He nodded to himself. His mind was made up, and he was glad to realise that he didn’t feel any sadness. The time was right for him to go it alone. Wading out of the river, he settled down beside his friends; their muffled breathing soothed him as he drifted into sleep.

We’ll say goodbye soon
, he thought drowsily.
I’m glad to have known you all, but it’s almost time for me to leave
.

K
allik opened her eyes on darkness shot through with silver. A couple of bearlengths away, the river splashed between the smooth grey rocks, its surface flashing with the reflections of moon and stars. Around her lay the humped shapes of her friends, snoring softly in deep sleep.

Excitement filled Kallik’s belly, powerful as the surge of the river. She wasn’t sure what had roused her from sleep, but she felt as if something momentous was about to happen. She looked up and saw Silaluk, the great star-bear, blazing out from the blue-black sky.

Was it you that woke me?

She stared at the glittering ice-spots that surrounded Silaluk, wondering which one of them was her
mother’s spirit. The thought that Nisa might be looking down on her filled her with happiness. ‘Thank you for bringing us safely to this wonderful place,’ she whispered. ‘I know I would never have made it without you.’

Thinking back on her journey, the struggle from the melting Frozen Sea through the land of sunbaked earth and stones, Kallik still found it hard to believe that her quest was over. She had been alone then, drifting like a piece of broken ice on the waves. Only her determination to find her brother and the unfailing light of Silaluk above her had kept her trudging on. Sadness welled up inside her as she thought about Taqqiq. She had been so delighted to find him beside Great Bear Lake, and even happier when he had agreed to join her and the others on their journey.

‘But it didn’t work out,’ she whispered out loud.

Taqqiq hadn’t been able to get along with the other bears, and with every step away from the lake his conviction had grown that it was wrong for him to be travelling with them. Finally he had decided to go back to the lake and tried to trick Kallik into returning with him.

‘He wanted to be with me,’ she murmured.
But not enough to stay
, she added silently.

Kallik let out a long sigh. There was nothing more she could do for Taqqiq; it was unlikely they would ever meet again. That part of her life had to be frozen deep inside her, locked in a block of ice. But at least now she knew that her brother was alive and that he could fend for himself.

‘Goodbye, Taqqiq.’ She whispered the words to the empty air. ‘May the spirits be with you.’

Exhaustion swept over her, and her eyes felt heavy. She closed them again, letting herself sink back into sleep. In her dreams she bounded tirelessly across the ice while her mother’s face shone down on her from the sky, her eyes filled with love.

When Kallik next woke, the ice-spirits had faded from the sky and a red band of mist hung over the horizon. The other bears were already awake and had padded down to the water’s edge, black shapes outlined against the milky light. Kallik rose to her paws, gave her pelt a shake, and headed over to join them.

Toklo stood in the river with the water flowing
around his legs, staring intently at the surface. Lusa and Ujurak were both crouched on the bank, each gnawing at a fish.

Lusa looked up as Kallik approached her; fish scales were clinging to the fur around her jaws. ‘Toklo caught a fish for me,’ she announced. ‘He’ll catch one for you if you like.’

Before Kallik could protest that she could catch her own, Toklo plunged his snout into the river and pulled out a glossy salmon. He tossed it to the bank, where it gasped and thrashed in front of Kallik’s paws. She planted one paw on it and bit it hard behind its head to kill it quickly.

‘You can have this one if you want,’ she told Toklo, looking up.

‘No, you have it,’ Toklo said. ‘I can catch another.’

Kallik hesitated. She didn’t want Toklo to think that she couldn’t find her own food. But she could see how proud he was to be providing for his friends. Besides, the smell of the fish was too enticing for her to wait for long. ‘Thanks!’ she said, squatting down to eat.

The fish was plump and succulent, its scent and taste bringing Kallik’s dreams of the ice and ocean
back to her mind. ‘I have to go to the ocean today,’ she announced.

‘What?’ Toklo glanced up from studying the current. ‘Have you got bees in your brain? We’re heading into the hills, remember? Lusa wants to check out the forest.’

‘I know. I’m sorry,’ Kallik said. ‘But the ocean is my home, just like the forest is yours.’ Her voice quavered. ‘And I haven’t seen it for so long.’

Lusa gulped down the mouthful she was chewing. ‘I understand. I’ll come with you,’ she said. ‘We can go to the forest tomorrow.’

‘I’ll come too,’ Ujurak added quietly.

Toklo waded out of the river with another fish in his jaws and crouched down to feed, tearing into the flesh with enormous bites.

‘Toklo, are you coming to the ocean with us?’ Lusa asked.

Toklo blinked at her, almost as if he hadn’t heard the question. ‘No, I don’t think so,’ he replied at last. ‘I want to check out the caribou.’

Lusa flashed a swift glance at Kallik.

Is this where we say goodbye?
Kallik wondered.

‘OK,’ Lusa said. Kallik thought she was trying to
sound cheerful, and not succeeding very well. ‘I guess this is it, then. I . . . I hope you find a good place to make your territory.’

‘Don’t be such a fluff-brain,’ Toklo mumbled around a mouthful of fish. ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’ll see you later.’

‘Oh – I mean, great!’ Lusa’s eyes brightened as she bounced to her paws.

Leaving Toklo to finish eating, Kallik, Lusa and Ujurak waded across the river and followed along the bank as it wound gently down to the plain. Kallik’s paws tingled. She felt as if every step was leading her closer to the ice: the ground smelled of it, and she could taste it in the pool of water where they stopped briefly for a drink.