Island of Shadows (2 page)

Lusa shook her head.
It's not as simple as Kallik thinks
, she told herself.
And not as simple as
Toklo
thinks, either. He might not be here on the ground with us, but I think we've still got a lot to learn about Ujurak.

Movement from the other bears disturbed Lusa, and icy trickles of cold probed her fur. She let out a small grunt of dismay and wrapped her paws over her snout. She wanted to sink back into sleep, as if she were letting herself slip into a warm, dark pool. Waves seemed to lap around her, luring her to sink deeper and deeper.

“Lusa!” A paw prodded her sharply, and she forced her eyes open to see Kallik's face looming over her. “Lusa, wake up!”

Faint light was seeping through the entrance to the den, and Lusa realized that morning had come. Yakone and Toklo had already abandoned their sleeping places, just leaving scoops in the snow shaped like their curled-up bodies. Lusa stretched her jaws in a massive yawn, stumbled to her paws, and followed Kallik out into the open. Yakone was standing just outside the den, while Toklo was a few bearlengths away.

“Sorry,” Lusa mumbled. “It's the longsleep again. It's so hard to stay awake.” All her instincts told her that she should sleep through the cold, dark months of the suncircle. Her appetite had waned, especially when there was nothing to eat but greasy seal meat, and she seemed to sleep more and more deeply. Lusa longed for the days to start stretching out, for more daylight to travel and hunt by. She couldn't think of anything else that would keep her awake.

“Try rubbing your face with snow,” Yakone suggested. “That should wake you up.”

Doubtfully, Lusa scooped up a pawful of snow and rubbed it over her muzzle and into her eyes. The icy sting helped to revive her, though her legs still felt heavy and clumsy.

“Thanks, that's a bit better,” she told Yakone.

“We'll have to hunt before we go much farther,” Kallik said. Her belly rumbled as she spoke.

Toklo gave a grunt of agreement. “I suppose there are seals around here,” he said.

“Yes, it shouldn't take long to find a hole,” Yakone put in. “You can leave it to me and Kallik.”

Lusa winced.
That was the wrong thing to say to Toklo.
The brown bear hated feeling dependent on anyone else for food or shelter. She glanced apprehensively at the brown bear, half expecting him to growl an angry retort at Yakone, but Toklo said nothing. He glared briefly at the white male, then swung around and headed away from the den. Kallik and Yakone shared a quick glance, then followed, and Lusa brought up the rear, still struggling to shake off sleep and make her sluggish paws obey her.

Before they had traveled many bearlengths, they left the snowbanks behind and reached an area where the ice was flatter and clearer and they could see as far as the distant horizon. The dark hump of another island lay in front of them, too far away for Lusa to make out any details.

“Over there!” Yakone called, pointing with one paw.

Following his gaze, Lusa saw the dark patch of a seal hole in the ice. Kallik and Yakone were already heading toward it.

“We'll soon have a seal,” Kallik promised as she settled down beside Yakone at the edge of the hole, their pelts brushing.

Toklo watched them and stood fidgeting for a few moments. “They could take all day,” he grumbled at last. “I'm going to look for another hole.”

Lusa trotted after him, casting anxious glances back at Kallik and Yakone; her belly churned at the thought of getting separated in this unfamiliar place, but she didn't want Toklo to think he had to hunt alone. To her relief, Toklo spotted another seal hole while Kallik and Yakone were still in sight, and he flopped down at the edge of the black circle of water with a grunt. Lusa crouched down a little way off, wishing she didn't feel so useless.

I'm not good at this sort of hunting
, she thought sadly.
And I can't even talk to Toklo. He'd be angry with me for making noise and warning the seals.

Sighing, Lusa tucked her paws underneath her belly and resigned herself to waiting. Sleep crept up on her again, as if she were plunging slowly into deep mud. She jerked back to wakefulness, her heart pounding, at the sound of Kallik's voice.

“Hey, Toklo! Lusa! Yakone caught one!”

Lusa opened her eyes to see Kallik bounding across the ice with Yakone following more slowly, dragging a seal in his jaws.

At the same moment, the water in the hole where Toklo was waiting swirled and bubbled, and Lusa caught a glimpse of a seal's nose popping above the surface. Toklo flashed out a paw, but the seal plunged down again before he could grab it.

Toklo let out a roar of rage. Springing to his paws, he rounded on Kallik. “I nearly had it! Why did you have to make all that noise?”

Kallik halted, looking puzzled. “Sorry,” she said. “But there's no need to get angry. Yakone has a seal. There's plenty for all of us.”

Toklo bared his teeth in a snarl. “You don't ever waste prey!” he growled.

Lusa rose to her paws as annoyance sparked in Kallik's eyes. “Please don't argue—” she began.

Both bears ignored her.

“It's a waste of prey to kill two seals when one will do,” Kallik snapped.

Toklo opened his jaws to make an angry retort, but he was interrupted by Yakone, who padded up and let his prey drop to the ice at Kallik's paws. It was a big, plump seal, with enough meat on it to feed all four of them.

“Here you are,” Yakone said. “Let's eat.” Suddenly he seemed to become aware of the tension between Kallik and Toklo, and he glanced from one to the other uncertainly. “Is everything okay?” he asked.

“Everything's fine,” Kallik replied, glaring at Toklo as if she was daring him to contradict her. “Great catch, Yakone.” She crouched down on the ice beside the seal carcass and tore off a mouthful of flesh.

For a moment Lusa thought that Toklo was going to refuse his share.
Don't be so stupid
, she thought, with a pleading glance.
What does it matter who catches the prey?

“Come on, Toklo,” she said aloud, taking a bite in her turn. The seal meat was too rich and greasy for her; her belly was craving nuts and berries. But the long moons of journeying had taught her not to be fussy; bears had to take food where they could find it.
It's been so long since I had proper black bear food; I've almost forgotten what it tastes like.
“Thanks, Yakone,” she mumbled around the mouthful.

Toklo hesitated a moment more. Then, to Lusa's relief, he stepped forward and bent his head to tear at the seal. “Yeah, thanks, Yakone,” he grunted, as if every word were being dragged out of him. “It's a good catch.”

The tension faded as the four bears ate.

But it's not over
, Lusa thought.
Toklo will have to learn to get along with Yakone. If he doesn't, how will we travel together? Will we have to split up? Oh, Toklo, don't make me choose between you and Kallik!

The seal meat in Toklo's belly
felt heavy as he hauled himself up. Studying Yakone, he couldn't decide whether the white male's contented expression came from being full-fed, or whether he was feeling smug that he had caught the seal.

I would have caught one if it hadn't been for Kallik.

“We ought to head for the island over there,” Yakone said, jerking his muzzle toward the distant smudge on the horizon. “I've never been there myself, but some of the Star Island bears have visited it. We might pick up some prey.”

“Great!” Kallik agreed. “It'll be good for Lusa to get onto land for a bit, too,” she added with an affectionate look at the black bear. “She can dig down and find some leaves and roots.”

Yakone set off, taking the lead without even a glance at Toklo, who bit back a snarl that rose in his throat. “Ignore me, why don't you?” he muttered to himself as he followed.

His belly churned with misery and resentment as he padded across the ice. Everything had changed; everything felt wrong. He was fed up with snow and ice and the waste of endless white that stretched around them in every direction. He longed for forests with tall trees and deep undergrowth, and warm air full of the scents of prey. He wanted long days of sunshine, or even cloud and rain, rather than brief moments of daylight where the sun barely peeped over the horizon.

And instead of Ujurak we have this white bear with us.

Somehow Toklo had never minded taking direction from Ujurak. Almost from the beginning he had realized that the small brown bear knew more than he did about certain things, in particular which way they needed to go. Even though he had protested some of Ujurak's weirder decisions, his friend had never been wrong. Except that at the end of their journey, Ujurak had been killed in the avalanche. Had he known all along that this was his destiny, that this was waiting for him when they reached the end of their quest?

Toklo felt as though every hair on his pelt, every muscle in his body, were groaning in pain because Ujurak had left them. He tried to tell himself that Ujurak wasn't really dead, that he had returned to his BirthDen among the stars. But it didn't help.

We traveled all that way together! Did I really bring him here so that he could gallop up into the sky and become a pattern of stars? Does that mean he wasn't really a brown bear at all?

Toklo had never felt so alone, not even when his mother, Oka, had driven him away and he'd had to learn to survive on his own in the forest. Back then he hadn't known what it meant to have a friend. Only a brother who had died and a mother who had seemed to hate the sight of him.

The night before, he had looked up at the stars and found the shining outline that was Ujurak, but that hadn't helped, either. It only made him realize how far away Ujurak was: skylength after skylength, much, much farther than any bear could travel.

I'd give anything to reach up into the stars and pull Ujurak back down.

Every night Toklo could look up and see his friend in the stars, but he could never hunt with him or talk to him. He couldn't pad alongside Ujurak anymore, or roll him over in a playful wrestling match, or watch his eyes light up when Toklo brought a plump goose or a juicy hare for them to share.

It won't ever be that way again.

The bears traveled on through the gray half-light of snow-sky, but the dark hump on the horizon never seemed to come any closer. A few light flakes of snow began to drift down, growing steadily thicker until they blotted out the island altogether. Plodding after the other bears through the swirling blizzard, Toklo slipped into a half dream. He imagined that he could see Ujurak just ahead of him, a small brown shape slipping easily through the dense whiteness. Although Toklo quickened his pace, Ujurak was always too far ahead. At last Toklo lost sight of him in the spiraling white flakes. His heart quickened as the snowfall started to ease and he could see more clearly ahead of him. He searched for a small brown shape against the new snow, for a trail of pawprints leading confidently on. But Ujurak wasn't there. He had never been there.

I just imagined it. Because I want to see him again, so much.

The snow stopped and the sky cleared as the brief day drew to an end. The island was noticeably closer now, with craggy hills rising dark out of the flat expanse of ice. In the thick snow they had veered away from it; as they turned to head directly for it again, Toklo became aware of his freezing cold paws and the lumps of snow clinging to his pelt. His muscles ached with weariness. Intent on following Ujurak, he hadn't noticed how hard it was to struggle through the blizzard.

“Can we rest for a bit?” Lusa whimpered. “My paws feel like they're about to fall off.”

“We may as well stop for the night,” Toklo responded, without giving Yakone the chance to reply. “We won't reach the island before it's completely dark.” He braced himself for an argument with Yakone, but the white bear just nodded.

“There's nowhere to dig out a den,” Kallik warned. “But you're right, Toklo. The island is too far away to make it there in time to find better shelter. Come on, Lusa, you can lie down next to me—but be careful that you don't fall into the longsleep again.”