Seekers #6: Spirits in the Stars (20 page)

“It must be a trick of the light,” he mumbled to himself. “The way it filters through the snow. It must be!”

“No!” Ujurak’s voice was low and intense. “We’re more than just bears! We’ve come so far, without even knowing where we were going. Ursa brought us to this place—Ursa and the white bears who chased us and Tulugaq the raven. He only stayed alive long enough to show us the cave. We cannot give up!”

Chapter Twenty-One

Lusa

Ujurak’s words echoed in Lusa’s mind
as she stared at the little black bear on the cave wall.
Is this it?
she asked herself.
The reason I came so far, across ice and lakes and oceans—to look at a tiny image of myself?

This didn’t feel like the end of her journey. It didn’t feel like the end of
anything
. She was tired and hungry, and tired of being hungry. Deep longing woke inside her to go
home
—not to the Bear Bowl, but to a place where she would truly belong, with trees and sunlight and berries and grubs, and
other black bears
.

“Toklo has Ujurak, and Kallik has Kissimi,” she sighed softly. “But I have no one. And now that the journey is over, we’ll be separating soon, and then what will I do?”

“It’s not over yet.” Ujurak’s voice jerked Lusa out of her thoughts.

He and Kallik and Toklo were talking together a couple of bearlengths away. Lusa cast a last look at the four bear images and shuffled reluctantly over to join them.

“Tulugaq showed me the flat-face structure up at the top of the valley,” Ujurak went on. “There are fences and a tall tower made out of sticks—that’s the only part we can see from here—and a lot of flat-face machines. That’s where the oil is coming from.”

“So?” Toklo asked.

“Remember when you came to rescue me from the flat-face hospital?” Ujurak went on. “The oil structures there had spread, and the flat-faces had built a whole denning place around them. Maybe if we can destroy this rig here, while it’s still small, the flat-faces will think it’s not worth the trouble, and go away.”

“Destroy it?” Kallik asked, disbelief in her voice. “We can’t do that. We’re just bears! The no-claws would hurt us with their firesticks.” She bent her head and nuzzled Kissimi, as if she was most afraid for him.

“Then we need help,” Ujurak declared.

Kallik’s head snapped up again as she glared at him. “We won’t get help from the white bears.”

“And the flat-faces—Tulugaq’s people—can’t do anything, either,” Toklo added. “Or they would have acted before now.”

“Unless they’re just waiting for us to sort it out,” Kallik argued.

Lusa couldn’t think of anything to add. Outside, the wind had risen again; she closed her eyes and listened to it raging around the mountainside. It sounded like rumbling hooves . . . like a storm of caribou pouring down a narrow gully, churning the snow under their feet.

“Caribou!” she exclaimed, sitting upright. Her three friends stared at her. “Remember the caribou charging up the gorge near the new bay? They could knock down the flat-face structure if there were enough of them. They could knock down
anything
!”

Ujurak and Kallik exchanged a doubtful glance, and Kallik began to shake her head.

“I think I see . . .” Toklo began slowly. “If we could make the caribou stampede from the top of the valley, they would trample the fences and the tall sticks and the machines.”

“But they might get hurt,” Kallik objected.

Ujurak’s eyes clouded. “It will be dangerous for all of us,” he whispered.

The four bears looked at one another in silence; Lusa could see the doubt in their faces fading into determination.

Oh, Arcturus! What have I started?

Toklo was the first to break the silence. “Okay,” he said briskly. “We need a plan. The cave is here”—he made a mark on the gritty floor of the cave with one claw—“and the valley slopes up this way. Ujurak, the flat-face structure is here, right? And we’ve seen the caribou tracks . . . so I guess their grazing area must be about here.”

Lusa watched carefully as Toklo drew the plan, admiring how strong and capable he was.
We can trust him,
she thought, reflecting on the angry, hurt cub she had found in the forest, and how Toklo’s experience had changed him into the confident bear he was now.

“That’s right,” Ujurak confirmed, looking down at the lines Toklo had drawn. “That’s where we’ll find the caribou. I saw them when I was flying over the island.”

“It’s a long way from the oil rig,” Kallik muttered, staring at Toklo’s plan. “Can we move them that far?”

“We can if we get them good and scared,” Toklo replied confidently.

Ujurak murmured agreement. “We need to chase them this way,” he added, indicating a route over the shoulder of the hill on Toklo’s plan.

“Good.” Toklo gave a satisfied nod. “That sounds straightforward enough.”

Lusa wondered if he was right. Even though this was her idea, she felt as though thousands of butterflies were swarming in her belly.
Can we really chase the caribou so far?

“I don’t know what I’m going to do about Kissimi,” Kallik fretted, giving the little cub another gentle nuzzle. “I’m not taking him anywhere near a herd of caribou.”

Toklo gazed straight into her eyes. “Then you’ll have to leave him here.”

Kallik hesitated, then nodded reluctantly. “You’re right. It’s the only way to keep him safe.”

Nudging the little cub to his paws, she guided him over to the heap of snow in the middle of the cave. Here she dug out a den and tucked Kissimi into it, almost burying him in snow so that only his snout poked out.

“You have to stay here,” she explained. “I promise I’ll be back soon. And whatever you hear outside,
you must not leave the cave
. Do you understand?”

The tiny cub nodded, flicking flakes of snow from his ears.

With Toklo in the lead, the four bears headed out of the cave. As she entered the tunnel, Lusa cast a glance back at the image of caribou being hunted by flat-faces.

Now a whole herd of caribou is going to be chased by just four bears. There is no image of that. Will it work
?

Although the wind had risen, whirling the snow up from the ground, Lusa was relieved to see that no more of it was falling from the sky. Ujurak took the lead, trekking fast across the island.

“We’ll cut right across the center,” he explained. “I remember the way from when I was a raven.”

Lusa panted in the rear as they climbed a hill and halted at the top to look down on a gently sloping plain. A herd of caribou—so many that they looked like a shoal of fish clustered together—was moving slowly through the snow. The air was full of the bellows of the full-grown animals and the higher-pitched calls of calves left behind. Lusa could hear the clicking of their feet, and she remembered how strange she had found it when they’d first heard it in the Last Great Wilderness. Her belly rumbled as she breathed in the scent of the huge creatures.

“Now, listen.” Toklo turned to face the others, fixing them with a serious gaze. “We need to flank the caribou. It will only take one bear to get them moving. The tricky part will be to keep them together and heading in the right direction.

“I’ll take that side,” he went on, angling his ears toward the farthest edge of the valley. “Lusa and Ujurak, you take the other. Kallik, you go over there,” he ordered, pointing, “and scare them from behind. They’ll already be familiar with white bears as their enemy. Any questions?”

“What do you think they’ll do?” Lusa asked nervously.

Toklo bared his teeth. “What would you do if you were a caribou? They’ll run.” He paused and added, “We’ll need to keep them bunched together, and moving steadily but not too fast until they’re close to the oil rig. Otherwise they’ll be too tired to break anything. Then, once we’re near the oil place, we’ll let them spread out and run as fast as they can.”

Kallik nodded. “That should work.”

“Keep out of the way of their hooves.” Toklo raked his companions with a hard glance. “Don’t risk your own safety.”

“I bet you’ll risk yours,” Lusa said, aware once again of how deeply she trusted this bear.

“That’s what I’m here for,” Toklo retorted. “Any more questions?”

When no bear spoke, Toklo gave a brisk nod. “Then the spirits be with us all.”

Lusa watched as he turned and headed down the hill at an angle that would take him to the far side of the herd of caribou. Kallik followed, on her way to the rear; both bears crouched low behind snow ridges to stay out of sight of the caribou.

“We’ll go this way,” Ujurak said, striking off down the hill in the opposite direction, crouching down like Toklo and Kallik and keeping as far away from the herd as possible, so as not to spook them too soon.

Lusa hurried after him. “Should we roll in the snow to make our fur white?” she suggested.

“Good idea,” Ujurak agreed.

Lusa almost wished she had kept quiet; the bitter cold thrust icy claws into her fur as she wallowed in the snow. She scrambled to her paws again; snow was clinging to her pelt in sticky lumps instead of making a smooth covering.

Ujurak was looking just as uncomfortable. “It’s better than nothing,” he said, craning his neck to get a good look at his snow-dappled pelt. “It will help us get closer without being spotted.”

Lusa imagined herself getting near the pounding hooves of the caribou and remembered the force of their stampede that day in the gorge.

“I’m scared,” she confessed, her throat dry.

Ujurak nodded. “So am I.”

He looked suddenly vulnerable, which for some reason made Lusa feel better. “Don’t worry. I’ll look after you,” she promised him.

Together they crept alongside the caribou herd, until they came to a dip in the ground. “Let’s hide here,” Lusa whispered. “Then the caribou won’t see us while we’re waiting for Kallik’s signal.”

Ujurak nodded, slipping into the hollow beside her. Lusa poked her snout over the edge, staring at the peacefully grazing herd, a whole forest of caribou legs. The moments seemed to stretch out until each one was a whole suncircle.

“What’s keeping Kallik?” she whispered.

She had hardly finished speaking when she heard the powerful roar of a white bear coming from the rear of the herd. Lusa felt Ujurak tense beside her.

A few caribou skittered aside, and Lusa spotted Kallik, poised in a threatening stance with her jaws wide as she let out another drawn-out bellow. Lusa felt a shiver run through her.

She’s scaring me, and I’m her friend!

But only a few caribou moved, pressing themselves into the center of the herd, while the rest went on grazing unconcernedly. Kallik took a menacing pace forward, and to Lusa’s horror a bold male caribou stepped out of the herd and faced her.

Snarling, Kallik struck at him with one paw, and the caribou shied away, but more of the herd came to join him, giving out a rumbling call of defiance as they advanced on the white bear.

Oh, no!
Lusa’s heart sank as she imagined the sharp hooves trampling Kallik.
They’re fighting back!

Then she spotted Toklo charging around the end of the herd to join Kallik. He rose to his hind legs and let out a full-throated roar, turning all his fury on the caribou that threatened Kallik. They tossed their antlered heads, skittering backward, away from Toklo’s claws.

Movement rippled through the caribou. Lusa could sense their fear as the whole herd started to head in her direction. She got ready to leap out of the hollow, but Ujurak stopped her with a paw on her shoulder.

“Wait. We have to give Toklo time to get back to the other side.”

Lusa nodded, though her belly lurched with terror as she saw the herd of caribou bearing down on her like an ocean wave ready to crash on the beach. The whole world seemed to be filled with the trampling, pointed hooves.

The caribou were almost on top of them before Ujurak whispered, “Now!”

Side by side, the two bears leaped out of the hollow and roared. The caribou reared backward in a wave of gray-brown fur and spindly legs, heading at last in the right direction. They were moving fast, their hooves thudding against the ground in a deafening rumble, their heels click-click-clicking.

Lusa and Ujurak ran alongside, their muscles bunching and stretching as they strove to keep up with the panicked herd. In a swift glance backward Lusa spotted Kallik dropping back.

“They’re going too fast!” she gasped. “Remember what Toklo said! They’ll be too tired to break down the oil rig if they keep up this pace.”

She and Ujurak slowed down to let the caribou slacken their speed, and for a moment Lusa thought that their plan was working. But then the pace dropped again; some of the caribou halted completely, putting down their heads to graze, while others pushed their way to the sides of the herd, letting out threatening bellows at the bears.

They’re so brave!
Lusa marveled.

Shoulder to shoulder, she and Ujurak charged at the caribou again, pushing them back into the mass of animals. Kallik reappeared, harrying the animals from behind, while Toklo’s distant roaring broke out on the far side. The caribou picked up speed again.

But instead of heading in the way the bears wanted them to go, the herd started to break up, fleeing in smaller groups toward the edges of the valley.

“It’s not working!” Lusa cried in frustration.

Then from above a volley of caws broke out, and the air was filled with the flutter of dark wings. A crowd of ravens swooped low over the bears’ heads and dove down close as the caribou scattered across the valley. They flapped their wings and jabbed with their beaks until the caribou skittered and lurched back, the herd forming up again.