The Longest Day (13 page)

“Like a grizzly's been stomping on it,” he told her.

“Can you remember my name?” Lusa was worried his wound might affect his memory.

Miki crossed his eyes playfully. “You're Dustu, aren't you?”

Lusa nudged him. “Don't joke!” she scolded. “You've had a serious injury.”

“Okay. No more jokes.”

Suddenly, Sheena sat up and pricked her ears. Issa was heading toward them, her paws and chest covered in earth. “We've dug the grave.” Her gaze flitted uneasily over the injured bears. “It's time to bury Hashi and Hala.”

Sheena was the first on her paws, walking on trembling legs toward the trees. Tibik watched her anxiously.

Miki moved closer to the young bear. “Come on, little one. I'll take you over.” He nudged Tibik out of the scoop in the ground and steered him across the clearing.

“Chula?” Ossi was blinking at his sister. “Do you want me to carry you?”

Lusa shook her head. “Chula should stay here,” she warned. “The less she moves her leg, the better.”

Chula leaned forward, her eyes glittering with disappointment. “But I have to be at their burial!”

“You can visit their spirit tree when your leg is better,” Lusa told her. “Hashi wouldn't want you to make yourself lame for his sake.”

Chula groaned in distress as Rudi climbed from the dip.

“I'll stay with you, Chula,” Ossi offered.

“No.” Chula shook her head. “You must be there for both of us.”

Ossi nodded. “Okay.”

“Promise you won't put any weight on it,” Lusa told Chula. “I'll be back soon to change your bedding.” The leaves and ferns lining the nest were growing musty. Fresh fronds would make everyone feel better.

Ossi fell in beside Lusa as she followed the stream of bears heading up the slope. “Chula's leg will be all right, won't it?”

“I don't know for sure,” Lusa admitted. “But there's no break or cut, so there's no chance of infection. I'm sure if she rests it, she'll be able to walk on it soon.”

The other bears were slowing, fanning out around the base of a towering pine. Lusa nosed her way between them and squeezed to the front. A deep hole had been scraped out among the roots of the pine. Lusa stared into it. The damp scent of churned earth filled her nose.

Hashi lay in the shadows at the bottom. Hala was curled in his paws as though she was sleeping. A moan rolled in Sheena's throat as she peered into the grave. Around her, mothers shuffled closer to their cubs.

Dustu stood with his forepaws on the edge of the hole. The sunshine filtering through the canopy showed the reddish tinge in his pelt. Sadness filled his small, round eyes. As the other bears settled into stillness, Dustu lifted his muzzle. “I remember Hashi as a young bear. He climbed to the top of
this pine on his first gathering and stayed there for two days. We teased him that he was scared, but he said he could see so far across the lake that he didn't ever want to come down.” Dustu's voice thickened with grief. “Hashi loved the lake. He loved the beauty of our land, and honored Arcturus for finding the wilderness we made our home.”

Lusa's chest tightened. Had Hashi really once been a cub who climbed the highest trees? She glanced up, straining to see the top of the towering pine.

Dustu went on. “It is fitting that Hashi will be buried here, near the lake that he wanted to look at forever.” His growl grew raspier. “His spirit will live on in this great tree, keeping watch over every Longest Day until there are no more black bears.”

Sheena lifted her grief-stricken gaze. “And Hala?”

Sympathy brimmed in Dustu's eyes. “Such a young bear should not have died. But she is with Hashi, and they can look across the lake together. She will never be alone, nor Hashi. Their spirits will watch over us as one.”

Sheena's shoulders slumped. Dena nuzzled her ears and Tibik nestled against her flank.

Dustu nodded, and the other bears began to push leaves into the hole. They fluttered down, covering the bodies.

“May your spirits be happy.” Dustu pushed a pawful of earth over the rim.

“Watch over our land.” Dena let soil sprinkle down like rain.

Sheena sent more earth showering into the grave. “Good-bye, Hala,” she whispered. “Take care of her, Hashi.” Eyes
clouding, she turned and stumbled through the crowd with Tibik and Dena beside her.

Lusa wished she knew an herb that could ease Sheena's sadness, but she also knew that sadness, like the night, must be lived through. Dawn always came in the end.

Her pelt tingled as if someone was watching her. Lusa frowned, glancing over her shoulder. She sniffed the air, checking for strange scents. But she could smell only the trees and earth and the other bears.

I must be imagining it.
The burial had unsettled her, that was all. She turned back to the grave. If only she'd managed to save Hashi. There must have been more she could have done when she'd found him beside the BlackPath. She felt Ossi shift beside her. He was pushing earth into the grave.

“Do you think I could have saved him?” she whispered in his ear.

He looked at her. “His wound was too deep.”

“Perhaps I shouldn't have moved him.”

“You couldn't have left him there. Flat-faces were coming.”

Miki wove through the crowd toward them. “Are you okay?” He stopped beside Lusa. “You look worried.”

“What if I could have saved Hashi?” she blurted out.

Miki steered her away from the others, Ossi following.

“I've tried to tell her there was nothing more she could have done,” Ossi explained. “Hashi was too badly injured.”

Miki halted beneath an aspen and looked at Lusa. “You did all you could,” he told her quietly.

“But if I'd known more herbs, I might have saved him.”
Guilt churned in Lusa's belly.

“You could learn every herb in the forest,” Miki murmured. “But you can't save every bear.”

Why not?
Lusa knew he was right. Weariness dragged at her fur. She needed to sleep. But she'd promised to find new bedding for the injured bears. Had Ossi asked Pokkoli to find food yet? Rudi would still be hungry. She swayed on her paws, suddenly overwhelmed.

“Lusa!” Issa hurried toward her with Dena and Leotie. “You must rest.”

“I promised fresh bedding and food—” she began.

Issa huffed. “The rest of us can see to that.”

Dena nodded. “I'll pick ferns.”

“I'll help,” Leotie added.

“I'll go foraging with Pokkoli,” Ossi offered.

“I'll make sure Chula and the others are comfortable,” Issa promised.

Lusa gazed at them gratefully. “Are you sure?”

“Of course.” Issa nudged her shoulder. “Go find a quiet place to rest beside the lake. You look like you need some fresh air.”

Lusa let the kindly she-bear nose her away. She ambled from beneath the trees, feeling the earth turn to pebbles beneath her paws. A cool wind whipped off the lake and streamed through her fur, refreshing her. Lifting her muzzle, Lusa hurried toward the water. She hadn't drunk all day and suddenly realized how thirsty she was. Wading into the shallows, she dipped her muzzle into the chilly water.

A large white shape moved through the waves a few bearlengths out. Instinctively Lusa backed away, fear flashing beneath her pelt. A white bear was swimming toward her. What was a white bear doing over here? Instantly she thought of Taqqiq and Salik and how they'd taken Miki last year.

“Lusa!”

She gasped. It was Kallik!

The white she-bear reached the shallows and began to wade from the lake. “Have you had a chance to rest?”

“Not yet,” Lusa answered. “We just buried Hashi and Hala. But I've eaten. Ossi brought me berries.”

Pebbles clacked along the shore. Lusa turned and saw a brown bear running toward them.

“Toklo!”

Toklo jerked his nose toward a pile of boulders farther up the shore. “Meet me there,” he barked as he neared.

Lusa could see brown bears watching him from their stretch of shoreline.

Kallik must have noticed them, too. “I guess he doesn't want to be seen hanging out with us.” She sounded annoyed.

Is she thinking about the way the black bears drove her out of the camp?
Lusa wondered.

“Do the other white bears mind you talking to us?” Lusa asked.

Kallik rolled her eyes. “Taqqiq would call me a traitor.”

Lusa squinted at the distant white bears' shore. “Come on, then. Let's get out of sight.”

They reached the boulders at the same time as Toklo and
followed him into the shadows behind. Toklo nuzzled Lusa's cheek, then turned to rub his snout along Kallik's. “It's great to see you.”

Kallik huffed and flopped onto the pebbles. “I've missed you both so much.”

“Where's Yakone?” Lusa scanned the lake, half expecting to see another white head bobbing through the water toward them.

“He's fishing with the white bears,” Kallik grunted.

Lusa frowned. Didn't he want to see them again?

“He likes being back among his own kind.” Kallik rubbed her wet head against the pebbles as though scratching an itch.

Toklo propped his haunches on a boulder. “I guess he's missed the bears from Star Island.”

Lusa leaned against Kallik's flank. She could almost imagine they were still on their journey. No white bears and black bears and brown bears waiting for them to return to where they should be. Just the three of them, alone.

“How's Miki?” Toklo asked.

“His head hurts,” she replied. “But he'll be okay.”

Toklo looked down at Kallik. “How are the white bears? I saw Salik and Iqaluk. I hope they're behaving themselves.”

Kallik pushed herself into a sitting position. “As much as they ever do.”

“The brown bears are restless,” Toklo confided. “They need a leader.”

Lusa snorted. “Why does any bear need a leader?”

Toklo glanced over the rocks toward the brown bears. “To
stop
everyone
from wanting to be the leader,” he muttered. “Once we've named someone, everyone else can stop fighting.”

“They're fighting?” Kallik looked shocked.

“They're just testing each other's strength,” Toklo explained. “But if we don't find a leader soon, it might get vicious.”

Lusa tipped her head on one side. Silhouetted against the forest, the sun lighting his thick pelt, Toklo looked strong and powerful. Did he want to be leader? Lusa tried to imagine Ossi or Miki or Pokkoli arguing over who would lead the black bears. She couldn't imagine it. They hadn't even talked about it. They had been too busy grieving Hashi's death. She frowned, remembering the accident and the burial. The brown bears were fighting and the black bears were grieving. And Yakone was too busy with his old friends to remember his new ones. Her mood suddenly darkened.

“Nothing is the way I thought it would be,” she murmured. “We came here to celebrate the Longest Day. I thought it would be fun.”
A special way to say good-bye.
“But it's not. My friends have been hurt and your friends are fighting.”

“I wouldn't call them friends exactly,” Toklo snorted.

“This is our last time together,” Lusa whimpered. “It's supposed to be perfect.”

Kallik gazed at her. “How could it be perfect when we're going to be leaving each other?”

Lusa's throat tightened. She stared at Kallik, then Toklo. The thought of being far away from them tore at her heart.

“Come on!” Kallik leaped to her paws. “We can't waste our last moments together being miserable. Let's go for
a swim. Who cares who sees us? I'm proud that you're my friends!”

Lusa jumped up and followed Kallik and Toklo down the shore. The pebbles felt hot under her paws. Lusa welcomed the cool water as she charged into the shallows. Toklo and Kallik were already swimming farther out. Lusa followed them gingerly, tensing as the water lifted her and the lake bed disappeared from beneath her paws. She swam after Toklo and Kallik as they splashed each other, dipping under the surface before surging back up. Lusa swam around them, keeping her distance. Then Toklo vanished.

Lusa waited for him to resurface. Moments passed. “Where is he?” she called to Kallik.

Kallik ducked underwater. “I can't see him,” she spluttered, bobbing back up.

Suddenly the water beside Lusa exploded. Lusa yelped as Toklo burst through the surface with a huge trout in his jaws.

Kallik's eyes lit up. “Great catch!”

Toklo headed for the shore. Lusa followed, her heart still pounding from the shock. By the time she shook the water from her pelt, Toklo had laid the trout on the stones and was sniffing it. The sun glinted on its scales.

“Let's share it!” Toklo barked.

Kallik chuffed happily. Leaning down, she ripped a mouthful of flesh from the fish. She stepped back so that Toklo could take a bite. As she watched him, Lusa noticed shapes moving at the corner of her vision. She turned and saw two brown bears padding toward them.

“Are you sharing our fish with them?” the male bear called along the shore.

Beside him the she-bear scowled. “You should be sharing it with your own kind.”

“Muna! Holata!” Toklo greeted them. “Come join us. There's plenty.”

“Why are you feeding other bears?” Holata growled.

“They're my friends. I can—”

Lusa cut him off. She could see rage burning in the brown bears' eyes. “Don't argue!” she hissed in Toklo's ear. “You need to stay friends with them.”

Toklo glanced at her, surprised.

“Take it.” Lusa rolled the fish toward Toklo with her snout. “Your
friends
must be hungry.” Surely he understood?

Toklo held her gaze for a moment, then nodded. “You're right, Lusa. This is a good catch. I should share it.”