The Longest Day (2 page)

“Long.” Dustu shook one hindpaw, then another as though shaking away stiffness. His pelt glowed red in the dappled sunlight, betraying his age. Lusa wondered how many times he'd made this trip to the lake. He must know every bear here. “Is Leotie with you?”

Dena nodded. “She's picking berries. Have you seen Chula yet?”

Lusa tilted her head to listen. Chula had been here with her brother Ossi and their mother last suncircle. “Excuse me, did you say Chula?” She hurried forward. “Is she coming?”

Dustu and Dena stared at her.

“Do you know her?” Dena asked.

“I met her at the last gathering.” Lusa stopped in front of them, her gaze flicking beyond them as she searched for familiar faces.

Dustu tipped his head. “I remember you,” he grunted, his face softening. “You're the one who saved Miki from the white bears.”

A young male bear crossed the clearing toward them.
“Lusa?” he called. “You came! Welcome!”

Lusa frowned. The bear's face was familiar. His name came to her in a rush. “Pokkoli!” He was a friend of Miki. “How are you?”

“Great, thanks.”

“How's Miki?” Lusa asked. “Is he here?”

“Not yet. But he'll be here soon.” Pokkoli swung his snout toward a group of black bears foraging farther up the slope. “Come and join us.” He bounded toward them.

“It's nice seeing you again!” Lusa called to Dustu and Dena as she hurried after Pokkoli.

Ossi!
She recognized the young male bear from the distinctive patch of white fur on his chest. He was sitting on the ground, chewing a fern root. Pokkoli had stopped to scratch his hindquarters against a tree. Two other bears were nibbling cloudberries from a bush while a female dozed in the sunshine.

Lusa suddenly felt shy. Would she remember how to act like a black bear? Would they notice she was different?

“Lusa!” Ossi scrambled to his paws. “It's good to see you again!” He was much taller and his voice was deeper than it had been last suncircle. He strode toward Lusa and butted her shoulder affectionately.

She staggered, surprised by his strength.

He huffed with amusement. “You've grown.”

“So have you!” Lusa looked into his wide, open face. Happiness shone in his eyes.

“Isn't it great to be back?” Ossi stretched, rolling his shoulders.

“Is Chula with you?” Lusa couldn't see Ossi's sister among the others. “And your mother?”

“My mother stayed at home this year,” Ossi told her. “Chula's traveling with Sheena and her cubs. They were planning to meet up with Miki. I came ahead with Pokkoli.”

Pokkoli swallowed a berry and grimaced at the sharpness. “So, Lusa, what have you been doing since last leaftime?”

“Just traveling,” Lusa told him.

Ossi looked surprised. “Alone?”

“With some friends.” Lusa shifted her paws.

“Are they here?” Pokkoli looked around.

“Not exactly,” Lusa mumbled.

Ossi frowned.

“They're with the brown bears and the white bears.” Lusa peered through the trees. She could just make out the lake sparkling between the trunks.

“What are they doing
there
?” Pokkoli grunted.

“They're with their own kind.”

“Their
own
kind?”

“Kallik and Yakone are white bears, and Toklo's a brown bear.”

“You've been traveling with white bears?” Suspicion clouded Pokkoli's gaze.

“And a
grizzly
?” Ossi's frown deepened.

Lusa's fur prickled. She changed the subject. “Is Hashi here?” Hashi was the gruff old male who had seemed to be in charge of the black bears last time.

“Not yet.” Pokkoli was still staring at Lusa.

Ossi scratched his flank with a large paw. “He's too ancient to walk fast.”

“He might have met up with Chula and the others,” Pokkoli suggested.

“If he's traveling with Chula, he'll never get here,” Ossi chuffed. “Chula has to stop for food so often, she's slower than a two-legged coyote.”

Pokkoli sat down. “And if Hashi stops to inspect every tree for a bear spirit, they won't be here until cold-earth.”

“Poor Hashi. He's worried his ancestors might say something important when he's not listening,” Ossi joked.

Lusa crept toward the cloudberry bush. Her belly was rumbling with hunger. She was relieved that Ossi and Pokkoli had stopped asking her about Kallik and the others. “Is it okay to share these?” she asked two bears who were reaching between the branches, plucking the swollen red berries.

“Help yourself.” One of the foraging bears nodded toward the far side of the bush. His jaws were sticky with berry juice. “There's plenty over there.”

Lusa sat down and tugged a berry from the bush with her teeth. The juice bathed her tongue, as sweet as honey. “Do you want some?” she asked Ossi.

Ossi shook his head. “No, thanks. I've just had a heap of fern roots.”

When she was full, Lusa sat back on her haunches. The berries had made her thirsty. She stood up and headed through the forest toward the lake.

“Where are you going?” Ossi called.

“To get a drink.”

“Watch where you go!” Ossi hurried after her with Pokkoli at his heels. They steered her onto a trail of trampled ferns. “You don't want to cross into the brown bears' territory.”

Lusa sniffed. “They won't hurt us.”

“I wouldn't be so sure.” Pokkoli nosed past Ossi. “The brown bears are even grouchier than usual this year.”

“Why?” Lusa walked out of the trees and hopped down a sandy ledge onto the pebbled beach. She glanced toward where the brown bears were gathered, beyond a rocky outcrop that jutted into the lake.

Ossi jumped down after her. “Oogrook's not here this time.”

“Oogrook's their leader,” Pokkoli explained as they reached the water's edge. “He settles arguments and makes them behave.”

Lusa scanned the brown bears, her heart lifting as she spotted Toklo among them. He was as big as the others now, no longer a cub. “But Oogrook will arrive soon, won't he? Just like Hashi.” She swished through the shallows and leaned down to drink. The water was cold on her tongue.

“No, he's dead.” Ossi waded in beside her.

“Dead?” Lusa jerked up her head, her muzzle dripping.

“He was old.” Ossi shrugged and took a drink.

Pokkoli hung back at the water's edge, his gaze on the brown bears. “The brown bears will have to decide who their new leader will be.”

Ossi's ears twitched. “Brown bears can never decide anything
without fighting. You'd best stay away from them until it's been settled,” he grunted.

Lusa tried to catch Toklo's eye. Did he know about Oogrook's death yet? But he hadn't noticed her.
Please, Arcturus, watch over him.
They'd seen too many fights on their journey.
Don't let him walk into another.

Toklo broke from the trees and
stopped at the edge of the shore. He could see Pawprint Island shimmering in the middle of the lake. The ancient story, repeated by every generation of bears, rang in his mind.
Arcturus strode across this lake, and where he set his paw, an island sprang up. Fish thronged around it and he ate his fill before he journeyed on.

Pride swelled in Toklo's chest.
Did I really swim that far?
He'd only been a cub at the last gathering, and yet the other bears had chosen him to make the journey. Fish had been scarce and the bears had decided that one bear's swim to the island would be an offering of respect to Arcturus.

Toklo remembered the spirits of Oka and Tobi swimming beside him, his mother and brother boosting him up against the currents and urging him on as exhaustion dragged at his fur. As he'd swum back from the island, Toklo had caught a huge salmon and carried it to the others. They'd greeted him enthusiastically, knowing the salmon was a sign that their bellies would be full once more.

The breeze lifted Toklo's fur, and he felt strangely peaceful.
I belong here as much as I belong in my own territory. I will come to the gathering every suncircle,
he silently promised Arcturus.

He headed toward the gathering of brown bears. They seemed agitated. A single bear lounged on a cluster of rocks, but the others moved as they talked, shifting restlessly from paw to paw.

Curiosity sparked beneath Toklo's pelt. Had something happened? He quickened his pace.
Will they remember me?

“Toklo!” A sturdy, coarse-furred bear nosed his way from the crowd. “You came!”

Toklo broke into a run, pebbles swishing beneath his paws. As he reached the bear at the edge of the group, he chuffed happily. “Shesh! It's good to see you!”

Shesh wrinkled his graying snout. “You smell like you've traveled far. Is that mountain scent in your fur?”

“Yes. And forest scent and sea scent and river scent,” Toklo told him proudly. He examined Shesh. No new scars marked his pelt, and he was fatter than last burn-sky. “You look like you've had a good season.”

Before Shesh could answer, angry snarls erupted behind him.

An old male swiped a paw at a younger bear. “You know nothing about where to hunt!”

“I know better than
you
!” the young bear snapped back. “Only a cloud-brain thinks that pine forests are good for hunting.”

“The prey is rich there.”

“But what bear can run through such thick forest?”

“You must be clumsy!”

“Any bear is clumsy compared with a deer.”

The two bears glared angrily at each other.

Toklo looked around for Oogrook. The wise old bear could put a stop to the argument before it turned nasty.

But Oogrook wasn't here.

Toklo lifted his muzzle. “
All
forest is good for hunting. We should thank Arcturus for the prey it brings us.”

Shesh nodded. “Toklo's right, Tuari.” He caught the young male's eye before glancing at the older bear. “Holata, you should be
teaching
Tuari instead of arguing with him.”

Holata dropped onto all fours, grunting. “It's impossible to teach a young bear anything.” His gaze flashed to Toklo. “They think they know everything already.”

“And
you
don't?” Tuari sank grumpily onto his front paws.

The other bears shifted around them, pelts twitching uneasily.

“Where's Oogrook?” Toklo asked.

Shesh looked down at his paws. “Oogrook died.”

Toklo blinked. “How?”

Shesh shrugged. “He was old. He didn't wake up from his long sleep.”

Toklo didn't want to believe it. He wanted to tell Oogrook about his journey. The old bear would understand how brave he'd been, how much he'd lost, and how much he'd achieved. With Ujurak, Kallik, and Lusa, Toklo had brought the spirits back so the wild would be safe. He'd helped Ujurak return
to his home among the stars. Oogrook would have realized that he'd been right to put his faith in the young cub who had swum to Pawprint Island and carried a salmon back to shore.

Sadness pierced Toklo's belly. “Are you sure he's dead?”

“Wenona saw his body. She lives in the territory beside his.” Shesh beckoned Toklo with a jerk of his muzzle. “Come, we have laid a tribute to him.”

Toklo followed Shesh through the bears. They stopped near the spot at the lake's edge where Oogrook used to sit. Water lapped at a small pile of rocks and sticks, placed there deliberately. “His spirit runs with the currents now,” Shesh murmured.

As Toklo stared at the ripples, he heard a friendly growl. “Are you the bear who swam to Pawprint Island?”

Tuari had followed them to the pile of stones. Two cubs peered from behind his wide haunches; they looked so similar that Toklo guessed they were denmates.

“He can't be! He's too young!” the she-cub huffed.

“That's what made it so special,” her brother chuffed.

“Elki! Elsu! Be quiet!” Holata lumbered over and scolded the cubs.

“We're only talking to Toklo!” protested the she-cub.

“They're not bothering me—” Toklo began.

Holata cut him off. “Come away,” he snapped. Elki and Elsu trotted obediently over to him.

Tuari stayed where he was, gazing at Toklo. “
You
made the fish come back!”

A she-bear hurried closer. “That's what I heard, too! You
made Arcturus send them back to the rivers and the lakes.”

More bears gathered around him. Toklo's pelt twitched self-consciously as they stared at him.

“Thanks to you, I've had a full belly since last fishleap!” Tuari barked.

Toklo backed toward the water, his hindpaw grazing Oogrook's memorial of sticks and stones.

“Don't be shy.” Shesh nudged his shoulder. “We're grateful to you. You were a brave cub.”