River of Lost Bears (26 page)

“Why don't they wash downstream?” Kallik wondered.

“They're trapped.” Yakone pointed his snout toward a gleaming vine, as thick and shiny as a water snake. It looked like a silvery strand of whatever firebeast pelts were made of. One end was fastened to a boulder on the shore, snagged by a fat, shimmering claw that had been driven into the stone. The other end spanned the river.

“It's holding a web!” Lusa could see tight silver mesh flashing beneath the surface, as though woven by a giant swimming spider. It held the floating mass of trees in place, stopping them from being carried downriver by the current.

The logs creaked as they pressed against the web. “They're trying to break free!” Lusa gasped. She scanned the bark. Faces showed among the knots. How many bears' spirits were trapped here? She glanced from one log to another, seeing faces everywhere. Their eyes pleaded with her, their jaws gaped wide in noiseless terror. Lusa's pelt prickled with alarm. “We have to help them!”

Before she could dart forward, another firebeast emptied its load at the top of the bank. The logs tumbled down, spraying her pelt with bark chips as they clattered past.

Kallik pulled her away. “We need to get out of sight.”

“What about the spirits?” Lusa wailed.

Toklo steered her toward the trees and pushed her through a clump of ragwort. In the shadows beyond, she stared at her friends. Their pelts were ruffled. The firebeast roar thundered behind them. “What are we going to do?” Lusa demanded.

Toklo shook his head. “I don't know. We've got to think of a way to get past the floating trees.”

“Get
past
?” Lusa tried to ignore the shrieking of the bear spirits as it shrilled through her ear fur. “We've got to save them!”

Toklo curled his lip. “Impossible!”

“Is it?” Kallik tipped her head. “There's only vine holding that web in place. If we could break it, the trees would be free.”

Lusa nodded frantically. “Oh, please, please, set the trees free. The bear spirits need us!”

“But it's
flat-face
vine,” Toklo pointed out. “How are we meant to break it?”

“At least we could try,” Yakone rumbled. “We haven't tested its strength yet.”

Hope sparked in Lusa. “What if we all pushed against the vine? We might snap it.”

Toklo seemed to flinch. “You want us to wade into the river? Did you see how many trees are pushing against the web? We'll get crushed or drowned. Besides, if the trees can't break through, how can we? I'm sorry, Lusa, but the flat-faces have trapped them for whatever reason, and we can't change that.”

Lusa stared at him. Wasn't Toklo even going to try to save the bear spirits? He was usually ready to try anything. She noticed his gaze glitter as he eyed the water. “Are you
scared
?” she snapped.

Toklo looked at his paws. “Of course not.”

Kallik narrowed her eyes. “The current's not fierce here, Toklo. It's not like when we rescued the flat-face cub. Couldn't we try?”

“With the place full of flat-faces?” he argued.

Yakone shifted his paws. “Let's get away from this noise and wait until dark,” he suggested. “Perhaps we can take a closer look when the flat-faces are sleeping.”

Kallik nodded. “Good idea.”

Lusa flattened her ears against the screaming of the bear spirits. “Okay,” she agreed, trembling.

Toklo headed back through the forest. He wove between pines, following the path of the river, which glittered beyond the trunks. Lusa followed Kallik and Yakone, dragging her paws. Every hair in her pelt screamed at her to run back to the bear spirits, but she forced herself to keep up with her friends. She let out a sigh of relief when Toklo stopped in a clearing. The roaring had eased to a distant grumble. Kallik sat down while Yakone sniffed the undergrowth.

How can they carry on like nothing's happening?
Lusa paced beside a clump of brambles, the shrieks of bear spirits echoing in her ears. She couldn't believe so many were suffering, bobbing helplessly in the water. Why were the flat-faces trying to drown them?

“Are you hungry?” Yakone asked her.

Lusa continued pacing, hardly hearing him.

“Let's fish,” Kallik suggested.

As the two white bears headed for the river, Lusa glanced up through the branches. The sun was still high. Such a long time until dark! Impatience pricked in her paws. When Kallik and Yakone returned with fish, she wrinkled her nose at the smell. Her gaze flicked toward the sky, tracking the sun as it slid with agonizing slowness toward the horizon.

At last, day eased to dusk and dusk turned to night. “Can we go and look now?” she demanded.

Toklo cocked his head to listen. “It sounds like the flat-faces are still awake.” The air trembled with the distant roaring of the firebeasts. Harsh white light flashed through the trees.

“I'm going to look.” Lusa marched toward the shore. She wouldn't let anyone stop her this time. Her heart twisted in her chest. The bear spirits must be terrified, trapped in the river, not knowing what was happening to them. What if their faces had disappeared from the bark? Where could they go? Who would watch over the forest? She heard pawsteps behind her and flexed her claws. “You can't stop me,” she growled. “I have to see the spirits. I have to know if they're still there.”

“I know.” Kallik caught up with her. “I'm not going to stop you.”

Lusa padded onto the shore and headed upstream. Kallik fell in beside her. “When I was a cub, I used to worry about white bear spirits trapped beneath the ice. I wanted to help them find their way out.”

“But you knew they'd find their way to the stars eventually,” Lusa pointed out. “Black bear spirits aren't supposed to be in the water. They need to feel roots beneath them and know they are still part of the forest.”

Kallik's fishy breath billowed in the night air. “Every creature needs to feel connected to the land they were born in,” she murmured. Her pelt glowed like the moon against the dark shore.

Moving closer to Kallik, Lusa padded on in silence as they neared the flat-face clearing. A firebeast rumbled at the top of the slope as it tipped a fresh load of logs into the river. Lights flared so brightly that Lusa had to screw up her eyes to see. “Don't they ever stop?”

“They may, if we wait.” Kallik sat down.

Lusa flinched as more logs tumbled down the slope. Bark screeched as it ripped away from the soft heart of the trees. “Look!” With a fresh jolt of horror, she spotted a firebeast on the far bank. A spindly leg lifted from its spine. Its spiked paw reached for the logs. With a howl, it snatched a bunch out of the water and scooped them into the air. The whole leg swung around and dropped the trees onto the flat back of another firebeast. There was a deafening rumble, and the newly laden firebeast pulled away into the forest.

Kallik leaned forward. “This must be how flat-faces move trees across the water when there's no bridge.”

“Move trees?”
The words choked in Lusa's throat: “They're stealing
spirits
! We can't let them do this!”

Kallik jumped to her paws. “Let's get the others.”

Lusa shook her head. “I'm not leaving them.”

Kallik held her gaze for a moment, then turned away. “Wait for me to get back,” she warned. “Don't do anything fish-brained.”

As the white bear charged away, Lusa crept forward. Her eyes were adjusting to the harsh glare of the flat-face lights. She squinted up the slope, watching a firebeast roll away. Leaning forward, she noticed how long it took for another to appear and fling its load into the river. They were slowing down. The gaps between were longer each time. Were the flat-faces and firebeasts growing tired at last?

Bear spirits, I'm going to save you. I promise.
Lusa pelted forward and ducked under the silver vine. Splashing into the river, she lunged for a log and hauled herself onto it, wobbling as it spun beneath her paws. She ran with the roll, keeping upright, heart pounding as she scrambled onto the next trunk, then the next. A knot in the bark frowned up at her. “I'm sorry!” Lusa landed too close to the end of the log and bobbed down into the water. Her pelt fluffed up in alarm as water washed her paws. She threw herself forward, clinging to the next log.

“Forgive me!” she wailed to the bear spirits. She was trampling all over them. But she had to see them for herself, and let them know that she was here, that she hadn't abandoned them to the flat-faces. She dodged out of the glare of the white lights as she headed across the logs. They were jammed tighter here, near the middle of the river; it was easier to keep her balance. The river swirled, black, beneath them, whispering as it lapped the logs.

“I can hear you!” Lusa called to the spirits. They sounded frightened, their anxious sighs lifting into the breeze.

Lusa felt a jolt run through the pack. She turned as another load crashed into the river. The trees around her creaked and moaned. “I'll save you!” Lusa bounded back toward the shore. Her paw slid from a log and splashed down into the water. She crashed, muzzle-first, onto the bark. Pain jabbed through her jaw and she clung on, dizzy with shock. The log held still beneath her. “Thank you!” she whispered to the spirit inside. The log held firm as she heaved herself to her paws and stepped gingerly onto the next log. She blinked as she reached the flat-face light. No one must see her. She hurled herself forward and managed to scramble to shore.

She pelted downstream. “Kallik! Toklo! Yakone!”

Shapes moved in the moonlight. She recognized a flash of white pelt. They were coming. Lusa scampered to meet them, panting. “We have to save them! They're wailing!”

Toklo skidded to a halt and glanced nervously at the water. “We can't,” he growled.

“You're scared!” Lusa accused him.

“The river tried to kill me when I rescued that flat-face!” Toklo snapped.

Frustration surged through Lusa. There wasn't time to be scared.

Kallik's pelt brushed hers. “The river is strong, Toklo, but we're with you. We won't let it hurt you.”

Toklo ignored her. “Let's just wait for the flat-faces to go to sleep and get past this mess.”

“Mess?”
Lusa stared at him. “I can't believe you're giving up! Aren't you even going to try to save the spirits?”

“We're not strong enough,” Toklo insisted.

“We won't know unless we try!” Bear spirits were trapped! They had to release the logs! It was the only chance the spirits had of escaping. They could reach the shore, far away from the flat-faces, and find new homes. Logs crashed behind her, and Lusa spun as the next load bounced into the river.

“Please, Toklo. We must help—” Her words caught in her throat as she spotted silver bark among the dark pine. “Chenoa?” she whispered. Splashing through the shallows, Lusa raced toward a birch as it rolled into the river. As the birch bobbed in the water, Lusa saw Chenoa's face etched in the bark—broad muzzle, neat ears, warm eyes.
“Chenoa!”
The face gazed back at her.

Lusa turned to the others. “How did she get here? We left her days ago!”

Kallik looked somber. “The firebeasts must have carried her here.”

“We have to save her!” Lusa stared desperately at Toklo.

“Is that really Chenoa?” The brown bear peered, blinking, at the birch.

Lusa grabbed Chenoa's tree and dragged it toward shore. “We can haul her out!” she puffed.

“Move!” Yakone roared.

Logs clattered down the bank. Lusa froze as she watched them bouncing toward her. Claws grabbed her flank and ripped her away as a huge pine crashed past.

“That was too close!” Kallik hugged Lusa against her belly.

Lusa struggled free. She stared at Toklo. Bark chips specked his muzzle. “You saw her, didn't you? You saw it was Chenoa! We can't leave her here!”

Toklo's eyes glittered with fear. “She's with the other tree spirits. She's not alone.”

Yakone flexed his claws. “Let's get out of here before someone gets killed.”

“No!” Lusa barked. “There are
spirits
in the trees!” She swung toward Kallik. “Did I ever doubt that
your
ancestors were beneath the ice?”

Kallik shifted her paws.

“They're trapped! In the water! They'll drown if they stay here!” Lusa jerked her snout to the clawed firebeast on the far shore. “Or that monster will take them somewhere worse!”

“She's right,” Kallik murmured. “We can't walk away from this.”

Lusa fixed her gaze on Toklo. “I abandoned Chenoa before,” she growled. “I'm not doing it again.”

The flat-face lights blinked out. Lusa gasped as darkness swallowed her up. As she strained to adjust to moonlight, the roaring rumbled to a halt. Lusa's heart soared. The firebeasts had stopped. “We can save them! We must!”