The Longest Day (6 page)

“I just
know
!” Lusa's panic hardened to rage. How could she explain to these bears that her dream was a sign? Chula needed help. She stared at Ossi. “Which route would Chula take to reach the lake?”

“The same one as me and Pokkoli, I guess.”

“You have to show me.” Lusa ran to the edge of the clearing. “Come on! We need to find her as soon as we can.” Miki and Sheena were traveling with her—and possibly Hashi, too. And Sheena's cubs! If Chula was in danger, they might be, too! Lusa raced up the slope, swerving between the trees.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Ossi following. Her shoulder thumped into a trunk and she staggered sideways.

Ossi overtook her. “This way.”

Lusa silently thanked Ossi for not asking questions. As she ran, she searched for movement in the undergrowth. She expected Ujurak to appear at any moment—as a moose, or a hare—anything that might guide them.

Brambles shivered to one side and a bird exploded from between the stems.
Ujurak?
It fluttered up toward the canopy, disappearing among the branches.

Just an ordinary bird! They must have startled it from its cover.

Ossi scrambled up a rise. Lusa was panting when they reached the top. She drew in a gasping breath as she looked down the other side, hoping to catch a glimpse of Chula and the others. But only dense forest lay ahead, the pale leafy trees giving way to tight rows of pines.

“Is this definitely the way you came?” she asked Ossi.

He gazed around. “We definitely traveled through pine trees,” he told her. “But one pine looks the same as the other. I'm not sure which way to go from here.”

“Is there
anything
you remember?” Lusa's heart was pounding. “Did you stop to gather berries? Was there a clearing? Did you cross a river?”

“A BlackPath,” he told her suddenly. “We crossed a BlackPath.”

“Where?”

Ossi tilted his head on one side. “I'm not sure!”

Lusa began to pace. “You
must
remember. It was only two sunrises ago!
Think
!”

Suddenly Ossi leaned forward. “There!” he barked.

Lusa followed his gaze. She could see only trunks and shadows.

“The stream!” Ossi plunged down the slope. “We drank there.”

As Lusa followed, she saw a sparkle between the trees where water reflected a shaft of sunlight. Ossi swerved between the trees, Lusa at his heels. He skidded to a halt as he neared the stream. Lusa slid past him, her paws slithering on the pine needles. “Which way now?”

“Upstream,” Ossi told her. He turned and followed the stream up a rise that lifted toward daylight. Lusa could see sunshine flooding into the forest where the trees ended.

A rumble sounded from the gap. Lusa's pelt tingled with fear.
A firebeast.
She recognized the sound too well. They were getting close to the BlackPath. At least they were heading in the right direction. Another rumble sounded, as loud as thunder. Lusa's breath caught in her throat.
That's the noise from my dream!

Brambles blocked their path, but Ossi forced his way through, and Lusa squeezed through the gap he'd made. Sunlight splashed across her face as she burst out the far side.

The BlackPath lay in front of them, stretching far into the distance in one direction and disappearing around a curve in the other. Ossi stopped at the edge and stared into the forest on the far side. Fresh rumbling rolled toward them, and Lusa saw a massive firebeast approaching around the curve. It raced nearer, eyes flashing on its orange head and along its flanks. Slain trees were lying on its back, and Lusa shuddered.

A second roar sounded from the other direction. A blue firebeast appeared, hurtling along the BlackPath toward the orange beast.

Lusa pressed close to Ossi. “Are they going to fight?” Perhaps they should go into the woods until it was over.

“Wait.” Ossi leaned backward. The blue firebeast was howling, splitting the air with a shriek that made birds fly up from the trees behind Lusa. The orange firebeast howled in reply, and both began to slow. Pulling toward the far side of
the BlackPath, they rumbled to a halt, snout to snout, then fell silent.

Lusa realized she was trembling. “We should go around them.” They couldn't let the firebeasts get in the way of saving Chula. She started to head along the shoulder, keeping to the shadow of the pines.

“Look!” Ossi hissed.

The side of the blue firebeast's head swung open. A flat-face climbed out, pulling a limp, bleeding flat-face after him. A moment later, the side of the orange firebeast's head opened and another flat-face jumped out. It raced to help. Together, they half dragged, half carried the injured flat-face to the orange firebeast's head, then pushed him inside. Climbing in, they pulled the opening shut. Smoke billowed from the firebeast's tail as it rumbled to life. With a shudder, it jolted forward, its massive head rolling straight for the bears.

Ossi backed toward the brambles. Lusa leaped alongside him as the firebeast lurched toward them, the three flat-faces locked inside. Crashing over bushes, snapping branches with its shoulders and haunches, the firebeast slowly turned itself around. It churned mud from the edges of the BlackPath as it straightened up and headed back the way it had come.

“That flat-face was hurt!” Lusa yelped. The sight of blood had unnerved her. Chula might be bleeding, too.

Ossi was crossing the BlackPath, his snout twitching as he approached the abandoned firebeast. Lusa followed him reluctantly. When he reached the firebeast, Ossi reared up on his hind legs, pawing at the trees stacked on its back. Lusa
heard him whimper, and felt a stab of pity. The swirls in the bark of the trees showed the countless spirits of black bears, helplessly taken from the final resting places they had chosen for themselves.

“We can't save them,” Lusa whispered. “But we can help Chula.”

Ossi swung his head toward her, his paws still resting on the side of the firebeast. “We can't just leave them!”

“We have to!” Lusa insisted. “Chula needs us
now
!” She grabbed Ossi's scruff between her teeth and hauled him down. “You have to help me.” She turned away, not giving him time to argue, and began to run along the shoulder in the direction the firebeast with the injured flat-face had come from. She glanced over her shoulder. Ossi was lumbering after her, his eyes glittering with grief.

Beyond the curve in the BlackPath, Lusa glimpsed the shiny skin of another firebeast. She skidded to a halt, confused. It wasn't roaring. It wasn't even on the BlackPath. It had rolled onto its side and lay helpless on the shoulder, black paws hanging in the air. Split trees spilled from its back.

Ossi pulled up beside her, a wail rumbling in his throat. “Oh, those poor spirits,” he rasped, staring at the jumble of logs crisscrossing the ground. “I can hear them crying.”

Lusa pricked her ears. He was right. Moans drifted from the cut trunks, wails of pain and terror.
Just like my dream.
Had Ujurak sent her here to witness the suffering of the tree spirits?

Then Lusa smelled blood. She stiffened. There was the
scent of death, too, and more fear than she'd ever smelled before. “That's not the crying of spirits,” she breathed. “That's the sound of
real
bears.” She stopped, feeling sick as she glimpsed black fur showing between the spilled trees. “Ossi! There are bears trapped under the logs!”

“Help!” The thin cries were getting
louder.

Lusa raced forward. Ossi pounded after her. She spotted Chula at the edge of the spilled trees, lying in the long grass with a log crushing her hind leg. Lusa's heart lurched. But as she reached the injured bear, she noticed a rock jammed beneath the trunk, lifting some of the weight.

Chula's eyes rolled with pain and fear. “I can't get free!”

Ossi was already pushing his paws beneath the tree, grunting as he tried to heave it away from his sister's leg. Lusa dug her claws into the bark and tried to help. The tree didn't budge. “We're not strong enough!” she hissed to Ossi.
Chula must be in agony.
Even with the rock supporting the log, she could see Chula's leg was squashed tight between wood and earth.

Lusa broke away, roaring with frustration. She froze as she saw fur shimmering between the trees. Was that a brown bear? Would he help? Rearing onto her hind legs to see better, she recognized Ujurak's face among the shadows. Lusa felt a surge of hope. She waited for him to bound forward,
or transform into a moose and help roll the log away. But he stayed where he was, watching her.

Anger welled in Lusa's belly. “Help us!” she roared.

Ujurak's voice sounded faintly in her mind, as though he were a long way off. “I can't do anything, not this time.”

Ossi glanced up at her. “What are you bellowing at?”

“Hush!” Lusa waved at him to be quiet. She had to hear Ujurak.

“You know what to do,” Ujurak went on. “Take a breath. Stay calm. Trust yourself.”

The reassuring tone washed through Lusa like a cooling breeze. Her thoughts slowed. She looked down. There was a gap beneath the log where the rock pushed it up. Lusa's paws pricked. “I have an idea!” Scrambling past Ossi, she crashed through the ferns and raced into the trees. She scanned the ground for sticks, inspecting them carefully until she found what she was looking for: a solid branch, newly fallen and still strong. She grasped one end between her teeth and heaved it into the sunlight. Hauling it past Chula, she dropped it beside the log.

Ossi looked puzzled, but as Lusa began to thread the thickest end of the stick through the gap beneath the log, his eyes brightened with understanding. “We can lever the trunk off!”

She nodded. “If we're careful, the trunk will roll away without hurting Chula.”

Once the stick was firmly beneath the log, she hurried to the other end and heaved it up with her forepaws. She wanted to pry the log away from Chula's leg. It creaked as she pushed
upward, but she could feel strength in the wood.
Please hold!
Ossi grabbed the branch and heaved, too. Between them, Ossi and Lusa lifted it high enough off the ground for Ossi to dive underneath and push up with his powerful shoulders. Groaning with the effort, he forced the branch higher while Lusa pushed with all her might.

The tree trunk shifted. One more heave, and the log lifted a paw's width from the rock.

Lusa's heart leaped. “We're doing it.”

Ossi grunted beside her, his eyes tightly shut as he strained at the branch. Chula whimpered with fear.

“Can you pull yourself free?” Lusa called to her.

Chula winced as she dragged herself forward. “Yes!” Her hind leg slid from beneath the trunk.

The moment it was clear, Lusa barked at Ossi. “Get out!” she warned. “I'm going to let go.”

As Ossi ducked free, Lusa jumped away from the branch. It slammed onto the ground, and the log rocked back into place.

Lusa rushed to Chula and ran a paw over her leg. It felt stiff and swollen, and heat pulsed from it.

Ossi leaned in beside her. “How bad is it?”

“I don't know.” Lusa looked at Chula. “Can you move it?”

Chula grimaced as she strained. But her hind leg didn't move.

“Does that mean it's broken?” Ossi asked.

Lusa shook her head. “I don't know. It might be. But there's a lot of swelling. We won't know until that eases.”

Ossi snuffled his sister's cheek. “Don't worry, Chula. We'll look after you.”

“What about the others?” Chula grunted. “Are they okay?”

“Who was with you?” Lusa asked.

“Hashi and Rudi,” Chula rasped. Lusa guessed she must be in a lot of pain. But they had to know who else needed to be rescued. “Sheena and her cubs, Tibik and Hala.”

“And Miki?” Lusa asked.

Chula nodded. “Miki, too.”

“Is that all?”

Chula nodded, her eyes clouding with pain.

“I'll find you some herbs,” Lusa promised. “But first we have to look for the others.” As she spoke, a growl sounded from the log pile. Lusa ran toward it, picking her way over the mess of strewn trunks.

“Under here!” Ossi had squeezed through a gap where the logs rested against the fallen firebeast.

Lusa clambered toward him. “It's Sheena,” Ossi told her as she reached him.

Lusa peered into the shadows. Sheena was cowering in a space between the firebeast and the logs. “Are you trapped?”

Sheena blinked at Lusa as if she hadn't heard. “My cubs?” she croaked. “Are my cubs safe?”

“We haven't found them yet,” Lusa told her. “But we've freed Chula. She's hurt. Can you come and help her?” She softened her voice, hoping to coax the shocked bear from beneath the logs.

Sheena grunted with effort as she hauled herself forward. Lusa backed away to make space, relieved that Sheena didn't seem to be pinned by the logs. But the she-bear was badly
scratched and bruised. Her fur stood out in clumps, her cheek was swollen, and she smelled of blood.