The Longest Day (8 page)

“Tibik!” Ossi called to the cub from Hashi's side. “Come here. I need your help.”

“Help?” Tibik stared at Ossi, bewildered.

“We need to help Hashi now,” Ossi told him.

Tibik glanced from Ossi to Lusa. “But what about Hala?”

Before Lusa could find an answer, Ossi barked again. “Hurry, Tibik! I need you.” He caught Lusa's eye. She guessed he was trying to distract the cub from his grief. She dipped her head to him. They could grieve later. Right now, they had to take care of the living. And free Rudi before the flat-faces returned.

As Tibik bounded toward Ossi, Lusa pricked her ears, relieved to hear that the firebeast rumble was still distant. Perhaps she was just hearing a faraway BlackPath. Perhaps the flat-faces weren't coming after all.

“I need you to go into the forest and find fresh moss,” Ossi told Tibik.

Tibik nodded and headed into the trees.

“Bring as much as you can carry!” Ossi called after him.

“I'll go with him.” Lusa glanced again at the dead she-cub, her heart twisting, and then followed Tibik into the forest.
Ujurak? Are you still watching?
As Lusa slipped into the shadow of the pines after Tibik, she felt fear close around her. Hashi was badly injured. Could moss and petals really save him? What about Chula's leg? Could lame bears survive in the wild? Where was Miki? If they dug deeper beneath the logs, would they find his body like they'd found Hala's? Lusa's breath stopped in her throat and she stumbled to a halt.

“Lusa! Quick!” Ossi's growl distracted her. He sounded alarmed. Had the flat-faces come?

“Stay with me!” Lusa called to Tibik as she whirled around. Crashing through the ferns, she broke from the trees.

She stopped dead in surprise when she saw Yakone and Kallik lumbering across the BlackPath on the heels of Sheena. Lusa raced toward them, relief bursting through her like sunshine. “What are you doing here?”

“We were in the forest looking for you,” Kallik panted.

“We wanted to see if you had found the black bears' camp,” Yakone explained. “We met Sheena and she told us what happened.”

Chula crouched down, her eyes wide with fear. “White bears?” She glared at Sheena. “Why did you bring
white
bears?”

“They said they could move the logs,” Sheena replied. “It was quicker to bring them here than go all the way back to the camp.”

Lusa led Kallik and Yakone around the firebeast and nodded toward the slipped logs. “Rudi's trapped under there. Hashi's wounded. Chula's leg is injured.” Lusa glanced at Sheena, her heart sinking. How was she going to tell the she-bear that her daughter was dead?

Sheena was staring at Tibik. He was standing at the edge of the forest, moss dangling from his mouth. Lusa watched grief spread from his gaze to Sheena's. She tried to move, to explain, but her paws seemed to have taken root and the words dried on her tongue.

“Hala?” Sheena's growl was husky with horror.

Tibik turned his head and stared at the space among the logs where Hala's body lay. Sheena walked slowly toward it, her shoulders stiff. Tibik dropped the moss beside Ossi and hurried after his mother. “I thought she was running behind me,” he told her, his voice cracking.

Sheena stared into the gap, her eyes clouding.

“If I'd known she wasn't running, I'd have stayed with her.” Tibik sounded desperate. He watched his mother lean over his sister's unmoving body. “I'm sorry,” he croaked. “I should have saved her.”

Sheena swung her head toward him. “
How
?” Anguish glittered in her eyes. “How could you have saved her from this?” She swung her nose toward the fallen firebeast, her gaze flashing over the spilled logs. “How could
any bear
save her from this?”

Tibik flinched. Sheena looked at him, a sob shuddering through her, then she swept him close with a paw and
sheltered him beneath her belly. “I'm glad you aren't hurt,” she murmured thickly. “We'll take Hala back to camp and give her a proper burial where her spirit will be safe.”

Lusa heard more firebeasts. This time, it was not the distant, steady rumbling. Their growling was getting louder. They were coming this way. “We must hurry,” she told Yakone. “We have to get everyone away from here.”

Kallik pricked her ears. “Firebeasts?”

“They'll be coming to collect this one,” Lusa guessed.

Sheena leaned into the gap and gently picked up Hala's body, then walked slowly toward the trees, Tibik pressing against her, and laid the dead cub—hardly more than a bloody scrap of fur—on the grass.

“Rudi's over here.” Lusa ignored the pain twisting in her heart. They didn't have much time. She climbed the log pile and poked her paw between the logs that trapped the old bear.

Yakone sniffed around the edge of the pile, his gaze flicking over the trunks. “If we move this one first,” he told Kallik, “the others should stay where they are.”

Kallik nodded. “Then we can move the two underneath,” she suggested. “It should make a big enough gap for him to squeeze out.” She turned to Lusa. “Is he wounded?”

“Just a few scratches, I think.” Lusa hoped it was true. The firebeasts were rumbling closer, and she hadn't even found Miki. Her heart lurched. They had to get these bears away from here first.

She went over to Ossi. “How's Hashi?” The fresh moss was
already stained with the old bear's blood. Ossi's face was stiff with worry.

Behind Lusa, wood creaked as Yakone and Kallik began to shift the logs. Kallik grunted with effort. Yakone called through gritted teeth, “One more heave!”

The log clattered noisily as it rolled away from the pile. Lusa spun around, alarmed. But the white bears had pushed it safely away from the group of dazed and injured black bears. Yakone reached a massive paw between two logs and began to heave away a second trunk.

The firebeast's growling grew louder.

“How is Chula going to make the journey?” Lusa looked at the injured she-bear, whose leg still stuck out stiffly.

“I'll carry her,” Ossi growled.

“What about Hashi?” Lusa fretted. “He can't walk.”

Ossi nodded toward Yakone and Kallik as they moved the last log clear. “Would your white bear friends carry him?” Was that an edge in his growl? Did Ossi resent their help? Lusa's pelt prickled. But she held her tongue. Getting everyone away safely was more important than how Ossi felt about white bears.

“Rudi!” Chula gasped with relief as the old bear hauled himself out from the logs. Shakily, he limped from the pile and slithered onto the grass.

Lusa ran over to him. “Where are you hurt?”

“Where
aren't
I hurt?” Rudi grunted, shaking out his pelt. His eye was swollen and tufts of fur stuck out along his flanks. He lifted a paw and shook it, then limped toward Chula. “Are
you okay?” He sniffed at the leaves wrapping her leg. “What's all this?”

“Lusa did it,” Chula explained. “It's helped to ease the pain.”

Yakone lifted his snout. “The firebeasts are close,” he warned. “We should leave.”

Ossi left Hashi and hurried to Chula's side. “Come on.” He crouched down. “Climb on my back.”

“Are you sure you can carry me?”

“As long as you haven't been gorging on berries all the way here.”

Grunting, Chula heaved herself onto her brother's back and clung there like an oversized cub.

Kallik padded toward Hashi and sniffed his wound. “This one can't walk.”

Yakone joined her. “Can you lift him onto my back?” Kallik nodded. She gently grabbed Hashi's scruff and heaved him up onto Yakone's shoulder. Draping him over the larger bear's back, she steadied him with a paw. “Walk steadily,” she told Yakone.

Yakone shifted his weight from one paw to the other until Hashi fitted snugly between his shoulders.

Lusa looked at Sheena. “Are you ready to leave?”

“Yes.” Sheena leaned down and picked up Hala's body and headed for the BlackPath. Tibik followed, his head down. Yakone and Kallik walked in their wake.

Lusa looked anxiously along the trail. The firebeasts were roaring closer. The hard stone trembled beneath her paws. Quickening her step, she guided Rudi after the others. Ossi
plodded heavily behind her, Chula gripping on tight to her brother's fur.

“What about Miki?” Tibik stopped and turned toward Lusa. “We never found Miki!”

“He wasn't under the logs. He must have run into the trees like you did.” Guilt swirled in Lusa's belly, and she prayed to all the spirits that she was right. She felt as if she was abandoning Miki, choosing to save his friends over him. But what else could she do? The firebeast was clearly visible on the long stretch of BlackPath now, roaring closer.

She nosed Tibik forward. “Quick!”

Kallik and Yakone disappeared into the pine trees on the far side; Sheena hustled Tibik after them, Hala's body dangling like limp prey from her teeth. Lusa moved aside to let Ossi carry Chula into the shadowy woods. As Rudi shambled after them, Lusa glanced back at the stricken firebeast.
I hope Miki ran clear before it fell.

The ground started to shake as the living firebeast bellowed toward its friend. Heart lurching, Lusa darted between the pines.

Rudi was glancing nervously over his shoulder.

“If we keep walking, we'll be okay,” Lusa promised him. She noticed the old bear was limping. “Kallik, can you carry Rudi?” she called.

Kallik looked back. “Of course.”

Rudi snorted. “No white bear's going to carry me.” He glanced at Hashi with a flash of disapproval in his eyes.

Lusa felt a rush of anger. “Would you rather we left Hashi
for the flat-faces to find?” she snapped.

Tibik tugged Lusa's fur. “Can Kallik carry
me
?” he whispered.

Lusa blinked at the little cub. His shoulders drooped with exhaustion. She glanced questioningly at Sheena. “Tibik's tired,” Lusa told her. “May Kallik carry him?”

Sheena stared at her blankly. Hala swung from her jaws, and grief welled in her eyes.

Lusa decided not to wait for an answer. “Come on, Tibik.” She led him over to Kallik and dug her snout beneath his hindquarters to boost him up. Tibik snuggled into Kallik's fur. The white she-bear nodded to Lusa and began to walk gently forward.

Yakone was several bearlengths ahead. Lusa quickened her step to catch up. Unease flowed through her pelt as she reached him. The white bear's flank was red with Hashi's blood.

Yakone turned his head and looked at her. “I think he's gone,” he whispered.

Lusa lifted her muzzle toward the old bear and sniffed his leg as it dangled against Yakone's side. It hung stiff and strange, no longer the leg of a living bear. Sadness tightened Lusa's throat. Unable to speak, she met Yakone's gaze.

“Let's not tell the others until we reach camp,” he murmured.

Lusa glanced back at the bedraggled group. They needed encouragement now, not more grief. She nodded at Yakone.

The trek to the camp seemed endless. Lusa stayed close to
Yakone, glancing anxiously at Hashi, fearful that the others might notice how limply the old bear lay upon Yakone's back. The sun began to sink behind the distant hills. Its dying light flared through the forest like flame, and Lusa lowered her gaze to avoid its glare.

Her thoughts strayed back to the BlackPath. Where was Miki? Was he alive? Was he injured? She pictured him hurt and bleeding, alone among the pines. Perhaps he was dazed and wandering in circles.
We haven't given up on you! I'll come back, I promise!
Lusa hoped that wherever he was, Miki knew that.

Movement among the trees ahead pulled her from her thoughts. A familiar scent washed over Lusa, and she sagged with relief. They had reached the camp.

“White bears!” A frightened wail rang through the forest. Black shapes darted between the twilit trees, barking urgently at one another.

“We're being attacked!”

“Climb the trees!”

Lusa ran forward on legs that seemed crumpled with exhaustion. “The white bears are
helping
!” She stopped at the foot of a tree where Dena was scrambling up the trunk. “There was an accident on the BlackPath. Chula is injured and Hashi—” She stopped.

Dena lowered herself gingerly down the tree, her gaze on Yakone as he stopped beside Lusa. Dena looked at the blood on his flank and lifted her head to stare at the dark shape on the white bear's shoulders. “Who is it?” Then she recoiled in horror. “He's dead!”

“Dead?” Rudi had reached them, Ossi, Sheena, and Kallik close behind. Chula was clinging wearily to Ossi's back.

Lusa faced them, wishing with all her heart that this day was over. She couldn't stand more sadness. “He died on the journey,” she told them quietly.

More bears were approaching, their curiosity clearly overcoming their distrust of the strangers in their camp.

“Lusa!” Pokkoli's bark rang through the trees. “Ossi! You've been gone for ages. Did you find Chul—” He stopped when he saw Yakone and Kallik, his pelt twitching as his gaze flicked from them to the others.

Sheena stepped forward and placed Hala's body on the ground. “We must bury her,” she murmured.

“No!” Tibik slithered off Kallik's back and crouched beside his sister. “She needs to stay with me.”

Kallik touched Tibik's head with her muzzle. “She'll always be watching you, little one.” Glancing up, she nodded toward a swirl in a trunk beside them. “I think I see her face in that tree already.”

Tibik shot an angry look at the swirl. “That's not Hala!” he snapped. “She's
here
! Dead! She's not in a tree!”

Sheena wrapped herself around both her cubs, a low moan in her throat. Lusa closed her eyes. The forest seemed to spin as bears streamed around her, guiding her and the others into the camp. Suddenly weary, she fought to focus. She was dimly aware of Kallik and Yakone saying good-bye before slipping away, leaving Hashi's body lying in the center of the clearing, silvered by the darkening sky.