Island of Shadows (26 page)

The she-bear padded up to Nanulak and gave him a sniff. “It's good to meet you,” she said.

Nanulak grunted something inaudible in reply.

“Nanulak's had a bad time,” Toklo explained. Lusa thought he sounded defensive, as if he wanted to apologize for Nanulak's unfriendliness. “His brown-bear mother drove him away when there wasn't enough prey, and then white bears attacked him.”

“That's really tough!” the older cub exclaimed.

The little cub let out a growl. “If I got my paws on them, they'd be sorry.” She reared up on her hind paws and batted fiercely at the air.

“Nanulak, I'm so sorry that happened to you.” The she-bear bent her head to touch Nanulak on the shoulder. “We're lucky, I suppose. No bear has ever treated us badly.” She hesitated, glancing at her cubs, then added, “If you want, you can come and live with us. There's not much room, and not much prey this time of year, but you're welcome to share what we have.”

The little cub let out a squeak and gave a bounce of excitement, spraying up snow, but Lusa saw that the older cub was looking sulky, as if he didn't agree with his mother's offer. He looked about the same age as Nanulak; maybe he saw Nanulak as a rival.

Nanulak's eyes widened with shock, and he opened his jaws to reply. Lusa was certain he was going to say something rude and maybe antagonize these friendly bears.

But before Nanulak could speak, Toklo gave him a warning shove. “No, thank you,” he replied, as if the she-bear's invitation had been extended to all of them. “We won't take up any of your territory. I'm sure you need all the prey you can catch for your own family.”

“Stay for tonight, at least,” the mother bear suggested. “Our den is in the thicket over there.”

Toklo hesitated. Lusa guessed he was unwilling to tell the she-bear they were traveling by night, in case she asked why. “Okay, thanks,” he said at last. “We'll help you hunt first, though. You shouldn't have to feed so many extra mouths.”

“Great!” The older cub looked a bit less sulky now that he wasn't expected to share his food. “We found traces of a hare over there; we were going to follow its scent.”

Lusa stayed among the thorns as the other bears set off on the hunt. She had managed to eat her fill of leaves and bark by the time they returned through the darkness. The mother bear was carrying a hare, while Kallik was dragging along an Arctic fox, and Toklo had caught a small bird with speckled brown and white feathers. For once every bear had a full belly by the time they settled down for the night.

Maybe Nanulak should stay here
, Lusa thought drowsily as she curled up in the mixed bears' den.
These bears are friendly, and just like him.
Feeling a bit guilty, she admitted to herself,
And we wouldn't be responsible for him anymore.

A ray of sunlight angling through the thorns woke Lusa the next morning. Blinking, she lifted her head to see that Kallik and Yakone had already left the den. The mixed-bear family was still sleeping in a heap of mingled brown and white fur. On the other side of the den, Toklo and Nanulak were awake, their heads close together as they talked.

“You could stay here,” Toklo murmured. “It's okay… I'll understand if you'd rather be with them.”

“No!” The word burst out of Nanulak, and he pressed himself closer to Toklo's side. “I'm not like these bears! I'm like
you
. I'm a brown bear now. I want to stay with you.”

“But—” Toklo began.

“Please don't leave me here!” Nanulak's voice rose to a shrill wail. “Brown bears don't belong on the ice. We belong in the forest, like you said!”

His loud voice had roused the mixed bears, who looked up with expressions of mingled surprise and hurt.

“Whoa, have it your way, then,” the older cub growled. “I didn't want you to stay, anyway.”

Lusa felt her belly cramp at the awkwardness of the moment. She thought she ought to apologize for Nanulak, when the mixed bears had been so welcoming, but she didn't know what to say.

“It's all right, Nanulak.” Toklo rested a paw on the younger bear's shoulder to calm him.

The mother bear nodded. “The little one knows his own mind,” she said. “I wouldn't want to stand in his way.”

“We'd better go,” Toklo muttered.

He and Nanulak pushed their way out through the thorns into the open, and Lusa followed. Kallik and Yakone were sitting a bearlength away, and they rose to their paws as Toklo and the others emerged.

“Thank you for letting us stay,” Lusa said to the mother bear, as she joined them outside. “I'm sorry that—”

The she-bear raised a paw to interrupt her. “There's nothing to be sorry for, small one. I understand.”

With a few words of farewell Toklo led the way farther across the valley. Lusa turned to look back at the she-bear and her cubs, feeling rather sad as their shapes dwindled into the distance.
They were nice. I wish we could have been friends.

“Hey, Lusa!” Toklo had paused to look around for her. “Are you coming?”

“Isn't it odd about these mixed bears?” Kallik was saying as Lusa bounded up to join them. “We've never met any before, and now we've seen four of them.”

Toklo shrugged. “Not so strange,” he replied. “We haven't been in many places where brown bears and white bears live together.”

“I hope we don't see any more,” Nanulak said in a resentful tone as all five bears padded on. “Those bears back there should make up their minds what sort of bear they want to be. Anything else is just stupid.
I'm
a brown bear; isn't that right, Toklo?”

“If that's what you want,” Toklo responded.

Lusa was shocked that Nanulak was so dismissive of the bears, when they had been so kind and offered him a place to live. “But that's no excuse for being rude,” she told Nanulak, her exasperation spilling over. “When you've traveled as far as we have, you'll learn that you can't afford to turn down friendliness, wherever you find it.”

Nanulak halted, glaring at her. “Are you saying you want to get rid of me?”

“I'm fine with you staying with us if that's what Toklo wants,” Lusa replied. “Just don't do anything to offend other bears.”

“She's right,” Kallik said firmly. “Now let's keep moving.”

Ujurak could be anything he wanted to be and was often unsure about what he was
, Lusa thought.
But he never let it make him angry and bitter like Nanulak.

I feel bad when Nanulak has had such an awful time
, she added silently to herself,
but I'm not at all sure that I like him.

The bears returned to traveling by
night as they trekked along the ridge. Kallik's excitement began to rise. With the information the mixed bears had given them about the direction they should take, she was certain it wouldn't be long before they could leave the island.

“I can't wait to show you the Frozen Sea!” she said to Yakone. “I just hope we can get there before the ice melts.”

“Yeah, I want to see it, too,” Nanulak broke in, surprising Kallik by the enthusiasm in his voice. “Anywhere, so long as it's off this island!”

“There'll be a lot of white bears at the Frozen Sea,” Yakone warned him. “Are you sure you won't be scared?”

“I'm a brown bear,” Nanulak informed him loftily. “I'm not scared of
anything
.”

Kallik thought back to the day when they had found Nanulak. He had been scared then, and later terrified that the white bears would spot him. Even though she wanted to take care of Nanulak and make sure that he found a safe place to live, she didn't like the way he was lying, or the thinly veiled hostility with which he spoke to Yakone.

“Besides,” Nanulak went on, before Kallik could decide if she wanted to respond, “we won't be staying there long, will we, Toklo? We'll travel on and find the right place for brown bears to live.”

Toklo glanced sideways at him, hesitating. “We'll see how things turn out,” he replied after a moment.

Kallik understood Toklo's reluctance. She knew, just as they all did, that sooner or later their journey together must come to an end. But her pelt prickled with irritation at Nanulak's dismissive tone, as if their final parting were something that didn't matter.

“Let's press on ahead for a bit,” she murmured to Yakone. “Otherwise I'm going to give that bear a swat over the ear!”

As Kallik took the lead with Yakone beside her, she cast a glance back at Lusa. The black bear hadn't reacted to Nanulak's words; she was trudging along with her head down, her snout almost brushing the snow.

She's been quiet for a while
, Kallik thought.
I hope she's okay. Maybe she's still fighting the longsleep. And we can't give her the sort of food she needs. But when burn-sky comes, she and Toklo will have all they want to eat. It's Yakone and I who'll have problems, if we can't get to the Frozen Sea in time to fill our bellies before it melts.

Picking up the pace, Kallik realized that the land was beginning to slope downward. The edge of the ice cap, which they had been following for several days, was curving away from them. Ahead of them, the ground fell away in fold after fold of snow-covered hills.

“We're almost at the other side of the island!” Kallik exclaimed, peering forward to see if she could detect the sea.

Yakone halted beside her, sniffing the air. “Not far now,” he said with satisfaction.

Kallik turned and looked back along the ridge. Toklo and Nanulak were padding together a few bearlengths behind, while Lusa plodded along in their pawsteps.

“Come over here!” Kallik called. “We've found the way down!”

Instantly Toklo and Nanulak broke into a gallop, and even Lusa looked more alert and quickened her pace.

“At last!” Nanulak exclaimed as he halted beside Kallik.

Toklo gave a grunt of appreciation as he looked out at the rolling hills. “This way,” he said, veering down the slope at an angle. The she-bear said there'd be a gully.”

Nanulak followed him closely, bounding and slipping through the snow like a cub. As Lusa came toiling up, Yakone crouched down for her. “Come on,” he invited her. “Ride on my back again. You look exhausted.”

Lusa blinked at him in gratitude. “Thanks, Yakone.” She clambered up onto the white bear's shoulders and wriggled down into his fur until she was comfortable. “That's nice,” she murmured sleepily.

Once Lusa was settled, Kallik and Yakone padded after Toklo, who was heading purposefully onward. Nanulak frolicked around in the snow, though he never ventured far from Toklo's side. Suddenly he let out a startled yelp and slid down out of Kallik's sight.

“Oh, no!” she gasped, starting to run. “He's fallen down a hole, just like Toklo!” Raising her voice, she called, “Toklo, what happened?”

Toklo had halted and was gazing calmly downward. As Kallik came panting up to him, she spotted Nanulak scrambling to his paws at the bottom of a deep fissure in the ground. He had landed in the middle of a clump of thorns and was struggling to tear himself free.

“Nanulak found the gully by slipping into it,” Toklo replied. There was a rumble of amusement in his voice that Kallik hadn't heard for a long time.

“It's not funny!” Nanulak squealed from down below. “Come and help me out!”

“Okay, we're coming!” Toklo responded, beginning to edge carefully down the steep slope that led into the gully. “Follow me,” he added to Kallik. “This is the way we have to go.”

By the time Toklo and Kallik reached the floor of the gully, with Yakone and Lusa following more cautiously, Nanulak had escaped from the thorns. He shook mud and snowmelt from his fur, spattering Kallik, then examined each of his pads with minute attention.

“I think I have a thorn stuck,” he complained, holding out a forepaw to Toklo. “See if you can get it out.”