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Back The Last Wilderness Save as PDF
Chapters (76)
  1. Also By
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Map
  6. Chapter One: Ujurak
  7. CHAPTER ONE:
  8. Chapter Two: Lusa
  9. CHAPTER TWO:
  10. Chapter Three: Toklo
  11. CHAPTER THREE:
  12. Chapter Four: Kallik
  13. CHAPTER FOUR:
  14. Chapter Five: Lusa
  15. CHAPTER FIVE:
  16. Chapter Six: Toklo
  17. CHAPTER SIX:
  18. Chapter Seven: Toklo
  19. CHAPTER SEVEN:
  20. Chapter Eight: Ujurak
  21. CHAPTER EIGHT:
  22. Chapter Nine: Kallik
  23. CHAPTER NINE:
  24. Chapter Ten: Lusa
  25. CHAPTER TEN:
  26. Chapter Eleven: Toklo
  27. CHAPTER ELEVEN:
  28. Chapter Twelve: Ujurak
  29. CHAPTER TWELVE:
  30. Chapter Thirteen: Kallik
  31. CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
  32. Chapter Fourteen: Ujurak
  33. CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
  34. Chapter Fifteen: Toklo
  35. CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
  36. Chapter Sixteen: Kallik
  37. CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
  38. Chapter Seventeen: Ujurak
  39. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
  40. Chapter Eighteen: Lusa
  41. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
  42. Chapter Nineteen: Ujurak
  43. CHAPTER NINETEEN:
  44. Chapter Twenty: Toklo
  45. CHAPTER TWENTY:
  46. Chapter Twenty-One: Ujurak
  47. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
  48. Chapter Twenty-Two: Kallik
  49. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
  50. Chapter Twenty-Three: Lusa
  51. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:
  52. Chapter Twenty-Four: Toklo
  53. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:
  54. Chapter Twenty-Five: Lusa
  55. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:
  56. Chapter Twenty-Six: Toklo
  57. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:
  58. Chapter Twenty-Seven: Kallik
  59. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:
  60. Chapter Twenty-Eight: Lusa
  61. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:
  62. Chapter Twenty-Nine: Ujurak
  63. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE:
  64. Chapter Thirty: Kallik
  65. CHAPTER THIRTY:
  66. Chapter Thirty-One: Toklo
  67. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE:
  68. Chapter Thirty-Two: Ujurak
  69. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO:
  70. Chapter Thirty-Three: Ujurak
  71. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE:
  72. Chapter Thirty-Four: Kallik
  73. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR:
  74. About the Author
  75. About the Publisher
  76. Cover

‘Thank you!’ Lusa butted Toklo affectionately in the shoulder. ‘We’ll have a much better chance of finding Ujurak if you’re with us.’

‘OK.’ Toklo rose to his paws with an air of determination. ‘The metal birds obviously nest over there.’ He pointed his snout towards the opposite side of the flat-face place. ‘So that’s where we have to start looking.’

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Lusa

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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:

Lusa

As Lusa and her friends walked towards the river, the air grew heavier with the bitter smell. It caught in Lusa’s throat, making her cough.

‘I’m surprised the flat-faces can put up with this stink,’ she said when she had got her breath.

Kallik shrugged. ‘They make it like this, so maybe this is how they want it,’ she suggested.

‘Flat-faces are weird,’ Toklo growled.

They came to a BlackPath slicing across the landscape with a shiny tube running alongside it, raised up on metal supports. Lusa padded up to the tube and sniffed it.

‘Ugh!’ she exclaimed, jumping back. ‘It reeks of something like firebeasts.’

‘You have to be careful of those,’ Toklo advised, coming to stand beside her. ‘They leak out this horrible black stuff, and that’s what’s making the smell. I fell into a puddle of it, and that’s when I got it all over my pelt.’

‘That’s awful.’ Lusa looked along the tube in both directions, relieved that she couldn’t spot any leaks or black puddles. ‘We’ve got to cross this BlackPath,’ she added. ‘Toklo, is it safe to climb over the tube?’

‘It should be OK,’ the brown bear replied. ‘Just as long as there aren’t any firebeasts.’

Lusa raised her snout and sniffed, then realised there was no point in trying to scent approaching firebeasts when the whole area smelled of them. She could hear growling in the distance, as if firebeasts were coming and going closer to the flat-face denning place, but here everything seemed quiet.

‘Let’s go,’ she said.

Toklo was first to scramble up on to the tube; he balanced on top of it for a moment, then leaped down the other side and bounded across the BlackPath. At the other side he turned back towards the others. ‘Come on!’ he called.

Kallik followed, hauling herself over the tube and flopping down awkwardly on to the surface of the BlackPath before padding over to join Toklo.

When Lusa tried to follow, her claws slipped on the shiny surface of the tube; she hadn’t realised that being so much smaller than the others would make it a lot harder for her to clamber up. I’m a black bear! she told herself furiously. Black bears are the best climbers.

Scrabbling at the side of the tube, she wished she had got one of the others to give her a boost before they crossed, but she didn’t want to call them back.