Chapters (76)
- Also By
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Map
- Chapter One: Ujurak
- CHAPTER ONE:
- Chapter Two: Lusa
- CHAPTER TWO:
- Chapter Three: Toklo
- CHAPTER THREE:
- Chapter Four: Kallik
- CHAPTER FOUR:
- Chapter Five: Lusa
- CHAPTER FIVE:
- Chapter Six: Toklo
- CHAPTER SIX:
- Chapter Seven: Toklo
- CHAPTER SEVEN:
- Chapter Eight: Ujurak
- CHAPTER EIGHT:
- Chapter Nine: Kallik
- CHAPTER NINE:
- Chapter Ten: Lusa
- CHAPTER TEN:
- Chapter Eleven: Toklo
- CHAPTER ELEVEN:
- Chapter Twelve: Ujurak
- CHAPTER TWELVE:
- Chapter Thirteen: Kallik
- CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
- Chapter Fourteen: Ujurak
- CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
- Chapter Fifteen: Toklo
- CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
- Chapter Sixteen: Kallik
- CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
- Chapter Seventeen: Ujurak
- CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
- Chapter Eighteen: Lusa
- CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
- Chapter Nineteen: Ujurak
- CHAPTER NINETEEN:
- Chapter Twenty: Toklo
- CHAPTER TWENTY:
- Chapter Twenty-One: Ujurak
- CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
- Chapter Twenty-Two: Kallik
- CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
- Chapter Twenty-Three: Lusa
- CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:
- Chapter Twenty-Four: Toklo
- CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:
- Chapter Twenty-Five: Lusa
- CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:
- Chapter Twenty-Six: Toklo
- CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:
- Chapter Twenty-Seven: Kallik
- CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:
- Chapter Twenty-Eight: Lusa
- CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:
- Chapter Twenty-Nine: Ujurak
- CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE:
- Chapter Thirty: Kallik
- CHAPTER THIRTY:
- Chapter Thirty-One: Toklo
- CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE:
- Chapter Thirty-Two: Ujurak
- CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO:
- Chapter Thirty-Three: Ujurak
- CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE:
- Chapter Thirty-Four: Kallik
- CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR:
- About the Author
- About the Publisher
- Cover
Ujurak looked at his friends again. Lusa cuffed Toklo, pretending to be angry with him when he said that trees were too full of twigs to be comfortable. They looked so happy. Ujurak felt his heart pounding in his chest.
But I have brought them here – to this place, he told the voice inside his head. There is nowhere left to go.
Not the end, said the voice.
Then what am I supposed to do? Ujurak begged.
He listened for an answer. But all Ujurak could hear was the sound of the wind in the long grasses and the call of a gull.
Chapter Two: Lusa
CHAPTER TWO:
Lusa
Lusa stood at the top of a grassy hill, gazing across the plain. A cold wind flattened her fur against her face and made her eyes water. It brought with it the scent of ice and fish. In the distance she could just make out the white edge of the ocean. Shivering, she thought of the ice that Kallik longed for so much. That wasn’t where she belonged – her home was here, among the trees and the long, sheltering grass.
‘We’ve made it!’ she murmured.
Her quest was at an end! She had come through all the dangers and hardships of the journey, and now she was safe here with her friends, a truly wild black bear at last.
The sun was rising, throwing Lusa’s shadow out beside her. The night before, after feasting on the goose that Ujurak had caught, they had made their dens at the edge of a patch of stunted thornbushes. Lusa felt rested and energetic after spending the night among the gently tossing branches, knowing her friends were sleeping below.
‘Hey! Fluff-brain!’ Toklo bounded up beside her, butting her gently in the shoulder with his snout. ‘Are you dreaming, or what? I’ve called you three times!’
‘Sorry,’ Lusa replied, playfully pushing Toklo in return. He was so much bigger than her, it was like trying to shift Smoke Mountain.
‘I’ve caught a couple of hares for us,’ Toklo went on. ‘But if you don’t want your share, we can eat it for you.’
‘Don’t you dare!’ Lusa yelped.
Toklo loped off toward the bottom of the rise where Kallik and Ujurak were waiting beside his newkill. Lusa followed, puffing as she tried to keep up. They had grown fast over the last moon, and Lusa was more than a head smaller than the others now – with Kallik the biggest of all of them.
When they had finished eating, Lusa cleaned her face with her paws and sat up straight, feeling the wind tug at her ears. ‘What should we do now?’ she wondered out loud.
Toklo shrugged. ‘We’ve arrived, haven’t we? We can do whatever we want.’
‘Then we should explore!’ Lusa decided. If this was her new home, she wanted to know every pawstep, every scent, every bush where berries grew.