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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

‘What was it?’ Kallik prompted. She wasn’t sure why Lusa wanted to talk about this now, but her curiosity was pricked.

‘She told me I had to save the wild.’

Kallik stared at her. ‘Do you know what that means?’

‘No,’ Lusa replied, shaking her head. ‘But I know it has something to do with Ujurak. He had a dream that told him the same thing. And do you remember when he said our journey wasn’t over? Well, deep down, I feel just the same.’ She let out a bewildered huff of breath. ‘But I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, without Ujurak.’

‘We’ll find him,’ Kallik assured her. She couldn’t quite agree with her friend that their journey wasn’t over yet; she had always believed that her own journey would end on the ice. But she wouldn’t abandon Lusa, or Ujurak, whatever it took to find him again.

Huddled together, the she-bears dozed on the hilltop until the sun had risen above the horizon. The pale sky gradually deepened to blue, dotted here and there with small puffs of white cloud; the wind dropped to a gentle breeze.

When they went on, Kallik felt her spirits lighten. Lusa seemed certain that they’d find Ujurak, and her chatter gave Kallik a new surge of optimism.

‘I wonder what Ujurak will be when we find him,’ Kallik said. ‘Wouldn’t the no-claws be scared if they saw him changing into a brown bear?’

Lusa let out a little snort of amusement. ‘Or a goose, so he could fly away!’

‘That would be great,’ Kallik replied. ‘Then he could find us!’

‘I wonder what Toklo is doing now,’ Lusa murmured.

‘Oh, chasing prey, scratching marks on trees, just being a brown bear,’ Kallik said. ‘You know that’s what he always wanted.’

‘Chasing all the black bears away,’ Lusa went on with a huff of amusement. ‘Or maybe he’s caught a caribou at last!’

‘And now he is sitting in a cave, roaring at passing squirrels,’ Kallik added.

Crossing a stream, they followed its channel down a long slope covered with tough, springy grass. The sun was high overhead, dazzling on the water. Kallik’s belly growled; it seemed a long time since the berries she had eaten on the previous day, when they had been too tired and discouraged to forage properly. It didn’t seem right, just being with Lusa. There was an emptiness around them that couldn’t be filled with hunting or talking about Ujurak.

‘I wish Toklo was with us now,’ she whispered.

‘So do I,’ Lusa replied.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Lusa

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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:

Lusa

Following the stream around a spur of the hill, Lusa and Kallik came to a place where the land fell away more steeply in front of them. The stream cascaded down in a series of small waterfalls and joined a wider river in the valley below.