Smoke Mountain Read Online Free PDF

knew where her mother was – safe in the Bear Bowl, well fed and surrounded by friends. She missed her so much that it made her head hurt sometimes, but if Ashia was dead, she would feel lonely in a totally different way.
    Lusa drifted off to sleep and dreamed of bear spirits whispering in the wind through her fur. One of them spoke with the voice of her mother:
Sleep, little one. I am here
.

CHAPTER FOUR:
Lusa
    T he murmur of voices woke Lusa the next morning. She peered down through the branches and saw that Qopuk was awake and talking. Kallik and Ujurak were crouched beside him. Toklo’s pile of leaves was empty; she guessed he was out hunting. Taqqiq was still asleep below her. Lusa blinked at the pale pink sky overhead. It had been another short night; it felt far too early to be morning. When would the nights finally get longer again? Right now, she thought she’d gladly give up some of the warmth of the day in exchange for more sleep.
    She clambered down the tree and edged around Taqqiq, who was snoring among the tree roots.
    â€˜Lusa!’ Kallik called as she trotted towards them.‘Qopuk is telling us how to get to the Last Great Wilderness.’
    The old white bear had hauled himself on to his haunches so that he was sitting up. His eyes were brighter than they had been the day before. The remains of the hare were scattered at his paws, and the food seemed to have given him extra strength. Lusa wriggled in beside Kallik and looked up at him. Qopuk nodded to her, touching the moss she had brought him.
    â€˜You were saying something about the Big River,’ Ujurak prompted.
    â€˜Yes,’ Qopuk said. ‘That’s the first danger you have to cross to reach the Last Great Wilderness. I’ve seen it, but I’ve never crossed it myself. It’s a skylength wide, and the currents are very strong. Too strong to swim, even for you, little star,’ he said to Kallik. The white cub looked startled. Lusa wondered why. Ashia used to call her ‘little blackberry,’ but she liked the name ‘little star’ too. It suited Kallik.
    â€˜Then how do we get across?’ Ujurak asked.
    â€˜There is one spot where it’s possible,’ Qopuk said. ‘The river is shallower and calmer if you swim it from the no-claw denning place . . . but be careful,because it is still very wide and the currents are swift. If you make it across, from there you must follow the Pathway Star beyond Smoke Mountain.’ He lifted his nose to the far horizon.
    â€˜You mentioned the mountain last night,’ Lusa said. ‘You said it was dangerous.’
    â€˜It is.’ Qopuk’s eyes closed and he took a long, rattling breath. Finally he opened them once more and looked around in surprise, as if he couldn’t remember where he was. His huge chest heaved as he struggled to breathe.
    â€˜Smoke Mountain,’ Lusa reminded him. ‘What’s there? Why is it so dangerous?’
    â€˜I only know what I’ve been told,’ Qopuk rasped. His dirty white fur rippled as he stretched out one front paw and flexed his claws. ‘I met a bear once who said he had been to the Wilderness and back again. No one believed him . . . they said if the place was so wonderful, why would he come back?’ He looked down, drawing a furrow in the earth. ‘But I believed him. His stories were so real, with stranger things than he could have made up. He told me all about Smoke Mountain – about the rocks that burn, and the fire underneath the ground. He said the skywas full of ash and smoke, stinging your eyes and leaving black powder on your fur and all over the ground, too sticky to be washed away by the rain. The dark rocks stretch for skylengths, hard and jagged underpaw. The air is choking, and it drives bears off their path. And something is lying in wait there . . . something evil.’
    Kallik, Lusa and Ujurak all stared at him. The frightening picture in