The Longest Day Read Online Free PDF Page B

the lake, fury in his eyes. Manik and Iqaluk stood beside him, their pelts spiked with anger. Kallik’s heart sank. They must havejust arrived, and they were already stirring up trouble.
    Then she saw Anarteq amble from beneath the pines. The old white bear would soon sort this out. Kallik felt a tremor of concern as she studied him. He looked smaller than last suncircle. And so old! His white fur had yellowed and his snout was grizzled.
    Yakone splashed from the water. Kallik jerked her head in the direction of the old bear. “Look, Anarteq has shrunk!”
    â€œ You’ve grown,” he reminded her.
    â€œBut he looks so old.”
    â€œHe is old.”
    â€œNot too old to stop this silly argument.” Kallik looked hopefully toward Anarteq.
    Salik was already circling the old bear. “Are you going to tell those brown bears that they’re trespassing?”
    Shila growled. “We can’t let them get too close—not unless we want them to start thinking they can fish in our part of the lake.”
    Grunts of agreement sounded from the other bears gathered on the shore.
    Kunik, an old male whom Kallik remembered from the last gathering, turned his cloudy gaze toward the brown bears’ stretch of shore. “Perhaps we should send a group to discuss a boundary within the lake.”
    Anarteq followed his gaze, not speaking.
    Salik tossed his head impatiently. “Well?”
    To Kallik’s surprise, Anarteq shrugged. “What does it matter?” he muttered. “Fish will go where they like, as will bears.”
    â€œIs that it ?” Salik spluttered.
    Illa looked puzzled. “But what if they come into our part of the lake?”
    Anarteq blinked. “If you want to fight, then fight. If you want to fish, then fish. Whatever you do, the world will still keep melting around us.” He lumbered back into the shade and lay down stiffly on the pine needles.
    Sympathy for the old bear washed over Kallik. He must be weary after the long journey here.
    â€œIs that all he’s going to say?” Illa protested.
    Yakone pawed the trout toward her. “Here, at least we caught something. And I don’t think those brown bears will be in a hurry to come too close to us again.”
    Kallik shifted her paws uneasily. Yakone had slipped back into the ways of the white bears so easily—hurrying to defend Taqqiq and Tonraq; untroubled by the tension that had already sprung up between the white bears and the brown bears. Hadn’t his journey with Toklo and Lusa changed him at all? Perhaps it changed me too much. Guilt stabbed Kallik’s belly. She looked back toward the brown bears’ shore. The grizzly and his friends were clambering out of the water. Other bears clustered around them, and Kallik felt sure they were throwing glances toward the white bears. Were they muttering angrily among themselves just like Salik, Iqaluk, and Manik?
    â€œBrown bears are too greedy,” Salik complained.
    â€œThey think they own the water and the woods,” Manik snarled.
    Yakone nudged a piece of trout toward Kallik. “Eat,” he murmured.
    She lapped up the pale meat and chewed, hardly tasting it. Why couldn’t the bears find a way to be peaceful? Is everyone just looking for a reason to fight?

CHAPTER FOUR
Lusa
    Lusa brushed dried leaves into the dip where she’d made a nest with Ossi. Pokkoli was already sleeping, tucked into a crook in the tree above them. She could hear his gentle snores and just make out his shape, little more than a shadow among the branches. The sun had been slowly setting and, at last, had dropped below the horizon. It would still be a while before dark, and Lusa remembered with a pang of affection the long leaftime evenings in the Bear Bowl, when she had played with Yogi in the twilight.
    Ossi slid into the dip, sending the leaves fluttering. Curling up at the bottom, he yawned. “I’m so sleepy.”
    â€œMe