Free Smoke Mountain by Erin Hunter Page B

‘Sometimes he looks like a squirrel?’
    There was an awkward pause.
    â€˜Well . . . yes,’ Lusa’s voice said from above them.
    â€˜Not often,’ Ujurak offered helpfully.
    â€˜Sometimes he’s a bird. Or another kind of bear. Or a flat-face,’ Toklo said. He was almost enjoying the baffled look on Taqqiq’s face. ‘Once he was a mosquito. That was probably my least favourite.’
    â€˜Mine too,’ Ujurak agreed.
    Taqqiq hunched his shoulders, his hackles rising. ‘You are all out of your minds,’ he said. ‘Bears don’t turn into other animals.’
    Kallik looked pleadingly at Ujurak and Toklo. ‘We don’t know that for sure, right?’ she said. ‘We haven’t met
that
many bears. Maybe there are lots of others like Ujurak.’
    â€˜I doubt it,’ Toklo muttered.
    â€˜But
why
?’ Taqqiq demanded. ‘Why would youturn into anything else? Why would you want to be anything but a bear?’ He pawed at his nose. ‘And if you
can
be anything in the world, why wouldn’t you be a white bear?’
    â€˜Hey,’ Toklo growled.
    â€˜I don’t know why,’ Ujurak said. ‘It just started happening. At first I didn’t do it on purpose . . . Now I only try to change when it’ll be helpful.’
    â€˜Is that what you were doing just now?’ Toklo asked.
    â€˜No, I was still a bear. I was following the stream to see if we could crawl under the BlackPath with it,’ Ujurak said, pointing with his snout at the spot where the stream disappeared under the BlackPath. ‘But it’s barely a trickle clogged with thornbushes under there. There’s not enough room for us to squeeze through. We have to cross over the top instead.’
    â€˜We should do that soon,’ Toklo said, ‘while it’s still dark. The firebeasts are more active in the day.’
    â€˜Wait,’ Taqqiq snarled. ‘This doesn’t make any sense. I think you’re all lying to me about Ujurak.’
    â€˜Taqqiq, we wouldn’t do that,’ Kallik said.
    â€˜Just show him, Ujurak,’ Lusa said, inching downthe tree. ‘It’ll be faster than talking about it.’
    That was true, but Toklo didn’t like it. Every time Ujurak changed, Toklo was afraid he’d forget about being a bear and never change back. Being a bear could be so hard; they were all tired, and hungry, and dirty. What if it was easier being something else?
    Ujurak raised his head, thinking. All at once his fur started to ripple, like wind blowing across grass, and black speckled patterns appeared as the fur turned to feathers. He lifted his front paws, and wings sprouted along his forelegs. His neck stretched longer and longer while his body shrank. A beak appeared where his nose had been, and suddenly Ujurak was gone. A long-necked goose blinked dark, beady eyes at them.
    With a loud honk, the Ujurak-goose flapped its wings and soared into the air. Much too fast for Toklo, the goose disappeared into the dusk-coloured clouds.
    Kallik and Lusa watched him go with their eyes shining. They clearly thought Ujurak’s abilities were amazing, but Toklo just wanted to jump on the goose and sit on him until he was a normal bearagain. He clawed at the earth. Why couldn’t Ujurak just stay a bear?
    Taqqiq had his back pressed against a tree. His lips were curled in a snarl, and he kept whipping around as if he thought Ujurak was going to pop out and scare him.
    â€˜I don’t like it,’ he growled. ‘Why do you all stay with him?’
    â€˜What do you mean?’ Kallik asked. ‘Don’t you see how wonderful it is? Ujurak’s special. That’s why he’s the right bear to lead us to the Place of Endless Ice.’
    He’s special, all right
, Toklo thought.
Especially irritating
. But deep down he agreed with Kallik. He just wanted Ujurak to come back so they could get on with their