Free The Last Wilderness by Erin Hunter Page A

grew stronger still.
    Lusa looked back to where her friends were waiting a few bearlengths away. ‘Keep watch for flat-faces!’ she called.
    Then she slipped through the doorway into the small den. The air was full of smoke, stinging her eyes, but the smell guided her forward until she could make out long strips of meat hanging from wooden beams under the roof.
    What’s the meat doing there?
Lusa wondered.
I’ll never understand flat-faces!
    Rearing up on her hind legs, she managed to snag the end of one of the strips with an outstretched paw and pull it to the ground. Encouraged by her success, she tugged down a second piece. Grabbing them in her jaws, she raced out of the den and back to her friends.
    ‘Lusa, you’re brilliant!’ Kallik exclaimed.
    Toklo still had an air of nagging anxiety, which thesight of the meat didn’t banish. ‘Better take it back to the rocks. The flat-faces might spot us if we stay here.’ He spun round to lead the way without waiting for a response.
    Lusa hurried after him, dragging the long strips of meat, expecting at any moment to hear flat-faces shouting behind her. But everything was quiet.
    ‘Here, eat,’ she said, dropping the meat in the shelter of the rock.
    Kallik seized on one end of a strip, chewing eagerly, but Toklo still hung back. He was peering round the side of the rock at the healer’s den.
    Lusa gave him a gentle shove. ‘Come on, eat. We won’t be any use to Ujurak if we’re weak from hunger.’
    Toklo nodded reluctantly and settled down to gnaw at the other strip of meat. ‘Caribou,’ he muttered after a mouthful or two. ‘Tastes a bit weird, but it’s good. Thanks, Lusa.’
    ‘You’re welcome.’
    Lusa crouched down to eat her own share, enjoying the rich, tangy taste of the caribou meat. But she couldn’t help noticing that Toklo was still brooding, pausing every few moments to listen and glancearound, as if he was desperate for any sign that would tell him what was happening to Ujurak.
    ‘I know what we can do,’ she said when she and her friends had finished eating. ‘Follow me.’
    Kallik and Toklo exchanged a puzzled look, but they followed Lusa out from behind the rocks. The rain was easing off, but by now it was full night, and the doors of the flat-face dens stayed closed as Lusa led the way around the edges of the open space, clinging to the shadows. They froze as another flat-face left the big den and sprinted past them, barely two bearlengths away. He had his head down against the last flurries of rain and didn’t spot the bears crouching in the shelter of a projecting roof.
    ‘That was close!’ Kallik breathed.
    Toklo nodded. ‘Let’s get a move on.’
    Lusa took the lead again, trying to slink through the darkness as if she were only the shadow of a bear, until they reached the back of the healer’s den. Light streamed out of a window and cast a golden patch on the ground.
    Lusa padded up to the window. Standing on her hindpaws, she rested her forepaws against the wall of the den and peered inside.



CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Toklo
    T oklo crept warily up to the flat-face den and peered through the shiny stuff, like solid water, that blocked the hole in the wall. A fire burned at one side; even out here, Toklo could smell strange fumes coming from it, and he blinked to chase away a sudden feeling of dizziness. But in spite of the odd smell, it looked warm and cosy inside, with flat-face pelts spread on the floor and hanging from the walls.
    Lusa and Kallik pressed their noses to the window on either side of Toklo, peering into the den. Toklo studied the old flat-face who had taken Ujurak in. The flat-face had his back to the window, blocking the bears’ view of Ujurak, who was lying next to the wall. Now and then Toklo caught a glimpse of one ofthe old flat-face’s pink, furless paws as he reached out to pick up or put down some small, silvery object.
    I guess he’s still trying to get the line out of Ujurak’s throat
, Toklo