Free The Quest Begins by Erin Hunter Page A

should I do?”
    â€œYou start by wading out into the shallows,” she said. “Stand with your back to the current. You’ll see the salmon slithering past your paws. If you are still for a moment, they’ll come right to you. And then, if you’re quick”—she cuffed Toklo with one of her paws, but he could tell she wasn’t trying to hurt him—“then maybe you’ll catch one.”
    â€œI will!” Toklo declared. “I’ll have the fastest paws in the river. I’ll catch more salmon than any other bear!” More than Tobi, that’s for sure!
    â€œWell, that depends on the water spirits,” Oka said. “They won’t want to hear you bragging, especially if you don’t treat them with respect.”
    â€œAre we going to meet the water spirits?” Tobi whispered with big eyes. They’d both heard this story from Oka many times—how the spirits of dead bears lived in the rivers, flowing endlessly with the salmon that had fed them in life. Butthey had never seen water big enough or fast enough to hold spirits in it.
    â€œThat’s not how it works, little one,” Oka said to Tobi. Toklo hated the way her voice got all gentle and mushy whenever she spoke to his brother. “The spirits are always there, and they may speak with you or they may not. But you don’t exactly meet them.”
    â€œI remember!” Toklo said. “You have to say thank you to them so they will help you.”
    â€œYes,” Oka said. “If they are angry, they’ll make choppy waves in the water so it’s hard to catch any fish. But if they are friendly…if they like you…they will guide the salmon right to your paws.”
    â€œHow do you—” Toklo began.
    â€œThat’s enough questions for tonight,” Oka said. She touched her nose to Tobi’s pelt, sniffing his fur. His eyes were already closed and he was breathing shallowly. Toklo knew she wanted him to stop talking so Tobi could sleep. But even that didn’t dampen his mood. Tomorrow they were going over the mountain!
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    Up ahead, through the shadows of the trees, Toklo could see sunlight glittering on ice. They had been traveling since dawn, climbing up through the forest toward the mountain peak. Now he could see the bare, rocky slope of the mountain where the trees thinned out and the only bits of greenery were scrubby bushes and patches of moss.
    He glanced back at Oka and Tobi, shuffling through theforest behind him. Oka stopped now and then to nose at the ground and push something edible over to Tobi. Toklo had nibbled some clover before they set out, but he was too excited to eat now. Impatiently he galloped ahead toward the sunshine and burst out into a wide, sunlit meadow. It was not far from here to the rocks—and then they’d be on the mountain!
    His mother and brother caught up to him, and Oka lifted herself onto her hind legs, too, sniffing the air. “Quick, let’s keep moving,” she said, dropping down to all fours again.
    They trotted through the meadow at a steadier pace. Even Tobi kept up, staying close to Oka’s paws and only stumbling a couple of times. Soon Toklo felt hard rock below his paws instead of dirt and grass. They scrambled up a short ledge and found themselves facing a landscape of snow and boulders reaching up into the sky.
    The snow was deeper than Toklo expected, and of course Tobi immediately fell into a large drift. Whimpering, he floundered around with his paws until Oka came and dragged him back onto more solid ground. Toklo didn’t want the others to know, but he was having some trouble with the icy rocks, too. His claws couldn’t get a good grip on the slippery frozen ground, and he found himself sliding and skidding instead of leaping gracefully from boulder to boulder as he wanted to.
    But it didn’t matter. He was thrilled to be climbing, to be out in the sun, to be away