Free The Burning Horizon by Erin Hunter Page B

determination.
    There’s one black bear who does need to get to Great Bear Lake. We have to find Lusa!
    Plunging farther down the hill, Toklo and the others came back within sight of the BlackPath and followed it in the direction they figured the firebeast must have gone, while remaining a couple of bearlengths away, under cover of the trees.
    â€œWe don’t even know if we’re going the right way,” Kallik said after a while.
    â€œBut this is our best guess,” Toklo reminded her. “There’s nothing else we can do. Keep your eyes open for any firebeast tracks leaving the BlackPath.”
    But though the bears plodded along through the suffocating heat of the day until the sun slid down the sky and cast long shadows through the trees, they saw no firebeast tracks, and no places near the BlackPath where a firebeast might have taken Lusa.
    I wonder if Ujurak knows where Lusa is, Toklo thought. I wish he were here now. If he took the shape of a bird, he could help us look for her. “Where are you, Ujurak?” he asked aloud, wishing he could understand why the star-bear had abandoned them when they needed his help so much.
    â€œI wish he were here, too,” Kallik said softly.
    â€œThen why isn’t he?” Toklo asked, slashing angrily at a clump of long grass as he trudged past it.
    â€œI don’t know,” Kallik admitted. “Maybe he knows that we can find Lusa on our own.”
    Toklo grunted.
    The long day was drawing to an end when the bears reached a place where the BlackPath swooped down the mountain until it reached the edge of a vast plain.
    By the time they were halfway to the plain, night had fallen. The bears paused in a gap among the trees; Toklo gazed down at the constant stream of firebeasts. In the darkness their fierce, glowing eyes lit up the ground in front of them.
    Is Lusa really in one of those? Toklo wondered. He tore his gaze away from the rushing firebeasts and gazed up at the night sky. Above his head Ujurak’s shape blazed out, cold and expressionless. Why don’t you help us? he asked despairingly.
    Behind Toklo, Kallik began trampling down the undergrowth in the shelter of a thorn thicket, dragging in ferns to make a temporary den. Yakone vanished and reappeared a short time later with a grouse dangling from his jaws.
    â€œThanks, Yakone,” Toklo said. It seemed like a long time since they had feasted on the goat.
    â€œYou’re welcome,” Yakone grunted.
    Almost too tired to eat, the three of them gathered around to share the prey. Toklo could barely choke down the meat; he missed Lusa too much, happily crunching fern roots beside them. He hated that while they were resting they were doing nothing to find her.
    But we can’t keep going all day and all night .
    While Kallik gathered more leaves—which she hoped would help treat Yakone’s injured paw—Toklo settled down to sleep. His mind kept whirling with images of Lusa being attacked by a firebeast, or lying injured and frightened in the forest, but he was so exhausted that nothing could stop him from drifting off to sleep. He dreamed that he was standing on the edge of a great plain. A herd of caribou was moving across it, covering the ground as far as Toklo could see. The clicking sound of their feet echoed around him.
    Then a small black bear emerged from the middle of the herd, while the caribou walked calmly around it without showing any fear.
    â€œLusa!” Toklo whispered.
    But as the black bear drew closer, Toklo realized that it wasn’t Lusa. This bear was gazing at him with the warm brown eyes of Ujurak.
    Toklo bounded forward to meet his friend at the edge of the herd. “Ujurak! Can you tell me where Lusa is?” he called.
    Ujurak shook his head. “I can sense her,” he replied. “I know she’s alive, but she has been taken far away.”
    â€œCan you speak to her for me?” Toklo begged.
    But Ujurak was