Fire in the Sky (15 page)

“Lusa!” Toklo shouted again. The small
black bundle of wet fur that was his friend was being hauled up the side of the floating firebeast. Toklo paddled frantically toward it, but she disappeared over the side before he was halfway there. He could see flat-faces in brightly colored skins gathering around Lusa. What were they going to do to her?

Another floating firebeast came roaring around the side of the tower, spraying water and black smoke on either side of it as it charged between him and the firebeast where Lusa was being held captive. The flat-faces hadn’t spotted him yet, but Toklo knew he had only a moment to escape before they did.

He hesitated, his fur prickling with fear and anguish. If he climbed onto the firebeast, perhaps he could fight off all the flat-faces and save Lusa. But he’d never be able to drag her through this sticky water without help, and it wouldn’t do any good to rescue her if he just went ahead and drowned her.

He’d have to hope the flat-faces kept her alive, and then he could rescue her later. In which case
he
needed to stay out of their paws as well.

Toklo swam for the nearest ice, several bearlengths from one of the tower legs. He climbed out onto the snow, and for the first time he appreciated how cold and clean it felt against his paws. He’d never thought he could be happier to be on snow than on dirt, but now he rolled and wriggled in it until his thick brown fur was soaking wet and the black stuff ran off him in gooey rivulets. He couldn’t get it all off, but at least the streaks of black on his paws were less thick and sticky.

The high-pitched chatter of flat-face voices floated across the ice. Toklo pricked his ears. They were coming toward him! He whirled around and spotted a large snowdrift nearby. Quickly he dove into it and dug until he’d buried himself well inside, then he covered himself over with the snow. This was one useful thing Kallik had taught him about surviving on the ice.

Please don’t smell me,
he thought, listening to the flat-faces come closer and closer. Maybe the snow would hide his smell. He knew Kallik would have been able to find him easily, but flat-faces didn’t smell as well as bears.

There were two of them, muttering to each other and stamping their feet as if they were trying to keep warm. Toklo wondered what they were talking about. Were they still looking for him? If they were trying to hunt, they were doing a great job of letting the prey know they were coming. For relatively small creatures, flat-faces made an awful lot of noise.
And mess
, he thought ruefully, burying one of his oil-stained paws deeper in the snow.

Well, if they weren’t using their ears to hunt, they apparently weren’t using their noses, either. The flat-faces went
straight past his snowdrift without even pausing. The squeak and chatter of their voices grated on his ears. He wished he could paw the melting snow out of his eyes, but he was afraid to move in case they spotted him.

Toklo waited a long time, letting the cold snow seep into his fur, until he was sure they were long gone. Finally he pawed his way into the open again. The sun had completely set while he was hiding, and now the dark night sky arched overhead, speckled with glittering stars. He shook himself until droplets of melted snow and oil splattered around him.

Toklo lifted his head and breathed in deeply. It was hard to pick out any scents beyond the overwhelming smell of the oil that lingered on his fur and coated the water behind him. He kept very still and let the wind rush around him until, faintly, he caught a jumble of smells coming from somewhere to his right, where the flat-faces had gone.

Cautiously he crept in that direction, keeping himself low to the ice so he could dive into another pile of snow if he saw any more flat-faces or firebeasts. The activity on the water had slowed down, although a few firebeasts still trawled below the tower.

After he had padded for a short distance, he spotted something large that stood out darkly against the pale snow up ahead. It was the size of a flat-face den, but its edges rippled oddly in the night wind. It glowed from the inside with light like small fires. As he got closer, he realized that it was like the tiny dens they’d seen near Smoke Mountain, with the walls that he could slice right through with his claws. His hopes rose. If Lusa was in there, maybe it wouldn’t be
so hard to get in and save her.

He closed his eyes and sniffed the air. The jumble of scents began to separate into clear smells—more oil, but also birds and seals! Inside the flat-face den! He strained to distinguish one scent that made him think of leaves and cool streams and warm dirt. His heart leaped as he recognized it. It was Lusa! It had to be!

Toklo nearly bounced on his paws the way she did. She was alive! And he’d found her! Now he just had to get to her. He wondered if she could catch any of the birds or seals that were inside the den with her. Then at least she’d get something to eat. His stomach growled and his mouth watered at the thought of biting into a juicy bird or seal.

He crept as close as he dared to the den, only a few bear-lengths from its rippling walls. He could hear the murmur of flat-face voices inside, and a few firebeasts were sleeping outside, but it was quiet and still where he was. Toklo edged around the den, trying to find the spot where Lusa’s scent was strongest. There were so many other smells mingled together; she must be surrounded by flat-faces. Perhaps this wasn’t the best time to charge in and pick a fight.

His paws crunched on some rough snow and he paused as the voices inside surged upward. Had they heard him? He tried straining his ears to hear their muttering, but even the sounds he could catch meant nothing to him. One of the lights separated from the others and moved to the door. Toklo was near the back, so he couldn’t tell if flat-faces came out of the front. He scrambled back a few bearlengths and stopped where he could see the den entrance.

Suddenly a bright fiery light whizzed into the sky. Toklo fell back on his hindquarters with a yelp of surprise. Another light shot up after it, and he heard flat-face voices shouting. They were throwing fire at him! He turned and bolted up the slope away from the den. He ran until the burning smell of the fire was far behind him.

Finally he stopped and looked back, panting. The bright lights were fizzing out, and the flat-faces had gone back inside the den. They weren’t even chasing him. They were just trying to get rid of him!

Toklo was indignant. How dare they drive him away from Lusa? She was
his
friend! And she needed him! He growled and sank his claws into the snow, glaring down at the warm lights moving around inside the den. He had no choice. He had to back off and wait for a better chance, although it tore him up inside to leave Lusa even a moment longer in there. But tomorrow he’d find his way in, and then those flat-faces would be sorry!

Toklo stomped through the snow to a spot where he could dig out a shelter and keep an eye on the den in the distance. His cave wasn’t as stable as the kind Kallik built, but he managed to pack snowy walls around himself enough to block the freezing wind. He turned in a circle a few times and lay down, resting his head on his paws. It seemed as though there were as many stars above him as hairs in his pelt.

He spotted the Pathway Star and sighed. It looked lonelier than ever tonight.

When Lusa woke up, she was
lying on a table with a light as bright as the sun hanging over her. Something was in her fur, like large beetles crawling through it. She tried to sit up to see what it was, then realized that she was stuck to the table with thick brown vines. A small cage was tied over her mouth so she couldn’t use her teeth to free herself.

Panic rose in her chest. What was happening? Where was she? She flailed her paws as much as she could, growling and struggling against the vines.

“Shhhh,”
said a flat-face voice by her head. Lusa felt strong, gentle paws stroke her fur between her ears. A memory flooded back of one of the keepers in the Bear Bowl, stroking her in just that way when Lusa was a tiny cub.

Lusa reluctantly lay still, trying to figure out what was going on. She realized that the insects crawling over her fur were actually flat-face paws. Their long, thin toes were deft and surprisingly gentle. They were washing the sticky stuff out of her fur!

She relaxed a little more. Perhaps these were the good kind of flat-faces, like the keepers in the Bear Bowl. Toklo might not believe they existed, but Lusa knew they did. She remembered the fruit they had brought her and the way they had healed her mother when she was sick. Maybe these flat-faces were trying to heal her as well, by cleaning her fur of the stuff that had killed the bird.

Her eyes had adjusted to the bright light by now, so she could see beyond it to a thin, dark green skin that stretched overhead and came down to form four walls around a big open space. The way it flapped and rippled reminded her of the little dens that they’d stolen food from in the woods, before Smoke Mountain, although this one was much, much bigger.

She saw that there were other tables and cages around her, plus lots and lots of flat-faces, all of them working and murmuring to one another and hurrying from one cage to the next. Lusa saw more of the gray-and-white birds, some of them crouching in tubs of clean water as the flat-faces cleaned their feathers. She also spotted three seals in cages, all of them looking tired and sad and sticky.

There was an animal she didn’t recognize in one of the cages. It was huge and fat and blubbery, like a giant wrinkly seal, but with whiskers and two huge, pointy teeth sticking out of its mouth. Lusa would have been frightened, but it looked so sick, she thought she could probably climb all over it without its even reacting to her.

She twisted her head to look up at the flat-face faces around her. They seemed kind and careful, cleaning her fur without
pulling on it or hurting her. Why were they doing this? Lusa couldn’t understand. Why would flat-faces pour the black sticky stuff into the water, then run around and gather up all the animals it touched and clean them off? Why not leave the black stuff out of the water in the first place? It made Lusa’s head hurt to think about it.

“I don’t get it,” one of the flat-faces said in the chirrupy, high-pitched voice they all had. “I keep cleaning and cleaning this patch of fur, and it just stays black.”

Lusa couldn’t understand what they were saying, but this one sounded puzzled.

“Same here!” said another.

“I don’t think it is a polar bear cub after all,” said the one at her head. “Look at these enormous ears. I think it’s a black bear cub.”

Lusa nudged his paw with her nose. She wanted him to go back to stroking her fur instead of tapping her ears for whatever reason.

“All the way out here?” said the first. Her chirpy voice went up and up.

Lusa felt herself drifting into sleep again. The gentle fingers in her fur were soothing, and she felt like a cub being nuzzled by her mother and denmates. It was warm here, perhaps even safe, and at least she didn’t have to swim or run or worry about—

Toklo!

She struggled to wake up again. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten about her friend, even for a moment. Was he in the
den with her? Was he in one of the cages? Had the flat-faces captured him, too…or was he still out there, swimming through the poisonous black water?

But although she fought to open her eyes, the powerful pull of her exhaustion won out, and sleep crept over her. One question echoed through her mind just before darkness took over.

Where is Toklo?

When Toklo opened his eyes again,
it was late morning. The sun was creeping up the sky, burning away the last gray clouds.

Toklo yawned and stretched his stiff, cold legs. He stared across the snow peaks at the flappy den. Flat-faces were swarming around it, going in and out of the front or roaring away on firebeasts and roaring back again. It was far too busy to go anywhere near it. Disgruntled, he flopped down again and stared at the den, trying to form a plan. He’d have to approach at night, when it was quieter…and this time he’d sneak up so silently they’d never hear him coming.

It was a long, cold day, and his worry about Lusa grew and grew as he watched the flat-faces. They moved so quickly and chattered so loud. What were they doing to her in there? Did she have food? What if she fell asleep and they didn’t know to wake her up? He imagined bursting into the den and finding her in the longsleep, impossible to move or awaken. A shudder rippled through his pelt.

His stomach ached with hunger, but he couldn’t tear
himself away from his post long enough to search for prey. He waited as the sun marched slowly across the sky. At least it was getting dark a lot sooner now, although the flat-faces barely seemed to notice. They produced light from things in their paws and kept scurrying around in the same frantic way.

Finally it looked as though most of the firebeasts had fallen asleep, and only one or two flat-faces were moving around the outside of the den. Toklo got up and started padding toward them. His fur prickled impatiently and his claws itched to slash at something. He was ready to pick a fight with the flat-faces if they tried to scare him off again.

He was only halfway there when an enormous firebeast came roaring up with its eyes blazing beams of light directly into the den. Several big flat-faces with furry chins and black, rubbery pelts jumped off the firebeast. They were shouting and waving their forelegs around.

More flat-faces came hurrying out of the den. All of them started shouting as well. Toklo skidded to a stop. Dismayed, he watched the flat-faces arguing. Several of them pointed at the dark tower. They all sounded very angry.

He sat down to wait. The ice was cold against his hindquarters, but his attention was focused on the den. One of the flat-faces ran inside and carried out a small cage. Inside was a seabird, lolling sickly against the silvery webbed walls. Even from where he sat, Toklo could smell the black stuff and see it coating the bird’s feathers. The flat-face pointed at the bird and shouted even louder, but the new flat-faces on the enormous firebeast only snorted and waved their hands as if the
bird didn’t interest them.

It interested Toklo, though. He realized that Lusa must also be inside a cage in the den. He felt quite silly for not thinking of that sooner. Of course she couldn’t just be wandering around in there; the flat-faces wouldn’t allow that. And if she were free to move around, she’d walk straight out the door to find him—he knew she would.

But if she was inside a cage, he’d need even more time to free her than he’d thought. He couldn’t just burst in there, waving his claws around and roaring, and run off with her. He’d have to spend time figuring out how to open the cage first. Which meant he needed a more stealthy approach. Toklo looked at the shouting flat-faces again and sighed. Flat-faces liked shouting so much, this could go on all night. He needed to retreat and think of a new plan.

As he trekked back to his makeshift den, his paws kept slipping on the treacherous ice. At night it was harder to figure out the best places to walk. The second time he fell, his front paws skidded out to either side and he banged his chin hard on the ice. Wincing with pain, he got up and crept even more slowly across the snow.

If only they were back on land! He was sure he’d be able to rescue Lusa much more easily if they were surrounded by dirt and trees and grass, like they should be. And there would be prey everywhere! His stomach growled again, but he was too tired and his chin hurt too much for him to try hunting.

He curled up in his snow den and dozed restlessly. His dreams were muddled and harrowing, with flat-faces chasing
him through endless ice and other flat-faces popping out from the snow just to yell in their high-pitched, nonsensical way. The smell of oil filled his nose, and as he ran, the black stuff seeped out of the snow and stuck to his paws, no matter how much he tried to wipe it off again.

When he woke up again, his head was aching. The sky was starting to lighten, a pale line of honey-colored fur glowing on the edge of the sky.

He had the strange feeling that something had woken him. A sound, perhaps—and then it came again. Scuffling and crunching on the snow. Someone was coming toward him! He took in a deep breath and recognized the musty, furry scent of bears.

Growling, Toklo leaped to his paws and burst out of the snow. He bared his teeth, ready to fight off any white bear, no matter how big it was.

But to his shock, the first face he saw belonged to a brown bear, who stared back at him with equally startled dark eyes. And then, finally, he recognized the scents.

“Ujurak!” Toklo gasped. He spotted the white bear behind his shape-shifting friend. “Kallik!”

“Toklo!” Ujurak barked. He peered around and then gave Toklo a worried look.

Toklo didn’t know what to say.
Yes, I lost Lusa. I couldn’t protect her or take her back to safety after all.
The weight of his guilt pressed down on his shoulders, and for a moment he couldn’t speak.

“Oh, no,” Kallik said, sniffing the air and looking horrified. “We were right. Something has happened to Lusa!”