Island of Shadows Read Free Page B

“What are we waiting for?”
    â€œWe need to make sure there’s no danger,” Toklo retorted. “Wait here.”
    His claws clicked on the ice as he paced forward. For a moment, he had almost forgotten Ujurak wasn’t with them anymore; he had almost asked his friend to change into the shape of a bird and fly up to check out the land ahead. Ujurak’s ability to take on the appearance of other birds and animals—sometimes at will, sometimes by accident—had gone from being an unnerving, startling incident to something all the bears were accustomed to. At times like this, when a seagull could see much farther than a bear stuck on the ground, Toklo missed Ujurak even more fiercely.
    Have you got cloudfluff in your brain? he asked, furious with himself. We have to manage without Ujurak now.
    There was still no sound as he moved farther into the cove, so he jerked his head as a signal for the others to follow. At first the ice was smooth, a narrow arm of the sea. But soon the cove grew narrower still, until Toklo’s fur brushed the cliff face on either side. At its head, a cascade of ice was poised over jagged rocks, frozen mid-waterfall as it plunged over the cliff. There was no other way out of the cove.
    â€œFollow me!” Toklo called. “And for the spirits’ sake, watch where you’re putting your paws!”
    He scrambled upward, trying to dig his claws into the slippery ice. This will be a river when the sun comes back , he thought, trying to imagine climbing against the force of water pouring down. We’d never make it.
    At last, grunting with effort, he hauled himself onto the cliff top, and turned to help Lusa up the last few pawsteps, bending over to fasten his teeth in her scruff and drag her.
    â€œThanks, Toklo,” Lusa panted as she flopped down beside him.
    As they waited for Kallik and Yakone to scramble up, Toklo gazed out across a bare plateau, flat and featureless except where it was veined by frozen streams that had gouged down into the soil in warmer weather. A few scrubby bushes grew along their banks, their trunks twisted by the wind, and a ridge of hills rose in the distance. There was no sign of any animals they could hunt, and no prey-scent in the air.
    â€œWe need to cross those hills,” Yakone announced as he reached the cliff top. “The bears who visited here said that there’s a gentler slope to the sea on the other side.”
    Toklo grunted, then stiffened as he spotted a cluster of flat-face dens farther along the cliff. “You never said there were flat-faces here,” he accused Yakone, swinging around to fix him with a glare.
    What use is he if he doesn’t bother telling us important stuff like that?
    â€œI didn’t know,” Yakone retorted, sounding defensive. “None of the bears who visited said anything about them.”
    â€œMaybe the flat-faces haven’t been here long,” Kallik suggested, coming to stand at Yakone’s side. “Anyway, we can easily avoid them.”
    Lusa had scraped away some snow from the rocks at the edge of the cliff and was sniffing at the lichen underneath. Tasting it, she made a face. “There’s not much here,” she commented. “And I don’t see any prey for you to catch. I think we should go and check out the flat-face dens. There might be food there.”
    â€œNo-claw food?” Yakone said, surprised. “I thought you were all wild bears.”
    â€œWe are,” Toklo growled. “The less we see of flat-faces the better.”
    To his annoyance, Lusa turned away from the lichen-covered rocks to contradict him. “You’ve been glad enough of flat-face food before now, Toklo.”
    Before Toklo could reply, Yakone padded up to the small black bear. “Back on Star Island, I remember you telling us that we shouldn’t eat the food the no-claws threw out. You said if we did that we’d forget how to be wild