Smoke Mountain Read Free Page A

instinct he’d had himself. He was nothing like this white bear! ‘Ujurak says we go this way.’
    â€˜Who made him chief bear?’ Taqqiq snarled. ‘Why should I listen to a scrawny pile of brown fur like him?’
    Toklo’s claws sank into the hard earth as he pictured slashing at this white bear’s tiny ears. ‘If you want to go your own way, that’s fine with me.’
    Taqqiq’s eyes were like burning black stones as he glared back at Toklo. Toklo tried not to look at Taqqiq’s giant paws, or think about how the cub was already bigger than him. He needed to teach this fish-smelling cub a lesson.
    â€˜I told you they wouldn’t want me!’ Taqqiq snapped at Kallik.
    â€˜Well, stop being so disagreeable!’ she said. ‘They’ve been travelling together for moons – we should listen to them.’
    â€˜I
have
been!’ Taqqiq growled. ‘But it’s past sunhigh, and we haven’t had anything to eat since we left the lake!’
    â€˜I suppose the legends about the strength of white bears aren’t true, then,’ Toklo muttered.
    â€˜Do you want to find out exactly how strong I am?’ Taqqiq snarled.
    Toklo bunched his muscles and rooted his hind paws more firmly on the rock. A fight was just what he needed to show Taqqiq who was really in charge. ‘I’m not scared of you, fish-breath,’ Toklo growled.
    â€˜You should be, tiny paws!’
    â€˜I’ll claw your face off!’
    â€˜Stop it!’ Ujurak barked.
    Toklo shuffled his paws on the ground, a growl rumbling in his throat. Taqqiq’s fur bristled on his neck.
    â€˜He’s a stupid badger-face,’ Toklo huffed.
    â€˜Listen,’ Ujurak said before Taqqiq could snarl a retort, ‘it does make sense to rest before we go on. Let’s go down to the lake.’ He turned and began padding away down the rocks. ‘And after we’ve rested we can keep following the signs,’ he called.
    Toklo couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. Ujurak never agreed to leave the path when
he
suggested it. Not even if they’d been travelling for a whole day without stopping.
    Taqqiq lifted his head and looked smugly at Toklo. Then he swung around and took off down the hilltowards the lake. He was moving a lot faster now that he was getting his own way, Toklo noticed grumpily.
    â€˜Come on, Kallik!’ Taqqiq called over his shoulder. ‘Race you there!’
    â€˜Not fair!’ she cried. ‘You got a head start!’ She took a step forward, then turned and lowered her head at Ujurak. ‘Thanks,’ she murmured. With a swish of her stubby tail, she began running down the hill with Lusa close on her heels.
    â€˜It won’t take long,’ Ujurak said to Toklo. ‘It does make sense to eat something while we can. I always forget to look for that practical stuff when I’m figuring out where to go.’
    â€˜Oh, that’s reassuring.’ Toklo snorted. He followed the other bears down into the shade of the small wood. He could see Lusa with her head stretched up towards the branches, flexing her claws in a little dance. He guessed she was happy to be among trees again. The leaves whispered softly overhead, casting rippling puddles of shade and sunlight on the ground and across their backs.
    It was much cooler once they were under the trees. Toklo made sure to check the bark of the treesfor signs of any other grizzlies, but there were no clawmarks that he could see. No other bears lived here. He wasn’t surprised: the wood was too small to feed a full-grown brown bear for more than a half moon, and there was nothing else around.
    Twigs and fallen leaves crunched gently under his paws. The soft sound of water lapping called to him from the lake ahead, so he pushed his way through the undergrowth and padded down to the shore. Compared with Great Bear Lake, it was hardly more than a puddle: he could