The Burning Horizon Read Free Page B

appearing between two mountain peaks. Toklo glanced down at Lusa, seeing a deep sadness in her eyes as she watched. He moved closer to her so that their pelts were brushing.
    â€œThe four of us won’t have many more times like this, will we?” Lusa murmured, leaning against his shoulder. “I know our journey together has been full of danger, but even so—I’ll miss it.”
    â€œMe too,” Toklo agreed. “It’ll seem really strange, settling down in one place instead of moving on all the time.”
    â€œAnd no more adventures,” Lusa said wistfully.
    â€œI know,” Toklo responded. “But it’s time, Lusa—time to find a territory that truly belongs to us.” He tried to sound cheerful.
    â€œBut we’ve made a territory for ourselves with every step of our journey, haven’t we?” Lusa asked, turning her head to look at him with berry-bright eyes. “That territory will stay in our hearts through the memories we have.”
    Toklo had never thought of it like that. “You’re right, Lusa,” he said. “A territory in our hearts.”

CHAPTER TWO
Lusa
    Lusa swallowed her last mouthful of elk and swiped her tongue around her jaws. “That was great,” she sighed. “We must be the best hunters in the whole wild.”
    â€œI’m stuffed,” Toklo said, shuffling back from the carcass. “I feel as if I could sleep for a whole suncircle.”
    The four bears were sharing the prey near their temporary den, the hole underneath the pine tree. Sunlight glanced through the branches, and the air was full of warm scents. Lusa was struggling with drowsiness, too.
    â€œIt was a good idea to stay here an extra day and hunt, Toklo,” she said. “We needed to build up our strength.”
    Toklo shrugged. “It just seemed sensible.”
    Lusa butted Toklo’s shoulder gently with her head, knowing that he didn’t want to act like he was in charge. “We all appreciated it.”
    But looking at her friends, Lusa was still worried. They all looked so tired, and their pelts seemed to be hanging fromtheir bones, even though they had eaten well since they left the Sky Ridge. Have we traveled too far?
    Still, it was good to see Kallik and Yakone contentedly sprawled out side by side, and the extra day’s rest had helped Yakone’s paw start to heal again.
    â€œI know why you love the mountains so much,” Kallik said to Toklo. “You hunt best among rocks and trees.”
    Toklo gave a pleased grunt. “True. But it’s time to move on now.”
    He took the lead as they set out across the open grassland and then down a steep slope that led into denser forest. But as they plunged back into the shade of the trees, Lusa heard high-pitched yelping sounds, and the thump of heavy pawsteps, drifting up from somewhere below.
    â€œFlat-faces!” Toklo exclaimed, halting.
    He jerked his head, signaling to the others to scramble back to higher ground. Kallik and Yakone dove into the cover of a rocky outcrop, while Lusa joined Toklo behind a huge boulder a couple of bearlengths away.
    The sounds of flat-face voices and the clump of their clumsy paws grew louder. Peering cautiously from behind the boulder, Lusa saw a ragged line of flat-faces heading diagonally across the slope. They all had huge black eyes that seemed to poke out of their faces, and brightly colored pelts. They moved slowly, looking around them, but Lusa didn’t think they were hunting. They weren’t concentrating enough for that.
    â€œWhat are they doing?” Lusa whispered to Toklo. “Theydidn’t touch the berries on that bush, and they stomped right over those deer tracks. What do they want?”
    The brown bear shrugged. “Who knows? We’ll just wait here until they’ve gone, and then move on again.”
    But the flat-faces didn’t pass by. Instead, they stopped, removed bundles tightly