Island of Shadows by Erin Hunter

she could sense the hollow place, but she still couldn’t tell any difference from the rest of the snow.
    â€œUnder there,” Yakone said, pointing with his muzzle. “We’ll need to dig down, but we must be careful. There’s a hole there, but I’m not sure how big it is.”
    Kallik nodded. All three bears began digging cautiously at the snow, pawful by pawful.
    â€œI can feel something!” Lusa exclaimed.
    Scrabbling excitedly, she uncovered the edge of a piece of wood. To Kallik’s amazement, it wasn’t the branch of a tree. It looked as if it had been cut and squared.
    â€œNo-claws did that,” she said, stopping abruptly with a paw raised to take the next scoop of snow.
    Yakone backed off a pace. “No-claws, here?”
    â€œWe’re not so far from that BlackPath,” Lusa reminded him, still scraping vigorously to reveal more of the wood.
    Kallik sniffed the air. “I can’t smell no-claws,” she said. “Just that weird scent—a bit like firebeasts.”
    She began digging again, and after a moment’s hesitation Yakone joined her, pushing the snow aside with powerful paws. Soon they could see that the wood was part of a slab lining a hole with square sides. It led into the side of the snow-bank, stretching downward into darkness.
    Lusa’s eyes stretched wide. “It’s not a hole; it’s a tunnel!”
    Kallik snuffed at the dank air that flowed out of the opening. “It’s that smell again,” she muttered, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “But it’s a lot stronger here. Whatever is causing it must be down there.”
    â€œFlat-faces must have made this.” Lusa had stepped into the mouth of the tunnel and was peering curiously into the blackness. “But there’s no scent of them.” She took another pace forward. “Toklo! Toklo!”
    There was no response.
    Lusa glanced back over her shoulder. “The tunnel is leading roughly the right way, toward where Toklo fell into the hole,” she pointed out. “Let’s go!”
    â€œNo, wait—” Kallik felt uneasy about stepping into the dark, enclosed space when they had no way of knowing if Toklo was down there.
    But Lusa paid no attention. She was already heading deep into the ground, her black fur seeming to melt into the darkness. Kallik knew that she had to follow. She couldn’t allow her friend to explore the fearful tunnel by herself. But she had to force her paws to carry her forward.
    White bears belong in the open, with the sky stretching above us , she thought. Not cramped up in underground passages, away from the light and the snow.
    â€œDo we really have to go down there?” Yakone asked, reluctance evident in his voice and the doubtful look on his face.
    Kallik detected a hint of jealousy in his tone. “Toklo’s my friend,” she replied. “And so is Lusa. I can’t let them down.”
    Kallik was building her nerve to head down the tunnel when she spotted four stones a couple of pawsteps inside. Two white stones, very close together. A smaller black stone a paw’s width away from them. And farther away still, on the edge of the fading light, a rough brown stone. There was no doubt in her mind that each stone represented a bear. Had Ujurak put them there?
    â€œLook!” Kallik breathed. “A sign! Now I know this is the way we have to go.”
    With a bewildered Yakone just behind her, she plunged into the tunnel and followed Lusa.

CHAPTER TEN
Lusa
    Lusa padded along the tunnel, letting her feet guide her. The hole led straight down with a gentle slope; the floor was made of flat, beaten earth, easy on her paws. The weird smell was all around her, and she shuddered at the thought of it soaking into her fur.
    Behind her she could hear the pawsteps of Kallik and Yakone. She felt reassured by the thought that her friends were following her, but when she glanced back over her