Smoke Mountain by Erin Hunter

of soft grass under the branches had been good enough.
    â€˜
Lusa
,’ the voice said again, and this time she realised it was Toklo. ‘Lusa, Kallik and Taqqiq are missing.’ Lusa rolled to her paws and shook the sleep out of her eyes.
    â€˜Missing?’ she echoed, craning her neck to see past him. She could see the mashed and flattened patches of grass where the two white bears had slept. ‘Where did they go?’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ Toklo said. ‘They were gone when I woke up.’
    â€˜Same here,’ Ujurak said, splashing through the stream behind her with water droplets dripping from his muzzle. ‘I didn’t hear them go.’
    Lusa padded over to the hollow where the white cubs had curled up to sleep. There were two indentations in the grass the size of Taqqiq and Kallik. She could still smell their scent, a faint smell of fish and ice and thick fur. Lusa sniffed round the hollow and found the spot where the scent began to move away. They’d set off in the opposite direction from the Big River and Smoke Mountain.
    Lusa felt a pang of worry shiver through her fur. She took a few steps along their trail, her nose pressed to the ground.
    â€˜I already did that,’ Toklo said. ‘They went that way.’ He jerked his head towards the rising sun.
    â€˜But that doesn’t lead to the Big River!’ Lusa exclaimed.
    â€˜No. I know,’ Toklo said. He sighed, dabbing one paw in the river. He couldn’t meet Lusa’s eyes. ‘They went back the way we came – to Great Bear Lake. To the other white bears.’
    â€˜No!’ Lusa said. ‘They wouldn’t do that! Kallik wouldn’t just leave me!’ She paced round the white bears’ sleeping spot, clawing at the grass in frustration.
    â€˜Maybe she would, if she was really mad,’ Toklo growled. ‘I’m sorry, Lusa. It’s my fault. I didn’t mean to drive Kallik away.’ He lifted his head, squinting at the line of pale gold sunlight on the horizon.
    â€˜But why would she go without saying goodbye?’ Ujurak said. ‘I don’t think Kallik would do that.’ He looked genuinely puzzled.
    Lusa sniffed the trail again, hoping to find that Kallik’s scent split off and went another way, but the bears had clearly left the trees together.
    â€˜You’re wrong, Toklo,’ she said. Even if the white bears were angry at Toklo for attacking Taqqiq, Kallik would have stayed to talk about it, not run away while they were all sleeping. And surely Kallik could understand – she knew about Ujurak changing. Couldn’t she see that Taqqiq might haveeaten Ujurak? Lusa knew why it had made Toklo so upset and angry . . . she thought Kallik did too.
    â€˜Lusa –’ Toklo began, hunching his shoulders as if he were bracing himself for an argument.
    â€˜No,’ she interrupted him. ‘Kallik wouldn’t just leave us. She wants to find the Endless Ice more than anyone! You saw how excited she was about what Qopuk told us. And she’s my
friend
.’
    â€˜We’re your friends,’ Toklo growled. He turned his head towards the dark ridge of mountains that lay in wait for them. ‘Come on – we’ve got to keep going.’
    â€˜We can’t go!’ Lusa protested. ‘What if they just went hunting? What if they’re on their way back right now?’
    â€˜What if they’re not?’ Toklo countered. ‘How long will we wait?’
    Lusa planted her paws firmly on the earth. ‘I’m not leaving without Kallik.’
    Toklo gave her an incredulous look. ‘What if she doesn’t come back?’
    â€˜She will come back,’ Lusa insisted. ‘We can at least wait until the sun is all the way up. I’d wait for
you
, Toklo. Forever, if I had to.’
    â€˜Maybe they haven’t been gone very long,’ Ujurakinterjected, wading out of the stream to stand beside