The Burning Horizon by Erin Hunter Page A

spotted a narrow gully leading upward. It wasn’t a direction that would likely lead them to food, but at least they’d get a good look at their surroundings—and get off the wolf trail. Toklo immediately began scrambling up, scattering loose stones from his paws as he clambered higher. Kallik held back to let Yakone go next.
    If he slips because of his injured paw, I’ll be there to catch him.
    But the white bear hauled himself up behind Toklo without any trouble. Kallik brought up the rear, trying not to think about the plunging drop behind her.
    Up on the ridge, the bears stood still with the wind tugging at their fur while they looked out across the landscape ahead. On the opposite side of the ridge the slopes were gentler, and not far below was the dark line of the pine forest.
    â€œLet’s go that way,” Toklo said, with a jerk of his head toward the trees. “There should be prey there.”
    As they descended among the trunks, Kallik heard a muffled roaring sound, which grew louder as they walked. They followed a stony path through the trees and emerged beside afoaming stream that thundered down in a sheer, narrow cascade into a pool below. The air was full of spray and the scent of water.
    Cautiously, because the rocks beside the waterfall were slick with moisture, the bears scrambled down to the edge of the pool. As Kallik bent her head to drink, relishing the cold taste, she imagined how wonderful it would feel to plunge right into it and feel the icy torrent soaking into her fur.
    Without hesitating, she slid off the rocks and lowered herself into the pool. The churning water tossed her to and fro, but she battled it with strong paws, exhilarated by the struggle. She could feel the force of the stream lifting away the grit from her fur.
    â€œCome on, Yakone!” she called.
    Yakone plunged into the water and surfaced beside Kallik with a whoosh, splashing water into her face.
    â€œI’ll get you for that!” she spluttered, diving at him.
    Yakone ducked down and reappeared on Kallik’s other side. “You can try!”
    But Kallik knew that they couldn’t go on playing forever. She turned to swim back to the rocks, and almost at once caught sight of a silver flicker in the white foam of the pool. Snapping her jaws instinctively, she closed her teeth on a fish. Satisfied, Kallik hauled herself out of the pool with water streaming from her pelt and dropped the fish at Toklo’s paws. Toklo’s eyes gleamed as he looked at her prey.
    â€œNice catch,” he said. “Now we don’t need to waste time hunting.”
    The bears shared the fish—a plump trout—and set out again, among the trees.
    â€œWe can’t keep traveling this far down from the ridge,” Toklo muttered after a short while. “The trees close us in, and we can’t see where we have to go. Now that we’ve eaten, we need to find a way back up.”
    Beams of sunlight slanted at an angle through the pine trees, and Kallik realized that the day was drawing to an end. We’ll have to make a den for the night soon. Before long a path opened up, winding its way through the trees and eventually bringing the bears out onto the edge of a long plateau that stretched in front of them as far as they could see. Trees encircled it, but the ground ahead was clear except for small rocks scattered across it with larger outcrops of boulders here and there.
    Toklo was peering into the distance. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing with his snout.
    Looking in that direction, Kallik saw a cloud of dust billowing into the air. At the same moment, she felt the ground vibrating through her pads. Yakone let out a grunt of surprise; clearly he could feel it, too.
    â€œThere are a lot of animals in that cloud,” he said.
    â€œI’m going to get a better look.” Toklo headed for the nearest pine tree and began to haul himself up the trunk. “We need