The Quest Begins by Erin Hunter Page B

to go back and sniff her mother. Maybe ifshe tried harder…Lusa ran back to the edge of the Bowl, stood up to look at the feeders, and then ran back to her mother. She did this a few more times, clacking her teeth to show she was frightened.
    The flat-faces pointed at her, and then at Ashia. They spoke in quiet, serious murmurs like the rustle of leaves in the trees. Finally a few of them came through the door in the wall and went over to Ashia, making gentle sounds and walking around her carefully.
    A tall flat-face that Lusa had never seen before came into the Bear Bowl. Unlike the others, he had some bushy gray fur on his face. Two round shiny things were perched on his nose, and his removable pelt was green. He was carrying a long black-and-brown stick cradled under his arm. Lusa didn’t like the way it smelled…like the Fence but darker and more smoky.
    The other feeders brought in big poles and a roll of webbed stuff that turned into Fence when they unrolled it. They set up the poles around Ashia and put the new, smaller Fence around her. Lusa didn’t realize what they were doing until they stepped away and it was too late. Now she couldn’t get close to her mother. Ashia was alone inside the new Fence.
    Lusa tried to claw at the Fence to join her mother, but one of the feeders came over and shooed her away. What were they doing? Why wouldn’t they let her be with her mother? Lusa backed away, then scrambled up the tree, pushing herself quickly higher with her hind paws. From the branch above her mother, she could see right inside the small Fence. She sawthe tall flat-face walk in and point the long metal thing at her mother.
    There was a sharp popping sound, and something shot out of the black stick into her mother. Ashia grunted once, and then slowly her eyes closed.
    Horrified, Lusa cried, “Mother! Mother!”
    But Ashia didn’t respond.
    â€œMother!” Lusa screamed.
    She tried to climb back down, but now something loud and roaring was coming into the Bowl, and it scared her back up the tree again. It coughed smoke and swaggered so loudly that all the other bears scattered to the far corners of the Bowl, staying as far away as possible. Lusa guessed that this was one of the firebeasts she’d heard King talk about. She’d seen them from the top of the tree sometimes, charging around the paths outside the Bowl, but she’d never been close enough to smell the scent of metal and burning before.
    The feeders gathered around Ashia and rolled her onto a large flat skin the color of the sky but shiny like water. Each of them picked up a corner and lifted the large, limp bear. They hoisted her onto a flat thing with round black paws, and then they hooked that to the firebeast.
    With a great roar, the firebeast lurched away through the big doors at the back of the Bear Bowl. Lusa rushed down the tree as the doors were closing. “Mother!” she howled. The doors slammed in her face, and she stood up on her hind legs, clawing at the wall. “Mother! Don’t go! Wait, please don’t take her!”

CHAPTER NINE
Toklo
    Pebbles of frozen ice caught in Toklo’s claws as he dug through the snow, searching for something to eat. The sun glowed red in the sky as it crept slowly down below the trees, and an ice-cold wind raced up the mountain, slicing through his fur and making him shiver.
    Oka had not moved for the rest of the day, nor had she spoken. She lay beside Tobi, unmoving, as the day passed and night crept on again. Toklo could see they would be staying here again tonight, even though his belly was howling in protest. The salmon couldn’t be too far away now. Surely they were less than a day’s travel from food that would finally fill him up.
    What if his mother never moved again? Did Oka want him to stay here until his spirit grew so hungry it joined Tobi’s in the water? He wished she would see that having one living bear cub was better than