Smoke Mountain by Erin Hunter Page A

breath, she sprinted across at full speed. She tumbled into a patch of weeds and lay there, catching her breath. She covered her nose with her paws. ‘I really hate BlackPaths,’ she called back. ‘They smell horrible! And you can always tell that firebeasts have killed other animals there. They’re like paths of death. I wish the spirits could get rid of them!’
    Taqqiq snorted. ‘Like any spirits have that kind of power.’ He shifted his paws at the edge of the hard black earth.
    â€˜Wait a moment,’ Toklo warned Ujurak and Kallik. ‘I think a firebeast is coming.’ He could feel the earth quivering under his paws. The bear cubs ducked back into the bushes. Toklo saw Kallik’s eyes gleaming in the light from the firebeast’s eyes as it hurtled past.
    â€˜All right, come on!’ he called once it was gone.
    Ujurak, Kallik and Toklo bolted out of the bushes. Ujurak made it across first, and Lusa butted him happily with her head.
    Toklo kept an eye on Kallik; he wasn’t sure howmany BlackPaths she’d crossed when she was travelling alone, or whether this one would frighten her. He was pleased to see that she ran steadily beside him, barely flinching when a firebeast roared in the distance.
    They stumbled on to the grass on the far side, rejoining the others.
    â€˜Good job,’ Toklo said to Kallik. ‘You stayed so calm. I suppose you’re really one of us now.’
    â€˜What about Taqqiq?’ she asked. ‘Is he one of us too?’
    Toklo didn’t answer. He wanted to be patient, for the sake of the others, but the wounds on his shoulder ached, and anger still burned inside him when he looked at Taqqiq. No matter what the others said, Toklo would never believe that Taqqiq belonged with them.
    He stared past Kallik and blinked in shock. Ahead of them, half a skylength away, lay a whole cluster of flat-face dens, burning with sharp yellow lights like firebeasts’ eyes. The dens had been partly hidden by a dip in the land, but now he could see that an entire denning place lay between the cubs and the Big River.
    He’d thought the big firebeasts and their noisy den and dogs were the worst danger they’d face before the river . . . but it was only the beginning.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
Kallik
    N ight had fallen completely now, although the sky was still glowing from the lights of the no-claw dens up ahead. Kallik blinked and squinted, trying to see into the distance beyond the dens. Smoke Mountain was just a ridge of black blotting out half the sky.
    Toklo led the way along the stream to a spot with a few trees and several scrubby bushes. Kallik’s stomach growled. She watched Lusa snap a branch off one of the bushes and try to chew on it.
    â€˜Blech,’ Lusa said, spitting out bits of bark.
    â€˜Let’s stay here for the night,’ Toklo suggested. ‘We should rest. We can head towards the flat-face dens in the morning.’ From the way he stood on three legs, with one hind leg crooked under hisbelly, Kallik guessed he was hurting. She felt a stab of guilt: were his injuries from the dogs or Taqqiq? Either way, her brother was responsible. Part of her didn’t want to face the no-claw dens in daylight, but she also didn’t want to argue with Toklo when he perhaps needed rest more than any of them.
    Lusa flopped down on the grass immediately. Within moments she was snoring. Taqqiq shambled off to curl up by himself, his shaggy white shoulders hunched. He shot angry glares at all of them. Kallik could tell that he was still seething about the fight and the Ujurak secret they’d all been keeping from him.
    Toklo waded into the stream, gingerly washing his paws in the cool, flowing water. Kallik followed him, guessing that he was trying to clean the wounds her brother had inflicted. In a way, Toklo was as bad as Taqqiq: too proud to admit that he was hurt and might need help.
    Ujurak emerged from the shadows with a