The Quest Begins by Erin Hunter

Author:Erin Hunter [Hunter, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Animals, Action & Adventure, Voyages and travels, Bears, Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic, General, Fantasy, Fiction
ISBN: 9780060871246
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

Lusa left Oka alone for a few days, worried that she’d upset the brown bear again if she tried to talk to her. But Oka stayed huddled by the Fence most of the time, and finally Lusa decided to try again. Maybe Oka needed a real bear to talk to instead of her sad memories. Perhaps telling Lusa about them would make her feel better.

The sun was high in the sky, and Yogi and Stella were lying in the Mountains being boring instead of playing. Lusa climbed out of her perch in the tree and padded close to the Fence. She passed by Oka’s spot, waiting to see if the grizzly would respond. Nothing happened, so she turned around and walked past again.

Oka grunted. Lusa stopped immediately. It wasn’t quite a “hello,” but it didn’t sound like “go away,” either. She sidled closer.

“Hi, Oka,” she said. “How are you feeling today?”

Oka blinked and grunted again.

“The Bear Bowl isn’t so bad, is it?” Lusa tried. “I know Grumps is kind of…grumpy…but the bears on this side of the Fence are nice, I promise. That biggest one over there, drinking from the water dish, is my father, King. My mother, Ashia, is inside the Caves, napping. And that lazy lump of fur on the closest rock is my friend Yogi. You might like him—he’s funny when he’s not annoying.”

Oka’s ears twitched. Lusa hoped that meant she was listening. She sat down and ran her claws through the dirt.

“King came from the wild, too, like you,” she went on. “He wouldn’t tell me about the mountain, though. Mother said there’s one you can see from outside the Bear Bowl. Is that where you came from?”

“There are many mountains,” Oka murmured. Lusa perked up her ears. “I came through many, many mountains…. They caught me on one shaped like a bear’s snout, with snow at the top…cold snow, freezing my paws…Poor Toklo.”

“What else did you see?” Lusa prompted.

“There was a river,” the brown bear said, gazing up at the sky. “A long journey…I followed it until I found a dry riverbed to walk along. Journey…journey…three lakes at the edge of a dead forest.”

“A dead forest?” Lusa echoed with a shiver. “Why was it dead? Who killed it?”

“The fire from the sky,” Oka whispered, as if talking to herself. “The fire that roars like a bear when it rains.”

“I know that fire!” Lusa cried. “I’ve seen it in the clouds! It’s so loud, my ears hurt for days afterward. I didn’t know it could come down from the sky!”

“It can,” Oka said, “and when it touches a tree, it can spread fire through a whole forest.”

Lusa stared at her in alarm. “But what about the spirits in the trees? The dead bears?”

“Dead bears?” Oka roared. “What do you know about dead bears? Why are you asking me all these questions? Leave me alone!” She jumped to her paws and galloped away to the far side of the clearing.

Lusa leaped back. “I’m sorry!” she called after Oka.

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