The Quest of the Cubs by Kathryn Lasky

Author:Kathryn Lasky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

“Jytte!” Stellan blurted suddenly. “Jytte, get your snout out of the snow.”

She lifted her head, then gave a small, gleeful bark. “Boo boo meat!”

“Yes, caribou. You smell it too?”

With the east wind, the fog began to rapidly dissolve, revealing a black night spiked with stars. And there was Nevermoves. Uncountable gifts had suddenly rained down upon the cubs all at the same time. Stars, caribou, even a trace of cod. And just ahead was another den. And another sign. BEAR Containment Facility.

The cubs were curious and began to trot toward the den. There were openings, as there had been in the others, but these had sticks with spaces in between.

“What are those?” Jytte exclaimed.

“Bear paws,” whispered Stellan, skidding to a stop. “There’s a bear behind those bars!”

Two enormous paws were gripping the sticks in one of the openings.

A voice rang out. The whole den seemed to tremble.

“Welcome to jail!”

The cubs froze in their footprints, then clung to each other and rolled into a ball. Maybe, thought Stellan, we’ll look like a large lump of snow.

“It’s not a toothwalker,” Jytte whispered.

“But what is it?”

“Don’t know.” Jytte’s voice was still trembling, and she clutched her brother even harder.

“Be my guest,” the voice called out. “We have a vacancy in cell block number four. Please read the rules before entering the confinement area.” The voice paused. They still could not see the entire bear, just his paws on the sticks. His paws were huge, but the claws appeared rather small, as if they had been filed down to splinters.

A sliver of a claw was now pointing. “Can’t read them? I’ll help you out.

“DO NOT ENTER.

DO NOT COME NEAR THE BEARS.

DO NOT TEASE THE BEARS EVEN FROM A DISTANCE.

VIOLATORS OF THE ABOVE RULES WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW, WITH FINES UP TO FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS.

“In short”—the bear shook a claw at them—“scram! But that doesn’t apply to you cubs. It was meant for the Others. They’re long gone, of course.”

Stellan pressed his muzzle to his sister’s ear. “Jytte, he could be one of those … those Roguer bears.”

The bear now revealed himself as he lowered to all fours and ambled through a large opening where part of the wall had collapsed.

Jytte and Stellan were stunned. Never in their short lives had they seen a more raggedy bear. He was tall but painfully thin, so thin that his pelt puddled around his feet like white, curling waves breaking on a beach. He seemed very frail and walked with a decided limp. But the oddest thing of all was that over one eye there was a circular piece of issen blauen, the kind that had been packed into Moon Eyes’s sockets. But this piece was attached to a delicate chain that the bear wore around his neck. It magnified his one eye to nearly twice its size. And when he peered at the cubs, they felt as if the reflections of that eye dug into their deepest beings. It was as if he could see to their very souls.

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