Seekers #6: Spirits in the Stars by Erin Hunter Read Free Book Online Page A

okay! We won’t hurt you!” Kallik called after her, but the white bear didn’t seem to hear her.
    “She didn’t even try to defend her catch,” Toklo said, sounding faintly disappointed.
    “Maybe she’s not really hungry,” Lusa responded. “She’s pretty thin, though. She looks as if she’s in need of a good meal!”
    Toklo padded up to the seal and gave it a quick sniff; Kallik and Ujurak gathered around, too, while Lusa headed past them to peer over the edge of the cliff. Her claws dug through the snow to the ground beneath as she gazed over the dizzying drop to the shore below, where sharp rocks were half covered by the frozen sea. Cautiously she edged backward again.
    “I wonder how that white bear got down there,” she murmured to herself.
    “It’s prey!” Toklo was arguing when Lusa rejoined her friends. “We can’t just leave it here.”
    “But our bellies are full now,” Kallik retorted. “And I don’t want to drag a seal carcass all over the island. Ujurak, what do you think?”
    “It won’t be too hard to carry if we all take turns,” the smaller brown bear pointed out.
    “Well, maybe . . .” Kallik still sounded doubtful.
    Lusa bent her head to sniff at the seal, wondering if she felt hungry enough to eat some now. A strange, rank scent was rising from the carcass, like a mixture of rotten fruit and firebeasts.
    “Yuck!” she exclaimed, flinching. “I’m not eating that. It’s disgusting!”
    All her instincts were telling her that they shouldn’t eat the seal, but the others had hardly noticed her reaction and were still continuing to discuss whether they should take it with them or not.
    “Have you smelled it?” Lusa interrupted. “We really shouldn’t eat it. There’s something wrong with it.”
    Her friends broke off their discussion and stared at her.
    “Lusa, it’s prey ,” Toklo pointed out, as if he were trying to explain something to a very small and stupid cub.
    Kallik let out a huff of laughter. “You’ll be glad enough of it when your belly is empty again.”
    “No, I won’t ,” Lusa retorted, furious that they were laughing at her; even Ujurak’s eyes gleamed with amusement. “It smells wrong. No bear should eat it.”
    “Well, I’m going to eat it,” Toklo announced. “So it smells a bit weird. So what?”
    Lusa gazed at him in horror as he began to drag the seal toward him. “No!” she screeched, leaping across the carcass and butting Toklo in the chest.
    Toklo was so astonished by her attack that he backed off, letting the seal drop. “Are you bee-brained, or what?” he demanded.
    Lusa didn’t bother to answer. Giving the seal a strong shove, she tipped it over the edge of the cliff and drew a breath of relief as she watched it splatter on the rocks below.
    “Lusa, what are you doing?” Kallik asked, anger in her voice. “That’s a waste of good food.”
    “It’s not good; that’s the point.” Lusa knew she had to stand up for herself and what she had done. “Eating that seal would have made us ill.”
    “You don’t know that,” Toklo growled.
    Lusa tried hard to think of a reason her friends would accept. How could they smell that seal and think it was good to eat? “I just do—okay?” she said defensively. “And we can easily catch something else later.”
    “Easily?” Toklo huffed scornfully. “There are lots of white bears living around here, or haven’t you noticed? That means there’s going to be plenty of competition for prey.”
    Guilt stabbed Lusa like a thorn in her heart, but she still didn’t back down. There was something wrong with that seal, and I’m not going to say I’m sorry for saving the stupid fluff-brains!
    She noticed that Ujurak’s anger had faded and he was giving her a very odd look. Lusa almost asked him what the matter was. Then she realized he probably thought she had bees in her brain for throwing prey over a cliff.
    I don’t care, she told herself. Somehow they’ll find out that I