The Burning Horizon by Erin Hunter Read Free Book Online

be aware of the bears or the mules. “Now what do we do?” she hissed.
    On both sides the undergrowth pressed in on them, its thorny walls a barrier that was impossible to break through. There was nowhere to go but forward, but the long mule train was still blocking their route.
    â€œWill it ever end?” Toklo muttered.
    The flat-faces behind them drew closer and closer, until Kallik could hear them breathing. Much closer and they’ll step on us!
    â€œWe can’t stay here,” Toklo growled. “We’ll have to charge the line of mules.”
    â€œBut we won’t be able to get through!” Yakone objected.
    â€œIt’s the only way. We’ll have to charge at a gap between two of them.” Toklo glanced from Kallik to Lusa. “Ready? We’ll meet up on the other side of the trail.”
    Lusa nodded, her eyes wide with fear.
    â€œOkay,” Kallik said, trying to crush down the terror that was surging up inside her.
    Yakone gave a nod as well.
    â€œNow!” Toklo roared.
    Together all four bears plunged out of their hiding pace and down onto the trail, crashing into the line of mules. The mules reared up and let out screeches of alarm, their forelegs kicking at the air. Struggling to escape from the bears, they became entangled in the vines that bound them, quickly changing from an ordered line into a shifting, impenetrable mass.
    Kallik, in the lead with Toklo, found herself caught up in the vines that attached the mules to one another; within a heartbeat they became wrapped around her legs so she could hardly move. Toklo was trapped, too, roaring as he tried to bite through the vines and escape from the terrified, thrashing mules.
    BOOM!
    The crack of a firestick sounded above the shrieking of the mules. Panic washed over Kallik, and she found herself crashing into the other bears as they all tried to flee. She caught a glimpse of the plump flat-face running down the trail toward them, aiming his firestick again.
    â€œGet back to the bushes!” Toklo bellowed.
    But it was impossible to retreat. Rocks and undergrowth hemmed them in, and they were trapped with the panicking, kicking mules all around them.
    BOOM!
    Kallik saw a paw-sized chunk of rock fly off a nearby boulder a heartbeat after the firestick explosion. It flew through the air toward her, and before she could duck, it struck her on the side of the head. Her vision blurred and she stumbled; then she felt Toklo and Yakone grabbing at her, pulling at her fur. Noise and an echoing darkness swirled all around her.
    Oh, spirits, come and save us!

CHAPTER FOUR
Lusa
    Panic flooded through Lusa when she saw the flat-face raising his firestick. She tried to run, but one of the mules’ vines was wrapped around her front paw. Drawing on all her strength, she wrenched at it until the vine snapped, and with a desperate, scrambling wriggle she managed to reach the edge of the mule train. At the roar of the firestick she ran as fast as she could back up the slope to where they had started.
    Behind her the air was full of the bellowing of bears and flat-faces and the trampling of many paws. A bird screeched in alarm. All Lusa wanted was to hide. But as she hurtled forward she saw the group of bright-pelted flat-faces that had been behind them scattering in front of her. One of them let out a yell and waved its forelegs above its head.
    Lusa ducked behind a large tree, her heart thumping with fear. Then she scrabbled through a bush, swerving away from the flat-faces, ignoring thorns that tore at her pelt. For a moment she thought she had escaped; then the ground gave way under her paws, and she rolled down a steep bank andback onto the trail, where the bears and mules were still in a mix of chaos. She landed with a thud that drove the breath out of her body.
    The paws of the rampaging mules stamped a snout’s length from Lusa’s head. Rolling away from them, she scrambled to her paws. A few bearlengths away