The Burning Horizon by Erin Hunter Read Free Book Online Page A

she could see her friends, struggling in the midst of mules that flailed at them with their hard paws. Flat-faces were shouting and the mules were letting out high-pitched whinnies, while the bears bellowed as they fought to escape.
    Lusa stared in horror as one of the mules near her started bucking madly, breaking free from the vines that tethered it. The mule reared up, shrieking. Its forelegs kicked out, and one of its sharp, rocklike paws hit Lusa on the head.
    Pain sliced through Lusa. She staggered and fell onto her side, her vision blurring, and a sound like rushing water filling her ears. She struggled to stand up, but her legs felt too weak to support her. She stumbled back to the ground again and took a moment, breathing hard, before she managed to push herself to her paws.
    Beneath the roaring in her ears, Lusa thought she could hear her friends running through the trees on her side of the path. They must have given up on getting across. Her eyes were streaming, but she managed to pick out vague, swirling shapes in the shadows. She hauled herself up the bank once again and began to run.
    Behind her, the sounds of struggling pulsed loud and soft in her ears. The forest around her seemed to shift and blur,and though she blinked she couldn’t clear her vision. Unable to find a safe path, she crashed from tree to tree, with brambles ripping at her fur.
    Oh, Arcturus, help me !
    Lusa stumbled on past many trees, thinking this must be the way she’d seen her friends go. Gradually the roaring in her ears died away, and she could see clearly again. Blinking, she halted and looked around.
    â€œToklo? Kallik?”
    There was no reply. Bewildered, Lusa turned around to face the way she had come. They must be behind me. They’re on their way, right?
    But agonizing moments passed, and there was no sign of Toklo, Kallik, or Yakone. Lusa crouched, motionless, pain still throbbing through her head as she tried to control her breathing and the pounding of her heart so that she could listen. But the only sounds that came to her ears were the trampling and braying of the mules in the distance, along with the irritated grumbles of the flat-faces who were trying to get them under control.
    Lusa sniffed the air, but all she could pick up was the fear-scent of the mules and the acrid tang of firesticks. There was no scent of any of her friends.
    I’ve lost them! Lusa thought helplessly, staring into the dark trees.
    â€œToklo! Kallik! Yakone!” she called again, but her voice was lost in the echoes from the dense trees, and beneath the squawk of birds startled by her roar. Trees loomed over herhead, and a whirling darkness threatened to engulf her.
    The pain in Lusa’s head where the mule had kicked her grew worse and worse. It felt like an aching heartbeat in her skull, or a stabbing claw hurting her again and again, clouding her mind so she couldn’t think. She reached up with her forepaws to the place where the pain was, but it didn’t help, only unbalanced her and sent her stumbling through the trees.
    Lusa slumped down on her side and looked around. The sound of the mules had faded away, and now she wasn’t even sure which direction she had come from. Oh, spirits—how am I going to find the others ? She was afraid that they had run and run like she did, thinking that they were all still together. They could be anywhere by now!
    Growing more desperate with each moment, Lusa heaved herself up again and went on searching and calling, crawling through bramble thickets and scrambling over rocks in her frantic search for some trace of her friends. There must be something—a pawprint or a lingering scent.
    At last, exhausted, Lusa collapsed to the ground. Dazed and terrified, she tried to figure out where she was. She needed to find the other bears. Peering up through the branches, she tried to recognize the peaks that were just visible above the trees. Could she figure out which way