But as the day drew on, they didn’t see any bears at all. Beck made sure they drank from their water supply and ate a little at reasonable intervals, as well as gathering up any berries and mushrooms they passed to carry with them. There was no point in pressing on so fast that they wore themselves out.
‘We’re not going to get three regular meals a day,’ he explained. ‘We just graze as we go.’
Tikaani already knew a lot of the plants, thanks to his grandmother’s teaching. Like the blueberries, which were not easy to find because they grew amongst other plants low down on the ground. The berries were tiny and quivered beneath the fingers at the slightest pressure. If they burst, which was almost inevitable, they stained the fingers with something like sweet-tasting blue ink. They were very moreish.
Beck introduced him to more of the natural delicacies that they passed. There were the pink-tinted shoots of fireweed, whose name came from the colour of its leaves but suited the strong taste perfectly. And coltsfoot, flat green leaves shaped like the ace of spades that they picked straight off the ground.
And then there were plants which neither of the boys could identify for sure. They gathered up likely-looking candidates to test later.
‘So that’s it,’ Tikaani said flatly when Beck offered him some of the coltsfoot. ‘We’re officially eating plants.’
Beck looked at him sideways. ‘Berries are plants and you ate those,’ he said mildly.
‘True,’ Tikaani conceded with a smile. He nibbled at his leaf and his eyebrows went up. ‘OK, it’s not bad.’ He looked thoughtful. ‘And it was good enough for my ancestors to stay alive long enough to produce me, so maybe I ought to show it a bit more respect.’
Beck laughed as they set off again. ‘Maybe they should put that on the packaging. “It kept your ancestors alive!”’
Tikaani fell into step beside him. ‘My granddad would add, “So why are you buying it in a shop?”’
‘So he’s not totally in favour of the march of progress?’ Beck asked wryly.
‘Not . . . totally.’ Tikaani put in just enough of a pause to emphasize the understatement. He pulled a face. ‘Shops aren’t traditional. I mean, I do know that food doesn’t grow in supermarkets, right? Everything you find plastic-wrapped or in a tin used to grow in the soil, with dirt and bacteria and stuff. You buy a packet of minced beef and that means a cow died somewhere, with a lot of blood and gore. That’s how it goes. I just don’t see the big deal about doing it all yourself.’
He grinned. ‘I remember once I didn’t want to eat something, and he told me, “Your Uncle Kavik risked his life for this food!” and I was, like, “Well, I wish he wouldn’t,” and I got a clipped ear and sent to bed, so it went to waste and Uncle Kavik risked his life for nothing . . .’
Tikaani sighed. ‘The thing is, if you grow your food on a farm, let someone else do all the catching and cleaning and preparing, and you buy it in a shop, no one has to risk their life and you’ve got time to do other stuff.’
‘Such as?’ Beck asked.
Tikaani chuckled, but there was a sour edge to it. ‘OK, now we move on to my dad. I get on well with him, yeah, but he’s all, “Why do you spend all your time with that computer? Why not get out more?”’
Beck kept quiet. He could sense a frustration in his companion that was bubbling to the surface in the form of words. Tikaani needed to let it out.
‘I mean,’ Tikaani went on, ‘you’re the first foreign friend I’ve met face to face, right? But you’re not my first foreign friend ever. I’ve got several that I only know over the web. We can chat and hang together – we get on really well . . . and we’re in different countries. The world is a huge place and I like to be part of it. How big is Anakat compared to the world? Anakat has a couple of hundred people but I’m part of a culture of millions. You need technology for that which Anakat just doesn’t have.’
He clenched his fists and Beck sensed this was the final outburst: ‘This is the modern world! You need technology!’
They walked in silence for a while after that. Beck thought of the GPS in his pocket. He hadn’t used it lately because he knew how low the power was. He agreed with everything Tikaani said but with one addition: sooner or later, technology lets you down . . .
Fortunately, navigating wasn’t hard. Beck had walked across plains and deserts before, where you fixed your eyes on a point on the horizon and headed for it. Here in the trees you couldn’t see the horizon but you could see the mountains above them. The storm that had diverted the plane was long gone. The sharp, rocky peaks shone with gleaming coats of white snow, stark against the clear blue sky. They were beautiful, but Beck was very glad there was a pass that led through them.
Another few hours, he knew from the map, and they would reach a river. After that they would be in the foothills and then it would be time to rest for the night.
And apart from that clawed tree, there had been no sign of bears, or indeed any other kind of mammals . . .
Something moved in Beck’s peripheral vision. He stopped dead and his head snapped round. Tikaani took a few steps forward before realizing that Beck wasn’t keeping up.
‘Hey? What’s the problem?’
‘Nothing . . .’ Beck murmured. He peered into the trees.
Tikaani was back by his side in a flash. ‘Bear?’ he asked. He took a firmer grip on his stick and Beck could hear him making his tone brave.
‘No,’ Beck said firmly. ‘Not a bear. Come on.’
He set off again and, after a moment, Tikaani caught up.
It had definitely not been a bear. If he had seen anything at all, it had been a sleek shadow, low to the ground, cruising just out of sight through the trees. It moved at the same pace as they did and was in no hurry to go anywhere.
He had seen similar behaviour in his time with the Sami. He knew exactly which animal acted like this. Stalking, in no hurry, waiting for reinforcements.
Beck bit his lip, held his own stick more firmly and decided not to worry Tikaani with it. But he was pretty certain they were being followed by a wolf.