Chapter 6

Sunny

Sunny, Moony, and Musqux were heading away from the snow-top mountains where Muqsux lived. Suddenly, Sunny realized that she was really hungry. Maybe there's some berries around here. She stopped and tried to scent some. There! That sweet scent of delicious strawberries.

"Guys, follow me!" She exclaimed as she started padding towards the strawberry scent. There it was; a bush filled with wild strawberries. Perfectly ripe and red. She ate one. It tasted so delicious. Even better than the ones that the flat-faces had given her. Sunny and her two friends then began eating a bunch of strawberries off of the bush until they were full.

"I'm so tired," Sunny said, exhausted. All of a sudden Moony froze. Sunny realized he was scenting the air.

"Guys, there are flat-faces somewhere around here," He warned. Sunny sniffed the air in alarm. She hadn't noticed it before, but there was a sharp tang in the air. It smelled like burning metal and smoke. It smelled familiar; she had smelled it in the bear bowl when the firebeast had brought her to the weird room where she escaped like Lusa.

"Yeah, I smell it, too!" She replied. Musqux sniffed the air as well, "I only smell strawberries and pine needles!" He yelled, "I'm not very good at scenting. I think there's something wrong with my snout."

"It's okay, you've been living in the snow your whole life. These scents are probably new to you. You'll be able to scent better soon. I know it," Moony reassured. Musqux smiled and replied, "Thanks, Moony." Moony smiled and nodded but then he said, "The flat-faces captured me and brought me to the bear bowl. I don't ever want to go back, but I want to see my sister and mother again. I love my mother so much, she is the nicest bear ever. And my sister, Crescent is the best sister ever; she's so fun to play with."

"I've never seen a flat-face before. My mother and I have always lived on the mountains with my friends, Conlis and Herba. We found them on the mountains in their birthden and their mother had died. It was so sad. I had only been about a moon old but they had been only like 2 sunrises old. But that was a whole suncircle ago. Conlis and Herba are like a brother and sister to me. I miss them so much," Musqux said, his voice full of sorrow. Sunny looked sad, too, "I never knew that flat-faces could be so bad like that! In the bear bowl they were always so nice to me. But I miss my mother Aureum and my friend Ustrina. But then I faked being sick so I could go and meet the Seeker bears. Moony did, too."

Suddenly, the three cubs heard a sound. It sounded like a giant roar and then something came crashing towards them, smashing the wildlife to pieces.

"Firebeast! Run!" Moony screamed. Moony was already bolting away from the firebeast. Sunny started running before she even realized what was going on and Musqux started to run too. Sunny turned her head to look behind her and saw that Musqux was having a really hard time keeping up with her and Moony.

"Musqux, run faster!" Sunny roared

"This is as fast as I can go!" He replied. Musqux turned his head and they both saw that the firebeast was catching up to them. Two flat-faces were sticking their heads out the back windows and aiming firesticks at them!

"Guys, this way!" Moony called. Sunny looked ahead and saw that Moony was veering left. Sunny followed and she saw that Musqux was following, too. All of a sudden the three cubs were in a clearing. There was grass everywhere and the only trees there were the ones that they had come from and the ones surrounding the field they were in.

"Come on guys, we have to go in the river!" Moony screamed. That was when Sunny heard a sound similar to when her flat-face caretakers poured water into their small lake for drinking. It sounded way louder though, like, louder than when the big fat white bears were jumping into their large lake. Even though the noise was loud, she followed her friends to get away from the firebeast. Sunny's paws hurt from running for so long, but she still followed Moony. Suddenly there was a huge splash and Moony had disappeared.

"Moony!? Where did you go?" Sunny screamed. She ran to where Moony had disappeared and saw there was a large body of water that was so loud it felt like her ears would explode and was going so fast that it looked like anyone who put their paw in would be carried away and never come back. Musqux ran up next to her and looked down worriedly into the river.

Suddenly a black head popped out of the water.

"Moony! You're okay!" Sunny exclaimed.

"Of course I'm okay! Now jump into the water, guys! The flat-faces will shoot us if we don't!" He replied. Sunny remembered the firebeast chasing them and heard it roaring loudly in the distance. She jumped into the water and immediately the water rushed over her and her whole body was enveloped in water that felt like it was moving at the speed of light. Water went in her eyes and nose and mouth. Sunny thought that she was going to get swept away by this river and drown.

Suddenly, she felt someone's teeth grab her scruff and yank her out of the river and onto a big rock that was in the middle of the river. Sunny was coughing out water and gasping for breath.

"Sunny, Musqux, we need to cross the rest of the river!" Moony yelled. She looked next to her and saw that Moony was standing next to her on the boulder. Musqux was trying to get onto the huge rock and then Moony crouched over and pulled him by his scruff onto it.

"Come on, guys, we have to keep crossing or the flat-faces will shoot us!" Sunny jerked her head up and immediately stood up. But she stood up too fast. She felt her paws sliding off of the slippery rock and she fell in.

"MOONY! MUSQUX! HELP ME!" She roared, but all she saw was them jumping to the other edge of the river as the flat-faces were shooting at them with their firesticks.

And then she got swept away by the river.