Kallik leaned closer to Yakone and winced when she felt how hot he was. Her heart ached as she remembered when she had first seen him on Star Island, standing on a rock and watching the strange bears. He had been so strong then, brave and curious and willing to leave everything he had ever known to travel with them. He had no idea of the price he would pay, Kallik thought. He can be strong like that again, she told herself, but it was hard to believe it when she looked at the thin, weak bear lying beside her, his wounded paw stinking of infection.

“Oh, Yakone,” she sighed. “This is all my fault. You should have stayed safe with your family on Star Island!”

The beating of wings in the undergrowth roused Kallik from her thoughts. Instantly alert, she sprang to her paws and followed the direction of the noise. Sliding through the ferns, she spotted a grouse foraging among the roots of a nearby tree. Her belly rumbled at the thought of prey.

Kallik crept toward the grouse, acutely conscious of the damp ground beneath her paws and the lush moistness of the air. She could never get used to this way of hunting. A pang of homesickness shook her; she wanted to be out on the ice, with the endless white all around her, crouching beside a seal hole as she waited for the turbulence in the water that signaled the approach of prey.

But you’re stuck here for now, she told herself, and you have to make the best of it. Stay there, little grouse!

But although Kallik wasn’t aware that she had made a sound, something spooked the grouse before she was close enough to pounce. It let out a harsh call and took off, half running, half flying just above the ground. Kallik galloped after it, weaving her way through the trees. The bird tried to flutter up to a low branch, but before it could gain height, Kallik pushed off from the ground in a gigantic leap, her forepaws outstretched. As her claws sank into the plump body, she slammed into the tree just beyond. Falling to the ground half-stunned, she barely managed to keep her grip on her struggling prey.

“Kallik!” Toklo’s voice sounded through the trees.

Staggering to her paws, Kallik gave the grouse a killing blow and stumbled back toward the stream where she had left her friends, the bird dangling from her jaws. “Stupid tree!” she muttered. “Why did it have to get in my way?”

Toklo came to meet her. “Where have you been?” he snapped. “You’re supposed to be on watch.”

Kallik knew that Toklo was only annoyed because he was worried about what might have happened to her, but she felt too battered to be tactful. “Don’t you want to eat?” she retorted.