I can try again when it’s dark, she thought wearily. But what if I still can’t get in? And what will the others think when I’m not back for another whole day?

“Oh, Ujurak!” she murmured. “Why did you leave us? We need you so much!”

Lusa was slipping into an exhausted, unhappy sleep when a bird swooped down over her head. Irritably, she batted at it with her front paw. The bird flapped away, then landed on the ground a bearlength in front of Lusa’s snout. Blinking at the plump body and brown plumage, Lusa saw that it was a ptarmigan. Toklo had caught plenty of these in the woods on their journey; they made good eating, and this one seemed foolish enough to stay within striking distance of her paws, but Lusa was too tired even to think about catching it.

Then the bird opened its beak and spoke her name. “Lusa.”

Lusa stiffened, feeling every hair on her pelt rise. “Ujurak?” she whispered. “Is that you? Am I dreaming?”

The ptarmigan began swelling up, until it was bigger than Lusa. As it grew, its feathers vanished, and brown fur covered its body like a wave washing over the seashore. It stretched upward on its legs and spread its wings as if it would take off again, then bent forward, landing on four paws. Its hard, pointed beak transformed into a soft, furry snout, and Ujurak’s eyes gazed warmly at Lusa as he stood in front of her.

“Oh, Ujurak!” Lusa breathed out. “You came! Were you watching me?”

“Of course.”

In spite of her joy at seeing her old friend again, frustration bubbled up inside Lusa. “Why do you always have to come and go?” she demanded. “Don’t you realize we would suffer less if you just stayed with us?”

Ujurak’s face was unreadable, but his voice was full of sympathy as he replied. “It’s not for me to tell you and the others what to do. This is your journey now.”

Lusa knew he was right, but that didn’t help the sense of loss she felt that Ujurak wasn’t making the journey with them, pawstep by pawstep. But surely if he had appeared now, he knew that they needed him?

“I can’t find anything in the forest to heal Yakone,” she said. “I’ve tried everything, but he’s just getting sicker. I remembered how the flat-faces healed you after you got the fishhook stuck in your throat, and I . . . I . . .” She trailed off as she realized how foolish her idea seemed now.

Ujurak touched his snout to her shoulder. “Go on,” he prompted softly.