Lusa didn’t reply at first, just pressed against Kallik and pushed her snout into her shoulder in greeting. As she drew back a pace, Kallik saw that Lusa was carrying some kind of weird pouch in her jaws: It was white, and smelled like flat-faces.

“What’s that?” she asked.

Lusa set the pouch down and opened her jaws to reply, but before she spoke, a rustling behind them caught Kallik’s attention; she turned and saw Toklo heaving himself out of their den.

“What’s all the noise about?” he growled. “I thought—” He broke off. “Lusa! What took you so long?” he demanded, padding up to her. “You were supposed to be back last night. What were you thinking?”

Kallik knew that Toklo was only angry because he’d been so afraid for the little black bear. Lusa seemed to know it, too; she bowed her head.

“I’m sorry,” she replied. “I should have told you where I was really going.”

“And where was that?” Toklo hissed. “Don’t give me any nonsense about herbs,” he added, prodding the white pouch. “That’s not herbs!”

Lusa looked half-scared, half-proud of herself, as she glanced from Kallik to Toklo and back again. “I went to the flat-face denning place to fetch healing stuff for Yakone,” she announced.

“What?” Cold horror trickled through Kallik, as if her veins had turned to ice. “How could you—?”

“You fool!” Toklo roared, looming over Lusa. “You could have been killed! I should have come with you.”

“But I didn’t get killed.” Lusa tipped her face up to look at the angry brown bear. “I was fine. And I saw Ujurak!”

The name of their lost friend quieted Toklo. “What happened?” he asked, his eyes wide.

He and Kallik sat down to listen, while Lusa told them how she had traveled to the flat-face place and found the healing den. “I tried and tried, but I couldn’t get in,” she explained. “When it started to get light, I had to leave and hide. And that’s when Ujurak came. He was a bird at first, but he changed into a bear.” Her voice softened. “It was so wonderful to see him . . . he’s bigger now, much bigger than me.”

“What did he do?” Kallik prompted.

“He told me to sleep,” Lusa went on. “And when I woke up, this was lying beside me.” She nodded toward the white flat-face pouch. “Ujurak must have gone into the healing den to fetch it.”

“I guess he must have changed into a flat-face,” Kallik said. Oh, Ujurak! Thank you!

“I don’t know what happened,” Lusa admitted. “I didn’t see him again. But I know this must be what Yakone needs.”

Toklo gave the pouch a dubious glance. “Okay . . . I suppose.”

“Is Yakone still in the den?” Lusa asked. When Kallik nodded, she continued, “Let’s take this in to him.”