Yakone gave her a long-suffering look, then headed toward the tree branch. As he approached it, he quickened his pace, but he misjudged his takeoff and landed on top of the branch instead of on the other side.

“Fish-breath!” he snorted, disentangling himself from the twigs and dead leaves. He turned to glare at Kallik. “See? I can’t jump.”

“You jumped just fine,” Kallik retorted. “You misjudged the distance, that’s all. Try again.”

Yakone grunted, then limped away from the branch and turned to practice the jump again. This time he took an extra pace before pushing off, and soared over the branch, his hindpaws just brushing the twigs as he passed over them. He stumbled on landing, but soon recovered.

“Hey, that wasn’t bad!” he exclaimed.

“It was great,” Kallik told him. “Now do it again.”

Yakone turned toward her with a growl. For a moment Kallik thought he was really angry with her, until she saw the amusement in his eyes. “You never let up,” he said, swiping playfully at her.

“I thought you said you couldn’t fight.” A bubble of joy swelled up inside Kallik. “Watch out, scary bear!”

Letting out a roar, she leaped on top of Yakone, and the two of them wrestled happily on the forest floor. Kallik could feel that Yakone wasn’t as strong as before, but she knew that his muscles would build up quickly now that he was moving again.

Suddenly Yakone let out a grunt and pulled away from Kallik.

“What’s the matter?” Kallik asked, sitting up and shaking forest debris from her pelt.

“Nothing,” Yakone replied. “I stubbed my hurt paw, that’s all. It’s fine.”

A stab of alarm pierced through Kallik as she scanned his injury. The wound isn’t bleeding again.

Yakone touched his snout to her shoulder. “I know you wish you could take some of the pain for me,” he murmured.

“I’d take it all if I could,” she whispered, leaning into him.

They stayed like that for a moment, drawing comfort from each other, until Kallik heard the sound of voices approaching through the trees. She rose to her paws as Toklo and Lusa appeared.

Toklo had a goose dangling from his jaws; Lusa was bouncing along beside him, clearly excited about something. When she spotted Kallik and Yakone, she rushed over to them.

“We went really far!” she exclaimed. “Almost to the top of the ridge! Did you know there’s snow up there?”

Kallik’s heart leaped at the thought of being surrounded by cold, cold snow. She could almost feel it under her pads, the crackling surface breaking to reveal the softness below, and smell its wild, icy scent. “Really? Snow?” she asked.