As if he could outrun his own dark thoughts, Toklo picked up his pace until he was racing through the trees, crashing through bushes and tearing his pelt on trailing tendrils of bramble. A roaring sound ahead of him alerted him just in time, and he skidded to a halt at the edge of the ravine where he and his friends had found shelter behind the waterfall. Struggling to keep his balance on the brink of the precipice, Toklo heard an amused rumble from behind him. He whipped around to see the brown she-bear, Aiyanna, watching him from behind a bush.

“I haven’t crossed any of your scent marks,” he snapped at her.

“I know,” Aiyanna replied mildly. “I was just watching you nearly break all your legs.”

Toklo opened his jaws for a stinging retort, but before he could speak, Aiyanna turned and padded away, vanishing into the dense undergrowth. An unexpected pang pierced him as he watched her go.

It’s been such a long time since I had a brown bear as a companion. I miss Ujurak so much. . . .

Sighing, Toklo gazed down into the ravine. Movement flickered among the stones at the bottom, and he made out a rabbit, hopping from one clump of grass to the next. Seeing it reminded him of the hollowness of his belly; his feelings about losing Kallik had distracted him for a while.

Cautiously Toklo clambered down into the ravine, testing each rock before he put his weight on it. Spray from the falls made the surface slick, and Toklo’s heart was thumping by the time he made it to the bottom. During the climb he had lost sight of the rabbit, but he pinpointed it again by scent and crept up on it using the boulders beside the stream for cover. Sharp satisfaction ran through him as he leaped on his prey and killed it with a heavy blow to the head.

Toklo didn’t like the idea of climbing back up the rocks with the rabbit in his jaws, so he took the longer route out of the ravine, trudging up the track that he and Kallik had used with Yakone when they first arrived. Heading back to their den, he spotted Lusa digging up some ferns, but when she had exposed the roots, she only sniffed at them, as if she didn’t feel like eating. She turned around as Toklo padded up to her, and he saw the unhappy look in her eyes.

He dropped the rabbit at her paws. “Kallik talked to you, didn’t she?” he guessed.

Lusa nodded miserably. “I can’t believe she and Yakone want to leave us. Did we do something wrong? Was it unfair to expect white bears to live under trees?”

“We lived for moons and moons on the Endless Ice,” Toklo pointed out. “And we didn’t complain about it.”