As Toklo fought the enraged bear, the others who had called out to him loomed up through the fog and stood around, watching. None of them lifted a paw to help him. Toklo had never felt so lost, so abandoned.

While Toklo tried to fend off Nanulak’s attack, he felt something poke him from behind. His paws still thrashing at Nanulak, he whirled around with a snarl, expecting to see another hostile bear ready to pounce upon him. Instead, he saw Lusa, her eyes wide with terror as she prodded him awake. Moonlight showed Toklo that he had rolled deeper into the thicket and become tangled up in brambles. Letting out a growl of annoyance, he tore himself free.

“Shh!” Lusa whispered. “I can hear wolves! I think they’re attacking another bear.”

Shaking off the last shreds of his nightmare, Toklo sat up and listened. At once he realized that Lusa was right. Not far away he could hear the howling and snarling of wolves, and a furious roaring that had to come from a brown bear. Toklo’s heart grew cold at the clamor of voices and the crashing of paws in the undergrowth. “It’s not a fair fight,” he said. “There are a lot of wolves out there!”

Lusa had already sprung to her paws. “We have to help!”

Toklo pushed his way out of their den, and with Lusa following hard on his paws, he scrambled through the dark forest toward the sound. He was aware of passing scent markers, and halted, stunned by a powerful memory like a blow from a massive paw.

Do I know the bear that lives here?

But Toklo had no time to think about that. He shook his head and continued on into the territory. The noise of the attack was growing louder and louder. The brown bear was roaring in defiance, still fighting, but clearly overwhelmed by the sheer number of the wolves.

Racing around a stand of pine trees, Toklo caught sight of the attack at last. The brown bear stood on his hindpaws at the bottom of a hollow, with wolves circling him and darting in to strike him with claws and fangs.

What’s going on? Toklo asked himself. They’re not fighting over prey.

The bear was huge and powerful, but Toklo saw in an instant that he was lame in one of his hind legs, unbalanced and lashing out in desperation rather than placing his blows with careful thought.

Reaching Toklo’s side, Lusa let out a gasp. “That’s the bear I saw before!” she exclaimed. “On the way to the flat-face place.”

“Is he Old Grizzly?” Toklo asked. “The bear Maniitok warned us about?”

“I think he must be,” Lusa replied, “but I didn’t exactly ask him his name!”