Leaving Toklo to finish eating, Kallik, Lusa and Ujurak waded across the river and followed along the bank as it wound gently down to the plain. Kallik’s paws tingled. She felt as if every step was leading her closer to the ice: the ground smelled of it, and she could taste it in the pool of water where they stopped briefly for a drink.

As the view opened up and they could see the plain once more, they disturbed a flock of snow geese. The birds went whirling up into the sky, filling the air with the clamour of their wings and their harsh cries.

Kallik paused to watch as the flock formed into a ragged wedge-shape and flew off across the open ground. Her excitement rose as her gaze followed them and she saw the edge of the ocean, the blue waves stretching to the horizon where she could see the tempting shimmer of ice.

‘Come on!’ she called to Lusa and Ujurak. ‘It’s not far now!’

She quickened her pace until she was bounding along, with her friends panting after her, splashing through the river’s wandering channels. Mounds of tough, springy grass grew up to the water’s edge, delicate wild flowers dancing among them. High in the pale sky, a golden eagle hovered.

The light strengthened as the sun rose, turning the surface of the water to dazzling silver. The darkly forested slopes were far behind them now, and Kallik shivered with anticipation at the cries of seabirds coming from up ahead. As the river neared the ocean, she left the bank and struck across the shore at an angle until she could stand at the very edge, with seawater lapping at her paws. The air was laden with the scents of ice and fish.

‘Home . . .’ she whispered.

Narrowing her eyes, Kallik peered at the ice in the distance. Its frosty glimmer merged with the haze at the bottom of the sky. Can I swim out to it yet? she wondered. It seems very far away . . .

‘Kallik . . .’ Lusa said nervously behind her.

Kallik turned her head to see Lusa and Ujurak backing away, staring at something further along the shore. Following their gaze, she spotted another white bear with two half-grown cubs, trundling along the shoreline towards them. For a moment a pang of sorrow stabbed at her belly. That should have been Nisa and Taqqiq and me . . .

Lusa and Ujurak, wary of a strange bear so much bigger than they were, scurried to take shelter behind a nearby thornbush, but Kallik stayed where she was until the she-bear and her cubs came up to her. ‘Greetings,’ she said, dipping her head respectfully to the mother bear. ‘Are you going on to the ice?’

The she-bear’s eyes widened in shock as she gazed at Kallik. ‘You’re so thin, young one!’ she exclaimed. ‘Where have you come from?’