The flat-face cub turned away from Toklo and scrambled up to the top of the rock. Suddenly he tottered and fell over, letting out a loud cry. Lusa could see a rip in the pelt that covered his hind legs, and blood trickling out of it. Toklo leaped backwards in alarm.

Panic surged up in Lusa. ‘Oh, no – the flat-faces will think Toklo hurt him! They’ll get their fire-sticks and –’

She broke off as the male flat-face sprinted over to the squalling cub and swung him up into his arms. He glanced at Toklo, but didn’t shout at him or try to hurt him. Instead he carried the cub over to the old flat-face female and spoke to her for a few moments while the young one’s howls grew quieter. Then he carried the cub away, around the corner of the den.

‘Now what’s he doing?’ Lusa wondered out loud. She found out a moment later when the two flat-faces reappeared, riding on top of a very small firebeast with a spindly body, like the skeleton of a deer, and two very thin round paws; the big flat-face sat up straight, holding the antlers of the firebeast, while his cub clung on behind. Lusa could see blood soaking into the pelt around his leg, and she could smell the scarlet salty tang on the breeze. The male waved to the older female; then he and his cub disappeared up the valley in the wake of the caribou.

‘Great stars! What was that?’ Kallik gasped, her eyes wide with astonishment.

‘It looks like a . . . a sort of a firebeast without the fire,’ Lusa replied, aware that it wasn’t much of an explanation.

Kallik shook her head. ‘Flat-faces are weird.’

The female flat-face had gone back into the den and closed the door. Once she had gone, Lusa and Kallik bounded down the hill to join Toklo.

‘Well done!’ Lusa yelped as she bounced up to the big grizzly cub. ‘You were really kind to that young flat-face.’

Toklo huffed in embarrassment. ‘Little pest. I was about to catch a caribou, but the cub messed things up. He smelled of caribou,’ he added. ‘He’s lucky I didn’t eat him instead!’

‘You don’t mean that,’ Lusa said, hoping she was right. ‘Though I was a bit worried you might mistake the cub for a caribou at first.’

‘No chance,’ Toklo muttered. ‘He was far too noisy. Definitely a flat-face!’

He rose to his paws and stood facing towards the head of the valley, in the direction the caribou had gone. Taking a deep sniff of the air, he growled, ‘We should follow them. One of those would feed us for days!’

‘But you can’t –’ Lusa began, remembering that Ujurak had joined the herd.

‘Why not?’ Toklo interrupted. ‘We should go after them while there’s still a chance of catching up. What if they’re leaving here for good?’