Ujurak felt a sharp pain in his belly. The journey through Smoke Mountain had been a hard one, with little prey, and the sight of the geese awakened his hunger. He swallowed as his mouth filled with saliva. The grass blurred beneath his front paws as he pushed himself faster, thinking of nothing but a meal of tasty, plump goose . . . Then Ujurak felt his legs tingling and saw his forelegs begin to lengthen and grow thinner; his pelt prickled as his brown fur transformed into a rough grey pelt.

Wolf!

His snout grew longer and he could feel his vision narrowing, the edges darkening as he focused on a single flock of geese on the plain. One flock. The sounds around him faded to insignificance and all he could hear was the geese directly in front of him honking and yakking, their noise growing louder and louder.

His stride lengthened. He felt swift; as he raced past Toklo he thought he heard the brown bear growl. But the sound seemed to come from far away. It meant nothing to Ujurak. The hot reek of the geese engulfed his senses. His tongue lolled as he pinpointed his prey: a fat white bird feeding at the edge of the flock. One goose. He could almost feel his teeth sinking through its feathers, crunching its bones. He smelled its blood and heard its heartbeat.

Kill . . . one bite into warm prey . . . then feed.

The plain whirled past him in a blur, his paws hardly seeming to touch the marshy ground. He reached the edge of the flock; the birds flew up in a storm of flapping wings and terrified squawking. Snarling, Ujurak leaped on his chosen prey. His fangs closed on its neck. He shook the goose. It battered him with its wings, then went limp.

Ujurak proudly lifted his head with his prey dangling from his mouth. Feed now . . . taste blood . . . But something was gnawing at his mind. He couldn’t eat yet. Reluctantly he turned and began trotting back the way he had come.

Ujurak felt his rangy wolf body begin to swell and thicken; brown fur replaced the shaggy grey pelt, and his footsteps grew heavier. His heartbeat slowed as the wolf’s hunger for blood died away.

Gradually he began to notice the plain around him again. The flock of geese were settling a little way off, their raucous cries fading. Ujurak could hear the rattle of wind in the reeds and the splashing paws of an Arctic fox as it darted from one clump of bushes to another. He blinked in confusion as he saw three other bears approaching him, just coming off the foothills on to the plain. Black, brown, white . . . he felt that they ought to be familiar. Why can’t I remember who they are?

‘Ujurak!’ The small black bear bounded forward to meet him. ‘That was a great catch!’