‘Sorry!’ Ujurak struggled to regain his place. Beating his wings to propel himself forward was a lot harder now that he was outside the wedge. Air currents tugged at him and buffeted him around the sky. With a massive effort he caught up to the rest of the flock and found another place within the wedge. Flying was instantly easier as he rode in the rush of air created by the goose in front of him.

The two others found places, glaring at Ujurak and then ignoring him. Ujurak reminded himself to stay out of their feathers once the flock landed.

Whirling behind the leader, Ujurak spotted an eerie shadow on the far horizon. It looked as if a storm cloud had sunk to earth. There were flashes of light inside it and some kind of solid structure that Ujurak couldn’t see clearly.

‘Bad place!’ the goose leader honked as he veered away from it. ‘No food! Bitter water!’

‘Bad . . . bitter . . .’ the rest of the flock repeated.

‘Noisy beasts! Landwalkers! Never go there!’ the leader ordered.

‘Never go there . . .’

Ujurak didn’t know what the geese were talking about, but their words called up a feeling of dread inside him. He remembered that the very first time he had set paw in this place – Paw? Not wings? – he had felt uneasy. He had known that this wasn’t where the journey was supposed to end. Now the feeling of uneasiness intensified; all he wanted was to flee far away on strong wings so that he could put the ominous shadows out of his mind forever.

Instead he swooped down with the rest of the flock to land in a brackish meadow close to the water’s edge. Seaweed was strewn all along the waterline; Ujurak’s feathers prickled with anticipation as he spotted the tasty green and brown heaps, and he realised how hungry the flight had made him. He splashed across the muddy grass, shouldering his way through the crowd of geese, and began to feed.

Gulping down the first delicious strands, he remembered that there might be danger here too. He raised his head, casting quick glances from side to side, all his senses alert for enemies. But he couldn’t detect any wolves here; there were no bears close by, and no foxes either. No landwalkers. For the time being the flock was safe.

Ujurak lowered his head and tucked into the seaweed again. His pangs of hunger began to fade as he filled his belly. Then as he stretched out his neck to swallow a big clump of seaweed, he felt something hard hidden inside it. He retched, trying to get rid of it. Instead he felt a sharp pain as something stabbed into his throat from the inside.