Toklo was the first to reach their friend, and nosed him carefully from snout to tail, while Kallik and Lusa looked on in horror. Ujurak hadn’t stirred as they approached, hadn’t even lifted his head to look at them.

‘He’s not dead,’ Toklo pronounced at last. ‘I can feel him breathing, but I don’t know what’s the matter with him.’

Kallik bent down and sniffed Ujurak’s sodden fur. His eyes were closed, and she had to watch carefully to see the faint rise and fall of his body as he breathed. Blood trickled from his mouth, dark and glossy against the seawater.

Then she noticed something shiny coming out of Ujurak’s mouth along with the blood. She felt as cold as if an ice storm were blowing around her. ‘Look!’ she whispered.

‘What’s that?’ Lusa asked, stretching her neck to sniff the shiny stuff.

Toklo came up to see, and planted a paw on the shiny tendril. ‘He’s swallowed something,’ he said. ‘I’ll see if I can pull it out.’

‘No, don’t!’ Kallik flinched as Toklo swung round to face her, shock and worry flashing in his eyes. ‘Nisa told me about this stuff when we were together on the ice. It’s called . . . fishing line. Flat-faces use it to pull fish out of the sea. Nisa told me it’s really dangerous.’

Toklo poked the line with one paw. ‘How do you catch a fish with that?’

‘There’s a hook on the other end,’ Kallik explained, blinking as she pictured what was happening to Ujurak right now. ‘I think Ujurak has it stuck in his throat. That must be where the blood is coming from.’

‘So what are we going to do?’ Lusa squeaked.

‘Don’t pull it, to begin with,’ Kallik ordered. ‘That will just push the hook in deeper.’

‘Are we supposed to let him die in front of us?’ Toklo growled.

‘Of course not . . . Lusa, your paws are smallest. Can you reach down Ujurak’s throat?’

‘I’ll try.’

Kallik levered Ujurak’s jaws open with her paws. When she tilted his head back – his eyes didn’t open – she could see the line trailing down his throat, mixed up with scraps of half-chewed seaweed. Lusa tried to squeeze her paw into Ujurak’s mouth, but it was clear right away that she couldn’t reach far enough down his throat to find the hook.

‘It’s no use.’ Kallik let Ujurak’s jaws close, and gently drew one paw down the side of his neck. He gave a muffled, rasping cough and then lay still again. Kallik stared hopelessly at Lusa and Toklo. Their friend was dying, and there was nothing they could do. Ujurak would know which herbs might help, maybe even how to get the hook out without hurting him more. But Ujurak couldn’t help himself, and they were useless without him.