Lusa

Lusa peered out from the shelter of the rock and across the open ground to where Ujurak’s limp body lay motionless in front of the closed door, the rain beating down on him. Come on, flat-face! Where are you?

Beside her she could feel tension quivering through Kallik; her friend’s gaze was fixed on the door as if she was willing it to open. Behind her, Toklo’s voice came in a soft, wordless grumble.

We’ve done everything we can, Lusa thought. It’s up to the flat-faces now.

A sharp sound came from the flat-face denning place; every hair on Lusa’s pelt prickled as the door of another den swung open and the grey-furred flat-face came out. He strode across the open space towards his own den and stopped abruptly when he spotted Ujurak lying in front of the door. Stooping down, he laid one of his paws on Ujurak’s chest. Then he raised his head and glanced around; Lusa found it hard to read flat-face expressions, but she thought he looked confused.

‘Take him inside!’ Toklo growled behind her. ‘Why are you messing around like that?’

For a moment Lusa wondered if the flat-face was going to leave Ujurak there, dying in the rain. Did flat-faces care for strangers who weren’t part of their herd? Then she let out a gasp of relief as the flat-face slid his forelimbs underneath Ujurak and lifted him up. He pushed the door open with one shoulder, carried Ujurak inside the den, and shut the door behind them.

‘There!’ Kallik exclaimed with satisfaction. ‘He’ll be OK now, won’t he, Lusa?’

It was Toklo who replied, ‘I don’t know. I still don’t trust flat-faces.’

His doubts couldn’t quench the hope Lusa had begun to feel as soon as the flat-face took Ujurak in. ‘These flat-faces aren’t like that. Ujurak said so,’ she reminded him. ‘He said they had animal spirits.’

‘That’s just a load of cloudfluff,’ Toklo retorted.

Lusa guessed Toklo just didn’t want to allow himself to hope in case they lost Ujurak after all. She pressed herself comfortingly against his side, wishing she could give him some of her trust.

‘The flat-faces in the Bear Bowl looked after us,’ she told him. ‘I told you they took care of my mother when she was sick? She was so ill, I thought she was going to die. But when they brought her back she was well again, just the same as always.’

‘The flat-face wouldn’t have taken Ujurak in if he didn’t want to care for him,’ Kallik added hopefully.

Toklo just grunted.