Ujurak was struggling feebly, crying out something in a thin flat-face voice. Lusa didn’t understand what he was saying. Then his gaze fell on Lusa and Kallik, and he stretched out one arm towards them. ‘Lusa! Kallik! Help me!’

‘He’s calling to us!’ she exclaimed. ‘They must be taking him away. Kallik, we might never see him again!’

Suddenly Lusa didn’t care about being seen by the flat-faces. She burst out from behind the rocks, letting out a fearsome roar as she hurtled towards the strangers. ‘Stop!’ she shouted. ‘Don’t take him! Leave him alone!’

The flat-faces stared at her in horror, then ran for their metal bird.

‘Stop!’ Lusa shouted again. ‘Ujurak belongs with us!’

The flat-faces ignored her. They reached the metal bird and climbed aboard, bundling Ujurak in with them. Loud growling like the noise of a firebeast came from inside the bird; the metal wings on top began to spin with a chopping, huffing noise. Wind swept across Lusa, buffeting her fur, as the bird rose slowly into the air.

Scrambling to her paws, she bounded after the metal bird. ‘Come back! Come back!’ Her calls were drowned out by the clattering of its wings. ‘He’s our friend!’

As the metal bird rose higher, Lusa became aware of shouting from behind her, and she realised that the villagers were pouring out of the big den, surrounding her. She felt trapped by the noise and scent of flat-faces. Panic surged through her from her snout to the tip of her tail and she let out a growl. ‘Get back! Leave me alone!’ she snarled, lashing out with her forepaw in the hope of scaring them off.

A yell of alarm came from somewhere among the flat-faces. Lusa heard Kallik calling, ‘Lusa! Lusa!’ but she couldn’t see her friend through the crowd of flat-faces.

Desperately Lusa searched for a way of escape. Then she recognised the healer who had helped Ujurak. He pushed his way to the front of the crowd, opening up a gap. Lusa charged through it and saw Kallik waiting for her near the rocky outcrop.

‘Come on!’ the white bear barked. ‘We’ve got to get out of here.’

As she ran towards her friend, Lusa spotted the metal bird again, growing smaller as it flew off above the mountain slope, heading along the ridge that ran parallel with the coast. She hurled herself after it. She had already lost Toklo, the bear she had left the Bear Bowl to find, and now she was losing Ujurak too. She realised that although she had imagined herself living the life of a wild bear, alone in the forest, she had never really thought about what that would mean. Now all she knew for sure was that she didn’t want to lose her friends. Her heart pounded with fear.

‘Quick, Kallik,’ she begged. ‘We’ve got to follow them.’