Letting out a grunt, Kallik opened her eyes. ‘You OK?’ she asked Lusa.

‘I’m fine.’ Sore, exhausted and scared, but still fine. ‘Thanks to you, Kallik.’

Kallik shook her head as if she was flicking off a troublesome fly. ‘Great spirits!’ she muttered. ‘I feel as if I’ve been pounded by a grizzly.’

Shakily she heaved herself to her paws; Lusa did the same, wondering if her legs would support her. The struggle in the river had weakened both of them, she realised. Will we make it? she wondered. Can we keep going until we get to the place where they’re keeping Ujurak?

Side by side Lusa and Kallik padded to the riverside and lapped a few mouthfuls of the water.

‘Which way now?’ Kallik asked. ‘Do you know where the metal bird went from here?’

Lusa sighed. ‘I’m not sure any more, but I think it’s this way.’ She pointed with her snout. ‘Otherwise, why did the spirits tell us to cross the river?’

‘That makes sense,’ Kallik agreed, trudging off in the direction Lusa indicated.

Lusa followed, splashing and slipping through the mud as she and her friend scrambled up the hillside at the far end of the valley and started down the other side. Her belly was shrieking with hunger, but in all the bleak landscape she couldn’t see anything to eat.

‘I’m starving,’ she grumbled, half to herself.

‘Me too,’ Kallik said. ‘And there’s not even a sniff of prey.’

Lusa snorted. ‘I bet all the prey is too sensible to be out in this rain. They’ll be hiding in their burrows.’

‘I wish we were too, but we can’t.’ Kallik sighed. ‘If only it would stop.’

Far from stopping, the rain was growing heavier, pouring down in a silver-grey screen that blotted out their view of the land ahead. The she-bears stumbled on, their belly fur caked with mud and their pelts soaked and dripping, clinging to their frames. Lusa couldn’t remember ever being so cold and tired.

We’ve got to find food, or we can’t go on.

She peered through the rain until she spotted a scattering of boulders poking out of the ground. Grunting with effort, she turned one over; her belly growled at the sight of worms and grubs wriggling around in the soil she had exposed.

‘Hey, Kallik! Over here!’

The white bear splashed towards her, and together they licked up the grubs, turning over all the stones that were small enough to move. There weren’t enough grubs for either of them to feel full, but having something in her belly made Lusa feel better.

Later they found a few berries, though Lusa guessed other bears had already scoured the bushes, leaving just the smaller, shrivelled fruit.

‘We really need meat,’ Kallik muttered. ‘Where’s Toklo when we need him?’