A long way away by now, Lusa thought. ‘Yes, he’d be able to catch something,’ she said aloud. ‘He was always better than us at scenting prey.’

The grey daylight finally faded. Lusa and Kallik spent the night uncomfortably squashed together in the scant shelter of an overhanging rock. By the following morning the rain had stopped, though clouds still covered the sky.

‘Today should be easier,’ Lusa declared, crawling out of their makeshift den and shaking her pelt to air it and get rid of the debris stuck to it. She still felt stiff and tired, but the pain of her bruises was beginning to fade and strength was returning to her legs. ‘At least it’s dry.’

‘And we can see where we’re going,’ Kallik agreed, emerging to sniff the air at Lusa’s side.

But the landscape ahead didn’t give much hope of prey. Rough open land stretched in front of them, scattered with ponds fringed with reeds. And even though the rain wasn’t falling any more, the ground underpaw was still muddy; Lusa’s paws sank into it at every step.

‘There won’t be any prey in this,’ she muttered.

‘I suppose we might find a frog or two,’ Kallik said with a sniff of disgust.

She had hardly finished speaking when a rabbit burst out of the reeds beside a pool and pelted across the grass. Lusa let out a yelp and hurled herself after it, with Kallik a pawstep behind. But Lusa’s legs still felt weak and shaky, and the rabbit easily outstripped them. She halted with a growl of frustration when she saw it dive down a hole.

‘We’re hopeless!’ she exclaimed.

As the day wore on, they didn’t spot any more prey. The ground was still too wet, and there was no sunlight to entice the creatures out into the open. Lusa’s legs were starting to ache, and she wondered how long she could keep going.

I’m not giving up! If Kallik can do this, so can I!

A stiff breeze began to blow, breaking up the clouds to let a gleam of watery sunlight through. It carried with it the scent of more rabbits; Lusa sniffed hungrily, but all she could see was a scattering of holes in the sandy bank they were passing. Like all the other prey, the rabbits were sheltering in the warmth of their burrows.

‘I wish we were on the ice,’ Kallik murmured, her attention on the horizon where the ocean lay hidden behind a ridge of broken rock. ‘I could hunt better there than on the land.’

Lusa halted, staring at the rabbit holes. ‘Show me,’ she suggested.

‘What?’ Kallik looked puzzled.

‘Pretend those rabbit holes are seal holes,’ Lusa explained, pointing with her snout at the bank. ‘Show me what you would do.’