The shadow dance
Mebet spent the rest of the winter and the following spring, summer, and autumn searching for the bear, to the point that he himself became an animal. He searched for the bear’s tracks in every fallen leaf, every bit of fur left on a tree trunk, in the air and in the sounds around him. He spent days in the taiga with eyes peeled, and before the onset of the severe cold, he found the bear.
By this time the bear had already settled in to hibernate – whatever beast did not hibernate already was wandering around emaciated and awaiting its own death, for the harsh frost would eat away at its paws and its claws would crumble like a dry twig. Yet sometimes fate was kind to those late in hibernating and would provide them with some good prey and a suitable den.
The gray bear pr
