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the enormous creature was still and unmoving. Its eyes weren’t even lit up, the way they were when they ran along the BlackPaths at night.
    â€˜Look,’ Taqqiq said, jerking his snout at a clear square in the front of the firebeast. Something wasjumping up and down
inside
the firebeast. Kallik suddenly remembered the white firebeast she had seen on the beach. It had been full of no-claws trapped inside. This one had something inside it too – two somethings – but they weren’t no-claws.
    â€˜Oh!’ she said. ‘I’ve seen those kinds of animals before. They look like wolves, but they live with no-claws.’
    â€˜I know,’ Taqqiq said. ‘They’re called dogs. You didn’t know that?’
    â€˜How would I know that?’ Kallik argued. ‘I’ve been by myself for moons, remember? No one told me anything. I had to figure it all out myself.’
    Taqqiq shifted uncomfortably. ‘Well, Salik said they were dogs,’ he said. ‘Some of them bite, but mostly they’re all noise.’
    He strutted around to the side of the firebeast, where he could see the dogs more clearly. They were as big as Lusa, both black and brown, with fat snouts and small ears and very sharp teeth. They threw themselves against the inside of the firebeast, barking and howling at the white bear cub. One of them shoved his nose against a small crack in the side of the firebeast, sniffing the air furiously.
    â€˜What’s the matter?’ Taqqiq taunted them. ‘Are you stuck in there? You have to do what the no-claws tell you to, don’t you? You’re no better than a newborn cub, mewling and whining for food. I bet you couldn’t catch your own, not even if you tripped over a dead seal.’
    â€˜Taqqiq, let’s get out of here,’ Kallik said, taking a step backwards. ‘They look really angry.’
    â€˜They can’t do anything,’ Taqqiq sneered. ‘They’re trapped in there like snails in a shell. All noise and no fight. Salik and I have scared off dogs bigger than these two before. I bet even if they could get out, they’d be too scared to –’
    One of the dogs slipped and hit something on the inside of the firebeast. All at once a whole piece of the firebeast’s skin popped open sideways, like it had opened its mouth. As it slowly swung wide, Kallik realised that there was nothing to keep the dogs inside the firebeast.
    And the dogs were really, really big. Saliva dripped from their jaws, and their sharp white teeth glistened as they snarled.
    With a roar of fury, the two dogs leaped out of the firebeast and hurled themselves at Taqqiq.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Toklo
    â€˜T oklo!’ Lusa shrieked. ‘Do something! They’re going to kill Taqqiq!’
    We should be so lucky
, Toklo thought, but already his paws were sprinting across the hard black stuff towards the two white cubs. From their spot hidden in the bushes, he and Lusa had watched Taqqiq strutting around the firebeast. Toklo didn’t know where Ujurak had gone off to, but he was glad he was well away from the danger here. Toklo wasn’t a bit surprised that Taqqiq had got himself in trouble. He just wondered if he was doing the right thing by going to his rescue.
    One dog had sunk his teeth into Taqqiq’s front leg while the other went for his head, snarling. Taqqiq stood up with a roar, flinging the first dog off himand clawing at the second one with his other paw. The dog dodged his attack and lunged forward again. His teeth snapped shut only a hair’s breadth away from Taqqiq’s nose.
    The first dog rolled back on to its paws and charged at Taqqiq again. This time Kallik jumped forward and slammed into the dog with her body. It yelped as it fell over, but quickly it twisted around and tried to bite her leg. Kallik stumbled back away from it and it missed, but only barely.
    Toklo didn’t know which dog to fend off first. Which cub