BEFORE
THE THAW

the first hunt

Four months in the dark of the den. Nothing to eat.
Her body has been turning itself into milk.

Now the ice is waiting — and everything her cubs will ever know,
they will learn from watching her.

Approach the seal from downwind, low, in stalk. It hears everything.
Dark ice will not carry your weight. Your cubs are lighter than you.
A cub that watches the kill, learns the kill.