But instead of the death bite Salim had feared, the weight on his back suddenly lifted and he could breathe freely again. His head snapped out of the snow and within a single heartbeat he was standing upright again, ready to fight in the cold white.

In front of him, he could see the lynxess moving away from him, somewhat confused. Before she could say anything, he stepped back onto his territory and scrutinized her closely. She really was one of the strongest lynxess’ he had ever seen and he could almost count every single muscle that played under her fur. Her pale pelt, which was a mixture of gray and tan, blended in perfectly with the snow and was only separated from its extremely effective camouflage by the large and black spots.

“What am I supposed to have done?”, the lyness asked, tilting her head. Salim could clearly read the innocence in her eyes, but whether it was feigned or not remained a mystery to him.

“You know that”, he said, albeit no longer quite so confidently.

But the lynxess just shook her head: “No, I don't know. Would I ask if I did?” Her face contorted a little under the tension and somehow it seemed to the lynx that she was curious about what she was supposed to have done. Which didn't necessarily make her any more likeable.

Unintentionally, a growl tugged at his voice as he explained his suspicions to her: “I lost one of my cubs when I left it alone. I could only find its lifeless body, but I smelled the scent of a lynxess.”

“Do I understand correctly that you think I killed your cub?”, she asked, shaking her head in bewilderment. “Is that why you keep wandering into my territory as if it were your own?”

Salim didn't really know whether he should agree with her on this assumption, because he wasn't sure why his paws kept driving him here.

“I think so”, he growled. “It wasn't the first time I smelled you. An extremely good friend of mine was murdered just as treacherously. Besides...”

Salim swallowed.

~

An unusually beautiful day had spread over the land, and it seemed as if the sun was shining solely for Salim. It hadn't been long since he had left his old territory, where he had buried Alicia. Too many memories still lingered in his mind, and he simply couldn't bear to live where his only friend had died. He was far from over it, but there was something else he could do to push the pain and grief away. He could repress it, suppress it, until he collapsed to the ground and couldn't get up again.

But the gentle and lukewarm wind seemed to take all the negative thoughts that populated Salim's head with it, to find another and stronger carrier for them. The black clouds drifted away and all that remained was the desire for a new beginning, for which the lynx now took the first step.

Salim wandered between the countless conifers, which were only occasionally, very rarely, interrupted by deciduous trees. He didn't quite know whether it was a coniferous or mixed forest, as both seemed to him to be a poor description for the sparse beech and birch trees that sprouted from the ground here.

The roebuck, which he had fortunately been able to catch and eat before moving on, was in his stomach. It wasn't the meat, however, but Alicia, who he thought he could still feel in every sinew of his body.

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But then something distracted him that was new to him. Somehow it smelled of blood, but there was clearly something against it. Only he didn't know what. Salim frowned intently and pricked up his ears to hear where the strange smell was coming from.

At first, he could only hear the wind whistling through the needles and the barking of a distant dog, but when he blocked out all the unimportant noises, he could hear the gurgle of blood. It gushed from a deep and fatal wound, flowed through the animal's fur and finally seeped into the ground.

The lynx didn't know why, but something drove him to get to know the victim and perhaps there was still some hope in him that he could save the animal or at least eat it.

He meandered around a few trees and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the animal, which was still losing blood. Just as he had heard, it was flowing from a wound on its neck and slowly seeping into the churned up earth as if there had been a fight.

Salim could only approach what was in front of him slowly and carefully. He grimaced in disgust and horror. The animal was clearly a lynx, a male if he interpreted it correctly. There was a huge gash on its neck, as if it had been finished off by another, much larger lynx.

And he noticed something else. The smell of a lynxess polluted the air everywhere on this spot. Somehow it irritated him that a female could kill such a powerful male, but it happened and the lynx forced himself to believe that it was a border fight or something similar where there had been a death.

And so, Salim continued along the path ahead of him, with an extremely queasy feeling in his stomach, but highly motivated to get out of here as quickly as possible. The sight of a lifeless body brought back thousands of thoughts of Alicia, and he wanted to banish them as quickly as possible to the place where they had arisen.

But that was simply made impossible, as the further course of his chosen path would show.

~

Not only had he found a lynx family with a dead mother and cold cubs, but his sister Laisa had also appeared later on his journey. Not in the way he would have liked her to jump out at him joyfully or even engage him in a playful fight, no. He had also had to find her dead. Just like all the other lynxes that had been important to him.

“You have my cubs on your conscience, my sister and thousands of other lynxes that you murdered”, he hissed, the rising anger clouding his senses. Everything blurred before him, he could only see the faces of Miles, Alicia and his sister Laisa circling around him as if they wanted to engage him in a fight.

“You alone killed her!”, he roared, and at that moment there was simply no doubt that she must have been the murderer. Blinded by rage and so much grief, he let out a tremendously loud scream, tensed his legs and jumped off the ground. Snow swirled around him as he headed straight for the lynxess.

He didn't land on top of her, because the attacked lynxess had been clever enough to jump aside quickly. But that was no reason for Salim to give up. He bared his teeth and screamed at the top of his lungs, extending his claws and flailing his paws.

With all the snow and cold, he could barely make out anything, but he didn't care. He had to kill her, had to avenge his lost loved ones and kill her killer. It was his task, and he was determined to do anything to make it come true and fulfil it.

With a single leap, he ran towards the lynxess once more and this time he could feel resistance on his claws. He had hit her.