And he went to sleep again.

He did not get up after that.
Day followed day, and, growing lonelier as the winter deepened, Miki hunted alone.

All through November he came back each night and slept with Neewa.

And Neewa was as if dead, except that his body was warm, and he breathed, and made little sounds now and then in his throat.

But this did not satisfy the great yearning that was becoming more and more insistent in Miki's soul, the overwhelming desire for company, for a brotherhood on the trail.