In his excursions away from the windfall he had never gone farther than the creek, a hundred yards from where his mother lay.

He had helped to tear many dead and dying rabbits into pieces.

He believed, if he thought upon the matter at all, that he was exceedingly fierce and courageous.

But it was his ninth week before he felt his spurs and fought his terrible battle with the young owl in the edge of the thick forest.
The fact that Oohoomisew, the big snow owl, had made her nest in a broken stub not far from the windfall was destined to change the whole course of Baree's life, just as the blinding of Gray Wolf had changed hers, and a man's club had changed Kazan's.

The creek ran close past the stub, which had been shriven by lightning; and this stub stood in a still, dark place in the forest, surrounded by tall, black spruce and enveloped in gloom even in broad day.