Sinthia had kept quiet while she circled her pursuer, had even kept her growls and hisses to a minimum as best she could: snow leopards couldn't roar properly. But when he had attacked her and slashed at her foreleg and chest she'd shrieked, and the sound had only grown louder when the teeth of an old, rusted beat trap snapped shut around her back foot. As the thing was chained to a spike driven into the ground, Sinthia couldn't escape, even when the sound of a massive predator came crashing through the trees.

She was panting in fear and pain when the polar bear came upon her, small ears flat to her skull and teeth bared.