The Quest Begins

The Quest Begins follows three bear cubs of different species, each facing loss and hardship, as their separate journeys gradually draw them together. The story alternates among their perspectives, weaving three distinct narratives that converge at the end.

Kallik, a young polar bear cub, lives on the Arctic sea ice with her mother, Nisa, and her brother, Taqqiq. Nisa tells them the legend of Silaluk, the Great Bear, who is killed each burn-sky (summer) and reborn when the ice returns in snow-sky (winter). She also describes the Pathway Star, which leads to a place where the ice never melts. As the season warms and the ice breaks up earlier than expected, Nisa leads her cubs toward land. During one crossing, orcas attack. Nisa fights them off long enough to push Kallik onto the ice but is dragged under and killed. Kallik is knocked back onto the ice by an orca's tail and lies stunned, unable to respond to Taqqiq's desperate calls from across the water. A storm rises, and his voice fades as he runs away, leaving Kallik alone.

Driven by grief, Kallik resolves to find Taqqiq. She begins a solo journey toward land, and after days of travel across disintegrating ice, she reaches the shore. She follows other white bears along the coast to the gathering place, a shore where bears wait for the sea to freeze each year, but finds no sign of Taqqiq. Desperate with hunger, she follows another bear's trail to a no-claw (human) settlement and sneaks inside a building for food. No-claws discover and tranquilize her. She wakes in a cage among other captive white bears. An older female named Nanuk calms her and explains that the no-claws will eventually return them to the wild. They are airlifted by helicopter, but a storm causes it to crash. Kallik survives, but Nanuk is fatally injured. Before dying, Nanuk tells Kallik that the Endless Ice, a place where the ice never melts, is real and urges her to find Taqqiq and go there. Kallik sets off alone, resolved to follow the Pathway Star.

Lusa, a black bear cub born in captivity, lives in a zoo enclosure called the Bear Bowl with her mother, Ashia; her father, King; and an older female named Stella. Lusa entertains visiting humans by performing tricks for food. Stella tells the cubs about the Bear Watcher, a bright, unmoving star. After climbing to the top of the tallest tree for the first time, Lusa glimpses the wider zoo and begins wondering about the world beyond. King, who once lived alone in the wild, refuses to discuss life outside, but Ashia teaches Lusa to move stealthily and climb quickly through a game of pretend.

When Ashia falls ill and is taken away by zookeepers, Lusa worries for five days before her mother is returned, healthy. Ashia describes a snow-capped mountain with dark forests beyond the zoo's outer fence, deepening Lusa's longing. Her restlessness intensifies when a grizzly bear named Oka arrives at the zoo, thin, battered, and raging. Lusa befriends Oka through the fence, and over several visits, Oka reveals fragments of her past: mountains, a river, three lakes, a dead forest. She murmurs two names, Tobi and Toklo, which Lusa realizes are Oka's cubs. After Oka attacks a zookeeper and is tranquilized, Lusa sits with her through the fence that night. Oka knows she will be put down and accepts her fate, welcoming the chance to be with Tobi, the cub who died. She is consumed with guilt over Toklo, the cub she abandoned, not knowing if he is still alive. Lusa promises Oka she will escape, find Toklo, and tell him his mother loved him.

After Oka is taken away, Lusa devises a plan. She refuses food for two days until the zookeepers tranquilize her and move her to a clinic. She wakes alone at night, unlatches her cage, squeezes through a window, and climbs the zoo's outer fence. She navigates human neighborhoods at night, scavenging from garbage cans and heading toward a distant mountain, guided by the Bear Watcher star. She cuts her paw on glass and is shot at by a homeowner but presses on until she reaches a vast forest at the mountain's base. She crosses over the mountain, passes three lakes, and enters a dead forest of blackened trees, just as Oka described. Emerging into living forest, loneliness and doubt weigh on her as she searches for Toklo in the enormous wild.

Toklo, a grizzly bear cub, lives in a valley with his mother, Oka, and his younger, chronically ill brother, Tobi. Food is scarce, and Toklo resents that every decision revolves around his ailing sibling. Oka decides they must cross the mountains to reach a salmon river. During the climb, Tobi grows sicker and must be carried. One night, Oka tells Toklo that the bright, unmoving star is the spirit of a bear imprisoned there as punishment. The next morning, Toklo wakes to find Tobi dying beside him and watches his brother take his last breaths. Oka is devastated and performs a burial ritual, covering Tobi's body with earth and leaves.

They descend to a river crowded with grizzlies. A huge male named Shoteka threatens Toklo, and Oka drives him away. Toklo tries to fish alone but is swept downstream, where Shoteka holds his head underwater. Oka rescues him but afterward says she cannot watch another cub die and orders him to leave. Her behavior grows increasingly erratic: During the night, she performs the death ritual over the sleeping Toklo, covering him in dirt and scratching the death mark in the earth. When he wakes, she attacks him. Toklo flees into the woods, truly alone.

Toklo wanders the mountains, stealing food and being chased from one territory after another by adult grizzlies. He watches a mother bear teach her cubs to fish and learns a critical technique: Aim for where the fish is going, not where it is. Alone in a snow den, he gazes at the bright star and identifies with its solitude. Later, while sheltering in a valley, a grizzly cub runs into his hiding spot, chased by armed humans who wound the cub. Toklo leads the injured cub to safety, hiding their scent from pursuing dogs in a stream. That night, the cub transforms into a human boy with the same wound. The boy speaks bear language and introduces himself as Ujurak. He explains that he changes shape involuntarily, is unsure whether he is truly a bear, and is following the same bright star. He asks Toklo to travel with him, and Toklo reluctantly agrees, reminded of Tobi and unwilling to abandon another helpless cub.

Their partnership is tested when Ujurak accidentally transforms into a salmon while Toklo is fishing, forcing Toklo to scare away two adult grizzlies by inventing a story about poisoned fish. Frustrated, Toklo tries to leave but returns that night to find Ujurak asleep alone on the riverbank. Reminded of Tobi, he lies down beside the cub and decides to stay.

The three storylines converge when a hare startles Ujurak, who involuntarily transforms and bolts away. A starving Lusa corners the Ujurak-hare against a bush. Toklo charges across the clearing and tackles her to prevent her from eating his companion. Ujurak transforms back into a bear and tells Toklo not to hurt her. Lusa stops struggling when she hears Toklo's name and tells him she has been looking for him. The three bear cubs, a grizzly, a shape-shifting grizzly, and a black bear, have found one another at last.