We were exhausted. Marching around in snow and ice for one whole day can do that to you. And not just any whole day - a whole early summer arctic day...

We had been up since three in the morning, chasing after shots for the documentary. It had been terribly windy throughout the day, gusts slashing across the plains relentlessly, whipping the land with sleet and making it impossible to get decent views of the landscape. We had tried but it was pointless; with our ability to work impaired, our self-defences naturally went down and we eventually felt the full sting of the bone-biting cold. It had been a truly exhausting day in every sense of the word.

When we finally came back to camp, it was just after midnight and almost dark. You see, we had run into trouble with one of our snow sledges. It had broken down in the middle of nowhere, and all five of us worked on it relentlessly. We were not leaving it there, and we were definitely not leaving anyone behind to work on it while we got back to camp to get more tools. The problem was simple enough - some trouble with the fuel pump - but it gave us hell before it finally got its act back together again.

Smashed with fatigue and a long day's frustration, we cooked something up in a flash and guzzled it up like wolves. Then we hit the sack. Running late on a deadline and in desperate need of those shots, we needed to catch some much-needed rest, for tomorrow was not going to be any easier. The weather seemed to have it in for us. The gusty winds were not subsiding - in fact, they were getting worse - and our chances of shooting good film were slim and thinning.

As soon as I closed my eyes I started drifting away. I thought I heard someone ask: 'Did anyone wash the dishes?' Then nothing. Just the sweet embrace of a deeply-needed summer night's rest in the warmth of a heavy-duty sleeping bag. Outside the wind rasped, stirring up the snow and blowing it across the endless plains. Inside our little hut, though, there was absolute peace and comfort, warm and accommodating, and a slow-burning stove. It felt like being with family. I began drifting into a cosy dream...

I don't know how long I'd slept or how deep I'd been, but when the door banged I felt I had been ripped away from something soothing and thrown headfirst into something terrible. I scoured around, hearing the others jumping out of their sleep and reaching for their Mag-lites too, their legs rasping noisily inside their sleeping bags. Then came another bang, much louder than before, followed by a growl... a coarse, menacing growl.

I flashed my Mag-lite towards the door and saw it shaking under the pounding of something beastly outside. With my stomach crunching up in knots, I fell to the ground and shone the beam at the bottom of the door frame. Two pairs of paws were standing behind it... white paws... their white hairs frozen into small short pleats, covered in ice crystals, refracting the light into the dark night outside. I blinked. At the end of each paw long claws were pushing out, tearing through the icy ground.

'Get the gun... Get the fucking gun!'

Somebody rustled through our things, looking for our single-barrelled shotgun.

'The slugs... where are the goddamn slugs?'

Tin cans and utensils were flying all over the place along with maps and camera equipment and what have you as we scraped frantically around the small room.

'Get the goddamn gun... hurry up!'

'I'm trying to find the slugs. Where the fuck d'you put'em?'

'There, in the bag... on your right... somewhere there!'

The bangs on the door were getting louder and the growls more menacing.

'Hurry up goddamn it!'

'Got 'em! Oh shit... these are film rolls! Fucking film rolls!'

'Cut the crap and find the slugs, goddamn it! Look, there they are, behind the stove... there, behind the...'

Suddenly the door broke open and a claw entered the room, followed by a frothing snout. Its jaws unhinged, breathing out steam and unleashing a bloodcurdling roar that flooded the room. Then a beastly body began to make its way through the entrance, barging into the hut slowly, etching its way through a crackling doorframe. It was huge... huge and uncompromising. A mighty polar bear.

'Oh shit shit shit shit shit... fuck... oh fuck...'

Somebody threw a heavy can of food at her. It hit her on the left shoulder and made her back up half a step. But then she went berserk, letting out a howling roar of pain and fury.

'Stop throwing things at her, you'll make her furious. Stay perfectly still.'

'And what? Wait for her to just leave?!'

'Yeah... yeah... just lay perfectly still ...'

'No! She's already inside you moron. She's here and she's hungry. She ain't leaving unless we throw her out. Attack her!'

'What?!'

'Attack her or die. Come on, attack her! ATTACK HER! Show her who's boss.'

'Are you nuts? Lie down - '

'Come on... make her fear us... throw those cans at her like we mean it and snap at her... like we mean business... stare her down... threaten her, attack her... GO ON... GET OUT... YAAA... YAAA...'

Another can of food spun through the air and struck her in the leg. She growled and stood up on her back feet, towering over our heads, roaring like an earthquake.

'Now goddamn it... it's now or never... throw everything you got and scream like madmen... scream goddamn it, SCREAAAM... YAAAA... YAAAA...'

We suddenly began snatching whatever we could get our hands on and started throwing stuff at her... cans, forks, papers, knives, cameras... screaming and yelling like mad wild dogs.

'COME ON... STAND YOUR GROUND... STARE HER DOWN... DRIVE HER OUT... YAAAAA... YAAAAA...'

We could certainly feel the effects of this primal mentality. A transformation was taking place. We began making harsh noises that made no sense. With every growl she made we growled five times back. Our minds stopped thinking in rational terms and another kind of intelligence began emerging from the depths of our ancient brain circuits. An animal intelligence. An urge to fight our foe on equal terms. A surge for survival.

She began hesitating. Her growls were not so confident anymore. Not so menacing as before. Her steps were shorter and lighter. We saw the change in her and reacted to it without any thought. It was time to just fight back and reclaim our space.

We assaulted her immediately, like a ferocious beast... five different sets of eyes glaring back at her from five different directions... five heads lashing out at her mercilessly... five sets of teeth jumping at her from everywhere, sometimes in unison, other times in relentless waves, one after another... after another... after another... and then back in unison, like a surging tidal wave... like a ton of raging bricks. We were frothing at the mouth, yelling and snarling like mad, jabbing our way into her, edging our way onwards... She began to back away.

'THIS BEAST CAME HERE TO KILL OUR FAMILIES... SHE CAME HERE TO KILL OUR PARENTS AND OUR BABIES... IF WE DIE, THEY SUFFER, THEY HURT, THEY DIE TOO... COME ON THEN... ATTACK HER!!!'

And in one furious surge, we assaulted her with everything we had, throwing a barrage of sundries at her and trying to scratch her eyes out with our claws, furious at what she'd tried to do. She turned around and took a couple of steps back, then growled once more. But this was a different kind of growl. She was now defending herself, carving out her retreat. We pushed on, banging on the walls with our hands, stomping on the floor, making a racket with our tools. She backed down, out of our hut and into the great wide frozen, and then slowly disappeared into the gusty thick night. We stood in front of the door for quite a while, yelling towards her direction, chasing her away, into the desolate distance. Our yells were now turning into cheers, comprehensible cheers. Grammar and meaning were beginning to flow back into our communication. The animals within us began to evanesce and our human capacities slowly settled upon us once again. We started laughing and fooling around, making fun of each other and of how we had all just shape-shifted into a pack of wild beasts. We even laughed about the fact that no one bothered to go for the slugs once we had driven the bear back out the door. We laughed, but we didn't wonder why. We knew now. As long as we snarled together like one ferocious beast defending its family, nothing could threaten us. Not even a hungry polar bear.