We are frantic, trying to gather our food. The heat is unbearable, rising higher day by day. We risk going out later and later when it is cooler, but also more dangerous. The night creatures catch us and kill us. Our food stores are pitiful, our young, few. Many Pikas did not even mate this year. And those who did, the young ones are weak and many are caught up by our predators. Unique fears for our lives, as do I. We have no children this year. How could I look them squarely in the face and tell them they will probably starve this winter? How could I bring them into a world of imminent death? How could I put another through the suffering we go through? Their life is not worth the pain. I have no young.