“Hopefully we’ll move out of it once we get a little higher.” She stepped up again, her nimbleness and her sturdy boots helping with the climb. She was having an easier time with the hike than Hance and Otis. Both were as clumsy as newborn calves, and Otis had been hacking and coughing for the past hour.

She hiked several more feet before glancing back. The two stood in the same positions as before. Their faces—at least what she could see of them—were red from the exertion as well as the heat of the summer afternoon.

Hance was staring up at the ever-darkening skies too. “You don’t think we’re in danger of fire?”

“Nope. I reckon the wind is causing a ruckus and blowing the smoke is all.” She’d checked with teamsters yesterday and learned that the fiery area was still quite a way to the northwest. Even this morning during the ascent, the blackest smoke remained well out of this part of the range.

At the silence behind her, she halted again. The men were leaning against the rock.

“C’mon. Let’s go.”

“You’re adventurous and brave,” came Hance’s muffled reply from behind his bandana. “More than we are.”

With the way the wind was picking up, it wouldn’t hurt to have a place to tuck into if the fire happened to head their direction. “If we run into trouble, we can always head back to that cave we explored just down around the bend. It ain’t big, but it’ll do if we need a quick place to wait things out.”

Thankfully, their horses were tied loosely enough that they’d be able to get free and outrun the fire if it got close to them.

“That’s a fine idea.” Hance took off his hat and wiped his brow, clearly exhausted.

Otis nodded, but his chest heaved in and out as he labored for another breath.

“I tell you what. While you rest a spell, I’ll head on up the last of the climb, take a look around, and call down to you if I see the rattlesnake rock formation.”

Both men nodded eagerly.

Without another moment of hesitation, she continued upward, blinking against the hot, dry air and smoke that continued to swirl around her. As she came out from the crevice of boulders and into the open, she paused. She expected to see the forested valleys of the Kenosha Range, but the gray air hovered around.

She hopped from rock to rock as she crossed the summit, aiming for the even larger boulders that formed another craggy peak. The sides were sharply etched as if a giant had chopped away at them with an ax, scattering rocks over the hillside like wood chips.