“So we’ll have to be extra clever,” Lusa said. Mention of the coyotes gave her an unpleasant flutter in her belly, but she wasn’t willing to give up her plan. “What if we put traps in the ravine? Not to kill the wolves or cut their paws off, but to give them a shock and make them scared of us. We could use sticks to trip them up, and brambles to slow them down.”

“Tripping up the wolves is too good for them,” Toklo growled.

“These wolves have as much right to find food and shelter as we do,” Lusa retorted. “Just not here, where the forest belongs to brown bears. They’ll survive up on the ridge, if we can get them back there.”

Toklo grunted. “Okay.”

“We can’t do any more until we’ve had another look at the ravine,” Yakone said. “We need to make sure it’s right for what we want to do.”

Toklo grunted. “And that will have to wait until tomorrow.” He glared through the walls of the thicket and curled his lip. “The wolves have the forest tonight, but not for much longer!”

Lusa woke as the first rays of the sun pierced the branches. At first she was confused by the warm press of furry bodies around her, then she remembered. Kallik and Yakone came back! And we’re going to chase the wolves out of the forest! She sprang to her paws. “Wake up! Let’s go check out the ravine!”

With Toklo in the lead, they hurried through the forest and across the grassy slope that led to the top of the ravine, heading toward the path that Toklo, Kallik, and Yakone had used when Yakone was too injured to climb.

“Look!” Lusa said when they were all standing on the edge and looking down at the pool and rocks below, bathed in sparkly dawn sunshine. “It’s going to work perfectly. We’ll set traps down there to confuse the wolves, and then we’ll drive them down the track into the ravine.”

“I can find a fallen tree and drag it across the track to block them in,” Toklo offered.

“But we don’t want them blocked in,” Kallik objected. “They have to be able to get up to the ridge.”

“The tree won’t hold them for long,” Lusa noted quickly, seeing that Toklo was starting to look offended. “But it will help scare them.”

“What if they flee the other way, down the stream and back toward the SilverPath?” Kallik asked.

Toklo grunted thoughtfully. “Maybe that’s where I should put the tree,” he suggested. “And I could hide there and roar if any of the wolves head that way.”

“Perfect!” Lusa said, her spirits lifting as the details of the plan came together. “But let’s have two trees, one downstream and one to block the track.”

Toklo nodded. “You got it.”