She felt uneasy, too, about sleeping alone; it was a long time since she had spent a night without at least one of her friends close by. Not since I left the Bear Bowl . . . At last, worn out by traveling, she sank into a deep sleep.

Dawn light trickling through the leaves woke Lusa. She slithered down the tree and stomped around for a few moments to work the aches out of her legs. The sky was pale blue, promising a warm day to come, and a breeze blew from across the river, ruffling the surface of the water. A dull roar in the distance blotted out the scuffling of small animals in the undergrowth and the song of birds. It warned Lusa that she wasn’t far from a BlackPath. I hate them, she thought, suppressing a sigh. But I knew what I was in for when I decided to go find flat-faces.

Pausing only to munch some leaves from a nearby bush, Lusa set out along the river once more. The roaring sound grew louder, and soon she was faced with a huge BlackPath slicing through the forest. Heading for the bridge, she was dismayed to see that this time the river vanished under it with no space for her to walk.

I’ll have to climb up and cross the BlackPath.

Crushing down her fear at the thought of the thundering firebeasts and their enormous round paws, Lusa scrambled up the embankment. There was no cover except for a few scrubby thorns. Lusa retched as the stench of the firebeasts caught in her throat and blasted against her fur. The noise made her ears ache. Worst of all was the sight of huge firebeasts carrying loads of tree trunks on their backs. It took Lusa straight back to the River of Lost Bears, where so many trees had been hacked down and thrown into the water. She thought her heart would break all over again at the thought of the bear spirits trapped inside these logs, carried away forever from their beloved forest.

“Arcturus, help them!” she whispered.

Lusa crouched beside the BlackPath and waited for the chance to cross. Her paws twitched impatiently. As soon as there was a gap, she hurled herself across the BlackPath, wincing at the feel of the hard surface on her paws. She paused for an instant on the strip of grass that ran down the middle, then raced on again. She was still a couple of bearlengths from the other side when a high-pitched screech sounded almost on top of her. Lusa glanced sideways to see a massive firebeast bearing down on her. The screech seemed to be coming from it. Letting out a yelp of panic, she forced her legs to move even faster. A gust of hot wind washed over her as she reached the far side of the BlackPath and tumbled into the shelter of a thornbush.

That was close!