Toklo raced back to the den where he had left his friends. As darkness gathered, he became confused among the trees and only found his way by following his own scent trail. At last he discovered the makeshift den among the brambles and slid inside. Kallik was there, huddled against Yakone’s unmoving white bulk.

“Where’s Lusa?” Toklo demanded.

Kallik shook her head worriedly. “She isn’t back. I thought she would be with you.”

“I couldn’t find her,” Toklo admitted, feeling a rush of fear.

“Then she’s in danger!”

“We don’t know that,” Toklo said, though he wasn’t sure that he believed his own words.

“I know.” Kallik scraped her claws on the earth floor of the den. “But she said she’d be back by now.”

A dark pit opened up inside Toklo. “Do you think I should go out to look for her again?”

As he spoke, Yakone stirred and murmured something, too quietly for Toklo to make out what he was saying. Kallik turned to the white male and rested a paw on his shoulder. As if the touch reassured him, Yakone slid back into quieter sleep.

“Toklo, please don’t go,” Kallik said. “If wolves attack, I can’t defend Yakone on my own. Lusa knows how to survive in a forest.” She hesitated, then added, “We need to trust that she’ll be okay.”

You don’t believe that any more than I do, Toklo thought. But at the same time, he realized that Kallik was right. However much their instincts cried out against it, the three of them had to stay together. Split up, they were all vulnerable. “Okay, I’ll stay,” he said.

To distract them both, Toklo told Kallik about the she-bear he met in the meadow. “She looked really hostile—as if she’d be glad to take a bite out of me,” he told her.

“You’d be the same way if you wanted to guard your territory against a bear who just came wandering by,” Kallik pointed out.

Toklo shrugged. “I’ve learned not to be suspicious of every stranger. But then, none of the bears around here seem particularly friendly.”

“It’s the wolves.” Kallik sighed. “They’ve made every bear jumpy and anxious. And they’ve stolen prey—that sets all the bears against one another.”

Toklo nodded. “You’d better get some sleep. I’ll take first watch.”

He hauled himself out of the den and crouched on the edge, staring into the dark night. I hope Lusa’s safe, he thought.

Chapter Seven - Lusa

CHAPTER SEVEN

Lusa

As sunhigh approached, Lusa crouched in the shadow of the tree, wondering what she could do next. Then she heard a loud clattering sound from somewhere overhead. Looking up fearfully, she spotted one of the flat-faces’ metal birds heading across the shiny barrier toward the dens beyond.

I wish a flat-face bird could carry me over there!