I wish I was like Ujurak, she thought, feeling a fresh pang of loss for her friend. I’d change into a bug and hop through the mesh, then change back into a bear on the other side.

Every so often a firebeast would roar past Lusa on the other side of the barrier, its glowing eyes dazzling her and momentarily lighting her up for any watching flat-faces. Once a firebeast stopped very close to her, and Lusa’s heart started to pound as the flat-face inside it got out. She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed herself to the ground, desperately trying to hide, even though she knew there was no cover on the flat, exposed ground.

Then she heard a bang and looked up to see that the flat-face was back inside the firebeast. A moment later it roared away.

“That was close!” Lusa murmured.

Making her way slowly along the barrier, at last she discovered a spot where the mesh had come away from the ground for about a paw’s width. Lusa stuck her paw into the gap and pulled; another section of the barrier tore away, scattering some curved metal thorns that had been sunk into the ground. With a bit more effort, Lusa made a gap that she thought was big enough for her to crawl underneath.

She waited for another firebeast to pass, then flattened herself to the ground and squirmed forward under the gap, feeling the mesh scrape along her back. Something snagged in her pelt, and for a few terrible moments she was stuck.

Tugging determinedly, Lusa managed to free herself and wriggled forward until she was inside the barrier. Quickly she scuttled alongside it until she approached the white den. It lay on the other side of a broad stretch of BlackPath; Lusa checked for firebeasts before racing across. As she drew nearer to the den, her nose tingled with the scents that came from it: blood, and something else, harsh and nauseating.

It wasn’t a pleasant smell, but Lusa’s spirits rose. That’s the same scent that came from the healing den where they took Ujurak!

The side of the den that faced Lusa was blank, with no way in except for some small windows high up in the wall. Cautiously she headed for the nearest corner and peered around it. This side of the healing den was shaped in a shallow curve. In the middle of it was a wide doorway made of transparent stuff; yellow light streamed out onto the BlackPath in front of it. As Lusa watched, a firebeast swept up to the door. Several flat-faces leaped out and unloaded another flat-face, who lay on a flat board with stiff metal legs and small round paws. The doors opened by themselves as the flat-faces approached it, and closed after they had all disappeared inside.