Great! Lusa thought, remembering that Ujurak’s healing den had had doors exactly like that. I can get in that way.

But though Lusa waited for a long time, there was never enough time for her to slip through the doors before more flat-faces appeared, going in or out. Once she even made it far enough that the doors slid open for her, but just then another firebeast growled up behind her, making a harsh braying noise that almost made her jump out of her fur. Lusa had to gallop back into the shadows around the corner, her heart thudding.

“This is no use,” she muttered, conscious of how the night was slipping by. “I’d better look for another way in.”

Padding alongside the wall of the den in the opposite direction, Lusa turned the corner and was confronted by a row of shiny metal cans with lids on top. Her belly rumbled, reminding her that there had been food in cans like those beside Ujurak’s healing den.

“No time,” Lusa told herself firmly.

Then she noticed that there were windows in the wall just above the cans. I might be able to get in that way, just like we got out of Ujurak’s healing den.

The sides of the cans were smooth and slippery, not at all like the rough bark of a tree. Lusa slid back down several times before she managed to scramble to the top, and her pelt tingled every time the can clanged beneath her. Bears in the forest must be able to hear her! But no flat-faces came.

She stood on top of the can and put her forepaws on the ledge below the window. The space in the wall was covered with the same transparent stuff as the big doors; beyond it Lusa could see that the den was dark and silent, with no flat-faces around. Encouraged, Lusa lifted her paws and pushed against the transparent stuff. But it didn’t budge. Instead, her hindpaws slid off the top of the can and she fell, paws flailing, until she hit the ground. The can tipped over, the lid fell off, and the still night air shattered with noise. Half-stunned, Lusa looked up, terrified that flat-faces would come running to see what the racket was. Her legs were shaking as she pushed her way between another one of the cans and the wall. Panting in fear, she poked her snout out and waited to see what would happen.