Lusa and Kallik gave Yakone a shove, while Toklo fastened his teeth in the white bear’s shoulder and helped him scramble up beside him. Kallik climbed up after Yakone, her forepaws slipping among the pebbles while her hindpaws waved frantically in the air. Toklo grabbed her and hauled her upward.

“Lusa, jump! Now!” he snarled.

Lusa ran alongside for a few pawsteps, then hurled herself into the air, scattering the loose pebbles as she landed on the firesnake’s back. “We made it!” she gasped, her legs trembling and her chest heaving.

All four bears flopped down among the pebbles, panting from the effort of running. The flat-face dens and the strange silver tree passed in a flash, and within moments the firesnake was thundering along as fast as before. The wooded foothills passed by in a blur, stretching briefly over them before rolling back into the distance.

Lusa sat up and gazed along the length of the firesnake to the looming green mountains. Her belly was so empty it felt like a hollow cave, and her mouth was as dry as sand. There would be prey in those forests, and streams to drink from. But would they get there in time? Lusa knew that before long she would be too weak to hunt, and her friends were no better off.

“I just hope we get there soon,” she sighed.

Chapter Two - Toklo

CHAPTER TWO

Toklo

Toklo sat up, his head still spinning from the race back to the firesnake and from the thundering noise of its paws along the SilverPath. Lusa and Kallik seemed to have recovered, but Yakone lay limply on the heaps of pebbles, his eyes half-closed. His struggles to get back onto the firesnake had opened up his wound again; it was bleeding sluggishly and Kallik was hunched over it, giving it an anxious sniff.

After a moment she glanced up at Toklo. “Yakone is getting worse,” she said quietly. “There’s nothing I can do for him when there’s no food or water, and no herbs to treat his wound.”

“I know,” Toklo began, “but—”

“Maybe we should have looked for something while we were hiding in the trees,” Kallik went on, as if Toklo hadn’t spoken.

“There wasn’t time,” Toklo protested. “If we’d tried to hunt, the firesnake would have left without us. I know you’re worried,” he added softly, “but when we get to the mountains—to the Sky Ridge where I was born—everything will be fine. Trust me.”

A spark of anger flashed in Kallik’s eyes. “Oh yes, everything will be fine for you!” she exclaimed. “But what about me and Yakone? This isn’t the right place for us, and you know it!”