Kallik paused briefly, then scrambled down, her hindpaws barely missing the pounding paws of the firesnake. Regaining her balance, she trotted back to where Yakone was struggling to his paws with Lusa’s help.

“Hide!” Toklo called out from his position on the firesnake. “In the bushes over there!”

As he finished speaking, he bunched his muscles and pushed off into a massive leap. He staggered as he hit the ground and yipped with pain as he planted one paw on a low-growing thorn. “Seal rot!” he hissed.

Lusa had already vanished into the thicket that covered the slope not far from the SilverPath. Kallik and Yakone were close behind her. Toklo bounded after them, ignoring the stinging thorn in his pad, and dived into cover. He turned just in time to see the last segments of the firesnake vanishing around the bend. Its thunderous roar soon died away into the distance and the acrid smell faded, leaving the fresh green scents of the forest all around them.

Lusa took a deep breath and stood up, pushing her way through the branches into the open. “We made it,” she said.

Toklo and the white bears followed her out of the thicket. Yakone was still limping badly, and his injured paw was oozing blood. His head was drooping, and his shoulders sagged with exhaustion.

“Why don’t you rest?” Lusa suggested to him. “I’ll look for some herbs to help your paw.”

Yakone gave her a glance of gratitude and slumped to the ground again, but Toklo’s pelt prickled with unease. “We shouldn’t hang around for too long,” he said, thinking of the aggressive male who had chased him and his family away from the grain. “There could be more brown bears here.”

“Do you think they’d give us trouble?” Kallik asked.

“They might, if they thought we were trespassing on their territory,” Toklo replied. “The best thing we can do is to be on our way quickly and find some forest that hasn’t been claimed yet.”

“Just a short rest, then,” Lusa said, glancing over her shoulder at Toklo. “We’ll move more quickly if Yakone isn’t so tired.” She was already sniffing around the bushes for the herbs she needed to help her injured friend.

Toklo grunted agreement, and kept watch while Lusa searched for herbs and Kallik tended to Yakone. Raising his snout to sniff the air, he picked up the lingering tang of the firesnake and the fresh scent of growing vegetation, but no scent of other bears. For now, he thought, his muscles tight and tense under his fur.

Lusa returned after a few moments with a mouthful of leaves. Toklo didn’t recognize them; they certainly weren’t the hornwort Lusa had used before.

“What are those?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” Lusa mumbled as she began chewing up the leaves. “But they smell good. They should help.”